Home: "How do you measure success?"

This final post is coming to you from White Oak ARP.  We are back from a wonderful trip.

Thursday morning saw another fantastic day at VBS.  We enjoyed singing our songs, making our crafts, and teaching our attendees about the design that is so evident in God's creation.  Once again, our youth did a fabulous job leading and teaching.

After VBS all our kids, their parents, and the Hill City pastor enjoyed hot dogs in the Park.  As we were winding down, I had a lady who had brought the large church group to VBS ask me an interesting question.  She asked, "How do you measure success?"

I thought for a brief moment before I responded.  How do we measure success in our ministry at VBS and at White Oak?  Is it some number, whether a number of attendees or a number of children who answer a question regarding their salvation in a particular way?  Is it how much we learned?  Is it how good we felt doing what we were doing?  Is it whether Hill City was encouraged?

My response was simple: our trip was successful if the Gospel was clearly proclaimed.  It doesn't matter if we saw any immediate fruit (even though it is always nice to see it!), it doesn't matter how many children came.  If one person was confronted with the saving reality of Jesus Christ, we did our job.  If we were faithful to the Great Commission, conducted ourselves worthily, and didn't shrink from the opportunities before us; we have accomplished what I would consider a successful "missions trip." Think about that next time you're considering a church event, or the "success" of Sunday morning worship.  Are you looking for a number?  Are you after a certain "feeling"?  May all of our ministries be guided by the simple presentation of the Gospel, which, as Paul tells us "is the power of God for salvation." May each day of our lives be "mission trips" where we seek to do exactly this same thing.

Thursday was a quick turn around, departing Rock Hill and heading down to Winnsboro to visit Pastor James McManus in his new charge at Bethel ARP.  We were able to enjoy some time in the pool with the Bethel youth, and we got to explore our ARP heritage.  The Old Brick Church, near Winnsboro, is the site of the 1803 formation of the ARP Synod of the Carolinas, which was the first iteration of the Synod that still exists today.  In the very old building, we sang of God's goodness, and shared a little about our trip with the Bethel folks.

Thank you for your prayer support during this weekend.  Keep your eyes out for a chance to hear more about our trip!

Over the Hump

Another wonderful day at VBS.  Today, we learned about Jesus' obedience to his Father in dying the death that his people deserved.  Please pray that the children who heard will have their hearts impressed by the Holy Spirit.

We had another providential meeting this afternoon.  After we played some very hot frisbee during which we didn't attract any attendees, we moved to the area of Cherry Park that is hosting our VBS in the mornings.  Despite their fatigue, our team took the initiative and invited some of the kids hanging around the park to join us for some wiffleball.  From this invitation, we were able to speak to a kind Mormon lady.  She was happy to hear of our Christianity, but also happy to tell us that our religion was incomplete without the additional revelation to which her sect holds.  After she told us that she was a Christian who believed in the Bible (but had "moved on" to Mormonism), we were able to share Revelation 22 with her, which clearly argues that the Bible is complete, and anyone who subtracts from it or adds to it will be cursed.  She didn't seem to have thought that one through.  While she continued on to give us some more facts about the LDS, hopefully the Holy Spirit can use that one little conversation to plant a seed of doubt in her mind.  Pray for her and the teenage girls with whom she was spending the day.

Hill City once again reached out to us this evening, hosting us for a bonfire and some s'mores.  We have felt a true sense of partnership with their church this week.

Tomorrow is our last day of VBS!  We will close the week with our normal program, and a cookout for the kids who attend.

Finally, here's our team's summary of the day in one word:

God's Providence

Today was a long day.

The comment was made during our devotional time tonight that we are tired, but a "good tired."  Today was jammed packed with emotional labor, spiritual labor, and physical labor.

Our numbers grew about 100% at VBS today.  As I mentioned, yesterday we spoke to a large group visiting the park, who came in full force this morning.  We managed to tackle the large numbers (literally, in the case of some of the males), and the day went very well.  Our youth gave some testimony this evening about kids who are asking hard questions, and parents encouraged us this evening that their children are learning and having fun.

Here are some pictures from VBS:

Here's a great example of God's providential work.  Yesterday, we took the Cherry Park Director up on his offer to find us a service project. He ended up passing us a name for a lady who served a homeless/community outreach called Renew Our Community (ROC).

Now, back up a week or two to a conversation I had with Andy Stager, the minister of Hill City.  Since our fellowship time with some smaller local churches fell through, we ended up agreeing to join Hill City for a "Bike Fixin Cookout" at one of their member's homes.  It turns out the member was a man named John, who hosted Rachel, Tracy, and I on Saturday night.  John is a bike mechanic, and explained to us that Rock Hill has a burgeoning cycling culture growing around a new velodrome (indoor race track for bikes) recently finished.  

