another quick update

Today Noel is doing his day long seminar with church people. He said it is hard to believe their time is almost over. They are looking foward to Sunday, because they are baptizing nearly 100 people in the ocean. Many of these were saved as a result of the team being there. He said that they witnessed to a famous person (he didn't know what they were famous for)there and they were saved. Noel has a very touching story that he told me, but I think I will let him tell you. Don't spill the beans DG.

God is working there. Are you ready?

Keep Praying!

Donna

a word from Kenya

This is info being relayed from Michael -

• Today was the photo safari - 3 hr bumpy ride there, 100 degrees, 3 hr bumby ride back. They saw many animals - elephants, zebras, lions, giraffes, etc.
• Tomorrow they help with an orphanage and how the church can minister to it.
• Friday - Noel is teaching an all day seminar for church people. The ladies will be ministering with other ladies.
• Saturday is a medical outreach.

This is all I know for now. The group is just seeing alot of decisions and everyone is working together great.

Keep Praying!!!

Donna

Survivor Kenya Part 2

They are doing well. All of the team has been able to lead many people to Christ. They have been very busy. Wednesday they are going to be able to take a day off and go on a safari for a little r/r. Mosquitos have not been bad, but there are ALOT of lizards which they say eat the mosquitos.

Keep Praying!

Donna

Survivor Kenya

Well, we made it in one piece... and we are all still friends...

It is Sunday afternoon here. Earlier all of the men preached in different churches. The service I preached in was three and one half hours long. Don't laugh, it wasn't my fault. I went to a home to do a baby dedication, which lasted two hours, and was able to lead the new father to Christ.

Pray for us. Things are busy. I'll try to get another update done soon.

Pastor Noel

They Made It!!

I received an email from Donna G. that the team has made it. She and Michael are able to text each other. They were eating lunch with Pastor Frederick at their "fabulous" beach house. Michael said it is very peaceful there.

Hopefully I will hear from Noel soon.

Donna

The Next Leg

The next leg of their journey has begun. They had a 9 hr lay over in London today, but they chose not leave the airport. About 2 p.m. our time they took off for Nairobi. They should be there around 10:30 p.m. tonight.

Pray for rest on the plane and no more turbulence. More later.

Donna

In London

They have made it to London. They ended up being delay in DC and did experience some turbulence on their way. Thankfully they did make up some time and landed about 5am our time. Noel may try to do an update tonight.

Keep Praying!!

Donna

On Their Way

After a delay in Columbus, they finally got off to DC a little over an hour late. Thankfully, they made it to DC and to make their connecting flight into London. We are praying their luggage makes it. They should make it into London about 4:00 a.m. Thurs.

Just keep them in your prayer as they fly.

Donna

Everything is Ready

Well, we are all ready to depart for Kenya.

The airlines allow two bags each weighing up to 50 pounds. My bags each weigh 49 pounds. I just hope my scales are correct.

We depart from the church tommorrow at 4:00 p.m. From the Columbus airport, we fly to Washington D.C.. From there we fly to London. We have about a nine hour layover in London, then we fly to Nairobi, then after a four or five hour additional layover there we arrive in our destination city around noon.

Pray for us as we travel. Pray that all of the connections will work out with no flight cancelations or delays.

I'll try to find some internet access in London on Thursday and again in Nairobi on Friday to give you updates before we make it to our final destination.

Noel

Kenya Mission Trip

Many people have been emailing and asking if the Kenya Mission trip is still on for next week. And the answer is YES!

We are looking forward to going. I believe the violence and political unrest in the area will only make our ministry more effective.

We ask for your continued prayers as we make the final preparations.

Next week I will start a daily (hopefully) blog that will serve as a journal of the mission trip. Check back here for a running description of how God is working in our little area of Kenya.

Pastor Noel

Words for a New Year

Are you looking for some changes in your life for 2008? Let me suggest these...

Since we’ve been forgiven and saved by Christ, let’s focus this year on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Let heaven fill our thoughts. Let’s not just think about things down here on earth, because since Christ died, our life is hidden in Him. He is our real life. And one day we will live eternally in heaven with Him.

Let us throw off earthly things like sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Let’s quit being so greedy for the good things of this life (that is idolatry), let God’s anger come upon us. Let’s get rid of anger, rage, back stabbing, talking bad about people, and dirty language. Let’s covenant not to lie to each other. None of this stuff is consistent with our new nature. We should be becoming more like Christ each day as we learn more about Him. It doesn’t matter who you have been or what position of authority or wealth you have today. All that matter is that we are His, and He lives in us.

