#doing missionary work for the church of Gary

[jeffament]

Well maybe we could hop onto the gary numan board! what songs can you recommend? say a top 10 or something 📝

i thought you’d never ask >:) my current top 10 are

we take mystery (to bed)

i’m an agent

the machman

love hurt bleed

M.E.

intruder

i die: you die

i am dust

this wreckage

music for chameleons

his essentials r a good place to start too :)

cars

are ‘friends’ electric?

me, i disconnect from you

down in the park

metal

[rucbarthatbowtiesarecooldw]

Saturday Afternoon Session

Conducting Gary E Stevenson

All Glory, Laud, and Honor

David A. Bednar

Be Still and Know that I Am God

Inner Spiritual Stillness of the Soul

Be Still = focusing on the Savior

Truth faith is focused in and on our Lord Jesus Christ

Spiritual stillness = the opposite of inner turmoil

A proper foundation ensures that the structure will remain sturdy and stable over time – requiring an attachment to bedrock.

We build the foundation – the Savior is the rock upon which we build

Faith is built upon the Savior

Sacred time and holy places are the same – focus your time and attention on God and His heavenly Plan

Sometimes being still means on the inside not the outside

Jesus is not the foundation He is the Rock upon which we build.

We may be perplexed by our trials and circumstances, but we will never be in despair.

The gospel doesn’t keep you from trials, but allows you to deal with them with the help of the Lord

Massimo De Feo

My physical sight is not good – what about my spiritual vision? Do I need any treatment there.

Can you see Christ spiritually, not physically? Or are you like the pharaseees?

We keep a clear spiritual vision when we focus on Jesus Christ and stay true to what we know to be true.

What we know to be true: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t listen to the voices in the world that say that loving everyone isn’t reasonable/necessary/possible.

Declare your testimony in its entirety; don’t let anyone silence you

We keep a clear spiritual vision when we hear the voice of the Lord and allow Him to guide us.

Keeping a clear spiritual vision is about focusing my sight always on Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the answer for everyone

God Loved Us So He Sent His Son

Brent H Nielson

Witnesses of Christ

There has never been a better time to be a member of the church than today

335 operating and announced temples!!!

You should leave the bubble

The truth of God will go forth everywhere

You and I are witnesses

Gathering israel has both missionary work and family history work

We are armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory

Jose L Alonso

Where do you find peace?

If we put the Savior at the center of our lives, we can find peace

Feeding 5000 men – plus women and children (Matt 14:21). Jesus gave thanks to his father, he was grateful rather than complaining that was all they had. 

Solutions to our trials often don’t come from ourselves – but in God

“Imagine how much love he has for us if Christ was looking for peace and solitude, and he welcomed everyone to heal and help them”

When we encounter challenges, turn beyond them to Christ, and trust in his help

Even when looking for peace and solitude, Christ focused outside of Himself and welcomed everyone to heal and help them!

Adopting a Christ-centered perspective helps us turn trials into victories

Christ is a Healer, and we are ever-present in His mind and heart

Praise to the Lord the Almighty

Gerritt W Gong

194 years since the restoration of the gospel!

Things will work together for our good

Sometimes we just need to have someone there when we’re upset – and that someone can always be God

Trusting the Lord can include trusting Him with our suffering and anger and misery

When we work together for good, we minister as Jesus Christ would

Spiritual First Responders

Going from neighbors who bring cookies to trusted friends

What happened there and then can bless us here and now

Michael T. Nelson

We can be trustworthy, beloved leaders of youth like Helaman and the stripling warriors: build relationships with them, council them, support them

Parents have a primary responsibility for teaching their children

No one serves in the church alone

Heavenly Father wants us to reach out to others, including the youth

Help them learn who they really are through how you feel about them

Follow promptings, even though we’re not perfect, to build relationships of love and trust

No program can replace the influence of loving, covenant keeping adults

How Great the Wisdom and the Love

Quinten L Cook

My focus should be on the Savior and on the Saviors Atonement

We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father

The Savior is the Keeper of the Gate

And He is the one who also pleads in our behalf

Being one with Christ = loving and building community

Requirements for baptism are uniquely simple – repenting before God

D&C 25 basic doctrine of the restored Church

All are invited to partake of the Lords Goodness and all are alike unto God

None are forbidden

All accountable persons are required to atone for their sins

All have a choice – all have agency

Essential to the plan of salvation

All are able to use their agency and ACT

Exercise our moral agency to choose Christ and keep His commandments

2 Nephi 26:33

Both poor and rich have the same spiritual requirements

Many things occur of which we have little to no control

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Without agency we could not learn, progress, or choose immortal life