Back to helping out ROC today...our host took us to an outparcel on their property that was filled with furniture and pieces of office cubicles.  She explained that they needed to reorganize and move the considerable amount of stuff to make room for a bicycle workshop.  As you can easily imagine, for a homeless person a bicycle is a great gift, providing faster transportation than walking.  ROC has received a pledge from the owner of a recycling location to donate the average 10 bikes that he receives each month, and the ministry needs a place to fix them up for their clients' use.

Here are some pictures:   

Now, move forward to our supper with Hill City tonight.  We didn't really know what we would be doing, but we knew that John and other HC folks had been collecting bikes to refurbish with some other friends from Rock Hill.

Have you connected the dots yet?

Before we ate, John stood up and announced that the ministry for which we had cleaned out that building was a ministry that he was leading.  He had taken the initiative with ROC, and one of the biggest roadblocks to their progress had been finding the time and labor to clean out the space that they needed to establish their work.  We had sort of put the pieces together before that point, but what an incredible act of providence that led us through a totally unrelated contact to clean out a room so a member of Hill City could help the community of Rock Hill!  Our God is good.  

Here are a couple views from supper tonight:

My mental energy is about exhausted for this evening, but here's one more exciting piece of news.  The Schroeder men had to go back to John's house (the location of tonight's cookout) to pick up a left backpack.  Upon their arrival, they discovered that one of the attendees tonight, who John and Hill City had been regularly inviting to their meetings, had admitted an interest in receiving Christ, and had the HC body pray with him tonight to accept God's offer of salvation.

Providential opportunities, large numbers at VBS, and a new citizen of the Kingdom of God... quite a bit to be thankful for.

Keep praying!

A quick update...

We invited a large group who was with us in the park yesterday. They joined us in full force this morning.  56 kids!

Rock Hill 2013

As always, this mission began at home.  We left the White Oak parking lot assured that the support and prayers of our families would coincide with God's perfect design for this trip, and we took off!  Eight students, five adults, and several helpful puppets took hold of I-85 north in hopes of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We arrived in Rock Hill about 5:30 on Saturday afternoon, and were thrilled to find what awaited us at Cherry Park.  The facilities we had reserved were swarming with families that had gathered to celebrate, eat, or just soak up the warm sun and cool breeze.  We knew that we weren't going to be working in some unknown corner of Rock Hill, but would be right in the middle of a hub of activity.

Saturday night gave us the chance to spend the night with several of families from Hill City Church.  Not only a great chance to get to know our hosts and ministry partners, but a time to build some friendships. Rachel, Tracy, and I stayed with a family who recently moved into a house built in 1896.  They had a very friendly three-year old boy, 2 friendly dogs, and 13 chickens in the backyard (15 before the aforementioned friendly dogs had a say in the matter).  We heard testimonies of God's grace in their lives, and got a better vision of Hill City's efforts.

Sunday saw morning worship with HCC.  They had a fantastic ensemble of musicians, and played hymns to tunes with which we are familiar, as we sing them in our youth meetings.  We celebrated the Lord's Supper together in a special and unique way, emphasizing the (literal in this case) table fellowship of believers.  Our youth had a great new perspective on the Sabbath, and we were all encouraged by Rev. Andy Stager's preaching.

After church, we hit the streets to canvas for VBS.  Andy and co. provided maps for us in order to focus on certain neighborhoods.  Our youth jumped right in.  There was no hesitation to invite people, regardless of (apparent) social status, race, or even openness to receiving an invitation.  Not to say they were obnoxious, but their excitement for the VBS was clearly evident.  We ate supper with our Hill City hosts, and closed the evening discussing evangelism and the day ahead.

Monday dawned with ideal weather, and plenty of energy. We welcomed 23 children to VBS, all of whom engaged quickly with the material... and with our youth.  Give Tyler V. an opportunity to flash a few magic tricks, and it won't be long before you draw a crowd.  Soon after we began, we saw a uniformed man approaching our crowd.  I'll admit, I was ready to be scolded for some minor infraction, but it turned out to be the Cherry Park supervisor, who was thrilled with our efforts.  He offered any service the park could provide, and even has worked his local connections to line up a potential service project.  Really a neat thing.

The park was swarming again (kind of a surprise for a Monday morning), and so we were able to invite several folks who arrived to play on the playground, or, in one case, whose children were wide-eyed and riveted to the games our attendees were enjoying. (Or, it may have been Haddon's umbrella-hat, who knows...)

We sent a team to bring some love and greeting to a local group home who sent some campers to the recent inaugural Camp Joy, SC.  Looking forward to a report from them and a delicious supper together.

Pray for continued hard work, and that the inevitable drop in energy won't result in a drop in performance.  Most of all, pray for the Holy Spirit to soften little (or big) hearts to the Gospel, so the Kingdom might press forward.

Now that I know this blog exists, I'll get some pictures up tomorrow.

Mackay