Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
It's happening again. The same feeling I had in August of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the flood waters rushed in to inundate the city. The same feeling I had in 2010 when the earthquake devastated Haiti and the same feeling as last October when Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast. A ache in the pit of my stomach and a breaking heart for those affected by yet another natural disaster. Each time I have watched the news coverage and scoured the internet for news articles, maps of the area and pictures. I have prayed for the people, prayed for the relief workers and prayed for the private and public servants that rescue people from roof tops and cars. I have mourned those who have lost their lives and have prayed for the families that have lost loved ones. And I have cried.
But tonight was different. The ache was still in the pit of my stomach and my heart was still breaking but my prayers became much more specific. Father, give the workers the strength to carry Your Gospel to the broken hearted. Father, give ME the strength to carry Your message to the broken hearted. Reality hit. Soon we will be one of those workers. We will be carrying the message of hope and redemption. Of love and compassion to those that have lost all their worldly possessions.
The song by Brandon Heath, "Follow You" is ringing in my ears. Several months ago a friend of ours said he thought this was "Our Song" and sent us the You Tube video to post on our blog. I truly want to "Follow You into the homes of the broken." We have a biblical mandate to meet the needs of the poor and needy. Please click on the link to the right and listen to this song. This is what it's all about.
But tonight was different. The ache was still in the pit of my stomach and my heart was still breaking but my prayers became much more specific. Father, give the workers the strength to carry Your Gospel to the broken hearted. Father, give ME the strength to carry Your message to the broken hearted. Reality hit. Soon we will be one of those workers. We will be carrying the message of hope and redemption. Of love and compassion to those that have lost all their worldly possessions.
The song by Brandon Heath, "Follow You" is ringing in my ears. Several months ago a friend of ours said he thought this was "Our Song" and sent us the You Tube video to post on our blog. I truly want to "Follow You into the homes of the broken." We have a biblical mandate to meet the needs of the poor and needy. Please click on the link to the right and listen to this song. This is what it's all about.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Storing up treasures
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:19-20
Yesterday after church and a sermon by our pastor on stewardship, Rob and I went to a store that buys old record albums to sell about 100 records that we had. How many of us have these old things laying around that we just can't get rid of and think..."Boy, these are gonna be worth a fortune someday, so I better hang on to them!" Well as we have been packing up our home we have found a few of these "treasures" and the records were in that category for us. I'm not sure what we thought they were going to be worth but we expected to get "a pretty penny for them".
We walked into the record shop and were shown to exactly who I pictured would be buying our "vinyl". A 60 something guy with long graying hair and a rock concert t-shirt on. He was a super nice guy and talked a lot about the music business and how with the onset of digital media, record sales have dropped off. He flipped through our records and began to separate out some that we thought, "wow, those must really be worth something if he is pulling them out!" He then looked at the condition of the ones he pulled out and divided them out even more. The whole "appraisal" process took about 20 minutes...20 minutes to flip through our "treasures" that we had bought for anywhere from $7.99 and $20.99 when we were in our younger years. 20 minutes to tell us that he would offer us...$32.00 for all of the records he had separated out and an additional $3.00 for the other 75 in the boxes we had brought them to him in. $35.00 for our "treasures", $35.00 for our memories, $35.00 for what we thought was some pretty good old stuff! We took the $35.00 he offered us because we are trying to reduce our "treasures" before we move and this was 3 more boxes gone but we left there thinking wow, did we get ripped off or what? We had seen the prices they charged for "vinyl" and they were going to make a ton of money from those records! Then I wondered if Jesus feels like that when we offer him such a small portion of our "profits". When we give Him pennies on the dollar for His treasures instead of what He deserves.
So then I asked, what are Jesus' treasures? People. People are His treasures. I have looked many times at how I steward the resources that God has given us. Do I waste it on earthly treasures? Absolutely I do. I think as Americans we all spend more money on earthly treasures than is necessary. We have hobbies and interests, we travel, we eat out and most of us have closets full of clothes and shoes. Each time this slaps me in the face, which that's what this was, I get a little better about how I steward those resources. My prayer is that when I think about spending money on a non-necessity I think...how many souls could be won if I gave this money to our church, a missionary or an organization that helps to evangelize and disciple Jesus' treasures. I want this to be my prayer for all of the resources we have been blessed with each day.
