Missionaries: It's who we are!

This weekend was the first annual missions conference held at Infinity Church. To say it was successful would be an understatement. What I'm getting at is this weekend was far beyond what I had imagined. The week leading up to the missions conference was by no means a walk in the park, but the conference itself was worth all the time, money, and work that was poured into it. Of course, none of the credit goes to me or any of the other members of the mission team; nor does the credit go to our missionaries that came to speak and do workshops. All the praise honor and glory goes to God the Father who guided us and lead us through the planning process and who gave us the strength the execute the conference this weekend. So let me tell you a bit of what He has done.

Saturday was the first day of the conference. We got started around 9 and went until about 4, but man that time flew by. After welcoming everyone in, getting everyone registered and munching on some pastries and fruit we got things started with some worship and giving of praise to the Father; the perfect way to kick off anything we're doing. We had a message of encouragement from brother Rick Clapp who also preaching on Sunday. He told us how he had become involved in missions, talked about the passing of his father and how that effected his life. He told us about the doors that God opened so wide in his life that he couldn't help but stumble through them. He could not know where these doors would have lead him, but he has been taking annual mission trips to Swaziland, Africa for many years now and has even adopted a brother and sister to live and serve with him and his family. I got to share with Rick about the death of my father and my grandma within about a year of each other and how that effected me in my ministry. We never know how God will use us, or what he will use to move us.

Pastor Mike Crawford brought us our next message from the Word. What Pastor Mike had to say is something all Christians need to hear. The title of his message: Every Christian is a Missionary. His point was that asking a Christian to do missions is like asking a child to eat candy or play video games. Or asking a Christian if he has ever considered missions is like asking Kobe Bryant if he has ever considered playing basketball. What Pastor Mike was getting at is that missions is something that should obviously be a part of who every Christian is. Spreading the Kingdom and making disciples is not something that only some Christians are called to, but it is something that we are all commanded to do. Not only that, but like a child and candy or Kobe and basketball, it is something that should come natural to us. Not necessarily "good" at it at first, but where ever we go, missions should be part of who we are. Not just when we go on mission trips, or just when we're at church, but it should be part of everything we do: going to the mall, running at the track, at work, at school, at our favorite restaurant, or at the doctor's office. Missionaries: It's who we are!

The conference attendees attended two workshops before we served lunch. We offered several different workshops with missionaries and IMB and NAMB representatives. I was able to attend two in the morning. I went to a church planting workshop and learned about the importance of church planting and how it is one of the most effective forms of spreading the Kingdom. I then attended the workshop teaching how to lead a mission trip and learned the importance of keeping your team spiritually prepared for the warfare they will face on the mission field. After lunch there were three more breakout sessions. The first was attended by everyone and was a panel discussion in which the audience got to ask the missionaries questions about missions in general or the field they work in specifically. I did not get to go to the two other workshops in the evening because of getting prepared for Sunday, but we got a lot of positive feedback from everyone who attended. Everyone seemed to have learned a lot and hopefully have caught a fire for missions and evangelism. It at least raised their awareness and revealed how missions is not just something we do, but it is something that we are.

Sunday's service seemed to go over really well. Sunday was more of a cultural celebration. All the different ministries at the church were grouped together and given a continent to create a display with information, pictures, and prayer needs for the countries of that continent. Everyone did a fantastic job decorating and setting up their displays. This also raised cultural awareness as well as revealed the importance of reaching people around the world for the Kingdom cause. After the service we served a cultural meal from a local East African restaurant. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the food and atmosphere. After lunch several of the kids asked me to take them on a walk. I cherished the moment to get away from the adults for a little while and get to hang out with them. We took a walk down to the pond and sat under the gazebo for a few minutes. One of the girls said, "I've never been on a mission trip before." Several of the others agreed; then they all decided they were eager and ready to go on one. They all wanted to go on a mission trip. So I'm not sure what kind of concrete effect the missions conference had on the adults, but I know the kids are ready to go. And that alone is incredibly exciting!

This whole summer has been leading up to the sports camp last week and the missions conference this weekend. Now that it's all behind me it's hard to know what to do next. I can't believe how well both went and wish we could do them again, after a little rest of course. But I've got just two weeks left here in Baltimore and can't wait to see what God is going to do in these last weeks. Last night I was informed that I will be given the privilege of preaching to the Infinity congregation at both campuses next Sunday. It will be my last Sunday worshiping with them, and now I get to share with them as well. After seeing what the Holy Spirit did last week during the sports camp and at the men's shelter I'm so excited to see what He does through me on Sunday. Please be in prayer for me regarding that sermon. I know that it is always Him who speaks through me, and I don't doubt that He will again, but only through prayer. Thank you so much for your prayers this far; I have certainly felt them and been blessed by them.

