The Bible in 90 Days

So a couple of months ago I was at Mardel, wandering through the book section while I waited for several Bibles to get names imprinted on them, and I stumbled across something that has become a challenge and blessing in my life this summer.  There was a Bible called, “The Bible in 90 Days.”  It was divided into 12 page sections that would take you from Genesis to Revelation in 88 days and giving you two days off during the process.  I had seen Bible reading plans that take you through the Bible in a year and I have even tried (and failed) to use those plans before.  However, today marks the half-way point for me as I complete Psalms and move into Proverbs.  I have loved this plan and the discipline it has required of me to read for twenty to forty minutes a day.  (I didn’t buy the Bible.  I just got a copy of the plan.)

Here are five reasons I recommend the Bible in 90 days reading plan:

1. I believe that there is more than knowledge to be gained by reading Scripture.  Psalms  119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”  When I play Bejewelled Blitz on my computer for an hour before I go to sleep, I find myself envisioning falling jewells on night long.  When I watch all of the X-Men movies in one week (I am watching them all this week, by the way), I find myself thinking about them throughout the day.  When I read 15 chapters of God’s Word a day, I find myself seeing his word and his truth and those stories in my life on a daily basis.  It’s pretty cool.
2. I have often missed the forest for the trees.  So often I have read a chapter here or even a book there, but its amazing to see how God weaves the entire story together.  To see the larger relationships and movements that take place across generations and different nations in the story has been fascinating.  It has also helped me to more realistically place God’s story within the story of history, something I wish I was better at doing myself.
3. It’s not easy.  When I did one year reading plans, I found myself getting bored after reading just enough each day to not get much out of it.  This can be especially difficult getting through Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which would take three months in some plans, but I completed in two weeks.  The feeling of challenge and accomplishment have carried me through some of the heavier (more boring) parts of Scripture.
4. I have learned things I had missed before.  When you only watch the highlight reel, you often miss some important stuff.  I didn’t know that Uriah (Bathsheeba’s husband) was one of David’s Mighty Men.  I didn’t know that Jacob married Rachel one week after he married Leah (source of much feuding, even between Jacob’s sons).  I didn’t know that Joseph’s control over Egypt led to them gaining all of the wealth, land, and slaves in that region of the world.  Now I know.
5. One of the original reasons I wanted to pursue this is so that I could read through the entire Bible while Leah was pregnant with our son.  As I prepare to be a dad, I think the more I know about God’s word, the better dad I am likely to be.  As it stands right now, I should finish the Bible about 7 weeks before Carter is born.  I know that me doing this is not only a blessing to me, but will be a blessing to him as well.

Several other observations from my Bible reading adventure:

• Genesis is just awesome.  The stories in that book blow my mind.  And God is really cool.
• Nathan, you were right.  Numbers is way more boring than Leviticus.  I should have seen that coming.
• Samuel and Kings are good books.  After reading those, Chronicles is horrible.  It’s like watching the movie Armaggedon and then immediately watching Deep Impact. 
• Psalms is one of my favorite books in the Bible.  That being said, I don’t love reading huge chunks at a time.

Stay tuned for more moments of Scriptural Enlightenment as the journey continues.

A Healthy Church

Today is my first full day back in the office and I spent the first hour visiting, making coffee, and removing the piles of boxes Ryan placed in my office.  When Rodney left, he left about 1800 Britt-Deloach cd’s in my old office (Ryan’s new office).  When Ryan moved into his office last Friday with some of the teens, they decided to build a wall out of those cd’s between my desk and the rest of the room.  (Half of those cd’s are in their new storage location.  The other half might have been stashed back in Ryan’s office somewhere, although it’s hard to tell with all of his other boxes of junk in there.)

Anyhow, Ryan’s first day as the new part-time youth minister at Northwest is next Monday, so I am enjoying my last week of peace and quiet around here (kinda kidding).  I am really looking forward to having him here and all of the fun that he and Bill and I will have working here together.  Ryan is really going to add an exciting dimension to our youth ministry and to our church, so I am looking forward to him starting.  It will also give me somebody to talk to about soccer, which is always exciting.

After getting back into the office, I cleaned my desk for the first time since summer began and am finally getting settled back into a routine, I hope. 

When I got here this morning, we had the Ladies’ Card Ministry meeting in the Jr. Auditorium.  I stopped by when I noticed they had more card-writers than I had ever seen in there before.  Of course, they managed to make a couple of jokes at my expense and Nancy Long had to caution me that if I am not more careful about what I say, then she might not be able to keep me out of trouble.  And Donna told me she loves reading my blogs, which I love.  So, those several minutes with the Card Ministry will probably be the highlight of my day.

We also had the new seniors ministry that meets on Tuesdays up here.  I think they are calling themselves Teenagers Again or Renewed Teenagers or something.  I guess I will have to pay more attention to the bulletin to find out.  Nevermind…just checked with Gayle and they are officially the “Recycled Teenagers.”  Now you know.  But they had a good group meeting up here as well and I visited with them for a few minutes.

