The last few weeks have been a blurr! I finished the first two terms of Greek last Friday and I'm getting ready for Term 1 of the 2010-2011 school year to start next week. I'll be taking Greek Exegesis, Homiletics, Ethics, something like Theology in the Parish Context, and Reflections on Ministry (a small group time to talk about our Field Ed. experiences). I'm also working at my two Field Ed. churches - Mt Pleasant Presby, a small suburban church that I'm at three Sundays per month and 2nd United Presby which I work at during the week doing a Kid's Club on Thursday evenings, a worship time before the Food Pantry distribution, and one Sunday per month.
My sister Lee flew in Tuesday evening and we've been having a great time hanging out and spending time with seminary friends.
Wednesday evening we had a few friends over and ended up having an awesome conversation over some beers sitting out on the patio. We were sharing what were the highlights and lowlights of our first year at seminary. It was a very touching time as many of us shared the struggles we had and the sweet friendships that evolved from sharing our pain and doing life together. The repeated theme among everyone was how God brought people into our lives who encouraged us, challenged us, prayed for us, and even suffered with us. It was such a testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness.
I still tear up when I think of how God has worked in my life and Kim's life this last year. The ways that He allowed us to struggle and wallow in our own self-pity, then the clear messages that He brought to us through: a sermon by Craig Barnes at Shadyside Presby on Palm Sunday, the book Encountering God by Andrew Purves, the book When God Interrupts by Craig Barnes, and through classes taught by Rob Gagnon and Andrew Purves, along with many conversations with friends and family.
He has brought Kim and I to a place in our relationship that we never would have gone to without having gone through the struggle we did this last year. We share our own stuff with each other more than we ever did before. We now pray together and read God's word daily together...things that we talked about doing, but never did before. God has become so much more present in our daily lives, and I wouldn't change that for anything. It's very odd. Odd because so many times in our lives we really don't even know what we're missing - in our own lives, in relationships - until something happens that takes us to that different place, and then we think, "My God, how have I missed this my entire life? How did I not know that things could be this way?" Crazy. Faith is crazy. Life is crazy. But I thank God that I'm not doing it alone. I know He is with me, and He has surrounded me with so many people who help me and encourage me, who pray for me, and call me on the carpet on things. I am so thankful and humbled by His love for me, and all of His people.
I am also thankful for how God brought Jon and Kristen in our lives and now into our home, living together in community. We're just at the beginning of this journey, but we already see that God is growing us all through our interactions and conversations. I pray that as we continue this small, intentional community God will open our eyes and move our hearts to say and do things that we might not have done before. I pray He will take us to places that grow each of us and draw us all closer to Him, both individually and as a family in one household. Please join us in that prayer!
I have struggled with my eyesight the last year. I only started wearing glasses - for distance - a year and a half ago. Then in December I had to get bi-focals. But in the last six months my eyesight has really deteriorated. My periphery vision is horrible, I have blind spots both to the right and the left, and my night vision has gotten so bad that I can no longer drive at night! That's not right for someone 47 years old! My eye doc couldn't find anything wrong with my eyes, so next Wednesday I'm going to a neurological ophthalmologist. I'm a little concerned. I'm praying that it's nothing serious and that whatever is wrong can be fixed, but please pray with me that all is ok and it CAN be fixed.
I'm helping with the new student orientation this week, and tonight I'll be at the Activities Fair staffing a table for small groups. It is our prayer that both current and new students will take an active part in growing in their faith by being a part of a small group. We want people to leave seminary not just with a good academic foundation, but also with a strong personal faith. We want to create new pastors who have been real and transparent with fellow believers, open to accountability, and ready to be authentic Christ-followers with their congregations. Please keep this goal in your prayers as well. We're starting on this journey, and I hope by the time I leave here there will be more things in place to help seminarians and their spouses grow in their own faith and be able to equip and lead their congregations with strength and integrity.
Well, I'm gonna go play with Lee while she's here! Thanks be to God for all He has done!
Blessings!
~Sally
The Family - Summer, 2023
Love these people!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Sunday's Sermon - August 8, 2010
I thought I'd share the sermon I gave at Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church last Sunday... Then I'll share how ironic it is...
A Prayer For Favor (Read Neh. 1:1-11)
The story today in Nehemiah has us hearing Nehemiah’s prayer to God. The Israelites are in exile. Most of them had not been faithful to God in their living and worshipping and so God had not kept them from harm (which seems to be an on-going theme in the Old Testament).
Nehemiah sees a fellow believer who has just come from Judah and he asks him about the remnant, those few people who had stayed faithful to God’s commands, and is told that they’re in pretty bad shape. It disturbs Nehemiah a lot. The state of his people, where he came from, his family is not good, and it lays heavy on his heart. So Nehemiah goes to God in prayer.
As he prays Nehemiah reminds God, and himself, of what he knows about God - that He is great and awesome, that He keeps His covenant, His promises of love with those who love Him and obey His commandments...And then he asks God to listen to his prayer.
This is a great way to start your own prayers. I remember being at a youth retreat a number of years ago. The teenagers had been presented with the Gospel and were spending some time outside alone with God, so the leadership stayed inside to pray...and we started praying by acknowledging naming the many names and what we knew of the character of God. YHWH, I am, Redeemer, God who forgives, unconditional lover, God of grace (getting what we don’t deserve), Holy One, and God of mercy (not getting what we do deserve), and so on. It was an awesome time of really recognizing and acknowledging who God is.
Back in our story, Nehemiah then confesses the sins not only of the people of Israel, but of himself and his own family as well. He acknowledges they have all fallen well short of God’s desires and commands.
He restates God’s promise to Moses - that God will scatter those people who were unfaithful, but will gather up those who return to Him and obey Him. And then again, Nehemiah asks God to hear his prayer.
Then he asks for something specifically. In his prayer, Nehemiah asks for success today and God’s favor in the king’s presence. In The Message translation he says, “make me successful today so that I get what I want from the king (vs.11b).”
Now at first glance one might look at that and think, gee Nehemiah, you’re being awfully bold and prideful! Asking that he gets what he wants from the king, asking for favor! We need to take note here though, that he’s not asking for a favor, but asking for favor. What’s the difference here?
To ask for “a favor” is to ask someone for something specific, to ask someone to do something for you. But that’s not what Nehemiah is asking for here. He’s asking for “favor.” He’s asking for the king to agree with him, to be in support of him, to find praise in him. So what does Nehemiah have in mind? Well to find that out we have to go on to chapter two.
We have to also take note before we move on that Nehemiah mentions at the end of chapter one that he is the cup-bearer to the king. Just like in the book of Esther, a servant of the king can’t just approach the king and ask for something...to do so could bring death. A servant of the king has to wait for the king to speak to them first, and sometimes even wait for the king to ask them something before they are actually allowed to speak directly to the him.
So chapter two begins by telling us that it’s been four months since Nehemiah first prayed for favor from God, and he is doing his job serving the king. I’m going to read verses 1-6 of chapter 2 from The Message translation:
“At the hour for serving wine I brought it in and gave it to the king. I had never been hangdog in his presence before (which is an interesting word used to mean long-faced or sad-looking), so he asked me, ‘Why the long face? You’re not sick are you? Or are you depressed?’
That made me all the more agitated. I said, ‘Long live the king! And why shouldn’t I be depressed when the city, the city where all my family is buried, is in ruins and the city gates have been reduced to cinders?’
The king then asked me, ‘So what do you want?’
Praying under my breath to the God-of-Heaven, I said, ‘If it please the king, and if the king thinks well of me, send me to Judah, to the city where my family is buried, so that I can rebuild it.’
The king, with the queen sitting alongside him, said, ‘How long will your work take and when would you expect to return?’
I gave him a time, and the king gave his approval to send me.”
So Nehemiah had to wait four months until he finally had the opportunity to even talk to the king, but when the time came he found favor and was first, allowed to speak freely, and second, granted his request to go and help his people in Judah. (If you read the rest of the book you find that Nehemiah was a great leader and rebuilt the entire wall around the city.) Because of the favor God had granted Nehemiah, he was able to do great things for God and God’s people.
Can you think of others who were given God’s favor? As mentioned earlier, Esther is a great example. She was a young Jewish woman who was put in the king’s “harem” in the palace of King Xerxes because of her beauty. Because of her position and, again, finding favor with her king, she ended up being the pivotal person to intervene for her people and save them from being destroyed.
How about today? Are there examples of people who have been granted God’s favor today? I think Jimmy Carter is a great example. Although some would say that as president he wasn’t highly effective, many would say that his greatest work, helping to bring peace to numerous areas of the world, has been done since his presidency. But it was was due to the the influence he gained and relationships he made as president that helped make him so effective in his work after his presidency.
