Missions & Ministries - Part 4

Today's focus is The Rochester Family Mission. (www.rochesterfamilymission.com) I met the director, Barbara Thomas, a few years ago when our church hosted a missions conference. The mission's outreaches include food distribution, youth programs, tutoring and educational programs, and RICE (Rochester Institute of Christian Education). A couple from our church has volunteered there for years, so I have confidence that this is an organization that is doing the Lord's work with integrity and responsible stewardship.

C. S. Lewis

I have been listening to "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis on audio cassette. As always, he manages to express things with clarity and simplicity. Here is a quote that especially jumped out at me:

"Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man: it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light. Apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in the cellar of my soul."

Ouch!

Missions & Ministries- Part 3

Today's focus is a radio show aimed at working women, "The Christian Working Woman" with Mary Whelchel. (www.christianworkingwoman.org) In addition to her daily radio show, every summer Mary and her assistant Lucinda travel to Africa for 2 weeks to minister to women there. Part of that trip involves taking gifts and materials to distribute. Additionally, as opportunities arise, the ministry will do special aid projects. An example is Haiti. After the earthquake, TCWW located a couple of families in Haiti that had been seriously affected by the earthquake. All the special donations went directly to those families. TCWW combines evangelism and discipleship in down to earth ways that are biblically sound and easy to understand and remember,

Missions & Ministries- Part 2.

Another organization high on my list is Logoi. (www.logoi.org) The founder, Les Thompson, was born in Cuba to missionary parents, and lived there until they were asked to leave in the 1960's. He is a missionary, pastor, and author. The ministry is based in Miami and their main goal is equipping Spanish speaking pastors and believers with sound Christian materials. They hold pastor's conferences in Cuba, Latin America and South America. They also have a newly developed website where Spanish speaking pastors can make a wish list and English speaking believers can make those wish lists a reality. I have not explored their new site much yet, but it seems to have great potential and to be using the power of the internet to link believers around the world, to the glory of God.

Missions & Ministries- Part 1

Yesterday, Little Man's Father & I went to a missions conference. At first, I wondered why it had been scheduled in December, when everyone is accelerating toward Christmas. After listening to the speakers, my thoughts and attitude had been re-aligned. Missions is all about glorifying God and telling people that they can have peace with God because of Jesus. Hearing about various mission endeavors in various parts of the world was such an antidote to the commercialization of Christmas that starts before Halloween and increases until everyone is sick of the holiday before it even gets here. How sad. Don't get me wrong - I love all the tradition and trimmings and I'm busy shopping and decorating and moving through the various celebrations of the season. But in the midst of it, I'm trying to keep a place of peace and stillness and trying to take time to focus on the incarnation of our Lord and all its implications.

As part of that, I thought I would focus on some of the mission & ministry endeavors that I've become aware of, in no particular order. The first one is "Come Over and Help", which I heard about for the first time yesterday. Their website is www.coah.org. Their area of work is Eastern Europe and countries that were formerly communist. They don't have missionaries - instead, they partner with churches and ministries that are already established and help them in whatever way is needed to carry out their work. The areas the speaker highlighted yesterday are pastor training, prison ministry, orphanages, church building and humanitarian aid.

Celtic Advent

In the Celtic Christian tradition, Advent is a full 40 days of preparation, similar to Lent. In "The Celtic Daily Prayer" book by the Northumbria Community, it is described as a time of repentance, humbling and interior "housecleaning". John the Baptist's warning was to prepare a way for the Lord by making a clear and level path, getting rid of boulders (the things we have done that we should not have) and filling in the potholes (the things we should have done and failed to do).

