Missions Conference 2013

 Our missions conference was the first weekend of this month.  It is a highlight of the year for me.  I love seeing old friends, making new friends, being with my church family, being encouraged by missionary stories, hearing great messages, singing songs about missions, seeing the flags from the many countries that we support or have supported missionaries in- being marched in, and my list goes on and on.

I am so thankful to be in a church with a great missions emphasis.

 We ate lots of salad one night!

 Roger Dye told us what was going on with his ministry.  Our church supported his Mama and Dad for many years.  They are off the field now.

 The wonderful kitchen crew!

 Our good friend Jeff, looked just like our main speaker, Mark.  Don't you think so?

 Our Saturday morning brunch was well attended and the sharing was fantastic!

 Carl and I met Hans and Gretchen 34 years ago in St Louis.  I am thankful that our paths have crossed many time over the years.  They have blessed many in our church.

We need to remember our missionaries all through the year.  Their work is hard.  Please take time to pray for them today!

Missions Conference

We just had our missions conference at church. I love our missions conference!
Our conference takes lots of preparation. Here are JanR and Barb getting ready for the dinner the first night. The first night we (the missions committee) have a dinner with the missionaries in a home. The last several years have been at JanR's.
Here are two of our missionaries. Jenny on her way to Columbia and Kathy in Mexico. They realized after meeting that they had been on a mission trip together! What a wonderful, small PCA world we have.
Here is the beautiful table set at JanK house for the wonderful tea we had. It was an informal time to just visit.
JanK and JanR
Ruth-France talking with Susanne and Jenny-Columbia
Virginia and Marilyn
One of the things that I found out at the tea is that the cookbook committee asked our missionaries if they wanted one of our new cookbooks. Those that said that they did were sent one. The cookbook chairman got to talk to Kathy about her cookbook. Kathy got to share that those on her mission team are enjoying the cookbook!
Ted-RUF got to visit with SaraMartin and her husband, Hess. SaraMartin was in the youth group in Jackson when Ted was the youth leader. SaraMartin and her husband are now doctors here.
Here is Jeff with the flag he carried during our flag ceremony. How cool to have a MK carry the flag for the country that is now his.I love our missions conference! I love getting to know and meet new friends. I enjoy renewing friendships with those that have been here before. I love that my prayer list gets new requests. I love the stories that come back from the field. I love seeing God's hand work and move all over the world.

The missions conference holds lots of wonderful memories. Andrew and Robert came to every conference while they were at AUBURN. We set our 'most folks sleeping in our house' record during one conference- 17! You should have seen the shower schedule?!? I loved having meetings and dinners here.

I hope your church has a conference and if not come to our next year!!

where is your mission field?

When I was a new bride the buzz book was The Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman by Anne Ortlund. I still refer back to that book and all I learned from her. Here is a wonderful read from her daughter in law, Jani. She is also an author.

do you need a laugh?

Carl and I am blest to be on the missions committee at our church. As we, as a committee, try to keep the missions conference ever in front of the congregation, we try to think up new ways. KimT came up with this new idea. I think is it a great one!

Bob and Tom were ever so happy to participate in the photo shoot.

They even got Carl to get in a few pictures
Bob made the sign. Do you get the 'plan ahead' ?Doesn't this make you want to join us at the missions conference?

Grace, It's free for you and me

Marisa, Kaitlin and Carl left, on Saturday morning, with 27 other from our church to go to Bay St. Louis, MS and help with Katrina rebuilding. They are bases out of Jean Larroux' s church Lagniappe ( pronounced lan-yap) Presbyterian. Lagniappe means a little something extra or free like Grace.

Today at 5:17am I got a text from Kaitlin. She had on her Iowa tee shirt, shorts and tennis shoes and she was headed to the kitchen to help cook breakfast.

Carl is working on roofing as is Marisa.

I am praying for safety and unity for the group.

Yesterday, during free time a group drove to New Orleans. It is about an hour away. Carl, Kaitlin and one other are the only ones out of the group of 14 that had ever been there. They drove down town and had beignets.

I really miss them.

John and I are here. John rented some movies for us to watch. Vantage Point and Behind Ememy Lines are two that I have watched with him so far. They really get your heart pumping because of the action. I may need to watch Pollyanna or something calmer soon.

Sheryce came over today and curled my hair because my hairdressers are gone. I am blessed with wonderful friends.

It means- a little something extra

I added a new blog to my blog roll just a minute ago. It is the blog for Lagnaippe Church. Carl, Marisa and Kaitlin plus about 20 others from church are going to do work there next week. I am hoping to see pictures of them up there. Please pray for team unity and that in all they do they will bring Glory to God.

Hat tip to Andrew for this blog

Mission Conference lll

On Saturday night we heard Abbey talk about her four week trip to Ghana. She worked in a Rafika orphanage. Abbey spent her first 10 years of life on the mission field in Africa. Her dad is a pilot and they worked in Africa. She always wanted to go back and see what it was like. She didn't remember the long plane ride and has a new appreciation for her mama who kept her and her brother happy for all those hours. We saw some of her pictures and a few videos. It was great. We also heard Ted challenge us to pray. He gave examples from his life

Sunday morning we had a brunch as we heard the missionaries talk about their plans for the future. They shared prayer requests with us also. The Sunday service began with the flag ceremony. Each country where we have a missionary or have had a missionary we have a flag. They are brought in one by one and placed in the front of the church as the statistics are read about how many Christians they have in those countries. The most moving to me is always the American flag. It is carried by someone in full uniform usually someone from the Air Force. This Sunday a Boy Scout carried the flag. We also have missionaries in the Czech Republic and we have a couple in our church from there. They carried their flag. How moving that was. Dr Medeiors spoke til 12:30 and I never even looked at my watch.

