Tom & Rose, Robert & Pat, Sherry, and I were immensely blessed to be able to be a part of the ministry trip to Anna Marie and Christine's home in Santa Fe Saturday. It was a wonderful day to do some yardwork. The trip up was a nice ride to enjoy some caffeine and brotherly fellowship. Robert was awesome to bring some great tools for the trip and He sure knew how to use them while Anna Marie had laid out a bunch of tool and a wide array of snacks. Tom and Rose had picked out some beautiful flowers including Geraniums that Christine likes. The first thing I noticed upon being welcomed into Anna Marie and Christine's home was the glowing beauty of Christine and her wonderful collection of art! So we commenced to get some yardwork done. Robert hopped right to trimming some trees(some nice size branches!), blowing leaves and clearing beds, Rose and Sherry went to arranging the flowers in pots and plastic beds and did an amazing job arranging the colors. Pat and I trimmed up some vines and picked up some leaves while Tom cracked a whip if we got out of line, just kidding; Tom cleaned the beds, fixed the gate door, trimmed bushes and beds, and helped move everything. There was an aroma of Rosemary and Sage. Everything went smoothly and upon breaking for lunch I have to say I feel we really did get the long end of the stick on this one..... Anna Marie and Christine had prepared a wonderful lunch of enchiladas, tortillas, beans, and the fixins! Sherry brought dessert; it was so good! Sherry and Rose positioned some pots with beautiful arrangements outside the kitchen and Christine's bedroom for her to be able to gaze upon. We all prayed with Christine for a sweet peaceful moment before finishing up and leaving but not before Anna Marie and Christines family stopped by and we were able to meet them; they were very kind and warm, smiling alot. Robert took most of the bags and limbs(quite abit) with him and threw them away themselves. I was so impressed by how easily and loving everyone worked together, it is so cool when God's children get together and there is just a peace and joy getting in the sunlight of the Son and planting some seeds!
your brother in Christ,
Jason
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Saturday, 17 April 2010
What is the church
Many people today understand the church as a building. This is not a biblical understanding of the church. The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia which is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones.” The root meaning of “church” is not that of a building, but of people. It is ironic that when you ask people what church they attend, they usually identify a building. Romans 16:5 says “… greet the church that is in their house.” Paul refers to the church in their house—not a church building, but a body of believers.
The church is the body of Christ, of which He is the head. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” The body of Christ is made up of all believers in Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2) until Christ’s return. The body of Christ is comprised of two aspects:
1) The universal church consists of all those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). This verse says that anyone who believes is part of the body of Christ and has received the Spirit of Christ as evidence. The universal church of God is all those who have received salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
2) The local church is described in Galatians 1:1-2: “Paul, an apostle … and all the brothers with me, to the churches in Galatia.” Here we see that in the province of Galatia there were many churches—what we call local churches. A Baptist church, non denominational, Pentecostal is not the church, as in the universal church—but rather is a local church, a local body of believers. The universal church is comprised of those who belong to Christ and who have trusted Him for salvation. These members of the universal church should seek fellowship and edification in a local church.
In summary, the church is not a building or a denomination. According to the Bible, the church is the body of Christ—all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation (John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13). Local churches are gatherings of members of the universal church. The local church is where the members of the universal church can fully apply the “body” principles of 1 Corinthians chapter 12: encouraging, teaching, and building one another up in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This has been on my heart lately about what is the church its Gods people, and I think its so important to keep this in mind whenever any one is doing anything in ministry. We should be encouraged that we are all in Gods family and that we are called to serve HIM and HIS children. A Common question in ministry is: Is this the will of God? We are called to the love the Lord our God with all our heart minds and souls and love our neighbors as our selves! And in following that command and serving Gods people we are in the will of God, and should take courage in that.
The church is the body of Christ, of which He is the head. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” The body of Christ is made up of all believers in Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2) until Christ’s return. The body of Christ is comprised of two aspects:
1) The universal church consists of all those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). This verse says that anyone who believes is part of the body of Christ and has received the Spirit of Christ as evidence. The universal church of God is all those who have received salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
2) The local church is described in Galatians 1:1-2: “Paul, an apostle … and all the brothers with me, to the churches in Galatia.” Here we see that in the province of Galatia there were many churches—what we call local churches. A Baptist church, non denominational, Pentecostal is not the church, as in the universal church—but rather is a local church, a local body of believers. The universal church is comprised of those who belong to Christ and who have trusted Him for salvation. These members of the universal church should seek fellowship and edification in a local church.