Finally, some of you may be familiar with Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California, a huge mega-church that Pastor Warren started from very humble beginnings. He wrote The Purpose-Driven Life, a great book. Warren, by both equipping lay people to grow and act on their faith, as well as by staying faithful to God in his own life, has not only grown a big church, but has become very influential, not only in Christian circles but in governing and political circles as well - both in the U.S. and around the world.
Rick Warren is known for many things, but the two things that stick out to me are his reverse tithing, and what he says about influence.
When Warren and his wife Kay started Saddleback Church they tithed ten percent of their income. Each year they increased their giving by one percent. They didn’t change their lifestyle as his income increased, they gave more. So now they give away ninety percent of their income, and live on ten. That speaks very loudly to me about how seriously Warren takes his faith.
When it comes to influence, Rick Warren recounts his thoughts and conversation with God,
“What do you want me to do with the influence?"--which was a trickier thing. All of a sudden I start to get invitations. I spoke at Harvard and Cambridge and Oxford... All of a sudden I’m going up on Capitol Hill and talking to guys. Producers in Hollywood are asking me to come up and discuss the book with eight or nine major studio producers.
This wasn’t my plan. My plan was just to pastor Saddleback and train pastors. So I’m going, "God, what am I supposed to do with all of this new influence that you are giving me?" I’m reading through the scriptures trying to find an answer, and I find Psalm 72, which is Solomon’s prayer for more influence.
When you read this prayer it really sounds quite selfish. Solomon is the wisest and wealthiest and most powerful man in the world, because he is the head of the United Kingdom of Israel when it is at the apex of its power. He prays, "God, I want you to make me more influential. I want you to bless me and give me more power. I want you to make me famous. I want you to spread the fame of my name to many nations."
It sounds selfish until you understand he says, "So that the king may support the widow and orphan, care for the poor, defend the defenseless, lift up the fallen, release the captive, help the foreigner, the immigrant."
God said to me, "The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence." That changed my life. I had to repent.”
Over time Warren learned more about the poor, the widows and the orphans, especially in Africa in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. As God continued to open his eyes and break his heart Warren became more and more convicted that he needed to take action. Out of all that came a mixture of what he was already doing - building church leaders and active Christians, along with addressing the issues of AIDS victims in Africa. The P.E.A.C.E. program was created. It stands for:
P - Plan a church, or partner with a church if there is one (it always begins
w/ the church - in, through, and to a church)
E - Equip servant leaders
A - Assist the poor
C - Care for the sick
E - Educate the next generation
Hundreds of churches across the country have adopted this model to help build the Church in Africa so that will be the vehicle to minister to these people and help combat the AIDS epidemic and the trail of brokenness that it leaves. And an extra bonus is that it also builds up the American Church because people feel more connected to their faith. That in partnering with God and His people across the world, they are actually making a difference.
There are two things that I hope you will take from this message today. The first is that, like Nehemiah, God brings things into our lives that break our hearts, that get under our skin, that bother us and won’t let us go - (like the suffering of the people of Israel did to Nehemiah). And He doesn’t want us to inoculate ourselves to the pain it causes us, but to expose ourselves even more to it. He wants us to see the pain of the world as He does.
I know that probably really dates me, but how many of you remember the old Popeye cartoons? Remember when Bluto, the big brute, would get a hold of Olive Oil, Popeye’s girlfriend? Bluto would mess with Popeye to the point where he would say, “That’s all I can stands.....(say it with me!) I can’t stands no more!” Well, that’s the place that God wants to take us to. He wants us to feel it deep enough that we have that “Popeye moment” and we cry out, “that’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”
Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church calls that phenomenon a “holy discontent.” It’s that feeling we have when we finally get to the point of saying or thinking, someone should DO something - and God takes us to those places because that someone is you!
So become more aware of that thing or things that give you a holy discontent. It may be something to do with the homeless, it may be adult literacy, maybe it’s the lack of help for families with special needs children. For someone else it may be the AIDS epidemic or the rights of women in third world countries, or even mentoring local teenagers. God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us. Tune in and pay attention! God may have been trying to get your attention for a while! And you never know, someone else may have been praying to God about the very issue or problem on your heart - and YOU are to be the answer to that person’s prayer.
The second thing I’d like you to take away from this is to take note of where God has placed you. It may just be that He has already put you in a position of influence to do something. Or it may be that, like the Nehemiah story He has just started to put something on your heart and you need to take some time praying about it before He will put you or bring you together with someone who can bring some power, finances, or influence to the situation.
I want to share with you a story about a man, Mike Berry, from my church back in Colorado. You see, in our new member classes, we showed a video that Bill Hybels made talking about holy discontent and those Popeye moments to encourage our people to be listening for God and what He has planned for them to do in ministry - whether it’s within or outside the walls of the church.
Well, a few years earlier Mike had been walking his daughter to school one morning when a young girl ran in to the school unkempt and crying. He asked her what the matter was and she told him that she had slept in the car with her mom and hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. The vision of that young hungry girl stayed with Mike over the years and really bothered him, but he felt helpless and didn’t really think that he could do anything.
After watching the video in the new members class, Mike finally felt convicted enough to take action, to do something, and he realized that, having his own financial planning business for over twenty years, he was actually in a position where he had surplus time and money to devote to this.
So Mike and his family started Kid’s Aid. They began at his daughter’s elementary school and invited families to take part in a backpack program. Mike’s family, along with some church volunteers, would get food at the local Food Bank along with supplements they bought at Sam’s Club, and fill around 20 backpacks with ready-made or easy to prepare food for kids to take home every Friday. The kids would return the backpacks the following week where they’d refill them and do it all over again throughout the school year.
I just received the newsletter from our church on Friday with an update. Kid’s Aid is currently serving 1, 260 students in 17 schools. They have come to realize that to meet the need of the entire district they will need to prepare 2,000 backpacks every week, and that is their goal. The program now has other churches involved, and has become its own non-profit in order to take advantage of grants and other opportunities offered to non-profit organizations. And all this because Mike decided to listen to that holy discontent and follow God’s lead in doing something about it. I’m not saying that every movement God makes ends up in some huge project like this, but we just never know where He will lead us if we allow ourselves to be led.
So what has God placed on your heart? Have you inoculated yourself to it? Pushed it aside and tried to not let it bother you? Maybe you need to expose yourself to it a bit more. Maybe you need to spend some serious time with God and see where He leads you. Maybe, like Nehemiah or Mike, He’s got something big in mind for you. Or maybe He’s put a need of someone close-by on your heart and wants you to make a difference for that one person or that family.
Whatever it is, LISTEN. Whatever is it, PRAY. And then wait and watch for God’s favor. Let’s pray.
Now the irony of this sermon is that someone at our home church in Grand Junction apparently had a stirring in their own heart. Apparently it was so strong that they acted on it. They took a BIG check to the church and asked if the church would send us a check (so they could remain anonymous). We received it on Saturday (thinking it was our regular support from the church's Mission Team, sent to me by mistake instead of directly to the seminary). Our pastor told us it was from someone in the church who wished to remain anonymous. I wonder if they know they answered many a prayer! We plan on writing a note that the pastor can give to them to let them know! God is SO good...more than we can ask or imagine.
Blessings to you,
~Sally
A Prayer For Favor (Read Neh. 1:1-11)
The story today in Nehemiah has us hearing Nehemiah’s prayer to God. The Israelites are in exile. Most of them had not been faithful to God in their living and worshipping and so God had not kept them from harm (which seems to be an on-going theme in the Old Testament).
Nehemiah sees a fellow believer who has just come from Judah and he asks him about the remnant, those few people who had stayed faithful to God’s commands, and is told that they’re in pretty bad shape. It disturbs Nehemiah a lot. The state of his people, where he came from, his family is not good, and it lays heavy on his heart. So Nehemiah goes to God in prayer.
As he prays Nehemiah reminds God, and himself, of what he knows about God - that He is great and awesome, that He keeps His covenant, His promises of love with those who love Him and obey His commandments...And then he asks God to listen to his prayer.
This is a great way to start your own prayers. I remember being at a youth retreat a number of years ago. The teenagers had been presented with the Gospel and were spending some time outside alone with God, so the leadership stayed inside to pray...and we started praying by acknowledging naming the many names and what we knew of the character of God. YHWH, I am, Redeemer, God who forgives, unconditional lover, God of grace (getting what we don’t deserve), Holy One, and God of mercy (not getting what we do deserve), and so on. It was an awesome time of really recognizing and acknowledging who God is.
Back in our story, Nehemiah then confesses the sins not only of the people of Israel, but of himself and his own family as well. He acknowledges they have all fallen well short of God’s desires and commands.
He restates God’s promise to Moses - that God will scatter those people who were unfaithful, but will gather up those who return to Him and obey Him. And then again, Nehemiah asks God to hear his prayer.
Then he asks for something specifically. In his prayer, Nehemiah asks for success today and God’s favor in the king’s presence. In The Message translation he says, “make me successful today so that I get what I want from the king (vs.11b).”