There are pictures on our church web site http://www.covenantpca.com for you to see and enjoy. I sat all day Monday. I feel so much better today but still plan to sit most of the day.

I can't wait til the next conference!

Missions conference ll

Four down and two to go.

Wednesday evening was wonderful. After our tummies were full of bar b que and beans and wonderful potato salad plus desserts to die for, we gathered in the living room for the introductions. Tom is the committee chairman and he was the master of ceremonies. There were 31 of us. He asked us to tell our name, why we were there and our nickname. I think the funniest nickname was his wife, KimF. She loved to wear a sweatshirt of her mother's when KimF was in high school. When her mama wore it, it said 'Charlotte'. When Kim , who was smaller than mom, wore it, it said 'harlot' . A close second was Terry who said that his wife calls him ' Terwy' ( like Elmer Fund would say it). Lots of laughs.

Thursday. My day began when KimT picked me up at 10. We had loaned one of our cars to a missionary to drive while they were here. KimT and I met Barbara and Sandy at The Old Mill for lunch. Thursday is the busiest day in the kitchen because we don't have all the kinks worked out on where stuff should be served plus we are making as much as we can for the next day. The meal that night was ham, hash brown casserole, green beans, a roll and banana pudding. It was wonderful if I may say so. We heard from Darlene , who is serving in Japan, and Scott and Kathy, who are raising support to go to Mexico. Our main speaker , Dr Medeiros, is from Brazil. He gestures greatly and pounds the pulpit to get a point across. He spoke from Matthew 4. He exhorted us to be deliberate for Christ. He was very witty and I was sad when his time to speak was over.

Friday. The meal was Swedish meatballs over rice, marinated salad, a roll and three milk cake. mmmmm. We had door prizes this night. It is fun to see how much folks are paying attention to this conference and to those in the past. It was moving when the question was asked " Who has been on a short term mission trip?" About 100 folks stood up. Wow! Dr Medeiros spoke from Matthew 9. He charged us to pray, pay and participate.

This morning the ladies had a breakfast buffet. We were in a new setting and it was wonderful. The room we had was more intimate than in years past. I believe we had 69 ladies with us. The missionaries shared what God is doing in their lives. God was teaching them all about change and that HE is in control. One is striving to learn to let God carry her burdens, one has had to come off the field because of aging parents, one is wondering when they will have enough support to go on the field and one came off the field because she has a brain tumor. She said that she doesn't know if she has months or years to live. She is writing and getting in contact with all her friends and contacts because she doesn't want to leave this earth with unfinished business. I am still blown away by that.

We have a college and career supper tonight then SS and church tomorrow. I think I will go to bed tomorrow about 3 in the afternoon. I may wake up on Tuesday.

Missions Conference

I love the PCA.

This week is our missions conference. It is a most wonderful time for our church and I love it. Wednesday Night the missions committee has supper with the missionaries and their host families in a home. This year ,as we have done for the past few years ,we will be at the home of Jan and Jeff. This is the highlight of the conference for me. It is an intimate setting and lots of sharing from the heart goes on here. I believe if more folks knew how wonderful this meal was they would be standing in line to be the initial hosts for a missionary.

Thursday and Friday we have meeting at church that begin with supper. Our main speaker this year is Dr Medeiros. He is from RTS Jackson, MS. I believe he teaches missions.

Saturday the women have a breakfast with the female missionaries sharing what is going on right now in their hearts and lives ( this is my second favorite event) and the men have a lunch
with the men sharing the same. Our breakfast will be at the Hilton and I am sure the food will be yummy but the men this year will have an amazing meal. Dan B is from a farm family in Minnesota. He is cooking the men a meal from his growing up days. He takes a big metal milk can and first he puts in ears of corn, next is all manner of veggies and on top of that are sausages. He puts enough water to cover the corn. He puts the milk can on a grid over an open fire. The sausages season the veggies as the corn is steamed. My mouth is watering as I write this.

Sunday we will hear from our missionaries in Sunday School and Dr Medeiros will preach during the church service. We will have a special treat during our service as Jim and Ellen will speak for a few minutes. They have been missionaries supported by our church for over 20 years. They are off their current field now as Ellen battles cancer.

My job on the missions committee is to find housing and meals during the day for the missionaries while they are here. Usually we have a main speaker and maybe three other missionaries. This year we have a main speaker and SEVEN missionaries. I about fainted when I realized the numbers I'd be dealing with this year. But why? Me of little faith. God has provided for them all. My job is like a big puzzle and I have to fit all these pieces together. The problem is most of the pieces are people and that can get dicey. I usually get my feelings hurt every which of way but thankfully KimT makes sense of it all and tells me not to take things so personal .

One of the many reasons I love the PCA is the smallness of it. About six or seven years ago our main speaker was Julian Russell. He came with his whole family. He has a son named Andrew too. The two Andrew's had a good visit and even played pingpong while they watched some March Madness basketball. This year at my Andrew's church in Valdosta, Ga the main speaker is none other than Julian Russell. Andrew can't wait to renew his friendship with Mr. Russell and ask about his buddy Andrew Russell. How cool is that?!?

The Rinns

We are blest to be in a church where there is high priority put on missions. We had the priviledge of having supper in our home with some of our favorite missionaries Joel and Jessica and their 4 children. When we see them again after a few years we are able to just pick right up like we saw them just last week. What a blessing. They have been here to our home 3 times. The first time Jessica noticed that their daughter Anna looked like Kaitlin's baby pictures that we have up in the house. We checked again on the second visit, still she looked like Kaitlin and now last night we pulled out pictures of Kaitlin at 4 and still they look alike! How much fun is this.