Happy New Year

Happy New Year! That's the greeting going around this weekend. It is a good time to examine who we are in Christ and what He would have us to do with out lives! It has been a LONG time since my last post (on any blog), so my first New Year's Resolution as it relates to "social media" is to post more often on the blogs and sites I maintain.

Not just posts, but posts "with purpose." Some of you understand that term. It is not my desire to fill up my time with useless info. Rather, I want my posts to have some value to the reader. So, whether it be an actual blog, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or TRBA's website, it is my prayer you will find information useful that I post in 2012.

As I have thought of what to post in 2012, I have prayed and then examined what I am "hearing" from various sources in denominational life. To that end, I have determined to focus on the purpose of the association, as well as issues related to overall church health. I will be looking a LOT to Transformational Church and Transitional Pastor as I am working with both LifeWay and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in those areas. Truthfully, I think there are things we can glean to strengthen the church and impact lostness (our purpose as an association of churches).

In a conversation with a Sunday School director today we began to discuss some information we had obtained during a Josh Hunt conference several years back. In fact, I bought a book by Hunt today that reiterated the idea of "how to double your Sunday School in two years or less."

The gist of the conversation centered on the fact that the classes seemed content with where they were and had not grown in several years. Basically, we talked about the lack of evidence in many area churches (from conversations the two of us have had with other church leaders in neighboring churches from three associations) that churches want to grow.

I think that is perhaps the first thing we need to honestly look at as we begin the new year. Do we have a genuine desire to grow closer to Christ personally and to grow both spiritually and numerically in our churches. Or are we content with where we are. I would invite you to pray and search with me this simple fact over the next couple of days. After the first of the year I will examine the idea of doubling Sunday School attendance in less than two years. I am pretty confident I will address it from the standpoint of IF we REALLY want to see growth.

I have become convinced that we have all the tools we need to advance the kingdom. We have attended conference after conference. In the YEARS we have attended, there has been little kingdom advance and virtually no SUSTAINED evidence of growth in many of our churches. Yet - we have the tools sitting idly beside us as we moan about our lack of advance.

What do we have:

1. The authority of Christ who commanded that we make disciples.
2. His Word.
3. His presence to instruct, lead, guide, empower.
4. Prayer.
5. His promise to hear, answer, empower as we walk in obedience to Him.

Then we have other tools to assist. Among the ones I have emphasized in TRBA are Link2Lead, The Mapping Center, continued training of church leadership, Transformational Church, Transitional Pastor, etc. etc. etc. Over the next few weeks, expect much info to be shared. As it is shared, pray about your participation individually and as a church.

Do you want to see kingdom advance in 2012? If you do, please join me and the other TRBA staff members as we answer the call to prayer by our denominational leaders. Pray with us daily for kingdom advance. Join us on Monday, January 23rd at 7 PM for a corporate time of prayer.

Again, I wish you the best for 2012. I look forward to walking alongside you as we set out together to strengthen His church and impact the lostness of THIS generation!

Developing A Spiritual Vision for 2011 - Part Three

I believe I have made my point with Reality # 1: Without Spiritual vision for your life, you will run wild. I keep thinking of Proverbs 14: 12 as I reflect upon this reality - "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." That running wild and trying to do what SEEMS right goes hand in hand. If we are to be productive for the cause of Christ, we must not cling to what seems right to us. Test and prove what seems right under the light of His Word and make the necessary adjustments so that you can become what God is calling you to be for Him.

I have been writing about the need for us to develop a spiritual vision for our lives in 2011. Today I want to deal with a fact we need to realize - With a spiritual vision for your life, you will discover the good life God intends for you. Perhaps we need to focus on that as "reality # 2." You and I can begin to live and discover the good life God intends for us! Now that we have dwelt with the scripture (Proverbs 29: 18) for two days, let's "launch" from the text and allow it to serve as the "legs" that carries us into developing a spiritual plan for our lives.

The key term for developing a spiritual vision for our lives in 2011 is the word DEVELOP. I want to dwell on that for the remainder of our time today! Using some points from Ronnie Floyd, I want to challenge you today to develop 7 elements of your life that will help you have a spiritual vision for your life. Taking today's date (January 10th) you need to give yourself until the middle off February or so as a target date, but the sooner in 2011 the better.

