Think Wink.

Last night at about 9:35 pm I finished my 14 hour van ride back to KC from Fenton, Michigan. I, along with six other adults, took the youth of my church on a mission trip to Parkway Community Church (PCC), where we spent five days just serving this church and loving her and sharing our joy in Jesus Christ as our only and supreme treasure. We did some painting and cleaning around the church as well as went to the Michigan SBC state offices to paint and move furniture. The six or seven ladies went to an elderly couple’s home to clean for them as they are too old to do it themselves; when they finished they spent some quality time with Ned (the husband) and listened to him joyfully share about his relationship with Christ and the many decades he has served Jesus. They also helped clean up the offices of a ministry that reaches out to the children of inmates. Us guys went to an elderly woman’s home and did some yard work that was much needed. Us guys were the ones painting the state offices and moving the furniture. The youth also joined Parkway Community Church host its annual Family Fest where we reach out to the community of Fenton and spread the gospel by providing free school supplies for the children. We provided backpacks, crayons, pencils, pens, and notebooks as well as either an NASB Bible or an ESV New Testament, my church’s tract (which can be found at www.gospelintersect.com), and John Piper’s “Quest for Joy.” This block party is huge for this community because the state of Michigan is in a one-state economic depression. Fenton is one of the only communities that is managing to grow in this midst of this turmoil. To be able to provide for children free school supplies, as well as a free carnival for the family to just have some fun until school starts is a huge blessing. Despite the extremely cold water and the light wind, being in the dunk tank was so fun because putting this Ginger in the water was so fun for the kids…and the adults. This Family Fest block party was not seeker sensitive as the pastor of this church, Pastor Andrew, is a solidly Reformed Southern Baptist who openly preached the gospel every time he took the microphone. There was one gentleman–I believe his name was Matt–who sang, not secular music to make people comfortable, but music by the likes of Christ Tomlin and David Crowder and Casting Crowns and some of the hymns churches sing every Lord’s day. There were some interesting conversations and the gospel was shared with many. It was a good Family Fest for 2008, as 200 people showed up and made it the largest crowd yet.

There are three points that I want to share with my few and far between readers that occurred on this trip. The first was Sunday night. We left KC, MO on Saturday July 19 and drove for 18 hours (could have been better if the navigation and stops were handled better but we learned and shaved off 4 hours for the return trip). Sunday we got up and worshiped with PCC, then had fellowship with the church over lunch, and went to our host family–Josh and Missy–that used to attend Faith Community Church and now attends PCC. There we had more fellowship and BBQ. On this trip, only the seven adults were allowed to have cell phones as emergency contacts. The kids complained all the way up for however much time they were awake. All they could think about that Saturday and Sunday were not having their cell phones. Sunday night we were across the street in an open lot in the subdivision playing ultimate frisbee when some local girls, they seemed to be in high school, came to watch the boys. But I was blown away by the FCC girls who took some tracks and started to talk to these new chicas who came to watch the game. The gospel wasn’t shared but a conversation was intentionally shared and the FCC girls saw a joy that surpasses all other joys, namely to spread the great news of Jesus Christ who was crucified as a propitiation for sin.

The second part of the trip that I want to share is from Cedar Point in Ohio on the coast of Lake Erie. While standing in line for the Wicked Twister, we all noticed that the theme park had wave runners and parasailing. Jimmy commented that he had a list of things he would like to do during his time on earth and parasailing was one of them. So at about 6:00 pm, the group had ridden all but the Top Thrill Dragster–a 420-foot-tall, 120 mph roller coaster–which is one of the primary rides we wanted to ride. We ate at a pizza buffet on the beach and some of the kids asked me if they could see if they could get Jimmy a parasailing session. I took them to another leader and we discussed the issue of time. We went to the other kids, somehow keeping this quiet and away from Jimmy, and they all agreed to sacrifice the ride because they really wanted to let Jimmy do something fun on this trip. So they pulled together $130 and bought Jimmy fourteen minutes up in the parachute on an 800 foot line. The look on Jimmy’s face was priceless. But the fact that these kids sacrificed the one ride everyone wanted to ride to let Jimmy do something he’s always wanted to do. They were “gladly making others glad in God” (the subtitle to chapter 8 in Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper). I couldn’t have been more proud of them for the second time last week.

The third story comes from Friday morning. Josh and Missy had some flowerbeds that were in pretty bad shape. They were overcome with weeds and in need of new mulch and flowers. The guys on the trip, along with Mrs. Shelly Campbell and Jimmy and his wife and son, were staying at Josh and Missy’s house during the trip. So us guys got up with Shelly and weeded, put down new mulch, and planted new flowers in the garden without Josh and Missy knowing what we were doing. We also told Jimmy not to worry about the project and to get some sleep because he hadn’t been getting much on account of making sure the trip ran smoothly. One of the guys cleaned out Missy’s car, and I mean like detailing it clean. When Missy saw it, she just broke down because for this family, seeing their old youth again was enough. Having them stay at their house was an even bigger blessing. But for this group of guys to get up early, with a long day ahead of them, and to do what they did was even bigger. Josh was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to say. We love those guys and were more than happy to do it.

We were living out what Josh always says, “Love the church, serve the church.” These teenagers learned this week that they a.) don’t need all of the comforts of the world that they thought they need; b.) can really and truly serve the body of Christ in an eternal way; c.) as Christians by our serving the church and loving her, the glory of Christ shines most fully and brightly.

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