Friday, November 25, 2011
Seeking to Serve: How do you eat an elephant
Seeking to Serve: How do you eat an elephant: James 1 : 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep...
How do you eat an elephant
Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
What does that mean in todays terms?
We can reason in our minds that we could never make a difference, that the problems are far greater than we could ever take on ourselves. The large numbers of children without parents in the world is an issue for governments to take on, not individuals, right?
Matthew 17: 20
Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If you have the faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
The lasting saying from the trip in November will be "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."
On day one of the work at the orphanage there was a pile of dirt that was going to have to be moved by hand and spread throughout the interior of several rooms. The dirt had the consistency of play-doogh, and the shovels we had just bought seemed to break like toothpicks. The work was, to say the least discouragingly slow. As the day progressed one of the team members made the statement that we where eating an elephant. We laughed until he explained that the only way to do it was simply one bite at a time. What a statement, one bite at a time.
Since God has given us this project their have been days where we have been overwhelmed. Their has been times of frustration. Days that we just felt to small to make a difference. It is on those days I pray that we all realize it is not us who will make a difference, but Christ alone. You see in the parable of the mustard seed the truth isn't that you just need faith. The truth is you need faith in Christ and His power to do all things to bring glory to the Father. As the dirt pile disappeared as the day went on, God was reaffirming that we are on the right path with this project.
From the blessing of seeing a family rescued from a hillside shack, to seeing God raise walls from a corn field. The little bites only seem little to those on the outside looking in. You see to the 250 families that received food, or the families who are no longer sleeping on the floor, to the new brothers and sisters in Christ who are no longer headed to eternal suffering there where some very big bites taken out of the elephant.
We are just around $5,000 short of finishing the block work on the orphanage site. God truly has blessed this year to see so much of the elephant be eaten away, yet there is more to do. If you have been blessed by God this year would you consider a donation to this project. God may not have called you to Honduras, but that doesn't mean He isn't calling you to take a bite. Pray for this project and the leadership team to stay in the center of Gods will. Give if you can to this project, every day spent in construction is a day that we are unable to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and care for the fatherless.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Seeking to Serve: Beans, rice and flour for Christ.
Seeking to Serve: Beans, rice and flour for Christ.: What can a couple hundred pounds of rice, beans, and flour do to advance the kingdom of Christ? ...
Beans, rice and flour for Christ.
James 2 : 15
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you say to him Go, I wish you well ; keep warm and fed, but does nothing about the physical needs, what good is it?" NIV
On November 4th a team of 36 Americans and five Hondurans followed Christ's example to feed His people. For a week the Carpenter's Heart was allowed to serve Christ simply by handing out a four day supply of food for a family of four to over 250 families. You may wonder why food, or what good is a week of food? Simply put, it is what Christ called us to do.
You see all throughout the gospels Christ show us the way to demonstrate true love. Meet physical needs as an example of the love we have in our hearts for a person. After we have shown our love in an outward example we can then tell of the reason for our love. In the same way that Christ came to the world and met physical needs through miracles before He paid the final price for our greatest need, we can do the same as we point to Him.
IN a country the size of Tennessee, there are 7.8 million people living in mostly rural farming communities struggling to survive. Over 50% of this population lives below the poverty level of less than 745 dollars per year(US). over 80 percent of the poorest population leave in the mountain's with less than 40% having access to safe drinking water. To us a week of food doesn't sound like much, but imagine being in the shoes of a 15 year old girl. Abandoned to care for your 3 younger siblings in a 5 X 5 house on the side of a rain drenched mountain. As you lay down each night on the dirty floor you pray that you can protect your family and maybe give them a hot meal. You awake to the reality that you must go to the river to get dirty water and hope that no one will hurt your siblings or even worse take what you may have while you are gone. You pull a bucket of somewhat clean water and return home to hungry brothers and sisters. Crime is all around and starvation is a reality you know to well.
This is why Christ fed the hungry, clothed the poor, and loved the hurting. We are called to do the same. You have herd and read over the last few years that we are raising money to build an orphanage, but we want you to understand that this is more than an orphanage. This will be a ministry center that is already glorifying Christ. Just last week two of the local residents that are helping build this home came to know the Lord while working with a group from Enon Baptist in Marshall NC. This is just one of hundreds of stories of what God is doing through this ministry.
Last week while visiting a village around the work site we where amazed to see over 100 families come from the mountains to get a few simple gifts and here the Gospel. Thanks to the prayers and support of so many this team of 36 was allowed to love on people in the name of Jesus. It has an eternal impact not only on those who received the food but even more those who where able to share in the giving.
This building can not be built fast enough. There are many more families that are hungry, more children without clothes, and most importantly there are children without parents or a home. We pray that as Thanksgiving approaches you consider giving to complete this project and allow the real work to begin. Block, mortar, and steel are the necessities of the building but just as Christ described the church as the people this project is the same. The sooner the structure is in place, the sooner lives can be changed. Not just food or education but the hope for eternal salvation.
Luke 11: 11-13
If a son shall ask bread any of you that is father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask and egg, will he offer a scorpion. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
What will you give?
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