Disciples of All Nations
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Wednesday, June 24, 2015
FPC-Midland Uganda Mission 2015: "Disciples of All Nations"
Disciples of All Nations
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In the News ... "Jefferson Award winner Evan Rogers celebrated in D.C."
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| Courtesy Photo |
By Meredith Moriak, Reporter
Midland Reporter-Telegram
MIDLAND, TEXAS - In Washington, D.C., for the Jefferson Award Foundation’s 2015 National Ceremony, Evan Rogers has found himself in the company of good people who “will change the world.”
“I feel beyond inferior to be here. There are a lot of great people in Midland that deserve this honor more than I do, and the other winners here are amazing. They’re all making an impact on their communities and are the people who will change the world,” said Rogers, who was selected by the Midland Reporter-Telegram as the 2015 local Jefferson Award winner for his impact as founder of Church Under the Bridge Midland ...
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C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
On Self
A rejection, or in Scripture’s strong language, a crucifixion of the natural self is the passport to everlasting life. Nothing that has not died will be resurrected.
• From The Weight of Glory
• Compiled in Words to Live By
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: June 24, 2015
In 2012, Covenant Presbyterian Church in West Des Moines began a partnership with neighboring St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church to sponsor a produce garden for area food pantries ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Word from Uganda: "TENDO!"
TENDO!
"Eight years ago, I taught our oldest children when they were just in P4 class. I remember thinking, 'Lord, I can't wait to see what these children will be like when they are 18 or 20.' And then the Lord allowed me a glimpse in a really special way ..."
• read the rest of Natalie's post ...
• help raise funds for Natalie's mission ...
FPC-Midland Uganda Mission 2015: "As the Angels Rejoice"
As the Angels Rejoice
Most of our team served in the village of Akalabai today. The man who will be commissioned at the end of the week as the pastor for the church is named Robert. We gathered at the church (which is beautiful) and partnered up with translators as Robert gave us instructions on where to go in the village. Like New Testament disciples, we went out two-by-two and preached the gospel to the wonderful people. Many on our team were shocked at how welcoming and open the people of Akalabai are. We took some buses a few miles to the outskirts of the community and began working in toward the church. It was an incredible day full of sharing the gospel, new people entering the Kingdom of Heaven, and encouraging believers ...
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In the News ... "Healing at the Well"
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| OA Photo by Mark Sterkel |
By Jared Wilson, Reporter
Odessa American
ODESSA, TEXAS - Many people know a woman, or women, who have been through domestic violence issues, heart wrenching loss, abandonment, or the struggle of being a single mother.
Now, through what co-founders call, “God connecting the dots,” there will be a place where women can go to receive help, guidance, and have a place to share their experiences.
The Well is an initiative started by four women, all of whom are experienced with crisis situations, who want to provide spiritual support, outreach opportunities, volunteer opportunities, referral resources, and enrichment programs to help woman rise above the struggles they have seen ...
• read the rest of this OA report ...
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
TO EDWARD LOFSTROM: A letter of great encouragement for someone who had been struggling with excessive self-awareness.
10 June 1962
You are of course perfectly right in defining your problem (which is also mine and everyone’s) as ‘excessive selfness’. But per- haps you don’t fully realise how far you have got by so defining it. All have this disease; fortunate are the minority who know they have it. To know that one is dreaming is to be already nearly awake, even if, for the present, one can’t wake up fully. And you have actually got further than that. You have got beyond the illusion (very common) that to recognise a chasm is the same thing as building a bridge over it.
Your danger now is that of being hypnotised by the mere sight of the charm, of constantly looking at this excessive selfness. The important thing now is to go steadily on acting, so far as you can—and you certainly can to some extent, however small—as if it wasn’t there. You can, and I expect you daily do—behave with some degree of unselfishness. You can and do make some attempt at prayer. The continual voice which tells you that your best actions are secretly filled with subtle self-regards, and your best prayers still wholly egocentric—must for the most part be simply disregarded—as one disregards the impulse to keep on looking under the bandage to see whether the cut is healing. If you are always fidgeting with the bandage, it never will.
A text you should keep much is mind is I John iii, 20: ‘If our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart.’ I sometimes pray ‘Lord give me no more and no less self-knowledge than I can at this moment make a good use of.’ Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted—i.e., keep on fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. You are in the right way. Walk—don’t keep on looking at it.
• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: June 23, 2015
PRESBYTERY OF CENTRAL NEBRASKA - The region served by the Presbytery of Central Nebraska feeds the nation: feedlots produce beef, the rich topsoil of the mid-Plains now yields corn rather than tall grass, ethanol plants convert much of that corn into fuel, and Hastings College nourishes students hungry for knowledge and values. Amid such rich production, however, is invisible hunger: long lines form for commodity distribution through the USDA, and the demand on food pantries within the presbytery grows each year ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Monday, June 22, 2015
From ChinaAid: "China Aid, with international NGOs, sends letter calling for human rights discussion with Chinese leaders"
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.China Aid, with international NGOs, sends letter calling for human rights discussion with Chinese leaders
Distributed by ChinaAid, June, 2015 ...
WASHINGTON, D.C. – China Aid joined eight other international NGOs in sending a letter regarding the upcoming US-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue to U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew.
The letter calls for Kerry and Lew to include China’s worsening human rights record in talks between the U.S. and China, therefore creating the environment for human rights to be an important topic during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S. later this year ...
• more on this story from China Aid
FPC-Midland Uganda Mission 2015: "A Day of Worship - Sunday in Uganda"
A Day of Worship - Sunday in Uganda
This morning, the team was split into four groups and sent to four different churches in order to teach Sunday School and encourage the believers in some of the churches that have already been planted by the ministry here. A couple of the churches were ones that FPC has helped plant on past mission trips to Uganda. Here is a really quick rundown of where and how our team served this morning in East Africa ...
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In the News ... "Midland Shared Spaces experiences successful first year"
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| MRT Photo by James Durbin |
Special to theMidland Reporter-Telegram
MIDLAND, TEXAS - For any business, a successful first year is easier said than done. Every new venture brings challenges to the table. Our local organization has more than succeeded in our first year of operation. Midland Shared Spaces (MSS) provides Class A space to local nonprofit organizations. Our goal is to promote efficiency, collaboration and stimulation for Midland businesses -- nonprofit and for-profit alike.
The concept of “sharing” certainly permeates through every aspect of our team ...
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C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
You may remember I said that the first step towards humility was to realise that one is proud. I want to add now that the next step is to make some serious attempt to practise the Christian virtues. A week is not enough. Things often go swimmingly for the first week. Try six weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the point one began from, one will have discovered some truths about oneself. No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.
• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: June 22, 2015
PRESBYTERY OF DAKOTA - Finding time to be together can be a challenge. And while it is difficult enough for members of one congregation, the challenge is even greater when several congregations are involved. But during the Lenten season last year, the Presbytery of Dakota’s six congregations in the Sisseton tribal district found a way to do things together ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
In the News ... "Local Churches Looking Into Security After Charleston Murders"
By Zora Asbury, Reporter
KWES-TV
ODESSA, TEXAS - Some churches in the Permian Basin are looking to get more security after the deadly shooting that happened at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday night. NewsWest 9 spoke with residents of Odessa and local churches, they explained how this tragedy has affected people in the Basin.
Pastor Samuel L. Buhl Sr. of St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Odessa, said, "I think it was just horrible that people were praying, having bible study and then all of a sudden somebody comes in, sits down, then shoots" ...
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FPC-Midland Uganda Mission 2015: "Smells Like Home"
Smells Like Home
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In the News ... "Local Church Reevaluating Safety Following Charleston Tragedy"
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| KOSA Photo |
KOSA-TV
ODESSA, TEXAS - Heartbreak over the Wednesday night Charleston, SC church shooting can be felt right here in west Texas.
People go to church to seek refuge. There's a sense of security when you walk into a church. Now church leaders and members are re-evaluating their safety inside the house of God.
“How can you learn to hate like that at 21," Rev. Samuel Buhl asked, questioning the motive of accused shooter Dylann Roof ...
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Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: June 21, 2015
MINUTE FOR MISSION: MEN OF THE CHURCH - How do we treat God? We may decide to go to church, read our Bible, and pray regularly. You and I will do this for a month or two, and then we will uproot ourselves and disappear for a few months. Then we will come back again. Then we uproot ourselves and go back to the old way of life. Eventually we come back and reestablish our spiritual routines only to change again. But in truth we will never grow spiritually that way ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
In the News ... "Local Pastor Plans to Keep Church Safe"
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| KMID Photo |
Lauren Tropea, Reporter
KMID-TV
ODESSA, TEXAS - Local leaders reacting to the tragedy after nine are dead following a church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. Gene Collins, Pastor of Highland and Bunche Street Church of Christ says he was disheartened and shocked by the violence in Charleston last night.
"I was really hurt," he said. "It was painful to know that people attending a prayer meeting service lost their lives by a deranged gunman," Collins said ...
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FPC-Midland Uganda Mission 2015: "Getting There"
Getting There
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