While there, I found out that our 39′ers will be having one of their evening meals together up here at the building tonight.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend since the high schoolers are coming over to my house to hang out this evening.  In the fall, we also have Day School on Tuesdays.

I say all of that to say that I think we have a healthy church.  When Tuesdays become a busy day at the building because of all the different ministries that are ministering to people from ages 1 to 100, then I think there is some good family dynamics working in our church.  I often thank God that I can be a part of this church.

Twentieth Baptism

Here is a video of our twentieth baptism. Keep watching through the beginning where Chris tries to figure out if the camera is on or not (it is) and you will definitely enjoy Vincent’s baptism.

And we got home safely.

Homeward Bound

A few thoughts on coming home:

1.  The mission isn’t over quite yet.  There is going to be a baptism in the ocean tomorrow morning for somebody in our team.  Tune in tomorrow for more information.

2.  We arrived in Miami safe and sound.  The hotel is nice.  Food was amazing! 

3.  The onflight movie was Hannah Montana.  I was extremely disappointed.  I resorted to reruns on my iPod until it froze up.  Oh well, I got caught up on my Bible reading plan.

4.  Spades tournament in the lobby tonight.  Frank and I won, with Eddie pinch hitting for us on a few hands.  I really want to have a spades tournament at Northwest.

5.  If I haven’t mentioned it, one of the coolest things this week was finding out some of my closest friends at church will be having a baby shortly after us.  I am so excited for them.

6.  I am ready to be home tomorrow evening, but I am totally looking forward to getting a little extra sleep in the morning.

7.  I am proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.  God bless America, and all those other song lines that are so true.  Its good to be back in America.  It really is a great place to live.

A Grand Finale

To say that the clinic went out with a bang would be a huge understatement.  Friday was one of the most emotional and intense days I can remember in Guyana.  We arrived at the clinic with very long lines, and no matter how hard we worked, the lines kept getting longer throughout much of the day.  We did finally see as many as we could and by the end of the day we had seen over 300 people!  And what was even better, today we had 9 baptisms!  I am pretty sure that brings our total for the week to just under 1,000 people in the clinic and 19 baptisms. 

Tonight was also the last night for our Crusades out at Melanie Church of Christ.  We wrapped up a week of studying encounters with Jesus with me preaching about the three people who encountered Jesus on his last day, Barabbas, the criminal on the cross, and the Centurion.  Hopefully it struck a chord with some people.  The youth class had definitely struck a chord.  When we arrived tonight, some of the kids were using each other as “human puppets” just like we had done in our activity the night before.  It was funny.  Tonight we did an improvisional skit on the life of Christ.  On Monday night, we had a total of about 15 people there.  On Friday night we had 80, so it was really fun to be a part of that ministry. 

Youths at Melanie Church of Christ

However, the highlight of my trip this year was this afternoon.  I had met Renaldo and his mother, Patracia, last year at Anne’s Grove.  We talked for awhile about great football players, especially ones named Ronaldo and we just really had a good time.  This year he and his mom came into the clinic on Monday and we hugged and caught up on each other’s lives.  I was really excited to tell them I am going to have a son of my own soon.  If you have been following the blog, you might have also seen the video of him talking about David and Goliath when we were hanging out Thursday night.  Anyhow, he walks up to me today with a black bag and says its for me.  I was really surprised and didn’t know what to expect, but inside was a gift bag.  As I opened it, he says, “That’s for your new son.”  I pulled out a blue stuffed rabbit.  Under one ear was written ”Guyana” and Renaldo had written his name under the other ear.  The bag also contained two more gifts, a Guyana souvenier glass and a fancy porcelain vase that we each wrapped seperately.  I was completely speechless and humbled and grateful.  It was truly one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.  He included his address, and I can’t wait to send him a picture of Carter and the little blue bunny rabbit.

Renaldo's Gifts for Me and Carter

God blessed me so richly this week by allowing the Guyanese people to minister to me and encourage me in so many ways.  I hope the stories I have been sharing have been a blessing to you.  You just can’t imagine the love I have experienced.  And on top of that, a number of the girls gave me letters to take home to Kristin and Leah, including some of the awesome young women who worked registration all week.  We really had a blast working with so many wonderful people at Anne’s Grove and Melanie.  Praise be to God for all he enabled us to do for others this week and for all that he has done for us.

Catching you up on Wednesday and Thursday

Its late and I am tired from playing Spades with other team members until late each night, but here are some things to catch you up on the last two days.

1.  Yesterday I think we saw 150 people at the clinic and Gary recorded an announcement on his iPhone that was played over the preacher’s super loud car stereo system around the community.

2.  After the announcement we had 250 people come through today.  We had 5 baptisms today, which brings our total for the week to 9. 

3.  Last night I had preached on Paul’s conversion at Melanie and our nightly attendance had increased from about 15 on Monday to 60 last night.

