This week at After School was a time for team competitions and being creative. On Monday, we had a team competition to see who could create the biggest and coolest-looking tower out of used trophy parts. On Tuesday, Ms. Courtney played a music game with us. On Wednesday, Ms. Gaye led us all in chapel. We also each wrote a prayer out on paper so we could remember to say it at home. On Thursday, we had another team competition where we had to create the best looking and functional building out of spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. And finally on Friday, Mr. Andrew led the kids in a pumpkin-making craft using construction paper and glue sticks. Overall, it was another fantastic week at First Explorers After School!
Mission Moment 9.2.26
Janée Angel
Field Personnel in Antwerp, Belgium
Our daily engagement is with the Middle Eastern world inside the Belgian context. Our streets are filled with headscarves and the smells of fresh flat bread and spices. We see and feel the unrest throughout the region we serve and how that affects the city we live in. Our purposeful response to all that we see, hear and feel is prayer. Prayer changes things. It was wisely said that “prayer does not lead us to the greater work; prayer IS the greater work. Prayer is precious to the Father. In fact, it is one of the two things that scripture says that He collects—our prayers and our tears.
I love to pray the prayers that agree with the heart of God. So I pray scripture every day. Prayer is also a way to bless the people and bless the land. When we want God’s best for those around us, we are loving our neighbor with agape love. We are blessing them with the desire God has for each life.
Daniel was a man of prayer. In Daniel 9:17-19, it says, “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
Blessing
Because of the mercy of God, be blessed by His presence among us.
Be blessed by his heart for each people and each land.
Be blessed because we are His.
Be blessed because He hears and listens.
Be blessed with His favor because we bear His name.
We are blessed because in turbulent times, we can wait on God; the only One who can offer peace and calm
to the storms around us.
When our eyes cannot see the outcome that we desire, we are blessed because we can trust in the One who is working things out and will make all things new.
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.
Mission Moment 8.26.26
Suzie
Field Personnel in Southeast Asia
As I walk alongside the Asia Team field personnel and the beautiful ministries and people they are called to serve, my desire is for God to be glorified and for those of us who serve to remember that all our efforts cannot compare with God’s glory. It is He who has called us and He who is at work in and through us. And it is He who we desire to be made known among the nations.
A Blessing for Our Labors of Community
Adapted from Every Moment Holy, Volume 1 by Douglas Kaine McKelvey
Bless our small lives, Oh Lord. Our vision is so limited.
Our courage is so frail. Our hours are so fleeting.
Bless us with your grace and guidance for the journey ahead.
Our Asia team is called together into a work that we cannot yet know the fullness of.
Bless us, Oh Lord, help us to remember, to trust Your voice, the One who has called us.
And so we offer to you, Oh God, these things:
Our dreams, our plans, our vision, our strategies.
Shape them, Oh Lord, as YOU will—our moments, gifts and calling.
Bless them, Oh Lord, toward bright, eternal ends.
Richly bless the work before us, Father.
Let us listen for Your voice. Unite Your people and multiply our meager offerings, Oh Lord, that all may resound to your glory. We want our love and our labors to echo your labors, Oh Lord.
Oh Spirit of God, bless our feeble hearts.
Oh Spirit of God, bless our busy hands.
Oh Spirit of God, bless your kingdom among us.
Amen.
Pray. Give. Go.
First Explorers After-School Recap 8.26.26
This week was another fun week at First Explorers After School! On Monday, 4H came and did a fun lesson with us. On Tuesday, Ms. Courtney played several interactive music games. On Wednesday, Ms. Gaye led us in chapel. On Thursday, Generation Kids came and played games, told us a story, and prayed with us. And on Friday, Ms. Debbie let us make cool artwork using paint and marbles. It was once again another great week at After School!
Giving the Jesus Way
United Christian Ministries is in need of spaghetti.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive.
Thank you!
Mission Moment to 8.19.26
Annette Ellard
Field Personnel in Louisville, Kentucky
“Now, may the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13
Throughout nearly 20 years of ministry among the Karen and other refugees from Burma, a few key scriptures have guided, shaped and defined our ministry. But it was Romans 15:13 that came as a surprise and a blessing.
I was having trouble connecting to the Wi-Fi at Crescent Hill Baptist Church, which provided the space for Hope Academy, a small school we operated from 2011 through 2013 to help struggling Karen refugees from Burma finish high school. When someone set a new password for Hope Academy to use to connect, they chose Romans 15:13.
