One Sno-Cone At A Time

Saturday, I wasn't able to be at Lewis School's Relay for Life race. I've been there every year since we started doing it. John, Amy, and Ian Anderson weren't able to be there either.

So of course other New Hope folks showed up and rocked the event, giving away hundreds of free sno-cones.

And you wonder why I love these people and this place so much.

They LIVE IT OUT.

Sunday Recap August 29, 2010

For three years now, we've been part of the Sole4Souls team of people who are working to make sure everyone has shoes. Such a simple thing to any of us - need shoes, go to the closet. Want new shoes? Go to the store. But for most of the world on an everyday basis, that's not reality. And for people after disasters who have lost everything - the same is true. So New Hope stepped forward again this morning and gave. To overflowing.

Never known a more generous group of people. Ever.
Never known fewer people to do more to change the world.

My prayer, my several times a day, everyday of my life prayer...
is that more people would experience the joy of serving among people like them.

So, about today....
People still buzzing about the "New Hope Jeopardy" we played at the church social last Sunday night. Oh yeah, I'll be sharing some of the wacky answers in coming weeks. But seriously - love getting to know more about the people I serve with.

- Youth - I haz dem. :) I'm getting a chance to teach the HS youth for a couple weeks and I love it.

- Worship - from the announcements on - it rocked. The full belly project video was really enlightening and inspiring. The Child2Child girls did a great job. And John Anderson really put it all in context. Again,if you want to change the world - no better place to do it from than New Hope Valparaiso

- Music - Probably the best worship music set we have ever done. It was like the Dove awards or something. *Everlasting God, *Mighty To Save, *Revelation Song - I saw people raising their hands in praise IN A BAPTIST CHURCH!!!

-Message - continued in Colossians


Wasn't happy with it. Trusting that the Holy Spirit used it in ways I couldn't see.

Barefoot Sunday Is Coming

Sunday, we'll be trying to help God change the world, one pair of shoes at a time. There are people in this world who have never had the luxury of choosing which pair of shoes to wear each morning. People who contract illnesses and parasites due to their lack of something so basic. We can't change the whole world from the corner New Hope sits on, but we can "Do Something! - and for the third year, we are.

If you want to come and be a part of what God is doing, show up Sunday at 10:45.

Giving It All

It's the hand of a child in Uganda, being held loosely by an American volunteer who came to Africa to bring hope to the hopeless. Uganda has seen its share of trouble - from despotic dictators, to famine and unrest. But in recent years, as the heart of God's people was moved by the Holy Spirit to care for the poor, more and more Christians and others of like minds headed into the country, pictures like the one above have ceased to be taken there.

Here's another picture.  It's the picture of one of those Christians that came to Uganda to make a difference. His name was Nate Henn and he was a volunteer with Invisible Children - an NGO that hoped to reach and care for the children who had been forced into the wars as soldiers. This weekend Nate went to watch the World Cup final with some of "his kids."

Terrorists detonated bombs during the match that were designed to inflict the most damage possible. Nate perished in the blast along with over 60 others and some of the children were injured. A Somali- based Islamist group claimed responsibility for the blasts there and another elsewhere in Uganda. They hoped to sow fear and they succeeded. But they did not win. Nate gave his life for the kids - he didn't lose it.

My prayer is that the publicity surrounding Nate's death will cause a flood of even more people who are willing to come and serve and if necessary, die to be God's hands and feet to the poor and defenseless. Jim Elliot said it best - "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to find what he can never lose." The work Nate did here on earth will live on. But we mourn his passing tonight and pray for his kids.

It's Tough Out Here

Earlier in the week, one of the best and brightest in Southern Baptist Convention life, Ed Stetzer, posted on Facebook that he would like to talk with a couple of pastors whose churches' attendance ranged from 50-150. It was obvious pretty quickly that he wasn't prepared for the overwhelming response. After reading the responses, another thing was obvious to me - it's tough out here for pastors and smaller churches. Take a look at some excerpts.

"We are running about 80 to 120 in worship. we had a ugly church split last summer over the direction to move the church more missional. We now are working hard at doing just that."

"I took the pastorate 4 years ago (my first) and its been tough. We are down to about 40 members (we have hundreds in the 60s and 70s). Our membership resists change RIGIDLY!"