So what are these things? Can we do them? I'm trying to give you something that all of us ought to be doing. It's simply a part of disciple making. It's a part of, of just being what God wants us to be. So here they are:

(1) Ask God to give you a verse for 2011. I have already written to you about this but now I want to more fully explain what I mean by this. Go to God between now and mid-February and pray, "Lord! I want You to give me one verse in my life that will help me through 2011." It was long into my journey with Christ that I heard people talking about a "life verse." What is your life verse? I have discovered through my daily journey that my life verse, though it may never fully change, has others added on at different times. When my father died in 1981 the "life verse" that jumped from the preacher's lips at the funeral was Matthew 11:28 - "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That verse not only helped me to deal with the circumstances of my life at the time, it better equipped me to minister to others as I more fully realized what it meant to truly "come unto" Jesus! Through the years, other verses have been added to Matthew 11: 28.

The verse the Lord gave me for 2010 was 2 Corinthians 11: 28 "Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches." I even placed it as the footer on my personal stationary. As you know, I encountered a LOT in 2010 with my physical ailments. Yes, I still clung to Matthew 11:28, but I was reminded that it is not all about me. God had called me to a task and I firmly believe His calling for my life during this season is a calling to strengthen the local church. Therefore, God giving me this verse, served as a true help to me as I recovered from my infection and surgery. It enabled me to continually visualize the reason I needed to get healthier - my calling was to strengthen the church and my energy was necessary to be obedient to that call.

I believe 2 Corinthians 11: 28 also led me to call the TRBA staff to a time of prayer in September and now the member churches of Tar River Baptist Association to a season this season of prayer. For us to be effective in the responsibilities of the church (the five functions of the church are evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship), we must undergird those responsibilities with the firm foundation of prayer.

God has not yet given me my scripture for 2011. I am praying fervently for that word from the Lord!

(2) Establish a daily Bible reading plan. The busy-ness of our lives often interferes with the time we set aside to study God's Word. We need to develop the habit of studying God's Word daily. Perhaps you start with a chapter a day - that is fine if that's all the time you can give for the present. Maybe you can go 3 chapters a day; 5 Psalms and a chapter of Proverbs each day; the call in the book RADICAL to read 86 verses a day; read through the New Testament every month. WHATEVER plan you determine is fine - just do it. Failure to develop a plan/strategy lends itself towards failure to study the Word! Ronnie Floyd stated, "You can't go forward just hearing the world's opinion. You need God's opinion to bring balance."

In short, I am asking you to be very intentional about this than you have in past years. I believe God is calling us to become more fully grounded in His Word so that we can be used in mighty ways to accomplish His Will!

(3) Target a personal spiritual focus week for 2011. Set aside a week in 2011 to FOCUS on your personal walk with the Living Lord Jesus Christ! Choose a book you have been intending to read on the spiritual disciplines; a Bible-study you had some interest in but have never been able to get to; listen to those sermon series you've downloaded on your ipod and never listened to; go to a prayer conference, spiritual retreat. It really doesn't matter what you do - just FOCUS on your walk with the Lord and seek His Will for your life in 2011. Take time to CONCENTRAT on God.

As an association, that is what we are doing by calling us to both the time of fasting and prayer as well as the corporate time of prayer on January 24th. We recognize not all will participate, but the deliberate effort of more and more people to become involved in times of prayer daily is POWERFUL. Imagine what could happen if every member of every church were focused on prayer and seeking God's Will for 21 days the first of each year. We could not describe the movement of God we would begin to experience in the member churches of Tar River Baptist Association. Likewise in our personal lives!

(4) Formulate a daily prayer list. Some people might think this not important. I have discovered two things that God is using to teach me that I need to prepare a daily prayer list. First - I am a BUSY person. If I fail to write things down, in the busy-ness of my day I OFTEN simply forget and fail to pray specifically for God to show Himself to His people through answered prayer in their lives.

There is a second reason that I had never thought of before this writing - I can more quickly share my prayer concerns with others when it is written down. I guess that's the motivation of our putting a prayer list in our bulletins each week. I PRAY I will not deal with my daily prayer list the way I often deal with the prayer lists in my church bulletin - use it for a book mark as opposed to pulling it out daily and using it as a prayer guide,

Let me tell you one thing I have learned about prayer, if you don't organize prayer, it's not going to be done right. You're never going to do it - or , at best, be haphazard or aimless with it. You need to organize it. Formulate a daily prayer list. Start somewhere and be more intentional in your times of daily prayer!

