West Texas Missioner

Friday, July 24, 2015

**In the News ... "Photo Album: "Rock the Desert" Skatepark Summer Camp"**

MRT Photo by James Durbin

• "Ramp Camp" returns to RTD Skatepark, July 27: http://fb.me/3zFBJoMu2

James Durbin, Photographer
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - Rock the Desert Skatepark held a summer camp for kids Friday, July 17, 2015 Participants were given the opportunity to make their own skateboards ...

• enjoy the rest of this MRT album

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On the Lord’s Prayer

We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord’s Prayer; it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don’t forgive, you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.

• From The Weight of Glory
• Compiled in Words to Live By

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: July 24, 2015

MID-KENTUCKY PRESBYTERY - First Presbyterian Church (FPC) in Elizabethtown is constantly seeking new ways to answer God’s call to compassionate and prophetic discipleship. FPC is in its seventh year of collaborating with local civic groups and operating partners in Guatemala to provide pure water through Living Waters for the World. The result: the “yoke of oppression” in the form of suffering from water-borne illnesses is being lifted from thousands of God’s people ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Mercy Trips Summer Outreach: "Raising funds for more nets ..."

Partnering with local healthcare workers and churches in medically underserved countries, Odessa, Texas-based Mercy Trips Healthcare Outreach provides free medical clinics and surgical care as an outreach of Christian love for our fellow man.

Raising funds for more nets ...

Mercy Trips FB family and faithful supporters. As you can see we will be leaving soon for our summer mission. Thanks to our faithful friends at 1st Presbyterian Church in Midland Texas we will again be able to pass out many mosquito nets at our clinics, since they are funding 500 nets -- We have received donations for an additional 300 nets, but would like to have a total of 1,000 nets to pass out. To do that we need to raise $2000.00 more in the next week. If you can help us send us a private message and we will tell you the best way to donate. Thank you for your faithfulness.

• visit Mercy Trips' Facebook page

Mercy Trips Healthcare Outreach
P.O. Box 13795
Odessa, TX 79768

Mercy Trips Summer Outreach: "Less than a week ..."

Less than a week ...

In [less than] one week the Summer Team leaves for Uganda. We will be traveling to Mbale and serving at Kanginima Hospital and in the village areas of Manga and Kororut. Please be in prayer for those we will be serving and sharing with. Don't forget to follow our trip on our FB page.

• visit Mercy Trips' Facebook page

Mercy Trips Healthcare Outreach
P.O. Box 13795
Odessa, TX 79768

In the News ... "Temple Beth El marks 69th year"

OA Photo by Edyta Blaszczyk

• ‘We want to share the beauty of our faith, so everyone is always welcome to come and visit’

By Bob Campbell, Reporter
Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - With a small membership, Temple Beth El has always had to be flexible, and it still works that way after nearly 70 years as the region’s only Jewish synagogue.

Affiliated with two of Judaism’s three primary groups, the type of service the 1501 N. Grandview Ave. temple holds at 7:30 p.m. Friday depends on who attends, said board president Jeff Cohen of Midland ...

• read the rest of this OA report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

“I am hungry,” said Digory.

“Well, tuck in,” said Fledge, taking a big mouthful of grass.

Then he raised his head, still chewing and with bits of grass sticking out on each side of his mouth like whiskers, and said, “Come on, you two. Don’t be shy. There’s plenty for us all.”

“But we can’t eat grass,” said Digory.

“H’m, h’m,” said Fledge, speaking with his mouth full. “Well—h’m— don’t know quite what you’ll do then. Very good grass too.”

Polly and Digory stared at one another in dismay.

“Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our meals,” said Digory.

“I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge.

“Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly.

“I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse (still with his mouth full). “But I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked.”

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: July 23, 2015

HOLSTON PRESBYTERY, TENESSEE - Craig Bell, director of the camp run by Holston Presbytery, mentioned that ice storms had broken limbs that were in danger of falling on campers. Bill Cox, a lifelong member and elder at Erwin Presbyterian Church, responded, “Well, I can use a chain saw!” The offending limbs were removed, and before long Betty Cox, equally passionate about our Lord’s work, was spending entire weeks working at the camp with her husband. Beautifully carved directional signs appeared. Given charge of the kitchen once, Betty rallied workers to her high standards of cleanliness and organization.

In time, Betty and Bill made an important discovery ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

In the News ... "WTFB, Security Bank partner for raffle ticket campaign"

MRT Photo by Tim Fischer

• Going on now through August 13

Staff Report
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - Security Bank and West Texas Food Bank are working together to feed more West Texans this summer with the “Be An Angel: Feed a Child” campaign. Raffle tickets will be available for sale at all Security Bank locations and at the RockHounds game Thursday at Security Bank Ballpark. Tickets are $5 each and all proceeds benefit WTFB. Proceeds from ticket purchases will count toward the $75,000 matching grant from the Wayne and Jo Ann Moore Foundation ...

• read the rest of this MRT story

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO DR. F. MORGAN ROBERTS: On Lewis’s own rules about prayer.