Now at first glance one might look at that and think, gee Nehemiah, you’re being awfully bold and prideful! Asking that he gets what he wants from the king, asking for favor! We need to take note here though, that he’s not asking for a favor, but asking for favor. What’s the difference here?
To ask for “a favor” is to ask someone for something specific, to ask someone to do something for you. But that’s not what Nehemiah is asking for here. He’s asking for “favor.” He’s asking for the king to agree with him, to be in support of him, to find praise in him. So what does Nehemiah have in mind? Well to find that out we have to go on to chapter two.
We have to also take note before we move on that Nehemiah mentions at the end of chapter one that he is the cup-bearer to the king. Just like in the book of Esther, a servant of the king can’t just approach the king and ask for something...to do so could bring death. A servant of the king has to wait for the king to speak to them first, and sometimes even wait for the king to ask them something before they are actually allowed to speak directly to the him.
So chapter two begins by telling us that it’s been four months since Nehemiah first prayed for favor from God, and he is doing his job serving the king. I’m going to read verses 1-6 of chapter 2 from The Message translation:
“At the hour for serving wine I brought it in and gave it to the king. I had never been hangdog in his presence before (which is an interesting word used to mean long-faced or sad-looking), so he asked me, ‘Why the long face? You’re not sick are you? Or are you depressed?’
That made me all the more agitated. I said, ‘Long live the king! And why shouldn’t I be depressed when the city, the city where all my family is buried, is in ruins and the city gates have been reduced to cinders?’
The king then asked me, ‘So what do you want?’
Praying under my breath to the God-of-Heaven, I said, ‘If it please the king, and if the king thinks well of me, send me to Judah, to the city where my family is buried, so that I can rebuild it.’
The king, with the queen sitting alongside him, said, ‘How long will your work take and when would you expect to return?’
I gave him a time, and the king gave his approval to send me.”
So Nehemiah had to wait four months until he finally had the opportunity to even talk to the king, but when the time came he found favor and was first, allowed to speak freely, and second, granted his request to go and help his people in Judah. (If you read the rest of the book you find that Nehemiah was a great leader and rebuilt the entire wall around the city.) Because of the favor God had granted Nehemiah, he was able to do great things for God and God’s people.
Can you think of others who were given God’s favor? As mentioned earlier, Esther is a great example. She was a young Jewish woman who was put in the king’s “harem” in the palace of King Xerxes because of her beauty. Because of her position and, again, finding favor with her king, she ended up being the pivotal person to intervene for her people and save them from being destroyed.
How about today? Are there examples of people who have been granted God’s favor today? I think Jimmy Carter is a great example. Although some would say that as president he wasn’t highly effective, many would say that his greatest work, helping to bring peace to numerous areas of the world, has been done since his presidency. But it was was due to the the influence he gained and relationships he made as president that helped make him so effective in his work after his presidency.
Finally, some of you may be familiar with Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California, a huge mega-church that Pastor Warren started from very humble beginnings. He wrote The Purpose-Driven Life, a great book. Warren, by both equipping lay people to grow and act on their faith, as well as by staying faithful to God in his own life, has not only grown a big church, but has become very influential, not only in Christian circles but in governing and political circles as well - both in the U.S. and around the world.
Rick Warren is known for many things, but the two things that stick out to me are his reverse tithing, and what he says about influence.
When Warren and his wife Kay started Saddleback Church they tithed ten percent of their income. Each year they increased their giving by one percent. They didn’t change their lifestyle as his income increased, they gave more. So now they give away ninety percent of their income, and live on ten. That speaks very loudly to me about how seriously Warren takes his faith.
When it comes to influence, Rick Warren recounts his thoughts and conversation with God,
“What do you want me to do with the influence?"--which was a trickier thing. All of a sudden I start to get invitations. I spoke at Harvard and Cambridge and Oxford... All of a sudden I’m going up on Capitol Hill and talking to guys. Producers in Hollywood are asking me to come up and discuss the book with eight or nine major studio producers.
This wasn’t my plan. My plan was just to pastor Saddleback and train pastors. So I’m going, "God, what am I supposed to do with all of this new influence that you are giving me?" I’m reading through the scriptures trying to find an answer, and I find Psalm 72, which is Solomon’s prayer for more influence.
When you read this prayer it really sounds quite selfish. Solomon is the wisest and wealthiest and most powerful man in the world, because he is the head of the United Kingdom of Israel when it is at the apex of its power. He prays, "God, I want you to make me more influential. I want you to bless me and give me more power. I want you to make me famous. I want you to spread the fame of my name to many nations."
It sounds selfish until you understand he says, "So that the king may support the widow and orphan, care for the poor, defend the defenseless, lift up the fallen, release the captive, help the foreigner, the immigrant."
God said to me, "The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence." That changed my life. I had to repent.”
Over time Warren learned more about the poor, the widows and the orphans, especially in Africa in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. As God continued to open his eyes and break his heart Warren became more and more convicted that he needed to take action. Out of all that came a mixture of what he was already doing - building church leaders and active Christians, along with addressing the issues of AIDS victims in Africa. The P.E.A.C.E. program was created. It stands for:
P - Plan a church, or partner with a church if there is one (it always begins
w/ the church - in, through, and to a church)
E - Equip servant leaders
A - Assist the poor
C - Care for the sick
E - Educate the next generation
Hundreds of churches across the country have adopted this model to help build the Church in Africa so that will be the vehicle to minister to these people and help combat the AIDS epidemic and the trail of brokenness that it leaves. And an extra bonus is that it also builds up the American Church because people feel more connected to their faith. That in partnering with God and His people across the world, they are actually making a difference.
There are two things that I hope you will take from this message today. The first is that, like Nehemiah, God brings things into our lives that break our hearts, that get under our skin, that bother us and won’t let us go - (like the suffering of the people of Israel did to Nehemiah). And He doesn’t want us to inoculate ourselves to the pain it causes us, but to expose ourselves even more to it. He wants us to see the pain of the world as He does.
I know that probably really dates me, but how many of you remember the old Popeye cartoons? Remember when Bluto, the big brute, would get a hold of Olive Oil, Popeye’s girlfriend? Bluto would mess with Popeye to the point where he would say, “That’s all I can stands.....(say it with me!) I can’t stands no more!” Well, that’s the place that God wants to take us to. He wants us to feel it deep enough that we have that “Popeye moment” and we cry out, “that’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”
Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church calls that phenomenon a “holy discontent.” It’s that feeling we have when we finally get to the point of saying or thinking, someone should DO something - and God takes us to those places because that someone is you!
So become more aware of that thing or things that give you a holy discontent. It may be something to do with the homeless, it may be adult literacy, maybe it’s the lack of help for families with special needs children. For someone else it may be the AIDS epidemic or the rights of women in third world countries, or even mentoring local teenagers. God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us. Tune in and pay attention! God may have been trying to get your attention for a while! And you never know, someone else may have been praying to God about the very issue or problem on your heart - and YOU are to be the answer to that person’s prayer.
The second thing I’d like you to take away from this is to take note of where God has placed you. It may just be that He has already put you in a position of influence to do something. Or it may be that, like the Nehemiah story He has just started to put something on your heart and you need to take some time praying about it before He will put you or bring you together with someone who can bring some power, finances, or influence to the situation.
I want to share with you a story about a man, Mike Berry, from my church back in Colorado. You see, in our new member classes, we showed a video that Bill Hybels made talking about holy discontent and those Popeye moments to encourage our people to be listening for God and what He has planned for them to do in ministry - whether it’s within or outside the walls of the church.
Well, a few years earlier Mike had been walking his daughter to school one morning when a young girl ran in to the school unkempt and crying. He asked her what the matter was and she told him that she had slept in the car with her mom and hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. The vision of that young hungry girl stayed with Mike over the years and really bothered him, but he felt helpless and didn’t really think that he could do anything.
After watching the video in the new members class, Mike finally felt convicted enough to take action, to do something, and he realized that, having his own financial planning business for over twenty years, he was actually in a position where he had surplus time and money to devote to this.
So Mike and his family started Kid’s Aid. They began at his daughter’s elementary school and invited families to take part in a backpack program. Mike’s family, along with some church volunteers, would get food at the local Food Bank along with supplements they bought at Sam’s Club, and fill around 20 backpacks with ready-made or easy to prepare food for kids to take home every Friday. The kids would return the backpacks the following week where they’d refill them and do it all over again throughout the school year.
I just received the newsletter from our church on Friday with an update. Kid’s Aid is currently serving 1, 260 students in 17 schools. They have come to realize that to meet the need of the entire district they will need to prepare 2,000 backpacks every week, and that is their goal. The program now has other churches involved, and has become its own non-profit in order to take advantage of grants and other opportunities offered to non-profit organizations. And all this because Mike decided to listen to that holy discontent and follow God’s lead in doing something about it. I’m not saying that every movement God makes ends up in some huge project like this, but we just never know where He will lead us if we allow ourselves to be led.