We have also had people send unexpected gifts in for our ministry when God gave them an unexpected treasure. Well, we have an unexpected treasure, $35.00, that we have to think about now. Will it be spent on a meal, some fishing lures or at the quilt shop or will it be stored up in heaven as an unexpected gift to a fellow missionary or disciple of God? Hmmm...seems like a no brainer to me.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Multplying Churches Globally
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| Church planting and Compassion Ministries Training |
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| New and seasoned church planters |
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| Americans and Chileans |
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| Americans and Canadians |
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| Rob and Jackie |
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| And even a group of Brazilians! |
Monday, June 24, 2013
Partnerships and Partners
Back in 2011, shortly after we started the application process with ReachGlobal, Crisis Response, a tornado hit in North Minneapolis. Our thoughts went immediately to how we could get our home church, Maple Grove Evangelical Free Church (MGEFC), involved in the relief and recovery work. First we looked for ministries in the affected area for us to come along side. One of those ministries was Urban Homeworks, a non-profit, Christian organization that had been working in North Minneapolis for several years and knew the area well. A partnership was soon formed and MGEFC started to send people in to clean up yards, tear down garages and remove trees that had come down on people's homes, garages and yards. God was using this crisis as a new mission field.
But this partnership didn't end when the trees were cleaned up and people lives had returned to normal. MGEFC has continued to serve alongside of Urban Homeworks and this last Saturday we found ourselves once again in that neighborhood working on a home that will soon be sold to a family in need of affordable housing. What a blessing it was for us to work with some of the underprivileged guys that Urban Homeworks employs and hear them talk about what Jesus means to them. How he has redeemed them and how they cannot believe that some of their friends deny the existence of God.
Another huge blessing to us was being able to work with people who have blessed us by partnering with us in our ministry. We consider it such a privilege to be able to pray with, laugh with and do life with our ministry partners. To us, this is what our ministry with ReachGlobal, Crisis Response is all about. Growing partnerships to be able to help those affected by crisis and bringing our personal ministry partners along with us to minister to those in need. Does it get any better than that here on this earth? We think not.
Enjoy the pictures below of us working together to bring glory to God by helping His people.
But this partnership didn't end when the trees were cleaned up and people lives had returned to normal. MGEFC has continued to serve alongside of Urban Homeworks and this last Saturday we found ourselves once again in that neighborhood working on a home that will soon be sold to a family in need of affordable housing. What a blessing it was for us to work with some of the underprivileged guys that Urban Homeworks employs and hear them talk about what Jesus means to them. How he has redeemed them and how they cannot believe that some of their friends deny the existence of God.
Another huge blessing to us was being able to work with people who have blessed us by partnering with us in our ministry. We consider it such a privilege to be able to pray with, laugh with and do life with our ministry partners. To us, this is what our ministry with ReachGlobal, Crisis Response is all about. Growing partnerships to be able to help those affected by crisis and bringing our personal ministry partners along with us to minister to those in need. Does it get any better than that here on this earth? We think not.
Enjoy the pictures below of us working together to bring glory to God by helping His people.
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| Nate, Gayle and Keith working on footings for a deck. |
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| Gayle digging holes for footings |
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| Jackie shoveling cement for footings |
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| Keith cleaning up the mess! |
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| And Shari cleaning up everything including the kitchen sink! |
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| Shari painting |
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| Nolan, Rob and Jason taping drywall. |
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| Mark, Rob, Nolan and Jason hanging drywall. |
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:9-10
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Why long term missionaries in Crisis Response locations?
We often get questions about why we are needed in these crisis locations, what we will be doing and how we will do it. Those are all great questions! So we thought we'd try to answer some of them.
First of all we are needed on site at the crisis/disaster locations to help the local church respond to the great needs of their community following a major storm, hurricane or other crisis. In many cases the local church has sustained damage to it's own building, the pastor(s), elders and congregation may have sustained damage to their homes, many people may be without work because businesses and industry may have been damaged or destroyed and there is no place for some of these people to go to "get out of the disaster". People come to the church for help and we are there to come alongside of that church to provide some of that help through prayer, a hot meal, a shoulder to cry on and help in restoring their home. This gives the body of the partner church another resource when their own resources are at their limit.
Another major part of our role in Crisis Response will be to facilitate Short Term Mission teams from churches around the country/world that want to help out in response to these crises. Our ministry gets tons of calls from churches of every denomination from places as far away as the Czech Republic whenever a disaster hits. People want to help! And people need help. We are the conduit to bring the help people want to give to those that need it.
