Instructions for giving donations for shoes:

Between August 18th and Sept 3rd, tax deductible donations payable to West Side Church may be sent by mail only.

Donation by Mail:

  After August 18th - Before Sept 3rd arrival:

Make checks payable to:  West Side Church

  Please mail to:
    Don King - Swazi Team Leader
    860 CR 2100E
    Sidney, IL 61877

I collect these checks and send the funds through West Side Church, and these funds will be applied to purchase shoes for the kids during the trip.

Information about giving shoes to our Ludlati Neighbor Kids:

We have assembled a team of six wonderful people planning to travel to Swaziland to visit our Neighbor Kids at Ludlati Carepoint Sept 4th through the 14th, 2010.  As Christ works in and through the team members and each of you, there are many things planned for the trip, but…

  ...one need we want to meet is making sure every child at Ludlati Carepoint receives a new pair of school shoes.

For many of the children, this will become their only pair of shoes.  It is estimated we will have 100+ children attending Ludlati carepoint during our visit, and shoes cost between $10-$20 a pair.  This is our initial presentation of an opportunity for everyone following or involved in sponsoring a child at Ludlati Carepoint to contribute to the purchase of shoes for the children.  We currently have just under half the children matched with sponsors.

So to cover every child we are hoping for the 1 for 2 deal!  “1 sponsor for 2 children”

If you can give the gift and/or make the sacrifice, we suggest donation of $30 to cover your sponsored child and one more child.

Even if you are not currently sponsoring a child, we ask you for the same gift of $30 to cover two pairs of feet.

I look forward to sizing up and shoe-ing the little and big feet of our Ludlati Neighbor Kids, and sharing pictures back home of their and our smiling faces as we help them come to know Christ through this tangible gift of God’s love.

As best can be expressed through a blog post, I sincerely and humbly thank you for letting us make you aware of this need.  We will send out a couple more notices and updates on progress with the shoe drive over the next 8 weeks.  It will work best if gifts are sent before August 7th, 2010.

No gift is too small or too large for God to multiply.

Thanks in advance for your interest, support and love for the Ludlati Neighbor Kids and the people in their community.  We also appreciate your prayers for the trip and team members fund raising and planning efforts.  To God be all the Glory!

Yours in Christ,
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
217-390-6798

p.s. Jumbo and Kriek Gerber will be helping us in Swaziland during our trip, and are the full time missionaries working with CHC and AIM.  Here is a recent post on their blog describing another travel group bringing shoes for two carepoints.  There is also some fun news about Jumbo and Kriek’s coming baby. http://jumbogerber.myadventures.org/?filename=world-cup-and-another-great-trip

I just read this quote and while the source is not generally a source of Godly wisdom, the message is so clear and concise, and so consistent with Jesus’ life and message that I found it to be powerful and memorable.  Are we willing to be hated as Jesus told us we would be in this world, or do we place a priority on pleasing people?

“I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.”- Kurt Cobain

From David Platt, in a series on The Gospel, Possessions, and Prosperity (my last post was based loosely on the first part of this series, this one is a quote from the final part in the series.  As shocking as it sounds at first, Platt’s explanation makes sense and I found it to be both challenging and freeing - that’s a good mix.

We do not owe Jesus anything.

So we do not live and give sacrificially because we are in debt to Christ, we live and give sacrifically because we are indwelt by Christ.  This is the beauty of it – we’re not trying to pay Jesus a debt in salvation; instead, everything we’re doing is His work in us.  It’s His grace in us, His life overflowing in us.  He is indwelling us, and our possessions are now being used by Christ in us for His glory in the world.  We interfere with that in our sin.  But this is why we are not motivated by guilt – we are always motivated by grace.  So we needed the sufficiency of Christ on the cross to free us from sin, but we also need the sufficiency of Christ today to free us from our lust for possessions and to free us to run after Christ as all satisfying and to use the resources Jesus has given us for His glory in the world.

The entire series is here (4 parts).  I highly recommend it.  Really… it is an encouragement and a joy, while making the urgency of obedience clear.  Good stuff.

http://www.brookhills.org/media/schurch/secret-church-the-gospel-possessions-and-prosperity/

I have a crazy, beautiful dream.  God’s Word is clear that he desires that the entire world should hear the good news of Christ.  His Word is equally clear that He desires that no one should suffer severe physical need.  Yet these statistics remain:

People groups in the world: 16,351 - 6.8 billion individuals
People groups in the world still not reached with the gospel: 6,645 - 2.75 billion individuals

Today, over 1 billion people live (and die) in desperate poverty (less than $1 a day).
700 million in slums.
500 million on the verge of starvation.
93 million beggars.
200 million children exploited for labor.
26,000 children today will die due to either starvation or a preventable disease.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James 2:14-17

So… what if, what if… picture this in your mind.  What if God had a grand and wonderful plan to actually accomplish those goals and created a nation, and blessed that nation in such a way that it had the means to comfortably meet all its needs - actually go beyond simply meeting needs but also to live with blessings of physical comforts the world had never previously imagined, AND still have enough left over to bring His good news to every people group on earth.  And then still enough left over to meet the basic need for water, food, and shelter for every child and family on earth.  Really… stop and paint that picture in your mind.  What an incredible thing.  God’s ultimate plan from the foundation of the world, expressed to Abraham and later throughtout the prophets and New Testament… accomplished.  Who knows what that might usher in.  Imagine His joy, imagine the joy in being a part of that.  Imagine the blessing that would be and let your spirit long for the creation of a nation with that kind of wealth.

