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We rejoice as God answers our prayers!

I was taught to sew and embroider at a young age. Both my mother, and her mother (my Nana) took the time to teach and encourage me. I observed Mom and Nana sewing or embroidering and then giving the item away. I felt the love they put into the works of their hands and observed the joy of those who received and that memory accompanies me to this day. And so, it is my desire to pass on this love and encouragement to others. By the grace of God, other ladies at Mountain Christian Church share the same heart and Sister in Stitches was born and continues to grow.

In Fall 2017, at the begining of the Sisters in Stitches (SIS) ministry, we envisioned a three-fold ministry within MCC. First, a ministry to make prayer quilts. Second, we desired to mentor young people to sew with the purpose of learning to use their time and talents to make usable items to bless others and thus glorify God. Thirdly, SIS wanted to have fellowship and grow in the grace of the Lord as we quilted and prayed together. The goal and heart-felt prayer of SIS is first to honor God with the works of our hands and seek His will. By God's grace, Sisters in Stitches and Kids in Stitches (KIS) continues to grow just like a quilt.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.   ~2 Corinthians 1:3-4

In God’s perfect timing, the part of our ministry that first flourished was teaching young people to sew. Our desire is to teach them skills and enthusiasm to sew on their own. At first, just learning to use a sewing machine was an accomplishment! But as the kids continue to learn and grow with each KIS Workshop, learning skills that are built upon in the next workshop, we are so encouraged, as are the kids, that they are becoming more proficient.

And even sweeter than seeing new skills mastered, as we sew we continue to encourage the kids to pray and share ways we all can bless others with the work of our hands.

Another goal of SIS to make prayer quilts. The idea behind these quilts is simple, yet powerful. As we stitch these quilts, we pray for the recipient and encourage the kids to do the same. If we don't know who the quilt is going to, we still pray, trusting God already knows. At our next workshop in October, each KIS will make a nine-patch quilt block and then we will sew all the blocks from each KIS together to make a prayer quilt.

As we continue to turn the direction of this ministry over to the Lord, we praise him for bringing our prayers to fruition. If you have interest in SIS or KIS please contact Davra Clayton.

My prayer before the plane took off the runway that would ultimately bring me to the other side of the world, “Father, I ask that I would be faithful and obedient to you and that I would be a blessing to others that you will have me meet on this adventure.” The Father sure answered prayers in many wonderful ways. Recently, the Lord called me to join a group who were traveling to East Asia for a Cultural & Language Exchange program.

Much of our time was spent at a specific university. Each day was broken up into three sections. Each morning both the American students and university students would take turns to present on a particular topic from their cultural perspective. Topics varied from American and East Asian sports, to culture and worldview. It was fun for both groups to learn from one another. In the afternoon, the university students did different demonstrations for us. For example, there were demonstrations on ancient style of dress, how to make hairpins out of wood, how to tie-dye clothing, how to do martial arts and many more. Finally, the evenings were spent establishing relationships.

It became challenging and frustrating as the weeks went by. The Lord taught us that before we go about our day, we must be in prayer. How we went about sowing was through prayer. If you want to be a good farmer who sows you must be willing to do the preliminary step that is most important.

Prayer paves the way for effective ministry to occur. It is pressing into God so that we can allow Him to transform our lives, deepening our understanding of our identity, His character, and what His Word says. Through that transformation, He equips us with everything we need to share the gospel well with others. Without prayer, our ability to minister will be ineffective and useless. We learned to pray amid spiritual warfare (Eph. 6), and see that people are not our enemies.

My outlook on ministry and evangelism has dramatically shifted since the trip. As I was studying how the Messiah went about ministry here on earth it occurred to me that it was not about all the fancy words, but it was really about love. “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” These famous words incapsulate the heart of gospel-centered ministry. Prayer is the most loving thing you can do for yourself and others.

Before you can love others well,

you must be able to be loved well

by the one who is love.

Having a willing heart to genuinely pray for someone exemplifies a true godly love. Prayer and love go hand in hand. The two most important commandments we are given from God, “Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord our God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these” (Mark 12).

The Messiah perfectly demonstrated what love is by living out these two most important commands well.  His love was so authentic and deep for His Father and people.  If we want to be like Messiah, we must be willing to mirror Him. Without words we can demonstrate the fruit that is given freely by the Holy Spirit. Love is the fruit that must be far deep in our hearts before we even consider sharing the Good News to others. Before you can love others well, you must be able to be loved well by the one who is love.

Sharing the gospel is not about going up to someone to point out that they are wrong, and you are right; it is about approaching them with God’s perfect love and meeting them where they are at. Since the students were limited due to language barrier, they knew they were loved because of the intentional time we spent building relationships. Through love and how we lived, it sparked curiosity and interest among our new friends. No one came to follow the Messiah on this trip, but the gospel was revealed to them in how we faithfully loved them and planted seeds in them.

