West Texas Missioner

Friday, October 9, 2015

From ServLife International: "The First Wedding"

ServLife International is a movement defined by values of God’s kingdom, not programs built around human efforts and activities. The reign and rule of God should be made apparent to every person on the planet, despite their religion, race or socioeconomic status. We believe that issues of justice are inseparable from the good news that Jesus Christ came to proclaim. ServLife exists to take the gospel of Christ and the hope of a better, more just, world to the lives of people we touch. This happens through individual contributions of time, creativity, resources and dreams.

ServLife Photo

The First Wedding
Pastor Madan is only 23 years old, a very young man to be one of the only Christian leaders in a large community. Over 150 people currently attend his church, which is one of only two in the district. Madan has made great leaps in his abilities as a leader and through his faithfulness God is bringing him greater opportunities to share His Word.

This month Madan performed the first Christian wedding ever held in his district ...

• CLICK HERE to read the rest of this post from ServLife

From Adam Nevins
Executive Director
ServLife International Inc.

Join Our Mission

ServLife International propels reconciliation and justice by building global community to plant churches, care for children and fight poverty. Compelled by the message, life and love of Jesus Christ, we seek to care for the spiritual, physical, social, and economic areas of life in northern India and Nepal. Learn more about our latest news, featured stories, and how to get involved at servlife.org


Support a Pastor Our church planters spread the love of Christ in some of the most difficult environments in the world. • Support Them ...	Sponsor a Child For only $30 per month you can help give a child food, education, care and, most importantly, hope. • Sponsor Now ...	Fight Poverty The HOPE Fund, our micro-finance program, provides start-up funds for a small business, paving a way out of poverty for families in need. • Learn More ...

ServLife International, Inc.
P.O. Box 20596
Indianapolis, IN 46220
USA

From @FWMission ... Friday Story: "Freedom for Kennedy"

GOING ON NOW ... double-down with Free Wheelchair Mission and 1st Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Turning 1 wheelchair into 2, then 4!
"Because no one should have to crawl!" was Don Schoendorfer's comment when he recognized the need for strong and inexpensive wheelchairs. Due to the DOUBLED matching funds set-up again this year, you can send FOUR wheelchairs for the price of ONE. That price is the same as last year - $78.00. The drive started September 27th and ends October 31st. For more information, please contact local drive coordinator
Maxine Hannifin at (432) 682-8740 or (432) 684-5352.

Founded in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission

is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs for the impoverished disabled in developing nations. Headquartered in Irvine, California, FWM works around the world in partnership with a vast network of humanitarian, faith-based and government organizations, sending wheelchairs to hundreds of thousands of disabled people, providing not only the gift of mobility, but of dignity, independence, and hope.

Friday Story: "Freedom for Kennedy"

Greetings, and Happy Friday!

Poet John Donne said, ‘No man is an island.’ No one knows this better than Kennedy Ngandu, a farmer in rural Zambia. When Kennedy reached his mid-70s, his legs began to fail him. This frightened him for more than one reason. He was worried about losing the freedom mobility offers, and as a farmer, he needed mobility to maintain his livelihood ...

• read the rest of this story ...

Want to take one of these wheelchairs for a test drive? During normal business hours, visit the lobby at the Texas Street entrance of First Presbyterian Church-Midland, at the northwest corner of Texas and A streets, on the west side of downtown Midland. You can give the gift of mobility. The cost of $72.00 is a bargain to us ... but it is a life-changing gift to impoverished and disabled recipients ... and there are times when your contribution will be matched, reaching not one - but TWO, and sometimes FOUR recipients. Please note on your check "Wheelchair Gift."

In the News ... "Salvation Army dinner to raise awareness of its efforts"

MRT File Photo

• Former Dallas Cowboy Jay Novacek to be featured speaker

Rich Lopez, Reporter
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - December is around the corner and donations will be made to the trademark red kettles and Angel Trees, but the Salvation Army’s services extend far beyond the holiday campaigns.

The nonprofit will promote its efforts at an event planned for the end of the month.

Former Dallas Cowboy Jay Novacek is to be the featured speaker at the nonprofit’s annual dinner at Midland Country Club. But it's also an opportunity for the Salvation Army ...

• read the rest of this MRT report

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Lewis, grieving the death of his wife, Joy:

On the other hand, ‘Knock and it shall be opened.’ But does knocking mean hammering and kicking the door like a maniac? And there’s also ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ After all, you must have a capacity to receive, or even omnipotence can’t give. Perhaps your own passion temporarily destroys the capacity.

