After Katrina hit New Orleans and surrounding area I had a strong desire to go. I had never been on a mission trip before and no clue what to except. All I knew was my heart said go and help.
I left with my Christians brothers and sister not knowing anyone very well except Dan (Asche) but I knew we all had one thing in common and that was to serve those in need.
When we arrived in Slidell it was early morning and it wasn’t until the sun came up that one could see the devastation this hurricane brought to the people of Slidell and New Orleans. I saw it but it took a little time to comprehend what I was seeing. It was like a nightmare. My heart was heavy for the people and I knew that no matter what trials I was facing at home they didn’t even come close to the trials the people of Slidell and New Orleans were facing that moment and for years to come.
I asked myself why so much destruction and no answer came to me. I heard stories of how God protected people during this storm and the flood following it. It wasn’t until one day we were going back into town for supplies and all one saw was trees, lots of trees blown down going every which way and buildings gone blown off the foundation that once held it up. Trees going thru houses and large boats turned upside down standing straight up where the strong winds had tossed them.
It was on this day I saw in all this destruction one small daisy standing up and it looked so beautiful. I knew then that even tho Katrina could shake the buildings from their foundation and cause huge tress to fall and that life gives us all at times our “Katrina’s”. God stands firm and the beauty of His love will sustain us. That if we build our lives on His foundation we can not be shaken and fall.
I went to Slidell to serve others, I came home so blessed it is hard for me to put into words. The joy in my heart remains with me today from my first mission trip. It taught me to always be thankful for what one has; home, family, friends, church and list goes on. But it also taught me that even in our darkness storm God is a shining beam of light and at the end of day we have hope for our tomorrows.
Phyllis Dobson
Categorized in Mission Trip Stories, OCC and missions
Recently we had our Baby Dedication at church. We do this a couple of times a year and it gives parents and the church the opportunity to commit to raising the children in the way God wants us to. When ever we do this I am reminded of the verse in Scripture “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6. This is our legacy to our children. A real relationship with Jesus Christ.
Many people may ask is it necessary that we set apart 2 Sundays a year to dedicate the children and does this verse really work. The answer is it is extremely important we dedicate our children to God and this very really does work. I remember growing up, it was never a question if we were going to church; the question was what time were we leaving for church.
My parents understood the importance of bringing up their children with a strong church background. Not just to go to church, but to have an personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As a parent, I understand the how important Proverbs 22:6 is and how important it is to have Christ in our lives and to introduce our children to him.
The legacy we leave we can also live out. As our parents may have dedicated us several years ago, we are living out that legacy. My passion for missions comes directly from my dad. He was involved in missions as long as I can remember. This is part of the legacy he has passed on to me and I hope to pass on to my boys.
What legacy are you living, and what legacy will you leave behind?
Categorized in OCC, evangelism, missions and theology
Recently a group of us from work had lunch at a Chinese restaurant up in Carmel. At the end of our lunch, someone got up and grabbed a handful of Fortune Cookies and passed them out. I opened my cookie and my ‘fortune’ said ‘You need not worry about your future’. I thought to myself, how true this is. We live in some uncertain times right now. The economy is not turning around as fast as some people would hope. There are political uncertainties around the globe that affect us here in the United States. There are many uncertainties in life.
As we approach the end of 2009 and the start of 2010, there are different issues each of us may be facing in our lives. There are a lot of things as Americans that we should be concerned about, but the one thing we need not to worry about is our future. As Christians, we know what our future holds, or better yet, we know who holds our future. We may not know what will happen in the coming year, months, or even weeks ahead. But we do know where are future is.
Philippians 3:20 tells us our citizenship is in heaven; Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us and will return to take us home. As Christians, this is our future. We press on towards the goal, knowing no many how many uncertainties life may bring us, the one certain we have is Jesus Christ and our future in Him.
Categorized in evangelism and theology
Have you ever noticed how our interpretation of the meaning of Christmas can change over the years? When we are kids, Christmas is all about us. How many gifts did we get, are there more gifts for us than our siblings. As we get older, our meaning of Christmas changes. It’s no longer about us, but about the people we love. And as parents, Christmas becomes more about the kids and the joy in their faces as they unwrap their gifts.
One of my favorite Christmas shows is The Charlie Brown Christmas. There is a scene in the show, after Charlie Brown has picked up the Christmas tree; he sits it on a piano as the children are rehearsing. It is a scrawny tree and the kids laugh at him. Charlie Brown asks the question does anyone know what the true meaning of Christmas is. Linus, steps up and quotes from Luke 2:9-14. During this time of year, this passage gets quoted a lot and people associate Christmas with a babe lying in a manger. But just as our interpretation of Christmas changes as we grow older; I think as Christians, how we look at Christmas also changes as we mature in the faith.
Christmas may start out being about a babe in a manger, but as we mature in our faith, we realize it is more than that. Christmas is about the babe in a manger, growing up and being the man who died on the cross and then rose from the grave. A song we sing during the Christmas season kind of sums it up
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
Christmas can really be summed up in just a couple of words – Jesus, Savior.
Categorized in OCC, evangelism and theology
I have had the opportunity to look at the vegetable gardens people had during the summer behind the church. Some of the gardens were very well taken care of and some had lot’s of weeds in them. Our oldest son had one of the garden’s that a lot of weeds. He mentioned how much work it took to pull the weeds and make sure the right plants were growing.
