God is GOOD!

By Pastor R

Here are some of my thoughts on Haiti and specifically how God prepared the team and I for our trip. It was (and still is) an incredible journey of seeing God move and work. I hope that you'll come back throughout the next few weeks to read my blogs on Haiti as we will continue to post them every few days. You'll also be hearing from some of the members of the team and what God did in and through them as well.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 11– “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.” and “He has made all things beautiful in His time.”

I knew that my mission when I returned home was to deliver the coffee samples I had collected to the President of Just Haiti. I felt sure that they would adopt the Baptist Block as they had produced a coffee that the French and Japanese loved.  They had 42,000 pounds in their warehouse ready to be shipped and they were already organized into trade associations.

So last Friday I sat with the President of JustHaiti.org.  I showed her three samples of coffee.  The first sample I showed her was from Cap Haitian; which is from an uncle of a Food for the Hungry staff member who had grown the coffee.  However, JustHaiti.org wasn’t interested in working with Cap Haitian.

So the second sample I showed the president was from the Baptist Block.  And to my surprise she rejected that coffee as well! Only this time she said it’s because their coffee is already an international grade coffee; which is really awesome.  So understanding Just Haiti’s mission (which is help families break loose from the economic injustice at the root of so much of their poverty) they didn’t want to work with the Baptist Block because they can already sell this coffee to a buyer very easily.

The third sample I showed her was from the town of Belladere; where our church was working and partnering.  Some of the beans were black.  Some of the beans were speckled.  The eyes of the president of Just Haiti lit up when she saw these coffee beans.  She said “this is exactly the kind of coffee we found in Baraderes when we started’.  She explained that we can greatly help them by taking their growers and train them how to grow export quality coffee.  It may take us optimistically two years or realistically 5 years but this is the group I believe we can help.

We are seeing how beautiful the heart of God is!  We see the hand of God orchestrating, arranging and working.  We are in the process of building a partnership with JustHaiti.org, Food for the Hungry, and Grace Community Church to spiritually and economically help the people of Belladere.  This will involve Kim, President of JustHaiti.org and the growers of Baraderes traveling 8 hours up to the mountains of Belladere and explaining how to grow export quality coffee.  This will involve building relationships and learning to trust one another.  Eventually when they know we are sincere and they begin to produce export quality coffee their town of Belladere will be transformed.  We will pay the farmers the fair trade price and they will be incentivized to increase their production.  We will use the profits of the sales in Haiti to build schools, hire teachers and buy curriculum.  He has made all things beautiful in His time!

Haitian Mangoes

By Pastor R

Here are some of my thoughts on Haiti and specifically how God prepared the team and I for our trip. It was (and still is) an incredible journey of seeing God move and work. I hope that you'll come back throughout the next few weeks to read my blogs on Haiti as we will continue to post them every few days. You'll also be hearing from some of the members of the team and what God did in and through them as well.

John 4:25 “I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields.  They are ripe for harvest.”

When we arrived at the town of Belladere, we stayed at the Germain Guest House.  Right across the street was a 60 foot tall mango tree laden with mangoes about 25 days away from harvest.  I had read the Catholic Relief Service Assessment on the Value chain of Mangoes before I left.  I had learned that the mango is the most exported fruit in the world.  Asia, China, India and the Philippines export the most mangoes.  In the Americas, Mexico, Brazil and Peru import the most into the U.S.

It began to dawn on me that God has blessed Haiti with 10 million mango trees and 80% of their harvest goes un-harvested.  They have so many mangoes they feed mangoes to the pigs!  They sell them in their markets a half-bushel of mangos for a dollar.

I asked Odines and Wilson if a meeting could be arranged to meet with the mango and coffee growers of the Belladere region.

On a Thursday afternoon I sat with the mango growers under a mango tree and we talked mangoes.  I explained to them that in America we pay $1 to $2 for a fresh mango.  They looked at me like I stepped off a space ship! They were selling their whole tree of mangoes to the Dominicans for $10 and then trying to take them to the market and selling a whole basket for a $1.

