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PART 1
Reviewing the last three weeks I realize there is much to report. As I am writing this I realize that I will need to write this blog in parts due to the length. So this is part one of maybe four parts. I’ll try to recount the events in order, starting with a trip to Calvary Chapel Fellowship in Curepipe (Pastor Dom’s church). The whole family made it to Curepipe Sunday after service. Dom wasn’t feeling well, but he bravely joined us for some fellowship time. Cindy and the kids were there, as well as Colette and Daniel (regular attendees of the church). Danielle nursed Paul, Gary and I when we were all sick during the July mission trip, just after Pastor Ron returned to SC. There was also another woman there, Mariella who waited for my family’s arrival in Curepipe. We had a good time fellowshipping and hopefully brought a little USA likeminded uplifting of spirits to CC Fellowship.
I had the opportunity to record another 15 minute message on an AM station for the Mauritian program called Epilogue. The broadcast reaches all of Mauritius for those who tune into the AM program. Before recording the message I had the opportunity to discuss the topics of Jesus, sin and God with a Hindu gentleman whose wife was recording a message about Hinduism. This Hindu man was nice and even referenced Jesus acknowledging His sacrifice on the cross. I added that one of the most important things about Christ was that he rose from the dead, and that God is a God of the living. This man didn’t really know much about Christ or Christianity, just enough to be wrong. He proceeded to say that Christians emphasize sin too much. I think he might have been referencing the Mauritian Catholics. This man believed that being ignorant is sin and that if you are not ignorant then you aren’t sinning. I then explained that lack of ignorance does not mean you are without sin. In fact many people know about Christ, yet choose to disobey (rebel) against God and do as they please. Of course there are those of us who acknowledge Christ and our Lord and Savior, submitting ourselves to His will. Planting seeds.
Sherveen, a 17 year old young man living in Curepipe, stayed overnight in our home above the church the other week. We met him during the July mission trip. His mother attends CC Fellowship. Paul P. spent a lot of time with Sherveen and took him under his wing for a bit. We all took Sherveen out for this birthday in July. His father is not a good role model and unavailable to be a father figure, so it’s important that we can invite him up to the north part of Mauritius from time to time. He is a typical 17 year old, with typical issues and questions and it was a pleasure to have him with us. The only problem was that I let him borrow my Netbook for a few hours. I told him that the Netbook didn’t have any virus software installed, but you guessed it, the next day it only opened in “safe mode”. Silly me, letting a 17 year old use a computer (with or without virus software). I think all teenagers have the ability to surf hundreds of websites in just a matter of minutes. Somehow I’ll have to reformat the computer, but probably not until I return to SC.
In the next couple of days I will pick up where I left off with PART 2. I’d like to share my review of several Christian books and videos (equipping the Saints), the many visits of church members, the CC Fellowship bookstore sale and the local soup “soul” kitchen. Until the next blog…….
- Foot Washer -
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
I see four men loose……and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God – Daniel 3:25
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The New Year marks the three-month point in our mission trip. This seems like an appropriate time to review the goals I established for our time in Mauritius. The four main goals are 1) Equipping the Saints via the Word, 2) Community Evangelism, 3) Pastoral Care and 4) General Mauritius focus.
1) We’ve gone through 3 books so far: Colossians, Philippians and Malachi. Currently we are in the book of Daniel and just finished chapter 3 this morning, I believe people see the value if studying God’s Word verse by verse and chapter by chapter. I pray this encourages the saints to continue to study God’s Word in context, avoiding any misunderstandings of the Bible.
2) For evangelism, we been creating sermon CDs for people to take as desired. From time to time I remind people to take these resources and pass them to others are led. The church website also has the previous messages available for download or streaming. I’m working with the website guys to change the layout a bit to facilitate a more user friendly look. Pastor Ron sent me an “evangelism kit” from Greg Laurie, so I plan on building an evangelism team and using the kit to help equip people for street witnessing. There is some Way of the Master CDs I have as well.
