Every mission has God as the initiator,
The Holy Spirit as the power generator,
A servant as the missionary,
A people as the beneficiary,
Love as the motivator,
Obedience as the facilitator.

Whether you are standing in here or are seated,
Let us all be missionally motivated.

The writer of this poem, Shashi Jatiani, penned it while listening to a message that I was sharing at their most recent missions conference.

It is God’s design that all people should know and love Him. Our mission as Christ followers is simple, to tell as many people as possible about Christ’s forgiveness and it begins by telling just “One More”

Acts 17:27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

If the reason for Easter could be summed up in a text message this is how it would read,

“Thanks so much for all you guys do.  I just wanted to let you know that my nephew Eric accepted Jesus Christ as his savior today in kids church.  He was able to tell us the whole story of Easter.  The day before we had asked Eric what happened 3 days after Jesus died on the cross and he said they had a funeral.  He now knows that after three days Jesus rose from the grave and that he now lives in his heart.”

This was received after Pastor TJ and I shared an Easter service with the kids at Warwick AG. That morning nine children gave their hearts to the Lord. Knowing that these children now have the love and hope that only comes from knowing Jesus truly touches my heart and reminds me of the importance of taking every opportunity to tell people about Jesus’s life, death and resurrection offering forgiveness to everyone.

We celebrate Easter in many different ways; egg hunts, candy, family dinners, football, new outfits, and yet there will never be a better way to celebrate than to hear that a child has asked Jesus into their heart.

Preparation for the day takes on many forms, hours of drama rehearsals, shopping, decorating, spring planting, cleaning and a flurry of activity but no amount of preparation should exceed the amount that we put into the spiritual preparation that could lead someone into a personal relationship with Jesus.

Why can’t every day be like Easter? Why can’t we spiritually prepare for every Sunday like we prepare for Easter? Jesus didn’t raise from the dead for us to celebrate one Sunday in the year, he rose from the dead so that we can celebrate every day. Make a commitment today to treat every day like Easter.

BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge) goes to extremes to provide missionaries with much needed resources.
To what extent will you go to help provide the resources that missionaries need to spread the gospel to people around the world?

Faith Community church in Mount Airy MD decided to bring in a professional chef (that would be me and I’m far from a professional) to prepare and reward it’s congregation with Chef Tera Masu’s signature soup, Missions Soup. A recipe only shared with congregations that have a heart and passion for the lost, Chef Tera Masu’s recipe is more secret than Bush’s Baked Beans. Even Duke couldn’t persuade her to reveal the secret ingredients.

Although the recipe may be secret, it’s no secret that BGMC is meeting critical needs around the world. Chef Tera Masu was able to share the many projects that impact lives such as disaster relief in Kenya, Haiti and Jamaica, building orphanages in Venezuela and the United States, providing clean water and water buckets to Africa, assisting children in Bolivia who have imprisoned parents and providing Bibles to Iran, Iraq and Russia. These are only a few of the ways BGMC is “Shaking it up to Change the world.”

Chef Tera Masu broke it down into bite size portions as she shared how much can be done with just a little. The cost of a McDonald’s happy meal can provide 7 complete meals to a hungry child. For the price of a magazine, a child could purchase the needed supplies to attend school and for price of a new release DVD movie, 36 children could have a new pair of shoes. A small price to pay to relieve hunger, provide an education or protect the feet of a small child.

That morning the congregation raised over $4,500 toward their goal of $5,000. May God continue to work in this congregation as they continue to help missionaries through BGMC.

It was a good day to be investing in the lives of children. Saturday afternoon brought hundreds of children to Calvary’s Kidtopia Egg hunt. Volunteers from the church helped hide/distribute candy filled eggs over the park, register kids and prepare for the gathering of the eggs.

Plethora of balloons

Over 150 sculpting balloons were inflated and secured in a large bag so that with the onslaught of children we would be free to concentrate on interacting with the kids and twisting a plethora of balloons.  Before long there were dogs, cats, hats, swords, rabbits and a few unrecognizable animals. But it’s safe to say that each twist brought a look of amazement and excitement on to the faces of the children. The event wasn’t intended to evangelize that community but it was to show the families that the people at Calvary Assembly of God cared about the children and wanted to invest in their lives. If we are unable to show people that we care, then we have not earned the right to share the gospel with them. Each step and each act of kindness brings us one step closer to bringing a life to Christ.

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2Pet. 1:5-8