In summary, the church is not a building or a denomination. According to the Bible, the church is the body of Christ—all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation (John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13). Local churches are gatherings of members of the universal church. The local church is where the members of the universal church can fully apply the “body” principles of 1 Corinthians chapter 12: encouraging, teaching, and building one another up in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This has been on my heart lately about what is the church its Gods people, and I think its so important to keep this in mind whenever any one is doing anything in ministry. We should be encouraged that we are all in Gods family and that we are called to serve HIM and HIS children. A Common question in ministry is: Is this the will of God? We are called to the love the Lord our God with all our heart minds and souls and love our neighbors as our selves! And in following that command and serving Gods people we are in the will of God, and should take courage in that.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Update from the Stevens!
Dear Kinship Family,
We’re back! Thank you for your prayers! We left Albuquerque at 4pm and stayed the night at Red Rock Park. We slept like rocks. The following morning we met up with Pastor Benally and his wife, Angie. We set up the distribution station near White Water, seven miles north of Gallup. Pastor Landoll and his wife had made a large sign that said,”free clothes.” The clothes were piled high on four tables and the cars seemed to stop in waves. They were excited to see the quality of the clothing—some even with the store tags on them. Meeting the clothing needs for the grandchildren seemed to be the primary concern of a large number of the elders that stopped. Young families were happily picking out clothes for the children as well as the adults. The weather was great, the experience was truly heart-warming and the expressions of happiness on the faces of so many were uplifting. I experienced the same wonder that we experienced as a group at Joy Junction. We prayed with the Benally’s that the Lord would bless their ministry and family and that their daughter would be victorious in her first outing as a freshman pitcher on the girls high school varsity softball team. We were blessed to hear that Landoll had been praying about an opportunity to give out free clothing and share with the Navajo’s who came by, inviting them to his Bible study in Navajo. When Robert called about bringing clothing out he saw it as an answer to prayer. It’s fun to experience the joy of giving and the opportunity to meet needs!
In His love, Robert and Pat
We’re back! Thank you for your prayers! We left Albuquerque at 4pm and stayed the night at Red Rock Park. We slept like rocks. The following morning we met up with Pastor Benally and his wife, Angie. We set up the distribution station near White Water, seven miles north of Gallup. Pastor Landoll and his wife had made a large sign that said,”free clothes.” The clothes were piled high on four tables and the cars seemed to stop in waves. They were excited to see the quality of the clothing—some even with the store tags on them. Meeting the clothing needs for the grandchildren seemed to be the primary concern of a large number of the elders that stopped. Young families were happily picking out clothes for the children as well as the adults. The weather was great, the experience was truly heart-warming and the expressions of happiness on the faces of so many were uplifting. I experienced the same wonder that we experienced as a group at Joy Junction. We prayed with the Benally’s that the Lord would bless their ministry and family and that their daughter would be victorious in her first outing as a freshman pitcher on the girls high school varsity softball team. We were blessed to hear that Landoll had been praying about an opportunity to give out free clothing and share with the Navajo’s who came by, inviting them to his Bible study in Navajo. When Robert called about bringing clothing out he saw it as an answer to prayer. It’s fun to experience the joy of giving and the opportunity to meet needs!
In His love, Robert and Pat
Friday, 9 April 2010
Calvary mission church in Yatahey!
Dear Kinship Family,
The hard work that Kazumi and Tu did at Joy Junction has resulted in Joy Junction providing a dozen containers of children’s clothing, almost more than we can take to the Calvary mission church in Yatahey! We plan to spend Friday night at Bluewater State Park so we can be there early on Saturday to set up a clothing distribution site. This area was declared a disaster area in February and Calvary delivered coal and firewood to elders in the area which resulted in the saving of lives.
We have been working with Pastors Brian Nixon (thank you Kazumi finding this contact) and Greg Griego. We have also connected with Michael Cordova, Landoll’s Albuquerque contact person. There may be more opportunities to assist with this mission in the near future since they are hoping to be able to rent a facility they have located for Sunday services. They will need to remodel the facility.
We covet your prayers for this venture on behalf of Home Fellowship #6!
Robert and Pat
The hard work that Kazumi and Tu did at Joy Junction has resulted in Joy Junction providing a dozen containers of children’s clothing, almost more than we can take to the Calvary mission church in Yatahey! We plan to spend Friday night at Bluewater State Park so we can be there early on Saturday to set up a clothing distribution site. This area was declared a disaster area in February and Calvary delivered coal and firewood to elders in the area which resulted in the saving of lives.