(5) Write down your Goals for 2011. Ronnie Floyd referred to it as "BHAG - big, hairy, audacious goals" for your life in 2011 - a goal that only God can help you reach. If we get to live through all of 2011, don't you want to experience some things that can not be "explained away" in human terms? My prayer - to be a part of some things that can ONLY be described as being a "God-thing"in 2011!

(6) Initiate a more intentional and greater commitment to your church. What does that mean? It means that you go beyond where you are right now. One of the blessings of being sick in 2010 was the privilege of being able to attend my church on a regular basis. Generally, I am visiting one of our member churches or speaking in them - and I love that! That means I am able to attend my church on Sunday mornings and attend Sunday School about once a quarter at best, but during 2010 I feel that I had the blessing of spiritual growth because I could more regularly be a part of the Ephesus Church family! From February through October I was rarely out of Ephesus as I could not drive while on medications, etc. That was indeed an added blessing. Here in 2011 I am scheduled already to be out of Ephesus for the next 6 - 8 Sundays and I am already missing it!

You say well is that important? Absolutely that's important. Some of us need to be a little more intentional about being in church; some of us need a greater commitment of simply coming to church; some of us need a greater commitment towards ministry in the church and through the church; some of us need to get our theological understanding of the church right. The Bible says the church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is the Head of the body.

I tell you it breaks my heart when I see people being so flippant about their responsibility to God's church. Make it a higher priority in 2011. And while I'm challenging you - PARENTS, make sure church is a higher priority to our kids than we seem to be teaching them right now!

(7) Answer this question: What am I trusting God to do in my life in 2011? When I read this question I hesitated. I am planning a lot for 2011. I have a strategy for 2011. I have goals for 2011. BUT-what am I TRUSTING GOD to do in my life in 2011?

Maybe you have an issue financially. Maybe you have an issue with your job. Maybe there are severed relationships with your spouse, children, friends, co-workers, etc. Maybe you have an attitude issue about your boss or your situation. Maybe God is calling you to missions or ministry - or simply to share Christ with a lost neighbor. I don't know what you're dealing with today. But I'm going to tell you something - discover what God wants you to trust Him for, and trust Him. Write it down and then pray it everyday.

I plan to "finish up" with this series in my next writing. I just challenge you - and myself - to develop a spiritual vision for 2011. I believe it will help us in our daily walk to accomplish more for the cause of Christ.

Develop A Spiritual Vision For 2011

Over the next few days it is my plan to share with you some thoughts about the importance, significance, and POWER of prayer in our lives. I will admit to you that the premise for my writings will come from readings of works by others on the subject – particularly those of Ronnie Floyd and Gregory Frizzell, but they (hopefully) will be nuggets of information that will serve to help you as you seek God's Will for your life in 2011.

The first thing I will challenge you to do is to pray for God to reveal to you a scripture passage for 2011. We actually should have been praying about this prior to the beginning of 2011, but now is OK as well! In your prayer, pray something like this: “Lord (and maybe reflect upon that word LORD), I want You to give me one verse in my life that will help me through 2011.” Yes – we will need more than ONE verse to guide us throughout the year, but there is scripture that God can lead you to right now and some time during the year your will discover why God wanted you to have that one verse for 2011. Pray earnestly for w “word from the Lord” for you in 2011!

I really feel convicted to share with you some thoughts on developing a spiritual vision for our lives. I believe we wander aimlessly in the wilderness way to much when God is inviting us to enter into His “Promise Land.” Proverbs 29: 18 reads (KJV), “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Let me share the same verse with you from other translations:

(ESV) “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

(Holman Christian Standard) “Without revelation people run wild, but one who keeps the law will be happy.”

(New Living Translation) “Where people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild; but whoever obeys the law is happy.”

(Amplified) “Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man]--blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he.”

To meditate upon this one verse helps us see the need to implant the word of God into our own hearts. Implanted so that we might have a well of resources to come to when we need that “Word of the Lord” to provide guidance, help, strength for the circumstances of life that come our way! We need to develop a spiritual vision for our lives.

