Grace Notes

Bright Lights Local Group/Witnessing Stories

You May Be Surprised

14 Comments

If you have never Christmas caroled before, you may be surprised at how much some people are touched by it. We took our Bright Lights group caroling the other night, and I was reminded of what an impact it can make. Many stand outside the door, trying to savor the moment, thoroughly enjoying the old carols.

After we sing, we greet them, ask for a favorite, explain who we are, and leave them with some cookies and a book that explains the Biblical meaning of Christmas.

Many of the carols themselves have great gospel words: “Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

While we were caroling, a passage popped into my head. I had been reading it the previous day. “O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.” (Psalm 105:1-2)

Amazing. We get to praise the Lord in song, in front of the on looking world, (well, house by house) and thus proclaim both the gospel and our delight in it! What a privilege.

“Are you carolers?!” the elderly couple in this vehicle asked as they rolled down the window.
“Yes, would you like us to sing something for you?”
“Would you??” they asked eagerly.
The lady explained how she used to carol around this very neighborhood as a girl.

Then we came back for hot chocolate and our normal Bright Lights lesson time and activities.

Nickie shared with the younger girls about our response to Christ, emphasizing how we need to be committed disciples.

Simultaneously, Sarah was sharing with the older girls upstairs. We are beginning a six week “winter discipleship” study in which we are going to be keeping each other accountable to be seeking Jesus more diligently.

The joy of fellowship with sisters in Christ…
Pictured above are Amanda, Annie, and Hannah

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27)

Miscellaneous

Birthday Party In a Bus

6 Comments

Last weekend we suprised Chelsy Bontrager for her birthday. Her sister, Allison, did a fabulous job planning the whole event and Chelsy was completely surprised. We spent most of the time in their bus. (Their family has a really neat singing ministry and are “on tour” about a third of the year.)

Allison treated all of us to lots of great snacks…coffee drinks, biscotti, chocolate…

Most of us haven’t seen each other since the last Bright Lights conference trip, but we always pick up right where we left off. Encouraging fellowship with like-minded girls is special. Although most of us live hours apart, we’ve grown close through doing ministry together. (When you think about it, that’s really one of the best ways to become closer as brothers and sisters in Christ.)

The girls helped me by “rating” the cartoons my dad has drawn so far for my book and giving suggestions. [smile] Pictured above are Lilly and Allison.

Before the girls from out of town headed home, we had them over to our house for lunch after church.

Thoughts

Eschatology and Evangelism

5 Comments

My dad played this clip as an introduction to the sermon he gave at church yesterday.
We have been studying eschatology (end time prophecy) recently, and my dad’s sermon was on “eschatology and evangelism.” Here were some of the points from his sermon:

We are in a time like no other. Israel is back in the land. Satan wants to control the world and the political, economic and moral stage is being set to make conditions right for the Antichrist.
As the coming of the Lord draws near,what does the Lord want us to be doing?

• Be Aware – we can’t know the day or hour, but we can know the general prophetic timetable and understand current events.

• Be Ready – that means be saved.

• Guard you heart – identify Satan’s lies in society, contend for the faith, stay in the Word, maintain a clear conscience, and abound in ministry.

• Keep gathering with other believers – “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25) True fellowship isn’t just being together but working together.

• Make Christ known – there are two thrones in Scripture that are important to understand. People must come to the “throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16) now to avoid standing at the “great white throne” (judgment of unbelievers) later. (Revelation 20:11-15)

• Be excited about the future that God has prepared for us – it can’t be destroyed or defiled. It is kept by God’s power to be revealed later.

How is the study of eschatology helpful?
• It motivates us to proclaim the gospel because the time is short
• It gives us confidence and boldness because we see God’s mighty hand in fulfilled prophecy, both past and present
• It gives content to our message. We can explain all the ways God has fulfilled prophecy down to minute details, and we can point ahead–knowing that He is continuing to fulfil prophecy.
• It opens doors for conversation because people are interested in end times.

Heart of the matter: the gospel needs to be proclaimed, and there is urgency–so let’s not get distracted.

“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…” (2 Peter 3:13-15) [emphasis added]

Family News/Miscellaneous

What A Night!

8 Comments

Two nights ago, we saw many answers to prayer in regard to our church’s Thanksgiving dinner outreach. We had about sixteen International students join us! Students at this table were from Malaysia and Taiwan.

Students at this table came from Germany, France, Spain and Sweden.

After the meal we had special music, singing, a slideshow of pictures and Mr. Woodhouse gave a terrific message about the founding of our nation — with a very clear gospel presentation.

“Most young people in Europe don’t really care about religion,” the European students told me over dinner, explaining how empty the large church buildings are on Sunday mornings. I acknowledged I had heard similar reports.

