As you can see from the picture, I am in a very small town in Washington state, just surrounded by God’s creation. The mountains are a backdrop similar to Skyrim, Middle Earth, or Narnia…therefore; my expectation of what it would be like for me to be up here in this region was shot dramatically down, when I realized 1) I have no signal with AT&T, and then 2) there is no Internet connection.
I literally have to write my blog posts in Microsoft Word and then post them after the fact. I was using the internet for a little bit at Pastor George’s house while we were in between services today, but now I just have found out that the local coffee house has wi-fi, so I bring my computer there to do email, Facebook, and blog updates.
Unfortuantely I am at the pastor's house again, as yes...there is an internet cafe, but its a gloomy day out and this is a small town, so no other way to get on internet but through pastor's computer.
DAY 2: THE SUNDAY
This is the time that I prayed the hardest for all of the preachers from SWBTS that are out and about in the country. I mentioned this first thing in my morning sermon, if you watch the video of it, you’ll see what I’m talking about. It might take a little bit to get them uploaded but I can at least get that done. I had the promise going on my last trip that I’d get the sermons uploaded, but I am still uncertain as to how to do that. I just know that it costs money.
With a “Johnny Cash” look for the pulpit, I stood in the congregation, and preached on Isaiah 53; “The Suffering Servant”. It is a pretty important passage in terms of Jewish Evangelism, and if anyone in the DFW area is reading this (yeah besides all of my SWBTS peeps) there’s going to be a Passover Seder led by myself and my beloved on April 7th (The Saturday before Easter) you’ll hear me talk about it some more, as I will probably be using this sermon as part of the Seder.
Anyway, we had a great turn out for the first service, and I felt it was pretty well received. The congregation averaged about 30 people and some of them were return visitors, people who didn’t come regularly, but had heard about this revival and decided they’d come to check it out. Pastor and I are meeting with a guy who is close to my age, his name is Nick (keep him in prayer) That will happen today (MONDAY) so tonight when I write Monday’s blog post I will tell you what happened.
We had a potluck service and we were able to sit down with the church members so I could get to know them. Here’s a crazy small world connection. There is a man named Glen that goes to Klickitat Valley Baptist Church, and through some strange connection, I wasn’t sure of…he knows a man named Ray. Ray is in my Thursday night preaching class! I couldn’t believe how even in the midst of living in a giant sized country, you still manage to find people to share common interests with and common connections. The potluck was a St. Patty’s Day theme, even down to the green bread we were eating (yes, green bread). I think it was a sourdough that just had a few gallons of green food coloring added to the batter when they made it.
Much in the similar fashion that SWBTS does on the “Taking the Hill” initiative, or the way that I did with my former church family, Southcliff, pastor George and I went door to door inviting people to show up to church, handing out flyers with my picture on them and a schedule, telling the community that I was here and that I was preaching. It is a really strange feeling. You go from being this shadow in a crowd (talking in the context of being in a seminary where there’s like 3000+ people) to being a preacher who everyone is coming out to hear. You have to never let it get to your head, or else God will never work in you.
I was able to go back to the Osburns house to rest and amazingly, it started snowing. I was drawn right back to what I had been saying yesterday about the relation to snow and the Chronicles of Narnia; hence the “Always Winter, never Christmas” title of the blog post. It is still snowing, so it is nice to see snow considering we got like maybe a pseudo-flurry in the end of February of this year.
Keep me in prayer as God continues to work through this mountain community in Washington State that really needs to be revived and encouraged. The impact that the Gospel will have on people that just need to hear a message is staggering. Please pray for Nick as well, as me and Pastor George are meeting with him today.
GRACE AND PEACE!
-Joel
Psalm 37:4
No comments:
Post a Comment