Friend Day Finale

We had a wonderful day for Friend Day ’09. I was a little nervous since we had a number of our regular workers out of town, but I want to especially thank Stephanie & Andrew Albritton for their work in putting many of the details together. We had to arrange for feeding close to 200 people. I was pleased to have a good number of folks from Kelly Elementary. We had many more folks than last year, and we hope that we will continue to see our relationship grow with the school. During the service Principal Huffman made the “Good Apple” presentations to our workers. We also made a presentation to Principal Huffman from the church. I was also pleased to have some guests that I invited to attend our services present. My high school football coach, Jim Culberston, was present in our services. When I was preparing the message I thought of coaches who impacted my life and I thought of Coach Culbertson. I hadn’t really spoken to him in years, but I was able to find him over the internet and made a phone call and he was gracious in saying that he would attend. I was also pleased to have Wichita Eagle columnist and radio personality Bob Lutz as my guest. I love sports and often call in to the “Sports Daily” radio program where I am known as “Pastor Mike”, and we had others who listen to the station present as well.

After services and our lunch of hot dogs and chips we went roller skating and that went very well. After all of our counting it was clear that we had close to 300 in our services (counting all of the kids, etc.)! We hope to be able to make contact with many of those folks and see them come again and worship with us in the near future.

CEF Washington, DC Trip 2009

I wanted to let you know how our trip to Washington DC went. We left from Kansas City on April 24^th and arrived in Baltimore on Friday afternoon. After we picked up our rental car we began the 35 mile drive to DC and our Hotel. I was quickly reminded of my dislike for traffic jams. After the 1^st hour we realized that we were not quite half way. We arrived at 4:00 PM and we wanted to be at our hotel before the dinner which began at 6:00 PM. At 6:00 we were still well outside the city and we finally arrived at the hotel around 7:30 PM. The folks there were gracious in bringing us our meal and we enjoyed the speaker, Matt Stover, from Liberty Counsel. Matt was part of the group who represented CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) before the Supreme Court to argue for equal access to public schools for after-school Bible clubs. The argument was that schools should allow Bible clubs the same rights as chess clubs, etc. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of CEF and since that time we have been given the right to host Bible Clubs for children in our schools.

I was able to share with the leadership there about our relationship with Kelly Elementary and our being awarded the “GOOD APPLE” award from USD 259 for our work with the school. Throughout the weekend we were challenged by tremendous speakers. One of my favorite was the Chaplain for the Washington Redskins who shared with us the impact coaches can make in the lives of others. I also enjoyed hearing from Brian Birdwell, who was a victim of the September 11^th attacks on the Pentagon. A large portion of his body was burned, and he shared how the Lord helped him through that horrible ordeal. I had a nice visit with Brian (who also happens to be a BIG KC Chiefs fan) and he was very gracious with his time.

After the conference was completed we were able to do a few things in DC. We toured the Capitol and the new visitor center. We also went to a Washington Nationals baseball game in their new stadium and we drove around looking at all of the wonderful sites of our nation’s capitol. It was an encouraging trip as we learned about the work of CEF around the world. We hope to visit their headquarters in Warrenton, Missouri later this summer.

A Nike Easter

Easter is always a special day for believers as we celebrate the Resurrection. As most of you know we actually celebrate the Resurrection every Sunday (the day of the week when Christ rose from the grave). I really enjoyed preparing the message “A NIKE Easter.” As I mentioned in the sermon, the word “NIKE” means “victory,” and it is used five times in the New Testament. The main passage is found in I Corinthians 15, which is called by many Bible Commentaries the “Resurrection Chapter.”

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory [Greek Nikos].
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory [Greek Nikos]?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory [Greek Nikos] through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

I love the way verse 58 expresses what the “victory” we have in Jesus should mean. We should be “steadfast” in the faith. We should “always abound” in the work of the Lord. So many Christians do not respond correctly by “serving the Lord.”

The message flowed well from the presentation from our choir. In fact, today I continue to sing the chorus: “How can I keep from singing Your praise? How can I ever say enough? How amazing is Your love? How can I keep from shouting Your name?” I’m hoping that those who were in services on Sunday will invite their friends to our “Friend Day” on April 26th.

"Oh, Victory in Jesus, My Savior for ever!!"

An "Udderly" Enjoyable Trip

I apologize for not "blogging" for awhile, but I do plan on getting back in the habit. I will try and bring some insights or little ancedotes that you might find interesting. Certainly my next entry qualifies:

I love helping churches! My work with Church Stewardship Development allows me the opportunity to encourage churches to experience God's best for their church. Presently I am working with Ottawa Community Church, Ottawa, Kansas. I have started the training with the church and I always look for folks who have interesting jobs or stories. I found such a gentleman in Ottawa. His name is Melvin Jamison. Melvin is 72 years old and his family is very active in church. Melvin looks like he stepped out of an Amish community. He has a white beard that graces his chin, and you can tell he has lived a full live. I asked Melvin about his life and he told me that he spent most of his life as a dairy farmer. Now he delivers milk from dairy farms to the production plant. In my conversation with Melvin I asked if it would be possible for me to go with him on his route one day. He was kind enough to allow me the privilege.

I left Wichita at 6:30 am to meet Melvin at the lot where the trucks were parked. When I arrived I helped Melvin "crank down" the stand of the milk trailer that was not going to be used, so we could attach the other trailer. We prayed for the day and began our journey. I wasn't sure what to expect or what we would do. Melvin told me that we could be late (I thought that meant 6:30 or 7:00), but I was excited for the day as we prayed and asked God to guide us. We drove to our first stop (a small dairy farm just outside Ottawa). We arrived and backed the trailer back to the storage building (a small 15 x 20' building where the storage unit was held). The farmer had already hooked up his cows to the milking machine (where each cow can give up to 8 gallons of milk per day). The attachments to the udders look like fingers with rubber sections on the top. The storage container can hold up to 400 gallons of milk. This unit had a motor that keeps stirring the milk until it can be transfered. We hooked up the hose and in just a short time the milk from the storage center had moved to the trailer. After transfering the milk we needed to clean the storage container and the hoses. Then we were off again. Melvin informed me that the trailer was already almost full and we were off to the production plant. I thought the day was going to be short until I learned that we were taking the milk to Monett Missouri (South of Joplin - almost four hours away). So, along the way Melivin and I visited about how things have changed on the farm. Upon arriving at the production plant there were a number of other milk trucks that seemed to be ahead of us. Thankfully, most of those were waiting until later! I did see how they pumped the milk from the tank into the milk silos. This plant made cheese exclusively and they gave me a sample of cheese that is used by SUBWAY and other fast food stores. It was a fascinating trip and I felt that I was able to make a connection with a life that I was completely unfamiliar with.

I was also mindful of what the Bible tells us about how we should desire the "sincere milk of the Word". I thought as I contemplated how sometimes it is difficult to get the udders to work, it is difficult at times to really "squeeze" out the truth of God's Word.

I have made it a challenge to try and find more "field trips" to learn about how people work and what they can teach me. I could "milk" this story more, but I think it might become to "cheesy". I believe that education is a "life long" experience, and this one was "udderly" fantastic.

Pastor