Exciting VBS Ahead - Get Ready for Rome

(left: VBS workers learn song and dance moves for ROME: Paul and the Underground Church VBS)

My first experience with VBS as a kid was terrifying. Coming from a home of non-believers, I was sent with my 2-year-old brother to an unfamiliar part of the neighborhood largely, I think, to get out of my mom's hair. I was four and I went to the wrong house. When we finally arrived at the right house, we were late. Everyone was talking about this Jesus person, someone I knew nothing about. I left feeling pretty alienated.

But no one will leave New Life's VBS feeling that way.

Last year was my first experience with New Life's VBS and I was totally awestruck when I saw the amazing teamwork involved in the event. So many adults are involved that it blows the mind. There must have been a 2-1 ratio of kids to adults, or close to it. Last year, the gym at St. Mark's (where the church was meeting then) was transformed into a Jerusalem marketplace in just a few hours, but with lots of planning beforehand.

Marketplaces sprouted up, baskets, palms, and Bible time charachters made the VBS extremely lifelike.

At New Life, VBS is a special ministry for Alicia Hutchinson. She spends the whole year planning and preparing, and she has a special knack for recruiting volunteers. The entire experience is fun for all involved, and there are a lot of people involved. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a waiting list to be a helper because it's just so much fun to be involved.

This year, it's going to be very similar, only the theme is Rome in Paul's time. The kids will meet in the underground catacomb church, experience a Roman marketplace and all kinds of Roman craft places. They will work with metal jewelry, leather, scrolls and they'll go to a Latin grammar and architecture school - and lots more. They'll also learn what it was like to have to worship secretly to avoid becoming entertainment in the Coliseum.

Kids who come will be assigned a Roman family to be part of. No lost, scared kids at thie VBS! They will dance and sing to the absolutely breathtaking music at extollo time. And they'll be learning verses from -- where else? -- ROMANS!

I'm excited and it's still a ways off, not until July 20. Make sure to invite friends because it will be a VBS they'll remember for a long time. To see last year's VBS slideshow, click here.

Sharon, Tony and kids go to Durban

There are many ways one could describe
Durban, South Africa. It often reminded
Sharon of Duluth, MN because of the
steep hills and the glimpses of the Indian
Ocean.
We could described it by the people
that we met which were open and friendly.
Reaching out to us in love through food and
family.
We could describe the amount of crime
and robbery and that the people of Durban
don’t often feel completely safe. They have
bars on their windows and their houses are
often enclosed within gates to keep out people.
We in humor could call it a horn culture.
Wesley, Irina and Lucy - knew that when Pastor
Patrick came to pick us up - he would
honk his horn. It became such an anticipation
for them that every car horn had them
running to see if he had arrived. Lucy had
such joy when she knew we were all going to
pile into the “OM - clown car” and go to the
church. Or to someone’s house to eat. We
once got nine people into his car - okay so
four of them were the kids - we were still
pretty impressed with ourselves. Not the type
of thing that is common back “in the States.”
Our time in Durban was made wonderful
by the love of the host families. Each family
seemed especially picked for each member
of the team.
Our host was Queenie - she gave us
the use of her apartment, while she was
staying at her daughter’s home. We were
able to share a meal with her at her daughter’s
home as well as see her son-in-law
and daughter’s ministry.
SHARING WITH HINDUS

Sharing Christ with Hindus is interesting.
They believe in one God but believe that there
are many ways to him and that he takes on
many forms, so they worship many different
gods. There are over 300 million different
Hindu gods. They even claim to believe in Jesus
and they will pray to him also. It was interesting
to examine their faith and compare it to
what we believe and to reconfirm the trust we
have in Jesus Christ as the one true way to
God.
Hindus believe there are many roads, that
each road will take you to heaven. Pastor Patrick
who works in a predominately Hindu
neighborhood shared with us the way that he
has found works best in sharing with Hindu
believers.
If you are on a road trying to get to the
highway and there is a road block in your way,
you would turn around and go a different route.
This is like a Hindu who is following a road to
try to get to heaven and has to live through
many lives - through reincarnation. When
Christ has done what we can’t do - pay the
penalty for our sin, thus through his death and
resurrection we have the direct path to a relationship
with God through Jesus. This is a
much more direct road and why wouldn’t you
take it?
Pastor Patrick has found that using the
Bridge to Life along with a bit of the Roman
Road works well when talking with Hindus.
Connecting words that they are familiar to them
like atma - soul, dharma - path, karma - good
works and moksha - heaven, with how our sin
leads to death and the path to heaven isn’t possible
without Christ’s death on the cross and
that is how we can have a relationship with God.
Our goal for door-to-door outreach was
first just to connect with people and drink tea
and talk. If the conversation led to being able to
share the Bridge to Life with them then that was
even better. We both had the opportunity while
visiting with a Hindu family to share with them
about this. We pray that God will use this to
draw these people to Him.
The Hindu people were very lovely, hospitable
people who worship gods made from human
hands and often depict demonic images.
Please pray for the Hindu people in Durban and
the work that Pastor Patrick and his church are
doing at the Berea Full Gospel Church.

