Flame of Fire

This coming Friday, September 29, the as yet unnamed group of teens and young adults at Morning Star Baptist Church (along with a number of other interested members and friends) will be travelling to Itasca, Illinois to see a performance of the play Flame of Fire.

Flame of Fire is the story of Jim Elliot and four other missionaries who became martyrs as they attempted to take the Gospel to a tribe of Indians known as the Auchas in Ecuador. Some of our members have already seen the play and have enthusiastically endorsed it.

For those of you who have signed up as needing transportation to the play, we will be meeting at the Berrymans' house between 5 and 5:15 p.m. on Friday. Plan for a quick stop for a fast food type meal on the way in. If you need directions to the Berrymans' home, click here.

News from the Leadership

Last night we had a post-prayer meeting leadership meeting at the Metras'. Here are some things that might interest you coming from that meeting.

1. Providentially, the stewardship conference is shaping into a more traditional missions conference. This is because of how God has converged on us several different speakers with several different types of works. The conference will officially begin October 8 in the AM and continue each night through the 11th. Please pray that God will stir our hearts for missions during that week.

2. The numbers for the building we are very interested in are very attractive. We got the first proposal last night. The seller/architect told me that Bill Hunt should be "your hero. He has saved you a lot of money." Bill Hunt has negotiated and discussed the drawings with the necessary people for many hours, trying to bring the costs down. Thank you, Bill, for your efforts. I hope that this works out! We will be arranging a visit to the place soon. Stay tuned.

3. Remember to pray for Chris and Margaret Metras as they minister in Gilbert, AZ this weekend.

Looking forward to the Lord's Day!

Adoniram Judson

Many of you remember the illustration I used of Ann Judson in my message on Abigail. There are a number of good books to read on the Judsons, but if you want a quick read about her husband's conversion (it's an amazing story), check out Nathan Businitz's article (assistant to John MacArthur).

Vision

This coming Lord's Day I am planning on unfolding Colossians 3:12-17 in an effort to remind all of us what our prayer is for Morning Star Baptist Church. This is a message that I repeat in one form or another every 12 to 15 months. This is because I don't want us to forget our DNA, the essence of what we, by the grace of God, are and have been. Please pray for me. This week has been a challenging week ministerially. But God is gracious as always.

Mark your Calendars!

The Bible Conference next year is scheduled for June 17 - 20, 2007. Dr. Dave Burggraff is signed up and ready to go. Many of you heard him speak here this summer and thoroughly enjoyed him. Some of you asked me to bring him back. Well, it's planned!

Remember that Dave Deets will be with us all day this coming Lord's Day. He is desiring to serve God as a missionary to Italy. We will take a love offering for him in the evening service.

Men's retreat and Sunday services

The traditional summer is over and the weather is doing its part to convince us that fall is quickly approaching. It was a busy weekend for many from our church as on Friday a group of men headed to Camp Fairwood in Wisconsin for a men's retreat. Those who attended came back with glowing reports of how they enjoyed the food and fellowship, and the spiritual challenges brought by the speaker.

On Saturday Board of Global Grace met to discuss the status of current projects and to make plans for future projects with this important ministry of our church. Sunday night the church was able to learn even more about this ministry as we highlighted the expanded role that Chris Metras is taking on with respect to both the church and Global Grace. While Pastor Bixby has mentioned it several times over the past few weeks, we were able to see and hear first hand from Chris how excited and enthused he is about his involvement in this ministry. As a church we appreciate the deep personal commitment that Chris has demonstrated with his time, efforts, and personal sacrifice to put himself in a position to be more effectively used in whatever ways God might lead.

After the evening service we were able to meet together in the fellowship area for a time of refreshments as we honored the Metras family and recognized Chris' expanded roles at Morning Star Baptist Church and with Global Grace. We praise God for the generous offering that evening that will allow us not only to send Chris to a conference next month, but also will allow Pastor and Mark to purchase some books for Chris' library.

This Thursday Chris, along with Ben Walsh and John Iverson, will head down to Bay Saint Louis, MS, as a part of Global Grace's continuing outreach efforts to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Along with providing assistance in rebuilding a home of an elderly Christian lady, Chris will be surveying the area and meeting with other pastors to find additional opportunities for Global Grace to minister in the area. Please remember to pray for these men as they travel to the area, that their efforts will be fruitful and that God will open doors for them to minister to both the physical and temporal needs of people and that these open doors will also lead to opportunities to address the spiritual and eternal needs of people as well.