So what has God placed on your heart? Have you inoculated yourself to it? Pushed it aside and tried to not let it bother you? Maybe you need to expose yourself to it a bit more. Maybe you need to spend some serious time with God and see where He leads you. Maybe, like Nehemiah or Mike, He’s got something big in mind for you. Or maybe He’s put a need of someone close-by on your heart and wants you to make a difference for that one person or that family.
Whatever it is, LISTEN. Whatever is it, PRAY. And then wait and watch for God’s favor. Let’s pray.
Now the irony of this sermon is that someone at our home church in Grand Junction apparently had a stirring in their own heart. Apparently it was so strong that they acted on it. They took a BIG check to the church and asked if the church would send us a check (so they could remain anonymous). We received it on Saturday (thinking it was our regular support from the church's Mission Team, sent to me by mistake instead of directly to the seminary). Our pastor told us it was from someone in the church who wished to remain anonymous. I wonder if they know they answered many a prayer! We plan on writing a note that the pastor can give to them to let them know! God is SO good...more than we can ask or imagine.
Blessings to you,
~Sally
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Vacation is over...
We returned from Grand Junction almost a week ago and we're still basking in the glow of the absolutely awesome time we had with our many friends and our entire family. It was a sweet reunion with family, and we had hours and hours of time together preparing for the wedding and reception and then celebrating together the whole day of the wedding.
We arrived in GJ and I was whisked off to the bridal shower where we spent a few hours with girlfriends we haven't seen in ages. Sarah and Rilo stayed with us in our hotel so we had nice BIG doses of the both of them!
We went out to lunch with Tom Hansen, our pastor, and had a few hours together updating Tom on our year and he updating us on what's going on in the church. Hopefully we encouraged him as much as he encouraged us!
We had many an evening hanging out at Ellen's house laughing and eating. A bachelorette party for Sammy took us to Ellen's, downtown to the Rockslide for dinner, Main Street making ridiculous poses with all the "Art on the Corner" statues, and back to Ellen's for presents, some drinks, and then picture-taking with the sisters and nieces (see photo on right). I love my sisters SO much and we just hung out together as much as we could whether it was coffee on Ellen's front porch at 7am, hanging out at the pool at our hotel, or decorating at Ellen's for the reception. It was AWESOME to get such a big dose together!
Friday evening all the girls in the wedding plus Lee and I, my mom, and another friend all went to Glenwood Springs and stayed at the Hotel Colorado together. In the morning we had ten women getting ready for a wedding in two rooms with one bathroom! Amazingly, we pulled it off!
The wedding itself was simply amazing. As you can see by the family pictures I've posted, the backdrop was majestic. I don't think there was a bad picture taken. It almost felt unreal it was so beautiful. Sammy and Chris gave their vows, washed each other's feet, exchanged rings, and were pronounced husband and wife! The bridal party went to lunch in Aspen and the rest of us high-tailed it back to Palisade to finish up the final preparations for the reception.
The reception was like a reunion. So many people from church, Chris' family and friends from FL and all over, and we had friends from Denver and even Iowa! (Yay, Mary!) We partied late into the night with speeches, food, dancing, and drink. It's a day none of us will soon forget!
Sunday I was blessed to preach all three services at First Pres, and many of the wedding guests came as well (including the bride & groom!). It was great to see folks and share how God has grown us and drawn us nearer to Him this last year - and how He wants to do that with each one of us!
Everyone seemed to leave all at once - my folks, Alex and Bobby w/ Sarah & Rob on Sunday; and Lee & Charlie, Sammy & Chris on Monday. We were able to spend more time with Sean and Megan after that and then we left on Wednesday. (And we actually hooked up w/ Lee and Charlie at the airport in Denver for a short reunion!) What a whirlwind ten days!
We came home to Jon and Kristen leaving early the next morning for CT to be with Jon's family over the 4th, so we had a quiet house for a few days.
This weekend we went to the Pittsburgh Regatta where we walked the beautiful river trail on the North Shore of the Allegheny River and watched dragon boats race (a drummer at the front, 9 people on each side paddling, and a person on the rudder on the back) as well as small "tunnel boats" - enclosed, small speed boats race around bouys on the river. The weather was perfect - 85 and low humidity!
Saturday evening we went to dinner in Cranberry Township w/ a group from Mt. Pleasant Presby - one of my field ed churches, and met a woman whose sister lives in Palisade! ...And the world gets smaller once again!
Sunday we went to Mt. Pleasant Presby where I assisted in worship, and then went back to the North Shore that evening to watch a huge fireworks display.
Monday was a brunch and parade at my friend Tai's mother's house in Zelienople (about an hour north of us), then home to melt in the hot, very humid weather!
Jon and Kristen returned around dinner time and we had a great time sharing about our vacations and reconnecting.
Jon's in Hebrew now and I'm in Greek - today was our first day - and so we jump back in to academic life. My prof is awesome, so I am hopeful that all will go well (I was very nervous this morning!).
So that's our update. The dog days of summer are definitely upon us - thank God for AC in the house! We are blessed beyond measure, and so thankful for the time we had with our family and a family to come HOME to here in Pittsburgh.
~Sally
We arrived in GJ and I was whisked off to the bridal shower where we spent a few hours with girlfriends we haven't seen in ages. Sarah and Rilo stayed with us in our hotel so we had nice BIG doses of the both of them!
We went out to lunch with Tom Hansen, our pastor, and had a few hours together updating Tom on our year and he updating us on what's going on in the church. Hopefully we encouraged him as much as he encouraged us!
We had many an evening hanging out at Ellen's house laughing and eating. A bachelorette party for Sammy took us to Ellen's, downtown to the Rockslide for dinner, Main Street making ridiculous poses with all the "Art on the Corner" statues, and back to Ellen's for presents, some drinks, and then picture-taking with the sisters and nieces (see photo on right). I love my sisters SO much and we just hung out together as much as we could whether it was coffee on Ellen's front porch at 7am, hanging out at the pool at our hotel, or decorating at Ellen's for the reception. It was AWESOME to get such a big dose together!
Friday evening all the girls in the wedding plus Lee and I, my mom, and another friend all went to Glenwood Springs and stayed at the Hotel Colorado together. In the morning we had ten women getting ready for a wedding in two rooms with one bathroom! Amazingly, we pulled it off!
The wedding itself was simply amazing. As you can see by the family pictures I've posted, the backdrop was majestic. I don't think there was a bad picture taken. It almost felt unreal it was so beautiful. Sammy and Chris gave their vows, washed each other's feet, exchanged rings, and were pronounced husband and wife! The bridal party went to lunch in Aspen and the rest of us high-tailed it back to Palisade to finish up the final preparations for the reception.
The reception was like a reunion. So many people from church, Chris' family and friends from FL and all over, and we had friends from Denver and even Iowa! (Yay, Mary!) We partied late into the night with speeches, food, dancing, and drink. It's a day none of us will soon forget!
Sunday I was blessed to preach all three services at First Pres, and many of the wedding guests came as well (including the bride & groom!). It was great to see folks and share how God has grown us and drawn us nearer to Him this last year - and how He wants to do that with each one of us!
Everyone seemed to leave all at once - my folks, Alex and Bobby w/ Sarah & Rob on Sunday; and Lee & Charlie, Sammy & Chris on Monday. We were able to spend more time with Sean and Megan after that and then we left on Wednesday. (And we actually hooked up w/ Lee and Charlie at the airport in Denver for a short reunion!) What a whirlwind ten days!
We came home to Jon and Kristen leaving early the next morning for CT to be with Jon's family over the 4th, so we had a quiet house for a few days.
This weekend we went to the Pittsburgh Regatta where we walked the beautiful river trail on the North Shore of the Allegheny River and watched dragon boats race (a drummer at the front, 9 people on each side paddling, and a person on the rudder on the back) as well as small "tunnel boats" - enclosed, small speed boats race around bouys on the river. The weather was perfect - 85 and low humidity!
Saturday evening we went to dinner in Cranberry Township w/ a group from Mt. Pleasant Presby - one of my field ed churches, and met a woman whose sister lives in Palisade! ...And the world gets smaller once again!
Sunday we went to Mt. Pleasant Presby where I assisted in worship, and then went back to the North Shore that evening to watch a huge fireworks display.
Monday was a brunch and parade at my friend Tai's mother's house in Zelienople (about an hour north of us), then home to melt in the hot, very humid weather!
Jon and Kristen returned around dinner time and we had a great time sharing about our vacations and reconnecting.
Jon's in Hebrew now and I'm in Greek - today was our first day - and so we jump back in to academic life. My prof is awesome, so I am hopeful that all will go well (I was very nervous this morning!).
So that's our update. The dog days of summer are definitely upon us - thank God for AC in the house! We are blessed beyond measure, and so thankful for the time we had with our family and a family to come HOME to here in Pittsburgh.
