Posted by Joni
On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy concluded his Inaugural
Address with the famous statement:
“Ask
not what your country can do for you —
ask
what you can do for your country.”
I stumbled across this statement today, and it reminded me a
lot of what our Church Mobilization Program (CMP) is working towards. In the areas we work in, it is very typical
to find 2-3 different church denominations in a small village community, yet
they will not work together or fellowship with each other because of denominational
differences. If denominational division
isn’t a big enough problem, most Christians in the church believe they must not
associate themselves with non-Christians.
The activities of the church benefit those that attend the church. It is “in-reach” versus “out-reach.”
The CMP program, in short, takes pastors and church leaders
through an envisioning curriculum, studying the life and ministry of
Christ. When looking at Christ’s
ministry, He never addressed only the spiritual side of a person and left the
physical, or healed them physically but didn’t address the spiritual. He always
addressed both. CMP leads the pastors and leaders through a process of learning
what Christ meant the Church to be- not divided, but united, and helping to
reach out to the needs of their community, both physically and spiritually.
As a result, Pastors are realizing that even though there
are denominational differences, if the church is serving Jesus Christ, we can
be unified as Christians.
Church congregations are reaching out using their own
resources, not to benefit their own church members, but to benefit the entire
community as a whole, which in turn creates opportunities for the non-believers
to ask “why are they doing this for us?”
For example, our CMP project in Lofa County focuses on broken
hand-pumps. Instead of Samaritan’s Purse
coming in, fixing the hand pump and leaving the community, we are training
members of the church on how to repair, maintain and service these hand pumps,
so the Church can be the one to help restore the physical need of clean drinking water for the
community.
Samaritan’s Purse will not always be in Liberia, but the
Church will remain after we leave. We
don’t want the community to see Samaritan’s Purse- we want them to see the
Church reaching out, meeting those needs.
It is not about Samaritan’s Purse- it is about Jesus Christ.
The CMP project is helping the Liberian Church, reach Liberians. “Ask not what your country can do for you…ask
what you can do for your country.”
Exciting things happening through this project, please
consider donating!
As for Marathon training, we are entering probably the most
important three weeks of the training, with our longest runs looming
ahead! As we get deeper into the
schedule, I have felt pain I have never had before… today my right hip was
screaming at me! Nothing some ice packs,
stretches and a foam roller can’t cure… hopefully! Last week Kendell and I entered in new territory
with a 15 mile run, and this week we will increase that to 16. Jamie continues to cruise by us on her 20
milers, with a smile on her face the entire way! Please pray for us as we train in this dry
season heat and humidity. It is HOT! We
keep telling ourselves that it will benefit us when we get to chilly London for
the actual marathon…
Don’t forget to get in your donation, or to spread the word
about how to get involved!
If you are from the UK, my fundraising page
address is:
If you are from the US/Canada, my
fundraising page address is:
 |
| Kendell and I at about the 4 out of 12 mile mark |
 |
| Rusty and Jamie, synchronizing watches! |
 |
| Made it- glad to be done for the day! |
No comments:
Post a Comment