I explained to them I did not know how we could make this happen but would they be willing to pray that we could find a way to pay them ‘the fair trade price’ for their mangoes, dehydrate them, export them to America and then return some of the profits to them for community development.  Then we prayed and asked God to move a mountain.  When we finished one elderly mango grower with a big smile on his face said “Can you make this happen in my lifetime?  I am an old man and I don’t know how many more harvests I have.”

It was an amazing encounter.  By now Wilson, my translator, understood the concept very well.  He was explaining that we were only in the talking and the praying phase.  I left hearing their hope for a better life, their dream of educating their children, their faith in a very big God began to grow.

Travel to Haiti

By Pastor R

Here are some of my thoughts on Haiti and specifically how God prepared the team and I for our trip. It was (and still is) an incredible journey of seeing God move and work. I hope that you'll come back throughout the next few weeks to read my blogs on Haiti as we will continue to post them every few days. You'll also be hearing from some of the members of the team and what God did in and through them as well.

John 2:5 “His mother said to the servants: Do whatever he tells you to do”

So on Monday, April 2, our team of 14 members & myself tried to make the journey down from Washington Dulles Airport to Port au Prince, Haiti.  The airplane we were supposed to fly didn’t make it.  But the airline said they had a replacement.  The problem with the replacement was that it was fueled to fly to California.  It had too much fuel to fly to Miami and therefore; the airline would have to take fuel out of our airplane.  The only problem was all of the fuel tankers were full!  So we had to wait for one of those tankers to remove the extra fuel on our plane so that we could finally depart!

When it was all said and done our plane was delayed an extra couple of hours.  That would have been okay except once we got to Miami, we had to catch our connection flight to Port au Prince right away.  When we arrived a couple of hours later, our connector flight had already left.  So we wound up spending the night in Miami!

While some may find such a moment upsetting, I found it quite encouraging that we were encountering opposition from the earliest part of the journey.  Our enemy is relentless in his quest to discourage God’s children from doing God’s work.  The reality, however, was that we had one less day in Haiti!

When we finally arrived in Haiti we met our Food for the Hungry Program Director, Odines and translator, Wilson.  I began to tell them what God had put in my heart to do for Haiti and it was amazing to see God at work through them as our hearts became more and more unified. 

God Opens Doors

By Pastor R


Here are some of my thoughts on Haiti and specifically how God prepared the team and I for our trip. It was (and still is) an incredible journey of seeing God move and work. I hope that you'll come back throughout the next few weeks to read my blogs on Haiti as we will continue to post them every few days. You'll also be hearing from some of the members of the team and what God did in and through them as well.


Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

About a month after my fast and vision experience, I was invited by Scott Avey’s father, Tom, to come to New York City.  Our host while we were there was Mac Pier.  Mac took us to two very influential churches in the Big Apple:  Redeemer and the Christian Cultural Center.  While Marc and I were eating lunch, I shared the vision God gave me to transform the city of Belladere by dehydrating mangoes.  Marc’s gift is putting people together.  He gave me the name and email of the leader of the NY Leadership Institute on Haiti.  His name is Tom Nolan.

Tom and I began emailing and talking on the phone.  It wasn’t long before I was hearing about initiatives happening all around Haiti.   I would learn about plastic recycling centers enabling Haitians to earn money gathering discarded plastic.  I would learn about Haitian workers building chicken houses all over Haiti.  I would learn of the Soleil Group building a solar power dehydrated mango plant in the central region.  I would meet Dave Genzling with Partners Worldwide who had been involved as an engineer with mango initiatives.

It was occurring to me that Tom was opening a door to let me see how God is moving in Haiti’s direction.  I was seeing the heart of God showing compassion to the Haitians.  I was meeting people with the very same heart.