For all sorts of mistakes are possible when you are dealing with Him. Long ago, before we were married, H. was haunted all one morning as she went about her work with the obscure sense of God (so to speak) ‘at her elbow,’ demanding her attention. And of course, not being a perfected saint, she had the feeling that it would be a question, as it usually is, of some unrepented sin or tedious duty. At last she gave in—I know how one puts it off—and faced Him. But the message was, ‘I want to give you something’ and instantly she entered into joy.

• From A Grief Observed
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is a daily devotional with 365 inspiring mission stories that come from next door and all across the globe. It inspires thousands of Presbyterians daily as they uphold the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in intercessory prayer. How often have you wondered, where are the young adults in the PC(USA)? Wonder no longer. The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is devoted to the theme of young adults in the church. Its stories, many told by young adults, lift up how Presbyterians of all ages are engaging and joining with Presbyterian young adults in reforming the church for Christ’s mission.

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 9, 2015

PRESBYTERY OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY - “We have been buried alive behind these walls for years, often decades. Most of the outside world has abandoned us. But a few friends and family have never forgotten that we are human beings and worthy of life. It is to them, our saints, that we dedicate this play.”

So ran the dedication of the play written by the 28 prisoners I taught within the walls of the East Jersey State Prison ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

In the News ... "Baseball very much on Christian singer Matthew West’s mind"

Courtesy Photo

• Performing TONIGHT in Andrews

Trent Johnson, Reporter
Midland Reporter-Telegram

ANDREW, TEXAS - Matthew West wanted to be a baseball player. Growing up 40 miles from Chicago, he grew up a Cubs fan, and while he still reps the blue hat adorned with the famous bright red “C,” dreams of participating on the field have since dissipated. Instead of batting balls in the outfield, he has settled for being a fixture on the various Billboard Christian Music lists.

As part of his tour promoting the April released “Live Forever,” West visits the Andrews County Expo Arena on Thursday ...

• read the rest of this MRT report

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On education

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.

• From The Abolition of Man
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 8, 2015

EASTERN KOREA PRESBYTERY - Since 2009, the congregations of Eastern Korean Presbytery have united each year for a short-term mission trip to Latin America. We form separate youth, adult, and pastor teams, with each group performing specific ministries.

Our trip to Guatemala in 2013 was very successful ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

In the News ... "Missionary to be held without bond on child abuse charges"

• Could face life in prison, if convicted

Gerald Campbell

By Jon Vanderlaan, Reporter
Odessa American

ODESSA/MIDLAND, TEXAS - The Odessa missionary accused of abusing 11 orphans at a children’s home in Malawi will continue to be held without bond after he waived a preliminary hearing regarding the probable cause for his arrest.

Gerald Dean Campbell, who is charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, could face up to life in federal prison if convicted ...

• read the rest of this OA report ... (includes warning of graphic content)

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

“Sire,” said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. “If I have read the chronicle aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?”

“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of Narnia.”

“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’ ”

“Oh Susan!” said Jill. “She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.”

“Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.”

“Well, don’t let’s talk about that now,” said Peter.

• From The La
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 7, 2015

PRESBYTERY OF CAYUGA-SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - The Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse took seriously both the letter and the spirit of the changes made in 2011 to the Form of Government. Embracing new possibilities, the presbytery decided to become something different. Beyond simply reorganizing—as we and so many other councils of our church have done over the decades—we decided to make fundamental changes in terms of our staffing, office, mission funding, structure, and life together ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Word from Uganda: "A Bridal Party Hijacking"

Missionary teacher Natalie Rolfe writes, "'When He calls me, I will answer ... I'll be somewhere working for my Lord.' My call was Mbale, Uganda and that is where I have returned to serve for another year. Specifically, I am teaching phonics at Lulwanda Children's Home, an orphanage and school for 90 kids." Natalie also keeps an online journal of her service at the weblog, When He calls me, I will answer ...

A Bridal Party Hijacking

"It is hard to really describe life in Uganda sometimes. A few words might be friendly, slow (we call this African time), relationship focused, last minute and definitely random. It is the daily random events that are hard to fully explain and over time, despite the intensity of the randomness, events happen and you are not thrown off guard or really all that surprised. Where most people would say, 'I can’t believe this happened!' or 'I can’t believe I saw this or that!,' here it is more of 'I can’t believe this, but actually, I kinda can. This is Africa.' TIA ..."

• read the rest of Natalie's post ...

• help raise funds for Natalie's mission ...

**Invitation to Prayer from Faces of Children ... Tomorrow**

Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).

Hello Friends,

I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow (Wednesday, October 7) for our time of prayer in the gym conference room at 11:30, followed by lunch together.