4.  We had about 60 again tonight and Gary preached on Peter overcoming failure and I led the youth class afterwards.  We had some of the kids come up and be “human puppets.”  They moved their mouths and I talked for them as they acted out stories.  It was a riot and they loved it.  Over 2/3 of the people at Melanie are kids who are really enjoying the nightly Crusades.

5.  Joel has been doing a Crusade at Buxton, a somewhat dangerous community trying to start a new church.  This week they have gone from 3 to 11 people each night and they are loving his lessons.

6.  The United States is doing well in the Gold Cup.  Meanwhile, Obama went to Brazil and received an autographed jersey from the Brazilian soccer team that just beat the United States in the Confederations Cup!

7. I got to spend time with my old friends Ronaldo and Joan, who both became special to me last year and who it was a real blessing to see again this year.  Both have stayed involved in the church while we were away and have returned to the clinic this year and regularly attended the Crusades.  This has been one of the highlights of my trip.

8.  Lots of spades playing. 

And the next update will be Friday night.

Why we come…

This is my good friend Ronaldo who was sitting with me sharing the story of David and Goliath and I thought you might enjoy it too.  Sorry its sideways and you might need headphones to hear him, but its totally worth it.  I met Ronaldo last year and we hit it off immediately.  Yesterday he drew pictures that said “I love you” and gave them to 13 different people on our team.  His family now goes to the Anne’s Grove Church of Christ.

Pictures from Anne’s Grove

Yancey doing a Bible Study

Chris doing a Bible Study

Sally, Shemattie, Nanda, and Molly help with registration

Polly Makes a New Sign for the Clinic

Kent with friends from last year, Patricia and Ronaldo

Toasty Tuesday

I have decided that my post titles for the week will include alliteration and descriptions of the day.  Today was very hot and Tuesday, so there you go. 

We saw 130 people at the clinic yesterday and today saw 158.  Each day we got to add a new sister to the Kingdom, so that has been exciting.  We have a great team this year and everybody is willing to jump in and do their part.  We are hoping that the next couple of days we get larger crowds so we can really push ourselves and be a blessing to more people while we are here.  I think Joel and Gary are working on an audio recording that will invite people to the clinic, which they will broadcast over the preacher’s car stereo (super loud) as they drive through nearby neighborhoods.  Hopefully that will help.

Today I spent some time with Sally, Molly, and Nanda who are the teenage girls who help out with registration.  I was working at the gate so talked to them for awhile.  Mostly they wanted to know everything I could tell them about Leah, Kristin, Aaron, and Josh.  Apparently they miss them.  We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot and still got everybody registered.

The highlight of my day was the nurturing project that Gary and I are doing at the Melanie Church of Christ.  Gary did a great lesson on Jesus raising Lazerus.  For the second night in a row, there were far more kids and teens than adults, so right at the end of service we called an audible and added a 15 minute youth service after the closing prayer.  All of the kids came down and we sang several active songs, got them doing some chants, and then did a “shadow acting” activity.  As I retold the story of Lazerus, Chris Nusbaum acted out anything I said and then the kids had to do whatever Chris did.  Chris was hilarious and really got into it and the kids loved it.  It was a blast.  We are going to continue our after worship youth service throughout the week and I am excited to see how that turns out. 

Anyhow, I may try to post pictures later tonight.  Pray for us to be able to reach and serve and love on more people tomorrow.

Mission Monday

Well today was the first day at the clinic.  Since we were at Anne’s Grove last year as well, it was relatively easy for us to get setup today.  The church there is also immensely helpful, which makes everything even easier.  We were blessed all day with overcast skies, cool temperatures, and even a light rain for much of the day.  It made for a relaxing day at the clinic.  (Chris Rice, my roommate for the week says hello to anybody reading this.) 

Unfortunately, it was a fairly slow day as well, which is normal for a Monday.  We still managed to see 130 people today and did have one baptism.  The baptism was unlike any I have seen here before because they weren’t able to get the baptistry tank here yet and so they actually baptized this woman in the canal next to the church.  I believe that Frank Wood studied with her on his first day of doing Bible studies.

Baptism in Canal at Anne's Grove

 

Tonight was really good.  Bill is speaking at the Crusade all week, so Joel Dalrymple, Gary Southerland and myself are speaking at different local congregations each night.  One got cancelled tonight, but I was able to preach to a crowd of about 15 at the Melanie Church of Christ.  This was a really beautiful and nice Guyanese church and it was really cool to have a mostly teen and young adult group.  We sang for awhile and then I preached about Jesus and the Samaritan woman and Legion.  Gary and I will be taking turns speaking this week at Melanie and will be discussing Encounters with Jesus each night.  It was really awesome getting to speak there and I feel like there is some potential for that to turn into a really good event. 

Kent Preaching at Melanie Church of Christ

 

Oh, and our last six suitcases arrived this morning.  Praise to God for their quick arrival.

And Happy Caricom Day to you all.  Its a national holiday here that’s similar to Labor Day at home.  Maybe things will pick up at the clinic and crusades when things return to normal tomorrow. 

Thanks for all of your prayers.