Upward and Onward

Last week was absolutely incredible.  The fair ministry was amazing, and we met a lot of new friends who work at the carnival.  We shared the Gospel and shared our stories through good conversations, a pancake breakfast, carnival rides, free lunch, basketball, and a worship service.  One of our new friends was baptized, and at least five people received Bibles.  We already miss them, but wish them the best in their travels and work. 

This week is already off to a great start.  We are coaches for Upward basketball camp here at the church.  We work with 1st-3rd grades in the mornings from 9:00-12:00 and with 4th-6th grades in the afternoons from 1:00-4:00.  The kids have great attitudes and are really trying to learn and play hard.  It is so much fun, and being tired at the end of the day is worth it.

A few of us went to Victory Baptist yesterday to help serve lunch.  Victory Baptist is a church on Main St. that hosts a free lunch Monday through Friday, which local churches have volunteered to provide every day.  We have been helping the FBC volunteers every Monday for the past month.  It has been so great to be able to give a good meal and have a nice conversation with the people of Shelbyville.  I have met some great people, and have also heard some heartbreaking life stories.  However, God is very much at work in this situation, and it is inspiring to see a community come together to provide for unmet needs.  Yesterday, we were able to give a New Testament audio Bible to a woman who cannot read.  She has no way of hearing God's word, unless someone reads it to her; but now, she can hear the Word whenever she wants!  

God is so good to us.

We went to the fair on Saturday!  Thanks to the FBC staff, we had our admission tickets and unlimited carnival ride pass paid for!  We also got to watch a horse show and a rodeo.  It was so much fun :)

God is good all the time

We are having a great week!  This is the week of the Shelby County fair, so we have a tent at the church (which is across the road from the fair grounds) and a booth inside of the fair.  We are offering free face painting, free Sno Kones and cotton candy, and free balloon animals.  It has been so much fun and we have met some wonderful people.  We have made friends with some of the carnival workers, and it has been so good to talk and spend time with them.  We hosted a pancake breakfast for the workers this morning and we are having a worship service in the morning.  

Last night was an amazing example of how God can use a potentially disastrous situation for good.  We were walking around the fair talking with people and watching the horse shows when the tornado sirens started going off.  We all headed back to the church, where the youth service had been moved to the basement for safety.  We invited all of the fair attendees who had parked at the church to come inside for shelter, and then two of our team members went back to the fair to invite the carnival workers to the church (all they had for protection were there bunk houses, cars, or tents).  Several of the workers came over to ride the storm out, and we were able to share the ABUNDANCE of snack food that we have.  We got to talk, play basketball, and play Solarium.  It was a great night with some good new friends.

Sitha, Krissy, and I on the way to Louisville for a free day shopping and hanging out.  Love these girls :)

Perfect day for baseball.  FBC Shelbyville invited our team to join them for the Bats v. the Mud Hens for their father's day outing.

Having fun at the game!

Another thought...

I feel as if I need to make an additional post to go along with my last post.  Yes, God has commanded us all to have a heart for the nations, but how that commandment is lived out is different.  For some, they are called to go to a foreign land.  For some, they are called to serve the nations that are present within the United States.  For some, they are called to build relationships with the international community within their own area.  Some are called to give money, some are called to other relief efforts.  All are called to prayer for the nations.  Some will be called to all of these.

In any case, we only go by the Spirit's leading.  Therefore, we should pray that God will show us where He wants us to serve, how He wants us to serve, and when He wants us to serve.

He will show us, and we should not be afraid.  "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" 2 Timothy 1:7.

Sara

Go Into All The World

This weekend, our team participated in the NVISION conference at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, which was a missions mobilizing conference. There were four session focusing on the Biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic bases for missions. It was a long day, but that night during team time, we could not stop talking about all that we had learned.  We were fired up and ready to take the Gospel to the nations.