One day, when we had lost the connection and I had to reenter the password, it occurred to me that it might be a scripture passage, so I looked it up. Somehow, it seemed as though I was seeing the passage for the first time. I shared it with the class, and we memorized it. It was thoughtful that someone had incorporated the theme of our school into the password, but it was more than that. We would claim it as a blessing.
It was late autumn, and my students had been producing art for a series of Christmas cards to be sold as a fundraiser for the school. We had been considering what kind of Christmas greeting to include and this scripture would be perfect, both for capturing the spirit of the season and the spirit of the school. We would share the blessing we had received with others.
Over the years, this Blessing of Hope has stuck with me and the passage has come to me again and again. But it was on a sunny summer day, standing at the graveside of a small Karen child, that God sent it to me as a benediction. A benediction is often thought of as a blessing at the end of worship; but rather than marking the end of something, benedictions signal a transition. Benedictions are literally “good words” that serve to ground us in the promises of God and remind us of our purpose before we step out into an often chaotic and oh so unpredictable world.
The little girl had been hit by a car while playing hide-and-seek with her cousins. Her parents, both Buddhist, shared how the five-year-old loved to sing God songs. Because she loved God, they said, they wanted her to have a Christian funeral and burial, but they didn’t know what to do. Could we make it for them, please.
It was the first funeral I had been so involved in, and after the funeral and graveside service, my energy was spent. Finally, when the burial was complete, the family and other mourners stood motionless by the grave. I, too, felt paralyzed by the weight of the moment. How could these parents— how could any of us—move on?
Then, suddenly inspired, I lifted my hands into the air and declared,
Blessing of Hope
“Now, may the God of Hope
fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him,
so that you may overflow with Hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Amen.
First Explorers After-School Recap 8.19.26
This week at First Explorers we welcomed back students as the first week of school began on Wednesday. We went over rules and expectations to make sure we would have a great, fun, and safe year at After-School. We played games, ran around outside at the playground and got to meet new kids as the start of the new school year began. Here are some photos of a game we played where the kids were divided into four groups and competed to see which one could make the tallest tower out of playing cards!
Thank You to Gary Frye!
We’d like to express a huge “thank you” from the First Explorers After-School program to Gary Frye for making sure our church buses are safe and in good working order! The staff and students appreciate you, Gary!!
Giving the Jesus Way
United Christian Ministries is in need of spaghetti.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive.
Thank you!
Giving the Jesus Way
United Christian Ministries is in need of spaghetti.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive.
Thank you!
Mission Moment 8.12.26
Allie Osborne
Minister of Missions and Children’s Discipleship, Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA
I was raised on a farm in the middle-of-nowhere Virginia where the grass was always green, the trees were so old and big they could provide shade for the whole yard and the stars were bright enough that we rarely needed the porchlight. Now I live in a city where bird chirps have been replaced by car horns, the artificial noise of the fountain in my courtyard drowns out the sound of any breeze and I haven’t seen the stars in months. This is a blessing for the Holy Spirit to find us inside of our concrete buildings and parking lot traffic. For us to remember Christ’s call to see each other and know each other, and for God’s creation to find its way to us even when the beauty of nature feels so far.
A Blessing for People Who Never Get to See the Stars
God of…all of THIS,
I ask for your blessing
Bless this space
Bless these people
Bless this moment in my day
When solitude is found surrounded by strangers
In the coffee shop
On a walk through the park
In a crowded movie theater
Bless the thousands of faces that I lay eyes on every day
Bless their families, their jobs
Bless their morning routine, their conflict with friends
Remind them to drink water today
Bless the cars as they drive by
As I wonder about each driver and their story
Where are they going and who is waiting for them to get there?
Bless the smells of this city
Or better yet, bless my poor nose
Bless the rain that washes the sidewalks clean
Bless the breeze that cools us down
Bless that one tree that spits sap on my car in the church parking lot
In moments when I feel so far from you, God…
I wish I could look at the stars and see you there
I wish the rain soaked into the ground
Instead of running into the sewer
I wish I could walk outside and be completely alone with you
Thank you for this city and all its lights
For the confidence it takes to be yourself in a crowd
Bless the overwhelming moments
And the moments of relief
Bless the intentionality of community here
When there are so many places to be, Lord
Bless each moment I spend with you
And all these people here with me
Amen.
Pray...Give...Go.