“I think one reason for that is evolutionary teaching,” I told them, “Because if people believe that they evolved, and science has disproven the Bible, how can they really believe it?”

“I was taught evolution, but I don’t see a contradiction between evolution and the Bible,” one of them said. “I just take the beginning of Genesis metaphorically.”

I explained how many Christians who are also scientists teach how the Bible and science are consistent. I told them how we run a bookstore in town that carries about 350 titles of these kind of books. (Books on creation science in every area of science and on every level, from first grade to PhD.), explaining that “We (Creationists) look at the same evidence as evolutionists do, but come to different conclusions because we start with different presuppositions. For example, we believe Noah’s flood explains a lot of things — like canyons. People who believe the earth is millions of years old believe that canyons formed over long periods of time. But we believe they happened quickly by the huge amount of water during the flood.”

The surprised, skeptical look on his face told me these were sort of new and different ideas to him, yet he seemed intrigued that I held this view.

“So you really take the whole Bible literally?” he asked.

“Yeah!” I said.

“I’ve heard that there were people like you in America but I’ve never met one,” he replied.

[smile]

“So…how old is the earth?” he asked.

I laughed, anticipating his reaction to my answer. “About six thousand years,” I said.

Understandably, this was somewhat surprising for him.

I didn’t really want to talk about origins the whole time, so I stressed the importance of the gospel (the cross and resurrection) but I asked, “How can one believe the end of the Bible if they can’t believe the beginning?”

“Yeah, I’ve wondered that before,” he said, “Like about the contradictions in Scripture.”

I mentioned how it’s true that people claim there are contradictions, but I’ve never been shown a contradiction that was a true contradiction. They always have answers and explanations.

Though it was obvious these comments were all new to him, he was nice and he definitely seemed like a thinker.

Some friends and I met these girls from Vietnam while talking with students on their campus a few weeks ago. I was then able to attend a presentation on Vietnam they taught last week — and then they came to the Thanksgiving dinner.

If you still have room at your Thanksgiving dinner in your home or at your church, consider inviting some international students. They are grateful for the opportunity to learn about American culture while they are here, and Thanksgiving is a perfect open door for this. (Christmas is too!)

We were able to have an e-mail invite sent to all the international students at our local college, and I assume something similar could be done at any college. Even though many of the students had never met us before, they seemed eager to come and expressed how much they enjoyed the evening.

Miscellaneous

Sunday School Adventure

9 Comments

“Do you want to teach the preschool Sunday School class tomorrow?” Stephen asked me.

It was Saturday night after our last Bright Lights conference in Minneapolis. The people who normally teach the preschool class at Straightgate (the church at which we held the conference) were sick and a fill-in was needed.

“Sure,” I said. I was thinking, Preschool class? That shouldn’t be too difficult. I was imagining four or five kids.

I figured that I should get a little more information, so I went to talk with Eric from the church.
“How many kids do you normally have?” I asked.
“About thirty,” he replied. He went on to explain that they were usually very wild.

I had forgotten — This wasn’t a normal church. This church had a huge bus ministry. These were inner-city preschoolers.

“How long does the class last?” I asked. I was thinking maybe 45 minutes, but I learned that they meet from 9:30 all the way to 11:00.

Three other Bright Lights leaders from our team also came to help, and some people from the church were helping as well. Although we were a little apprehensive at first, we had a WONDERFUL time with those kids. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Chelsea with the kids.

Amanda leading songs

We couldn’t get over how cute the kids were.

Snack time!

The kids certainly had no lack of personality! [smile] Actually, these preschoolers are only a fraction of the inner city kids that come to church every week.

There were many classes meeting in different rooms…here was one class meeting downstairs.

Straightgate is an amazing church. They have about 200 bus kids and basically everyone in the church is a Sunday School teacher or is working with the bus ministry in some way! What an example of a body being used and reaching out.

Announcements/Miscellaneous

Why I Haven’t Been Posting!

19 Comments

…I’ve been working on a book on witnessing. It should be done in spring of 2012. It is going to be a compilation of stories and ideas to encourage Bright Lights girls (and our generation in general) to be bold with the gospel.

I’d really appreciate prayer. I really want this to be God’s message, not my own ideas. We also have a lot of decisions to make regarding cover, title, cartoon ideas, what content to “cut”, you get the idea.

Radiant Purity Conferences/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Bright Lights Conferences in Minneapolis

25 Comments

Last week was an exciting week of conferences at Straitgate Church in Minneapolis. We really appreciated being able to use this beautiful facility and enjoyed working with the great people at the church.

But the conference was not without difficulties! Difficulties are good, though. They cause us to pray more, and it builds our faith as we see the Lord work things out for good!