OTHER MINISTRY AND WELBEDACHT PRAYER CENTRE
Our ministry in Durban was a good balance
of outreach and experiencing the Indian culture
in Durban.
Door to Door outreach mainly to Hindus.
Many families in Durban show their faith by
flying a flag on a long bamboo pole. Red or
yellow flags shows they are Hindu, while a green
flag shows they are Muslim.
We went to two Christian schools and
shared about missions and performed some
dramas.
We also served tea and bread at the local
community hospital - people get in line there at
3 am to be able to pick up their prescription
medication.
On Fridays, Berea has a family night. Our
first Friday we focused on the persecuted
church. During the showing of a movie called
Behind the Sun, we “raided” the group and “arrested”
a few of the church members and most
of the youth. Afterward, they prayed for the
persecuted church. Sharon shared about the
persecuted church in Africa and asked many to
pray.
One Saturday we tried our hand at selling
books near the Bangladesh Street Market. Our
location was not the best but we certainly enjoyed
sharing our testimony and the love of
Christ when people would stop by to look,
Sunday we were given the chance to
have the whole day, the kids Sunday School,
the church service and a half hour of a
women’s community gathering.
One day we were taken to the Welbedacht
Prayer Centre, which is a church in the Welbedacht
district of Durban. It is like a rural outreach
in the middle of the city. Families live on
the hillside in housing pieced together from
whatever scrap metal and wood that they can
find. The Government is trying to provide them
with permanent housing before 2010 and the
World Cup.
Pastor Jerome and his wife Silvana serve
a meal for the kids after school from there and
have a church service every Sunday. They
partner with CAPRISA which performs HIV/
AIDS testing , counseling and on-going treatment.
They have a vision for creating a center
for the community. This includes a mentorship
program for the school children and providing
access to computers for school work and training.

Family + Food = FUN
If we were to sum up the Durban
outreach in three words it would be
Family, Food and Fun!
We can not thank the Berea Full
Gospel Church enough for the love
and care that we received from everyone.
We felt so welcomed! Since we
were in our own apartment, our family
had the privilege of having diner in the
homes of six different families from the
Berea church. We had so many wonderful
conversations, work, home, life,
kids, goals, and sport. Because of
this, Sharon is beginning to understands
the game of Cricket.
Knowing that we couldn’t take the
kids out every evening for dinner at
someone’s home, several members of
the church brought us meals to the
apartment. It was such a treat to have
a full meal delivered to our door and
the time to be a family in a home. It
was such a blessing.
Pastor Patrick and his wife Cheryl
fell in love with our kids and took such
good care of them. Cheryl watched
them several times so that both of us
could do ministry together. The kids fell
in love right back with them. They also
watched them one day because they
wanted us to have a chance to get
away as a couple for a date - which
they assumed correctly that it had been
a long time since we were able to do
that.
Some other exciting things - were
the Durban monkeys that dug into our
garbage for daily goodies. The kids
loved to watch them and Lucy made
her excited cooing “ahh” when ever she
saw them.
We were also able to get to the Victoria
street market, the Indian Ocean
(which is one thing that Sharon really
wanted to be able to touch). We both
learned that a Bunny Chow at the Oriental
Restaurant is truly a curry experience.
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Ipod Power?

I met a friend in the Kessler's parking lot today where we discussed how to improve the world. Some of the best ideas are thought of in store parking lots. We stood and talked while cars came and went.

Gail mentioned how much time people spend watching DVDs and movies at home. She believed that Christians need to tap into the most relevent methods for sharing the gospel and believed that more Christian screenplay writers are absolutely necessary. (Marolyn Burckhard, are you listening?)

That sparked another idea. Ipods. And maybe this is being done already. I don't know. Record the Bible onto a cheap mp3 player in whatever language you want. Intersperse songs from a church worship team. Send out.

Free ipods loaded with scripture and music? I can see this on the reservations, hospitals and schools right here in SD. Also, overseas, especially in areas where there might be no written language. Soon, the cost of an mp3 player and earbuds will be inexpensive enough to compete with other Bible distribution methods.

What ideas have you come up with in grocery store parking lots?

David and Goliath by Laurie, 9

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Wind and Clouds

Whoever boasts himself of a false gift is like wind and clouds without rain, says Proverbs 25. At first, I thought. What's wrong with this? Who wants rain and flooding? Who wants rain with wind? Who wants a cloudy day with wind AND rain?

But when you think about it, you can have dry ground that really needs rain. You hope for rain. Pretty soon you get a little wind and some clouds on the horizon and you think, Great! Rain's on the way. Only to be disappointed.

When you're promised a gift and it doesn't come, it's kind of like that. Or, if the false gift is a false attribute, you hope a person who boasted of his gifts and calling will pull through for you. Any day now, he'll do wonderful things, but that day doesn't come.

And if you're that Christian? If you think you have some great gift, but you never use it, never exercise it, never really mean to do much but feel good about it? Ugh. You're just another cloud passing over, a source of disappointment.

Father, keep me from false gift boasting!