Boston- Part 2

Truth be told I didn't want to go to Boston. I was tired, physically feeling weak and honestly didn't know what I could possibly do that would help make an impact. And so, I told Bruce...."don't sign me up". Well either he has selective hearing or needs a hearing aid...because the next thing I know our missions pastor is asking me what my t-shirt size is. I wasn't happy. Bruce and I had a fairly short argument   discussion which ended in him saying I'm sorry  "You're going". ( I remember a similar discussion my parents had when I was a teenager living at home....it ended up with "Get in the car, Nancy" and us owning a cat for the next 10 years or so).

So....I packed and got on the van to ride to the airport....and on the van I read these words....

Here am I Lord, send me. - Isaiah 6:8

Conviction swelled within my heart. I knew I had some confessing to do. My attitude had been poor and my heart had not been committed to this trip. So I prayed...and as quick as the conviction the forgiveness came. 

We arrived in Boston late and it was after 1am before my head hit the pillow. We were up and at 'em early every morning for the next 8 days and worked harder than I've ever worked on a mission trip. It was just the nature of the trip..the purpose. 

In my short 8 days in Boston I learned that

1. Bostonians get a bad wrap...they are nicer than their reputation would have you believe.

2. Driving rivals NYC

3. Under extreme pressure, with no traffic, double parking spaces and a friend to help me, I can  parallel park a 15 passenger van.

4. Baptist means nothing there...even if it's a word on your church sign

5. Homosexuality and transgendered lifestyles are opening celebrated and widely accepted. 

6. The Atlantic Coastal region of Cape Ann might be my 2nd favorite place on the planet. 

7. Boston Baptist College Campus is gorgeous

8. They are training the very people who will reach this city and other NE cities for Christ.

9. These students are learning to defend and understand their faith...believe me...in a way that will be challenged in a way I can't even fathom. New Englanders aren't afraid to eat you alive.

10. God strategically place this institution in the middle of Harvard and MIT and Cambridge...in the middle of humanism and liberalism to make a difference.  I want to support this. 

....I want to support something outside the Bible Belt. I was shocked at how shocked I was at the amount of moral compromise and governmental chaos I learned of ....we are so sheltered here in Texas and sometimes it's so easy to get wrapped up in our own little worlds that we forget how the rest of the world lives. They live different. They believe different. They cope different. There is only one uniting voice...only one united way....Jesus. He's the common factor that we all need. This was made more clear to me even before I left DFW on the way to Boston when I had the opportunity to talk to a Bostonian heading home about her faith. In which she said "I just need some hope". We truly do all need the same thing...hope....hope in Jesus. I got to share with her that hope. Who knows if she's decided to follow Jesus or not....but she knows where to find hope.

Sometimes we can get so focused on ourselves...our lives...our families...our hobbies...our churches ...our work...our desires...our problems,  that we forget how badly the rest of the world needs to hear about our hope...our Jesus. This trip was a great reminder that those things are really ALL a person really needs.  

This trip was also a great reminder that the US is full of places that lack the bright Light of Jesus. Because there are fewer Christians in Boston it's important to support the efforts...just the same way we support efforts to reach the unreached in other countries. So many times we make prideful statements that the US is "Christian" or "Godly" and in a weird way regard reaching our own as a lower priority...I beg...plead and boldly say....we are not a Christian nation..we are not Godly. It was never more obvious than walking the Cape Ann boardwalk and seeing our morals in such a decline.  The harbor in Boston that welcomed so many for Biblical freedoms hundreds of years ago is much different today. Different in a very alarming way. We need to help shine the light brighter to these dark cities and I'm thankful for the short 8 days we had to walk along side, work along side and encourage and be encouraged by the staff and families of Boston Baptist College.

I'm already ready to return. 

Boston Bound

In a few days my family and I along with 11 others from our church will be headed to Boston to help do some work at Boston Baptist College. 

While there we will be remodeling an apartment where guests from around the world stay while they visit the campus for teaching or meetings. We will also be scraping and painting various areas around campus, planting flower beds, washing down baseboards and making welcome back packets for all the students for when they will return in September. We are excited about ministering to this community of Christian young adults preparing for the ministry and to their staff who lead and teach them.