A few days before the conference my dad and brother became aware that the church was located in a dangerous part of Minneapolis. (This picture is of the church’s fenced-in parking lot.) When Stephen looked up the crime record in the area he became quite concerned, and he said that if he had known he’s not sure he would have agreed to do the conference there. Dad and Stephen are very protective, and they didn’t want to be responsible for any problems while 400 moms and daughters came to this area of town.

My dad felt that the principle found in Deut 22:8 applied in this situation, and he wanted to take whatever precautions we could. First, we sent out an e-mail to everyone registered, asking them to park in the lot (not on the street), not leave valuables in car, carpool if possible, and other things like that.

Here we are dividing up phone numbers among the leaders who were helping us set up on Monday. We checked and saw that about 80 attendees hadn’t opened the e-mail about security precautions. So we decided to make contact another way…i.e. lots of phone calls!

We also hired a policeman. He was really nice!

And we were very grateful for the help of a group of young men (especially the Watson brothers) who directed parking, escorted the moms and girls, and patrolled the area. Even though there were some other interesting people around in the neighborhood, the presence of our team of young men, our new officer friend, and of course God’s hand of protection made everything safe even when it was at 9pm when we dismissed.

Dad dismissing the audience and giving directions

It seemed like there were a lot more dads there than usual. We thought this was great, because we LOVE it when dads come. We think it’s beneficial for them to hear what their wives and daughters are learning. My dad also leads the small group time with the men and they seem to always have great discussions.

We had such a great group of attendees.

Our friend Mindy Caron (right) and the group she brought to the Radiant Purity Conference from northern Minnesota. At the Radiant Purity conference she told the encouraging story of how God brought her and her husband Ben together.

Backstage

Josie Morris, Ruth Watson, Mrs. Watson, and Mrs. Kramer in the kitchen. They worked really hard and made it very special…even making homemade applesauce and other homemade snacks.

After each conference we always have a cool down time to share stories over dinner. While I was taking this picture, Laurie (in green) was sharing about one 8-year-old girl in her small group (who was from the neighborhood and part of the church’s bus ministry) who contemplatively asked, “So you are saying that when my brother does something mean I am supposed to do something nice to him in return?” It’s really encouraging to see the lessons “click” with the girls.

Our group of leaders

We had a fantastic place to sleep. Mrs. Issac opened her home to all of us–with lots of loving care besides. Thank you again, Issac family! Here we are on having a special “singing” time together with the Bright Lights group that regularly meets in their home.

There are some *interesting* parts of living with so many other girls in a basement for a week. It’s fun, but you also learn things like:
-how to get completely ready in the morning without even stepping in a bathroom
-how to fall asleep with earphones in and the lights on
-how to turn the water on and off during your shower to reserve water, while also making your shower really fast!
-How to take showers at odd times…like Stephen, who had to take showers at 3:30am! (He and my parents were sleeping on the top level while the rest of us had the basement.)

BUT, these things are all an improvement from icy cold showers (we still love you, our Wisconsin friends, though! 🙂 And we’d still come back if you invited us! haha ) and it’s better than traveling to other houses for showers (although there are some blessings in that too!)

We thought this sign in one of the bathrooms of the Issac’s house (where we stayed) was especially appropriate!

There are many little practical things we learn after living for a good portion of the summer with LOTS of other sisters. We have finally learned a big secret that makes mornings much more pleasant: no one is allowed to set their alarm clock on their cell phone. Instead, someone individually wakes people up at the time they request to be woken up. (They even made me turn off mine which is really cool and sounds like a tropical jungle! 🙁 ) Otherwise, we just have way too many weird sounding noises going off in the morning…(i.e. a rooster, a frog, annoying bells, praise songs, you get the idea.) And SOME PEOPLE (okay, myself included) don’t even wake up to their own alarm clock half the time even though most everybody else does.

Ah…fun memories.

Well, to everyone who prayed for us: THANK YOU. There are so many more stories that I don’t have time or space to record. We are so privileged to serve the King of the Universe who has good plans, good lessons for us to learn, and who provides for us just what we need for what lays in our path.

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” Psalm 145:3-4

Witnessing Stories

Courageous and Wisdom Teeth

14 Comments

Tuesday afternoon our family went to see Courageous. It was fantastic.

As I was buying my ticket, I gave the girl at the booth an “animal card” – one of my new favorite tracts. They have amazing facts about animals with reference to the Creator and a Bible verse on the back. People really like them and they are so easy to give out.

Since no one else was in line at the moment and the movie hadn’t started yet, I decided to go back and talk with her. Our conversation went something like this.

