Gotta write about Brazil!  I was there for four days (about 361 days too short…), in Campinas, where the heart of Hope Unlimited’s ‘City of Youth’ is located.  This is a ministry that our church has been connected to for some time.  They exist “to transform the lives of children at mortal risk and provide them a productive future and an eternal hope.”

What they actually do is take kids off the street, where millions of Brazilian children live in the cities throughout the country.  These kids suffer every imaginable form of abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation. The ministry provides these children with parents, schooling, health, special training, graduate opportunities, and Jesus.  

It was an incredible four days.  Hundreds of children are saved and over 50% of the support needed for this ministry comes in through Brazilian donations.  They are so aligned with what we are about - knowing God, developing community, bringing hope - that it is a natural connection for us.  

In the next weekend series, starting Thanksgiving weekend, we will be talking about this City of Youth as well as ministries in Mexico and Thailand with whom we want to partner.  Because God wants us to have a world-wide impact and we have the resources to do this.  Surely we can expand our vision to areas like South America, Central America, and Asia.  Surely we can spare a bit of what we have to see young children delivered and transformed.

Surely.

You may have heard about the Box of Hope initiative that our students are spearheading.  Each box is a package that will be assembled and sent to college students, missionary kids, and soldiers currently overseas.

Our own students will do all the work – we only need to supply the goods.  Here is a list of the items we are still looking for:

Please bring 1 or 100 of any among these with you this weekend, October 25th and 26th.  You will see boxes throughout the church where the items can be dropped off.

I will be visiting the City of Youth in Brazil for the next few days, but I look forward to seeing your generosity when I get back!  In the meantime, Nate Karcesky, our Youth Ministry Pastor, will bring the message this weekend.  I pray that you will experience the presence of God again as you gather in his name.

I hope you have been working through the questions we talked about last weekend.  It’s a liberating feeling to spend a week talking to God about giving.  I trust you have found that to be true.

So how many people do you know in your township?

Many parents have had “back-to-school” nights during the past few weeks.  I had some fun meetings with my son Eric’s teachers, but what struck me more as I walked through Hillsborough High School was that even in a school as large as this, I knew some parents in every of my son’s classes.  See, most of these connections came through baseball or soccer, and had it not been for these areas of involvement, I would have recognized almost nobody.  Your area of involvement may not be sports, but every community has multiple entry points.  Even Plainsboro township has a 17-page document that details many opportunities for you to connect.

We have an even easier entry point for you: are you in a community group?  This weekend we start a six-week drive to open up new and existing groups that would give everyone a chance to grow in their local communities.  We will even coordinate the studies done in these groups with our weekend messages, so that over the coming six weeks you would grow more deeply in your relationships using some very practical topics.  Don’t worry if you’re not connected yet - we will tell you more in the weeks to come…

… starting this weekend.  See you then!

I recently took the position of treasurer for the Hillsborough High School Soccer Booster Club.  As a board, we spend most of our time creating and running fund raisers for the kids.  But last night was special.  We had recently raised a few thousand dollars for help with the medical expenses of a woman associated with the soccer teams.  She wasn’t able to come, but as we gave the money and a card signed by all the players to her husband, he was speechless.  The rest of the meeting was filled with the usual business and numbers talk - but the atmosphere around the table was different and energized.  None of us would get paid for this, but all of us are passionate about it.

It just feels good to help, especially when it takes some extra effort.  That is what I feel like all the time at PAC.  We don’t live for soccer.  We live for Jesus.  And I want us all to know what it feels like to help others for Jesus, especially when it takes some extra effort.  Imagine if we all were passionate about this.  Even if you don’t get paid.

That’s what I will be talking about this weekend.  Hope you can make it.

In my own time with the Lord each morning I just completed my walk through the Proverbs.  (All of you got the jump on me with that book this summer while I was writing.)  I decided to spend some time in the book of Isaiah and what is given above comes from Isaiah 2:3-5.  It is difficult to read those words, reflect on today’s situations, and not just yearn for a perfectly just God to take over.  Maybe even send him to Wall Street.

But that is actually possible and we have been talking about that for three weeks from Romans 12.  Imagining life the way it’s supposed to be is the first step to getting there.  This awesome God can speak directly to you.  He can work with you.  You can choose to allow him to.  And as we do that together, I begin to imagine where he will take us this year.

This weekend I will share God’s direction for our church with you. Imagine life at PAC in 2009… the way it’s supposed to be.  As I share this, it is so incredibly important to remember that the focus is not on what we do, but for whom we do it.  It is this incredible God of Isaiah 2 that we serve.

I hope you come to worship this weekend.  I will see you there.

We desire everyone to live life to the fullest.

This is why we exist.  And God is clear on how to do it.

We desire everyone to live life to the fullest by knowing God, developing community, and bringing hope to the world.

We believe we are not alone in this pursuit.

We desire everyone to live life to the fullest by knowing God, developing community, and bringing hope to the world; and we seek to partner with like-minded people in order to maximize results.

We know the core values God has instilled within us to equip us to accomplish the task.

We desire everyone to live life to the fullest by knowing God, developing community, and bringing hope to the world; and we seek to partner with like-minded people in order to maximize results.  In all we do, we promise to do it with authenticity, creativity, excellence, expectancy, and generosity.

One of the most exciting things that God has done is to bring the world through our doors – we have become a diverse congregation with a strong heart of compassion for our neighbors.

We are a multi-cultural, multi-generational community that believes in making a positive contribution in our neighborhoods, our country, and the world.  We desire everyone to live life to the fullest by knowing God, developing community, and bringing hope to the world; and we seek to partner with like-minded people in order to maximize results.  In all we do, we promise to do it with authenticity, creativity, excellence, expectancy, and generosity.

This is it. This is who we are.  See you twice this weekend – at the picnic and at the services.