Since God chose us to be the holy people He loves, we should clothe ourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We should remember to make allowances for each other’s faults and forgive the person who hurts or offends us. Why should we forgive them? Because Christ forgave us and we deserved it less from Him than they do from us.

And most importantly, we should let love clothe everything we are and everything we do. It is love that will bind us together and safeguards our unity.

If we do all of this, we will have peace (which only comes from God).

We should also be thankful...

And we should let the words of Christ, live in our hearts, so we can be wise. We should study His word, teach His word, and give advice to others by sharing His word.

We should sing songs together... songs sung to God with thankful hearts.

And finally, we should make sure everything we do or say is done mindful of the fact that we are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do you think things would change if we all made that our New Year’s Resolution for 2008? What you’ve just read is my paraphrase this morning of Colossians 3:1-17. Open your Bible and read the verses for yourself. See if God shows you something you should commit to this next year.

Pastor Noel

Cold Rainy Night

What is there to do on a Monday night when it is cold and rainy? How about take gifts to people who have recently visited our church and share with them the love of Christ? That is exactly what several people did last night and guess what...

When I got home last night, I had an email from Amanda S., Jackie C., and Linda S....

They met a lady and her teenage daughter who had recently visited our church...

And they gave her a gift...

And they shared the gospel...

And they watched both of them make professions of faith in Jesus Christ!

How's that for a cold, dreary, rainy night?

Pastor Noel

Presidential Candidates

Over the next few months, I want to highlight the 'abortion views' of each of the leading candidates for president from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

I thought Mike Huckabee would be a good one to start with.

What's Going On?

Misc Stuff...

I drove to South Carolina for Thanksgiving. It was a long drive both ways but I got a lot done: I got the church budget proposal finalized on my laptop. (Donna drove while I was doing that.) And I listened to two audio books. The first was Crucial Conversations written by a bunch of people. Someone had given me this book a year ago and I had read part of it, but never finished it. Finally I got through it via the audio. It was pretty good. I also listened to the Confessions of St. Augustine. I think that book would be easier to follow on paper.

I also mapped out my Christmas messages in my head while driving through the mountains of West Virginia. I am going to do something that might get me in a little trouble, but I believe this will be good for our church and interesting to our community. I am going to title the series something like: Father Abraham, Prophet Mohamad, or Christ Jesus – Who Can Lead Us To God? I know that sounds like a long title and not very Christmassy. Maybe I can shorten it as I work on it this week. The Christmas tie in will come through as we get into the series. The first week we will focus on why Judaism is not the way to God. We will look at the Old Testament prophecies foretelling the coming of the Messiah, and how Jesus has to be the fulfillment of those prophecies. While we do this we will learn about the reliability of Scriptures and how that can impact our lives. The second week we will focus on Mohamad. What is Islam? What does the Bible say about Islam, Mohamad, and what led to the modern day division between Christianity and Islam? While we do this we will learn why violating God’s purpose and plan for our lives is so dangerous. The third week we will focus on Christianity and how the virgin birth of Christ makes possible the salvation of the world. This series will require a lot of studying, but I’m looking forward to it. It should give us a new twist on the standard Christmas messages.

Our newly designed web page is almost ready to be unveiled. Maybe by the end of the week...

All plans for our Kenya mission trip are falling into place. I met with a missions coordinator for work in the area last week. It is exciting to hear about some of the stuff that goes on in secret to spread the gospel. I am looking forward to the trip.

My football team, Auburn, beat their in state rival, Alabama, for the sixth time in a row yesterday!

Noel

God's Way May Be Best After All

If we can do something in church that draws a crowd, then it must be a good thing to do, right? Forget Bible study, Bible preaching, digging into the Word. Our goal should be to grow a crowd, right? If we can just get a lot of people in a building once or twice a week, the changed lives stuff will just take care of itself, right?

Bob Burney, host of a radio show on WFRD in Columbus recently wrote an eye opening article for Baptist Press. Every church leader should read this article. Here is an excerpt...

Willow Creek has released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry. The study's findings are in a new book titled "Reveal: Where Are You?," co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels himself called the findings "ground breaking," "earth shaking" and "mind blowing." And no wonder: It seems that the "experts" were wrong.

The report reveals that most of what they have been doing for these many years and what they have taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ. Numbers yes, but not disciples. It gets worse. Hybels laments:

"Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn't helping people that much. Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for."

If you simply want a crowd, the "seeker-sensitive" model produces results. If you want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it's a bust. In a shocking confession, Hybels states:

"We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become 'self feeders.' We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."

You can read the full article here.

May our church always seek to grow and reach more people, but let our purpose be to connect those people to a meaningful, life-changing, and enduring relationship with God, and may we do that by preaching His Word and showing the love of Christ.

Pastor Noel