We have been working with Pastors Brian Nixon (thank you Kazumi finding this contact) and Greg Griego. We have also connected with Michael Cordova, Landoll’s Albuquerque contact person. There may be more opportunities to assist with this mission in the near future since they are hoping to be able to rent a facility they have located for Sunday services. They will need to remodel the facility.
We covet your prayers for this venture on behalf of Home Fellowship #6!
Robert and Pat
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Ding Dong Ditch.....Kind of
God is good! This ministry was so stinken exciting for me! To me it was just seeing the blessing of being obedient to the scripture.
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, [and] to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
This woman was hurting so much from the death of her husband and also we learned from the recent death of her father. She was having such a hard time financially, spiritually, and emotionally. On the property where she live there was another mobile home where her daughter, son in law and her four grandsons lived, and they were all having a rough go as well as any one can imagine!
Sherry heard about this family from a very close friend of hers that is really close with this family and she shared how desperately this family needed help. Some of the first things we did for this family is we prayed for them, and then we took a collection and over the course or two weeks of collection we ended up with 426 dollars which that alone was just so neat to see the way that God provided for this family just within our little group.
So Rose, Sherry, Carol and I were the lucky ones that got to go shopping for this sweet family! We put together two baskets one for the woman, and one for the family both baskets had gift cards to Wall mart and smiths "for gas", the family got a couples devotional and a Children's bible and The women got a daily devotional.
Rose and I were also the blessed one to take the baskets out there and deliver them! When we got out there instead of ringing the door and running for the hills we decided to just give it to her in person. When she answered the door she looked kinda shocked but immediately invited us in, you can always tell a country person they either invite you in right away or greet you with gun and ask you to leave the property at once! I can say that cause I grew up out there! Any way sorry!
We went in and explained to her that we had heard that her and her family had a need and that it was laid on our hearts to meet that need. We told her that we were from a group of believers in ABQ, but did not giver her our names or affiliation.
It was so neat to see her reaction that the body of Christ cares! "Some times we really fail to show that as the body" She was so receptive, and she talked to us about how she was just having such a hard time getting back to church and even getting back into the word, and just in general how hard it had all been on her as of late. She also said though that she new she needed to get back into fellowship and into the word and we shared with her about Calvary of estancia and that they would be wanted and welcomed there, and then before we left we prayed with her.
One of the unique blessings and benefits about this ministry is that Gods servants are all over this situation. First we were told by Sherry's Friend that later after we left and when she opened the devo that we had given her it was marked to the exact day that her husband had been killed and the topic of that devotional was all about not despairing and having hope! How AMAZING is that! especially to her what a message from her father that he new and remembered the day that she lost her beloved and He did not want to despair but to have hope! There is no way that we could have even of tried to have done that. Our Father takes care of the details!!!
The next wonderful thing that hap pend is Rose received a phone call from John the very next Sunday after we had delivered the gifts stating that the woman and her family had showed up at church that morning!! He said that the congregation welcomed them and prayed over them. And the woman also went on the tell Sherry's friend that they really enjoyed and it and that the church felt so alive and that they were really excited about this church! How wonderful that the Lord also used this little ministry to help bring some of His children back to His body.
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, [and] to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
This woman was hurting so much from the death of her husband and also we learned from the recent death of her father. She was having such a hard time financially, spiritually, and emotionally. On the property where she live there was another mobile home where her daughter, son in law and her four grandsons lived, and they were all having a rough go as well as any one can imagine!
Sherry heard about this family from a very close friend of hers that is really close with this family and she shared how desperately this family needed help. Some of the first things we did for this family is we prayed for them, and then we took a collection and over the course or two weeks of collection we ended up with 426 dollars which that alone was just so neat to see the way that God provided for this family just within our little group.
So Rose, Sherry, Carol and I were the lucky ones that got to go shopping for this sweet family! We put together two baskets one for the woman, and one for the family both baskets had gift cards to Wall mart and smiths "for gas", the family got a couples devotional and a Children's bible and The women got a daily devotional.
Rose and I were also the blessed one to take the baskets out there and deliver them! When we got out there instead of ringing the door and running for the hills we decided to just give it to her in person. When she answered the door she looked kinda shocked but immediately invited us in, you can always tell a country person they either invite you in right away or greet you with gun and ask you to leave the property at once! I can say that cause I grew up out there! Any way sorry!
We went in and explained to her that we had heard that her and her family had a need and that it was laid on our hearts to meet that need. We told her that we were from a group of believers in ABQ, but did not giver her our names or affiliation.
It was so neat to see her reaction that the body of Christ cares! "Some times we really fail to show that as the body" She was so receptive, and she talked to us about how she was just having such a hard time getting back to church and even getting back into the word, and just in general how hard it had all been on her as of late. She also said though that she new she needed to get back into fellowship and into the word and we shared with her about Calvary of estancia and that they would be wanted and welcomed there, and then before we left we prayed with her.