In case you haven’t realized it, that dream is not a dream.  God does have a plan (or do we presume He is impotent?).  In fact, we see His effort to create that nation and provide that wealth FOR THAT PURPOSE with Abraham and Israel.  But they failed Him.  They lived for themselves and turned from Him and His plan to their own destruction.  And now, we see His plan again.  In person.  It’s us.  There can be no debate that our nation was founded on His principles, and that He has built and prospered this nation.  Prospered us in such a way that statistically, we comfortably… COMFORTABLY, can accomplish the dual goals of bringing His gospel to all the earth and meeting the basic phyical needs of all our neighbors.  I gave statistics on the need, here are some on our wealth:

Average annual American Christian household income: $42,409. This in the top 2.5% of the richest people in the world.
North American Christians give an average of 2.5% of their income to the church.
North American churches given an average of 2% of these funds to missions overseas.
For every $100 a North American Christian makes, we give 5 cents to missions overseas - that’s less than 1% - in fact, it is five one-hundredths of one percent.  God help us.

“Today Christians spend more money on dog food than missions.”
Leonard Ravenhill

Americans spend $40 billion every year on pets.
Americans spend $60 billion every year on weight-loss programs.
Churches spend $10 billion every year on church buildings.
It is estimated that $10 billion could bring clean water to every person on earth.

“In the early 1990s, Americans spent annually twice as much on cut flowers as on overseas Protestant ministries, twice as much on women’s sheer hosiery, one and a half times as much on video games, one and a half times as much on pinball machines, slightly more on the lawn industry, about five times as much on pets, one and a half times as much on skin care, almost one and a half times as much on chewing gum, almost three times as much on swimming pools and accessories, approximately seven times as much on sweets, seventeen times as much on diets and diet-related products, twenty times as much on sports activities, approximately 26 times as much on soft drinks, and a staggering 140 times as much on legalized gambling activities.”
Craig Blomberg

(Statistics from generousgiving.org; joshuaproject.net;globalrichlist.com; compassion.net)

God has a plan.  It is us.  He has done His part.  The “dream” I described ealier is real, already in existence.  However, that is only part of the dream. The rest of my dream is that we will respond by living simply and giving sacrificially.  That we will turn to Him, respond to His commands, and stop living in envy, greed, and self-indulgence.  Unfortunately, that part of my dream remains just that - a dream.  But He is powerful, and He is calling this nation to repentance and wholeness in His plan.  Spread the dream, begin living it.  It can and must become reality.  God, let it be through this nation, this time… don’t let us fail you with the blessings you have given us for this purpose.  Guide us and inspire us, lead us into your ways.

by Joshua Mikeworth

I would characterize the first 4 months of this year as being very explosive in my walk with the Lord.  He is so good and so amazingly full of grace and mercy towards us.  How incredible he is to sit in majesty with thousands of angelic beings proclaiming his glory and worth night and day with lightning and thunder encompassing his throne as he watches over all of the universe that he unleashed and yet…He knows my name…He is concerned for my well being…He wants me to succeed in knowing him intimately…He works in me to grow me to the point that he can continue to reveal more and more of himself to me…He loves me THAT much.  I have enjoyed the fruit of his goodness towards me these past few months in growth that I haven’t seen in many years.  God has brought me into connection with fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord that have been a tremendous encouragement and blessing to me and my family on a local, national, and even international level.  I literally have people that I now communicate with, support, and pray for half way around the world.

A year ago I was simply praying for God to show me how to love people period.  Now I feel continually compelled to be in motion to be doing something for Christ.  I know this to be God’s working in my heart for in and of myself, I am nothing.  I know the scriptures are true when they state my righteousness is as filthy (literally translated “menstrual”) rags because I’ve tested this to the extreme.  I’ve been putting forth those rags most of my life and now I see the worthlessness of my former offerings.  It is purely God in me that is driving me to do these things.  It is as Ephesians 2:10 states - the good works that he designed for me from the start and the amazing thing is I can’t do them on my own.  Praise God!

