PCC Makes a Real Impact

It was truly an unbelievable day. Last Sunday, about 300 people from our church descended on Moyer and Avatar Roads to help 10 families make important repairs to their homes. Some of this work was asthetic - yard clean up, mowing grass, mulching beds. Other work was to remove threats - trees and limbs hanging over houses were removed and the debris was chipped up and hauled away. Other repairs were critical. Houses got new roofs, siding repair, painting, water heaters, etc.

Some of the work was dangerous. It was hot. Some of the work was really hard. But hundreds of people - old and young, kids and adults, skilled and unskilled - showed up to help. And what a difference they made!

Here's what one family wrote to me in an email:

"We are sending this email to say thank you to your
PCC Impact team members who came to our house on June 22 to help us with some
much-needed exterior work. They came and painted the house (it looks absolutely
amazing) and did quite a bit of yard work (mowing the grass, weed-whacking). Our
house and yard have never looked better!

"We were a bit unsure of what to expect when the Port-a-Potty arrived in the driveway, but when the 20+ people
descended on us, it felt like the well-organized army of the Holy Spirit was here. The Holy Spirit was truly at work, as evidenced by the friendly smiles (they were very patient with our children)and solid work ethic. We just tried to stay out of the way!

"This experience has truly helped us climb over a large obstacle to be able to see what needs to be done with our property. We really want to thank everyone for their time, energy, and the sharing of their abilities
and gifts to help us.

May God Bless All of You!"

I want you to know how proud I am of our church for the sacrifice it took to make this happen. Especially Andy and Jackie Heberle and their PCC Impact Leadership Team - Way to Go! Well done. God was honored, people were helped, and our church showed once again that we really do care. Your leadership is an important part of what is happening at our church.

Cherokee Mission Trip

"I'd take these kids anywhere. They have been amazing!"

So says Jackie Heberle; she called in tonight with an update on the first days' activities. Our PCC kids are working on various crews on the reservation, with several assigned to either tearing off or putting on roofs. Their pre-project work on Moyer Road came in handy! God is doing amazing things - and it's only Monday! All of the kids have been challenged in various ways, particularly with the first night's teaching, exhorting them to 'leap into a lifestyle that honors God'.

Here's a few brief snapshots:

• One young man shared tonight that he never sings in worship at church. But last night, for the first time, he sang for God in worship, and he was moved to tears. Tonight he helped take the offering forward, and felt compelled to kneel at the altar and continue to sing and praise God. He is amazed and thankful.
• Another young man is opening up and asking hard, honest questions about God - truly seeking, for the first time.
• A young girl conquered her fear of heights and spent eight hours on a roof today. She is praising God for overcoming this fear!
• Another girl who is struggling through a difficult challenge shared that God spoke to her in worship to say, "You are not alone in this. I know your future. Trust me."

The PCC kids have been the last to leave their devotional time; they have opened up and shared honestly with God and with one another. One commented, "I've never felt more loved."

They received several E-couragrams that PCC folks have sent and are VERY grateful - and they FEEL our prayers! Please continue to lift up these kids and adults and pray for them - and send them another message. Jackie says that by Wednesday they will begin to feel fatigued, so it's important that we continue to lift them up. Thank you for being the kind of church that truly prays and cares for its youth!

To continue to stay updated on this mission trip, please visit the PCC World Changers blog! Click here.

Beth (for Jackie)

Prayer Request For World Changers Team

Monday 6-16

Pray for students and adults to be willing servants as they begin the workweek. Pray that they will work hard on their construction site. Pray for safety as they work. Pray that they will establish a good relationship with the homeowner of their site.

Mission Team In Action

Here's our World Changers Team, currently serving in Cherokee. The pictures below are from their work day last week on Moyer Road. Please pray for them as they work hard and represent our church and Jesus to the people of Cherokee!

Youth Mission Trip Info

A large group of teens, college kids and adult sponsors are in Cherokee, North Carolina, doing mission work this week. We can send them 'e-couragrams' via email that they will read throughout the week.

It would be a great blessing if you could send notes to our team letting them know that you love them AND that you're praying for them. Click the link below and find the contact info for our group. They will post pictures daily and blog posts as well. If you follow the envelope with the 'e-couragram' text you can send something to our team.

Please take the time to encourage those who are serving!

Click here.

Reclaiming Rest

Sabbath is a funny word and has never much been a part of my vocabulary. I have talked about ‘vacation’ or ‘my day off’ or ‘taking a break’. We just don’t talk about Sabbath.

But God’s idea for human kind was not simply a vacation – which we take once or twice per year. If our only time of rest is vacation, then we won’t live very long. And I know many people who only physically go on vacation. Their body is there – at the beach, on the lake, in the resort – but their mind is still at the office, with the customers, or at the factory. They take their laptops, answer their cell phones, reply to their emails. If you vacation like this, you are not really taking a break. When I go on vacation, I don’t take my laptop. I change the message on my cell phone and set up an auto reply on my email, so that everyone who tries to contact me knows that I won’t get back to them for a few days. I don’t take with me any books about church, leadership or anything work related. Instead, I buy two fiction books (like John Grisham), my Bible and my journal. And I relax. Vacations are important, but they are not the same as the Sabbath.

God’s idea for human kind was not simply a ‘day off’ either. When I talk about my ‘day off’, what I really mean is that I’m not doing church work today, but I am doing other kinds of work – housework, changing the oil in my cars, weeding my beds. Maintaining your stuff is important, but simply substituting one kind of work for another is not the same as the Sabbath.

So, on my study break this year, one of the books I’m reading talks about the matter of Sabbath. I need such instruction because, frankly, I don’t really know how to rest. Let me quote something revolutionary (for me) that this author says.

“God created man and woman on the sixth day, setting them in a garden full of wild, wonderful creatures and delicious foods. He gave them instructions…He told them to be fruitful. But on the first full day of existence for Adam and Eve, God rested. All of creation took a well deserved break in activity. This was our first full day, a day of rest. Then the work began. From this we see an important principle of life: we are to work from our rest, not rest from our work.” (The Passionate Church, by Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad, p. 67.)

This is revolutionary for me. I had never seen this teaching anywhere before. I always thought that rest was given to recuperate from work. But, in fact, I am coming to see that rest is the beginning of productivity, not the consequence of it. I have to shift my paradigm and use rest as a way of reconnecting with God - receiving the rest as a gift from God - instead of viewing rest like a runner who falls to the ground after crossing the finish line. That’s what we normally do – we work ourselves to death, and crash when we just can’t go another step. Then, with no real spiritual rehabilitation at all, we get up and run as fast as we can again.

What if we began to see Sabbath as a way of communing with God? What if we began to use this day faithfully, every week, as a time of mental, emotional, and spiritual rehabilitation and preparation? What if we began to see our spiritual growth on these days not as a waste of time – a distraction – but the actual purpose…the point…the goal? Would we be more healthy? You bet we would. And I bet our lives would improve dramatically in many areas.

So, I’m going to really try to develop and practice the Sabbath this summer and hope that it grows into a habit that will last. And as I learn how to rest, I'll share more about that with you. But I hope that you will share what you know about Sabbath with the rest of us, too.

See you Sunday,

Brian

Do You Know These People?

The Arts Conference has been incredible - meaningful, powerful, educational, spiritual, emotional, worshipful, convicting, exhilirating, exciting.

Oh, and fun.

Lots of fun.