3) Pastoral care is going to be ramped up now that people feel a bit more comfortable with me. I’ve been able to share a meal with various people with my family, but I plan on spending a bit more time visiting people for 30-minites or so, assuming I have transportation. Pastor Dominique mentioned that in Mauritius, the people really desire visits from the Pastor.
4) Most of the general Mauritius focus has been Campus Crusade for Christ and CC Fellowship (Dom’s church). We had Dom and his family over the BCN church flat again the other week. The slept over 2 nights and it was a great time of fellowship. Alexandria and I get to minister to them with food and a relatively relaxing time. We went to the beach together and had a good time. I know they really like spending time with us and we like spending time with them. The guys from Campus Crusade mentioned that the three University students I met really enjoyed their time with me and wanted to get back together soon. I plan on going to the University and spending some time with them. Please pray that I have time and transportation.
This month (January) we are showing the movie “Luther”. The movies are open to all who want to attend and we post “movie posters” on a sign right along a busy street with a lot of foot traffic and car traffic. Mauritians love movies, so the goal is to attract as many people as possible to learn about Christ and the Christian faith. Last month we watched “Facing the Giants”. I think in February we watch “Left Behind”.
For Christmas we had a special Christmas morning service at 0900. Some ladies from the church decorated the sanctuary with gold colored linen, candles and used gold spray branches to make the sanctuary visually appealing. A temporary church choir formed and practiced singing Christian Christmas carols for several weeks. Jack liked going down the stairs on Thursday and Saturday nights to hear the choir practice. The church also hosted an evangelical musical outreach on December 13th. Family and friends were invited to hear the choir sing and to listen to four 5-minute messages about Christ inserted between songs.
The month of December wasn’t without sickness. First my baby became sick. Next was Jack and I was last. Thank God Alex didn’t get sick. My caring for the boys would have consisted of wrestling matches (even Will would have joined in) and pizza. Maybe I’d throw in an occasional hamburger. I was sick during Christmas Eve and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a longer duration of sporadic fireworks. The Mauritians really enjoy their fireworks and any reason to light them off is an opportunity seized. I don’t know why, but between 7:30pm and 2am, somebody was lighting 3 or 4 loud fireworks ever 30 minutes. As soon as I fell asleep, BOOM, another barrage of fireworks. I’d literally jump up in bed. But the explosions only lasted a few seconds, just enough to wake me up. Then, nothing for another 20 – 30 minutes or so. I don’t know if someone was making their own fireworks and it took them 20-30 minutes per bunch or if they kept running out of matches or fireworks and had to run out to the store again. Maybe they take rationing to the extreme. Of course the whole firework thing was nothing new to me because in Myrtle Beach, people also go crazy over fireworks. It’s funny; yesterday Alexandria and I heard fireworks starting as soon as baby Will went to sleep. We turned to each other and said, “well, it must be January 9th”, as if January night was a holiday. We did the same thing in Myrtle Beach when someone would like fireworks on July 10th, or any random day.
I feel good now and we are all ready to tackle the next three months. There’s a lot I’d like to accomplish including establishing the evangelism team I mentioned earlier. I also plan on bringing a lot of the Christian resources from Dom’s bookstore up hear for sale in 14 days. I want to get a bit more involved in Campus Crusade and to spend a bit of time in Curepipe to fellowship with the CC Saints.
- Foot Washer -
The New Year marks the three-month point in our mission trip. This seems like an appropriate time to review the goals I established for our time in Mauritius. The four main goals are 1) Equipping the Saints via the Word, 2) Community Evangelism, 3) Pastoral Care and 4) General Mauritius focus.
1) We’ve gone through 3 books so far: Colossians, Philippians and Malachi. Currently we are in the book of Daniel and just finished chapter 3 this morning, I believe people see the value if studying God’s Word verse by verse and chapter by chapter. I pray this encourages the saints to continue to study God’s Word in context, avoiding any misunderstandings of the Bible.