 "Our average attendance is between 60-80...just went through a bad split over doctrine and control issues...I could use some help. :-)"

"I have been at a small town First Baptist for several months now, and have never lived in a small town before this experience; unlocking the code is difficult, just get the same old same old from the denominational folks, some insight would be greatly appreciated."

"74 two Sundays ago, 56 last sunday. We were running 110 people 4 years ago or so."

I'm part of an online community of people, all of whom have been or are pastors. I've known these guys online for several years. Down through those years, a third have left the paid ministry and now make their living doing something else. That doesn't mean that they have left God's service, as each of them is still living out their faith in their new occupation. But what it does mean that a third of the twelve are no longer pastors?

This is a job where you could conceivably do everything right and still not meet expectations. It's a job where to succeed, you need to do everything you can do, but ultimately others are the ones who do the bulk of making it happen. It's 24/7, 365, everything matters work.

So what can you do for your pastor?

PRAY

Some great ideas here

Sunday nights are for thinking

We've had two back to back full weekends at New Hope. Last weekend it was Saturday in the Park. This weekend was the rain-cancelled Relay for Life and the Worship Workshop. It's been busy, busy, busy. New Hope's people have stepped out to serve and up to learn more about how to worship Jesus.

Saturday in the Park, though shortened by rain, was still one of the most fun events I have ever been a part of, with the most impact. We're still seeing results from it in both the response from people and the continuing purchase of items that we sell with 100% of the proceeds going to organizations that are doing something about changing the lives of those in need around the world. Hunger, clean water, human trafficking, orphan care - these are areas that we at New Hope cannot possibly fix. But we can DO SOMETHING! and we are.
As much as doing something is part of who we are though, being someone who lives with the heart and mind of Christ has to balance that out. It's not faith or works - it's faith AND works.

So I'm sitting here tonight praying and reflecting on what we have done and will do that builds faith in individual members and that builds up the congregation's faith. We took a step in that direction with the worship workshop. Melanie Winter brought a deep love of Jesus and a skill set that is at the level that we want to get to as a worship team. She challenged us and prodded us to look at what we were doing, and what we could do to improve. It meant change. We changed a few things and more are to come. But I really believe we improved in worship today and will make more strides as time goes by. Thanks Melanie!

There's more to do though.

We have to build on the love that motivates us to do. We have to grow in our ability to disciple kids, youth, and adults of all ages. Our Kidmo children's program and the coming children's church time has really upped our impact in that area. I dropped in there this morning and the room was full. Few sights warm a pastor's heart more than seeing dedicated and caring teachers pouring out their love through discipleship. Since we began Kidmo, we have people looking for ways to get in there.How cool is that? Turns the old "nominating committee" on its head when people rush toward working in what typically can be tough to fill.

As a result, we may be looking at other changes in our discipleship strategy. How can we best help young minds and hearts be opened to the call of Christ to come and follow? Who are the right people to gather into groups and who would be the best at pointing them into the Word and toward faith in Jesus? When should they meet and where? What materials should be used?

Changes. Changes. Changes.

Why? We have an awesome group of people at New Hope who are DOING SOMETHING about the things that break the heart of God. Once you are part of the New Hope family you step into an embrace of love as tight as any I have ever known. We LOVE being together. But we have to grow deeper - reach further. Love for Jesus doesn't reach a point and stay there - if it's real, it grows all throughout the life of the believer.

5 So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, 6 alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, 7 warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. 8 With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.
2 Peter 1:5-8 (MSG)

"Building on what you've been give..." is exactly what we need to do. Seeing believers grow from initial curiosity about Jesus, to love for Jesus, and through to maturity is what we need to make sure we are constantly seeing. We are seeing it now, but we can do better.

So pray with me. Pray that the God Who began His work in us would draw us deeper to Him.

Saturday in the Park Recap

We'd prayed and planned. We'd dreamed and imagined what God would do. But when the actual day dawned it seemed as if we might not see anything realized from our efforts. The weather overnight was horrible. At 6AM I visited the festival site amid driving rain and lightning. However by 7:30 we were setting up the booth and getting ready to meet the people who would come.

Our idea was to take the items that would support the work of other ministries into our neighborhood - Valparaiso. We believe strongly in the causes we support and want to do more than our church along can do. Clean water for people who don't have it is a life or death issue. Orphans who are HIV positive will die without care, and there are families that will adopt them and get them that care, but adoption is expensive. Human trafficking must be stopped. Families in Africa want to get out of poverty but jobs that can do that are scarce.

