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A Summer and Fall full of Outreach opportunities!

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by Cheryl Weller

Spring has sprung in the great Northwest and summer is right around the corner. Be careful not to blink because fall is around the next corner!! With spring comes summer and fall planning for the children’s ministry at Elim.

The theme this summer – OUTREACH! Let’s get out of the building and go into our community and neighborhoods. Consider these two opportunities to reach those in the community around Elim and in your own neighborhood!

* Host a 5-day Club! This is a great opportunity to reach the children in your neighborhood. We want to partner with you by providing the materials, supplies and any training you may need. Grab a friend and your children or grandchildren and begin planning. Let this be a family outreach; plan together, serve together. What a great example for children to see and learn as they serve as Jesus served. A 5-day club in your home is were children will see and hear about Jesus – were real life is shared.
* Outreach Soccer Camp! We are excited to offer this fun high energy camp again this summer and once again we need you! This is a great opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ on an open field while playing soccer with the children.

We need coaches, registration coordinator, snack organizer/snack providers, outreach coordinator…there are plenty of ways to serve at Soccer Camp – and don’t forget to invite kids from your neighborhood and bring them each day. Dates will be announced in the next e-newsletter!

This fall we are starting a new ministry to reach out to the children at Zeiger Elementary and I am very excited about it! It is called KidREACH. KidREACH is a World Vision program that reaches children who are struggling academically and/or socially by tutoring them in a free after school program. We will be partnering with Zeiger Elementary school and will offer a safe environment here at Elim for children to come and work one-on-one with a volunteer tutor in the areas of reading, writing and math. Through WV the volunteers will receive training – but the ultimate goal is to build a relationship between the child and the tutor. It is through this relationship that outreach happens with the child and their family. This relationship begins when the child is paired with a tutor who will not only help them with homework but will also walk along side them throughout the time of the ministry, October – May, and hopefully beyond. We will meet on Wednesday’s from 4-5:45 with the hopes that some of these children will stay for Awana. For those who stay we will serve them dinner before Awana.

What is needed to make KidREACH an effective ministry here at Elim?

We will need those who love to serve behind the scenes. We need a snack coordinator – we need a meal coordinator – we need a party planner (celebrate Birthdays, Christmas etc..) – we need a set-up and tear-down coordinator – we need a prayer coordinator (someone who will make sure that each child and tutor pair are being prayed for) – we need a co-site coordinator (work along side of me) who loves paperwork! We need those who love garage sales to be on the look out for specific games and books –

And of course we need those who would love to work with children and tutor them while building a relationship with them. We will only offer spaces for those children that we have tutors for. Men – this is extremely important for you to consider. Young boys need role models!

Together we can make in impact for Jesus in the lives of children! Start at home by being that example of serving Jesus together and have fun. Then let’s reach out to our community and the children who desperately need Jesus – they are loved by Him and they are special to Him as they should be to us, His Body, here at Elim

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The Unreached Task of the Church: Reaching Unreached People With the Gospel

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By Cal Kierum

“Missions exist because worship doesn’t.”

This thought-provoking quote came from Dr. John Piper on a message that he gave on the supremacy of God in missions. The underlying idea is that God desires and deserves worship from every tribe, tongue, and nation. But in our fallen world, there are still many nations who have never heard the Gospel.

And if they have not heard, how can they believe? If they don’t believe, then they cannot worship in Spirit and in Truth. So missions exist for a period of time so that all nations have the chance to know God. One day, missions will cease, but worship of God will persist through eternity. Hallelujah!>

One consistent theme throughout the Bible is God’s plan to redeem the nations. Starting in Genesis, the descendants of Noah are divided into the nations of the earth. Then their language is confused at the tower of Babel and they disperse to fill the earth. Later in Genesis, Abraham is promised that from him, God’s chosen people will come. Part of that promise is that his seed will be blessed.

This promise ultimately is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. After His resurrection, Jesus gave His disciples a very important teaching on His authority and His command to … “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19-20).

But how are we in the 21st century to understand the concept of “nations?” The word used in Greek is ethne, the same word from which we get our English word “ethnic.” Clearly, God is not speaking about nations as we envision them (political entities), but rather people groups. You can see this looking back into Genesis where the term “nations” is first used to describe the various descendants of Noah. So Jesus has instructed us to “make disciples of the nations,” meaning that the Gospel is to be taken to each unique people group.

Lest we think that work is done, there are thousands of people groups that have never heard the Gospel and don’t have a strong, evangelizing church within their ethnic or language group that can then help more people in that group to hear the Gospel.

