I signed up to do a marathon. I smile as I type that because that seems quite ridiculous considering that I've never so much as run a 5K, and the last time I ran an entire mile nonstop was in 1983, my senior year of high school.
But I am so excited! I get to fundraise for World Vision, a Christian relief organization I have a great deal of respect for. I get to train with a coach whom I trust and love, and I get to do this with several friends. Even more, I bought really cool new running shoes today, a pedometer to measure my steps, AND I got my awesome Team World Vision shirt in the mail the other day. AND I have every day of the next 8 week pre-training schedule on my daily calendar in red ink. I'm a runner now! I'm revved and ready for the big day Oct. 11!
Oh blast, I think I actually have to run and consistently DO the training schedule.
Isn't this just how we are as people? We buy diet books and gym memberships in hopes that the tools themselves will transform our bodies. We buy the latest cool looking journals and slick writing pens in hopes that these will make us journalers. We read lots of good Christian books in hopes that they'll be the spiritual growth we desire. I'm not saying that these tools aren't useful in helping to provide the means to an end, but if you're like me, we hope the tools themselves will create the end results we desire. No deal. To really know running, not just know about it, I gotta put my cool new tennies to the pavement...a lot....over the next months to become a runner. One day at a time. Consistent practice. Engagement in the act of running.
To really know Jesus and not just know about him, I gotta put my faith to the floor...one day at a time... consistent practice...engagement with Jesus.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Good Friday
Part of Isaiah 53 was quoted last night at the Maundy Thursday service. What a prophetic word from Isaiah who lived hundreds of years before Christ. And what an amazing God to offer up Jesus as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sin and mine.
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
generosity
Deuteronomy 15:11 "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."
We have a group heading off to Haiti for a few weeks this month. We spent a few Sundays at church collecting money for the group to buy rice in Haiti to help meet the desperate need for food there. Friends in our congregation gave $7,740 toward rice, and an additional $750 to help purchase some goats for families while there.
We also have some farmers in our congregation who are involved in FRB (Foods Resource Bank). From the website (http://www.foodsresourcebank.org/), the mission of FRB is: "Foods Resource Bank's goal is to engage the grassroots agricultural community in the U.S., along with individuals, churches and urban communities, to grow solutions to hunger problems in our world. FRB seeks to participate in helping to alleviate hunger throughout our world by working to establish food security through sustainable development activities. Food security is achieved "when all persons at all times have the physical and economic access to enough food to provide the nutrients they need for productive, active and healthy lives." Orchard Hill members and friends joined this mission over the past few weeks by providing $5805 to FRB. Much of the work our farmers are involved with goes to a project in Haiti.
The openhandedness of this congregation is so encouraging!
We have a group heading off to Haiti for a few weeks this month. We spent a few Sundays at church collecting money for the group to buy rice in Haiti to help meet the desperate need for food there. Friends in our congregation gave $7,740 toward rice, and an additional $750 to help purchase some goats for families while there.
We also have some farmers in our congregation who are involved in FRB (Foods Resource Bank). From the website (http://www.foodsresourcebank.org/), the mission of FRB is: "Foods Resource Bank's goal is to engage the grassroots agricultural community in the U.S., along with individuals, churches and urban communities, to grow solutions to hunger problems in our world. FRB seeks to participate in helping to alleviate hunger throughout our world by working to establish food security through sustainable development activities. Food security is achieved "when all persons at all times have the physical and economic access to enough food to provide the nutrients they need for productive, active and healthy lives." Orchard Hill members and friends joined this mission over the past few weeks by providing $5805 to FRB. Much of the work our farmers are involved with goes to a project in Haiti.
The openhandedness of this congregation is so encouraging!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Families serving together
A few weeks' back our children's ministry "faith at home" focus was on the importance of serving as a family. After talking some about why we would serve as a family, the third graders and their parents went into our commons and served together by decorating lunch sacks that will be used during a free lunch giveaway for Love Cedar Valley on April 25. It was great fun to see parents coloring alongside their children! And the sacks were very creative. Whosoever will get a free lunch that day will most certainly smile...not only from the kind gesture of a lunch....but due to the comments and pictures on those sacks! "Jesus loves you!", "Have the best day ever because Jesus loves you!", "Have a wonderful lunch!", "Jesus is your friend."...all with decorative pictures to boot.