2) For evangelism, we been creating sermon CDs for people to take as desired. From time to time I remind people to take these resources and pass them to others are led. The church website also has the previous messages available for download or streaming. I’m working with the website guys to change the layout a bit to facilitate a more user friendly look. Pastor Ron sent me an “evangelism kit” from Greg Laurie, so I plan on building an evangelism team and using the kit to help equip people for street witnessing. There is some Way of the Master CDs I have as well.
3) Pastoral care is going to be ramped up now that people feel a bit more comfortable with me. I’ve been able to share a meal with various people with my family, but I plan on spending a bit more time visiting people for 30-minites or so, assuming I have transportation. Pastor Dominique mentioned that in Mauritius, the people really desire visits from the Pastor.
4) Most of the general Mauritius focus has been Campus Crusade for Christ and CC Fellowship (Dom’s church). We had Dom and his family over the BCN church flat again the other week. The slept over 2 nights and it was a great time of fellowship. Alexandria and I get to minister to them with food and a relatively relaxing time. We went to the beach together and had a good time. I know they really like spending time with us and we like spending time with them. The guys from Campus Crusade mentioned that the three University students I met really enjoyed their time with me and wanted to get back together soon. I plan on going to the University and spending some time with them. Please pray that I have time and transportation.
This month (January) we are showing the movie “Luther”. The movies are open to all who want to attend and we post “movie posters” on a sign right along a busy street with a lot of foot traffic and car traffic. Mauritians love movies, so the goal is to attract as many people as possible to learn about Christ and the Christian faith. Last month we watched “Facing the Giants”. I think in February we watch “Left Behind”.
For Christmas we had a special Christmas morning service at 0900. Some ladies from the church decorated the sanctuary with gold colored linen, candles and used gold spray branches to make the sanctuary visually appealing. A temporary church choir formed and practiced singing Christian Christmas carols for several weeks. Jack liked going down the stairs on Thursday and Saturday nights to hear the choir practice. The church also hosted an evangelical musical outreach on December 13th. Family and friends were invited to hear the choir sing and to listen to four 5-minute messages about Christ inserted between songs.
The month of December wasn’t without sickness. First my baby became sick. Next was Jack and I was last. Thank God Alex didn’t get sick. My caring for the boys would have consisted of wrestling matches (even Will would have joined in) and pizza. Maybe I’d throw in an occasional hamburger. I was sick during Christmas Eve and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a longer duration of sporadic fireworks. The Mauritians really enjoy their fireworks and any reason to light them off is an opportunity seized. I don’t know why, but between 7:30pm and 2am, somebody was lighting 3 or 4 loud fireworks ever 30 minutes. As soon as I fell asleep, BOOM, another barrage of fireworks. I’d literally jump up in bed. But the explosions only lasted a few seconds, just enough to wake me up. Then, nothing for another 20 – 30 minutes or so. I don’t know if someone was making their own fireworks and it took them 20-30 minutes per bunch or if they kept running out of matches or fireworks and had to run out to the store again. Maybe they take rationing to the extreme. Of course the whole firework thing was nothing new to me because in Myrtle Beach, people also go crazy over fireworks. It’s funny; yesterday Alexandria and I heard fireworks starting as soon as baby Will went to sleep. We turned to each other and said, “well, it must be January 9th”, as if January night was a holiday. We did the same thing in Myrtle Beach when someone would like fireworks on July 10th, or any random day.
I feel good now and we are all ready to tackle the next three months. There’s a lot I’d like to accomplish including establishing the evangelism team I mentioned earlier. I also plan on bringing a lot of the Christian resources from Dom’s bookstore up hear for sale in 14 days. I want to get a bit more involved in Campus Crusade and to spend a bit of time in Curepipe to fellowship with the CC Saints.
- Foot Washer -
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