West Texas Missioner

Thursday, October 26, 2023

From Synod of the Sun, PC(USA) ... "Newsletter, Mid-Month Update"

The Synod of the Sun is is a network of Presbyterians from 11 Presbyteries, approximately 700+ Congregations, in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Over 150,000 members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Synod of the Sun of the serves Christ by connecting, equipping, and empowering Presbyterians for Christ's mission within and beyond the Synod's bounds.

Synod of the Sun Seeks Applicants for Part-Time Administrative Assistant

Synod of the Sun seeks an Administrative Assistant to serve as a member of Synod staff and assist the Synod Leader/Stated Clerk, Director of Communications, and the Synod Committee Moderators in fulfilling the mission goals of the Synod of the Sun.

This virtual position provides efficient, accurate and effective administrative and financial duties using current and standard software and formats used by the Synod.

Interested parties should e-mail their cover letter and resume to Rev. Jeff Cranton, Personnel Committee Chairman, at jeffbcranton@gmail.com.

Documentation needs to be submitted by December 1, 2023.

• Click HERE to read the job description ...

Additional Dates Added for Not-Your-Average Boundaries Trainings

Additional Opportunities for Boundaries Training Offered by Synod of the Sun and Leaderwise in 2024

January 17-18 | 9:00am-Noon* each day
May 7-8 | 1:00-4:00pm each day
August 27-28 | 9:00am-Noon each day
November 18-19 | 5:00pm-8:00pm each day
All programs are held via Zoom
* All times listed are CT

It’s our experience that pastors, church staff, and other leaders who transgress boundaries by-and-large are not predators. In fact, not even close. Most people in ministry who violate boundaries are individuals who know and follow the rules most of the time but whose judgment may be impaired due to an unusually stressful time in their lives.

With that in mind, Not-Your-Average Boundaries Training, offered by Synod of the Sun and Leaderwise, is tailored to focus on strategies to foster mental health, emotional resiliency, and well-being. While this training still covers the requirements—“Don’t sleep with a parishioner unless you’re married to them” and the like —the best prevention is to encourage clergy to take steps to manage their stress in order to maintain balance and perspective when temptation arises. The program teaches a 3-step strategy to help stop the participant in their tracks before they commit a boundary violation; and participants leave with their own personal prevention plan.

This training is lively and interactive, full of reflection and conversation—and even laughter. Attendees have given us feedback that our boundaries training was a great experience, AND caused them to re-evaluate some of their own practices.

Participants MUST take part in ALL six hours of training in order to receive the certificate of completion.

• Click HERE to read more and register for the event ...

Help ASG Help Councils and Congregations—A message from the Administrative Services Group

congregations and councils to help them create or update their child/youth protection policies, which are required by the Book of Order (G-3.0106). ASG is looking for policies of PC(USA) congregations and councils to include on the webpage as samples. If your council and any of your congregations are willing to allow ASG to post your child/youth protection policies to share with those who need to create or update their policy, please email them (or a link to them) to General Counsel Mike Kirk, Mike.Kirk@pcusa.org. Thank you for your support of this important project.

From @mmm_water ... 2023 Well Season: Daily Devotional

September 1 - October 31 is Marion Medical Mission Well Season for 2021. The season will include daily devotionals - one for each day the U.S. volunteers are overseas, sharing the love of Jesus by providing safe, clean, sustainable sources of drinking water to the extreme poor in sub-Saharan Africa. Marion Medical Mission is one of our mission partners at Grace Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas, and we STRONGLY encourage you to read these devotions to learn more about - and pray for! - their mission.

October 26, 2023

PICK UP YOUR MAT AND WALK
Isaac Tindi
MMM Field Officer, Zambia

"After this Jesus went to Jerusalem for a religious festival. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was a pool with five porches; in Hebrew it is called Bethzatha. A large crowd of sick people were lying on the porches -the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. A man was there who had been sick for such a long time; so he asked him, do you want to get well? The sick man answered, “Sir, I don’t have any one herewith to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first.” Jesus said to him, “ Get up, pick your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.” - John 5:1-8

n life we at times believe nothing can better our lives, we believe we are poverty- stricken for life. There are communities that need safe drinking water but they don’t have the where abouts; who does what at an appointed time. For 38 solid years, this man was lying on the porches, when asked if he wants to get well, he expressed ignorance.

People need safe drinking water and know that MMM through its African partners render the service, but they aren’t requesting. We need to explain to them, thereafter ask them if they need the well.