Tremendous growth requires strengthening…

One of my former vocations was as an Arborist for a local community.  I ran the city foresty program and one of the things I continually witnessed was when a home owner would install a new young tree they would stake the tree in.  By this I mean they would place usually three to four stakes around the tree and then secure ropes or wires from the tree to the stakes thereby creating stability in the tree from being blown over and allowing the tree to remain perfectly straight.  The problem with this was they always had the ropes/wires completely tight which was detrimental to the tree.  Staking was a good practice if you left the ropes be somewhat slack.  The reason was that you actually want the tree to sway in the wind.  The more sway the better.  Critical to a tree’s development for trunk strength is the swaying motion the wind creates.  The wood fibers will actually respond to this motion and increase proportionally in the trunk and in the root flare, where the trunk meets the ground, as a response to the wind thereby strengthening the tree over time.  When you overstabilize the tree - you eliminate the tree’s ability to do this and actually harm the tree in the long run.

The past few weeks the winds in my life have picked up to gale force and I’ve been encountering resistance on every front - in my spiritual walk, in physical health, my relationship with my bride and children, our finances.  I’ve been buffetted from just about every direction I can think of and to be honest, I don’t think the ride is over.  We very much would like to enjoy the fact that we have a loving Father who wishes us to be his children, who wants us to become empowered as his representatives on this earth.  If we’re serious, we even begin to realize that we need to give no less than all of ourselves to the one who gave everything of himself for us.  Then we really start to become spurred into motion to pursue him at all cost, even if friends abandon us and co-workers start to look at us differently.

But these are not the winds, this is not the resistance.  The winds come when an ages old demonic power recognizes he no longer has sway in your life and determines that he will end your new-found piety and devotion by pitting everything in his arsenal against your faith in this Word.  The winds come when your plans to evangelize go out the window because sickness invades your family and suddenly the condition of other people’s souls is a little less of a concern than that of your sick child curled up in their bed.  The winds come when the finances you were counting on for those necessary home or vehicle repairs fall through and you are suddenly faced with crisis as bills keep piling up.  The winds come when you can feel the gazes and new found friction between you and your co-workers as you no longer participate in the daily gossip pool or supervisor-slam sessions and they direct those efforts of malice towards you behind your back.  The winds come when both you and your spouse are simultaneously exhausted and the kids have far to much energy for this late at night and you didn’t really appreciate the tone in your spouse’s voice or the way in which they dismissed your feelings when you were talking to them about something that was important to you.  The winds come when your very own attitudes are less than what they should be and you feel yourself sinking into them, but rather than seeking God out for deliverance, you choose to flesh over spirit.

Listen to what James says in James 1:2-5

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

My growth in this life is fully dependent upon these troubles, these testings and shakings.  Without these, I will never know the perfection of patience as stated above.  Patience is defined as being consistently constant, enduring.  This endurance, this steadfastness, is the mark of maturity and strength and is something that is to be strongly desired.  But to desire it is to desire the very trials that make it possible, and this is where we falter.  I know I have on too many occasions.  We desire to be upright, straight as an arrow Christians with strong supports all around us.  We have our small groups, weekly bible luncheons, our community activities, our sunday services - all neatly staking us down.  Every minute accounted for in our weeks, schedules tight, cinched off with precise tension from multiple sides just like those young trees.  And just like those trees, we’ve insulated ourselves against the winds and the trials, the very things that will strengthen us.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe small groups, bible studies, and the like are beneficial and cause growth in their own right.  I enjoy participating in them and love the encouragement I gain from “iron sharpening iron” in discussing God’s word with my brothers and sisters.  So many of them are so much wiser than I and I love gleaning from that wisdom.  But how many of us have replaced our deep and intimate walk with our creator with these meetings, these gatherings.  How many times have we replaced meeting God with meeting others to talk about God?  I have.  I have often met my Lord at scheduled times in scheduled buildings and in between in uttered prayers during the day only as I needed him.  Where is the love and devotion in that?  Where is the intimacy and relationship in that?

This addresses the 2nd half of the tree - the roots.  Psalms 1:1-3 reads:

“Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.  But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.  They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.”

This daily meditating and communion with my Lord is the development of solid root structure.  The tree in the wind topples for one of two reasons - it snaps at the trunk for week stem development or it is uprooted for weak root zone development.  We fall for one of two reasons - we are broken for lack of strength and endurance or we simply are not rooted deeply enough to withstand.

God is still working in me to show me how to have “great joy” in trials and troubles, but I do find great encouragement in the fact that God uses those things to perfect me, to strengthen me.  Those things that at first seem detrimental and even profoundly uncomfortable have eternal benefits and work for my good.  God is strengthening me little by little, fiber by fiber to stand in the wind.  Trials will come, they are promised, but they only serve to strengthen us, to increase our capacity to bear fruit and be a blessing to others.

You may read more of Joshua’s thoughts on his personal blog:  http://joshua-asforme.blogspot.com/