It was becoming clear to me that the problems of Haiti were too big for any of us to solve alone.  But, the problems were not too big for God.  God is bigger than the problems they face.  If we get next to God’s heart and release God’s love and power, great breakthroughs will happen.

Preparing for Haiti ...

By Pastor R Dallas Greene

Here are some of my thoughts on Haiti and specifically how God prepared the team and I for our trip. It was (and still is) an incredible journey of seeing God move and work. I hope that you'll come back throughout the next few weeks to read my blogs on Haiti as we will continue to post them every few days. You'll also be hearing from some of the members of the team and what God did in and through them as well.

Isaiah 58:6 “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loosen the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”

I decided to spend the first three weeks of this year fasting and praying.  I know that I would be going down to Belladere, Haiti in April and I was praying this Scripture back to God.  Here were some of my questions and God’s answers:

Q.            How do you want me to fast?

A.            Fast like Daniel eating only fruit, vegetables and drinking water

Q.            What kinds of chains of injustice do you want to unloosen?

A.            The people of Haiti have been exploited unjustly

Q.            What cords of the yoke do you want to untie?

A1            The people of Haiti to break the yoke of slavery to France-made agreement with Satan to owe their allegiance to him if they could be granted independence.

A2            The people of Haiti to experience freedom must renounce their agreement with Satan

Q.            How do you want the oppressed set free?

A.            I want to free them from oppression from the enemy by showing them that I have already blessed them with abundance.  I have already given them plenty of sunshine and 10 million mango trees.

Q.            How do you want to break every yoke?

A.            About 14 days into my fast, I was really hungry.  I had allowed my hunger pains to be a signal to pray.  This time, however, I went to the kitchen to look for food.  On the counter, there was a bag of dehydrated mangos from Costco.  The brand name was Phillipino mangos.  I had learned that a dozen export quality mangoes goes for $1.25.  I figured we could pay the farmers a fair trade price, dehydrate them, export them to America, sell them and return the profits to Haiti.  The profits would be used to transform communities.

SOAP

By Pastor R

Something great is happening at Grace. I see it happening at the staff meetings, in the small groups, in discipleship and in the latest leadership community meeting. It is a phenomenon known as S.O.A.P. ING. It has the power to transform your life. It is really simple. It will allow you to see God as bigger.

S.O.A.P.ING is something I have experienced over the past six months at a Waterboyz table at Panera Bread on 26 at 7 in the morning. About 20 to 25 men come to the two tables being held there. Sometimes they are asked to S.O.A.P. at home; sometimes they S.O.A.P. at their tables. But men who S.O.A.P. over an extended period of time are changed. I believe it is the power of the Word united with the power of the Spirit in the context of community.

One of the first things you need to know is that S.O.A.P. is an acronym. It is done after you have read a section or chapter of the Bible. Then you listen for what verse the Spirit may prompt you to write about. Once you have heard all the verses, you choose one of the verses that is speaking to you. What do you do when you S.O.A.P?

The S of S.O.A.P. stands for Scripture. You write down on your page the verse that God spoke to you. God may have a particular encounter planned for you regarding that verse. Recently in a staff meeting, 4 out of the 8 staff members S.O.A.P.ed on the same verse. The Spirit was drawing our attention there. Theologians speak of a Rhema word. That is a word designed to speak to you in your situation. The first step is picking the verse you are directed to write on.

The O of S.O.A.P. stands for Observation. You ask yourself and write what caused you to select this verse? What do you get out of the text? What is the author’s intent? Write it out in a sentence or two. 

The A of S.O.A.P. stands for Application. You ask yourself and write how is God asking you to apply this verse to your life? What change is God asking you to make? What action will you take and put it into your calendar. This is where the rubber meets the road and we move from intention to action.

The P of S.O.A.P. stands for Prayer. Write a prayer that agrees with what God spoke to you about.

Then after each person has S.O.A.P.ed, take some time to share what God showed you. This is where you can learn from the amazing insights God gives your group.  In all my times of S.O.A.P.ing, I have never been disappointed.

