Greetings from Northern California!
August 7, 2018
Thank you for your prayers during this fire season! Some of you have called out of concern – we are fine! The fire is about 16 miles from us “as the crow flies”. The major issue is the thick smoke captures in this box canyon and it will take some strong winds to blow it out. Rain, of course, would bring mud slides if it comes to quickly. Some of our community and surrounding Redding/Anderson/Cottonwood have left due to the smoke – extremely dangerous especially for those with breathing issues. Below, at the end, are a couple of links that you can see some of the devastation. A friend who works for Redding sent me these. Copy and paste them in your browser if they do not open when clicked on. They are 360 degree aerial views. There are currently 3 Village Mission churches on evacuation (French Gulch Community Church, Ono-Igo Community Church, Stonyford Community Church – from the Mendocino Complex Fire NW of Sacramento) and 1 on alert to evacuate (Elk Creek Comm. Ch. – also from Mendocino Complex Fire). At the risk of you saying, “Hey! What about you!?!!” I’d like to share a couple of stories of our evacuated VM pastors: Jake & Kathryn are at French Gulch. Kathryn is in southern CA with family and their kids – shelters are not a great place for family. Jake, who stayed with the evacuees in Weaverville (has been there 10 days) has shared that he has had conversations with many French Gulch residents who would never talk with him before. The day after evacuation, Jake gave a devotional and almost all attended. He never presents himself as a “pastor” when meeting people due to the barriers it too often presents, but in this situation, he openly shared. He has had many conversations with people who would never have come to the church or him previously. He is exhausted but remaining faithful. Please pray for strength, rest and wisdom for him. The community of evacuees is being galvanized together. Ed & Clara are at Ono-Igo. They have changed evac-centers 3 or 4 times and are presently in Chico (45 min. south of Cottonwood) at a hotel. They got into the elevator on evening and a firefighter entered also. Ed thanked the firefighter for saving their home and church. The young man responded, “It probably wasn’t me, there are so many of us.” As they talked, Ed shared that they were from Igo – the firefighter said, “I was in Igo last night!” Ed said, “Do you know where the church is?” He replied, “Yes! I stayed and protected the church and the house next door.” Ed said, “That’s our house!” they continued to talk for a bit before the firefighter had to go get some sleep. Only God could arrange an divine appointment like that. Very few, if any, firefighters know whose home they save; very few homeowners meet the one(s) who save their home – a double blessing! So far, none of the churches have been damaged by the fire. We continue to lift them up in prayer. Well, we don’t have a great fire story but we feel very blessed that our community, thus far, has not had to deal with a fire. There is only one 5-mile long road in and other than the river or an airplane, it’s the only road out. That is an issue of constant address by Lake California and the county. Ministry here is going well. We just completed a 12-week series titled “Reflecting Upon My Reflection” looking at how one measures their walk with God in honesty and sincerity of Truth. The series audio is posted on church webpage (www.lakecachurch.com). It began March 14th, was interrupted by Easter and a Family Series (Mother’s Day to Father’s Day) and finished Aug. 5th. I used some PowerPoint at times which are not visible but are talked through. As mentioned in our last update, we have received an intern couple – they are doing very well and gaining experience in ministry. Pastor Lucas will be in the pulpit the next 3 weeks as we take a little vacation. He will be preaching on Philemon and I think it will be an excellent series. This is the first year in 35 years that we had to cancel WaterSki Camp. Because our facility for the camp is small, we cannot do a lot of outreach at this point. Most of our students could not attend for various reasons, so, Michele, our Youth Director, cancelled camp and replaced it with “4-40”, 4 activities for $40. It was a great time and very profitable for building relationships. We typically had 10 students with a low attendance of 4 and a high of 15 students. [And, YES! One day was waterskiing and water sports.] We ski mostly at Wiskeytown Lake which was encircled by the fire – have not seen any pictures of the lake, shore or hills yet.
Michele has gathered a Women’s Ministry Team which is beginning to percolate this year. The sign up for the Fall studies is at 50 women in 4 studies – WOW! God is doing a great thing in the women! (I heard you, yes, the men are doing a study also! Just wait . . . ) There is a lot of momentum right now. Especially as we are entering the home stretch of our Chronological Bible Read-Thru, God is showing up all around us! Last Spring, the men completed a study of Daniel using the book “Strong Men In Tough Times” by Edwin Cole and were greatly impacted. I have wives (and I did not lead the study) come and tell me how much their husbands were impacted. Even men came and shared with me. This Fall, they are going to study about King David and I think using the book “David’s Heart – Devoted and Distracted” by Stuart Briscoe (renamed from “A Heart for God”). Both books drive you back into the Bible as the characters are developed. The lighting is horrible, but our “Future Home of . . .” sign is now on our property. You should be able to copy and paste it to get a better look. It is 4ft X 8ft. and painted by a member of our church who worked on the original Star Wars movies. The dream, 20+ years old, is becoming more tangible. Next week, the County Planning Board is holding a rezoning hearing to rezone the NR (Natural Resource) land to R4 which allows us to do anything on it regarding a church. Exciting times!
So, how are we doing? We are doing well – pretty tired at this point but doing well. God is faithful! We have had now 10 or 11 people pass away in the church and/or the community since October! A couple have been very dear to us and therefore, a bit more difficult. Health wise, we are doing well – no drugs other than allergy medicine and supplements. We’ve also lost some key people who had to move to be closer to children as their health declined – this has caused us to be busier than usual. GET SOME REST! – Yes, we are leaving for 11 days of vacation on the Oregon & Washington coast – Michele needs her beach-fix and I (and she) need our seafood-fix. Cooler weather will be delightful! VBS was great. We averaged 80 kids for 5-days. Our own people wrote the curriculum “Digging for Diamonds” and wrapped all the activities around the theme. 42 staff were involved! We saw several 1st time conversions and are following up on them through the Children’s Ministry. But really we are doing well. Enjoying our Lord’s presence and ministry. It is very good to have an associate pastor (intern) that an carry things while we are gone. You can be praying for good rest! Thank you for your partnership. We continue to pray for you all. As you have prayer requests, feel free to send them to us at
[email protected] or
[email protected] – Blessings! Loving You!
Jim & Michele Prayer Requests: 1) Wisdom and the Lord’s leading in property issues “with Open Hands”; 2) Being able to pass off the property responsibilities post rezoning; 3) Transitions in ministry as we spiritually build into people in preparation for a future ministry and facility; 4) Personal balance and freshness in our lives; 5) Creativity and faithfulness as this body impacts our communities. 6) More opportunity to stay connected with our families. 360 aerial links: http://redding.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2b5e92ade03a40cb8e1b3f1027245c0f http://redding.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=94b379a91e0f47cb91712da22f603d39
