Western Hills bulletin article 29Jan12

I write bulletin articles for the Western Hills Church of Christ, so I thought I'd go ahead and add here what I write each week.

Have you ever read the book of Deuteronomy?  I'll admit, it can be a fairly daunting task.  Deuteronomy has long sections of laws, and some of them don't even seem to make sense (Don't boil a baby goat in its mother's milk?  Never even thought of that one).  But I think you'll find that, if you read through Deuteronomy, there are several important lessons to be learned.

One of them relates to a phrase that God says over and over.  In various forms, the admonition to "be careful to follow every command" is given to Israel, such as in Deuteronomy 8:1.  That seems like a terribly difficult task for Israel, though in general it's much simpler than it appears on first glance.  The Torah, which is usually translated as "Law" but is more properly understood as "Instruction," sets forth for Israel a way of living that will set her apart from other people.

But why?  Why does Israel need to be separate?  There are a couple of reasons.  First of all, Israel is to keep herself from impurity.  Rather than take her cues from the people around her, Israel is to take her cues from the mouth of God.  YHWH recognizes that, if his people do not take care, then they will naturally begin to think and act in the same ways as those around them, with disastrous consequences.  Do we as Christians take our cues from the word of God, or do we live by the pattern of our culture?  Do we even recognize a difference?

The second reason for this separation is so that Israel can be a witness to something better.  The people who live all around Israel can look to her and see a model society, a blessed society.  In looking to Israel, the world should have seen a people living in harmony, materially blessed because of their faith, trusting fully in the Lord.  Instead, because Israel often failed to "take care (Deut. 7:11)," not only did Israel fail to be a witness to the world, she was swallowed up and carried off into captivity.  Let us always "take care" to look at our own society and culture the way God looks at it, and be the witness to the world we are called to be.

The plan...

OK, here's the plan for this year in regard to our mission.  We recognize that, even though we have experience with education, with health care, and with church life, we have never been on the mission field (except for Lisa, who has been on a short-term trip with TORCH missions to Honduras).  There's a lot we don't know.  Thus, we need some practical experience.  In order to gain that...

Jeff will be flying to Ukraine for the last two weeks of April to spend time with Andrew and Jenny Kelly in the Kiev area.  Andrew and Jenny run Jeremiah's Hope, which works with children in difficult situations.  They have also started a post-institutional home for orphans who age out and have nowhere to go, to give them support and teach basic independence skills.  Additionally, the timing of this trip is to coincide with a conference on sex trafficking in Eastern Europe, something that is a huge problem in Bulgaria.  At the conclusion of the conference, Jeff will fly to Sofia for a week, spending time with Hristo and Vania Arnaudov (the minister and his wife with whom we will be working) and gathering information on specific ways in which we can minister when we're there.

In the last two weeks of June, both of us will be flying to Sofia again as part of an annual mission group from the West Ark Church of Christ in Fort Smith, AR.  This is primarily a group of teenagers intent on spreading the gospel to other young people in Sofia.  Since West Ark will also be sending their pulpit minister, we are looking into putting on a mini-lectureship.

Lord willing, we will have gathered enough support to make the complete move to Sofia by mid-September.  We are eager to get on the ground, but we also know that God's time is not our time; his blessings will ultimately determine when we are able to go.  We ask for your prayers, your encouragement, and your financial support so that we can get to work!

Special thanks!

I would be remiss if I didn't profusely thank Dr. David Stark for his assistance in creating this website!  Praise God for brothers of many gifts, who are ready and willing to help!

Welcome to our new website!

We always wondered if we would ever have a website.  We never had a reason to, before.  But now we do!  Thank you for your interest in our mission to Sofia, Bulgaria.  We need you to partner with us, to equip us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the Bulgarian people.

We will be sharing things with you as we travel the road God has put before us.  Some of the stories will be victories; some will be tragedies.  Ultimately, we praise God that we are part of the grand Story of His triumphant reconciliation of the world to himself!

We hope you will take the time to read our weekly (at least, that's what we intend...) posts, and interact with us while we prepare to go, and while we're in the field.  God bless you all!