Thank you for your continued passion for vulnerable children around the world. There are a lot of hurting and broken and dark places in this world, and I think as a church, we most look like Jesus when we show up in those places, lifting them up in prayer and extending our hands in love.

Blessings,

Carrie J. McKean
Faces of Children Director
First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas
(432) 684-7821 x153

If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Screwtape advises Wormwood on using time to wear down a soul:

The Enemy has guarded him from you through the first great wave of temptations. But, if only he can be kept alive, you have time itself for your ally. The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it—all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle- aged and the old.

• From The Screwtape Letters
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 6, 2015

PRESBYTERY OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - As the inaugural class in the Boston Food Justice Young Adult Volunteer Program, we worked hard to connect the congregations of the Presbytery of Boston to community partners pursuing food justice.

Food justice, at its simplest, is a matter of ensuring good food for all. Well aware that this is much easier said than done, our team worked with four Presbyterian congregations—each partnered with a nonprofit organization—on issues of food access, sustainability, and advocacy ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Monday, October 5, 2015

From ChinaAid: "Wenzhou pastor detained for ‘endangering national security’ "

The China Aid Association is a non-profit Christian organization - based in Midland, Texas - with a mission to uncover and reveal the truth about religious persecution in China, focusing especially on the unofficial church. They do this, they explain in their website, by exposing the abuses, encouraging the abused and equipping the saints to advance the kingdom of God throughout China.

Wenzhou pastor detained for ‘endangering national security’
Distributed by ChinaAid, September, 2015 ...

WENZHOU, ZHEJIANG – Authorities in China’s coastal Zhejiang informed the wife of Huang Yizi, a local pastor, that he had been put under criminal detention for “endangering national security” but would not reveal where he was being held.

Huang, who was released from prison after a year-long sentence on Aug. 1, was detained again on Sept. 12. Huang’s wife, surnamed Lin, was told by authorities on Sept. 14 that the official notice of his detention had been sent out and that she should wait for it at home. As of Sept. 22, she said she had not received the notice ...

• more on this story from China Aid

Fine Arts School at 1st Presbyterian-Midland now offers piano and organ lessons

The Fine Arts School at First Presbyterian Church of Midland is delighted to welcome Hyun Kyung Lee to our program as piano and organ instructor.

• read more about Hyun

Beginning October 5, 2015 Hyun will teach individual piano lessons for ages 4-18 and organ lessons for adults. Students may register by using the FAS registration form, which can be found at our website, fpcmid.org under fine arts and music programs.

In addition to registering, students must schedule lesson times with Hyun directly by emailing her at hlee@fpcmid.org

• CLICK HERE for the Piano and Organ LESSON SCHEDULE

• CLICK HERE for the Piano and Organ REGISTRATION FORM

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO RHONA BODLE, who had written Lewis of her upcoming confirmation: On not expecting remarkable sensations connected to holy activities.

9 November 1949

Congratulations. You are daily in my prayers.

Caveat [let her beware!]—don’t count on any remarkable sensations, either at this or your first (or fifty first) Communion. God gives these or not as He pleases. Their presence does not prove that things are especially well, nor their absence that things are wrong. The intention, the obedience, is what matters.

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 5, 2015

ALBANY PRESBYTERY, NEW YORK/VERMONT - In 2013 we set off on a new route in ministry. We began a presbytery-wide process of discernment and evaluation about fresh paths forward. We are exploring our past and seeing how adaptive change can help us grow into new ways of “doing church” for this time. We seek greater avenues of faithfulness, connection, and missional service with our communities as we remain rooted in theological imagination ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

When Digory took a minute to get his breath, and then went softly into his Mother’s room. And there she lay, as he had seen her lie so many other times, propped up on the pillows, with a thin, pale face that would make you cry to look at it. Digory took the Apple of Life out of his pocket.

And just as the Witch Jadis had looked different when you saw her in our world instead of in her own, so the fruit of that mountain garden looked different too. There were of course all sorts of colored things in the bedroom; the colored counterpane on the bed, the wallpaper. . . . But the moment Digory took the Apple out of his pocket, all those things seemed to have scarcely any color at all. Every one of them, even the sun- light, looked faded and dingy. . . . Nothing else was worth looking at: you couldn’t look at anything else. And the smell of the Apple of Youth was as if there was a window in the room that opened on Heaven.