We Will Sing of Zion

[pastorgarypetersen]

Creative Ways Churches Can Support Missions Work

Creative Ways Churches Can Support Missions Work https://ift.tt/c59WTF6 Supporting mission work is a fundamental aspect of many churches’ ministries. It involves reaching out to communities and individuals worldwide to spread the message of faith, provide humanitarian aid, and promote positive change. While financial contributions are essential, churches can support mission work in numerous creative ways.   Prayer Partnerships Establishing prayer partnerships between church members and missionaries can create a strong support bond. Encourage individuals or small groups to regularly pray for specific missionaries, their safety, and the success of their missions.   Missions Trips Organize short-term mission trips for church members to participate in missions work firsthand. These trips allow members to experience the challenges and rewards of mission work while actively contributing to a mission project.   Cultural Training Offer cultural sensitivity and cross-cultural training for church members involved in missions. Understanding the culture and customs of the communities being served can enhance the effectiveness of mission work and minimize misunderstandings.   Missionary Care Teams Form teams within the church responsible for caring for missionaries on the field. These teams can provide emotional and practical support, including sending care packages and communicating regularly.   Missionary Updates Regularly share updates from missionaries with the congregation. Use multimedia presentations, newsletters or virtual meetings to inform the church about missionaries’ progress.   Adoption of Unreached People Groups Encourage the church to adopt unreached people groups as a specific focus for missions. This involves prayer, financial support, and active engagement with efforts to bring the message of faith to these communities.   Skills-Based Missions Leverage the unique skills and talents of church members to support missions. Whether it’s medical expertise, engineering skills, or educational experience, individuals can contribute their specific skills to mission projects.   Supporting mission work is a calling for many churches, and there are numerous creative ways to do so beyond traditional financial contributions. By engaging church members through prayer partnerships, mission trips, cultural training, and financial literacy programs, churches can cultivate a deep commitment to mission work. Additionally, maintaining open communication with missionaries, educating the congregation, and forming strategic partnerships can enhance the church’s impact on a global scale. Ultimately, these creative approaches can help churches develop a strong mission culture and make a lasting difference in communities worldwide. The post Creative Ways Churches Can Support Missions Work first appeared on Pastor Gary Petersen | Ministry & Missions. via Pastor Gary Petersen | Ministry & Missions https://ift.tt/6pxYhlg December 13, 2023 at 02:17PM

[godsporncollection]

Saturday Morning Session

(personal commentary in italics) (sorry for how inconsistent i am at this, i’m trying new medication, so my focus comes and goes unpredictably, but i didn’t want this to take weeks)

Russel M Nelson -  strengthen your testimony (?)

"I understand better what he meant when he said 'behold, i will hasten my work in this time.'" 

Y'all have been strengthening your testimonies and i, and your children, thank you. did that inclusion of "your children" feel off to anyone else?

I can see the work on the temple outside my window and that makes me think about how we need to remove the old debris from our lives. I too think of the temple as 'old debris' that should be removed from my life.

"the gospel is a message of joy" I cannot roll my eyes hard enough

that was short. what was the topic? blab for a five minutes?

Dieter F. Uchdorf - god is Among Us

I had to move lots when I was a kid because there was a war on. i thought about the missionaries who came to the country of their enemies to bring us the gospel.

i was a kid in a war-torn country > missionaries > god has not forgotten us > we will be heirs of god > how could we complain when we have that? > the atonement > mistakes are okay, just gotta keep repenting.

what would jesus teach if he was among us today? the same thing he's always taught. "the savior always teaches timeless truths, to everyone, a message of hope and belonging, a testament that god has not abandoned his children that god is Among Us."

jesus says to love one another and to be full of charity towards all men. i would like to see it.

anyone else feel like these talks are just. empty? like, they're not feeling it either?

if jesus came into your home today, he would see into your heart and i'm gonna waste a couple more minutes by expanding on that. one look into his eyes and we would be forever changed by the realization that god is Among Us.

back to me, i wish i could go back and tell myself to stay on the right track because god is Among Us, so i'm gonna tell you instead. god is Among Us.

"line upon line" *gag*

god is Among Us

Joy D Jones - abuse is wrong unless you use it to teach kids about the gospel

"have you ever wondered why we call 'primary' 'primary'?" as someone who understands how language works, no.

because kids are importanter than everything else

god trusts us to be nice to our kids; that means no abuse, even if we're angry. whoever needed this reminder should be shot.

hey, maybe you can "combat the evils of abuse" by not fucking raising your kids in an abusive cult!

analogy of a kid who fell out of bed because he "didn't get far enough in" = he wasn't indoctrinated enough, with awkward collage of pics of kids for a minute.

eyring said to get 'em while they're young

love all the pics of black people that try to say "see? we don't think black people are inherently evil (anymore)!"

analogy of a soldier in boot camp. drill seargants are mean, but that was necessary because apparantly it's the only way this guy can learn how to hide. also, apparently this guy is "our friend". not my friend, thanks.