Sunday evening afterglow

We had a wonderful time this evening with a gathering of some of the younger members of our assembly (Pastor Bixby, note that I am trying to avoid the "group" word). We learned things about each other that perhaps were not common knowledge before.

Just to give you an idea, I was shocked to learn that one member of our leadership once dressed up as the Easter Bunny and another member once ate the head of a chicken to impress a girl. This just goes to show you how far God's grace can bring individuals.

Of course we had some food to eat. As we ate we played a short game designed to get to know each other better. Pastor Bixby also elaborated on the purpose of having a targeted ministry for this specific age of gathered individuals (not group). I'll let Pastor expound on that as he and the leadership team have identified and articulated the purpose very well. After the food we also had a time of singing.

As Paul instructed the Ephesians, we are to speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and to sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord. And, as this example shows, sometimes when that is done it can sound pretty good.

Father's Day in New Zealand

Did you know today was Father’s Day? Well, it was in New Zealand, anyway! Scott had already planned a message on the subject of believer’s adoption before remembering the significance of this particular Sunday. We always enjoy seeing God organize our program like that!

We are continually encouraged to see God at work in lives here in Hamilton. Our Filipino friend, Marge, is eagerly soaking up Bible study and preaching. She is pleased to have her own Bible now, for the first time ever. Continue to pray for her in her search for truth and peace. She hasn’t missed a Sunday service and has promised to come for the mid-week service if we call and remind her about it.

This past week a lady contact experienced a crisis in her marriage. She is devasted and said she probably needs to go hear Tony Robbins (secular life motivational speaker who regularly shows infomercials here). We loaned her our copy of Jim Berg’s “When Trouble Comes” and she eagerly agreed to read it, beginning almost right away. When Scott told her we would be praying for her she was very pleased and said, “A friend told me I should have asked you to pray for me!” Please pray for this lady as we follow-up with her this week.

One of the church men is struggling with cancer and spent most of this week in the hospital. He is in a lot of pain and is scheduled for radiation treatment this next week. To see someone suffer in this manner is never easy, but to hear him say he is ready for heaven is delightful. This week he resigned his position as church treasurer due to his physical challenges. Lori will step in to help with the bookkeeping for a while.

We are pleased to report that God has provided a beautiful digital piano to use in our services. The school agreed to allow us to store it there in the room where we meet and one of the church men is building a wooden storage crate for protection. We look forward to enhancing the music for our church family and everyone is glad to retire the limited collection of pre-recorded accompaniment!

We have always been amazed at the multi-cultural makeup of New Zealand and recently learned that one in five people living in New Zealand were not born here! That is quite a high statistic which helps to explain the government’s very high standard for immigration and the very multi-cultural group of believers we are serving. Our city of Hamilton is estimated to grow by 26% in the next 16 years. There is work to be done, and you are welcome to come down and help. We did very quickly get used to the feeling of being upside down! J

We can sense the power of prayer on our behalf during this very challenging time of ministry. Keep it up!

Scott, Lori, Heidi and Daniel

Abigail

It is my desire to portray the faith of Abigail in the morning service. You may want to read her story in 1 Samuel 25. Many principles may be gleaned from Abigail's actions, from David, and even from the loser husband, Nabal. However, I think that too often the principles and "life lessons" that are so obvious in Abigail and David sometimes cloud out the most amazing facts of all. Abigail was a woman of faith. Remarkable faith! I pray the Holy Spirit will enable me to portray that fact vividly tomorrow. Please pray with me.

Extraordinary Women

It's about that time of year again. The Women's Bible Study has been a real blessing to many of our ladies. I wholeheartedly endorse Jane's selection for this season. Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur will be the guide for this year's bible study. We will have 12 copies of this book on our book table for $12 a piece. For an excellent review of this book, see Tim Challies "PREview."

The details about when and where will be forthcoming. I hope that many of our ladies will be able to enjoy this excellent ministry. Please pray for Jane Cook as she prepares her mind and heart for this ministry.

Katrina News

As we all know, Chris Metras is organizing more trips to Katrina land. There is much work yet to be done. Last week Cindy Swanson interviewed a pastor whose entire church family lost all of their homes in the storm. Most of his church family still live today in FEMA trailors. Cindy was kind enough to send me an email about this as soon as it was going on, but I am only now getting around to it. Read Cindy Swanson's account at her blog here. It is beautiful to see the pastor's strong confidence in the design of God. Chris, I think you need to check these people out!