We can't change everything. But we can DO SOMETHING!

And we did.

The day was a huge rush. We met a lot of people and even though the day was shortened by weather at both ends, we sold a lot of product for the organizations that can use it to make a difference.

There were things we can do better if we do it again. But the passion we brought to work with us that day can only be equaled - it won't be exceeded.

I'm very proud of what our New Hope volunteers did Saturday. Guys, YOU ROCK!

What In the World Are You Doing?

 

Tomorrow we will be another vendor at the 34th Saturday in the Park festival here in Valparaiso. But we will be there for a higher purpose - to help people DO SOMETHING about problems around the world that take people's lives. So over our booth will be emblazoned - "BUY AN ITEM - SAVE A LIFE"


Here below are the organizations whose items we will be selling and a little bit about each. Click on the link to learn more.

From HIV To Home, , , 

We seek to pave a road home for the world’s HIV+ orphans through partnerships with in-country, community-based programs that care for HIV+ orphans and by connecting HIV+ orphans with adoptive families.

Africa Bags

Africa Bags is a non-profit organization doing charitable work over in Malawi, Africa.  We sell reusable cloth shopping bags that are hand-crafted in five small villages in northern Malawi. Africa Bags has entered into ultra poor villages in northern Malawi with foot-powered treadle sewing machines, cloth, and all the materials/resources necessary for the Malawians to produce reusable cloth shopping bags.  These bags are sold back in the United States and 100% of all profits are returned to the villages.

Love 146

LOVE 146 VISION: The abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation. Nothing less.

LOVE 146 MISSION: Abolition and Restoration! We combat child sex slavery & exploitation with the unexpected and restore survivors with excellence.

The Water Project

Nearly 1 billion people still don't have access to clean drinking water. Find out what you can do to change that.
The Problem:
For too many...dirty, diseased water leads to a cycle of sickness, lack of education, poverty and lost hope. It is needless suffering.
The Solution:
You can get involved and help fund new fresh-water wells, put up water tanks and provide clean, safe water for thousands.

We Are Overlooked

"Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old. (charitywater.org)"

That's what we are doing this weekend. Selling products and saving lives. Some of the items will have been made by the kids and adults at New Hope - Child2Child. Most will come from the organizations above.

But every single penny that comes in through their sales will pass through us and go directly to help others - to save lives. 100%

Yeah, we are a smaller church located thousands of miles away from some of the places that the help needs to go. But listen - 6,000 people will die tomorrow due to preventable illnesses tied back to a lack of clean water.

Are you okay with that?

Read the stories behind Love146 -how they got their name. Read about how poverty - not no new iPad poverty, but crushing poverty that takes lives affects places like Malawi. Read how orphans born with HIV die in the thousands when they could be adopted and saved.

Are you okay with that?

Friends, we are doing this because Jesus' love compels us. We want to be able to explain just what following Him means. We want to share who we were outside the Kingdom and who Jesus recreated us into. And we want to save the lives of others so that they might hear the story of Jesus and His love.


Come and see.

WOOT! T-Shirts are in!!!

The T Shirts from weareoverlooked.com are in. Each T-shirt will provide a person with clean water for 5 years. Since 6,000 people day every day due to a lack of clean water - each of these shirts - which come with a free water bottle and sell for $20 - will change the life of a person forever. On the front in Swahili "Water Is Life." On the back, a child at a well, and representative African images along with info about the critical need for clean water. We'll have them at Saturday in the Park!

It'll Be Coming Down in Buckets!

When you are just one person, you can only do so much. As a family, you can do a little more. In God's plan for the restoration of His Kingdom here on earth, the instrument of change - gathered and empowered by the Holy Spirit - is the church. A group of imperfect people, flawed but given new hearts for God and for their neighbors, the church led by Jesus is a force for good wherever it is led.

Our church, though small by today's megachurch measurements, does a LOT here and around the world by itself. Our members do a lot themselves - individuals and groups sponsor over a dozen children through Compassion, World Vision, and other groups. I lost count of how many people donated immediately after the Haiti earthquake through the Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, and others. We are givers. But we can only do so much.