Tell them to take a step and move.

Application Question: How can we encourage others?

Prayer: Lord, help us encourage one another to pick up our mats and walk. No situation is permanent. Amen

Looking for Easy Ways to Help?

Follow us on social media! Liking, commenting on, and sharing our posts helps increase our exposure so that new supporters will find us! Writing a quick, 5-star review on Google or recommending us on Facebook are also great ways to share our mission!

Visit Our Website ...

In the News ... "Kooky Karnival coming up"

OA Photo by B. Kay Richter

• Fundraiser for the school set for October 28

Staff Report
• Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - St. John’s Episcopal School’s annual Kooky Karnival will take center stage Oct. 28 at Barn D and E of the Ector County Coliseum.

St. John’s students get an early start from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and the public can roam the attractions from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The Karnival, with a theme of Super Mario, is organized by Friends of St. John’s and is a fundraiser for the school.

Kooky Karnival Chairman Zach Foster said admission is free, but there is a punch card system for games and the Ghostly Grocery Store where they can pick up prizes.

“Each prize costs a certain amount of punches. There’s a food booth and a smaller like candy snack type thing called the Creepy Cuisine. There is a cash payment for those items,” Foster said.

There will also be a cake walk.

Jersey Girl Pizza is returning this year and the Chuck Wagon Gang will help with the food booth this year, Head of School Heather Kirk and Foster said ...

• Read the rest of this OA report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

When any man comes into the presence of God he will find, whether he wishes it or not, that all those things which seemed to make him so different from all the men of other times, or even from his earlier self, have fallen off him. He is back where he always was, where every man always is…No possible complexity which we can give to our picture of the universe can hide us from God: there is no copse, no forest, no jungle thick enough to provide cover…In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanish, leaving us naked before Him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since the contact cannot be avoided for long and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of lie is to learn to like it. That is the first and greatest commandment.

• From God in the Dock
• Compiled in The Business of Heaven

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.

Photo courtesy of Westminster Presbyterian Church

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 26, 2023

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN NEBRASKA IS SERVING THE COMMUNITY - Over the summer, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, put service into its worship service ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

From @mmm_water ... 2023 Well Season: Daily Devotional

September 1 - October 31 is Marion Medical Mission Well Season for 2023. The season will include daily devotionals - one for each day the U.S. volunteers are overseas, sharing the love of Jesus by providing safe, clean, sustainable sources of drinking water to the extreme poor in sub-Saharan Africa. Marion Medical Mission is one of our mission partners at Grace Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas, and we STRONGLY encourage you to read these devotions to learn more about - and pray for! - their mission.

October 25, 2023

WOMAN AT THE WELL
DiAnne Hughes
Volunteer, Nebraska

"Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:13-14

Jacob’s well had been there for a very long time, “since the beginning of time.” It still provides clean water today. The “woman at the well” came in the heat of the day. She did not come in the morning when most women would come with their family and friends. I imagine it would sound a lot like the women in Malawi, singing, talking, laughing. But at noon it would be very quiet. The woman would be there alone.

My ladies’ group has been studying Jesus and Women by Kristi McLelland. It discusses how women in Jesus’s time were low in society, even talking to a rabbi was not acceptable. The Samaritan, a divorced woman, was the lowest of the low. But Jesus loved and respected her. Jesus lifted her from shame to honor. She was to be the first person that Jesus explicitly told that He was the Messiah, the Christ. She became a witness to her community. “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony” (John 4:39).

“He reached out with radical kindness and grace and in so doing, He changed her life” (McLelland).

He wants us to do the same. Reaching out not only to lowest of the low but reaching out to those who may make us uncomfortable. Those who are of different color, ideas, abilities, interest, religion... (you get the idea). Reach out to them to show kindness and to share the gospel.

Application Question: Today, how can you show kindness and grace to one who may be “different”? How can you follow John 4:39 and use your testimony to help others believe in Him?

Prayer: dear Heavenly Father, help me be Your hands and feet. Please, help me see how you see those You love and share Your truth with them. Thank You for the love and grace that You have shown me. Amen

From @austinseminary ... "The Reed" for October 2023

For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip people for ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources for the nurture of the church; to practice and promote critical theological thought and research; to engage a range of voices and perspectives within and beyond the life of the seminary; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.

Discovery Weekend, October 27-29

If you or someone you know is trying to decide whether seminary is the next step, sign up for a weekend of discernment through conversations and fellowship with professors and current students.

• Learn More ...