This reminded me of how difficult it can be to make sure the weeds in our lives (sin) are pulled do they don’t take over our garden (heart). Weeding (praying) is not something you can do every now and then and expect the same results as someone who constantly stands on guard against the weeds of life.
We need to be in constant communication with the Master Gardener to ensure sin does not take over our life. We may think skipping one day may not hurt, then the second day and third day then before we know it, we have gone a whole week without prayer. Just like going a whole week without weeding a garden, going a whole week without prayer can have its consequences.
The biggest problem I have sometimes is taking time to pray. Sometimes I need to get to work early, or have had things go on in the evening that I want to sleep in and allow the evil one to take provide me excuses not to pray. Constant vigilance is what is required to either remove the weeds in our lives when they start to sprout up or to prevent the weeds from even starting.
Categorized in OCC, prayer and theology
While we were in Mexico, Ryan Worl gave us an acronym he had learned from a previous Pastor. The acronym is B.U.S.Y. – Built Under Satan’s Yoke. He explained how we can get too busy for God. And he is right, we can make ourselves too busy to talk with our Father. Every day we face challenges in our lives, work, raising children, managing household budgets and many other things.
Sometimes we can be so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to take time to spend time with the Creator of the Universe. Not only do we need to spend time with Him, we need to spend quality time with Him. No matter what is going on in the world, God cares about us. He cares about each and every one of us. He cares enough about us to know the numbers of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30).
God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass of the fields, He most certainly will take care of us (Luke 12:27-31). God even knew us before we were born (Jeremiah 1:5). We should be humbled by the realization that our Creator cares enough for us that He sent His son to die. We should be humbled by the fact that God knows how many hairs we have on our head.
The Casting Crowns song ask the question Who am I? Then in the song it answers that question. Who am I, I am yours. We are children of a Holy God who wants to know us intimately if we would only give Him a chance. No matter how busy our lives can become, He will never be too busy for us.
Categorized in OCC and missions
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Dead Man Walking’? The title comes from the traditional call in the United States of “Dead man walking, dead man walking here” from a prison guard as a condemned prisoner is led onto Death Row. The phrase may have originally come from the 1909 poem by Thomas Hardy titled The Dead Man Walking. Normally if you hear this phrase it would not be something to be proud of.
As Christians, we should consider ourselves as Dead Men (or women) Walking. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians in chapter 2 verses 19 and 20 ‘For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. (NIV). For Christ to live in us, we must die to ourselves.
Several years ago at a Missionary Convention I was challenged to learn and live these verses. It is not always easy and sometimes I don’t always do a good job of letting Christ live in me. It is a constant struggle we all have because the enemy fights against us. We have to be on constant guard and vigilant in our spiritual battle.
Jesus says ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ (Luke 9:23). Being a Christian is not something we can put on and take off. It is a life we need to live daily. Not our life, but Christ living in us. In order to fully experience the Christian life, we need to die. We need to quit trying to run our lives and let Christ live in us and control our lives.
I want to follow Jesus; I want him to live in me and to shine so people can see him and not me. I want to live a life so I can be considered a Dead Man Walking. Walking and living for Jesus Christ. How about you, are you a Dead Man (or Woman) Walking?
Categorized in NMC, evangelism, missions and theology
Have you every noticed how our society seems to be preoccupied with how celebrities live and how people treat them. There have been shows like Life Styles of the Rich and Famous and other shows to tell us how the ‘famous’ people live. We treat our celebrities and sports hero’s like royalty. After all, doesn’t everyone want to be like Mike?
For me, I don’t have to wonder how royalty lives. If I want to know where royalty lives I can look at my house. If I want to know what royalty eats I look in my refrigerator. How am I royalty? Because I am a child of the King made royal by the blood of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:9 says “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” As Christians, as belonging to God’s family, we are royalty. We can proudly say we are children of the King.
Are you a member of the Royal family? Can you say you’re a child of the King? If not, do you want to be?
Categorized in evangelism and theology
Recently I had the opportunity to attend the second Your Church and AIDS conference at Chapel Rock Christian Church. Two members of OCC were able to attend with me, Pam Greer and Lee Ligocki. Both ladies came away from the conference more aware of the pandemic of AIDS in the world and more motivated to get involved and make a difference.
People who are infected with the AIDS disease are no different than we are. They are infected with a disease that will kill them if it goes untreated. We have a disease that will kill us if we do not get properly treated. This disease is call sin. If we do not give our lives to Jesus, sin will kill us.
Jesus came to “preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19. If Christ did this can we do any less. We need to go out and reach out to all peoples regardless of who they are or what they may be infected with.
Jesus went to the lepers, people who were unclean because He loved them and care about them. The lepers of today are the AIDS victims; the people shunned by society. Just the type of people Jesus would go to. If Jesus would go to these people shouldn’t we?
Categorized in OCC and evangelism
Has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful feet? Our feet are the least cared for part of our body. We normally don’t groom them; we usually do not talk about our feet. We just don’t give much thought to our feet. But they can be and should be the most beautiful part of our body.
The prophet Isaiah says “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good new, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation. Who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”” (Isaiah 52:7) Also, in Romans we read “And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”” (Romans 10:15)
Anytime we go and tell people about Jesus Christ are feet become beautiful. It does not matter if we go on a short-term mission trip out of the country, or in our own neighborhood. Tell people about Jesus and you can have beautiful feet. So, do you have beautiful feet? Are you ready to get beautiful feet?
Categorized in evangelism and theology