“Hey, since no one is behind me here in line can I has you an interesting question?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said.
“What’s your view on what happens when someone dies…like, do you have any spiritual beliefs about that?”
She wanted to talk about it right away and said, “Well my cousin died 7 years ago so it really made me think about it…” she explained. “He was only 25 and I couldn’t understand why…”
“Ah, like you had a hard time wondering why God allowed it to happen?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“So it was a tragic death?” I asked.
“Well, he had his wisdom teeth pulled and then developed an infection and that led to something else and he died…”
*internal gulp*
“I’m getting my wisdom teeth out on Friday,” I told her.

Maybe that wasn’t the best thing for me to hear at that moment. My little witnessing attempt became sort of…well…haha, I don’t know…it wasn’t exactly going as I expected! I tried to get to the gospel, mentioning how it’s not God’s fault there is evil in the world — it’s ours. And if God got rid of all of the evil in the world that would include us because each one of us has evil (sin) inside us. That’s why we need Jesus.

She agreed but I’m not sure if she understood. She needs to hear more.

Anyway, here I am three days later sitting with ice packs wrapped to my face, grateful that I like smoothies and yogurt!

And I’m also grateful for my friend Karen from church who just brought over 5 little miniture ice cream containers!

I’m thinking I should go back to see Harmony, the girl from the Theater to follow up. And to tell her I’m still alive. 🙂 If you think of it, pray for Harmony.

Miscellaneous/Thoughts

STARTING TODAY…want to join? :-)

29 Comments

Sarah and Stephen are doing a special “project” this fall. Yesterday Sarah sent out an e-mail to the Bright Lights summer traveling team, inviting them to do the same.

Anyone interested in doing a “speed read” through the Bible with me? (I’m thinking of something like 15 chapters a day, starting tomorrow and finishing Dec. 31st.) It’s something I’ve been interested in doing for a while, and now that conference season is over, it seems like a good time! …For me personally, I know that the fall/winter is a season where I can spend extra time in personal study and disciplines…I think my plan is to read 9 chapters in the morning (starting in Genesis), 2 chapters at lunch (Psalms and Proverbs), and 4 chapters before bed (starting in Matthew). But I’m sure each day will vary. 🙂
Love,
Sarah

Although it’s great to slowly digest a chapter or do word studies, there is a special perspective and understanding you receive when you read through the Bible at a faster pace. It causes you to step back and see the whole picture at once. I’m not doing it this time, but I wanted to put the idea out there in case any of you would like to join! If you are doing it too we’d love to hear from you!

Family News/Miscellaneous

Hello Everybody

13 Comments

The problem that arises when neglect my blog for so long is that I create such a “build up” of things to report I don’t know where to start!


First off, I want to say a big thank you to the Bright Lights summer interns: Jolynn, Emily, Anna, and Melodie. They worked so hard, and I don’t know how we could have done it all without them this summer. So many good memories!! The fellowship was very special. We love you guys!


Secondly, thank you to anyone who was praying for our team during the conferences. I had specifically requested prayer before the last conference (pictured above) and the Lord definitely provided and did some very encouraging things! We heard so many stories and good reports. And God gave us the energy and enthusiasm we needed to finish strong.
We have just one set of conferences left for this year. They will be held in Minneapolis on October 4-8. Click here for more information.


Thirdly, I want to thank you all for the encouraging feedback you gave as we were picking a new design for the Bright Lights binder. Wow–we appreciated everyone who commented! We had many discussions around the graphics computer (a frequent occurrence around here!) and we finally finished and ordered the binders. The picture above is Caitlyn, Jolynn and Nickie finishing up the project after Emily left (with Lois watching on the left :)).


On the home front, we are getting a new roof on both houses (our family’s house and the intern/guest house.) Some good friends, the Blooms, are staying with us and Mr. Bloom is helping with the roofing. We are having a little too much fun listening to their funny stories over meals.


AND we removed all the overgrown bushes from the front of the guest house. Actually, we didn’t do it–some other good friends from Nebraska (who hosted my parents during the NE Bright Lights conference this summer) came to visit for a day and asked if there was anything they could do to help. Anyone who knows our family very well knows we usually don’t turn down those kinds of offers. 🙂 Here’s Mr. Rothfuss with the chainsaw.


Thank you, Rothfuss family!


We have also been enjoying having Lois living with us (left) for a while. Her family has been serving with an orphanage and school in Thailand, and we’ve been friends with them for several years. Lois has been WONDERFUL to have around. I took this picture yesterday as we were eating a special Thai lunch that she and Jolynn made for us. Soooo good.


If you are an American and have never eaten homemade coconut cream icecream with peanuts and sweet corn, you are missing out!! (Seriously!)


Here was the little luncheon.

Well, I think that’s enough pictures for now!

One last comment: At the Bright Lights conferences this summer I announced that I would be posting some witnessing questionnaires here on the blog for people to use. I haven’t forgotten, and it will be coming soon! Thank you everyone for your patience.