April Update

Thanks for your faithful encouragement and support of our ministry. We truly are blessed in the midst of our challenges.
In the past six weeks, I have experienced:
A shooting at the high school I volunteer in regularly
A great college tour with students to Chicago (where our bus broke down 3 times and we were stranded for a while)
Officiating a funeral for a 27 year old man
A suicidal student
A young woman from our club expelled from school for defending herself when another girl jumped her
And many more smaller daily battles.

In the midst of the challenges, there is grace. God’s grace is sufficient for even the most challenging of situations.

2Cor. 4:7   But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

God’s power can be displayed through our frail and cracked lives. Even in the midst of the pain and confusion that surrounds us and sometimes fills us. I am reminded in this season of lent of the writer of Lamentations who is able to recognize God’s compassion and loving kindness in the midst of his afflictions.

Lam. 3:18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.” 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

I covet your prayers for us as we seek to share this Gospel of grace which is made possible by a wooden cross and an empty tomb.

Please pray:
For the joy of the Lord to be our strength.
For healing for broken relationships in our community.
For the good news of Jesus death and resurrection to be proclaimed in our youth and adult programs.


Grace and Peace,

p.s. Thanks to a generous friend, we will be enjoying the Final Four here in Detroit this weekend. Go Tar Heels!