Thank you for all your prayers and coming alongside with the finances that aided in making the journey to East Asia possible. Throughout the trip it became more apparent that it was God’s timing for me to embark on this adventure. Many prayers were answered.  I look forward to the next assignment the Father has me embark on with Him. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!

I opened the mail, sifting through the regular bills, the advertisements and sighing about the mundane of life when I came across my very first sponsor child's welcome packet. I held it in my hands as I read about my child. I thought to myself, will my letters make a difference?  Was it really going to be relational? I've never written a letter to someone on a regular basis. How could I possibly make a difference?

Years have gone by and I have had the opportunity to meet my sponsored children while traveling with a team to Bolivia. I have prayed with them, played with them and talked face to face with them. My sponsor children are still pretty young and though the relationship I have built with them is amazing, I kept asking myself, will they really find success out of poverty? With God and the FH sponsor child program really make success stories? Then I met Mayrita Barrios.
Mayrita was a young child living in the Village of Horno Casa B when Mountain Christian church first partnered with Food for the Hungry in 2009.  She was a sponsored child and was working in a bakery with her family. When Food for the Hungry was first introduced to Mountain Christian, Mayrita was the little girl in the video. Quoting Marvin Procter, “She is the reason we are in Bolivia”

I met Mayrita this past April. I learned that one of her favorite childhood memories was receiving letters from her sponsors. She told me of stories of looking forward to reading her letters and participating in the Food for the Hungry program and how that program made such a huge impact in her life.  With God’s grace and mercy, and the help of her sponsors and FH, she came to know Christ.  In Mayrita’s words, “With the arrival of FH, they guided me to the decision to follow Christ.”  When she graduated the program, she took a job as a FH facilitator so she can help other children and their families.  She continued to keep in contact with her sponsors and the countless teams that came to visit Sucre, Bolivia.

"With God’s grace and mercy,

and the help of her sponsors and FH,

she came to know Christ."

Through her time in Food for the Hungry, she made special connections with the people from MCC. God has graced us with a transformational relationship with Mayrita. So much, that she is coming to visit the United States to speak with and develop more relationships while telling her story at Mountain Christian Church. Mayrita will be coming to our church next month and will be speaking to the congregation and sharing her testimony on September 22^nd!

Meeting Mayrita and listening to her story has brought me a new level of transformation with regards to Missions.  God uses so many people that we meet to bring us closer in unity and in fellowship. Mountain Christian Church has grown with our community to community partnership not only to share the gospel, end malnutrition and poverty, and bring enriching and transformational relationships.  Personally, through these relationships, I have grown closer to God and strengthened my faith.  Mayrita’s visit will be the 3^rd of hopefully many more Bolivians to visit our church to share their stories and speak of the great positive impact our little mountain church has in Bolivia and Food for the Hungry.

Every year we send a team to go on a short term mission trip.  If you are interested in going, I urge you to go.  There will be an informational meeting for our upcoming trip on Sunday, September 8^th after 2^nd service.  If you have any questions or would like to know more about this trip, feel free to contact Jennifer Ward.

It has been exciting to see God’s orchestration of MCC’s relationship with Genesis of Hope (GOH), a division of Cooperative Outreach of India (COI). In late 2018, MCC donated to GOH and the Missions Team was in open discussion about how to get more involved. Then in January 2019 Ravi and his wife Caitlyn, founders of GOH, visited NM. They were able to meet several members of the missions team for dinner and share about their ministry.

During that evening Ravi asked for one thing - that we come to India and be a part of their summer VBS program. He talked about how encouraging it is to work alongside fellow believers for The Kingdom; emphasizing the importance of relationships.

As Heather wrote in an e-mail to the Missions team, "God had been heavily placing India on my heart and on Donna and Emily’s hearts as well. Ravi’s visit served to solidify that leading.”  The Missions Team was able to look at the budget and found it could fully cover the $7,000 cost of GOH’s VBS, allowing approximately 1,000 children in India to attend. An important aspect was to build the partnership by sending Emily, Donna, Heather and Hana. The traveling team was so generously supported by the MCC congregation, friends, and family that the cost of their trip was covered completely and a significant amount was left over which was used to purchase other needed items for GOH.

The team was able to see many aspects of COI/GOH’s ministry in the time spent with the Ravi and Caitlyn. They were able to share about “Identity” with about 30 young women from the slums through “Girl Talk.” The team visited 4 of the 10 GOH centers and saw the impact they have in the slums through educating children and providing skills training. The VBS was a very positive and fun time for the kids to step outside their everyday life and learn about Jesus. COI has many different facets of ministry from the GOH centers to working with urban youth through “Love Delhi” and new church planting efforts in neighboring countries. The thread that runs throughout each of these ministries is a clear love for Jesus and consistency in building strong relationships.