Progressive Youth Ministry

Austin Seminary has acquired Progressive Youth Ministry (PYM), a conference and community of church-based youth workers from across North America. Founded in 2014, PYM had a successful five-year run of conferences, experiencing significant growth and highlighted by speakers including Rob Bell, Otis Moss III, and Lauren Winner. Through the pandemic, PYM gathered virtually, creating a robust and supportive community of more than 3,000 members online with 200 to 400 participants at its annual conference.

• Learn More ...

Austin Seminary receives a $1.2 million grant to strengthen preaching

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary has received a grant of $1,248,603 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish The Faithful Preaching Project, a new initiative designed to help preachers of small mainline congregations instill deeper faith in their listeners and empower them to live out their faith more fully in worship and in the community beyond their church walls. The Reverend Dr. Carolyn Helsel, Associate Professor in the Blair Monie Distinguished Chair in Homiletics, wrote the grant and will be charged with designing and administering the program.

• Learn More ...

Faces of Austin Seminary: Jessie Light-Wells (MDiv’17)

Since high school, The Reverend Jessie Light-Wells (MDiv’17) knew her journey would eventually lead to seminary. “I felt like I could do my best work in the church.” She was excited to engage with the academically rigorous challenges, and as a fifth-generation clergy, she had a basic understanding of what to expect. But little did she know that Austin Seminary would offer a different experience that would challenge her assumptions. “Austin offered me all the things I needed the most but didn’t know I wanted.”

• Learn More ...

Support Our Students

Your gift to our Annual Fund supports the formation of Christian leaders.

• Click here to support our students...

Get the latest news from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in their digital monthly eNewsletter. Features on events, students, faculty, and alumni can be sent directly to your inbox.

• Subscribe to the Austin Seminary Reed

In the News ... "Low point leads Rodriguez to enlightenment"

• El Paso native to join church staff in Mexico City

By Bob Campbell, Reporter
• Odessa American

MIDLAND, TEXAS - It wasn’t easy for Emiliano “Milo” Rodriguez to get where he is now, the graduate of a rigorous two-year ministerial training program who is about to join a big church in Mexico City as its assistant minister and youth leader, but he says the process amounted to his thorough preparation for the future.

The 26-year-old El Paso native attended Northwest Vista College for a year in San Antonio, welded for a fabrication company and worked as a waiter for three years till undergoing a spiritual transformation and setting out on his true career path.

He recently graduated from Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock and he will work at Iglesia de Christo Metropolitana in Mexico City.

“Being a waiter taught me how to be a servant and care for others,” Rodriguez said. “But I encountered many unworthy things during that time. I was in a dark pit.”

Serving as intern here at Downtown Church of Christ till his wife Rut gets her green card and can travel freely between the United States and Mexico, Rodriguez said he confessed to a minister and was told to “go lock yourself in a closet and tell God what you just told me.

“I talked to God for an hour and a half,” he said. “Once I got started I couldn’t stop. I feel a lot of passion about proclaiming the Gospel. I love to preach the message because it is 100 percent real and true. It’s not just any story. It is the most important story in the history of mankind.

“I want to deliver God’s word in such a way that people want to hear and know more.”

Rodriguez and his wife are alumni of Sunset International Bible Institute’s Adventures in Missions program. They have a year-old son, Boaz.

Rodriguez’ favorite scripture is John 3:30, which quotes John the Baptist as saying about Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

Downtown Church of Christ Minister Greg Fleming said Rodriguez had been preaching on alternate Sundays and “has been a great asset to us ...

• Read the rest of this OA report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Theologians have sometimes asked whether we shall ‘know one another’ in Heaven, and whether the particular love-relations worked out on earth would then continue to have any significance. It seems reasonable to reply: ‘It may depend on what kind of love it had become, or was becoming, on earth.’ For, surely, to meet in the eternal world someone for whom your love in this, however strong, had been merely natural, would not be (on that ground) even interesting. Would it not be like meeting in adult life someone who had seemed to be a great friend at your preparatory school solely because of common interests and occupations? If there was nothing more, if he was not a kindred soul, he will now be a total stranger. Neither of you now plays conkers. You no longer want to swop your help with his French exercise for his help with your arithmetic. In Heaven, I suspect, a love that had never embodied Love Himself would be equally irrelevant. For Nature has passed away. All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.