Let's re-visit Proverbs 29: 18 and focus on it a bit. I want you to notice that the first part of the verse talks bout what WILL happen if we do not do something. The second part of the verse talks about what WILL happen if we do something. This is important for us to take note! Let me point out to you that the one I memorized as a child (KJV) leaves out an important aspect. The KJV does not detail the type of vision (spiritual guidance/revelation of the Lord). I think it is important that we more fully understand the importance of developing a spiritual vision for our lives. Without divine vision/guidance Proverbs 29: 18 declares that we run wild.

I believe there are a couple of questions we really need to think through in your life – and we need to be honest with ourselves, because if we’re not honest with ourselves, then it’s not going to help us to go through the motions of asking these questions:

The first question is “Who do you let speak into your life?” Another way you could say that is, who are you letting pour into your life? Even another way to ask it is “who do you give access to your heart?” If you are reading this as an e-zine or blog, or have a SmartPhone, Ipad, etc. then you should understand. With a simple sweeping of the finger you can define music, get music, understand music, you can listen to podcasts, you can go to iTunes University, view videos from anywhere. You can do whatever you want to do. You download it to your computer, then you download it to this simple, little device and you carry it with you wherever you go. See anything similar to what we need to do in a spiritual sense? If we are connected to God's Word, then it is downloaded to our hearts, and as we go we carry it around with us! (By the way—are YOU using those high tech devices to grow spiritually? Maybe another blog.)

The real question becomes – what are you letting into your life? pour into your heart? give access to your private information? I could, I could take these same devices and listen to stuff that doesn’t help me spiritually. I could pour into my mind all kind of music that disrupts my spirit rather than calms my spirit. I could pour into my life all kind of teaching that would be erroneous because it doesn’t matter everybody’s got podcasts. That’s not the issue. It’s not the device. The issue is what are you going to do in your life, and who is pouring into your life? Who do you give access to your heart?

You say, is that really all that important? I guarantee you it’s important. Go back to Proverbs 29: 18 –   “Without revelation…” what does that mean? “Without prophetic vision…” “Without divine instruction…” Without divine guidance…” Without the Word. When a lack of the Word is poured into your heart in hearing and obeying, here’s what the Scripture says is going to happen. You’re going to run wild.
When you and I do study His Word. When divine revelation does come into our lives. When we do pour the Word of God into our lives – it causes us to set parameters in our lives. A Christian that does not pour the Word into their life is like, like a parent, or like a child that does not have a parent that ever tells them no. That child runs wild. We accomplish nothing for the kingdom running wild and operating outside of God's Word and God's Will.

But the Scripture here then says, “…but one who keeps the law,” .they will be happy when they accept divine guidance. They will be happy when they keep the law of God. When they listen to the Word, and they obey the Word, they will be happy. What does it mean to be happy? Does happy mean you walk around with a smile on your face, and you know, you’re just the happiest little Jesus follower that’s ever lived? Probably not. What that means is that you will be blessed. You will be fulfilled.

The reality is – without a spiritual vision for your life, you will run wild. We will address this reality in our next issue. For now, meditate upon what Proverbs 29: 18 means for your life and earnestly pray that God will give you a scripture for 2011.

2010 - A New Year For TRBA

It is still early in the New Year - a new decade. As we enter 2010, TRBA also begins full implementation of its policies and procedures under the "new" ByLaws that were approved by the association. I am grateful for all the hard work that has been done to prepare for the implementation. I am excited as I see how God will use these efforts to help us go forward in the new decade.

By now, you should have experienced our enhanced efforts to communicate the life and work of the Association. We have established both a FaceBook Group and Fan Page. We will use these pages (and the services offered through FaceBook) to communicate to the many members of Tar River that daily use FaceBook. We will advertise TRBA events (inviting you to RSVP to the various events) and also invite you to participate in discussion topics as well.

One very important feature on the FaceBook is that YOU - any member of the group - can send out messages to all other members. This way, you can get the news out to all our member churches regarding activities in your church and community.

We will expand our use of e-zines. Pastors should be receiving a weekly e-zine entitled THE NAVIGATOR. Everyone on our "Constant Contact" list should receive THE MID-STREAM around the 15th of each month. These detail important information to our members and we would appreciate your sharing them with your church family. If you are not receiving these, please email us at tarriverbaptist@hotmail.com and ask to be added to the e-zine lists.

Third, we are also expanding the use of TellBlast. You should have received the first mass effort to get the word out about the Sunday School training on January 30th. We will utilize this a great deal more during 2010 to get information to you in a timely manner.