We will have the opportunity to take in some of the sights of Boston and the New England area. I'm sure we will be taking lots of pictures and I'll post some when we return.

Why Boston? Well, funny you should ask. Over a year ago Bruce had the opportunity to visit the campus, speak in chapel and get acquainted with the campus and professors better. He came back to Texas extremely excited to see this Biblical institution training up young men and women in an area of the country where our Biblical worldview is challenged on a daily basis. In the midst of his excitement he also became burdened for the lack of Christianity in this city that seems so foundational in our Christian heritage in America. Humanism, cultural influences and our straying from Godly principles in government has influenced the Boston culture greatly. After visiting with the president of the college six months ago, Bruce felt very compelled for us to help this institution as they raise up a generation of pastors, teachers, preachers, worship leaders who are preparing to take the gospel to our own country and abroad.

Boston ranks 91 of 96 in the least Bible minded cities in America. By helping Boston Baptist College we are hoping to help with their efforts of spreading the Bible's message, Christ's message to their city as their students work, minister and reach out to their city for four years or more while they make Boston their home.

What can you do? Pray...for safety and for seeds to be planted and for God to bless our efforts. We want to be an encouragement to the people we minister with and also to have opportunities to share the gospel as the Lord opens the doors.

WY13 Mission Trip Recap #6 - final

I've given a little time for the emotions of our Wyoming trip to die down and for me to be able to really see and think about what I came away with from the WY13 trip. Bruce said it Sunday night and I happen to agree, sometimes we come back from these trips on an emotional high and need some time to rest and reflect on what God truly did in our lives. While the emotions are beautiful, sometimes they are provoked by lack of sleep, poverty, desperation..so after time, what really remains may look totally different than what we feel as we are pulling out of the parking lot of the mission church for the last time.

So after begin back for 8 days, I'm a little more ready to share how God worked in my own life.

I was reminded of the difficulties of small, rural American churches. The work that it takes when one couple is doing most of the work. This impacted both Bruce and I and we've shared many conversations about the memories we personally have of how difficult it is when you carry the load alone. It's given me a more clear look at how to encourage those who do much of the ministry alone, while growing a congregation in obedience to the service of the Lord.

I was reminded of how beautiful the body of Christ can be when we are working, encouraging, loving and genuinely caring for one another. While of course someone had to take charge of the trip, there was such a sweet humbleness of servanthood that drifted from the construction team to the ministry team. Men worked hard in the rain and hail, women scrubbed toilets, teenagers moved chairs and moved more chairs, kids dug up cactus. There were no "I'm too good for that" jobs. Everyone pitched in and did what they could or what was needed.

I was reminded how important humility is in the body of Christ. As we served each other and ultimately, the Lord, I was so blessed to watch and participate in the activities of the week. It's not about who is doing what...it's about doing what needs to be done for the furtherance of the gospel of Christ. It's not about who has power or control, it's about serving the least of these, the last, the forgotten and the tired. It's about tearing away the pride we can so easily wear and humbly walking beside someone, listening to them, not yourself. It's about doing things a different way than you're used to and it being OK. It's about being perfectly OK with not understanding a culture...but learning from someone who does. It's about being moldable, bendable, teachable.....so we can be more affective in a community.

So...there you have it. WY13 is a wrap...but the lessons learned there will be etched in my heart forever.

WY13 Mission Trip Recap #5

As is the style of most mission trips, a day of site seeing is usually scheduled in for the crew to enjoy. We didn't get a full day, but managed to squeeze in 2 half day trips.

The first was to downtown Cheyenne (see previous days recap for those pictures). The other day was to Vedauwoo, beautiful rock formations that displayed God's handiwork at it's best

Breathtaking...the views...the creativity of our God.

WY13 Mission Trip Recap #4

The great part about taking a large group on a mission trip is the amount of work and ministry you can get done with all the people pitching in and helping. That's exactly what happened. About 6 of our men made up a construction team. They built shelving in FBC's storage unit, built and stained a communion table and offering box, installed doors at the parsonage, fixed some plumbing issues, repaired sheetrock,  framed whiteboards and more. Unfortunately most of that happened during VBS and I didn't get pictures.