• From The Four Loves

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Photo courtesy of Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 25, 2023

INTERGENERATIONAL CREATION CARE, SOLAR ECLIPSE EVENT - The Office of Christian Formation of the Presbyterian Mission Agency is partnering with Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, to offer a four-day, three-night intergenerational Creation care event from April 6-9, 2024, culminating with a total solar eclipse ...

• CLICK HERE to read/see more.

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

FBR Report: "No Safe Place” – A New Documentary

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement. They bring help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma (Myanmar) and the Middle East. Groups send teams to be trained, supplied and sent into the areas under attack to provide emergency assistance and human rights documentation. Together with other groups, the teams work to serve people in need.

FBR Photo

"No Safe Place” – A New Documentary

21 October, 2023,
Burma

Dear friends,

“No Safe Place” is a new documentary following the Free Burma Rangers on a relief mission in Karenni State, Burma. Please watch and share with your friends.
English: https://youtu.be/vmKPDNRVDII

လုံခြုံသောနေရာမရှိ – ကရင်နီပြည်နယ်ရှိ ကယ်ဆယ်ရေးမစ်ရှင်တစ်ခုတွင် Free Burma Rangers များ လိုက်ပါဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့သော မှတ်တမ်းရုပ်ရှင်အသစ်။
Burmese: https://youtu.be/72jP21O4X28

ไร้ที่ปลอดภัย – สารคดีล่าสุดที่ถ่ายทำขณะติดตาม Free Burma Rangers ไปในภารกิจบรรเทาทุกข์ในรัฐกะเหรี่ยงแดง ประเทศพม่า
Thai: https://youtu.be/0Jwws1NToC0

Also on Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/c-5026084

Thank you for praying for Burma.

God bless you,

Free Burma Rangers

• CLICK HERE to learn how YOU can get involved in FBR and its mission ...

“LOVE EACH OTHER.
UNITE AND WORK FOR FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND PEACE.
FORGIVE AND DON’T HATE EACH OTHER.
PRAY WITH FAITH, ACT WITH COURAGE, NEVER SURRENDER.”

From @mmm_water ... 2023 Well Season: Daily Devotional

September 1 - October 31 is Marion Medical Mission Well Season for 2023. The season will include daily devotionals - one for each day the U.S. volunteers are overseas, sharing the love of Jesus by providing safe, clean, sustainable sources of drinking water to the extreme poor in sub-Saharan Africa. Marion Medical Mission is one of our mission partners at Grace Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas, and we STRONGLY encourage you to read these devotions to learn more about - and pray for! - their mission.

October 24, 2023

ASKING FOR HELP
Jan Van Heiningen
Volunteer, Georgia

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” - Proverbs 3:5-6

Walking to a new well is obviously a group activity. This group includes our installation crew, a builder (who thankfully knows where the well is located), a Field Officer, one or two American volunteers, exuberant villagers, and giggling curious children. Without this blessed group of experienced Africans, all of the volunteers from the USA would be hopelessly lost! Often when I’m driving, I count my blessings that I am not in the bush without someone to tell me on which goat path to drive!

It was a typical day of well installations. We arrived at the vicinity of our next well and everyone exited the truck, gathered and double-checked all the well parts and took off down another dusty pathway. For some reason, I stayed a little longer at the truck and when I looked up – everyone was out of sight. I gathered my hat, my water bottle, the laptop, the truck key, and started down the unusually quiet path. Suddenly I found myself at the point where the path became two paths – one to the right, and one to the left. No problem – I thought – I can find our team by following the sound of the celebratory singing. I paused – I listened – I heard nothing. Venturing off alone was not an option especially since I was the one with the truck key.

Again, listening for and hearing no familiar well installation noises, I decided it was a good time to ask the Lord for some help. Leaning on my own understanding was definitely not working. As I opened my eyes, I looked down again at both paths, and studied the footprints in the dirt. In the left pathway, I saw the definite outline of a Nike tennis shoe that was nearly covered over by little children’s bare feet. I knew that the barely visible shoeprint was indeed my partner’s shoe and the left pathway was my answered prayer. I followed the path until I finally found our team surrounded by large banana trees that had obscured my view and had muffled the happy sounds of this village. Thank you Lord for showing me the way ... again.

Ulemu Kwa Mulungu - Glory to God!

Application Question: Why do we often call on God for answers to problems only when we are in trouble?