“Oh, darling, how lovely,” said Digory’s Mother. “You will eat it, won’t you? Please,” said Digory. “I don’t know what the Doctor would say,” she answered. “But really—I almost feel as if I could.” He peeled it and cut it up and gave it to her piece by piece. And no sooner had she finished it than she smiled and her head sank back on the pillow and she was asleep: a real, natural, gentle sleep, without any of those nasty drugs, which was, as Digory knew, the thing in the whole world that she wanted most. . . . He bent down and kissed her very softly and stole out of the room with a beating heart, taking the core of the apple with him. For the rest of that day, whenever he looked at the things about him, and saw how ordinary and unmagical they were, he hardly dared to hope; but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope.

• From The Magician's Nephew
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 4, 2015

MINUTE FOR MISSION: WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY / PEACE & GLOBAL WITNESS OFFERING - Every day we hear about the different crises around the world. Along the southern US border, hundreds of children are taking unfathomable risks by journeying—often alone—to reach our border. Central American families fear for their lives and the safety of their children, as many are targets of gang recruitment, violence, or both. Presbyterians are working with congregations along the border as they minister to the needs of these children and families. We are also collaborating with ecumenical and interfaith partners who have experience in working with refugees and immigrants and who are also responding to the growing crisis ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

***TOMORROW* -Belize Mission Trip Informational Meeting - *with Tim and Kenny!***

Hi Belize folks,

I wanted to make sure you all have heard that we are going back to Belize next March 5-12 for Spring Break. We will be having an informational meeting this coming Sunday, October 4, at 5:00 in Lynn Hall. Tim Tam and Kenny Logan from The Word at Work will be here to share with us at that time as well.

So, if you are interested in going in March or if you’d just like to get to see Tim and Kenny, please come! Printed applications are available at the front office (and at the info meeting) and I have attached it [below] as well. Hope to see you all Sunday!

• CLICK HERE for a mission application (Adobe .pdf file)

Peace,

Walter

Walter Thompson
Associate Pastor of Mission and Evangelism
1st Presbyterian Church - Midland, Texas
(432) 684-7821

Prayer Request

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following will be re-posted periodically on this blog in the weeks ahead ... please bear with me and - please, PLEASE, PLEASE - pray with me.

The Session of 1st Presbyterian Church - Midland, Texas has called a Congregational meeting on November 1, 2015 to discuss and vote upon the following question: "Shall the First Presbyterian Church of Midland request the Presbytery of Tres Rios to dismiss it to the Reformed body of 'ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians?'"

The Session recommends, for the unity of our Congregation and to fulfill our mission, that the Congregation vote in favor of seeking dismissal from PC(USA) to ECO.

An informational packet from Session will be provided to members of the congregation in preparation for November's vote.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Easter

Tomorrow we shall celebrate the glorious Resurrection of Christ. I shall be remembering you in the Holy communion. Away with tears and fears and troubles! United in wedlock with the eternal Godhead Itself, our nature ascends into the Heaven of Heavens, so it would be impious to call ourselves “miserable.” On the contrary, man is a creature whom angels—were they capable of envy—would envy. Let us lift up our hearts!

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 3, 2015

SYNOD OF THE NORTHEAST - The Synod of the Northeast has been engaged in extensive discernment regarding our future call and purpose. We have now adopted the New Way Forward plan, which charts our missional calling and purpose as we move into God’s future. It includes a renewed understanding that we are a regional community of 22 presbyteries and 1,103 congregations learning to respond to God’s call to become agents of divine justice, transforming the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the Northeast into a community of hospitality and welcome for alL ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Friday, October 2, 2015

From ServLife International: "100% Matched"

100% Matched

Starting October 1st, all donations to ServLife during the fall campaign will be matched up to $100,000! We hope that you will seize this opportunity to double your impact and help start more churches, rescue more children and empower more families through small business loans. Please browse through the giving options and consider where to invest your donation ...

• CLICK HERE to read the rest of this post from ServLife


Support a Pastor Our church planters spread the love of Christ in some of the most difficult environments in the world. • Support Them ...	Sponsor a Child For only $30 per month you can help give a child food, education, care and, most importantly, hope. • Sponsor Now ...	Fight Poverty The HOPE Fund, our micro-finance program, provides start-up funds for a small business, paving a way out of poverty for families in need. • Learn More ...

ServLife International, Inc.
P.O. Box 20596
Indianapolis, IN 46220
USA

From @FWMission ... Friday Story: "Miracle on the Road to Maamba"

Founded in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission

Friday Story: "Miracle on the Road to Maamba"

Greetings, and Happy Friday!

I am humbled every day from the stories we receive from the field. This week’s story is about a young man named John Chimbuvu from Maamba, Zambia. On their way to the district hospital to distribute wheelchairs, one of our partners encountered John on the side of the road as he waved them down ...