"how can we do the same for our children?" don't fucking act like a drill seargent to your kids! ffs

"wouldn't we rather have them sweat in the safe learning environment of the home than bleed on the battlefields of life?" first of all, fuck you. second, dramatic much? third, fuck you, kids shouldn't have to learn about life in a hostile environment. does this woman have kids? are they okay? fucking hell, five kids were raised by a woman with this mentality. what a bitch.

"eternity is the wrong thing to be wrong about." i got news for you. of course, if i ever spoke to this machine, that topic wouldn't be my top priority.

I need a fucking drink.

Jan Eric Newman - teaching the gospel is good, but you can't force a testimony on others

anecdote about a local old woman getting birthday gifts. she taught us some good things when we were growing up, so thanks, sister davis.

another teacher, at college, was a "master teacher." he loved me and the lord. he taught me to learn doctrine on my own and that "changed me forever."

just sayin', if you're taught how to learn on your own, but didn't exercise enough critical thought to gtfo of this cult, maybe the teacher wasn't the best.

it's good to have good teachers.

the ancient nephites and lamanites had good teachers, and "there was no contention among them!"

"how can we teach more like the savior and help others become more deeply converted?" nope, nope. nope.

1st, "learn all you can about the master teacher hismelf." so, we're sticking with the term "master teacher." cool. doesn't sound weird at all.

ask yourself questions about how he taught, then do that.

read "teaching in the savoir's way."

2nd, use bullshit stories. oh, no, it's a story about how somebody is grateful for the pandemic because her adult child read the BoM for the first time during it. she said it had made "literal miracles."

3rd, "remember that conversion must come from within." guess jan and "joy" should have compared notes before speaking.

"children inheret many things, but a testimony is not one of them. we can't give our children a testimony any more than we can make a seed grow; but we can provide a nourishing environment, with good soil, free of thorns that would choke the word."

Gary E. Stevenson - kindness

story about a study where rabbits were fed a high-fat diet, but those under the care of a loving researcher didn't gain as much weight.

only christians can intuitively understand that this means there's a reason to be kind to others.

jesus said love one another.

addressing primary kids - be kind. here's a story about a kid who stopped being a bully because the bullied kid said it hurt.

to the teens - social media makes bullying worse, clearly satan is using social media against your generation. do what you can t make these spaces safer. if you're a bully, "stop it."

to the adults- "we have a primary responsibility to set a tone and be role models of kindness (get wrecked "joy"), inclusion and civility."

from ballard- "i have never heard members of this church to be anything but loving, kind, tolerant and benevolent to our friends and neighbors of other faiths." k, but, like, you know it's not just a difference of religious belief that’s the problem, right?

i'm heartbroken to hear about prejudice against blackasianlatino people or of any other group. i love how that section was really only about race, with a blanket "any other group" thrown in as an afterthought so they can't be accused of being homophobic.

in the winter of 1838, jo smith was in prison and why do you think that happened, gary?

church members were driven from their homes and the residents of a town across the river gave them food and shelter. that generosity saved the lives of many of them.

god is a compassionate care-giver.

Gerrit W. Gong - disjointed anecdotes of human experiences, idk

i miss my dad. he was adventurous, except regarding food.

i saw a guy be mean to a lady selling ice cream. he smashed all of her cones. the image of her trying to salvage the cones haunts me to this day.

story of the good samaritan.

be like christ this easter.

"we recieve inspiration as we counsel together, listening to each person, including each sister and the spirit."

does this guy have a topic?

he’s is just giving a list of random human experiences and parables.

*displays a lack of understanding of instagram.*

he's listing something throughout this, like, he keeps counting, but i have no idea what and his voice is making my adhd medication run away, so i'm not listening to this again.