20 of the buckets you see in the picture above came from the heart of New Hope. So as a result, we were able to feed 20 families in Haiti for a week or a little more. Awesome!

Our church belongs to an association of local Baptist churches. We're sort of the rebel of the group in that what we do doesn't sync often with what they do. But we hold core beliefs in common, and one of those core beliefs is that we cooperate to do more for people we'll never know. The result of that cooperation - through money, through time, through people - is that we are part of something big that God uses to care for people all around the world. In Haiti for example, over 60 tons of food have already been delivered by the SBC to Haiti. Thousands of medical exams and treatments have been given. Children and their families have been cared for and long term reconstruction teams are working right now to provide long term shelter before the rains come. They are working alongside Christians of all denominations, many of which who are doing the same sort of work. They work with whoever - Christian, Muslim, Jew, athiest, agnostic - is there to help the people of Haiti.

Horrible tragedies bring people together. God doesn't waste the opportunity to get the people who already love Him, and those He loves but don't love Him- together. We'll probably learn in heaven how He has used this event to gather more prodigals into the family.

When we work together, God smiles.


And New Hope's 20, added to our association's 700+, added to Florida's tens of thousands, added to the other state's, mean this - It's going to rain hope in Haiti. It'll come down in buckets. Hundreds of thousands of them. And families will know that God cares for them and has put His people on the problem.

Look friends, you can't do everything. But you can DO SOMETHING.

And as part of a local church, you can do more. Get plugged in. Don't just sit there. Do something!

Do something small, be a part of something big

Engage In Your World from ryan frederick on Vimeo.

One of the coolest things I've seen over the past couple of years at New Hope has been the participation across ages in what we've been led to do. From the aged - people like Robert and Jewel Hughes - who bring coupons from the paper that can be used at arts and crafts and fabric stores, to the littlest girl who learns to sew alongside one of the women on Wednesday night, or Logan and Darien - two wee little boys who designed the "monsters" the girls are making - almost everyone who is a regular at New Hope is contributing in some way to our "Do Something" efforts.

As a student of ministry, I was told that one rule that was constant regardless of context or church size was this - 20% of the people would do 80% of the work. Well, I'd flip that over and say that 80% of our folks are doing something small because they want to be a part of something big. It really began over two years ago as we began to stir to the needs outside our community. Then the first wave of child sponsorships as people reached out in love. And it just keeps going and growing.

President Ronald Reagan said “Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.”

Well, I've been placed among people who don't have that problem either. New Hope makes a difference.

Because of the work of people at New Hope - The hungry are being fed. Shoeless people walk out with shoes. Clean water is being made available to those who lack. Orphans are being given life-saving medicines. And soon those who are enslaved will find that New Hope is a part of their being set free. We can't do everything. But we can do something.

Little becomes big when God is in it.

Friend, wherever you are - whether you are a "church person" or not - you can DO SOMETHING. And you ought to. Come see what crazy- only God could make this happen-  things New Hope is doing next. You won't believe it. But personally, every time we do something like that, my faith in God grows even more.

"Do Something!"

Our Child2Child little girls worked hard last year to encourage the adults of New Hope to engage in God's work of taking care of the least of these. We'll never know all the effects of their efforts, but we know that God does amazing things with  what we return to Him for His work. Here's one of the projects they did that's going to provide clean water in Sierra Leone

Well Rehab - Sierra Leone

Project Type: Well Rehab
Well rehabilitation is one of the most cost effective ways to bring clean, safe water to a community.  Sometimes it involves fixing a broken hand pump, other times it means sealing a hand dug well to prevent it from being contaminated.  These repairs, and often time total replacements, coupled with sanitation and hygiene training make a huge impact in communities. 


And this year, New Hope is going to sponsor a whole well!!!!

Way to Go Child2Child!!!

The Water Project

Still reeling from the weekend trip, but I wanted to let everyone know how proud I am of the girls in Child2Child and of the people @ New Hope for passing the $500 mark in support of the Clean Water Project. Last Sunday, the girls were going around putting labels like the one above on everyone. I got 4 stuck on me.

The story behind it?

Each $10 equals clean water for one person for TEN YEARS.

So $500 means 50 people will have the simple blessing of clean water for the next decade.

Guys, I'll say it again. We cannot do everything, but each one of us can DO SOMETHING to follow Jesus in love of our neighbors.