You can also pray that the information and knowledge that has been distributed this weekend at Infinity's first annual missions conference will only serve to further a heart for missions among the congregation and that the Kingdom of God will continue to come closer and expand in and around Laurel and Baltimore.

To God be the Glory

From Timbuktu to Kingdom Come

What an incredible week this has been. I would like to go ahead and put this out there: "Best week ever!" I didn't even get a chance to write a blog for last week because of everything going on to get ready for this week's sports camp. Jeremy was out of the country and the responsibility of finalizing everything for camp fell on me. There was a lot of emailing and phone calling going on, so there wasn't all that much to tell about. Except for Monday, Horace and I rode through town a little bit on our bikes going from park to park passing out sports camp and Bible school flyers. Most of the people we talked to had a very positive response and seemed to appreciate what the church was doing for the community. It's hard to say how many students showed up because of that, but it was a great opportunity for Horace and me to get out and tell the community about the things that Infinity Church was doing.

From the time Jeremy got back on Saturday night until about 7 o'clock last night it was pretty much nonstop. It started out with a trip to the Baptist Association to load the truck up with everything we would need for the block party on Sunday and the sports camp throughout the rest of the week. We drove around for a little while after that checking on all the teams coming in on Saturday night. It was early to rise Sunday to meet Jeremy at his place and ride with him down to Baltimore to begin setting up everything for the church service outside in the apartment complex. It rained and stormed hard late Saturday night, it was still wet Sunday morning, but the rain was gone. This made for a humid day with plenty of bugs around all day long. We didn't have as many people come out Sunday as we had hoped for, but we had new people who were not regular attendees of Infinity Church, and we were excited about that. We hung around for a while after the service and some of the mission teams sang and performed for the people who were there. We started breaking everything down around 3:30 and went home and rested up for the rest of the week.

I had the privilege of spending some time on Monday morning with one of the mission groups. Vertical Generation was a group of about 85 students from Calvary Baptist Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. They had a time of worship, prayer, and sharing on Monday morning and they asked for someone from Infinity Church to share with them some encouragement. I was there and able to worship and pray with these guys and it was a real blessing. I was able to share with them from my overflow of what God had been teaching me this summer. I described to them how inadequate I felt when I left Knoxville to come to Baltimore for the summer. I knew no one here and was coming to live in a culture completely different from what I had known my whole life. I shared that this is right where God wants us. If we could do it on our own we wouldn't need Him. But that's just it, we could never do anything for the Kingdom apart from the strength and grace of God. I encouraged the kids that on their own strength they would not survive. We all are dependent on the strength He gives us, that way He gets all the glory and we have nothing to say except, "glory to God."

I got back to the apartments in time to see the end of the Bible camp and the kids who had showed up that morning. Again, not as many as we had wanted, and the longer the week went on, the more we realized that the week of 4^th of July as not the best to try and compete with everything else going on. But all in all, the Bible school went over very well and the kids who came really enjoyed it. Throughout the week I got to know the mission team carrying out the Bible school quite well. I got to hang out with them last night actually. It is a group from Burnt Hickory Church in north Georgia. The whole group is middle schoolers and a handful of special leaders who kept up with their middle schoolers all week. I was impressed at how great the kids were with jumping in and doing the Bible school on their own for the most part. They really took the community kids and encouraged them to take part in what was going on. The leaders were there for supervision of course, but it was the kids from Burnt Hickory who kept coming up to us on Wednesday telling us they had prayed with someone to receive Christ. What an awesome opportunity for these middle schoolers and a blessing it has been for the community.

The first day of sports camp went over really well I thought. I think all the groups that were here helping were surprised at how easy it was to share with people about Christ and about Infinity Church. We had "welcome wagons" at the two entrances to the apartments that were able to share with everyone walking by on the sidewalks. This played a key role in bringing in kids the next several days. One welcome wagon was staffed by a group from First Baptist Powell and the other was staffed by a family that had come all the way up here from Florida to help serve. Both teams did great passing out popcorn and making killer snow cones (Both of which I tested and strongly approved of) and telling the people what we were doing and more importantly, why we were doing it. Monday night I got to share with the group of campers my own testimony. I told them about growing up without a dad around too much, but that God had been my Heavenly Father that had given me support, encouragement, protection, provision, and love. I think it helped the kids see that I could relate to where many of them were and how God had been there for me through the hardest parts of my life. Monday night I was able to spend with my own faith community from FBC Powell. At the beginning of this week I didn't not know any of them, but by the end of the sports camp yesterday it was as if I had grown up going to church with all of them. It was really like that with several of the groups. I'm thankful that I got to spend time away from camp with most of the groups that were here this week. It's been such an encouragement to see how excited all these groups were to be here spreading the Gospel and bringing the God's Kingdom to earth. On Monday night when I was with Powell they were having a time of sharing of what they all had done that day at sports camp. A few of the men were describing sharing the Gospel with people in the community and the kids began to get real excited. As a group they decided that since they were on a mission trip they wanted to take their Tuesday night and go the Inner Harbor,not to eat or shop, but to share the Gospel. That's what they had driven 9 hours to do, and they wanted to take every opportunity they had to share the Gospel. I was blown away at witnessing this.