Henry B. Eyring - temple worthiness

today i'm feeling light and hope, like the first day i went to the salt lake temple

i'm an oblivious fucker who didn't notice my name being pinned on me, so i thought the woman who greeted me was an angel because she knew my name.

thought he could remember being in the temple before, but a voice that was not his own (that's how you know it's true and not something he just told himself) told him he was remembering heaven.

confused "holiness to the lord" with "this is a holy place." i know both phrases use the word 'holy', but like, those contexts mean separate things.

i also had this feeling during my wedding in the logan temple.

i think henry should get checked out, he suffers from frequent hallucinations and it's good to know how your brain works differently from others when in a leadership position.

during my wedding, i had a vision of a house and the officiant said to live in a way that you can walk away easily. a year later, my father in law bought the exact house and my wife and i lived in the guest house for ten years. then i got the call to move somewhere else on assignment from the church and we walked away easily.

scripture from jesus about temples.

if you're unworthy in the temple, you won't be "able to see, by the power of the holy ghost, the spiritual teaching of the savior that we can recieve in the temple."

"when we are worthy to recieve such teaching, there can grow, through our temple experience, hope, joy, and optimism throughout our lives. that hope, joy, and optimism are available only through accepting the ordinances performed in holy temples."

i forgot how simple a baptism is, so i'm gonna tell you how amazed (and a little concerned) i was when my youngest daughter stayed to do baptism for the dead for all of the names on the list that day. maybe i'm just super comfortable in the water, but that doesn't sound hard, actually. i used to almost enjoy doing those.

quotes the primary song 'i love to see the temple.'

remember to be worthy so you can live with your family forever.

[ayoda]

Ten years later

I don’t remember exactly what I was doing, but I received an alert on my desktop that a major earthquake had hit Japan. I immediately logged into the website of NHK (the CNN / PBS of Japan). I watched a live feed from a helicopter just as the tsunami had crashed onshore.

(This is a picture of the wall that was supposed to protect the village below. I took this pic as well as the others posted in this entry.)

It was unreal to see a massive wave destroy everything in its path. The wave kept traveling further and further inland. The reporter remained professional but his shock was obvious. 

I’ve told some of this story before, please forgive me for being redundant. 

We started hearing numbers. 12,000 dead (later revised to 17,000+). 2,500 missing. 6,000+ injured. 150,000+ residents displaced. Tommy Dyo, then director of Cru’s Epic Movement ministry, asked me to help train student teams being sent to Japan. Glad to be of service. 

Then in April, Tommy was heading to Japan for a first-hand look. He said “dude, you’re coming with me.” Say what? How? “Send out a support letter.” Could I raise the support in a month? I received over $4,000 more than I needed (applied to future visits). Then my wife ruptures her Achilles (this time, the other leg). I thought that ended my plans. But she said “I’m not going to deprive you of this opportunity.”

I admittedly went to Japan skeptical as to what I’d see and questioning God as to why this had happened. I wasn’t prepared for what was ahead. The photo above is Rikuzentakata. A complete neighborhood, gone. When I shared later about my visit, I was asked if there were any photos I couldn’t take. There was one in particular, some kids’ toys that had been scattered. Even now, it’s admittedly difficult to think what may have happened to those children.

Some cleanup had already taken place, though there was still a lot to do. There were lots full of recovered vehicles lined up so survivors could either see if they could salvage something from the vehicle, or to identify victims who were swept up in the wave.

The government primarily provided cleanup for the damaged buildings (mostly condemned), we helped clean out houses and churches while also packaging meals and goods for those in evacuation centers.

While in Kamaishii, we saw buildings where an “X” was spray painted. An “X” indicated bodies had been found, an “X” with a circle meant the bodies had been recovered.

Most people have heard of the Fukushima nuclear reactor that’s still not shut down. We went to the Palette Center, a convention center where 10,000 people were housed, evacuated from neighborhoods surrounding the reactor. Most of the evacuees lived on different level of the arena, primarily within cardboard partitions.

This ship washed ashore at least 2 km inland. After debating whether or not to preserve the ship as a memorial, the decision was made to remove the ship to help rebuild the city. It had to be taken apart piece-by-piece, there was no crane or anything else that could move the ship. That provides some perspective on the power of the tsunami.

Worth noting: The shaking was incredibly severe, but Japan is very conscious about structural integrity in earthquakes. But there’s really no defense to a tsunami that reached as high as 40 meters (about 133 feet). That was the source of the major destruction and loss.

I’d already mentioned I was trying to understand the age-old philosophical question as to why would God allow this kind of suffering. I was blessed to have many help me find answers.

A group shot of the 2011 team, outside of the CRASH Japan (Christian Relief, Assistance, Support and Hope) headquarters: 

Tommy, who I’ve already credited / blamed for getting me involved.

Shannon, a wonderfully talented friend who I’ll see on TV in the future (Tommy and I serve as her Stateside Uncles).

Pastor Jonathan, then President of CRASH Japan, our relief agency, now heading OpSAFE Int’l helping kids after disasters and trauma. I still work with him and his organization.