In the past, I have only noticed Advent on Sundays when we lit a candle at church in the Advent wreath. I really love this idea of Celtic Advent as a way to spiritually prepare for the holiday season. In googling "Celtic Advent", I found the following at www.wellsprings.org.uk:

Opening Responses
Reader	Days of heavy clouds stifling the sunlight the world burdened by greyness and gloom
ALL	OPEN OUR EYES, LORD TO THE COMING OF YOUR LIGHT LIFTING THE BURDEN OF DARKNESS FROM OUR LIVES.
Reader	Chillness that seeps deep into bones hearts and spirits rigid with frost-hardness souls wrapped up against coldness and loneliness.
ALL	OPEN OUR SOULS, LORD, TO THE WARMTH OF YOUR COMING MELTING THE HARDNESS THAT KEEPS US FROM YOU AND FROM EACH OTHER.
Reader	Trees - branches bare against the steel skies stems crumpled under weight of frost - weight of snow last year’s leaves - blackened and slippery underfoot - nature oppressed by wintriness - yet resting - awaiting rebirth.
ALL	CHERISH OUR HEARTS, LORD OPPRESSED BY WINTRINESS - ASSURE US OF YOUR COMING OF YOUR CALL TO NEW LIFE.

Closing Responses
Reader	We take the light of our prayer into the world
ALL	TO PRAY FOR THOSE UNABLE TO PRAY; TO OFFER OURSELVES AS ANSWERS TO PRAYER.
Reader	We take the light of our compassion into the world:
ALL	TO COME ALONGSIDE THOSE WHO ARE SUFFERING ANGUISH OF HEART ANGUISH OF MIND AND BE AS CHRIST FOR THEM.
Reader	We take the light of God's power into the world:
ALL	GOD'S POWER MADE PERFECT IN POWERLESSNESS STRENGTH MADE KNOWN IN WEAKNESS LIFE MADE KNOWN IN DYING.
Reader	God enters the hearts of all who pray - and feel they are not heard suffers their pain - their humiliation - carries the burdens of the world and dies that we might live May our God bless us
ALL	THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
Reader	And until we meet again
ALL	MAY GOD HOLD US IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND. AMEN

Cooking Shows

I am hopelessly addicted to cooking shows. Now that we have DVR as part of our cable service, I have been feeding this addiction! Here are some of my favorites:

Aarti Party - This show features Aarti Sequira, the winner of the 2010 Next Food Network Star competition. I tuned in to the competition about 3 or 4 episodes in, and immediately was drawn to Aarti. There was another competitor, Brad, that I also liked, but I was very happy when Aarti was the winner. She is cute, bubbly, interesting, and has recipes I might actually try making. I also like that she is happily married, not stick thin, and most of all, she loves the Lord and is not ashamed to say so. (I think her lovely British accent helps too!) Her prize for winning was 6 episodes of a cooking show. I was happy to read that they have decided to do a 2nd season, which will be another 12 episodes.



Nigella Lawson - How can you not love someone who delights in family and food the way Nigella does? I love seeing her home (according to chefography, filming in her home instead of a studio set was a new concept when she started) and also the little clips they do of her shopping. I also relate to her underlying theme, which is that cooking at home is not supposed to be like restaurant cooking, but should be interesting and delicious, none the less. I also admire her for the way she has coped with losing her mother, her first husband, and her sister to cancer.



Rachel Allen - This is a new discovery, thanks to the Cooking Channel. Rachel Allen is Ireland's answer to Nigella Lawson and her show on the Cooking Channel is called "Bake". I love watching it because baking in the UK is quite different than baking in the US. She even emphasized that on one episode by going to a bakery in England owned by 2 Americans. Just yesterday I was poking around the Create network and discovered another series called Rachel Allen's Favorite Food at Home, which debuted on PBS in May of 2010.





Laura Calder - Another Cooking Channel program, called French Food at Home. According to wikipedia, there are 78 episodes of her show and they were shot in a home kitchen. I don't know if it is her kitchen or not, but it's beautiful. Laura is quirky and opinionated (in a very gentle way!) about cooking, and fixes stuff I'll probably never try, but her show is so different than anyone else's that I enjoy watching it.






Jamie Oliver - He just cracks me up with his British slang and his scruffy appearance. I love the shots of his garden, kitchen and house, and all the vintage dishes he uses to serve up his chow. I'd love to see behind the scenes on his show to see how much is really Jamie and how much is the work of a "stylist". Oh well, I love to watch him grab and chop and toss together and come up with a wonderful end product.




Ina Garten - I know it is supposed to be "cool" to mock her catch phrases ("how easy is that?") and her endless parade of Hamptons friends, but I still love her cooking style and philosophy. Easy and delicious, with the emphasis on the people, not on impressing with your cooking skills. I love her calm voice and easy-going manner.