Monday night I fell asleep on the couch at about midnight thirty and woke up once for long enough to read 3:15 on my watch and then roll over and fall back asleep until 7 o'clock Tuesday morning. Needless to say, I was incredibly tired. I was feeling good Tuesday though, I know it was the strength of the Lord which I had talked about Monday that got me through this week. Tuesday I was actually able to be at Bible School with Burnt Hickory and is when I really started to get to know everyone with their group. Tuesday's sports camp brought out more kids as well and I got to share with the kids how just as there are penalties for breaking the rules in sports that must be paid, there are penalties for us breaking the rules God has given us that must be paid for. Romans 6:23 tells us that we deserve death because of our sin, but God has given us the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. After presenting the Gospel I told the kids that if this was a gift they wanted to accept to find one of the camp councilors sitting with them. Immediately after I prayed one of the young ladies from the Calvary group brought Nigel to me and he told me, "I wanna accept that gift!" So I asked him some questions and made sure he understood what all of that meant, and then I let him pray and ask forgiveness of his sins and to accept the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. I had a smile on for the rest of the week!

Tuesday night Calvary went over to a men's shelter to put on a concert and I was able to go and preach to the men there. That was also a privilege and that evening was one of the strongest I've ever felt the Holy Spirit working in my life. I went in intending to preach the same message that I had to the kids, but I knew when I got there that's not what these guys needed to hear. But I wasn't sure what they needed to hear. So I prayed and prayed and searched and God told me to tell them, "God does not leave you where He finds you." So I preached a different perspective of Jeremiah 29:11 and I think the men really appreciated it. Tuesday was another late night, but at least I made it into my bed when I got home.

Wednesday morning I got to spend with the Bible camp group again; which was a real blessing. I really appreciated the work they did with the kids in the mornings. Wednesday sports camp was our biggest turn out. I talked to the kids about Jesus being the only way to Salvation because He is the only person who ever lived that did not have His own sins to pay for; therefore, He was able to pay for our sins. We had a few more kids respond and pray with camp councilors. After camp we put on a concert that Burnt Hickory came back for and sang, Calvary Baptist also sang some more songs and did a few skits that the kids really seemed to enjoy. After everything was over Wednesday night a small group from Calvary separate from the group of 85 kids took their pick-up over to help a man and wife move out of their house. They were in a pretty rough part of town and we helped move to a house near the church. So we told them about Infinity and they should be joining us on Sunday. They also have a son who is 16 that seems to be in some in with some pretty rough people. T.J. could really use a lot of prayers. Afterwards, this group went out with Jeremy and me to a place called Timbuktu for what has been advertised as the best crab cakes in the world. I must say, they were pretty good.

Thursday I got to sleep in a little bit; the Burnt Hickory was done with Bible school, so I didn't have to be in Baltimore until about 1 o'clock to set up for the sports camp. The last night of sports camp went incredibly well and I can't believe sitting here now on Friday morning that it is over. Since I've arrived on May 21 this has been the week we were working toward, and now it's behind us. I realize we did not have the turn out we would have liked, but I know the kids that were there were able to learn a great deal, not just about sports, but about Christ, which is the main goal of everything we do.

I want to give a shout out to everyone who was involved in pulling this week off. All six groups that served with us this week: the two groups from Calvary Baptist, the group from FBC Powell, the family from Florida, Woodstream church from here in Maryland that were a tremendous help in registration and crafts, as well as evangelism in the community, and of course Burnt Hickory from Georgia that did so great with the kids in the mornings. I was blessed to meet tons of new people of all ages, from awesome leaders in their church communities as well leaders in their respective youth groups. I wish I could name every one of my new friends from across the country, and I hope that my ministry will bring me into contact with them again.

You can begin praying for all the kids that accepted Christ this week. Pray that their lives will never be the same and that they would find a church community that will help them grow and develop in their relationship with Christ that started this week. Pray that Infinity Church will be able to make contact with all those who heard the Gospel from the teams from FBC and Woodstream that preached door to door in the community and get them plugged in as well. We hope that this week was productive for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement leading up to this week. It was truly rewarding and one of the best I've ever had. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord in this capacity. I can't wait to see what else is in store for this summer.

To God be the glory