Fourth, we will utilize both TRBA blogs (one for general membership and the second for pastors) to communicate ideas and discussions about major changes taking place in the life and work of the association. Please participate.

Finally (in the arena of communication) we will also be altering our monthly newsletter, THE CURRENTS OF THE TAR, pretty soon. It is our hope that any changes we make will enhance our communication efforts to our member churches.

There are a LOT of quality events coming forward in the next few weeks:

January 19 - 7 PM: Treasures IRS Update (TRBA Center)
January 23 - 9 AM: Pastors' Families Fellowship Breakfast (Ephesus Church)
January 25 - 6 PM: Associational Council Meeting (TRBA Large Conference Room)
Janaury 25 - 7 PM: Quarterly Executive Board Meeting (TRBA Large Conference Room)
January 30 - 8 AM: Sunday School Training (Pearce Church)
Feb 16 -10 AM: Monthly Ministers' Fellowship (TRBA Large Conference Room)
March 6/7 (TBA): "Life Is A Mission Trip" Training (Duke Memorial)

One final announcement for this post: EVERY MONDAY at 9 AM your TRBA Associational Staff gathers for prayer. All persons in the building will be invited to join us in the small conference room for a season of prayer. During 2010 there will be invitations for all to join in prayer for the ministry that is before us.

Next week's post will be a brief update of efforts regarding the CURRENTS OF THE TAR and some of the particular training events for 2010. We will begin to share our goals as an association in our weekly (hopefully) blog posts. Please join me in praying for the life and work of our member churches as we work together to accomplish the work God has called us to do together.

"What More Can A Body Do?"

I have to be honest. I am PERPLEXED! As a staff we discussed this issue at length today. No matter how hard we try, it seems that nothing we do helkps the situation. What am I talking about? Well--it's communicating the life and work of the Association to our member churches, pastors, church contacts, and Associational leaders.

I send out a weekly e-zine to pastors detailing events relevant to their work. Liz sends a "Mid-Stream" e-zine to almost 600 people around the 15th of each month to update known events in the life and work of the Association. Toward the end of each month, we e-mail the Currents of the Tar to 600 people and send about 750 out in the mail. Throughout the month we send emails with important information and we keep the website as up-to-date as we can. My grandmother used to have a saying, "What more can a body do?"

This was her way of saying, I have tried all that I can and I simply do not know what else I can do. That's the way we often feel after HOURS of work as staff members. We try to get information out in a timely fashion, but it appears that many do not read anything that we send out and many others fail to read through everything.

Think with me for a minute. Let's say we plan a major Sunday School training event. For MONTHS we have it on the calendar; at every meeting of the Association we publish it and/or speak of it and ask messengers to share with our member churches; we send out email reminders and updates; we place articles in the newsletter and/or inserts as reminders; we spend hundreds of man hours publicizing and bring in quality trainers to assist our member churches. We may or may not have good attendance - and that is irrelevant to the point I am attempting to make. Then--the next morning when we get into the office we check messages or get an email and it reads, "When is the Association going to offer some Sunday School training?"

The truth of the matter is---at least 4 or 5 people in EVERY TRBA church have received information and been asked to share with their church. We need your help in getting the word out. PLEASE help us!

Before I started this blog I checked the last 10 association-wide e-mails that have been sent out by Constant Contact. In not one email that was sent did more than 44% of the recipients open the emails. 56% never opened an email from TRBA.

One of our neighboring Associational Missionaries became so tired of hearing church leaders say that they had not received email and mail about events in his association that he began to send mail through certified mail/receipt returned. That is an expensive proposition when emails are free, but I understand his frustration.

I know we get a lot of junk mail (both hard copy and email), but the information TRBA sends out to you is information that people in your church need to hear about. We are asking you to help.

If you have ideas as to how we can more effectiveky get information to you and others in TRBA so that we can more effectively serve you, please let us know. And again I ask you--please get the information we share with you to your church.

Niger, West Africa

Yesterday I received an email from the Islamic Assistant Coach of the team we played while in Niger. On the last night of our trip, he and the head coach had come to tell us goodbye and thank us for our efforts in working with them over the past few days. The head coach is a believer. The assistant coach was, as stated, Muslim, and was participating in the fasting of Ramadan.

But please get the picture -- he had traveled to tell a group of 5 Baptist Men goodbye in a Christian setting. Throughout the week, he and I had developed a strong relationship. We discussed his beliefs. We discussed my beliefs. We shared a great deal. I was privileged to present the Gospel message to a group of young girls as he sat and listened - so, I KNOW he heard.