Prayer: Forgive us Lord when we try to figure out the answers to problems without Your guidance. Thank You for giving us answers to situations even when we don’t turn to You first. Amen

From Synod of the Sun, PC(USA) ... 'Liminal Conversations' This Thursday: "The Church's Vocation in Disaster Resilience"

Amidst the changes and chances of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches and entities throughout the The Synod of the Sun found ways to not only survive but also find unique and beautiful ways to minister to God's people in need. Mission and ministry takes form in supplying basic necessities, or caring for the environment. Connections have been made via video feed and blankets. Love is supplied via learning how to read and drive-in diapers.

Living in Liminal Space returns this Thursday!

Living in Liminal Space: A Conversation Seeking Wisdom on the Way, on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of every month at 10:00 am (CT) via Zoom

The conversation this Thursday, October 26, will be with Kathy Lee-Cornell, Director, Synod Partnership for Disaster Recovery. The topic will be The Church's Vocation found in Disaster Resilience.

Kathy is a pastor and licensed social worker who has served congregations and nonprofit ministries across Texas. Kathy has previously chaired the Advisory Committee for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and served as the site coordinator for the Young Adult Volunteer Program in the Presbytery of South Louisiana.

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6032633136

UPCOMING CONVERSATIONS:

Thursday, November 9:

The conversation will be with Fran Hilton Shelton, founder of Faith & Grief Ministries. The focus of the conversation will be "How is the Diminishing Impact of our Churches and the Death of many Churches Affecting our Presbyteries and Churches Emotionally and Spiritually?"

Opinion ... "Donate to organizations that help the homeless"

Courtesy Photo

• Panhandling is a big business in Midland; it doesn't have to be

By Karl Boroski, Contributor
• Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - Every weekend, Backyard Midland feeds and visits with the homeless. I go out on Sundays, and other friends go out on Saturdays. We feed about 30 on the street every weekend.

Midland doesn’t have a homeless problem. The only problem is for the 30 sleeping on the street.

In Midland, we have organized panhandling, and most you see on the corners and intersections are not homeless. They are individuals that I refer to as “Panhandling Pimps,” who have several people working for them. They basically drop off and pick up their workers and get half of what their workers collected.

When I go out feeding, one stop is the southside Wal-Mart parking lot, where there are several people living in their cars. One Panhandling Pimp watches over his people that work the intersection by the McDonald’s. I was told that intersection can make up to $400 a day. I also know of another group that has three or four ladies who will be dropped off at different intersections with the same sign. Their signs state that they have kids and need rent money and food. This has turned into big business for them and that is why they do it. The real homeless I know do panhandle, but when they get enough for their beer, cigarettes and food, they are out of there.

If you really want to help the homeless donate to a local organizations like Breaking Bread, the Baptist Crisis Center or the Soup Kitchen. As long as there is easy money out there, we will continue to see people taking advantage of the generosity of Midlanders.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Evil

I think one may be quite rid of the old haunting suspicion—which raises its head in every temptation—that there is something else than God—some other country . . . into which He forbids us to trespass—some kind of delight wh. He “doesn’t appreciate” or just chooses to forbid, but which wd. be real delight if only we were allowed to get it. The thing just isn’t there. Whatever we desire is either what God is trying to give us as quickly as He can, or else a false picture of what He is trying to give us—a false picture wh. would not attract us for a moment if we saw the real thing. Therefore God does really in a sense contain evil—i.e., contains what is the real motive power behind all our evil desires. He knows what we want, even in our vilest acts: He is longing to give it to us. He is not looking on from the outside at some new “taste” or “separate desire of our own.” Only because He has laid up real goods for us to desire are we able to go wrong by snatching at them in greedy, misdirected ways. The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God. It is simply good spoiled. That is why I say there can be good without evil, but no evil without good. You know what the biologists mean by a parasite—an animal that lives on another animal. Evil is a parasite. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse.

Thus you may well feel that God understands our temptations—understands them a great deal more than we do. But don’t forget Macdonald again—“Only God understands evil and hates it.” Only the dog’s master knows how useless it is to try to get on with the lead knotted round the lamp-post. This is why we must be prepared to find God implacably and immovably forbidding what may seem to us very small and trivial things. But He knows whether they are really small and trivial. How small some of the things that doctors forbid would seem to an ignoramus.

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Provided Photo

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 24, 2023

UNITED NATIONS DAY - By the end of World War II, there was a great urgency and need for global peace, and from that the international organization the United Nations was founded. Today we come together to celebrate the creation of the United Nations as the world’s only global organization and the one place where the world’s nations can come together to discuss shared problems and find solutions that bring peace and prosperity that creates a better world and future for all people ...