Just after Easter we will be introducing S.O.A.P.ing in the Gospel of Mark. If you will learn this technique, I promise you there will be some transformation in your life as the Spirit and the Word open up places in your life in the context of community.

A Journey Through Acts

By Pastor R Dallas Greene

The Acts of the Apostles could easily be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit working through the apostles. It has been my prayer that each of us would become increasingly aware of the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives and that we would all experience greater intimacy with God. As I open this book to you on Sundays and many of you are studying through Acts on your own and in your small groups, I am hearing how the Holy Spirit has been empowering your witness and giving you divine appointments. We have asked you to pray about your one, to write their name in black on the cross in the lobby atrium, and when you present the gospel to them to underline their name in green and if (or when) they come into the kingdom to circle it in red.

About a month ago, a woman felt burdened for her son-in-law and placed his name on the cross writing his name in black. She prayed for an opportunity to talk with him. That very afternoon her son-in-law came to her house. She told him that she had placed his name on the cross and she would like to tell him the good news of the gospel. As she began testifying to the goodness of God, the sky outside was cloudy and then a shaft of light broke through the clouds. Then there was a glorious rainbow reaching from one side of the horizon to the other. She felt God was confirming her witness with special effects. When he had to go, he asked if there was more, she said yes and he said she could talk to him anytime. So she underlined his name in green and someday soon, I hope she will circle his name in red.

This past Sunday a staff member’s son saw the cross and put his name on it. That afternoon the mother wisely asked him if he knew the gospel. He asked her to tell him the story about Jesus. He listened carefully to what his Mother said to him. He had some questions. When she finished, she asked him if he would like to receive God’s free gift and believe that Jesus took his place on the cross. He said yes. He will be circling his own name in red. We know there is a celebration in heaven and we will be flying a balloon this Sunday to celebrate on earth.

God is moving! The Holy Spirit is prompting us to pray, to be intentional and to be bold. He is drawing people to Jesus and opening their hearts to believe. I give thanks to God for the ones we know have come in and look forward to hearing your stories about the ones yet to come in.

Would you be willing to share your story of how you've spread the gospel to your one? We'd love to hear and pray and rejoice with you!

Sabbath Rest

By Pastor R

I hope you are finding that the Sabbath is meant to be delightful. I heard about the beach balls bouncing and the cameras flashing last Sunday. You are allowed to have fun on the Sabbath. If you don’t believe me, come this Saturday February 26^th to our western rodeo from 2 to 6 p.m. and you will see what I mean. It is good for the soul to laugh. It is good for the soul to form community and friendships.

While you were learning about play last weekend, I was down in southwest Florida with my daughter Betsy visiting my mother, her grandmother, Ruth. It had been a long time since Betsy and I had taken a trip together and it had been since her wedding nineteen months ago that we had seen Ruth.

Ruth was very active in our church in the early days. She would travel up from the Washington D.C. area with us and often stay in our home. She knew most of the founding mothers and fathers of the church and she loved to worship with us. On Sunday morning, she asked me if I would like to go to church with her, I said yes. She said “Let’s go to Charles Stanley’s church.”

This last Sunday Charles Stanley asked his son Andy to preach. So we sat there listening to the choir, the soloist and the sermon. It was a powerful one hour presentation. As we talked about what we had just heard, I had an epiphany.

I knew my mom was raised in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. She still makes great biscuits and chipped beef gravy. I knew my mom attended a Cranberry Baptist Church when she was living there and loved her Sunday School teacher. I knew my Mom went once a year to the revival held at the church. But I did not know much at all about her faith growing up.

Since my dad was in the navy, they had been stationed at bases all over the world. We grew up going once in a while to the base chapel. I never heard my parents speak of their faith. But the one thing my Mom did was to watch Billy Graham whenever there was a televised crusade. She would always invite me to watch Billy preach and to listen to the choir and soloist sing.