A good Web site for learning more about this is the one for the Joshua Project. Their statistics currently show that of 16,350 people groups in the world, 6,642 (40.6%) are as yet unreached. Most of these people groups live in the “10/40 Window,” the lands between 10 degrees North and 40 degrees South latitude in Africa and Asia. Many live in severe poverty and are trapped in religious belief systems that make them somewhat closed to the Gospel.

The major belief systems of these groups include Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Animism. These people groups remain unreached because they are hard to reach. Furthermore, most of the money, resources and missionaries that American churches put into missions are not directed toward the remaining unreached people groups, but toward those who have already had exposure to the Gospel, where churches are established.

However, God is opening doors in mighty ways among the unreached people groups. Around the world, Muslims are coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Holistic presentations of the Gospel in both word and deed (through compassion ministries) are allowing Christians to be the hands and feet of Jesus around the world. This is happening among people groups where traditional proclamation of the Gospel would either not be allowed or would fall on hardened hearts.

How Elim Can Be a Part of Fulfilling the Great Commission

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Living Proactively

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by Brian Sharpe

I love when I listen to a speaker and they teach on a story from the Bible that I know well, and they bring out points I never saw.

This happened to me a couple weeks ago, when I was on the senior high retreat at Black Lake Bible Camp. The speaker taught the story of Esau trading his birthright for some soup his brother Jacob made. It was a big deal to be the firstborn son in that culture. Esau, as the firstborn son, had the responsibility to take care of the family when his dad died. Because of this, Esau and all firstborns in that culture were given more of an inheritance.

Esau was a hunter. On the day this story takes place, Esau went on a hunt. While out he did not find anything. He was getting hungry, so he decided to head home. On his way home, he just kept getting hungrier. When he was close to home he saw his brother Jacob and smelled a soup or lentil stew that Jacob had made.

Jacob’s name meant “deceiver,” and he was just that. Esau asked his brother for some soup. Jacob asked, “What do I get in return?” Then Jacob told Esau: give me your birthright and I will give you some soup and bread.

Esau agreed to do it! This was a huge mistake on Esau’s part. God made him the firstborn and gave him the responsibility that came with that.

Most of us have heard this story before. The point the speaker made was that we often are willing to sacrifice who God made us to be for what we want at the time. This hit me hard. I know too often I sacrifice who God wants me to be for wants that I have. I know that I spend way too much time watching or reading about sports. God created me to be a disciple, a loving father and husband, and I can sacrifice that by choosing to spend my time, selfishly, on my own wants.

We all need to evaluate how we invest the time God gave us. Tomina and I just spent some time setting goals for us individually and as a family. We set these goals to help us make sure that we are focusing on who God created us to be as a family.

It is far too easy to just live life reactively. It is harder to live a proactive life. When we live reactively we are focused on the here-and-now and not on where God desires us to be in the future. Please take time this week and evaluate how you are giving up your birthright as a son or daughter of God for some soup. How are you growing into the person God created you to be and what is holding you back from surrendering your whole life to God?

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Knowing God

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by Steve Kearns

As I have walked these past 36 years as a Christian I have often had the question run through my mind: How do I know God? Ps. 46:10 says: “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Years ago I asked Pastor Dale Swanson, how can I know God more? His answer left me a bit confused at the time. He said that he would take his Bible and go up into the mountains and meet with God there. He said at those times he felt closest to God. I guess when I think about it, that would be exalting God in His creation. I have tried Dale’s advice many times.

I have sat high atop a mountain looking down on a beautiful lake that God created and thought, Okay, I see God’s handiwork, and I know Him through it but, is this really knowing God?

I love the ocean and have sat for hours in quiet solitude enjoying it but, is this really knowing God?

Ps. 42:2 says: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

I had a real desire to meet with God and know Him in a more personal way than just enjoying His creation, but I wasn’t finding how to do that. My thoughts kept going back to the command to “be still.” Then one day it hit me: I don’t have to be in the mountains or at the ocean I just have to “be still.” What does that look like? For me, it is sitting at my dining room table with God’s Word open in front of me, with all outside distractions put aside and just listening to what God is saying to me from His Word. The Bible is full of picture stories showing us who God is, what He wants for His own, how much He loves us, and all He has done for us. To really know Him I had to “be still” and let Him speak to me from His Word.

For me I have read and re-read Scripture for years, but until I was able to close out the outside things that occupy my mind I was not able to fully understand what I was reading. Spending time in God’s Word is always preceded with prayer that God would clear my thoughts so I can communicate with Him unimpeded.

