Month: May 2021

May 25, 2021 Shofar Missions Cebu

Read the latest news update from the mission field in the Philippines.

We continue to be thankful for the little things we used to take for granted. From March 2020 to April 2021, we have been able to attend in-person church services during 5 of those months. It is great to worship together with other believers after several months of hard lockdowns and barangay-enforced Sunday stay-at-home orders. Though one entrance to our road remains closed and checkpoints and curfews remain in place, we are thankful God has allowed us to have occasional visitors, minister in Toledo, and work from the office.

Street Level Ministries

By the time you are reading this, we will have held a coffee giveaway at Knockbucks Cafe in Toledo. The giveaway is one thing we are doing in an attempt to reach students on the west side of the island – especially UV students. Street Level may be small in number, but members have continued to volunteer for Word on the Street Magazine and Street Level Radio. We recently released issue 86 and are continually adding new content to Street Level Radio. Since students are still spread throughout the island, we are planning to continue our weekly SLM meetings online throughout the summer.

Fellowship before our Friday night Bible Discussion… Cebuano “til-as” = English “hairy caterpillar”

Exploring Creation Science

As classes end for many private schools Exploring Creation Science will start summer with a four-week series. “Examine the Evidence of Forensic Science” will explore various topics like fingerprints and DNA. These are also specially designed by God. Graduating students at Southern Bethany Christian School and Visayas Wesleyan Christian School will receive a special letter to grade 12 students. The letter is about Faith & Science. Students will also get a Word on the Street Magazine, and a bookmark with the verse Job 12:10. Since they have a copy of the magazine they also have information about SLM. This will also be shared with a short video on our Facebook page. This month also allowed for a lesson to be taught for the Believers Church Homeschool group.

Prayer Requests

  1. Continued vision and wisdom as a majority of our ministry remains online for the foreseeable future.
  2. True discipleship and a heart to reach other students among the SLM students.
  3. For churches throughout the island to be able to meet safely and be vigilant about safety protocols.
  4. Continued relationships and conversations with the people in our home and office communities that we see every day.
May 19, 2021 River Falls Ministry

Semester Wrap Up and Unleashing Summer

Is May a summer month? This year we can call it a summer month since school ended earlier than usual. Before the semester’s end, we partnered with Menomonie Street Level to host a grill-out bash. Volunteers from Menomonie came over during the day to flyer and poster the UW-River Falls campus. We put up a few tents, some lights, and turned up the music! The event was out front of the coffeehouse, and it felt like a scaled-back version of a backyard party. As the evening progressed, it proved to be a great time of fellowship and interactions with some new faces. We are hopeful that some of these connections can grow as we reach out to people through the summer. 

As we moved into the month of May we transitioned into meeting Monday nights. For the summer we are planning to mix up what we have been doing by spending time outside in fellowship and for studies as much as possible. Also, now that we are meeting on Mondays, we hope to spend more time with Menomonie and Duluth/Superior. This past Monday, we went out to Glen Park for a hike and a picnic. Joining us were some new faces (one might have been a turtle). We have been experiencing an increase in interactions through social media with interest in what we have planned. So, we greatly appreciate your prayer for these interactions and opportunities.

Highlighting Burning Dog Radio

With help from the tech team, Burning Dog Radio has made its way to River Falls by installing the WIFI access point at the coffeehouse. Thank you to the Tech Team! On top of that, we are using the coffeehouse to highlight Burning Dog Radio through a giveaway and raffle offered to those coming into the coffeehouse. The hope is to generate some excitement over the Burning Dog Radio stream.

Bible Study and Fellowship

On Sunday evenings, we are studying the book of Ephesian. If you join us on a Sunday, you’ll find us going verse by verse through a chapter and having a discussion around it. Also, we have seen some new faces from the community on Wednesdays. We are continuing to seek out ways to invite people and generate awareness of our studies. We welcome people from Menomonie to join us for Sunday nights. Just reach out to Jonah to see when you can come.

