Life on the Home Front

I have been spending time with my newest grandchild, a granddaughter named Ashley Morgan.  Ashley was born the day before my birthday; I guess she wanted her own special day!  She joins three older siblings, so I have been spending extra time with them, as well.  Jacob is almost 11, Elise is a bouncy 6 year old, and Zach, who is 5, is smart beyond his age.  Trying to find fun things to do inside during this heat has been a challenge.  It's been a challenge to the pocketbook, also.  :)  Proverbs 17:6 says that "Grandchildren are the crown of old women."  That is truly how I feel--how I am blessed!  I now have 7 wonderful grandchildren.

Sandra Hammes

"We Are the Light" - Summer Sizzle 2012

This past week the three CFCI Summer Interns went to Storm Lake, Iowa, one of CFCI’s bases.  Storm Lake is a town of close to 11,000 people with 30 different languages spoken!

The interns went to Storm Lake to help out with a week long summer camp called Summer Sizzle. Summer Sizzle is a Christian day camp for girls entering 5th through 8th grades. During the week the girls were able to learn about God and themselves while participating in numerous activities such as Zumba, painting pottery, baking brownies in a mug, making a glow bracelet and small group time.

Below are some of our favorite memories from the week.

One of my favorite parts of Summer Sizzle was praise and worship, which occurred in the morning when the campers arrived and in the afternoon right before the campers left for the day. It was an awesome experience witnessing 90+ girls worshiping our Lord through song and dance.

--Rachel Beach

As the campers worked their way through The Beatititudes (Matthew 5:3-10) during their time at Summer Sizzle, it was Day 2 that had a personal impact on me.  At our debriefing on Monday night the camp directors asked for a group to make the actions and skit for the next day’s verse.  Without consulting the team I raised my hand and took on the responsibility, dragging the entire Yellow Team with me on this venture.  Jerica, Rachel, and Naomi accepted the choice I had made for all of us soon enough and we started our planning.

Our skit depicted Jerica, a young girl who constantly compared herself to those around her (Emily and Naomi).  Jerica would hold up signs saying, “I’m not as… as her.”  The blank was filled with popular, athletic, smart, and talented, but we all know that the enemy runs with our imagination when it comes to comparisons and there are a million other ways to fill in that blank.  As she lifted them, Jerica would hold them high above her head as Jesus (Rachel) ripped the signs in half and at the end had a sign on His own.  

Dear child of God,

I love you just as you are.

Love, Jesus

Matthew 5:5 (The Message) “You’re blessed when you are content with just who you are-- no more, no less.  That’s the moment you find yourself proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.”

What a powerful verse for young women to hear as they endure their middle school years.  What a powerful verse for me to hear as a single, 22 year-old, recent college graduate. What a powerful experience to be able to portray this verse, teach it to the young women of Storm Lake, and reflect on whether I am living and feeling content in just who I am— no more, no less.

--Emily Koopmann

Last week, the other two interns and myself were given the opportunity to accompany our sister CFCI base in Storm Lake, IA during their Summer Sizzle camp for girls.  

Upon arrival, we were under the impression that we were going to be just observing the camp activities, taking some videos, getting interviews and generally filling in gaps wherever help was needed.  What was so cool for me, on a personal level, was that God clearly had bigger plans than that.  

On the first day, we were told that they were short on camp counselors;  Emily and I were able to step up and step into a more personal, interactive role as counselors for a group of eight young fifth grade girls.  I had no idea at that point that these girls would impact me the way that they did in just five short days.  

Each girl was so very different from the other, yet so vibrant in their own way.  We found, as group counselors, that it was definitely a challenge to connect Spiritually, at least on a deeper level, with a group of 10 year-old girls.  But, as I reflect back, I realize that God had put the other counselors and myself in their life for a simpler reason: to let the love of Christ pour out of us into them.    

What started as a quiet and somewhat awkward group on the first day quickly transformed into a group full of laughter and spunk.  Each day, I could noticeably see the layers of discomfort and shyness fade away from each of these girls, and that is when the animation, story-telling and just life in general started to pour out of them.  It was, understatedly, an awesome transformation to witness and be a part of.

What’s funny is my title was “counselor,” yet I found myself in the company of eight young teachers so many times throughout the week.  These girls taught me a lot about myself and were perfect little guides on where I am on my walk with Christ.

God is doing so many amazing things in Storm Lake, through CFCI and The Bridge, and I feel so grateful to be involved in such a life-changing organization.    

--Jerica Kuncl

Marcia in El Salvador

Ellen 

Marcia and Ellen in the Finance department wanted to blog today, but they're really busy. So...I said I would do it for them. Little do they know that I am blogging about them!

Do you know that Marcia (our Finance manager) is a pastor's wife? Yep - Twin Cities Christian Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Her husband, Pastor Mike, is an awesome preacher. I went to a funeral he officiated and his message was amazing...I mean amazing.

Anyway, Marcia is also CFCI's official soup maker. Whenever we have potluck day, we can count on a delicious soup from her. She also sews (made the dresses for her daughter's wedding), bakes cakes, and crafts our Christmas gifts each year.

Call her sometime - 402 592 8332 - and tell her what a great job she is doing!

As for Ellen - our Finance assistant - she is a vibrant young woman with lots of energy. I think her faith comes into the room before she does! She is also the finance person for her church - Calvary Chapel in Omaha. She leads Bible studies and small groups. Ellen played soccer in college so beware of her kick!

In addition to her energy, she has brought us a lot of technical knowledge. She caught right on to our new financial software system and has been instrumental in getting us to online receipting. She also keeps us laughing. Call Ellen sometime (same number as above) and make HER laugh!

