The Beta Version

Ever since I got back from Romania, something has been sticking in my mind and it has to do with feet.

Yup…feet.

Gina, one of our team members, took pictures of her feet wherever we went. The airport, hotels, parks, stores and churches. I kidded her about it each time. But, it was her way of remembering where she had been and what she was doing.

One morning, she came walking up to me grinning with her bible in her hand.  She showed me the following passage that her roommate, Amy, had shown her the night before.

How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)

Here in Isaiah, several hundred years before Jesus’ joined us on earth, God is foretelling the Great Commission that Jesus will later tell the Disciples.  How cool is that?!

Re-read the first two lines again.

How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,

I didn’t pick on Gina again after that.

And it has stuck with me the whole summer.  This is how God views those that GO to proclaim salvation.

As we have prepped for kicking off our GROW Middle School the urgency of sharing the good news with them has gotten stronger.

As for me…I want beautiful feet.

How about you?

If you are on staff or volunteer in church music or media, there is a great training opportunity coming up later this month here in South Carolina.  The South Carolina Baptist Convention will be hosting their annual Worship Summit August 20-21 at White Oak Conference Center.

There are classes for music ministers, worship leaders, choir leaders, band members, musicians, handbells and media techs.  I’m kind of partial to this conference because I’m one of the teachers in the Tech Track.  People involved in all these areas of ministry need these types of opportunities.

See the class listing now!

As a longtime media/tech volunteer leader, one of the things I have heard the most is that people don’t feel like they have enough training.  They are uncomfortable taking on new roles or tasks because they don’t believe they know how to do the job effectively. I believe that we do our staff and volunteers a disservice by not making training available to them.   With regular training, leaders and volunteers come away with new ideas, enhanced skills and most importantly, re-energized confidence that they have the tools to do their jobs.

Please check out the conference and take the time to invest in your ministries.

If you’re at the conference on Saturday, please stop by the Tech Track classroom and say hello!

Woohoo!

Beta Version tshirts – designed by Our Shirts Don’t Suck – are available again.

The back has the following verse in the same color green:

¹² I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his.

Philippians 3:12 (NCV)

The shirts are $15 plus shipping up to an XL.  Shirts 2XL and larger are $16 plus shipping.

All proceeds will be going toward mission projects this year and next.

If God leads and work allows, I will be going back to Romania in 2011.  If you want to learn more about this year’s trip, check out the highlight video.

The talented YouVersion team from LifeChurch just released a new promotional video to help introduce others to YouVersion.    I like this video because it can be used as a segue into talking about YouVersion.   There’s no voiceover…just images of how people use YouVersion.

Cool.

I know I will be using it with our Youth group and we will probably be using it in promotional ways in front of the church.

How will you use it?

The church production company behind Facing the Giants and Fireproof is putting the final touches on their latest project Courageous.  Each new project seems to garner more attention than the last.  But it’s not the attention the producers are looking to gain.

I believe their latest project is more than a movie.  I believe it is also a testament about this church’s courage to step out on ministry projects that would have scared most people away.

USA Today recently had a feature story about the movie, the personnel involved and the church behind it.  Thankfully, USA Today also included the following video clip.

While watching it, I kept thinking:

“What am I willing to accomplish with courageous faith and passion?”

What about you?

I put together this highlight video of the Romania Medical Mission Trip which played just before I spoke before our church. Perhaps this will give you a little more perspective about what happened during that wonderful trip.

Sunday morning – a celebration of what God had done the previous week and a bittersweet time for the team.

My dad presented the final truths from Experiencing God and we worshiped for the last time with our new friends.

Dad preaching at Piatra Neamt

As I stated earlier, it was a bittersweet moment for the team that worked so hard together all week to share God with others.

The Gang

Summary

I’m not big on trying to measure what God has done or is doing using statistics and numbers.  But, sometimes it’s the only way you can share with others how God has been working.  So….what was God able to accomplish last week through us?

