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Central Family,
How is the Joshua journey going during these hot and humid days of July? Are you reading the Joshua devotionals that have been written by Central members? What a blessing to read Erica Cooper's devotion on Tuesday, July 6 and Pete Stanley's devotion today, Wednesday, July 7! If you don't have a copy of the Joshua devotional you can visit www.clcelkriver.org and read the daily devotions from Joshua.
This Sunday we will be gathering around Joshua 5:2-12 a the 8:15, 9:30 and 11:00 worship. I encourage you to read this important narrative about the first things that happen after the people enter the promised land. What are the first two things that occur? What does God do? What happens to the manna? These are just some of the questions that the story encourages us to ask. In addition I want to share two of the three words of counsel from Pastor Isaac Chungala, the Pastor who birthed our partnership with Kibena and Matiganjola over ten years ago. When Pastor Isaac heard that Martha and I were visiting in Njombe he took a bus for over seven hours to have lunch with us prior to our departure. He presented us with three gifts to personally thank Central for the partnership. Can you imagine travelling seven hours just to say WELCOME, THANKS AND GOOD BYE? We can learn much from the hospitality of our brothers and sisters in Tanzania.
Pastor Isaac presented us with three colorful table cloths that each had a Swahili wisdom saying. This Sunday I will be sharing about two of them and on Sunday, July 18 I will share the third word of counsel and advice from Pastor Isaac. This Sunday we will hear:
"Lililofunguliwa na Mungu binadamu hawezi kulifunga" and
"Udugu mzuri mpendane sio mnyanyasane."
I know that you will be blessed by the counsel and encouragement from Pastor Isaac. You can translate the phrase yourself or you can wait for worship this Sunday. Joshua 5 is very significant as God changes the way he provides for his people in the promised land. There are many lessons for us to learn as we begin a new season of life together as a Lutheran Congregation in Mission for Christ. What will our life look like as we die to ourselves and lose our life? What new things will God be doing in our midst?
One of the new things is a growing sense of partnership with our mission partners. Our new fiscal year began on July 1 and we now are sending 11% of our offerings to 20 missions and ministries beyond ourselves. For the last eight years we have tithed or given 10% but as a sign of growing in our witness and losing our life (remember the burying of our signatures on Pentecost?) we chose to step out in faith and increase our giving to 11%. This might be a good time for you to evaluate your giving practices. Are you tithing? If not will you take a step of faith and grow your giving towards a tithe? If you are tithing maybe this is the year to move beyond a tithe. Ask the Lord what amount of your income you should keep for yourself and what percentage you should give beyond yourself.
On a personal note I am excited about increasing my giving to our sister congregations in Tanzania. As many of you know our son Andrew is presently living with our sister congregations in Tanzania. He is working on a project that will match children with families from Central. One of the biggest needs is for education and it is our hope that many members of Central will sponsor children from Kibena and Matiganjola. Earlier this week Andrew emailed me with a report on the project. In his first week and 1/2 he has interviewed 64 children from the Kibena congregation and 14 from Matiganjola. He writes, "I think there may be up to 200 kids. I hope and pray that every one of them will be sponsored, and I wonder what you think if Central will be able to sponsor all of them? I hope so, but if not maybe putting the idea of getting others involved to help out. It is sad to see that a few of these young persons are even older than me, there was one who is turning 23 on your birthday and he is in the equivalent of 8th grade, and is only going to school because he wanted to. I also thought it would be a good idea to give a Bible to each kid once they are sponsored." This fall you will have the opportunity to invest in the young people from Kibena and Matiganjola.
In addition I would like to share three additional items for your prayers and partnership:
- Presently 96 units have made financial promises to the Capital Improvements Project. These next three Sundays in July you will have the opportunity to offer your financial support. If all of us share a financial gift we will be able to fully fund the much needed renovations. Brochures are in the Welcome Book to give you information about the project.
- The Program will be on a REVEAL FOLLOWUP RETREAT on Monday and Tuesday, July 12 & 13. Pray for your staff leadership as they seek to formulate a three year vision to address the six areas of critical need identified in the Reveal diagnosis. More information will be forthcoming!
- The Church Council meets on Monday, July 19. We welcome our new council members Pat Hackman, Pam Wagner and Tom Tyler. Pray for the Council as they elect their President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. We are grateful for the work and witness of the Council as they oversee Central's mission of Making Jesus Known!
As we live in these hot and humid days of July let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecto of our faith! As Erica said in her devotional in the New Covenant Jesus is the ARK! May he lead and guide us each and every day!
In Jesus' Name,
Paul
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