~Sally
Friday, June 18, 2010
Summertime....
I'm halfway through my summer break already (my month, that is). Kathy and I had a wonderful trip to Hilton Head, SC where we sat on the beach for a week straight, got totally sunburned, and I read an 1100-page Tom Clancy novel....heaven!
I've worked at WMI this week for 15 hours of work study, and now it's time to start packing so we can fly to Grand Junction on Sunday! Woo hoo!!!
As I was working on my sermon today that I'm giving at First Pres. Grand Junction on the 27th, I was reminded of how God has truly carried us through this last year. Gosh it was hard....and the hardest for Kim. He has really struggled this whole year, first trying to find work and then just trying to figure out what he's supposed to be doing. He's finally figured out that he's supposed to be doing school too! So he's starting a CCAC (Community College of Allegheny County) in the fall where he'll complete a pharmacy technician Associates degree in the next 18-24 months. He's so excited and it's good to see him motivated and excited about what's ahead for him. After being the provider for so many years he feels like he has a lot of catching up to do, and this will be the start of it.
Jon and Kristen have been with us for two weeks now and we LOVE having them with us. They both are so considerate and really a joy to have around - and their dog Porter adds fun to the mix too (he and Charlie have a great time playing together).
We are counting the hours til we leave and we'll be reunited with our entire family in GJ!!! Sarah, Rilo and my mom are driving from Denver tomorrow; Lee, Charlie, Sammy & Chris are already there; and the rest of the family comes in later next week! What a celebration -- oh yeah, and Sammy & Chris's wedding will be fun too!
I've met with my two Field Ed. pastors and I will start 7/4 at Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian and work during the week at Second United Presbyterian. I'm really excited about both churches and will help with worship, youth and family events, children's ministry, and outreach. I'll be the pulpit supply for Mt. Pleasant for the first three weeks in August - I'm excited to preach as well as get paid for it!
I start Greek on 7/6 for all of July and August. I'll have a week off at the end of August, and then school starts back up after Labor Day.
Our biggest prayers right now are for finances. We think that we'll be able to get enough student loans to support us (and hopefully I'll get some scholarships/grants from places I've applied), but our loans don't get dispersed until Sept. for Kim and OCT. for me! We have enough savings for July's bills, so we're praying that God will provide in a BIG way. I'm sure He will direct us, but at this point I don't know what that's going to be...
God is so good and He continues to grow me and mold me daily. I pray the same is for you. God bless you for your prayers.
~Sally
I've worked at WMI this week for 15 hours of work study, and now it's time to start packing so we can fly to Grand Junction on Sunday! Woo hoo!!!
As I was working on my sermon today that I'm giving at First Pres. Grand Junction on the 27th, I was reminded of how God has truly carried us through this last year. Gosh it was hard....and the hardest for Kim. He has really struggled this whole year, first trying to find work and then just trying to figure out what he's supposed to be doing. He's finally figured out that he's supposed to be doing school too! So he's starting a CCAC (Community College of Allegheny County) in the fall where he'll complete a pharmacy technician Associates degree in the next 18-24 months. He's so excited and it's good to see him motivated and excited about what's ahead for him. After being the provider for so many years he feels like he has a lot of catching up to do, and this will be the start of it.
Jon and Kristen have been with us for two weeks now and we LOVE having them with us. They both are so considerate and really a joy to have around - and their dog Porter adds fun to the mix too (he and Charlie have a great time playing together).
We are counting the hours til we leave and we'll be reunited with our entire family in GJ!!! Sarah, Rilo and my mom are driving from Denver tomorrow; Lee, Charlie, Sammy & Chris are already there; and the rest of the family comes in later next week! What a celebration -- oh yeah, and Sammy & Chris's wedding will be fun too!
I've met with my two Field Ed. pastors and I will start 7/4 at Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian and work during the week at Second United Presbyterian. I'm really excited about both churches and will help with worship, youth and family events, children's ministry, and outreach. I'll be the pulpit supply for Mt. Pleasant for the first three weeks in August - I'm excited to preach as well as get paid for it!
I start Greek on 7/6 for all of July and August. I'll have a week off at the end of August, and then school starts back up after Labor Day.
Our biggest prayers right now are for finances. We think that we'll be able to get enough student loans to support us (and hopefully I'll get some scholarships/grants from places I've applied), but our loans don't get dispersed until Sept. for Kim and OCT. for me! We have enough savings for July's bills, so we're praying that God will provide in a BIG way. I'm sure He will direct us, but at this point I don't know what that's going to be...
God is so good and He continues to grow me and mold me daily. I pray the same is for you. God bless you for your prayers.
~Sally
Monday, May 17, 2010
Almost Done with Year One of Seminary!
Well, I didn't do very well at telling more about my trip to Egypt - which is not to say that I haven't processed a lot! I just didn't get it all written down. As for Egyptians, we have two living in our home right now. Sameh and Liza arrived last Friday from Cairo with their entire life packed into four huge suitcases. (Sameh attended the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo where we stayed when we visited.) They have come to Pittsburgh to live, and Sameh hopes to attend PTS, but in the meantime we've been helping them find an apartment and look for jobs. It looks like they'll end up in an apartment right next door to us! They are very excited!
This last term has been pretty amazing. Between my New Testament and Systematic Theology classes, (let alone through the many relationships that have grown here), God has been making himself known in all sorts of ways.
Our women's weekly prayer group has been so good for my soul. We have new mothers, single women, marrieds, students & spouses - a big mixture who God has thrown together to share our lives and pray for each other through this crazy life at seminary. What a blessing they have been to me. I feel in some ways that I have a few more kids, but then they'll lift me up as a sister-in-Christ and I learn so much from them!
Our NT professor is really crazy. On one hand he knows the NT like none other, and preaches all over the country about how homosexuality is a sin and abomination in God's eyes (which I'm not going to get into here!), but then we'll have these classes when he preaches Jesus and I just feel like he opened my eyes to a whole new reality of who Jesus is.
Our Systematic Theology professor, Dr. Purves, is hands-down amazing. I read one of his books for class and really didn't want to put it down. (So if you have the chance, read Encountering God by Purves and Partee). Really amazing stuff, and again, reintroduced me to a Jesus who made me want to come back and truly sit at his feet for a long while.
I am so thankful for both of these men who rekindled in me a love for Jesus that I had been missing for quite a while (unknowingly). It is such a joy to have Him where he should be again.
I'm in the home stretch of school (so of course, instead of doing homework I'm finally updating the blog)! Can you say P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N? Actually I feel pretty good about where I'm at. I have all my stuff done for theology (minus a take-home final we'll get next Tuesday), I have some catch-up reading and then studying for finals next week for church history and NT, and my 15-page exegesis for Hebrew on Exodus 20:1-12 (1st five commandments) that I have all the material it's just a matter of sitting down and putting it all together.
So pray me through the next couple of weeks!
June will bring our good friends Jon and Kristen Draskovic moving in with us! Jon is a fellow student and Kristen is just starting an 18-month nursing program. We all wanted to "do community" a bit deeper, so this should be an adventure for us all. We're all really excited!
The second week of June I'm taking off with a girlfriend from seminary to SC - Hilton Head - for a week of vegging on the beach, maybe some reading, maybe not, maybe some margaritas... I'm looking forward to relaxing and not much else! (And I'm not feeling too darn guilty since Kim just returned from a two-week trip to CO helping Sean & Megan move into and paint their new home and visiting Sarah, Rob & Rilo!)
Then on 6/20 Kim and I fly to Grand Junction for ten days!!! We'll be there mainly to attend my niece, Sammy's wedding to Chris McSweeney at Maroon Bells in Aspen and reception at Ellen & Bob's orchard in Palisade. I'm also going to preach on the 27th at First Pres.. Very excited to see all the family and reconnect with friends.
This spring we learned that because of our house sales last year I don't qualify for any federal financial aid, and I'm pretty sure I'm losing my scholarship as the stinkin' "C" in my first term screwed my GPA up. Soooo....I've applied for 3 different scholarships and grants and between that and student loans I'm praying that all can be covered.
Kim has also decided to start school in the fall, going to the Community College of Allegheny County for his associates of science to be a pharmacy technician. He's very excited, as am I, and so we'll have FOUR STUDENTS in the household!
Jon and I will both have Field Ed. next year working in areas churches, so that will help with a little bit of income, plus it'll be fun to be back into ministry doing stuff again!
In July and August I'll be taking Greek four days a week, then we'll get a week off before the fall term starts (and I'm hoping that Sarah & Rilo will be coming for a visit then).
So the summer is full! But I'm thankful for the month that will be full of things that "fill my tank!"
I continue to thank God for so many people who have prayed us through this year - after praying us HERE!! You don't know how we feel those prayers and know that we are being carried by them, especially during those tough times - and there were a few this year! Kim and I have learned LOADS and are so thankful how God has drawn us even closer to Himself and each other in the process.
