Acts of kindness, mercy, & chocolate!

A number of people in our church orbit (either members or friends) have been recruited over the past few weeks by Marilyn-in-the-office to come in, read a particular chapter from Acts, and get their voice placed on our church website. It has been a fun exercise, and many of these people have had to practice their reading, sound out a few difficult words (of which there are many in Acts), then read their chapter with a degree of drama and excitement. I recommend you visit our website each day in September and scroll down to the bottom left corner of the home page. There you’ll see a black box with the word “Acts” in it (like the graphic to the right). Under that, you may click on the link entitled “Listen to Chapters of Acts.” A wonderful golden-throated reader will launch you into chapter one on Sept. 1. An even more wonderful female voice will take you through the excitement of the Christian Church’s birthday with chapter 2 on Sept. 2. And each day gets better than the next. Plus, there will be a couple of mystery readers, and if you can guess the voice, you may just win a chocolate prize. You’ll have to attend worship in September to learn more about how to claim such a prize.

Anyway, we’re having fun by inviting and encouraging and telling and pleading with the whole wide Family of Christ congregation to get out our Bibles, use our helpful online recordings, or look the text up on our smart phones, and read together the book of Acts. This is all to learn more about how the early Church was led by the Holy Spirit to grow, even in the midst of challenges, difficulties, and setbacks. Still God brought new life and new energy to that young Church. Might we, in our modern day, still be writing the next chapters in the life of the Church as we minister to the world, as we preach a Gospel of grace to the world, as we love and serve the world which God so loves?

In worship, Pastor Kristie and I will preach from four of the Acts texts from Sept. 8-29 in a series we’re calling “Courageous Christianity.” The subtitles each week all start with “C,” too, because I am nothing if not alliterate. A new Sunday morning discussion group called “Bible Dive” will meet in the conference room during the middle service from 9:15-10:15. Facilitated by Randy Ruckdashel, this group will dive deeper into the weekly worship texts. So, in September the group will study the same Acts texts on which we’re preaching.

Here is a quick preview of interesting things you’ll be reading about in Acts:
• The same religious leaders who helped set the stage for Jesus’ crucifixion now bring their opposition to Peter, John, and the rest.
• A young man named Saul is a chief persecutor of the early Christians, who were called ‘The Way,’ but he has a blinding experience and changes his name. Do you know who that is?
• Some of the early Christian leaders get thrown in jail, on more than one occasion.
• Two greedy new Christians don’t share like everyone else and they come to an unfortunate end — yikes, that’s kind of a scary story.
• There is a young man who falls asleep during a rather long sermon (wait, that never happens) and he tumbles out a window.

Acts 1:8 becomes a verse that describes the whole book, as the Holy Spirit brings the power of the Christian witness first to Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria, then to the ends of the earth. It is a story of a young Church, beset by challenges, but still on the move, on fire with the love of God. May we all be blessed in the reading of this book together. And let’s see each other in church!

~ Pastor Josh

Can you hear the drums, Fernando?

About a week ago, up north at a beautiful resort called Arcadia, our family group enjoyed the classic Minnesota summer vacation, which included ice cold lakes, canoeing, jumping on the lake trampoline, sand castles, biting flies (they bit us, not the other way around), sunburn, fishing, cruising the lake in a rented pontoon boat, lawn games, stinging mosquitoes, cards, warm days, and cool nights. We also like to play a game of volleyball most every night, using an over-sized soft bouncy ball. For some of our players, we even play the one-bounce rule. Hey, it’s not as easy as you might assume.

A Tale of Two Oscars

Those of us who went on this summer’s mission trip to El Salvador have lots of stories to tell.

We met the most amazing people who taught us so much. We went expecting to give…to give away the stuff we’d hauled there for the students in our sponsorship program, Seeds of Hope: backpacks, school supplies, soccer equipment and jerseys, letters and more. We expected to give of ourselves, too — playing with kids, making conversation with homeless guys, helping out with some construction projects.

But we didn’t realize just how much we’d receive in return.