Professions of faith = 75 people came to Christ

Medical Clinic = 1,300 patients were seen by the Doctors and medicine or other supplies were distributed by the pharmacy as needed

Eyeglasses = 800 people fitted with glasses

Children = The children’s workers were able to work with 150 – 200 children

What’s next?

That’s where the the prayer comes in.

God has already birthed ideas in people’s minds about next year.

Please pray for God to provide clear guidance and for those involved with the Romania missions to have discernment about next year.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

Before we left for Romania, the idea was floated of our team hosting an Experiencing God weekend.  After much prayer, it was decided that, although time would be short, we should be able to get it done.

We started early on Saturday. My dad spoke and went over the first of the key truths from the Experiencing God material.  Then we broke into small groups.  We had 10 adult small groups and I led the Youth small group.  Having been through Experiencing God before, I was somewhat concerned about how the groups would go.

But God took care of that for us.  The Youth I had in my group were awesome.  God provided opportunities for several of the Youth to really open up and share about what God was doing in their lives.  It was exciting to hear about how God had already worked in their lives and was continuing to work.

We broke for lunch and had some “Youth” fun around the lunch table.

Lunch table!

Lunch table!

That afternoon, we finished up the first few truths from Experiencing God.  The remaining truths would be covered on Sunday morning.

Later that evening we held a celebration dinner with both the American and Romanian volunteers to celebrate what God was able to do during the week.

Details in my Sunday Summary post.

Friday was probably the easiest morning we had.  Since we were back in the same location from the day before, we didn’t have to unload medical supplies from a trailer and sort through boxes to set-up the pharmacy and glasses evaluation station.  Even though the clinic was busy on Thursday, Friday was just as busy.

Piatra Neamt Clinic Day 2

Thankfully, the weather was better and we were able to take the children outside.  What fun to help the children burn off some energy so they could sit during story time.

Game time with the kids

We knew that kids from the orphanage would be coming, but we weren’t sure how many.  When they arrived, we noticed that the majority of them had come the day before.   It was so cool that they wanted to come back.  But that day was a little different for them.  We had a special speaker.  Elena (Boghian) Marza spent time in prison for being a Christian when Romania was still a communist country.

Elena speaking to the kids

That after noon we sang a lot with the kids and told (acted out) stories from the Bible where we could tie it back to our relationship with Jesus.  Toward the end of the day, we took the kids downstairs and they got to do something special.  They filled up the choir loft area and got to sing in the sanctuary – with all of its amazing acoustics.  It was exciting for them AND us.

Kids singing

That evening, we got to experience another great worship service.  They had a special music group in to sing which we really enjoyed.  They sang a number of traditional hymns – which of course we sang in English while they sang in Romanian.  The highlight of the service was when Elena shared about her experiences as a Christian in a communist nation.

Elena sharing

I encourage you to get her book and read about her faith during persecution.

This was eye opening especially for me.  Those of us in America definitely take our religious freedom for granted.

On Thursday, our team was finally back together after working as a split team for two days in different churches.   It was good to all be in the same location.  Even though I’ve only known the majority of the team for a few days,  I have grown to love each and every one of them.  On the days when we were split into two different teams, I missed the others and was so glad to see them at the end of the day.

The church at Piatra Neamt is our host church for this work.  It is absolutely beautiful with wonderful acoustics for the spoken word.  The people have worked hard to provide this place where they can worship.  From this location, they are serving and helping so many people.

This was the first day that the clinic staff were going to be working in a larger city.  Thankfully, this also meant that people waiting had somewhere where they could wait inside.   There was plenty of space for the doctors, pharmacy and eyeglass fitting.

Waiting area for the Doctors

Waiting for glasses

In Piatra Neamt, those of us working with kids got the opportunity to work with children from the local orphanage.  These kids were awesome and so engaged in the songs, stories and crafts that we got to do with them.

Children at Piatra Neamt

At the end of the day, we got to spend time in worship with our Romanian brothers and sisters during an evening service.  Although I didn’t understand the words, it was still worshipful as we hummed and they sang worship songs.  Just such a great time and a great way to end the day.