31 July 1954

I am certainly unfit to advise anyone else on the devotional life. My own rules are (1) To make sure that, wherever else they may be placed, the main prayers should not be put ‘last thing at night’. (2) To avoid introspection in prayer—I mean not to watch one’s own mind to see if it is in the right frame, but al- ways to turn the attention outwards to God. (3) Never, never to try to generate an emotion by will power. (4) To pray without words when I am able, but to fall back on words when tired or otherwise below par. With renewed thanks. Perhaps you will sometimes pray for me

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: July 22, 2015

PRESBYTERY OF EAST TENNESSEE - You hear them before you see them. The cheer squad of First Presbyterian Church, one of 67 congregations in the Presbytery of East Tennessee, sing special cheers and blow vuvuzelas from the sidelines of American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) games to support the children of Spring City. It began with an effort to strengthen the relationship with the Girl Scout troop that meets at First. In 2013, a scout earning her Silver Award organized an AYSO league. The church encouraged her efforts by hosting community meetings, sign-ups, and board meetings. When the season started that fall, the cheer squad was on the sidelines to support the teams at every game ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Screwtape offers more advice on using daily annoyances to entrap a Patient:

It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very ‘spiritual’, that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages will follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. Thus you can keep rubbing the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother—the sharp-tongued old lady at the breakfast table. In time, you may get the cleavage so wide that no thought or feeling from his prayers for the imagined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one. I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment’s notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s ‘soul’ to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm.

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: July 21, 2015

SYNOD OF THE LIVING WATER - Aware of the evolving nature of the denomination, the Synod of Living Waters decided over a decade ago to focus its life and work on resourcing and strengthening its presbyteries. “Synod ministries” ceased in favor of supporting and encouraging “presbytery partnerships”—which have included presbytery ministries such as a joint collegiate retreat, conflict-management training, events for first-call pastors, and training for GA commissioners.

Increasingly, the synod’s focus has turned to the need for presbyteries to develop creative ways to work together and share resources ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Monday, July 20, 2015

From ChinaAid: "Police disperse Beijing house church’s Saturday worship service "

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.

Police disperse Beijing house church’s Saturday worship service
Distributed by ChinaAid, June, 2015 ...

SHENYANG, LIAONING, CHINA – Police in China’s northeastern Liaoning beat a woman in her home yesterday for no apparent reason and videotaped the attack while her husband, with whom the Shenyang Domestic Security Protection Squad (DSPS) had arranged a meeting for the following day, was away from home ...

• more on this story from China Aid

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On the Lord's Prayer

If you are interested enough to have read thus far you are probably interested enough to make a shot at saying your prayers: and, whatever else you say, you will probably say the Lord’s Prayer.

Its very first words are Our Father. Do you now see what those words mean? They mean quite frankly, that you are putting yourself in the place of a son of God. To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending. Because, of course, the moment you realise what the words mean, you realise that you are not a son of God. You are not being like The Son of God, whose will and interests are at one with those of the Father: you are a bundle of self-centred fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit, all doomed to death. So that, in a way, this dressing up as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek. But the odd thing is that He has ordered us to do it.

• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: July 20, 2015

PRESBYTERY OF WHITEWATER VALLEY, INDIANA - Acts of compassion leave a local mark and have a larger, even global, impact. Irvington Presbyterian Church (IPC) in Indianapolis is passionate about food justice and just trade. IPC transformed a home into the Hospitality House to offer subsidized housing for partners in ministry. The Hospitality House has hosted AmeriCorps VISTA members who work on local food-justice issues, such as projects offering low-income families access to locally grown fresh produce ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

With a jingling of mail the others climbed up behind [Lucy]. Aslan glided on before them and they walked after him.

“Lucy,” said Susan in a very small voice.

“Yes?” said Lucy. “I see him now. I’m sorry.”

“That’s all right.”

“But I’ve been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him—he, I mean—yesterday. When he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I really believed it was him tonight, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I’d let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the woods and—and—oh, I don’t know. And what ever am I to say to him?”

“Perhaps you won’t need to say much,” suggested Lucy.

• From Prince Caspian
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: July 19, 2015

MINUTE FOR MISSION: SMALLER MEMBERSHIP CHURCH - The membership of our congregation, First Presbyterian Church in McComb, Ohio, is drawn from the village and nearby rural farms. We believe that God has planted his church in McComb and so focus our service here.

Four years ago, after a period of prayer and discernment, we launched an after-school outreach program for children in the local school. The purpose of Lift Off was to help children explore their creativity, soar into self-confidence, build relationships, and see life in a different dimension ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

"Stuff the Bus" at FPC-Midland

The 2015 edition of the "Stuff the Bus" School Supply Drive is going on NOW at First Presbyterian Church-Midland. FPC-Midland is located on the northwest corner of Texas Avenue and A Street, on the west side of downtown Midland, and you can enter from Texas Avenue, or from Illinois Avenue (we're across the street from Midland High School).

Please pack something from the items on the list below into a backpack, and drop the backpack off at the "bus" in the church library, next to the elevator and gymnasium entrance.

• Boxes of Kleenex                          • Crayons
• Bottle of Hand Sanitizer                • Colored Pencils
• Composition Notebooks                • Pencil-Top Erasers
• Glue (Bottles and/or Sticks)          • Scissors
• 3" x 5" Index Cards                       • No. 2 Pencils
• Folders with Pockets and Brads   • Binders (1", 1.5", 2")
• Pink Erasers                                 • Watercolors
• Highlighters                                  • Plastic Pencil Boxes
• Wide-Ruled Spiral Notebooks      • Pens (Black, Blue and Red)
• Wide-Ruled Notebook Paper       • Pencil Bags
• Dividers                                        • Markers
• Plastic Rulers

Thanks!

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.

• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis