Make me a blessing,
Make me a blessing,
Out of my life
out of my life
May Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, O savior, I pray,
I pray Thee, my Savior,
Make me a blessing to someone today.

Out in the highways and byways of life,
many are weary and sad;
are weary and sad
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife
making the sorrowing glad.

Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love;
Tell of His pow’r to forgive;
His pow’r to forgive.
Others will trust Him if only you prove
true ev’ry moment you live.

Give as ’twas given to you in your need;
Love as the Master loved you;
Be to the helpless a helper indeed;
Unto your mission be true.

 
Earlier this month the Lord gave us an opportunity to go and serve one who has blessed our family in so many ways throughout the years.   

Uncle Bill had over 20,000 Shepherded Guides (a Christian phone/contact book) to mail and deliver. He had only two days to complete this task due to having surgery later on that week. When it was brought to our attention regarding this need, with joy, we piled in the car and headed to Maryland to help.

With many hands, a ton of enthusiasm, and joy, the job was completed in record time. The Lord truly oversaw the work of our hands. We were able to deliver and mail all the guides in two days!

Praise the Lord for opportunities to be a blessing!

_______________________________________________

May the love of Christ continue to abound richly in us all towards our fellow man. May His love empower us to go out and do His work.

A couple more pictures from our time together.

The service was initiated with the color guard and harp music playing in the background. Next, a series of introductory remarks were given, including gratefulness to our civil leaders (many of whom were present), a reading of the VA Governor’s Thanksgiving proclamation, and most importantly, praise and adulations to the Giver of all things, our God and Creator.

Then Rev. Black came forward and preached a sound, biblically based, and practical message on the importance of Thanksgiving. During his message, he alluded to experiences from his life relating to Thanksgiving. He shared how rough his beginning was of living in the hood of Washington DC and growing up in a single parent home. He also spoke of his mother instructing him in the scriptures and challenging him to memorize scripture. One day his mother brought him a recording of a Sermon preached by former Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall. Young eight year old Black listened to this message. Liking it so much, he listened to it again, again, and again. Then finally, he had memorized the sermon word for word. This young boy was inspired by this message not knowing in the least how God would place him in the exact same position as the Reverend who gave the message. These stories he shared with a true sense of gratefulness in how God had worked in his life. Another aspect of his message, which inspired the whole Wilkes team, was his Scripture memory. Verse after verse flowed from the man’s lips, verses that had been internalized and applied.

We are so thankful to have had the opportunity of attending this Thanksgiving service. It is an event we will remember for many years to come. We also are abundantly grateful for both church and civil leaders of the City of Culpeper who put this event  together, and their understanding of what Thanksgiving is truly all about.

In today’s American culture, entrepreneurship is slowly becoming a lost art. The modern education system doesn’t teach it. The corporate world purposes to have it extinguished. Even the federal and state governments often wield their regulatory power against it. Nevertheless, though it is attacked from many different fronts, Mr. Stelzl  passionately proclaimed that entrepreneurship is still alive and well in the United States. The potential opportunities are just waiting to be harnessed. So often, the only factor missing is the entrepreneur!

A primary focus of the conference was the Christian family.  Mr. Stelzl shared that Christ-centered families are so necessary.  They are the ones willing to bank upon the providence of God and use the gifts God has given them to meet needs through business. The family also is a prime environment for, handling failures, practicing innovation, and building businesses on the unchanging principles of God’s word.

    Exhorting – Encouraging – Brainstorming – Fellowshipping occurred all weekend!

Meal times!

  I don’t believe one attendee went away from the conference with out hope and vision for what the future could hold. Ideas were bouncing around the room, which led to thought provoking questions, and ended with good solid answers. It was a glorious time to consider how God would have us handle that wonderful and necessary activity called working for profit.

If you’re interested in gathering  further information about these Raising Entrepreneurs Workshops please visit the Stelzl family blog, Mr. David Stelzl’s blog, and also www.RaisingEntrepreneurs.net.

The faithfulness of God isn’t dependent on man’s decisions, nor is it manipulated by temporal experience and physical events. The faithfulness of God is built on the unchanging promises of God’s word. A wonderful testimony of this truth recently came about in the form of the West Virginia Family Encouragement Weekend. Being the first of it’s kind in the wild wonderful state of West Virginia we we’re filled with excitement to see how God would work. From going through the weekend, we found God’s faithfulness glimmer through conversations, messages, and songs so frequently and so poignantly.  Now that the conference is over the memories cause us to rejoice again and again at what God accomplished. He accomplished His will, He performed His master plan, and we stand in awe. Thank you Heavenly Father for your faithfulness to us. We truly don’t deserve it but may we always be grateful.

The rich man cried, ” Father Abraham, have mercy on me , and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

Abraham said, “Son,…between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” ~ (Luke 16:19-31)

In eternity there is a great gulf fixed between the children of light and the children of darkness! For those in darkness there is no getting back to the light. Decisions made on earth affect our eternal destiny!

On earth there is no gulf between us and the lost! They are all around us! As ambassadors of Jesus Christ we have been charged with the responsibility to tell them about the marvelous grace that can reconcile them to God through Jesus Christ. Yet too often we do not.

Have we created a gulf on earth between them and us?  Fear of the unknown, lack of faith, an unwillingness to be vulnerable and to risk potentially failing in our presentation, and the list could go on.

All of the above are lies from the enemy! Satan’s goal is to get us focused on ourselves. If successful we become ensnared in a pattern of thinking that breeds fear.

Following Christ calls for us to lay down our life and to deny ourselves. Faith calls for a response! If you have given your life to Christ then by faith you can step forward knowing that Christ will never give you more than you can handle.

~ Last week we as a family joined two other families down on the front steps of the Lincoln Memorial. We gathered with one purpose and desire in mind – to be used by God to touch another life for Christ!

The Beall family with ‘Great Commission Families’ spear-headed this event. They printed over 600 tracks to hand out that day! These tracks shared the story behind the Cherry blossoms of D.C.

Since the cherry trees were in full bloom it was a wonderful way to place in the hands of many the history of the 3,000 cherry trees given to the United States by Japan as a symbol of friendship and reconciliation between our two nations. The track didn’t stop there though! It then lead beautifully into explaining the great price Jesus Christ paid so we might be reconciled to God!

We didn’t know what the afternoon would hold. By faith we stepped out and followed the leading of the Lord. God took each one of us where we were at and encouraged us on to new levels of boldness and delight in seeking the lost.

After spreading the word of God to more than 600 people we gathered around the Washington monument to pray for those who were given the truth.

Thank you Beall family for creating a atmosphere of learning, discipleship, and practical experience in fulfilling the great commission!

Not long ago our church had the opportunity to bless two families from our fellowship; the Butlers and Potters with various projects around their homes. Digging a trench from the house to supply water and electricity to a barn,  building a patio and walk way, painting, planting, re-grading, etc!

The Joyful spirits everyone had were contagious! Each person desired to help and serve in any way possible. It was a joyous sight to behold.

Each person, with their own special gifting and in working together as a team, accomplished much in only a little bit of time.

It was a blessing to see the discipleship, the determination, and the joy and fellowship which surrounded those days.

But most importantly it was a time for being together, encouraging one another in the ways of the Lord, singing, and giving God glory through everything we were doing.

John 13:34″ “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

One of the purposes behind the Family Encouragement Weekend is to encourage families to work together, impact their local communities for Christ, and to leave a Godly legacy for the generations to come. Each FEW Conference contains rich seasons of prayer, exhortation, and fellowship with families whose desire is to live according to the Word of God.

What a blessed weekend this was! We walked away from this conference so encouraged, inspired, uplifted, and ready to continue on in the small corner of the world that God has placed us!

There are several other meaningful reports on this past weekend:

- From the Neely Team – From the Girotti Family

- From the Hynes Family

We also look forward to having a copy of the messages uploaded to: www.FEWconference.com. This will be provided shortly.

Nevertheless, amidst the great atrocities of evil and the oppressive power of darkness, there are signs of reformation within our land.

During the month of June, our family had the joy of attending a day conference hosted by the Scott Brown of the NCFIC.

He came bearing a message of hope and a challenge to the Biblical family. It is time for families to live Biblically. As Thomas Manton once put it, ‘family is the seminary of church and state.’ Lawful worldly amusements must be exchanged for intense family worship. Our time is an indicator of where our priorities lie. Lukewarm Christian families are unsavory to our Lord. But amidst these challenging words, the hope comes from focusing not upon our failure but upon repentance and following our Savior. The steps will be little at first but through perseverance it shall yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Pastor Brown exhorts that, “When the focus of our churches or our families is anything other than the glory of God we should expect them to be cursed rather than blessed.

If we change the focus of our families for our own sakes and because we want a better family, we have missed the mark…….

….Has God changed your heart so that it desires to glorify God? Do you believe He is your only hope? Is it He the one you truly admire? This is the heart of all true reformation.”

Pastor Brown and his team have purposed to travel across and around our nation to exhort, challenge, and edify the local body of believers. Our family left the day conference encouraged and with an even greater desire to reform through conforming our lives unto the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Right now, at 8:21 PM, Mon. evening, I’m hearing my wonderful sister Sarah playing the piano, just like the table saw it is a noise. Gratefully the comparison ends there because this noise is harmonious.

In Psalms 100, the psalmist talks about the important subject of noise. He declares: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands…” (Psalms 100:1) This is not a suggestion but rather a specific command. The command is for the land, which includes all that lives on the land, to make a noise unto the Lord. Of course this is also the human race and even those who are the chosen of God.

Making a joyful noise is actually what part of our church family participated in last Sunday evening. Though there was snow 21in. deep covering the landscape and temperatures  below 35 degrees, we went Christmas caroling. In years past when we have caroled, our caroling, though joyful, might easily compare to a table saw’s roar. Of course not as harsh, nor even as dissonant, but definitely missing some needed harmony. This  year the noise actually carried more harmonious congruence – actually comparable to a piano. The result was an increase of joyfulness in all participants both listeners and singers.

It was so much a privilege to reach out to our neighbors in  this way. Through the noise, the joy emanating, and the harmony balancing, I believe we were able to be a blessing: showing we had prepared and cared. We also were able, through the message of the songs, to manifest the true reason for Christmas. It is not about saints, fictional characters, trees, presents, but it is all about the birth of the Messiah, the Prince of Peace – Jesus Christ.

A joyful ‘harmonious’ noise is so important. So much of this world is like the roar of a table saw. We need the counter-noise of a piano. Not the roar of entertainment, greed, lust, and selfish success,              but the exquisite sounds of humility, of heavenly peace,    of loving truth, and of the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. 

How easy it is to say these words without any testimony of it being worked out in our life. How grateful we are for the ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship and their focus on communicating to others the saving message of Jesus Christ. They are reaching the lost in local communities across the United States and are thereby providing opportunities for Christians to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

It was our distinct joy to host the Northern VA CEF committee Christmas Dinner earlier this month. This dear group of Christians gathered together for a special dinner and time of uplifting fellowship. Our lights were rekindled and joy refreshed as we drew closer to one another around the message of the Gospel.

Another joy of the evening was getting to know those who work in the Korean community. How blessed we were to hear them share about the Lord’s work in the local Korean communities, Christmas traditions in Korea, and even a couple carols in the Korean language.

Mr. Rautio, with the faithful support of his dear wife, continues to be an energy giver as he directs this great work here in Northern VA. His unceasing joy, stemming from a close relationship with Christ, has been the catalyst for many life changing works in Northern Virginia and way beyond.

Through the Christ centered ministry CEF, many people around this world will be celebrating Christmas, knowing that Jesus truly is the Reason for the Season!

Praise the Lord for His free gift of salvation.