SUNDAY SERVICES:

It may seem a bit early to talk about Valentine’s Day, despite the fact that many retail stores have had cards and candy out since just before the glow of the Christmas lights faded. To be honest, this epistle is about love, not the “special day” that greeting card companies and chocolatiers claim as the holiday of love.

When we are young, it is a flashy, fun and frivolous day of romance, if we are lucky. As we grow older and hopefully more mature, love begins to grow in dimension. Romance is still wonderful and much-needed, but real relationship suddenly transforms any one-dimensional perspective of love into something that defies easy explanation, something that must be experienced rather than defined.

Our Youth Need You!

So often, we struggle to determine what can we do to help with a situation. How can we make a difference? Well, here you go...

Have you ever made a jigsaw puzzle? When you first start out, you’re wondering how in the world all of these pieces will fit together to look like the picture on the box.  And be honest, don’t you secretly worry until you place the last piece that one might be missing, that somehow someone left out the last piece or someone lost it? As you come down to the finale placements, you’re trying to visualize just how the last ones fit together, to see if the picture before you will actually match the one advertised. Do you find yourself distracted as your attention drifts from the task at hand? Maybe a piece doesn’t fit just as you thought it would, or a piece that you were sure would fit in the corner suddenly proves to be vital for another area of the puzzle.

Should that title have a question mark after it, or will you allow me to assume that sometimes God will intentionally allow us to fail in order for us to realize our dependence on Him, to show us we are creatures and He is creator? This week, several of the glass balls that I try to keep spinning have dropped to the floor.

This year's Mission Team in pictures with a brief description of daily events provided by Andy and Marcia Butcher.

People change, grow and develop into new people. And though family and close community can be wonderful, they can also stifle us or tempt us to stay where we are instead of stepping out on the path that Jesus has set.  If you spoke to people from my hometown, they would likely paint a completely different picture of who I was as a Christian in years past than who I am now. I always viewed foreign missions as a distraction from the work we need to do here. Mind you, I did very little work here, but in my mind, it was always local work or foreign work, us or them. My entire view was predicated on human understanding, not God’s economy. In the past several months, God has been showing me just what John Wesley meant when he called for “both/and” not “either/or”.

The Training continues...  Thirty five clergy from three dioceses in the Congo and and twenty five from Tanzania are learning, praying, sharing and forming relationships with our clergy and laypeople.  Please continue to pray for all of the participants and trainers that they would continue to seek God's will with all of their hearts and that their actions would be the fruit of that submission.

Everybody arrived safely and all of the initial bumps in the road were worked out.  The classes are underway in both locations.  I am including a map to orient yourself on where each of the teams is located.  It includes the African map to see where on the continent they are, and then a localized map for you to see more detail.  Canon Donlon has provided great detail on the daily events.  Rather than try to paraphrase his comments and possibly miss something of importance I am including his remarks in their entirety.

The team arrived and went right to work, despite some logistical hurdles thrown at them, including flight adjustments and luggage issues. The team beautifully adapted the plan and started classes today.

Their goal is to train the trainers for the African churches participating and to strengthen the partnerships through fellowship. I am proud to be part of a society so true to its vision. But don't take my word for it: read it yourself.

 

 

(Copied from the Mission Website, http://www.theamia.org/vision.html)
OUR PEOPLE OF MISSION

Summer Sunday School begins this weekend, May 31, but we still need one more volunteer.  Nancy Plum is managing the entire process and can help teach the PreK class, but we need someone who feels called to lead it.  Please prayerfully consider volunteering to teach the PreK children this summer.  Contact Nancy Plum at 407-310-0010 if interested.