However, after VBS the rest of us joined in the work. We cleaned out flower beds, replanted and mulched the flowerbed around the sign. We created a flower bed on the side of the building and cleaned up along the buildings. Our most difficult chore was digging up tiny cactus that were all over the back couple of acres of land. Truly...after working several hours we had only made a small dent in this chore. But, progress is progress, right?

We also helped by wiping down doors and molding and cleaning all the windows in the church. 

Helping do these chores was a blessing to me. It helped me remember the hard work it takes to start and pastor a smaller church. Chances are that Wyoming will not ever boast a huge mega-church due to the population being so spread out. So, there are pastors all over the state that are doing it all by themselves, or are working with just a few faithful workers. Tommy and Jharee are two of the most faithful servants of God who are doing so much of the work alone. Song leading, piano playing, bulletin typing, Sunday School teaching, pastoring, budgeting, cleaning, visiting, yard work, nursery....with just a handful of helpers it was a blessing to encourage and partner with them to get some of these bigger projects completed.

WY13 Mission Trip Recap #3

Over the course of our week at Faith Baptist we had the opportunity to share with over 80 children during VBS. The church had chosen Truassic Park (spin off of Jurassic Park) as their theme for the week. Three of our team members played the main roles through puppets and skit characters. Todd, Stephanie and Jeremy made their characters come alive and did an awesome job talking about dinosaurs, creation, the flood, scientific methods and Jesus. Who knew we were among such talent! 8 Children came to know Christ through the message that was shared.

"Doc", our favorite scientist!

These guys (and gal) spent many hours tweaking
the script so that it fit our schedule.
They did a great job!

Here they are in action. Dr. Deceit, Becky and Doc

Two different afternoons we had a little sightseeing time. On Monday we were able to go into downtown Cheyenne and tour the old shops, the square and the first ever Wrangler store. Here's a sneak peak into what that looked like:

Beautiful old brick buildings and streets

Tucker and Jackson in front of a big boot that has the names
of every governor that Cheyenne has had.

"Equality for Women" statue

Tucker getting his cowboy on!

Oldest Theater

Original Wrangler store

And well.....I'm not sure there are words for this...
JD, Bruce and Manual
Oh My!

WY13 Mission Trip Recap #2

As soon as we got to Faith Baptist, Cheyenne, we were welcomed by several church members, who would become like family to us before the week was over. Tommy and Jharee Miller have been at FBC for three years. They have a huge heart for their community and were already diligently preparing for the week of VBS, the carnival and the youth rally that we would be assisting them with throughout the week. 

As soon as we arrived we began stuffing over
2000 door hanger bags to distribute in the community.

The guys set up this great big tent that
housed small groups, all our meals and the carnival.

And maybe best of all, we were experiencing low 80's for the highs!
Sweet!

The first full day was spent at the church for services and in the afternoon all of us hit the road and distributed over 2000 door hangers. While we were out we had to take a break because of the hail and wind storm, but it quickly passed and we we out pounding the pavement for the afternoon. After the evening services we divided up responsibilities for the week and readied the building for the week's VBS. Things were looking good!

WY13 Mission Trip Recap #1

Mission Trip Team WY13

When God puts together a team, he doesn't make mistakes. On August 3, 2013 when our WY13 team came together, there were various ages...ranging from 11 months to 70+, different abilities..ranging from unable to walk to fit teenagers, different talents...a chef, a pianist, a preacher, a housewife, a photographer, a carpenter, a college professor, students. Differences..coming together for the purpose of connecting, growing and serving at Faith Baptist Church. 35 different people who used their ordinary gifts to make an extraordinary difference.

Teamwork is only teamwork when everyone recognizes the value of each member of the team. I saw this over and over again. As our team worked with the Faith Baptist Team in Wyoming, a beautiful bond was formed that created a stronger team. It was truly one of the greatest pictures of unity I have ever witnessed. I'm thankful to have seen it!

First Family Mission Trip

I was especially thankful for this opportunity to do this trip with my family. The kids were involved in helping with the bus ministry, digging cactus up...lots and lots of cactus, setting up and tearing down, cleaning, helping with Baby Owen, helping dad with the games for VBS and best of all making new friends. This will be a trip they will never forget. I'm so thankful that God worked in their hearts too.

I'll be blogging and posting pics of the mission trip all week. Come back tomorrow for more!