My office is next to the Finance office so I hear everything...which isn't much, let me tell you. They are very quiet - nose-to-the-grindstone workers. And they are always very busy. We appreciate them very much.

We love you, Marcia and Ellen!!!!

Everlasting Liberty

"Christ accepted you, so you should accept each other, 

which will bring glory to God." - Romans 15:7 (NCV)

Jesus read, "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." - Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV)

Jesus was back in his hometown of Nazareth, after recently being baptized by John the Baptist.  It was Saturday, the Sabbath, so Jesus went to the synagogue, as was the Jewish custom.  There men read from the Scriptures and commented on what they'd read.  Jesus was handed the scroll of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, and he chose to read the words from Isaiah 61:1 to the crowd.  Afterward he said, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  Thus was the beginning of Jesus' public outreach to the people of Israel and to the world.

About seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah recorded the future Messiah's purpose statement. Messiah means "Anointed One," or someone God has set apart for a very special purpose.  Jesus' special purpose was to extend God's freedom to those who were in captivity.  In Isaiah's time, the prophet's words comforted those who had experience literal captivity.  They had been exiled for their home and force to live under the harsh rule of the Babylonians.

In Jesus' time, Jesus did set some people free from the bondage of physical and mental ailments.  However, the liberty Jesus was destined to deliver goes much deeper than that.  He fulfilled Isaiah's words by providing freedom from spiritual blindness and the power of sin and death.  The freedom Jesus offers is permanent.  Once he breaks the invisible chains that are holding you back, you have the freedom to become who God created you to be.

Think back over your life, calling to mind what spiritual, physical, or emotional chains God has freed you from.  Thank him for the liberty he's given you in each of those areas.

____________________

* This excerpt was taken from "100 Favorite Bible verses," published by W. Publishing Group (a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Getting Out and Living the Gospel...

Isaiah 25:3-5

"Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you.  

You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a 

shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat."

When I first heard from the forty something year old School Psychologist from Indiana who had a wife and four young children in the home I must admit I had my doubts about his eventual placement on the mission field. After all why would he want to use up his summer vacation serving out in the hot hazy humid faraway land of El Salvador? Psychologist John Pence indicated on his application that he desired to:

 "get out and live the gospel by meeting physical as well as spiritual needs of those less fortunate than myself".  

Well, I thought, we DO offer opportunities such as he described with each and every one of our CFCI mission bases.  But to leave his wife and children back home while he went to serve other children and families in a foreign land?  It kinda didn't make sense to me.  But then as I communicated with John's wife Renee I heard her speak of her strong support of his going.  Renee stated time and time again how excited she was for her husband to experience the blessing of "giving of himself" to the glory of God in this way.  Ok.  On we proceeded with John's application.  John requested to serve for five weeks in our El Salvador base.  He indicated that though he would be willing to serve "where ever needed" he would most like to help with home construction if at all possible.

John was placed with our mission base in El Salvador where he is currently sliding into the homestretch of his summer mission service.  I had the inclination to check up on John and his wife Renee only to experience one of the greatest blessings I could have received.  Renee replied back to me with attached letters John had been writing to all of his financial supporters back home.  Renee described that though John is a man of few words he had been able to articulate in such an effective manner as to have brought many of his backers to tears. I read several of John's "updates" and succumbed to the same tearful conclusions.  God isn't looking for servants with ideal "season's of life" or a perfected "set of skills".  He's just looking for a willing heart that says, "Lord, hear am I...send me."  John just plainly wrote me and said, "Here am I...can you send me?"

Here is an excerpt from one of John's "updates":

     "I observed an English class sponsored by Christ for the Cities in the morning and a soccer clinic in the afternoon.  I began my own Mission work promptly the next day.  I've spent the week helping to build a home for a local family.  I've been working with a crew of five men from the church.  Despite them knowing almost no English and my knowing almost no Spanish, we have managed to erupt in gut-busting laughter at least on an hourly basis.  I've discovered a common bond between men on a construction site that seems to transcend both space and culture.  Their work ethic and ingenuity amazes me.  There's none of the time-saving tools that I'm accustomed to working with...just yesterday we were trying to level something and used a tube filled with water to do the job.  We don't even have a wheelbarrow, when pouring concrete for the floor yesterday, we mixed it all by hand and shoveled it on the road and carted it into the building with 10 gallon buckets.  We are working in a shanty town called  Soyapango.  Coming from a land of plenty like the U.S. it would be hard to truly comprehend the suffering and need that exists in places like these all over the world if one didn't actually live it or experience it first-hand.  

To be part of an effort to help just one family have a little bit of security and comfort is a heart warming experience that I think everyone should have.  I would like to thank you all from the very bottom of my soul for providing me the opportunity to actually live the Gospel."

 "get out and live the gospel by meeting physical as well as spiritual needs of those less fortunate than myself".   Mission accomplished John Pence.  Thank you for offering your time, talent and treasure so that one family may experience the loving outstretched arms of Jesus in a real and tangible way.

John shared in other pages how he was able to help in clothing those who have no clothes by participating in a t-shirt giveaway to any man that did not own a shirt.  He also shared how he had served food to some of the hungry children in the village.  What an honor and a privilege it is to know that back here in my little office sending and receiving emails all day that I too participate in "living the gospel" as we join forces to meet needs of the poor and hungry.  Here is a photo of John (on the left) along with several of our other short-term missionaries serving in with the El Salvador base missionaries.  Thank you John for all you have given.

Penny Slosson

Short-term Individual Missions Coordinator