So Many Good Things

So many good things are happening in our church in June and July. I can never thank God enough for calling and sending over a hundred people on mission trips. This is a remarkable high percentage of our congregation. It’s not about the number of people that excites me, but the missional spirit that God is pouring among us. I have been praying that this spirit will continue for the rest of the year and throughout the lives of the participants. It’s not just a one-week spiritual high that fades away, only to be reignited by another mission trip. I pray that this spirit will continue to grow in our everyday lives and impact our community because being missional is the heartbeat of our missional God.

June and July are not just about mission trips. Something significant happened at the beginning of June as well. 250 people from our congregation attended our church camp, which only happens once every two years! We encountered God through worship, fellowship, and doing good works together as one church. What really excites me is that we listened to God’s word, understood His heart, and acted on it, not alone, but together. We were like a church on the move, feeling the heartbeat of God and joining Him in His mission.

During the church camp, we dedicated one of the five days to doing good works. Some might think it’s just a one-day effort to serve the marginalized, but I saw God working among us. He used that one day to open our eyes, allowing us to see how He is at work among the poor, blind, lame, crippled, deformed, elderly, and lonely. Through the presence of these less fortunate individuals, God spoke loudly to us: Are you still comfortable staying in your comfort zone?

I was so encouraged when I realized that some of our people had already been reaching out to those in need long before the camp. Those who felt called to do more for the marginalized joined various services after the camp. The spiritual high from the church camp continues into our everyday lives.

As we learn more about God’s heart, how is your heart doing? The spiritual high offers a good respite from our busyness, but there may still be something hidden deep inside our hearts that needs to be addressed. God used the mental health workshop to heal our hurts caused by the people we love dearly. We often don’t know how to deal with these hurts and just set them aside, thinking they will disappear as we continue to be faithful to God. But the hurts never go away on their own.

[To be continued…]