Matthew the Sinner

In Matthew 10:1-4, Matthew records that Jesus gave authority to his twelve disciples to heal and cast out unclean spirits…and then Matthew lists the names of those twelve apostles (he switches from ‘disciples’ to ‘apostles’ without flinching)...and when he gets to himself, he writes ‘Matthew the tax collector’...insert ‘Matthew, the traitor who turned his back on his people and instead of looking on their plight under Roman rule and seeing their poverty, extorted money from them and helped their oppressors.’

What a great gospel we have that men and women want to be known by their most heinous crimes and shameful ways because it magnifies the mercies and worth of Christ!

-Braden

Preaching Night January 22nd

Seth Remsnyder and Devon Kauflin will be preaching the Word on January 22nd @ 7pm in the Edwards room here in the church building.
Come out and support your friends!

Uganda Update

Friends,

I just spoke to Isaac.  He sounded pretty tired, but had an amazing report!

Youth Camp:
The majority of the team spent today serving at the Kiburara Youth Camp.  Over 600 youth were in attendance.  Drew preached in the morning and the rest of the team lead worship and served with drama and skits.  After lunch, the youth were broken into discussion groups where they worked through application questions on Drew’s message and continued to build relationally with team members.  Later in the afternoon, a few team members had the opportunity to pray for a demon possessed woman.  As they were praying for her… the woman went into a fit, fell to the floor, and threw up.  Immediately following this violent reaction, she stood up and began praising the Lord.  Members of the Kiburara church told our team they believed the demon had been cast out!

Pastor’s Conference:
Isaac spent the day serving 35 local pastors.  They began by sitting in a large circle, where Isaac had the opportunity to spend about 1.5 hours drawing them out about their lives and ministry.  Out of the 35 men present, 20 do not own a Bible.  In fact, no one in their congregations owns a Bible.  These pastors have had no theological training.  Many of them have not even completed grade school.  They are simply servants, who have been radically saved and called to share God’s love with others!!!  Isaac said listening to their stories and experiences was enlightening.  He and pastor Moses were able to provide Bibles to all the men.  The rest of the day was spent teaching sessions on The Gospel, Justification, and Progressive Sanctification.  Each topic was followed by a Q & A time.  The Ugandan pastors are hungry for God’s Word and asked a ton of questions!

Outdoor Evangelism:
This evening the team did their first outdoor evangelism.  Laverne Jackson and Jason West shared their testimonies and Ian Lotinsky preached the gospel.  About 20 people responded and professed Christ as their Savior.  Among them were several young men in their 20s and various teenagers.

Prayer Requests:
Jenny James came down with a stomach bug and had to return to the team’s lodgings today.  She is doing better and resting comfortable now, but please pray for her complete healing!

Tomorrow the team will repeat the same schedule they had today.  Please pray for continued strength and health. As you can imagine, they are all exhausted.  Pray also for continued salvation of the lost.  Than many more would come to know Christ!

Christy

Uganda Update

Hi Everyone,

Isaac just called with today’s team update:

First of all, he wanted you to know that both Matt Wahl and Jason West are doing great.  They were both feeling weak this morning and experiencing the after-effects of yesterday’s heat exhaustion.  In light of this, they decided to stay back and rest.  When the team returned to their lodging this evening, they found the guys 100% recovered!!!  Thank you for praying.  The remainder of the team is in excellent health.  God is definitely answering prayers!

This morning was the beginning of the team’s ministry at the Kiburara Youth Conference.  It was also the their first experience with monsoon rain.  Immediately upon arriving at the conference sight, the skies opened and it began to pour.  It rained for over two hours, which necessitated a rearranging of the conference schedule.  Instead of preaching, the team used that time to befriend / hang out with the youth.  Isaac said that this “hang out” time was a great foundation on which the team can build throughout the conference.  Just before lunch, the rains cleared and the conference began.  A member of the Ugandan Parliament was there to welcome and thank the US team for the work they were doing.  He also honored pastor Moses for his ongoing work in the Kiburara region.  It is quite significant for a member of Parliament to speak at this type of event.  It appears that the Lord is greatly elevating the influence of pastor Moses in that area.

After lunch, the team was scheduled to play a “US vs Uganda” soccer match.  They were expecting a nice friendly game with some of the locals.  To their shock, they discovered that pastor Moses had advertised this match on both radio and television.  Over 1,000 spectators arrived to watch!  Local radio stations showed up to cover the event!  And the “local” team from Kiburara trotted onto the field in full uniform!!  The players were all extremely tall and athletic and had coaches warming them up.  Isaac said it felt like they were about to play in the world cup!! 

The first half was played US vs Uganda and the US team held their own (only allowing one goal). During the second half they split the teams to make it more fair.  In the end, the “Ugandan” team won 2-1.  Not bad!  The crowed loved it.  Anytime, one of the US players would slip and fall or whiff on a kick, the crowed erupted into laughter. After it was all over, pastor Moses told Isaac that the work they had been doing on the widows homes, along with this soccer match was massively unique to the Ugandan people.  The US team’s humility in serving would spark an interest in the local people and potentially open many doors for the gospel throughout the remainder of their trip!!!

Finally, Isaac mentioned that the highlight for him so far has been the multigenerational nature of the team.  Watching heroes such as Lavern Jackson, Peter & Sherly Giglio, and Frank and Sue Robb has been his joy.  These folks have had a profound impact on the teams effectiveness.  They are reaching people groups that CLC teams have never been able to reach before.  In addition, their energy and servant’s hearts are putting the rest of the team to shame!!!

Christy Sullivan

Prayer at the 607 CANCELLED this Friday

FROM KURT:

I hate getting these event messages, don’t you?

What i hate even more is having to cancel, but it looks like most everyone will be unable to make it and i am still recovering from sickness.  So we will try again for 1/22.  Hope to see you then!

Prayer for Uganda

Isaac sent this email to the pastors before they left yesterday:

Happy New Year my friends!

Drew & I and 20 of our finest are off for Uganda this afternoon.  We would much appreciate your prayers throughout our time away.  As before this trip looks to be a great time preaching God’s Word, proclaiming the gospel, and encouraging these new start up churches.  The people there are hungry for God and we are blessed with experiencing many conversions every year.  May God do this again and more this year!

This trip also promises to be as physically & spiritually taxing as years past.  Please pray for me & Drew as we each will be preaching about 2x a day in various contexts.  I’ll be meeting with a group of pastors and future pastors & along with Pastor Moses will be teaching them for a 2 day “conference”.  My messages for these men will be focused on the book of Titus and specifically: knowing the gospel, gospel-centered sanctification, gospel-centered leadership, and gospel-centered preaching.  Can’t wait to serve these guys! 

Please pray for all of us…health was a major factor last year (almost all got sick).  I’m leaving sick like I did last year and am trusting God’s grace to get me through and even heal me.  Also, if you can pray for my wife and boys.  I’m leaving a sick family behind as well!  Thanks my friends!!!

For the gospel,
Isaac