West Cocoa Chat

First, make sure you check out my last post with the latest installment of our Trek Pictures.

When I went a long time without posting before Trek, Greg (http://gregengland.com/) asked, “Is there nothing going on in your life worth blogging about?” Honest question and the honest answer is yes, there have been some fantastic things going on in our lives and the life of our church.

The first one I’ll post about started back in June and came to a point at 5:30am this morning. When we came back from helping the Carrollton Church (http://www.carrolltonavenuechurch.org/) in New Orleans, Steven and his friend Zack decided to go back on their own to continue helping this brave and visionary church, which is still trying to recover, 3 years after Katrina.

I think the logistics of their “2^nd Missionary Journey” to the Big Easy was that Zack prayed for God to send him an assignment, He did, then Zack went to my son and told him this should be a group (in “teacher-ease” it would be called “Cooperative learning”) assignment. Steven accepted and then they laid the “assignment” on us. Our initial reception went something like this:

Dad: “Polite silence” followed by a verbal, “O.K.” followed by the thought, “It will never happen.”

Mom: “Polite silence” followed by a verbal, “Are you sure about this,” followed by the thought, “My baby (who is 18) is not going to New Orleans on his own.”

Even a couple of weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains, Steven and Zack were praying, witnessing, and planning for their trip while I was doubting. May God forgive me for inserting my faith for the faith of the coming generation. This thought came crashing through my brain at the Spiritual Growth Workshop (http://www.spiritualgrowthworkshop.com/) on Friday night.

Randy Harris was the keynote speaker and he taught from Acts 17:16 – 34. Look at the first few verses:

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the (emphasis mine) God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹Then they took him and brought him to a (emphasis mine) meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." ²¹(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

²²Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

Randy’s first point was this, “Be there!” We have to get outside our churches and go to the places where you’ll find the lost. Greg, you’ll love this as he even mentioned how some of his ACU Students were getting their bar-tending licenses to facilitate this. After Randy’s message, Steven and Zack went up to him to talk about the New Orleans trip. Randy was impressed and what impressed or maybe “depressed” me was there was nobody over 25 talking to Randy. Everyone who went up to him after his keynote were of the “young people” variety and I wonder.

So, back to Steven and Zack – remember our doubting. When they pulled out of here this morning they had collected $2000 to give to the Carrollton Church! They also had boxes of Bibles that they plan to hand out as they work the city as well as give to the Holly Grove Church that Carrollton is planting in inner city New Orleans. They had gift cards and the prayers and blessings of our church and those they met at the Spiritual Growth Workshop.

Oh, a special thanks to Joyce Massey. Joyce always has a booth at SGW where she continues the work of her departed husband, Jim Massey. Jim was a teacher and scholar in our brotherhood and produced numerous materials to bring the lost to Christ as well as materials for Christian education. She allowed Steven and Zack to work her booth and tell folks about their mission trip.

So that’s it – 2 young men, both 18, on their way to New Orleans to help 2 churches and a still recovering city. They go without the “can’t do’s” that dominate many of the generations of Christians that now stand as their “mentors.” Rather, they go with a “can do anything through Christ” attitude. Yes, they may still take their hits and life may deal them some defeats. My prayer is that may it never be me or their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that, as I heard Jim McGuiggan once say to a group of teens, “dumb them down.”

Please keep Zack and Steven in your prayers as they travel to New Orleans today and all this week. God bless.

// posted by cwinwc @ 4:08 AM