• read the rest of this story ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Lewis, grieving the death of his wife, Joy:

‘It was too perfect to last,’ so I am tempted to say of our marriage. But it can be meant in two ways. It may be grimly pessimistic — as if God no sooner saw two of His creatures happy than He stopped it (‘None of that here!’). As if He were like the Hostess at the sherry-party who separates two guests the moment they show signs of having got into a real conversation. But it could also mean ‘This had reached its proper perfection. This had become what it had in it to be. Therefore of course it would not be prolonged.’ As if God said, ‘Good; you have mastered that exercise. I am very pleased with it. And now you are ready to go on to the next.’ When you have learned to do quadratics and enjoy doing them you will not be set them much longer. The teacher moves you on.

For we did learn and achieve something. There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry ‘masculine’ when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them to describe a man’s sensitiveness or tact or tenderness as ‘feminine.’ But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most mere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human. ‘In the image of God created He them.’ Thus, by a paradox, this carnival of sexuality leads us out beyond our sexes.

• From A Grief Observed
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lews

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 2, 2015

PRESBYTERY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA - n 2014, the 110 congregations of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina celebrated a 20-year partnership with two presbyteries in southwest Guatemala—Sur Occidente and Suchitepéquez. It has been an adventure-filled, humbling, and mutually gratifying partnership, made especially personal by a sister-church relationship between 32 congregations in North Carolina and 32 counterparts in Guatemala ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

In the News ... "Preachers apply wisdom gained in prison"

OA Photo by Edyta Blaszczyk

• Inspired to work with one another in reaching the city’s lost

By Bob Campbell, Reporter
Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - Once known as “Shoeshine,” “Woods,” “Silky Slim” and “Tex,” now the Revs. Ismael Rivas, David Wooden, Darren Willis and Jami Butts are applying the street smarts they gained outside the law to their Odessa ministries.

Having served a total of seven prison terms, they say their years in “the joint” were a necessary step toward building their new lives ...

• read the rest of this OA report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO DON GIOVANNI CALABRIA, who had sent Lewis the Litany of Humility composed by Cardinal Merry del Val: On the danger of being too aware of global worries and of forgetting to help Christ in the people close at hand; on the dignity to which God raises human beings when they receive Holy Communion; and on Lewis’s besetting temptations against humility.

27 March 1948

I was glad to receive your letter—so full (as is your wont) of Charity.

Everywhere things are troubling and uneasy—wars and rumours of war: perhaps not the final hour but certainly times most evil.

Nevertheless, the Apostle again and again bids us ‘Rejoice’[Philippians 4:4].

Nature herself bids us do so, the very face of the earth being now renewed, after its own manner, at the start of Spring.

I believe that the men of this age (and among them you Father, and myself) think too much about the state of nations and the situation of the world. Does not the author of The Imitation warn us against involving ourselves too much with such things?

We are not kings, we are not senators. Let us beware lest, while we torture ourselves in vain about the state of Europe, we neglect either Verona or Oxford.

In the poor man who knocks at my door, in my ailing mother, in the young man who seeks my advice, the Lord Himself is present: therefore let us wash His feet.

I have always believed that Voltaire, infidel though he was, thought aright in that admonition of his to cultivate your own garden: likewise William Dunbar (the Scottish poet who flourished in the 15th century) when he said

Man, please thy Maker and be merry;

This whole world rate we at a penny!

Tomorrow we shall celebrate the glorious Resurrection of Christ. I shall be remembering you in the Holy Communion. Away with tears and fears and troubles! United in wedlock with the eternal Godhead Itself, our nature ascends into the Heaven of Heavens. So it would be impious to call ourselves ‘miserable’. On the contrary, Man is a creature whom the Angels—were they capable of envy—would envy. Let us lift up our hearts! ‘At some future time perhaps even these things it will be a joy to recall.’ [Virgil, Aeneid, I, 203]

For the Litany composed by Cardinal Merry many thanks. You did not know, did you, that all the temptations against which he pours forth these prayers I have long been exceeding conscious of ? [From the longing to be thought well of, deliver me, Jesus, . . . from the fear of being rejected, deliver me, Jesus, . . . ] Touché, you pink me!

Let us pray for each other always. Farewell.

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 1, 2015

PRESBYTERY OF SHENANDOAH, VIRGINIA/WEST VIRGINIA - Lyle Moffett served four small congregations in rural Highland County, Virginia, mostly during the first half of the 20th century. His legacy included a bequest to the Presbytery of Shenandoah that serves “to empower congregations to be centers for mission through the task of diakonia: sending servant leaders to minister to the pain of a hurting world.” Each year, grants of $500–$2,000 are awarded ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.