So here is my epiphany. Charles Stanley and Billy Graham are two preachers who take my Mom back to the roots of her faith. She said, when the program was over, “you know Jesus is my best friend, I can talk to him anytime.” I was deeply blessed to hear my mother’s confession of her faith at an hour when there are plenty of things not good with her health. I delighted in my mother on my Sabbath, persevering in the midst of adversity, holding onto her faith when the end may not be far away.

Betsy, Grandma Ruth and I would have several adventures including having coffee downtown, venturing out to the community pool, seeing the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico and making chipped beef gravy and biscuits. My favorite moment, however, was hearing from her lips her hope.

Resting

By Pastor R

I asked Debbie to give me a picture of herself about thirty years ago. She was a school teacher then and the picture was a standard 2x3 size. Looking at that picture day after day was probably the closest I have ever come to idolatry. I would look at that picture in the morning and in the evening and think about her. I looked at the picture because I wasn’t with the real person.

The day came when Debbie became my wife. Since then I haven’t spent that much time with the picture. When I am away, I may glance at the picture. She hasn’t changed very much at all. She is still beautiful to me. I find that picture incomplete and unsatisfying. Why? Because when the reality came, I had no more use for the picture.

When Jesus Christ came, our Sabbath Rest, we believed and entered into Sabbath Rest. God, from the very beginning, showed us how to finish His work and then rest. When we believe, we rest from our works, just as God rested from His works, and enter into His rest. The Sabbath is merely a picture that looks back to the beginning and forward to the future. We rest in the finished work of Christ.

Colossians 2:16,17 says …Do not let anybody judge you by… a Sabbath. These are a mere shadow of the things that were to come: the reality, however, is found in Christ.

With that being said, we need as individuals, couples, families, a community, to Sabbath. I have been trying over the last two months to stop doing what I normally do, to rest, to delight and contemplate on the Sabbath. My Sabbath begins at 6 p.m. on Sunday and lasts until 6 p.m. on Monday. Since I am normally with people, on the Sabbath, that is Monday morning, I will normally ride my bike in the Middletown countryside for about two hours. I think I feel closest to God when I am outside enjoying a gentle stream, riding underneath a tree canopy or seeing a great blue heron stirred.

Anger and Rage

By Pastor R

This week we will be turning a major corner in the third chapter of Colossians, a series we are calling Living the Christian Life. We have been talking about the vices that characterized our former life and this week we are talking about the virtues that characterize our new life.

I hope you are beginning to implement what Brenda talked about in her introductory comments about Inductive Bible study. Your understanding of Colossians 3 will only increase when you ask What is the author’s intent? What are the commands in this passage? What does want me to obey? How can I apply this truth to my life?

I hope you are beginning to implement what Alec talked about in his introductory comments about looking up words in the text that are unfamiliar. I can almost hear his mother saying to him when he asked about a word Alec, look it up. You will begin to see the richness , beauty and depth of the text by looking it up.

Last week I spent some time camping out on two vices of the old life that God would like you to get rid of. Those vices are anger and rage. To get rid of something is a command. God is commanding you to some house cleaning and get rid of something that does not belong in your house; namely, anger and rage. It may be lying just below the surface like a toxic substance just under the sink and you may not be consciously aware of its presence in your life. It will take some work then to look beneath the sink and see what is lying in your soul. Whenever I have stilled my soul and invited the Holy Spirit to illuminate my true soul’s condition, He begins to show me where I am out of alignment.

I believe that many of us try to pretend we don’t have anger in our souls trying to put a lid on it. We either deny that we are angry or we try to justify our anger by saying I’m just a little miffed. F reedom comes when we admit the truth about ourselves to God, to ourselves and to safe others. We can feel bottled up and congested until we do so.