• CLICK HERE to read/see more.

Monday, October 23, 2023

From @mmm_water ... 2023 Well Season: Daily Devotional

September 1 - October 31 is Marion Medical Mission Well Season for 2023. The season will include daily devotionals - one for each day the U.S. volunteers are overseas, sharing the love of Jesus by providing safe, clean, sustainable sources of drinking water to the extreme poor in sub-Saharan Africa. Marion Medical Mission is one of our mission partners at Grace Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas, and we STRONGLY encourage you to read these devotions to learn more about - and pray for! - their mission.

October 23, 2023

LOVE WITH ACTION
Happy Kamsonga
MMM Field Officer, Malawi

"Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with action and in truth.” - 1 John 3:18

"Each of you should use whatever gift received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various form.” - 1 Peter 4:10

There is my heart, and then there is you, and I am not sure there is a difference. Loving someone without knowing how, or when, or from where. Loving you is simply without problem and pride. Marion Medical Mission loves villagers because it is only in this way to show love to the villagers through safe clean water.

With the gifted life that God gifted me I am so happy and proud being part of the team to change people’s lives in the rural areas by providing safe clean drinking water through MMM. It was like a dream since people never expected change in their homes, safe clean drinking water which will put their lives on the safer side. It was like a storm which covered them, never finding peace of mind as only open wells were the major source of water and full of contaminants. No hope among people in the village, as children becoming sick, high school drop outs, early marriages, and diseases. Hospitals were crowded due to sickness; infant mortality rate was higher. There was no rest among people in the village because each and every day we could see children dying due to unsafe water.

God indeed loved so the world. Marion Medical Mission is defined as love and blessings to people like us because it makes our lives better and gives meaning to many lives in Africa. With unconditional love from MMM, we are who we are today, and the well program forms one link with friends from the U.S. who come for well installation season. Marion is different from any other organization as it does exceptional work.

Now people in the villages have hope as the awaited rain has come, love from Marion Medical Mission is the only hope for people in the village. If we can, let’s do it today, and tomorrow shall never be the same.

Application Question: As sons of God, do we really communicate our love through touch or action not words?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, By the power of the holy ghost, I cast all unclean sprit to the lake of fire. I cancelled all the curses and evil from my life and I return all evil intentions and curses back to the originator ten-fold. Cover me, heavenly Father, from wickedness and evilness. In the name our lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

In the News ... "Kick for Kenya 1K/5K/10K"

• All proceeds benefit Midland-based Kenya Widows and Orphans Ministry

MIDLAND, TEXAS - Kick for Kenya 1K/5K/10K has been scheduled for Saturday, November 11, at GCR Church of Christ, 3500 W. Golf Course Road, Midland.

KWO Ministries is proud to welcome you to one of the premier running events in the Permian Basin. Over the last nine years, Kick for Kenya has become one of the largest and longest-running charity races in the area, featuring a 10K-5K-1K format.

The 1K Kids Fun Run will begin at 8:45 a.m. and 5K/10K run will begin at 9 a.m.

All proceeds of this event will go towards KWO (Kenya Widows and Orphans) Ministry. Founded in Midland, their mission is to redeem the lives of Kenyan widows and orphans. KWO is a non-profit ministry that serves 16 orphanages, provides feeding stations, and funds educational opportunities, all while sharing the message of God’s love in Kenya.

To sign up, visit runsignup.com

For more information, visit Tkwoministries.org/kick-for-kenya.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On being overconcerned about the past of others and of our own.

5 June 1961

We must beware of the Past, mustn’t we? I mean that any fixing of the mind on old evils beyond what is absolutely necessary for repenting our own sins and forgiving those of others is certainly useless and usually bad for us. Notice in Dante that the lost souls are entirely concerned with their past. Not so the saved. This is one of the dangers of being, like you and me, old. There’s so much past, now, isn’t there? And so little else. But we must try very hard not to keep on endlessly chewing the cud. We must look forward more eagerly to sloughing that old skin off forever—metaphors getting a bit mixed here, but you know what I mean.

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Photo provided by Alison Wood

Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 23, 2023

YOUNG ADULT VOLUNTEER PROGRAM - A new group of Young Adult Volunteers arrived in Tucson in August 2022, where they were met with more than the usual level of rejoicing: This program year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tucson Borderlands Young Adult Volunteer program! For two decades now, young adults have sought the voice of God in their lives and in the U.S./Mexico borderlands through a year of service ...

• CLICK HERE to read/see more.