So can I, like Pastor Dale, take my Bible and sit in front of God with beauty like this to enjoy? Well, yes; but for me I think I would really struggle with keeping my focus on His Word and not on His creation. But I believe that, for me, God wants me to keep the two separate. I love gazing upon His beauty through the Word, and through creation. I am able to meet with God both ways. One is for knowing all about Him, and the other is for enjoying His blessings to all of us.

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Worshipping in the Rain

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by Martin Schlomer

We are all ready for summer! I have had opportunities to taste and see and now I want everything summer has to offer: motorcycle rides, BBQs, hiking, working on my “zebo”. However, we’re not there yet! There will be rain in our future for the next 3 months! This is not bad news! I recently read a devotional by John Piper that I will share with you today. It is called The Great Work of God: Rain. It is from his devotional Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life. As we go through the next 3 months, make time to get wet, ponder and worship our gracious God who blesses us with the rain.
The Great Work of God: Rain

A Thanksgiving Meditation on Job 5:8-10

Job 5:8-10 8 “As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, 9 who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number: 10 he gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields;

If you said to someone: “My God does great and unsearchable things; he does wonders without number,” and they responded, “Really? Like what?” would you say, “Like rain”? When I read these verses from Job recently, I felt, at first, the way I did on hearing some bad poetry that went something like this: “Let me suffer, let me die, just to win your hand; let me even climb a hill, or walk across the land.” Even? I would suffer and die to have your hand, and even walk across the land? As if walking across the land were more sacrificial than dying? This sounded to me like a joke.

But Job is not joking. “God does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth.” In Job’s mind rain really is one of the great, unsearchable wonders that God does. So when I read this a few weeks ago, I resolved not to treat it as meaningless pop musical lyrics. I decided to have a conversation with myself (which is what I mean by meditation).

Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder wrought by God? Picture yourself as a farmer in the Near East, far from any lake or stream. A few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water. But if the crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month, water has to come from another source on the fields. From where?

Well, the sky. The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky? Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea over several hundred miles, and then be poured out on the fields from the sky. Carried? How much does it weigh? Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 2,323,200 cubic feet of water, which is 17,377,536 gallons, which is 144,735,360 pounds of water.

That’s heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it’s so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation. Really? That’s a nice word. What’s it mean? It means that the water stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. I see. Then how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. What’s that? The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and.0001 centimeters wide. That’s small.

What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is saltwater. That would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh. So the sky picks up millions of pound of water from the sea, takes out the salt, carries the water (or whatever it is, when it is not water) for three hundred miles, and then dumps it (now turned into water again on the farm?

Well, it doesn’t dump it. If it dumped millions of pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the millions of pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks.

How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh millions of pounds get heavy enough to fall (if that’s the way to ask the question)? Well, it’s called coalescence. What’s that? It means the specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger, and when they are big enough, they fall. Just like that? Well, not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up in there were no electric field present. What? Never mind. Take my word for it.

I think, instead, I will just take Job’s word for it. I still don’t see why drops ever get to the ground, because if they start falling as soon as they are heavier than air, they would be too small not to evaporate on the way down. But if they wait to come down, what holds them up till they are big enough not to evaporate? Yes, I am sure there’s a name for that too. But I am satisfied for now that, by any name, this is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done. I think I should be thankful –

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Pray For Others

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by Steve Kearns

1 Timothy 2:1 says “I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving thanks, be made for all men.”

Let no one ever say that he has nothing to pray about, or that he doesn’t know how to pray in God’s will, for it is always in the will of God to pray for other people! This is a gift that any Christian can give, even if he is penniless or bedridden. There are none so poor as to be unable to afford such a gift, nor can even the wealthiest give a finer gift.

Note just a few of the relevant commandments to believers: First we are to pray for all fellow Christians: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18.) We should also pray for the lost. Jesus commanded: “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2).

As leaders at Elim we have a need for prayer in leading God’s flock! We are the first in the line of defense against attacks by satan. We need prayer for God’s wisdom and discernment. We are admonished to pray “for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness (1 Timothy 2:2). And for the ministries of those who proclaim the Gospel, i.e. our pastors (Colossians 4:2-4).

As an Elder I have the great privilege of praying for the shepherding group that I am overseeing. All of those who call Elim home have Elders praying for them on a regular basis, if you have not been contacted by an Elder please contact Larry Short or myself so we can make sure everyone has an Elder Shepherd. At the start of each new Elder board year we select those we desire to have in our shepherding groups, we do not want to skip anyone so please contact us if you don’t know who your Elder Shepherd is.

I thank you all for your faith in us as leaders and again ask for your unceasing prayers in our ministries at Elim.

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