All of this passion is welling up inside of me.  I serve such a holy, loving, awesome God who desires--and planned--to draw every nation and tribe to Himself.  He chose to use his disciples (all believers) to take the Gospel across the street and to the ends of the earth.  We literally have the secret of life in us, but it is not a secret.  It is for everyone, all the nations, all of creation.  From the Old Testament to the New, we see a meta-narrative of how God is redeeming his creation to restore it to himself.  He chose us, as unqualified as we think we are, to carry out his plan.

But we are falling incredibly short.  Before I say anything more, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1 (Read all of Romans 8).  I am not writing to condemn anyone, but rather to encourage each of us to take a serious look at our commitment to Christ, which "bears fruit" and is evidenced in the way we live, the things we say, and how we use our time and resources.  I was confronted with some very hard facts and numbers this weekend, facts and numbers that cannot be ignored.

• There are 16,465 people groups in the world; 6.7 billion people.  A people group is the largest group within which the gospel can spread without encountering barriers of culture, language, or religion.
• There are 6,759 people groups that are unreached; 2.7 billion people.  Unreached means that there is no indigenous community of believers with sufficient numbers/resources to evangelize the people group.
• There are 639 people groups that have no access to the gospel; 540 million.  540,000,000 people.  Have never had the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ or have not had the opportunity to go to church.  
• 2/3 of Jesus' miracles were towards Internationals.
• BUT 98% of our funding and manpower goes to take Christians to send them to Christians to make them better Christians.

I have heard some of these facts before, but not all of them.  Why are these things not talked about in our churches?  Why are these things not spurring us onward?  Why are we not mobilizing ourselves and our congregations?  Please do not misunderstand, the United States is also in desperate need of the love and light of Jesus Christ.  We are called to take the Gospel across the street.  But we don't stop there.  We are also called to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  I am so thankful that God has revealed himself to us and chose to use us in his plan to redeem humanity back to himself.  This mission is the life of all who follow Christ.

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.'" Matthew 28:19-20.

"And he said to them, 'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.'" Mark 16:15.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8.

I love you all, and pray that you understand my heart.  Sharing the gospel is pure love, joy, and liberation, to bring freedom, not oppression. This is a desperate mission, but we don't go it alone.

All in love,
Sara

To learn more about this, I encourage you to visit

http://www.operationworld.org/

http://www.peoplegroups.org/

http://www.joshuaproject.net/

http://www.thetravelingteam.org/

The Perspectives Course

Fill Us Up and Send Us Out

Sometimes, songs can also be prayers.  This song, "God of Justice" was written by Tim Hughes.  My prayer.

God of Justice, Savior to all
Came to rescue the weak and the poor
Chose to serve and not be served

Jesus, You have called us
Freely we’ve received 
Now freely we will give

We must go live to feed the hungry 
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us, what You require
Freely we’ve received 
Now freely we will give

Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out Lord


Listen, God of Justice

Thankful for the Blessing of Information Overload

Amazing week!  It has been a while since my last post, but this has been a very full week!  We are completely remodeling the college room at FBC; we moved everything out on Monday, gutted it on Tuesday, got it ready for paint Wednesday, and today we painted the ceiling and got the first coat on the walls.  Tomorrow we will apply a second coat of paint to the walls and move everything back in tomorrow or Saturday.  We expected to be a lot further along than we are right now, but little issues have caused some delays.  We are not discouraged, and expect to finish soon.  It has been a great time to work together as a team!

This week of discipleship has rocked my world.  Curtis Woods, the Baptist campus minister at Kentucky State has been teaching on "Developing a Christian Mind".  In four days, I have filled 21 pages in my journal!  Obviously, there is much too much to write here, but there are some very important lessons that I have learned from these sessions.

• God's Word is our source of life.  It is the only and the absolute truth.  Curtis reminded us that we need God's word in order to live.  If I spend very little time in His word, I will not love or relate to people correctly.  The Bible stands alone and is able to defend itself without any outside sources; it is the standard.
• Never stop learning!!! Our motivation:  I want to learn as much as I can so that I can more intimately know God and share that knowledge to bring others closer to Him.  1 Peter 3:15 commands us: "in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."    
• It is imperative that we be critical thinkers and critical learners.  It is good that we read other works by other Christian authors to hear their thoughts about God, but the words of men should always be tested in light of the scripture to determine whether or not their words agree with what God says about himself.  