The two words that are used in the original to describe anger are orge and thumos. Orge describes the settled condition of the wounded heart that moves from being angry to seeking to get revenge. Thumos describes the kind of volcanic anger that is ready to explode. These words describe behavior that is consistent with a believers former life and not their new life in Christ.

This week we take a good look at the virtues that characterize a believer. You have heard I’m sure sermons on the virtuous woman. We will see what clothing should accompany the new life whether you are a man or a woman. Bring with you some woman or young woman this Mother’s Day who could use a good dose of encouragement about who she is and the life that flows out of who she is.

God's Power to Deliver at the Cross

By Pastor R

We are now in the Lenten season. We will begin our third series on God’s power to deliver this Sunday.

We have seen in the month of January God’s power to deliver us from idols out of Judges. In the month of February we focused on God’s power to deliver us out of debt. It is very encouraging to me to see our church move out of a debt position and to see families and individuals realize their freedom from debt. We still have room in our Financial Peace University for you. It begins this Wednesday.

This month leading up to Good Friday and Easter we will be hearing about the cross: God’s power to deliver. If you want to get ready for this coming Sunday and read ahead, look at 1 Corinthians 2:2, 1:8 and 6:9-11 and then 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:2. We’ll look at the centrality of the cross, the message of the cross, lives changed at the cross and the motivation of the cross. We‘ll hear about one life changed at the cross, Alec Hail.

I am really pumped about this upcoming series. God has been speaking to me big time and inviting me to linger at the cross. I have doing some business at the cross of some unfinished business in my life. I, like all of you get wounded sometimes by the verbal missiles that fly my direction. There is a rawness to the wound since it has been recently opened.  But God is able to heal our wounds.

The best place to take those wounded places of our heart is to the cross. At the cross we hear the words of Jesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do. In fact Jesus may have said those words over and over in the face of injustice, unfairness and pain. We forgive out of the overflow of being forgiven. We forgive so that we can heal. We forgive to move on with our lives.

I believe we are all on a journey. This year’s trip to the cross may find you taking off your shoulders weights you have carrying and finding joy and freedom you have been missing. Meet us at the cross.

Thoughts on Contentment

From Pastor R

Last weekend in the sermon, Tim Hampton and I were trying to unpack contentment. We said that contentment is so elusive because there are so many things that will steal away our sense of being satisfied. It is like the child who is playing contentedly in the backyard with her friends until they hear the song of the Good Humor Truck and now they are discontentedly scrambling for money to buy their favorite ice cream with the hope of finding contentment again.

The premise of our culture is that contentment is for sale.

Herein lies the rub. I am a fairly contented person provided that I am not aware of other options. I like the seven and a half foot ceilings in my house until I see nine foot ceilings in somebody else’s house. I try to enjoy what they have and be genuinely happy for them and the airy feeling above. But the evaporation of my contentment is to dwell on what I don’t have and to demand I have what they have.

I really like the newer, faster, shinier, better. I like the newer laptop. I like the faster internet service. I like the shinier appliance. I like the better golf balls. God does give us all things for our enjoyment. I think that if something you have causes you to give thanks to God, then God is honored. But if I think that I must have the newer, faster, shinier, or better to find contentment then I am in trouble of being covetous. Remember covetousness makes God’s top 10 list of things to avoid. Jesus said that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

Debbie for me is a picture of contentment. As you might know, nearly every summer for the past five, she and I and as many of our four children and spouses as are available, travel down to Chincoteague for a family vacation. When Debbie gets to the beach with the sun kissing her face, with the sand beneath her feet, with a Christian novel in her hand, with a McDonald’s super size ice tea in her other hand, with her boys skim boarding in the surf, she is a picture of contentment. The only thing that is purchased in the picture is the iced tea and she could be content without it.

See if this week the things that bring you the most contentment cost or don’t cost you money. God Himself is the source of our joy and contentment. Paul after 30 years said he had learned the secret of contentment and it had nothing to do with externals we can manufacture or purchase. It had everything to do with what was going on inside. That’s something to ponder.