One of the unique blessings and benefits about this ministry is that Gods servants are all over this situation. First we were told by Sherry's Friend that later after we left and when she opened the devo that we had given her it was marked to the exact day that her husband had been killed and the topic of that devotional was all about not despairing and having hope! How AMAZING is that! especially to her what a message from her father that he new and remembered the day that she lost her beloved and He did not want to despair but to have hope! There is no way that we could have even of tried to have done that. Our Father takes care of the details!!!
The next wonderful thing that hap pend is Rose received a phone call from John the very next Sunday after we had delivered the gifts stating that the woman and her family had showed up at church that morning!! He said that the congregation welcomed them and prayed over them. And the woman also went on the tell Sherry's friend that they really enjoyed and it and that the church felt so alive and that they were really excited about this church! How wonderful that the Lord also used this little ministry to help bring some of His children back to His body.
Joy Junction
What a huge blessing it was!! All of us worked as a team in many different ways. I truly believe the blessings of this even started before we even got to joy junction! Teya did such wonderful job putting things together " the skit, puppet show, and the little gifts for the kids. It was fun to watch everyone just jump right in and participate and speaking from a personal view it definitely wasn't all in our comfort zones! AND THATS A GREAT THING!! :) So the bonding had begun and it was wonderful!
Before we went we tool a collection because we it was also on our heart to meat some of their needs, by buying drinks for all of the residents there. Jason and Kazumi went to I think Costco but it could of been Sam's and loaded up on lots of vitamin water and plain water, and then took it to joy junction and here is what GOD did: When they got there they were informed that the compound had just ran out of water that morning, and they were so siked that it didn't need to be something that they had to worry about for that day! And we were so siked as a group that God was taking care of the detail for that ministry through our willingness to serve there!
The skit and the puppit show was also a hit! Through both of them some of us from the group heard different comments from people in the audiance that showed some of what they heard was hitting home, and as we learned recently in church its all just spiritual farming and even though they didnt come up for prayer it doesnt mean the seeds were not planted!!
Continued prayer requests from that ministry are:
For the the two women that came forward at the end
For all of the residents to come to the Lord and to become rehabilitated
For the staff to be blessed and encouraged
And always as the Lord leads!!
Before we went we tool a collection because we it was also on our heart to meat some of their needs, by buying drinks for all of the residents there. Jason and Kazumi went to I think Costco but it could of been Sam's and loaded up on lots of vitamin water and plain water, and then took it to joy junction and here is what GOD did: When they got there they were informed that the compound had just ran out of water that morning, and they were so siked that it didn't need to be something that they had to worry about for that day! And we were so siked as a group that God was taking care of the detail for that ministry through our willingness to serve there!
The skit and the puppit show was also a hit! Through both of them some of us from the group heard different comments from people in the audiance that showed some of what they heard was hitting home, and as we learned recently in church its all just spiritual farming and even though they didnt come up for prayer it doesnt mean the seeds were not planted!!
Continued prayer requests from that ministry are:
For the the two women that came forward at the end
For all of the residents to come to the Lord and to become rehabilitated
For the staff to be blessed and encouraged
And always as the Lord leads!!
The goal and object of this blog
Greetings Dear kinship, and any one who stumbles upon this blog!
What a blessing it has been to be in ministry and what an encouragement it has been to see the immediate fruit from it! And because we want to be good stewards in all things some of us were talking about why not keep a record of all that God is doing in our lives and as group. Not only will it help us to remember that its the Lord that is leading and blessing it also will be an encouragement to us when we go through spiritual war fair and also to encourage others to not be afraid to be obedient to God's calling!
If you would like to add to this blog PLEASE do so.Tell all of us the way you were blessed and what you learned from each of our out reaches! Feel free to email me with your posting and I will put it up!
So very excited to see what the Lord is going to be doing in all of our lives!
What a blessing it has been to be in ministry and what an encouragement it has been to see the immediate fruit from it! And because we want to be good stewards in all things some of us were talking about why not keep a record of all that God is doing in our lives and as group. Not only will it help us to remember that its the Lord that is leading and blessing it also will be an encouragement to us when we go through spiritual war fair and also to encourage others to not be afraid to be obedient to God's calling!
If you would like to add to this blog PLEASE do so.Tell all of us the way you were blessed and what you learned from each of our out reaches! Feel free to email me with your posting and I will put it up!
So very excited to see what the Lord is going to be doing in all of our lives!
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