Further Information

May 16, 2021 Street Level College Ministries

Finishing Up

Street Level just finished the Spring, 2021 semester at UW-Stout. The spring semester was eventful! Besides working through all the logistics and considerations for Covid-safety, we continued to meet new people each week and got to know many of them week-to-week over dinner and the bible discussions. As the school year came to a close, we saw some members graduate and move away, others head out for summer jobs / travels at large, and some move on to other pursuits.

There are also many of us who remain in Menomonie for the summer. Our plans include continued weekly bible studies in the Gospel of John, camping & canoeing trips, bonfires, and other random happenings. For those of college age who are interested in getting involved, we will meet at The Blind Munchies Coffeehouse at 6:30pm on Monday nights.

A Quick Look Back

Our weekly dinners gave us many occasions to get to know each other better. As the weather improved we made our way outside to the patio to enjoy the warm air. Prior to that, all of our activity was indoors in the friend confines of The Blind Munchies. We ate together, read the bible, watched short videos, and had lots of small group discussions about life with God. The current college students also met on campus for prayer and discussion, as they read through Jon Bloom’s book Don’t Follow Your Heart. (*Jon Bloom spoke at the Blind Munchies back in 2018)

Outside of the Monday night routine we had: winter bonfires, sledding, two one-day college summits, more sledding, a Spring Break mission trip to Tennessee, Saturday morning breakfast’s at The Blind Munchies Coffeehouse, bonfires, french fries, etc. We continue to stay connected with the other Street Level campuses at UW River Falls and UW Superior with a variety of video and in person events.

A Quick Thank You

Lastly, Street Level greatly appreciate the prayers, support, and guidance of Believers Church! As a campus ministry, we are incredibly blessed to be directly connected to a church with all the opportunities to pursue God in the fullness of what the bible intends for Christians. We appreciate the support of our pastors and the people who belong to Believers Church.

Please continue to pray for God’s opportunities for us to engage with the UW Stout students.

May 13, 2021 Believers Church Duluth

Hey! We’re still grooving along up here in the Northland! As we wrapped up the school year and the cold months, we continue to move more of our focus into summer endeavors.

Street level Adventures

We continued our weekly bible discussions and our Friday night movies this past month. On occasion, we were also privileged to meet up with the other locations. We had some digital studies/discussions and we all got to caravanned down to river falls for a day retreat. It has been awesome that we were able to get to do all that! The discussions were great with a lot to think about long after it was done. It was just so nice to spend time with those from the other locations.

Wots released another issue that we got to fold and staple together at the garage. Do you know what’s cool?! UWS had just started allowing Student orgs to set up information tables again when we were finishing up this issue! Like WHAT?!! So we were able to give students magazines on campus again!

It’s been a fun last month of the semester for Street level. To finished the year, we had a night of playing a mash-up of some social distancing games (like Pictionary and Charades).

This summer we plan to go on some different adventures together. Next week we plan to walk to a park to play frisbee golf! After an afternoon of adventures, we’ll head on back for a fire and devotional to rap up the night. In addition to once a week meetings, were planning on having a workday once a month to prepare for the fall semester. Movie nights will still continue once a month as well. 

Church Happenings

At church, we finished the Anatomy of a Christian Series and started to go through Romans on Sundays. Depending on the week you’ll find us continuing our rotation through Jeremiah, men’s/women’s studies, and Horizontal Jesus by Tony Evens. In addition to that, we also watched Free Burma Rangers. If you haven’t seen it, highly recommend it! And get this. WE GET TO SING TOGETHER AGAIN!! This month we were able to start to have that be a part of our corporate worship again. It has been such an awesome gift.

 As many of you know we had our international bingo night. The night couldn’t have been complete without some talent acts and some costumes. And you guys joined in! It was fun to see all of your comments and photos! We also started having dinners together again on Wednesdays. I can’t say it enough how nice it has been to have more opportunity to spend time together again!

