Another Way to Support our Mexico Team ’18 // March 4 & 11

Our team of 20 is making preparations for our trip to Rocky Point, Mexico, March 26-30 . . . we are about one month away!

Many in our church family offered their support by purchasing a Build Hope shirt. We sent in our second order last week and between the two orders we purchased almost 80 shirts. The sale of those shirts will generate approximately $500 for our team. Thanks to all who ordered shirts.

Our group, along with help from our church family, has provided concessions at a Karate Tournament in late January and continues to provide concessions at our Upward Basketball League. Our Upward families are generous in not only buying items, but also donating toward our trip.

Many of our team members have sent out support letters to family and friends to assist with the fundraising part of our trip.

There is another way our WCC family can support our team. On Sunday, March 4 and Sunday, March 11 we will have the Green Buckets set out around the Ministry Center. Anyone who desires to give toward the trip can use the buckets for that purpose. This is, of course, on top of what individuals and families give to the church. We don’t want to take away from the support that is already going to ministries and missions in our community and around the world. We are grateful for the support that so many have already shown us. If you desire to help with trip, the green buckets are another way to do that.

Below is our team for ’18. I’m excited that we have a dozen high school students, a few returning members from our ’16 trip and even family members participating in our adventure together.

Please keep this group in your prayers as we prepare to serve in Mexico.

’18 Mexico Team
Rachel Barker
Angela Blouse
Jacob Blouse
Zach Davis
Ken Driscoll
Lauren Ellis
Andrew Garrett
Megan Halloran
Matthew Horn
Cory Huffman
Drew Huffman
Christian McCamish
Beth Puckett
Talent Sagraves
Shane Streber
Terri Streber
Nathan Twine
Calvin Walls
Jeff Walls
Tony Brackemyre

Syd in Honduras – an update in pictures

I’m away this week at church camp, but have been keeping up with Syd through her social media feed – primarily Facebook and Instagram.  She posted some cool pictures on Instagram and it seems like she is relating well with the people there, despite the language barrier.  Not sure how much Spanish she knows as she took French in high school.

I screen shot these from her Instagram account.  Looks like she is fairing pretty well.  Thanks everyone for continued prayers.

This was captioned “Honduran church service”

The caption for this one was “the ninos loved seeing their pictures”

This caption was in Spanish – “nuevos amigos en todas partes vamos”

The Radical Question A Radical Idea

David Platt is the author of the New York Times bestselling books Radical and Radical Together. The Radical Question A Radical Idea is actually two books in one. While I have heard about Radical, I have not read it. This two books in one presents the basis of Radical and seeks to make application to the church today.

To introduce the radical question, he shared some statistics of those suffering around the world and compared that to some of the churches in the United States today.  He pointed to an article in a magazine where a church spent several million dollars on a new church building and a few thousand on a missions effort in another country.  One of the questions Platt asked was this:  “The cost of discipleship is great.  But I want to propose that the cost of nondiscipleship is far greater.”

In A Radical Idea, Platt looks at the church investing in people, not buildings and programs.  He shares stories of individuals and churches who have redirected their spending to focus more on reaching people rather than acquiring possessions and buildings.  I recall one church that moved out of their building and met in a parking lot so they could use the funds they would have spent on rent to reach people.

One of the things I appreciated about Platt is that he was asking the questions, while not acting as if he had all the answers.  He shared that his church is still in the process of what it looks like to live out this radical question.  I didn’t feel it was a condemnation of the church today as much as it was an effort to refocus our efforts.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read Radical, this easy to read book will give you an overview of the concepts and challenge to implement them in your current culture.

I received this book from WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for my review.

Master Provisions Packing Trip

For the past several summers our youth group has partnered with Master Provisions and helped pack clothes for their ministry. We are heading out this weekend to help prepare a shipment to Togo.

Here’s the cool thing – this will be the 500th shipment sent out by Master Provisions.  Here’s what they put on their website:

500th Container Celebration: Togo Party

June 16, 2012 | 11:00am

MASTER Provisions celebrates the shipping of the 500th container. Our “Togo” party will commence at 11:00 by packing the Togo-bound container with the help of volunteers from Wilmington Church of Christ. Skyline Chili of Burlington, KY is sponsoring the shipping of the container and will also be serving delicious Cincinnati Chili for Lunch.

You can check out their ministry on the Master Provisions website.