My prayers go out to our many friends that God will bless you with the same richness He has given us this year!
Stickin' close to Jesus...
~Sally
This last term has been pretty amazing. Between my New Testament and Systematic Theology classes, (let alone through the many relationships that have grown here), God has been making himself known in all sorts of ways.
Our women's weekly prayer group has been so good for my soul. We have new mothers, single women, marrieds, students & spouses - a big mixture who God has thrown together to share our lives and pray for each other through this crazy life at seminary. What a blessing they have been to me. I feel in some ways that I have a few more kids, but then they'll lift me up as a sister-in-Christ and I learn so much from them!
Our NT professor is really crazy. On one hand he knows the NT like none other, and preaches all over the country about how homosexuality is a sin and abomination in God's eyes (which I'm not going to get into here!), but then we'll have these classes when he preaches Jesus and I just feel like he opened my eyes to a whole new reality of who Jesus is.
Our Systematic Theology professor, Dr. Purves, is hands-down amazing. I read one of his books for class and really didn't want to put it down. (So if you have the chance, read Encountering God by Purves and Partee). Really amazing stuff, and again, reintroduced me to a Jesus who made me want to come back and truly sit at his feet for a long while.
I am so thankful for both of these men who rekindled in me a love for Jesus that I had been missing for quite a while (unknowingly). It is such a joy to have Him where he should be again.
I'm in the home stretch of school (so of course, instead of doing homework I'm finally updating the blog)! Can you say P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N? Actually I feel pretty good about where I'm at. I have all my stuff done for theology (minus a take-home final we'll get next Tuesday), I have some catch-up reading and then studying for finals next week for church history and NT, and my 15-page exegesis for Hebrew on Exodus 20:1-12 (1st five commandments) that I have all the material it's just a matter of sitting down and putting it all together.
So pray me through the next couple of weeks!
June will bring our good friends Jon and Kristen Draskovic moving in with us! Jon is a fellow student and Kristen is just starting an 18-month nursing program. We all wanted to "do community" a bit deeper, so this should be an adventure for us all. We're all really excited!
The second week of June I'm taking off with a girlfriend from seminary to SC - Hilton Head - for a week of vegging on the beach, maybe some reading, maybe not, maybe some margaritas... I'm looking forward to relaxing and not much else! (And I'm not feeling too darn guilty since Kim just returned from a two-week trip to CO helping Sean & Megan move into and paint their new home and visiting Sarah, Rob & Rilo!)
Then on 6/20 Kim and I fly to Grand Junction for ten days!!! We'll be there mainly to attend my niece, Sammy's wedding to Chris McSweeney at Maroon Bells in Aspen and reception at Ellen & Bob's orchard in Palisade. I'm also going to preach on the 27th at First Pres.. Very excited to see all the family and reconnect with friends.
This spring we learned that because of our house sales last year I don't qualify for any federal financial aid, and I'm pretty sure I'm losing my scholarship as the stinkin' "C" in my first term screwed my GPA up. Soooo....I've applied for 3 different scholarships and grants and between that and student loans I'm praying that all can be covered.
Kim has also decided to start school in the fall, going to the Community College of Allegheny County for his associates of science to be a pharmacy technician. He's very excited, as am I, and so we'll have FOUR STUDENTS in the household!
Jon and I will both have Field Ed. next year working in areas churches, so that will help with a little bit of income, plus it'll be fun to be back into ministry doing stuff again!
In July and August I'll be taking Greek four days a week, then we'll get a week off before the fall term starts (and I'm hoping that Sarah & Rilo will be coming for a visit then).
So the summer is full! But I'm thankful for the month that will be full of things that "fill my tank!"
I continue to thank God for so many people who have prayed us through this year - after praying us HERE!! You don't know how we feel those prayers and know that we are being carried by them, especially during those tough times - and there were a few this year! Kim and I have learned LOADS and are so thankful how God has drawn us even closer to Himself and each other in the process.
My prayers go out to our many friends that God will bless you with the same richness He has given us this year!
Stickin' close to Jesus...
~Sally
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Lessons of Egypt...
It's my first full day back from my two week trip to Egypt. I'm reeling with still processing all that I learned and experienced, and I'm almost at a loss as to what I should write about -- there's just so much. So I think I'll do this a little bit at a time over the next few days so I can continue unpacking it and also so I don't give you all the "inch-deep" version of everything all at once. There's too much to just do a general overview. So here we go...
My professor, Scott Sunquist, and his wife Nancy left a week before the rest of our group to start teaching the class we're all taking Middle Eastern Church History: 1800-Present to the Egyptians in the class at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo where we were all staying. The group of ten who I travelled with were all supposed to leave on Feb. 26th, but because of another snow storm we were delayed two days and left on the 28th - arriving in Cairo on March 1st.
Our first full day in Cairo we were in class with our four Egyptian students. One student is a woman, V, in her late twenties I think, then there is S & F two twenty-something guys, and A, in his thirties and married w/ a one-year-old daughter. (I'm using initials because I don't want to write anything that identifies them and/or gets them in trouble with the government in Cairo.)
That first day, in some of our discussion in class, "A" shared about a woman in his church. This woman had converted to Christianity from the Muslim faith, along with her 5 children (ages 11-28), she was unmarried. Apparently the children have different fathers, and the family of one of the fathers started harassing her and the kids. She moved to a different place, but they tracked her down. The church even tried to help her leave the country with her children, but they were at the airport almost leaving when the police came and stopped her and wouldn't allow her to leave. The church is trying to help her by finding another place for her to live and taking food so she doesn't have to go out in public much, but that can't last forever.
The other dilemma that can come out of a situation like this is that sometimes when Muslims convert to Christianity they have a hard time being accepted by the Christian church community. Many fear that the person might be a spy for the government/police, so they never quite accept them into the community, they're always left at arm's length. Imagine never really making deep relationships with other Christians around you because they would never fully trust you!
That's a really big problem within the Christian community in Egypt. It's against the law to evangelize, and it's against the law to baptize someone who is officially (in the eyes of the state) a Muslim. So if a pastor baptizes someone who converted from Islam and gets caught, they can go to prison for 5-7 years.
What would YOU do if you were the pastor? You don't know if the person is legitimately coming to Christ or if they're a spy. By baptizing them you could go to jail. But if they really are converting, how can you deny someone the joy of baptism?
One little nugget of what we experienced in Egypt. It has opened my eyes to the reality of the persecuted church and what that really looks like in the eyes of Christ-followers in that situation.
On one hand it was really depressing and you were at a loss as to what to tell these pastors. Then on the other hand, we'd experience joyous worship, laughter and fun, and just normal times together with these people. They have great hope and enormous faith that God is in Egypt and is doing huge things in the midst of the persecution there...and we saw so much evidence of it! And they have to just live life! If there was no "normalcy" they'd go crazy! So there's this tension of living like things are fine and normal some of the time, and then there's the reality of living in a 90% Muslim country where converting people is illegal - and you're a pastor!
The ministry that goes on there is amazing. I think I'll leave that for my next blog, but suffice it to say that the ministry that goes on in this persecuted country puts the churches in my country to shame.
Much to think about, much to pray about and to pray for. Please pray for the persecuted churches of our world and the leaders who are trying to follow Jesus and shepherd their people. It is an enormous task and burden for these pastors, and many of them so very young.
I pray for my friends in Cairo, that God will continue to bless their lives and their ministries and keep them safe to continue the work that He has called them to.
Amazed by His grace,
~Sally
My professor, Scott Sunquist, and his wife Nancy left a week before the rest of our group to start teaching the class we're all taking Middle Eastern Church History: 1800-Present to the Egyptians in the class at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo where we were all staying. The group of ten who I travelled with were all supposed to leave on Feb. 26th, but because of another snow storm we were delayed two days and left on the 28th - arriving in Cairo on March 1st.
Our first full day in Cairo we were in class with our four Egyptian students. One student is a woman, V, in her late twenties I think, then there is S & F two twenty-something guys, and A, in his thirties and married w/ a one-year-old daughter. (I'm using initials because I don't want to write anything that identifies them and/or gets them in trouble with the government in Cairo.)
That first day, in some of our discussion in class, "A" shared about a woman in his church. This woman had converted to Christianity from the Muslim faith, along with her 5 children (ages 11-28), she was unmarried. Apparently the children have different fathers, and the family of one of the fathers started harassing her and the kids. She moved to a different place, but they tracked her down. The church even tried to help her leave the country with her children, but they were at the airport almost leaving when the police came and stopped her and wouldn't allow her to leave. The church is trying to help her by finding another place for her to live and taking food so she doesn't have to go out in public much, but that can't last forever.
The other dilemma that can come out of a situation like this is that sometimes when Muslims convert to Christianity they have a hard time being accepted by the Christian church community. Many fear that the person might be a spy for the government/police, so they never quite accept them into the community, they're always left at arm's length. Imagine never really making deep relationships with other Christians around you because they would never fully trust you!