By the way, I read an impact paper on the value of families serving together. Children who grow up in externally-focused families often have a faith life that "sticks" and grows in their teen years. They learn first hand what it means to be "blessed to be a blessing". Did any of you grow up serving together with your family? How did it impact you and your faith?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Spring Break: San Francisco
Ben Patterson, director of junior high ministries at Orchard Hill,
led a trip to SF. He writes this post:
San Francisco was a fantastic experience, I know we’d do it all again.
A group of 23 students and staff flew out to California where we would spend a week staying at Youth With a Mission (YWAM) located in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Why is it called the “Tenderloin” you ask? Well, years ago the area was run amuck with all sorts of crime that the San Francisco Police Dept. actually had to pay officers a premium salary to work that particular district otherwise it would not have been patrolled. With that premium salary, it was said that they could buy the “prime cut of meat” which is the tenderloin. Still even to this day the Tenderloin is run by drugs, violence, prostitution and homelessness.
Of our group of 23 we had fourteen high school juniors and seniors along with three staff and then six college students. The college students were able to branch off and do their own activities through the week which worked well. This mission trip is driven by evangelism and witnessing to the people on the streets of the Tenderloin. We did a few work activities like spending a morning at Glide Memorial Church serving breakfast to the homeless, as well as Bucket Brigade which we went to the area shops and businesses and offered our services free of charge for any custodial work; but a lot of our activities were walking the streets and talking to the people.
The Hot Chocolate ministry is popular with the missionaries at YWAM as well as the homeless on the streets. What we would do is each evening groups of four would take a canister of hot chocolate and some cups and roam the streets asking people if they’d like some hot chocolate. It is a great way to open conversation with someone, to ask them how their day has been and to learn about their life and possibly turn the conversation to spirituality. Many of the conversations ended with a prayer. It was amazing how many people asked that we’d pray for them and how much they enjoyed the conversation.
Another great activity we put on was the Love Feast. We made a spaghetti dinner complimented with salad, french bread and an amazing brownie and invited the people on the streets to come take part in the feast. We provided the entertainment (songs, jokes, and testimonies) and ate lunch with the homeless. Many of them were so thrilled to be able to eat a meal in which they had choices such as “regular sauce or meat sauce” and “ranch, french or thousand island on your salad.” Laughter roared through the building, yet every prayer was heard. It was an amazing event.
There’s so many stories from a powerful week in the Tenderloin. It’s likely that our group took more from the experience than we even offered but you could certainly say that God’s presence was evident. The whole group was inspired to come back home and “live faith out loud” like we did for that week in ‘Frisco. You can learn more about YWAM San Francisco at http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/ and please pray for a continued impact in the Tenderloin.
led a trip to SF. He writes this post:San Francisco was a fantastic experience, I know we’d do it all again.
A group of 23 students and staff flew out to California where we would spend a week staying at Youth With a Mission (YWAM) located in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Why is it called the “Tenderloin” you ask? Well, years ago the area was run amuck with all sorts of crime that the San Francisco Police Dept. actually had to pay officers a premium salary to work that particular district otherwise it would not have been patrolled. With that premium salary, it was said that they could buy the “prime cut of meat” which is the tenderloin. Still even to this day the Tenderloin is run by drugs, violence, prostitution and homelessness.
Of our group of 23 we had fourteen high school juniors and seniors along with three staff and then six college students. The college students were able to branch off and do their own activities through the week which worked well. This mission trip is driven by evangelism and witnessing to the people on the streets of the Tenderloin. We did a few work activities like spending a morning at Glide Memorial Church serving breakfast to the homeless, as well as Bucket Brigade which we went to the area shops and businesses and offered our services free of charge for any custodial work; but a lot of our activities were walking the streets and talking to the people.
The Hot Chocolate ministry is popular with the missionaries at YWAM as well as the homeless on the streets. What we would do is each evening groups of four would take a canister of hot chocolate and some cups and roam the streets asking people if they’d like some hot chocolate. It is a great way to open conversation with someone, to ask them how their day has been and to learn about their life and possibly turn the conversation to spirituality. Many of the conversations ended with a prayer. It was amazing how many people asked that we’d pray for them and how much they enjoyed the conversation.