We have learned so much, and I hope to write more about the knowledge I have received (when I am not exhausted!)  Tomorrow is our last day and I am excited to see how we will finish out the week.

I am not a morning person.  I enjoy the morning, but I am not very alert, and I love to sleep.  But for the past few days, I have not been spending quiet time alone with God until very late at night, at which point I am exhausted and ready to go to sleep.  So last night I determined in my mind that I was going to get up an hour earlier and spend quality time with God.  Although I was groggy at first, I was able to focus in prayer and in reading the Word.  I started my day off right, and it has been a great day!  God deserves my very best all the time and I am setting my alarm for 7:30 again tonight.  "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" James 4:8.

Grow(ing) in Grace

Today was the last day of Bible school and it was so great!  We have built some wonderful relationships with most of the kids and they seemed to have had a great week!  We invited them to church this Sunday (we will go pick them up) and we are really hoping that a lot of kids will be there to go with us.

Today was also our last day of discipleship with Tommy Johnson.  We studied the life of Peter; how he experienced the highest highs followed by the lowest lows, and how Jesus never disowned him but restored him instead.  The story of Peter is so interesting and relevant to us because he is so human.  The story of Peter perfectly exemplifies how the life of a disciple is defined by grace.  Peter doubted, spoke when he should have been silent, misunderstood Jesus, and disowned Jesus three times.  Logically, he then doubted whether he was a disciple, if he could ever be forgiven and welcomed by Jesus again.  But in a perfect example of grace, Jesus completely restored Peter and reaffirmed his purpose for Peter's life in John 21 by recommitting him to the mission of feeding his sheep.  In the same way, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:39).  The grace of God lavished on us by his Son is more than enough to forgive my sins and completely restore me to right standing with God.  I mess up so much.  And the deeper I grow in my relationship with Christ, the more I am convinced that there is nothing good in me and that I am completely hopeless without him.  His love is so deep.  His grace is so perfect.

Jesus is our compass.  In This Day With the Master, Dennis Kinlaw writes "The best thing to do when you have slipped into the flesh is to choose again to walk in the Spirit."  By his grace--and only by his grace--are we able to make that choice.

Know Christ.
Grow in grace.
Glorify Christ with your life.

This song helps remind me that God can never fail me.
"I may be weak, but your spirit's strong in me; My flesh may fail, my God you never will."

Give Me Faith

Sara

"On the Trail" Very Unique Bible School 

The Necessity and Joy of Discipleship

It is such a blessing to be serving on this team!  We have had a wonderful first week and have already done so much.  Our schedules are very full and we are going all out, but we are all so very thankful and blessed to be here.  God is already knitting us together as a family; as cliché as that sounds, it is very true.  I already love my teammates and it seems like we are brothers and sisters.

On our first day of service (Monday), we began the day setting up for and serving free lunch for people in need.  We had some really good conversations and met some very sweet people.  We spent the afternoon doing laundry at the laundry mat and preparing for the Very Unique Bible School (VUBS).  Later that afternoon we went over to an apartment complex where we hosted the VUBS for the neighborhood children.  We had so much fun and all of the kids seemed to enjoy it.  We will be doing this all week, and hope that they will be able to come over to children's church on Sunday as well.