"The thread that runs throughout each

of these ministries is a clear love for Jesus

and consistency in building strong relationships."

The timing of  MCC’s VBS was perfect for making connections to GOH’s VBS. This was done through a daily 20-minute class. Each lesson began with an overview of missions - why believers are called to share the gospel and where in the world MCC chooses to engage in missions.  Then specific details of the recent India trip were shared with the goal to help children see a glimpse of life and ministry in India. There was a special prayer time each day focused on a different individual from India.The response received shows the India project was Christ-led. Children prayed fervently each day, adults shared throughout the week and said they appreciated learning more about Genesis of Hope (GOH) and missions in general. The fundraising goal for the week was far surpassed and $530 was collected for GOH.

The Missions Team gave $7000 to fund the GOH VBS and so much money was raised through direct gifts from the congregation, friends, and family of the traveling team that an additional $4,330 was given to GOH and $1,000 went back into the general missions fund. These generous gifts have gone to further GOH’s ministry. The Missions Team looks forward to growing the partnership with GOH to reach the lost throughout North India and into neighboring countries.  

It’s been a thrill to be part of a MCC small group focused on working through a Systematic Theology curriculum together. I’ve long had the strong conviction that studying theology should not be reserved only for certain Christians (pastors, teachers, etc.). Yet, AW Tozer was right when he said that “what comes to our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us”.

The truth is that we are all theologians, whether we realize it or not, and we can all be better ones. There’s nothing more important than what, why, and how we believe about God, His creation, His church, and His promises.

Something I’ve learned during our first year of intentionally “doing theology in community” is that God reveals more profound truths in the context of a community of Spirit-filled individuals than He does to believers individually. 

"There’s something about being in community that turns out to be as important as having the right source materials, a good method, and even an individual personal relationship with God Himself. "

There’s something about being in community that turns out to be as important as having the right source materials, a good method, and even an individual personal relationship with God Himself.  I don’t know why this seemed so novel to me at first.  Isn’t this exactly how God does his transformative work in other areas of life and ministry?  So, why not theology too?

“Doing theology in community” has opened my eyes to new ways of thinking about and interacting with the great truths of scripture as they’ve been revealed and handed down to us. It’s easy to acknowledge some of the practical advantages of group-study over individual study – but there’s something bigger going on when not just any community – but a community of Spirit filled brothers and sisters in Christ gets together for the expressed purpose of pursuing deeper knowledge of God together.  In this way “doing theology in community” becomes as much about love, fellowship, and worship as it does about pursuing intellectual knowledge.  In turn, sound theology helps us to love better, worship better, serve each other better, share the gospel better, and use every ability God has given us to recognize and resist dangerous or divisive doctrines that infect many well intended (and well attended) churches.

“Doing theology in community” has also helped me to question why and how some of my own deeply held beliefs were formed, and how to better examine all of them while holding fast to what is good (1 Th 5:21).  Not every belief should be held equally tight. It’s not only OK to hold different beliefs with different degrees of certainly, it’s both rational and God-honoring. Some doctrines are essential to the gospel and therefore “hills worth dying on”, but many are not.  Does that mean they are not important?  Not necessarily – how we think about God is rarely unimportant – but many things are not worth dividing over, and charity and grace are called for! 

Do you know how to tell the difference? 

Understanding (and often changing) where we draw these lines in our own thinking helps us avoid unnecessary division in the church and extend as much liberty and grace as possible without sacrificing any of the clear teachings of God’s world or convicting that comes from the Spirit. Doing theology in community doesn’t replace individual or corporate Bible study, community worship, or biblical preaching – but He calls each of us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rm 12:2), in humility (v3), and in the context of the local church (v4,5).

In September we will begin a new course on the Christian doctrine of God (Trinitarianism). This is the third of six semester-long courses in our curriculum, and we happily welcome newcomers. We’ll start this course by setting the context with a general (theistic and non-theistic) worldview discussion.  This will lead to a discussion on the knowability of God, and several classical arguments for His existence. We’ll spend a couple of months on the incommunicable and communicable attributes of God culminating in the historical development and biblical defense of the doctrine of the Trinity.

We’ll finish by developing a historically and biblically informed Christology, asking and answering questions about the divinity and humanity of Christ. Please consider joining us as we humbly seek to learn more about what and why we believe as God’s family and allow God to transform our lives, ministries, His church and our His world as a result.

We meet from 6-8pm on the first and third Thursdays of each month at Luke and Melissa Feldner’s house in Cedar Crest (optional conversations often go much later).  Contact Luke for more information.  Childcare can be provided, as we also have children.