We have arrived

Well we are here.  It is 3pm Monday local time now but this is the first opportunity I have had to connect to the internet.  Just wanted to post and let everyone know we have arrived safely and things are flowing nicely.  I will post more later today when the opportunity comes.

Macedonia Mission Trip

Well the time for departure has arrived.  Tomorrow, Saturday, July 16, I leave for my first overseas mission trip.  There are many emotions stirring in me, but mostly anticipation in what the LORD is going to do while we are there.  I covet the prayers of you all in the specific request below.

1. That the LORD will lead us to those in whose heart He is stirring.
2. That the LORD will open their hearts to pay attention to the gospel we
     proclaim (Acts 16:14)
3. That we will see at least one submit to Christ as Savior and will be able to plant the seed of the gospel to many more
4. For our families as we are away
5. For our safety  (pray over the planes, the pilots, the 4 hr. van ride, etc)

I will be updating the website with information regarding what we are doing and hopefully upload some pictures/videos, so keep checking back for information on the trip.  Thanks for your prayers.

Who gets the glory?

Over the past few days I have spent some time reading through Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia.  While I was reading yesterday, there was a verse I read, one I have read many times before that stuck out to me and made me think: Think about my life, my ministry, my witness to the lost.

In chapter 1 Paul is writing of his conversion experience in verses 11-24, and in verse 24 he writes, "And they glorified God because of me."  As Paul was changed, God was glorified.  If you read back through the preceding verses, there is only one person performing the verbs that are taking place in Paul's conversion, and that is God.    It was God who set Paul apart, God who called him by His grace and God how was pleased to reveal His Son. And this is no different for anyone who is saved in Christ Jesus.

Paul never got past his radical depravity and his glorious salvation.  As Paul recounted his conversion, as the people in Paul's life saw his changed life, and as Paul proclaimed the gospel of Christ, there was one thing that prevailed; this being the God's glorious grace towards him.  As I read this my mind immediately began to think through my life and my ministry.  Who gets the glory?  As I tell of my conversion, am I the main character?  Am I the one who figured it out?  Am I the one who just decided to turn over a new leaf?  Or is God the main character?  Is God the one that gets full credit for my salvation, or is He simply a supporting role?  And beyond this, what gospel am I preaching?  Am I preaching a gospel that revolves around the mercy and grace of a glorious God, or am I preaching a gospel that downplays our sinfulness and teaches just cleaning up our act?

As we look at our lives as believers, our witness to the lost world, we must keep the glory of God at the center.  We must cling to the truth of the gospel, and daily live in the truth that it is simply through the mercy and goodness of God that we are saved and live in a way that people, as they see our lives and hear our story, glorify God because of us.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1  Corinthians 10:31 ESV

A Students View on the NY Mission Trip: DeAnna McEntire and Emily Pate

Every day is an opportunity for ministry, but not many of us always take that opportunity. Today, we had the chance and took the opportunity to share. We divided into groups of four that were mixed with the other church groups. Our goal was to go door to door throughout Staten Island and invite people to Salem Church's block party. Not only this, but we also hoped to take the opportunity to share the gospel of Christ.

We had a surprising mix of results. Our experience involved many mean dogs, many slammed doors, and many unfriendly people, and also a few that were receptive. By lunchtime we were already somewhat discouraged, but we remembered the words of John Welborn the night before, when he spoke of how God made the footsteps of three lepers sound like an army in 2 Kings 7. In the same way, the flyers we passed out to a few unreceptive people in New York City could bring people to Christ.

God always works in mighty ways, even when it is unexpected. One person in our group, Austin Wilkins, had the opportunity to lead someone to Christ. He shared the story of the conversion with all the youth and it was very encouraging. Austin will write more about this tomorrow.  After a tiring day of dealing with people who brush us off, it was great to know that someone came to Christ. This is the entire reason we came here to New York, even if it was just one person.

Emily and DeAnna

Images from Haiti

Here is a video shot from Mars Hill Church from a trip made to Haiti just days after the earthquake.  Continue to pray for these people and give what you can.  There is a mighty work to be done there in helping these people to recover and to take the gospel message of Christ to them.  Pray earnestly for them and for what your role in helping them might be.

Overwhelmed by the Numbers

This morning I was praying through some of the people groups on the calendar at Joshua Project Calendar and began looking deeper into the statistics of some of the Unreached People Groups (UPG).  One of the groups I prayed for was the Megh, Hindu of India.  As I was reading through some information on them one stood out to me in particular.  This particular group in India alone adds up to some 2.76 million people.  As I looked further, less than 2% of these peoples follow Christ.  That means at most, there are roughly 52,000 Christ followers there, which still leaves over 2.7 million people in one people group who are blinded by false religion.  This stirs something inside of me as I hope it does you, to think that in one people group alone there are this many people who don't know Christ.  And this is not the only group that has these types of figures.  This really brings to light what Jesus spokes when he said the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  In what way can I, can you, join in on the mission of God to make His name great among the nations.  Will you commit to pray for these unreached people groups daily?  Will you pray and honestly consider whether God is calling you?  So often it is easy to tell ourselves that most of the world is Christian when we just sit in our comfortable, American, Christian bubble.  But when we open our eyes to the World around us, we realized the urgent need to take Christ to the nations.  Pray for these peoples.  Go to these peoples.