“I will celebrate and be joyful because you, LORD, have saved me.” (Psalm 35:9, CEV).

GO TELL the story of Jesus
Week of Prayer for International Missions
November 30 – December 7, 2008
Focus: South America
Goal: $170 million
FBC, Kentwood Goal: $18,500

Day 1
Indigenous of Colombia
From missions field to missionary force—that’s the dream of Fernando and Brenda Larzabal for the South American nation of Colombia.

“The Gospel has been in Colombia for more than 150 years,” Fernando says. “Our problem is that the average Colombian Christian has the perception that missions belongs to somebody else. But missions belongs to the local church.”

That’s why the Larzabals are working to mobilize Colombian churches for the sake of evangelizing the country’s indigenous tribes.

Isolated from the Gospel by remote locales, social prejudice and insurgent armies, more than 60 of these tribes have no knowledge of Jesus Christ. Most are animists, spirit-worshippers who live in fear of failing to appease gods they can neither know nor love.

“Without God there is slavery,” Fernando says. “Without Christ there is fear and that’s what they breathe day in and day out.”

Pray:

Pray that more Colombian churches will grasp their Great Commission calling and respond to the indigenous tribes’ need for the Gospel. Ask the Lord to give Fernando and Brenda wisdom as they choose where to invest their time and energy.

For pictures: http://www.imb.org/main/downloads/page.asp?StoryID=6944&LanguageID=1709

Good news on two people we have been praying for!
– Don Denton will be able to go home (Denver) via a medical airplane by the end of the week. Don will have been hospitalized 73 days by them. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dondenton
– Emily Panter has developed problems shortly after giving birth to a new baby and has been hospitalized at Baylor. She was moved to a room and allowed to see her children (and the children to see her) for the first time in more than five weeks. http://emilypanter.blogspot.com/

Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Mary Louise Osborn-Hyde are still incomplete. Some of you may know her husband, Mr. Sanford Hyde, even if you didn’t know this sweet lady.

FBC, Kentwood
– Deacons for the week: Larry Miller and Henry McKenzie
– Nursery workers today: Laura DeBlanc, Gail Brister, and Stephanie McKenzie
– Ordination of Harrell Hoffstadt at 6 P.M. tonight
– Dec. 2 – Supper for the deacons and their wives at Don’s Seafood in Hammond at 7 P.M.
– Dec. 3 – Deadline for toys for migrants and Christmas cards w/stamps for prisoners
– Dec. 4 – Friendship Circle Christmas Party at Dean House at 6 P.M.
– Dec. 5 – Children’s bonfire and hayride @ 6:30 P.M. at Cutrer home
– Dec. 7 – Deacon/Widow banquet following morning worship
– Dec. 7 – AWANA Birthday Party for Jesus
– Dec. 7 – New study, “Men of the Bible”, begins in Friendship Circle Sunday School Class
– Dec. 11 – “Hope for the Holidays” @ 6:30 P.M. (loss, sorrow, loneliness, & grief)
– Dec. 13 – Lottie Moon Tea @ New Zion @ 2 P.M.
– Dec. 14 – “Miracle on Main Street” @ 6 P.M. by children’s choir
– Dec. 21 – “Jesus,Our Emmanuel” @ 7 P.M. by sanctuary choir

KneEmail
Mike Benson

Love

NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST and minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband…

“I do not only want to get rid of him; I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me.”

Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan. “Go home and act as if you really loved your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him.”

With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, “Beautiful, beautiful! Will he ever be surprised!”

And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting “as if.” For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing, etc.

When she didn’t return, Crane called, “Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?”

?!” she exclaimed. “Never! I discovered I really do love him.”

THOUGHT: Her actions changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion. The ability to love is established not so much by fervent promise as often repeated deeds. (J. Allan Peterson)

KneEmail: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” ( Eph. 5:25); “That they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children” ( Titus 2:4).

Posted by Mike Benson at November 11, 2008 3:32 PM

Have a great Lord’s Day!
Anna Lee