Picture in Local News

Some of our own make the front page of the local news (Rockford Register Star). Check out the online version here.

Let's pray for our children who are starting school.

UPDATE: Berryman's blog has better linkage.

Missing link

Pastor Bixby informed me that the link to my address was not working properly. I think I fixed it here. I've also fixed the link below, but I wanted to let everyone know that it was working. Look forward to seeing all of you on Sunday.

Youth Fellowship, part deux

In response to Pastor's last post, Lacey does know about the fellowship this Sunday night and we're all very excited. For those of you who have never been to our house, you can click here for a map and directions. Here's a picture of what our house looks like when we've finished our yard work. We hope to see you all there.

Youth Fellowship

Ok. Ignore this very disturbing discovery (that church-goers are fatter). An actual quote: "Baptist are more likely to be obese." Forget it.

As has been announced over and over and over and over again, we are kicking off a brand new season for youth fellowship this coming Sunday AND one of the ways we are going to set this particular "kick-off" apart is by - er - eating..... At the Berrymans. After church on Sunday night. We figure that the next day being a holiday and all nobody is having to get up early for school. Fellowship will go until 9:30. The length of the fellowship hinges entirely upon the length of the sermon that night, something yet to be discovered. But we'll officially cut off at 9:30 no matter when we start. Most should be able to be home by 10:00, tucked in by 10:05.

Don't know who the Berrymans are? Check out their family picture here. I'm not sure what we'll have yet. I'm not even sure that Mrs. Berryman even knows that we are planning on going there, but hopefully she finds out before Sunday evening. Her husband knows.

We'll sing songs, play a game or two, pray, and enjoy one another.

Sweet Fellowship

 

Sunday Services

Just a quick post to show some of the fun activities thta took place this Lord's Day. We had a wonderful time of worship and fellowship at the Walsh home. Enjoy the photos.

Ladies Retreat 2007

Mark your calendars! The 2007 Annual Ladies Retreat is scheduled for April 20-21, 2007. I am really hoping for a great turn out. We have secured for that special event a much sought-after speaker, Holly Stratton. Holly is the wife of Dr. Dick Stratton, President of Clearwater Christian College. Jennie and I have enjoyed getting to know the Strattons, and we are both very much impressed with Holly's zeal for the Lord and her ability to communicate.

We so strongly believe in the value of the ladies retreat that we have put an increasing amount of forethought into it with an added amount of prayers. Our desire is to bring to you speakers who emulate our heartbeat for the Lord but who are able to add to the work of God here in ways that we can not do ourselves. Holly is a regular contributor to the widely read SharperIron.org. All of her articles are thought provoking and soul-stirring. You may read a few examples of her writing linked below. Mark your calendars now!

Holly on Graceful Modesty, on "Fat Cats", and "No Hang-ups Allowed."

Ladies Retreat April 20-21, 2007

Jacob Bergum

On Memorial Day weekend members from my brother's church were involved in a tragic accident that took the lives of the father and a sister. Another sister was severely hurt. Jacob, the youngest was also critically injured (see a picture of him here). There have been many ups and downs, but lately there seems to be a turn for the worse in young Jacob's convalescence. Here is a recent note from my sister-in-law:

Jacob Bergum has had a turn for the worse. On Friday, he had surgery to re-insert the bone plates in his skull. He did remarkably well on Saturday, and had the Dr.’s stunned! However, during the night on Saturday, he became very disoriented and sick. They decided to release him from the hospital on Monday late afternoon, and he had a rough time once he got home, I guess. Poor Geralynn only got 2 hrs of sleep on Monday night. I dropped off a meal for them on Tuesday afternoon, and I’ve never seen her look as bad as she did then. She was absolutely exhausted and stressed. Poor thing. I guess yesterday morning, (Wed) she had to call 911 to come and pick up Jacob to take him back to the hospital, as he’d been running a very high fever and was unresponsive when she tried to wake him up. He was rushed into surgery again, and they relieved a lot of fluid and swelling that had built up. He is still in a coma as far as I know, and he is very ‘fragile’. I guess they are concerned that more brain damage has occurred now. On our church’s website there’s a little update on them if any of you would be interested. I was just writing so that you can pray for them. They are so heavy on our hearts.

Nancy Foster's Open House

It's time to say "Goodbye!" to our college students. That's the sad part. The fun part, however, is getting to enjoy open houses. The fellowship is always good. Of course, most open houses are in May or June, but Nancy is more creative! There's no way she could spend the money she got before school starts!