That's a really big problem within the Christian community in Egypt. It's against the law to evangelize, and it's against the law to baptize someone who is officially (in the eyes of the state) a Muslim. So if a pastor baptizes someone who converted from Islam and gets caught, they can go to prison for 5-7 years.
What would YOU do if you were the pastor? You don't know if the person is legitimately coming to Christ or if they're a spy. By baptizing them you could go to jail. But if they really are converting, how can you deny someone the joy of baptism?
One little nugget of what we experienced in Egypt. It has opened my eyes to the reality of the persecuted church and what that really looks like in the eyes of Christ-followers in that situation.
On one hand it was really depressing and you were at a loss as to what to tell these pastors. Then on the other hand, we'd experience joyous worship, laughter and fun, and just normal times together with these people. They have great hope and enormous faith that God is in Egypt and is doing huge things in the midst of the persecution there...and we saw so much evidence of it! And they have to just live life! If there was no "normalcy" they'd go crazy! So there's this tension of living like things are fine and normal some of the time, and then there's the reality of living in a 90% Muslim country where converting people is illegal - and you're a pastor!
The ministry that goes on there is amazing. I think I'll leave that for my next blog, but suffice it to say that the ministry that goes on in this persecuted country puts the churches in my country to shame.
Much to think about, much to pray about and to pray for. Please pray for the persecuted churches of our world and the leaders who are trying to follow Jesus and shepherd their people. It is an enormous task and burden for these pastors, and many of them so very young.
I pray for my friends in Cairo, that God will continue to bless their lives and their ministries and keep them safe to continue the work that He has called them to.
Amazed by His grace,
~Sally
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Heading into finals...
Well once again I have gone almost a month without updating the blog. Much has been going on. The majority of the month of February Kim was in horrendous pain, back pain. A week ago Saturday I went to lunch at my professor's house - an Egyptian lunch - with the team of people going to Cairo with me. He asked about Kim and I told him his back was still hurting a lot and he mentioned that when he was living in Indonesia, when someone would get hurt playing soccer or something, they'd pull their shoes off and someone would work on the person's feet. Next thing you know they'd be up playing again. Well, Kim found a Reflexologist and went this last week. She worked on his left foot, and about a minute into working on his right foot his back released! He's been pain free ever since! Praise God! I went yesterday and didn't get the miraculous results that Kim did, but my hips have felt a lot better.
I had two papers to write this term and I finished the last one yesterday...big sigh of relief! Now I just need to work on the study guides, looking up terms and preparing for essay questions for finals this week.
I'm so amazed that Hebrew is the one class that I'm not really concerned about! I've really come to love the language, the richness of the words. That one word can have so many meanings...usually a very literal meaning and then a more abstract meaning, but you can see how they connect (usually). There's still a lot that's not quite solid with me, but it's exciting to be able to open the Hebrew Bible to a page and actually be able to pick out quite a few words!
We're church shopping again. Eastminster Pres. was just a little too over the edge for Kim and so we plan on starting the search again. We've missed about three weeks of church either because I was sick, Kim was in pain, or this morning I admit, we were just lazy. So we went online after doing our devotion together and first watched Dave Hawkins' service in Plainview from last week, and then Tom Hansen at First Pres. GJ last week. Both were excellent. I think we both needed a dose of home and familiarity.
I leave for Cairo, Egypt Friday afternoon! I'm feeling guilty for leaving Kim alone for two weeks - he's not one to reach out to others on his own... But my family, including Kim, encouraged me to do this, so I'm going. I decided not to do it for credit, so I can just relax and enjoy it without the pressure of added reading and writing a paper (let alone the expense of another class). I'm sure it will be awesome. We will be visiting churches large and small, ministries in Cairo, the library in Alexandria, and of course, the pyramids. Temperatures look to be in the high 80's - and that's really exciting too!
Egypt is 90% Muslim, 9.5% Coptic Christian, and .5% Protestant, so we will definitely be in the minority! We will be staying most of the time at the Evangelical Seminary there, and I'm looking forward to talking with students there and learning about what ministry is like when you're such a minority. I can't even imagine. Here's the website of the seminary if you want to check it out: http://www.etsc.org/index.htm
I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that my scholarship won't be renewed for next year. I was thinking I needed to keep a "B" average, but it's 3.5 which means two A's and two B's each trimester. I don't think I can recover from my first term w/ two B's a C and one P (it was a pass/fail class). It's in God's hands. We're getting our taxes done right now so hopefully we'll still be poor enough to qualify for good federal financial aid as well as some need-based aid from the school that doesn't have such stringent requirements. Truthfully, since I've written off the scholarship I haven't been nearly as stressed out about school. So maybe it's one of those blessings in disguise!
Well, I'd better get to work on those study guides. Many thanks again for the prayers and encouragement that always seem to come at just the right time. And I also received almost $600 from friends to help with the expense of the Cairo mission trip. God DOES provide!
God's blessings to you, and may His word become richer and richer for you as it has for me!
~Sally
I had two papers to write this term and I finished the last one yesterday...big sigh of relief! Now I just need to work on the study guides, looking up terms and preparing for essay questions for finals this week.
I'm so amazed that Hebrew is the one class that I'm not really concerned about! I've really come to love the language, the richness of the words. That one word can have so many meanings...usually a very literal meaning and then a more abstract meaning, but you can see how they connect (usually). There's still a lot that's not quite solid with me, but it's exciting to be able to open the Hebrew Bible to a page and actually be able to pick out quite a few words!
We're church shopping again. Eastminster Pres. was just a little too over the edge for Kim and so we plan on starting the search again. We've missed about three weeks of church either because I was sick, Kim was in pain, or this morning I admit, we were just lazy. So we went online after doing our devotion together and first watched Dave Hawkins' service in Plainview from last week, and then Tom Hansen at First Pres. GJ last week. Both were excellent. I think we both needed a dose of home and familiarity.
I leave for Cairo, Egypt Friday afternoon! I'm feeling guilty for leaving Kim alone for two weeks - he's not one to reach out to others on his own... But my family, including Kim, encouraged me to do this, so I'm going. I decided not to do it for credit, so I can just relax and enjoy it without the pressure of added reading and writing a paper (let alone the expense of another class). I'm sure it will be awesome. We will be visiting churches large and small, ministries in Cairo, the library in Alexandria, and of course, the pyramids. Temperatures look to be in the high 80's - and that's really exciting too!
Egypt is 90% Muslim, 9.5% Coptic Christian, and .5% Protestant, so we will definitely be in the minority! We will be staying most of the time at the Evangelical Seminary there, and I'm looking forward to talking with students there and learning about what ministry is like when you're such a minority. I can't even imagine. Here's the website of the seminary if you want to check it out: http://www.etsc.org/index.htm
I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that my scholarship won't be renewed for next year. I was thinking I needed to keep a "B" average, but it's 3.5 which means two A's and two B's each trimester. I don't think I can recover from my first term w/ two B's a C and one P (it was a pass/fail class). It's in God's hands. We're getting our taxes done right now so hopefully we'll still be poor enough to qualify for good federal financial aid as well as some need-based aid from the school that doesn't have such stringent requirements. Truthfully, since I've written off the scholarship I haven't been nearly as stressed out about school. So maybe it's one of those blessings in disguise!
Well, I'd better get to work on those study guides. Many thanks again for the prayers and encouragement that always seem to come at just the right time. And I also received almost $600 from friends to help with the expense of the Cairo mission trip. God DOES provide!
God's blessings to you, and may His word become richer and richer for you as it has for me!
~Sally
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Just a Short Update...
Much time has passed since my last post, but I have to keep this short as loads of homework have piled up. I survived midterms two weeks ago, out of the three I know two of the grades are A's. I don't know about Prophets & Psalms yet. Hebrew continues to be good one day and bad the next, but I did well on the two quizzes we've had.
This last week I've been struck first, with a horrible tooth ache and then as that was getting under control, a horrible cold! It has hung on all week, and the tooth ache isn't totally gone either. I only missed one class this week, but it was all I could do to drag myself to school, go to work study, and then come home and go to bed. I'm feeling a bit better today, but still had to take a nap. I'm tired of being tired!
It's scary to think that I only have three more weeks of classes before finals! My last final will be on Friday Feb. 26th, and that evening I'll be taking off for Cairo, Egypt with nine of my friends/fellow students!
We will be staying at the Evangelical Theological Seminary ( http://etsc.org/campus.htm ) in Cairo where we'll be taking a church history class as well as visiting churches and ministries in Cairo. Egypt is 90% Muslim, and the 10% Christian is mostly eastern Orthodox, so this should be very eye-opening! We'll also be visiting Alexandria and the library there as well as (of course) the pyramids. Oh, and I'm very excited to be visiting a monastery too. After hearing about so much of this stuff in church history last term, I'm excited to finally have a visual of the area. (Probably a lot like Grand Junction!!) Ha!