As we walked hand-in-hand through the compound that night so they could connect with a taxi, we continued to talk of our faith. The time of fasting had ended and we had shared a coke and a piece of Zuchinni bread (the night before, we had shared Niger ice cream before we caught our taxi). When we got to the main road and the taxi came, we stopped; he hugged and kissed me; I hugged and kissed him; and I said, "Listen to Coach S********." He said, "I will." I said back to him, "I'm not just talking about ******(the sport they coached), I'm talking about what he has to say about Jesus." He said, "I know and I will." I kissed him again, and he left.

Yes, you heard me right. A black man and a white man/a Christian and a Muslim/walked together down the streets of a city and in the compound, hand-in-hand and kissed one another good-bye. When I received his email, I REJOICED!!!! It meant that God was giving me more opportunity to share the Good News with him. I am convinced, the seeds planted will produce fruit/that there will be a harvest.

I have shared more about our trip in the newlsetter this month and will share more later as well. Suffice it to say, God is not through with TRBA in Niger. Every report from our local missionaries is reporting back results from the seeds planted. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Encouragement For Missionaries

Once again I want to share with you a post from my son's blog. It is entitled "Reflections on Central Asia 4 - Holding The Ropes."It says something that I wish to say and I pray that we - as church leaders - will see and sense the same need. I do encourage you to click onto his blog once and a while - it does provoke some thought. Here is the link -- Meditations On The Law.

Here is his posting:

"There is nothing like visiting friends that you haven’t seen in a long while. That is just what we were able to do while on our trip to Central Asia. A few years ago we sent out a couple from our church to serve in Central Asia. Now, for the first time, someone from our church was there to see them.

It was only for a day, but it was delightful. We got to see them, their new baby, and talk about how we might work with them in the future. The truth is, we won’t be able to do much. The country has tight restrictions and if we were to take a team to work with them, it would put a big target on their back. They would be kicked out soon after we left.


But, with that aside, I learned a lot from the short time we had with them. First, they desperately need encouragement from home. Don’t get me wrong, they’re excited to be where they are, but their spirits pick up when they know that people are praying for them back home. Especially when some of those people get to see them face to face.

This, of course, brings me to my point. I can’t really reflect much publicly on the time we spent with them. But, I can encourage your church to get involved in the lives of some of the missionaries that your church has sent out (notice the expectation for your church to be sending out). And, to the missionaries, I encourage you to reach out to your churches back home (notice the expectation for you to have a church back home). It is a two way street. Send teams to your missionaries, even if it is just to take care of the kids. Send them care packages, pray for them, email them, skype with them. Whatever you can do to let them know that their church is behind them—do it. It will mean the world to them and it will give them boldness and energy for the sake of the kingdom. In essence, that encouragement is kingdom building work.

Then, after you’ve encouraged your missionaries, encourage your church as well…"

On my recent mission trip to a "closed country," I also experienced the same buren as my son was talking about above. I do so appreciate those that sacrifice so much and carry their families to such places. Not just the sacrifices that put some in harm's way - but just the sacrifices they make in such extreme conditions when they could be here and have the freedom to serve God in some degree of comfort. The young couple I worked with, I can not tell you their names - but I am praying for them daily. The young couple he is talking about, I know and love dearly. In his church, they pray for "Ruth and Boaz." They can not call them by name. Nor can they tell the specifics of their work. I rejoice for that couple - for our God knows their names and knows the sacrifices when we just lamely lift them up in our prayers.

Let me encourage you to personally do - and lead your church to do - what my son asked:

(1) PRAY for them - and let them know you are doing that!
(2) Find some way to visit your "friends." A card--letter---email of encouragement (being very careful not to be too specific)--- if you send an email say something like---"I was talking to father about you tonight and all of our brothers and sisters have been talking with him about you. It brings us such joy to remember you every day. Every time we gather, we think of you and wish you the very best."
(3) You don't have to say all the above - just send a card that says we love you.
(4) Truly think about sending a small group to visit them and encourage them - maybe help them around the house/with children/carry them some supplies from back home
(5) And yes - encourage your church to be missionaries in their mission field daily as well!

I like his assumption that you - as a church - are sending out missionaries. If we would think that way about our churches, we could greatly impact our world!