In terms of outreach, every week we’re going out into the community in hopes to meet people. We’ve been primarily going door to door with information about our church and putting up posters. This past Sunday, we got the opportunity to set up the coffee trailer at the zoo for a mother’s day event. It has been a great way to get out there!

Prayer requests

We’re gearing up quite a bit this summer. As we continue to head into our summer plans of fellowship, outreach, and serving opportunities please pray that we would continue to be what it talks about in John 13:35.

Assembling the latest issue of WOTS.
Street Level at work.
International Bingo & Talent Extravaganza.
May 12, 2021 Pastor Justin Thomson - Duluth

A Sad Story…

Barbara was stunned. The bloated body they pulled out of the river had been violently stabbed to death. There was no mistaking that this was her husband (she knew it by the clothes he wore). Only a short time ago, having devoted themselves to God’s work, she and Roger had left America together to serve the Lord in a strange, new place. But now she was bereaved. Barbara had every reason to feel sorry for herself.

Barbara Youderian was married to one of the five missionaries who were killed by headhunters in 1956; Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian. Without any warning, five young widows were left alone in the jungles of Ecuador to process what had just happened to the men they loved, and their future without them. That included Barbara. She was stunned.  

A Similar Situation…

Self-pity grows best in a climate like that one. When a person who’s committed to doing the Lord’s will receives (what seems to be) unfair treatment in spite of it, self-pity can flourish. When the very things we expect to bring reward, end up feeling like punishment, it’s hard not to sulk. Author Jon Bloom writes, “Self-pity is our sinful, selfish response to something not going the way we think it should”. And since the Christian life and ministry rarely (if ever?) go the way we “think it should”, feeling sorry for yourself can happen fast.

Jesus is branded in Scripture as a “man of sorrows” and by theologians as a “Suffering Servant”. Even though His life was marked from beginning to end with undying love & perfect obedience, much of what He got in return was disapproval, mockery, & abuse. It’s the true servants of God who have more occasion for self-pity than, perhaps, anyone else alive. One of the great victories of the Christian sojourn therefore, is to learn how to properly manage our feelings when God’s plan reveals an unexpected twist. 

“If you suffer for doing what’s right, and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you” (I Peter 2:20).

A Sinful Response…

Problems are never fixed by self-pity, they’re only made worse. Merriam-Webster defines the term as a “self-indulgent dwelling on one’s own sorrows or misfortunes”. It’s like poison to the soul, but we drink it anyway, totally unaware of the suicide we’re attempting. And serving the Lord can make a person thirsty for it, so be careful. The more self-pity you swallow, the more it swallows you. The Prophet Jonah drank his fair share, and barely survived to tell the tale. It wasn’t the fish that nearly killed him, as much as it was his bad attitude.

As risky as it is to be faithful to Jesus in a hostile world, it’s we ourselves that we should be most careful of. It’s quite often a poor outlook that slays a servant of God rather than the danger of the work itself. Much of what we call “burnout” has self-pity as its underlying cause. Dwelling on our own misfortune is exhausting, self-defeating work, and it’s been the ruin of many. Oswald Chambers cautions against too much introspection, because it “awakens self-pity. And self-pity” he says, “is satanic”.

A Special Honor…

Barbara Youderian kept a diary. On the very night that she learned of her husband’s murder, she wrote to explain the peace she felt: “I want to be free of self-pity. It is a tool of Satan to rot away a life…I am sure that this (situation) is the perfect will of God…the Lord has closed (my) heart to grief & hysteria, and filled in with His perfect peace”…

Doing God’s will can seem very unfair at times, and the devil will remind you of it every chance he gets. I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t face this battle every once in a while; I’m sure Barbara did. But she also knew that serving the Lord, no matter how difficult it was, or how high the price, was an honor above all honors. She understood that fact when she went to Ecuador with her husband, and even more so when she came home alone.   

No one is more pitiful than the Christian who pities themselves for having to serve the Lord. Nobody on earth should pity you for having such a high privilege…Nobody.

…Not even yourself.