Rob will be working with homeowners and government and non-government organizations to find resources for the homeowners to restore or rebuild their homes. He will meet with the homeowners to see what needs to be done, coordinate materials, building permits, and the financial resources the homeowner has available to them so that when volunteer teams come they have work to do. I will work with him to let him know who is coming and when and what kinds of skills the team(s) coming in any given week have. That way he knows who he has coming and can line up work accordingly. He will then work with the volunteers during the week they are there. He will remind the workers that it's not all about the task at hand but about the relationship with the homeowner, neighbor or local people that they are working with. A common question from Rob may be "have you put down your hammer today to talk to the homeowner?" American's are very task oriented so we have to be reminded that the relationship is the most important part of the work they will be doing that week.
Someone also needs to host the teams in the ministry center of that crisis location. That will be part of my job. Many times the local partner church will have provided help for cooking, cleaning and other household chores but sometimes as in Haiti, we hire locals for this work. I will be helping to facilitate the household staff/volunteers, making sure everyone has a spot to sleep, food in their bellies and helping with orientation and team debrief upon team arrival and departure. I am also hoping to encourage the women of the local partner church through bible studies and maybe a hobby based ministry to bring women together in fellowship.
On Staten Island, NY we have a staff of 3-4 for the summer that are running a site that can house 70-80 volunteers at a time. In August, 2 of these people will complete their time with ReachGlobal Crisis Response. This site is actually set up for 5-7 staff people. It takes a team this large to be able to make sure that 70-80 volunteers have work to do with materials and tools available to them. For building permits to be obtained, homeowners to be consulted and meals to be prepared. This is where we will be going upon reaching our support goal. We are so excited to be able to go help those that need help and witness to the mission field that was created in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
Psalm 147:3
First of all we are needed on site at the crisis/disaster locations to help the local church respond to the great needs of their community following a major storm, hurricane or other crisis. In many cases the local church has sustained damage to it's own building, the pastor(s), elders and congregation may have sustained damage to their homes, many people may be without work because businesses and industry may have been damaged or destroyed and there is no place for some of these people to go to "get out of the disaster". People come to the church for help and we are there to come alongside of that church to provide some of that help through prayer, a hot meal, a shoulder to cry on and help in restoring their home. This gives the body of the partner church another resource when their own resources are at their limit.
Another major part of our role in Crisis Response will be to facilitate Short Term Mission teams from churches around the country/world that want to help out in response to these crises. Our ministry gets tons of calls from churches of every denomination from places as far away as the Czech Republic whenever a disaster hits. People want to help! And people need help. We are the conduit to bring the help people want to give to those that need it.
Rob will be working with homeowners and government and non-government organizations to find resources for the homeowners to restore or rebuild their homes. He will meet with the homeowners to see what needs to be done, coordinate materials, building permits, and the financial resources the homeowner has available to them so that when volunteer teams come they have work to do. I will work with him to let him know who is coming and when and what kinds of skills the team(s) coming in any given week have. That way he knows who he has coming and can line up work accordingly. He will then work with the volunteers during the week they are there. He will remind the workers that it's not all about the task at hand but about the relationship with the homeowner, neighbor or local people that they are working with. A common question from Rob may be "have you put down your hammer today to talk to the homeowner?" American's are very task oriented so we have to be reminded that the relationship is the most important part of the work they will be doing that week.
Someone also needs to host the teams in the ministry center of that crisis location. That will be part of my job. Many times the local partner church will have provided help for cooking, cleaning and other household chores but sometimes as in Haiti, we hire locals for this work. I will be helping to facilitate the household staff/volunteers, making sure everyone has a spot to sleep, food in their bellies and helping with orientation and team debrief upon team arrival and departure. I am also hoping to encourage the women of the local partner church through bible studies and maybe a hobby based ministry to bring women together in fellowship.
On Staten Island, NY we have a staff of 3-4 for the summer that are running a site that can house 70-80 volunteers at a time. In August, 2 of these people will complete their time with ReachGlobal Crisis Response. This site is actually set up for 5-7 staff people. It takes a team this large to be able to make sure that 70-80 volunteers have work to do with materials and tools available to them. For building permits to be obtained, homeowners to be consulted and meals to be prepared. This is where we will be going upon reaching our support goal. We are so excited to be able to go help those that need help and witness to the mission field that was created in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
Psalm 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
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