Another great activity we put on was the Love Feast. We made a spaghetti dinner complimented with salad, french bread and an amazing brownie and invited the people on the streets to come take part in the feast. We provided the entertainment (songs, jokes, and testimonies) and ate lunch with the homeless. Many of them were so thrilled to be able to eat a meal in which they had choices such as “regular sauce or meat sauce” and “ranch, french or thousand island on your salad.” Laughter roared through the building, yet every prayer was heard. It was an amazing event.
There’s so many stories from a powerful week in the Tenderloin. It’s likely that our group took more from the experience than we even offered but you could certainly say that God’s presence was evident. The whole group was inspired to come back home and “live faith out loud” like we did for that week in ‘Frisco. You can learn more about YWAM San Francisco at http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/ and please pray for a continued impact in the Tenderloin.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Wildwood Hills Ranch Camp
fun at camp!
We talk about partnering with churches and our community to help meet the needs of people in our community. The Wildwood Hills Ranch Camp effort is a great example of this kind of partnership. Orchard Hill Church, together with Cedar Valley Community Church, Waterloo Community Schools, and Barmuda restaurant corporation have been working together to send kids from the Cedar Valley to Wildwood for camp in the summer. Maribeth Boelts is a leader in this effort and writes the post below:
Eighty children from Waterloo will soon be heading off to Wildwood Hills Ranch in St. Charles, IA (http://www.wildwoodhillsranch.com/). This is a faith-based, Character Counts camp for at-risk children, ages 8-12. This will be the third year children from the Cedar Valley have attended. Wildwood Hills Ranch is a beautiful camp, with a lake, horses, swimming pool, hiking trails, an arts and crafts center, and so much more. Children stay engaged from the minute they wake up, to when their heads hit the pillows at 9:00 PM. Besides being a total blast, children are offered the love and hope of Jesus by the young, energetic counselors. They are constantly encouraged and challenged in this safe and fun environment and as a result, they blossom and grow at Wildwood... You may want to make the drive to St. Charles (30 minutes south of Des Moines--Madison
County) to see for yourself-- the camp welcomes all visitors!
Children will be attending camp this summer, June 22th-26th. If you are interested in sponsoring a child for a week at camp, or would like to volunteer at the camp as some of our Orchard Hill folks have done, please contact Maribeth Boelts. (maribeth@cfu.net, 277-0981)
Spring Break: Nuevo Progresso
Tim Walsten is on student ministry staff at Orchard Hill. He and his wife Shelby and one other staff led 12 high schoolers on the trip to Nuevo Progresso. Tim writes the following for an interview that was in the local high school newspaper: *What do you think is the most rewarding thing about taking high school students on mission trips? I think the most rewarding aspect of taking students on mission trips is giving them the opportunity to experience a different culture, build real and authentic relationships (no technology needed) with each other and leaders, and seeing God at work in their hearts and in the hearts and lives of those they witness to all over the world. It really pumps me up to see students having tons of fun actually serving on these mission trips that they pay to go on! It's not a burden and in fact for some it's one of the best trips of their life! They serve, they love, they learn, they grow, they're challenged, and they slow down to truly experience God in their life and in the location they are serving.
*What was your favorite experience from this trip to Mexico?My favorite experience this year was seeing God's work through an opportunity that we've never experienced before. A couple weeks before the trip a mom of a student going felt God tugging her heart asking her to donate a hundred dollars to help with whatever I thought was appropriate. During the house building process one of the retired men, Gary, who was helping realized that electricity would be available in the near future. He offered his electrical expertise to help us wire the house for electricity and lights! When I asked Gary how much it would cost, he said it would be about a hundred dollars! I was awestruck at how God works in amazing ways. It was so rewarding to see the students complete the construction of the house and be able to install some lights with a generator. Shelby, my wife, and I have never had the chance for students to install lights in any of the previous years of building. I found so much joy in seeing the families’ reaction to there new home with lights and electricity and getting the opportunity to pray for them and their future is such a neat experience year after year.
*Do you plan on taking another mission trip to Mexico next year? Yes! One of our mission strategies is to build long lasting relationships with those we serve and work with to serve. It’s our strategy to go serve in the same places year after year where we’ve built relationships with those living, working, and serving permanently in that location. While we may be serving different people every year, we work with those people who are experts in knowing the culture where we’re serving. To be able to continually work with these experts, it all comes down to the relationships we’ve built with them. For my wife and I, it’s truly a blessing and honor to partner year after year with Bob and Esther Scott and their retired friends who spend their winters in Pine to Palm RV Park and serving in Nuevo Progresso, Mexico.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)