Kim is doing well, but somewhat discouraged. He was let go from Border's - they had too many people - so he's on the job hunt again. Pray that he finds something that's a good fit for him and our financial needs. He's still struggling with lots of back pain and finally has a doctor's appt. next week. Hopefully he can find some permanent relief.
Well, I really have to get back to work. I'm reading about The Destiny of the Righteous in the Psalms, and Calvin's Institutes, among other things!
Please pray for all the students at PTS. Everyone seems to either be getting sick or having very real health issues doing on. It almost feels like we're under attack. So lift up the campus for God's protection, provision, and healing.
Blessings to you all!
~Sally
This last week I've been struck first, with a horrible tooth ache and then as that was getting under control, a horrible cold! It has hung on all week, and the tooth ache isn't totally gone either. I only missed one class this week, but it was all I could do to drag myself to school, go to work study, and then come home and go to bed. I'm feeling a bit better today, but still had to take a nap. I'm tired of being tired!
It's scary to think that I only have three more weeks of classes before finals! My last final will be on Friday Feb. 26th, and that evening I'll be taking off for Cairo, Egypt with nine of my friends/fellow students!
We will be staying at the Evangelical Theological Seminary ( http://etsc.org/campus.htm ) in Cairo where we'll be taking a church history class as well as visiting churches and ministries in Cairo. Egypt is 90% Muslim, and the 10% Christian is mostly eastern Orthodox, so this should be very eye-opening! We'll also be visiting Alexandria and the library there as well as (of course) the pyramids. Oh, and I'm very excited to be visiting a monastery too. After hearing about so much of this stuff in church history last term, I'm excited to finally have a visual of the area. (Probably a lot like Grand Junction!!) Ha!
Kim is doing well, but somewhat discouraged. He was let go from Border's - they had too many people - so he's on the job hunt again. Pray that he finds something that's a good fit for him and our financial needs. He's still struggling with lots of back pain and finally has a doctor's appt. next week. Hopefully he can find some permanent relief.
Well, I really have to get back to work. I'm reading about The Destiny of the Righteous in the Psalms, and Calvin's Institutes, among other things!
Please pray for all the students at PTS. Everyone seems to either be getting sick or having very real health issues doing on. It almost feels like we're under attack. So lift up the campus for God's protection, provision, and healing.
Blessings to you all!
~Sally
Monday, January 4, 2010
Back at it..
Our Christmas break in Colorado was just what the doctor ordered! Wonderful time spent with Sarah, Rob and Rilo in Denver, and then Sean and Megan joined us Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was all this mother could ask for.
After a drive (not a train ride) over the mountains, we went to church on the 27th where we saw many of our friends, the preschoolers gathered just so they could see "Mr. Kim," and we had many an evening with family playing games and lunches and dinners with other close friends. A trip to remember for sure.
We returned to Denver too late to see our sweet Rilo awake so I laid down with him on Sarah and Rob's bed and shed a few tears as he held my hand in his sleep and I felt every little shoulder, elbow, heel and toe. It was really hard to leave that evening and fly home the next day.
We returned home to weather twenty degrees warmer than Colorado's, but I flaunted it a bit too soon and the next day we were right there down in the teen's with the rest of the world...freezing! It really hasn't warmed up or stopped the light yet constant snowing since New Year's Day!
The first day (today) back at school was rough. The last few days we've both been kind of depressed. I think the reality that we probably won't see our family for quite a while has been sinking in - and the constant grey skies don't help.
Tonight at my women's prayer group we talked about what we did over the break, and then talked about what 2009 had been for us and what we see or hope 2010 will hold. I shared how '09 had been a year of God's provision - selling our rental home, getting all my financial aide, selling the orchard, getting our house here... God went above and beyond our expectations once again.
I also shared about how Rilo's arrival surprised us all by how he totally rocked our world. I said how I have felt since Rilo came that I've been able to be the mother to Sarah that she needs me to be - something that many times I wasn't able to be for her growing up. Our relationship was very close before Rilo came, but has been even closer since and it's a sweet, sweet thing.
As I shared this I also acknowledged that some of my thoughts the last few days have been about the time that I'm missing with our kids and with Rilo since we are here, so far away from them...and I have asked myself, "Is it worth that high price?" I know that God has called me here, but I'm missing SO much in their lives, in Rilo's life. I kills me. It brings me to tears every time I think about it.
My wonderful friends listened as I cried through my torment and pain. What can one do? It's an amazing thing to love people so much that you want to be close to them all the time...and Sarah and I didn't have that for a long time, so it makes this time of deep love between us even sweeter.
I'm thinking that Jesus had more in mind than just persecution when he talked about suffering for the faith, for following Him.
My sweet women-folk went on to encourage me and tell me what an encouragement I am to them, which made me at least see and remember that there is so much more going on here than just school - thank God. I LOVE MY WOMEN! The one's here, the one's in GJ, and the one's who are now spread out all over the country. They bless me so much and remind me that it's ok to FEEL. It's ok to let those emotions burst forth and get messy all over me. They remind me that it's ok to feel sad sometimes. And somehow, in all their loving, they remind me to go home and love Kim even more...so that's what I did. I came home and made him dinner and spent time with him instead of running right up to start reading...and amazingly I still got my reading done!
So I think there's hope. I'm still a little sad, but on the phone tonight with Sarah I told her about my conversation with my friends and she agreed with me that our love is so strong and that I have been a huge help to her this year and she has loved it. Then I got to talk with Rilo on the phone, and all was right with the world.
The verse that God pursued me with today was from Romans 13:8, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another." My prayer the last three days (from a devotional that Kim got for us) has been "Lord, this week show me how to love." I think He is.
Feeling particularly blessed,
~Sally
After a drive (not a train ride) over the mountains, we went to church on the 27th where we saw many of our friends, the preschoolers gathered just so they could see "Mr. Kim," and we had many an evening with family playing games and lunches and dinners with other close friends. A trip to remember for sure.
We returned to Denver too late to see our sweet Rilo awake so I laid down with him on Sarah and Rob's bed and shed a few tears as he held my hand in his sleep and I felt every little shoulder, elbow, heel and toe. It was really hard to leave that evening and fly home the next day.
We returned home to weather twenty degrees warmer than Colorado's, but I flaunted it a bit too soon and the next day we were right there down in the teen's with the rest of the world...freezing! It really hasn't warmed up or stopped the light yet constant snowing since New Year's Day!
The first day (today) back at school was rough. The last few days we've both been kind of depressed. I think the reality that we probably won't see our family for quite a while has been sinking in - and the constant grey skies don't help.
Tonight at my women's prayer group we talked about what we did over the break, and then talked about what 2009 had been for us and what we see or hope 2010 will hold. I shared how '09 had been a year of God's provision - selling our rental home, getting all my financial aide, selling the orchard, getting our house here... God went above and beyond our expectations once again.
I also shared about how Rilo's arrival surprised us all by how he totally rocked our world. I said how I have felt since Rilo came that I've been able to be the mother to Sarah that she needs me to be - something that many times I wasn't able to be for her growing up. Our relationship was very close before Rilo came, but has been even closer since and it's a sweet, sweet thing.
As I shared this I also acknowledged that some of my thoughts the last few days have been about the time that I'm missing with our kids and with Rilo since we are here, so far away from them...and I have asked myself, "Is it worth that high price?" I know that God has called me here, but I'm missing SO much in their lives, in Rilo's life. I kills me. It brings me to tears every time I think about it.
My wonderful friends listened as I cried through my torment and pain. What can one do? It's an amazing thing to love people so much that you want to be close to them all the time...and Sarah and I didn't have that for a long time, so it makes this time of deep love between us even sweeter.
I'm thinking that Jesus had more in mind than just persecution when he talked about suffering for the faith, for following Him.
My sweet women-folk went on to encourage me and tell me what an encouragement I am to them, which made me at least see and remember that there is so much more going on here than just school - thank God. I LOVE MY WOMEN! The one's here, the one's in GJ, and the one's who are now spread out all over the country. They bless me so much and remind me that it's ok to FEEL. It's ok to let those emotions burst forth and get messy all over me. They remind me that it's ok to feel sad sometimes. And somehow, in all their loving, they remind me to go home and love Kim even more...so that's what I did. I came home and made him dinner and spent time with him instead of running right up to start reading...and amazingly I still got my reading done!
So I think there's hope. I'm still a little sad, but on the phone tonight with Sarah I told her about my conversation with my friends and she agreed with me that our love is so strong and that I have been a huge help to her this year and she has loved it. Then I got to talk with Rilo on the phone, and all was right with the world.
The verse that God pursued me with today was from Romans 13:8, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another." My prayer the last three days (from a devotional that Kim got for us) has been "Lord, this week show me how to love." I think He is.
Feeling particularly blessed,
~Sally
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