Being the Change & Being Changed

We welcome our guest blogger today, Megan Woods — spiritually refreshed from a great experience as an adult chaperone on a recent high school mission trip to Chicago. Thank you, Megan, for sharing part of your faith journey with us.

Anyone who has been on a mission trip will understand that feeling of inspiration, passion, hope and determination to make a difference; not just on the mission trip, but back home, too. People ask, “How was your mission trip?” If you are the asker, make sure you ask a second time. We all need a little time to come back to reality and sort out the trip in our own minds. If you are the one who is asked, try to explain how it changed you. Don’t just settle for generic answers such as it was really “fun” or “hard work” or “amazing!” We all felt it, but one of our seniors said it out loud, “Where am I? I don’t feel like I even know this place anymore!” as we turned the corner by church, returning from our senior high Chicago mission trip that Sunday afternoon.

I joked about raising my hand to get up at 5-5:30 AM to drive that van into Southside Chicago, leading different groups every day to Ms. Pearl’s Daycare, but I really felt like I was there for a reason. On this trip, I experienced one of the most powerful spiritual awakenings that I can ever recall. Getting to know Ms. Pearl was timely for me as I have been struggling with work lately , and feeling as if I haven’t been free to make time for the truly important things in life.

After a work issue phone call, Ms. Pearl noticed that how upset I was. She came over and prayed for me. She put her hands on my shoulders and quietly started praying for me. I was uncomfortable at first but at one point, I stopped being self-conscious and listened to what she was saying. Though I don’t remember her exact words, I do remember being completely comforted and also empowered to call my boss to say I would not be available until the rest of this trip was over. The world did not end; I still had a job and I was able to “be present” for the rest of the trip. I saw God show up so many times that week with our students, leaders, kids in the daycare, their mothers, people in the community…. there is no way to tell everything I experienced in this blog. Ask me, though!

Ms. Pearl runs a daycare for young women who want to finish school or further their education. This allows the cycle of poverty, drugs, and violence to be broken and gives them and their children new hope. She is a mentor to these young women in the Roseland neighborhood, one of the toughest on the south side of Chicago. She ministers to the community; testifying and demonstrating how God changes lives. Ms. Pearl shared many stories of how her life was changed by God and her commitment to Him. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to meet her and get befriended by her. She shared what she went through before she surrendered her life to Jesus Christ. She found her purpose, joy and fulfillment from the moment she hit her knees asking for God’s help. By the time I left on Friday, I knew that my life could never be the same for having met the powerful, amazing Ms. Pearl.

Still, I had two burning questions. I never got the chance to actually ask these questions of Ms. Pearl, but I found my answers anyway. I wanted to know what it sounded like when God spoke to her and how I can hear Him, too. I did two things to get my answers, I opened my Bible and I started asking God for answers. I wondered if God had spoken to me in the past, but I just wasn’t listening. I started thinking about some of my tough times and came to a realization that I probably was giving my self some unjustified credit. I felt like I had handled things myself and failed to give God the glory. I wondered where God was while I was going through hard times and now understand that I was the one who was not seeking Him. I was looking for satisfaction in worldly things, thinking that if only I had this or that; then I would be happy. During the darkest times of my life, I was not going to church, not reading His Word or following His teachings. “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13

I decided that I need to seek out God to really know Him. I know how to do this. It is all very logical, right? I am not perfect, but by putting myself in positions to hear God’s Word, read His Word, be with people who know God, learn, change and grow, I can break old habits that trip me up on my faith journey. I know God has His plan for me in this world and I need to renew my mind and spirit daily, pray and start listening to Him. I may still stumble, but if I expect God to show up, trust Him, and reach out to Him, He will show Himself faithful to me. I can choose differently and ‘be the change that I want to see in the world!’

~ Megan Woods

Does anybody really know what time it is?

I received a nice new watch for Father’s Day. It features an ornate skeletal design, and it has a leather strap and a self-winding mechanism. The trick is that the wearer (that’d be me) needs to provide enough motion to generate the requisite juice to keep the watch accurate in its telling of time.