One of the most important aspects of our summer is the training that we will receive.  This week Tommy Johnson, the campus minister at Western Kentucky University, is training us in discipleship.  The first two days have been amazing and I have really been reminded of the importance of true discipleship.  A disciple is a person who follows Jesus; discipleship is a relationship with Christ, and a deepening of that relationship.  Sadly, it seems to me that training in discipleship has been a discipline that has been lost in the modern church.  I don't think we understand the importance of being a disciple, of having community groups, accountability, and challenging one another to be firmly rooted in the Word and to share the Gospel with the world.  Jesus commissioned us to "go and make disciples of all nations" in Matthew 28:19.  Are we afraid?  Do we feel unqualified?  Are we inconvenienced?  If we identify ourselves as a Christian, following Jesus and sharing the Good News is not an option; it is our personal mission from God--each and every believer.  But we can take heart, because Jesus promised us that we would receive the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and that he would go with us.  He has not left us alone, and it is not on our own that we accomplish anything for Christ.  And it is pure JOY to serve the Lord.  He brings freedom, joy, peace, and life in abundance.  "He is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose" (Jim Elliot).

One of the most important things I have learned so far is the difference in recognizing Jesus as your teacher or as your Lord.  At the end of the day, I can walk away from my teacher, but I cannot walk away from my Lord.  If there is no Lordship, there can be no true discipleship.  We must learn from Jesus, and he must teach us if we are to be true Christ-followers.  But he is more that my teacher; he is my Lord.  As such, he commands and more that deserves my complete allegiance; my life is to be defined by his purpose for me.  

It is so sweet to be able to live in fellowship with my brothers and sisters, to daily be challenged, and to daily grow deeper in my relationship with Christ.  Of such a blessing, I am undeserving. :)

All of the Acts 1:8 Students from Morehead State.  We will be traveling all over the world and serving on four different teams.  Such an exciting summer awaits!  Can you tell we are a little bit excited?  

Me and Krissy in our room at First Baptist.  This will be our home for the next five and a half weeks.  This is an amazing church!  Everyone is so welcoming and we already feel like we are at home.

Our first grocery shopping trip as a team.  Three meals a day for seven days for fourteen people.  After 3 carts full of groceries, an overwhelmed cashier, and a lot of fun, we are ready to eat for the week!

My Acts 1:8 Family

Wow.  These past three days have been so full of training, learning, and growing that I don't know where to start or how to tell everything. But, some things stand out more than others, that are definitely worth sharing...

During these three days of training, we have team time where we come together to get to know one another and prepare for the summer.  On day one, we set some team goals to keep us focused this summer:

1.     Give 110%.  Since this is technically mathematically impossible, we must rely on the Lord to supply this extra 10%.

2.     Choose joy.  In all circumstances, choose to have an attitude of joy, because it brings us pure joy to serve and seek the Lord.

3.     Choose the challenge.  We are going to get tired, frustrated, and sometimes we will want to quit.  But we must choose to persevere (and be reminded of 2 Corinthians 12:10: "that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.")

4.     Be thankful.  This is an amazing opportunity, and God has already so richly blessed us.  Colossians 3:17.

5.     Be HERE.  There are so many people and experiences that are home while I am here, and I will miss them.  But I know I need to be here this summer.  Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  God is going to do big things, and He deserves my undivided attention.

Two important topics and two important lessons started: apologizing and listening.  I say lessons started because I have only just began to really grasp and study these elements that are crucial to every relationship.

We often talk of forgiveness, but rarely talk of making an apology for a wrong that we have done to another person.  It is important for any church, any team, any group to be able to take responsibility for their actions and genuinely ask forgiveness for a wrong committed against another person.  Yesterday we learned about the five languages of apology, which was adapted from the book by Gary Chapman and Jennifer Thomas.  It was an eye opening lesson that helped me understand what type of an apology I need to hear from others in order to truly forgive them.  At the same time, I learned what types of apologies that my teammates need to hear from me when I have wronged them.  Laying this foundation will help our team to be more real, more open, and more unified.    

Today we learned how to listen.  Who knew we needed three hours of instruction on listening.  We don't.  We need a lifetime of instruction!  Listening communicates to the speaker that we value them as a person, we value what they have to say, and we genuinely care about them.  There are so many barriers to listening that we must consciously work to remove and we must be persistent in developing good listening habits.  

Tomorrow we leave for Shelbyville and move in to what will be our home for the next five weeks.  Until next time (which will be sooner than last time!)

Sara