Michael Card concert info

About a year and a half ago Composer/Performer Michael Card led a concert at Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church, Peachtree City and it was a wonderful, inspirational evening. He is returning next month! Here are the details...

You won't want to miss Michael Card debuting his new album at Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church in Peachtree City. General Admission tickets are only $10!! What a great price for a wonderful concert.

He will be joined by choir and strings.

Saturday, August 7th - 7:00 PM , Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church, Peachtree City

Go to www.peachtreearts.org for tickets

Day Six (Thursday)

I think the pictures above explain a lot about our focus for this trip – prayer. This trip is totally dependent on prayer. It all depends on prayer. We pray with our children on this trip – and are encouraged when we see them focused on prayer with us!
Part of what we are dealing with this year is continuing relationships from last year while building new ones. Our leaders have had to deal with different situations involving these relationships – nasty divorces, absent parents, alcoholic parents, drug usage in the family. What we are learning is how to apply the Gospel to these relationships. What do you say to someone who is struggling with their reality? The best we can ever do is to share the Gospel with them. The story of Joseph is a great avenue to do this. I have taken our youth through the Luke 24 account of Jesus teaching His two disciples that the whole of the Old Testament was pointing to Him … maybe Jesus used the story of Joseph to teach these two about Him! So, we have used that approach this week in our groups and our one on ones … that the story of Joseph is meant to point us to Christ. And, when we are pointed to Christ, then we are pointed to prayer. Christians pray – they pray often for everything. Lord willing, this is one of the lessons the Appalachia children will learn this week … and our team will continue to learn in their own walks.
You also see the pic of our playground crew at work! They finished up this evening after 5 pm ... they got there before 7 am!

Trouble with Blogging

It is Wednesday evening, and I am sitting in the bowels of the Tex Turner arena at LMU. I am down here b/c this is the only open internet access on all of campus! In years past, we could use the internet in our rooms, but that has changed this year. I am sorry about the delay in posting these blogs, but this is really the first chance I have had to get here and do it!
Because of this turn of events, tomorrow night (Thurs) will be the last blog before the weekend. I will try and post the rest on Saturday afternoon/evening ... please tune back in then!
Thanks for reading this blog and praying for us. We look forward to sharing more with you in person!

Day Four (Tuesday)

Kids showed up this morning dressed as Egyptians! Do you know what a thrill it is to see these young’uns ‘buying’ into this? They want to dress the part so they can be more of a part of it all. What a wonderful opportunity for us to draw them into the story and make it all the more real for them! We are looking forward to seeing how many more kids show up tomorrow morning looking like they came from Egypt!
This evening, Emily Etzel and Madison Vermilya gave the report on our trip before 450 people! I (Pastor James) couldn’t be more proud of them! They both spoke the truth, and did so without hesitation. It was really pretty cool to see that go on!
Tonight, we are doing the ‘usual’ Appalachia weekday evening activities: going to Wal-Mart for supplies and then to Sonic to feast on sugary goods and spend time with the other groups. It is a rite of passage to do this!
Tomorrow afternoon, our playground crew (Pastor Tom, Denny Robertson and Tracy Schroeder) will be here and begin their part of this mission work. The church and children are excited about this, and we are looking forward to seeing this work done!

Day Three (Monday)

We went to Egypt in Virginia this morning! We are conducting the VBS curriculum that tells the story of Joseph, so we have done our best to transform the church into an oasis of Egypt in the heart of the Appalachia Mountains. The youth are dressing up in their costumes, telling the story of how God was always with Joseph, and how God worked through Joseph. We sing songs, do Egyptian dances and have crafts with an Egyptian flair. The kids seem to really get into it!
We have seen a number of kids from last year and some new faces. It is great to see these kids come to hear the story of Scripture … sing the story of Scripture … pray the story of Scripture … soak in Scripture! Some have even admitted that they don’t really know the Bible or what it is about. Our prayers are that we would be good servants of Christ and share God’s word with all the children who come.
Our worship in the evening is led by Paul Patrick, chaplain of Erskine. His series is on the church – what it is (and isn’t), the foundation of Scripture, and that the church is for the justified and not the perfect. Each sermon has featured a particular point that hits right home with our situation in Jonesville, VA and Moreland/Senoia, GA. After the worship services, we come back to the girls apartment, talk through the sermon and music, and then break up into our teams to pray for the kids and the next day. We are doing our best to bathe this trip in prayer!

Day Two (Sunday)

This is one of those days that are a real pleasure of the Appalachia mission trip. We went to worship with our church site, Flatwoods United Methodist Church. This is the same church we served last year and it is a privilege to come back to reestablish old relationships and work on new ones. It is a pleasure to spend time in worship with this church of 44 members who are supportive of the mission work we will do this week. They are brothers and sisters in Christ, although of a different stripe. But, they have the same desire and passion we do – to know, and make known, the wonders of the Gospel.
The church provided a lunch for our group following the worship service, and then it was off to canvas the area! We use this time to reach out to the community to inform them of what we are doing. We spread out and go to as many doors as we can!
After all of this, we went into Middlesboro for a Wal-Mart run and then to see the July 4th fireworks. It was a great way to end the evening!

Flexible with Difficulties

Our team learned flexibility on Saturday. First, their trip was extended 2 1/2 hours when the interstate north of Chattanooga was shut down due to an accident. The team did not arrive to LMU until 5.15 pm - which means they didn't have time to make the 45 drive to our site. Instead, they had to draw up plans of the church and have the veterans explain to the newbies how the church is set up and how to best utilize all of the rooms. This morning, they are leaving earlier than usual so they can see the area and site and continue to make preparations.

Our second lesson of flexibility is that we will be without internet access until Tues evening ... so, this will be the last post until then. But, please tune in Tuesday evening to catch up on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday! We promise to have lots of pictures and stories to share!

One other thing - we will say this all week ... pray for the trip, the children and us. Please. In Paul's missionaries trips, he always relied on the prayers of believers ... we are doing the same. Please take a few moments to pray for us. Thank you!

Appalachia 'X - Team

Here is our team (minus Pastor James) preparing to leave for Appalachia! Remember to pray for the team and each of it's member.

Appalachia 'X

Please remember our WOARP Appalachia missionaries as they leave on their trip Saturday morning. We will start updating this blog with reports from the trip on Monday evening (7-5). Stay tuned!