Urs, the son of missionaries, now happily married and living in Germany (?).

Some guy who once had more hair and darker hair.

Dr. Gary, formerly a Southern Baptist missionary based in Tokyo and our guide through the disaster areas, we damaged his van driving through areas where the roads were heavily damaged. Now back home in Chicago.

Pastor Levi and Diane Velasco, head of GLINTS (Global Intercultural Services), with whom we now serve as volunteers. They also head CRASH Midwest. They’ll be back in Japan sooner than later.

This photo features Jill, a nurse who joined us for much of our journey through the Sendai area, along with Tommy and Gary.

Ten years later, I’m still a small part of the volunteer effort. We’ve expanded to serving also in Kumamoto, which was hit with a major quake in 2016. I continue to work with OpSAFE Int’l and Pastor Jonathan, GLINTS with the Velascos, CRASH Japan under the direction of Nagai-Sensei, and we’ve been able to be part of the Kyushu Christ Disaster Relief Center based in Kumamoto. We try to go every summer, unfortunately the pandemic has interrupted our visits for the time being. I hope to post some more memories soon.

And what did I learn? Disasters don’t discriminate. We have to plan ahead. Maybe I can be helpful, even in a small way.

As for the “big question.” I still don’t have an answer for the question as to why this happened. Perhaps I was asking the wrong question. God will answer the question “why” in his time, but when asked He will answer “what’s next>” 

I worked with so many incredible people over the past decade, from all over the world, all ages, all denominations, as well as all faith backgrounds. Their work taught me the importance of how to respond to the question “what’s next.” I’m hoping I’m doing my best to answer that question.

We found this mural (that’s my boys and super volunteer Emily) outside of a building in Kobuchihama. Translated: “Volunteers, thank you! Look at how strong Kobuchihama has become.”

どいたしまして。You’re welcome.

[manandaman]

New Muslim Articles of the Year

In 1977 Dr. Gary Miller, professor of mathematics and logic at the University of Toronto. And Canadian missionaries Make the decision to serve Christianity by revealing scientific and historical errors in the Holy Quran. For the benefit of him and his fellow missionaries in calling on the invitation of Muslims to convert to Christianity.

Fidelity in education This brings out his study and opinion better than many of the Muslim writings who have written introducing the Quran.

After Dr. Gary Miller best analyzed the Quran The first thing that surprised is Challenge phrases that appear in many places such as

ولو كان من عند غير الله لوجدوا فيه اختلافاً كثيراً '

"If it comes from someone other than God, they will find a lot of differences in it."

فأتوا بسوره من مثله '

"Bring one surah that is like the Qur'an."

Dr. Gary Miller took the stage in a defiant, but ultimately moved. In 1978, he announced his acceptance of Islam after a thorough study of the Quran.

Some of the results of Dr. Gary Miller study are stated in the book: The Amazing Quran.

1. No writer in the world dares to write a book. And said that this book has no errors But on the other hand, the Quran tells you there is no mistake, it challenges you to find mistakes and you will never find them. ”

2. Miller considered the verses that

قل إنما أعظكم بواحدة أن تقوموا لله مثنى وفرادى ثم تتفكروا ما بصاحبكم من جنة إن هو إلا نذير لكم بين يدي عذاب شديد.

"Say (Muhammad), I only remind you that Stand up for Allah (at a time) two and one. And ponder (It will be apparent that) your friends are not mad. But he is only a warning to you of facing severe punishment. ”

And describes the results of an experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto to study. An effective 'group chat' was experimented with different numbers of panelists. And compare the results The results showed that the maximum effectiveness of the conversation was when the number of interlocutors was two. And effectiveness will decrease if this number increases.

3. There is a complete surah (chapter) in the Quran called Surah Mary, which Mary is unmatched in the Quran. While there were no Surah, Aishah, or Fatimah, in the same way Jesus did. Which are mentioned 25 times in the Quran. While the Prophet Muhammad is mentioned only 5 times

4. Surah Al Masad Was revealed 10 years before Abu Lahab's death and he had a 365 x 10 year chance to prove the book was a lie. But what are the challenges? Abu Lahab did not accept Islam despite the pretense. How can the messenger be sure that within ten years what is said in the Quran is true? If not, a gift from God

5. In many cases the Quran is challenged as a new knowledge. By saying "You and your people do not know"

Miller commented on the matter, “There is no religious scripture that speaks like this. By providing information to readers and saying that this is new !!

This is a challenge like no other. What if Makkah residents lie - albeit impersonating - and say: You lied. We knew this before. Or if a researcher lied claiming to know the Qur'an challenges these information is new. But all of that did not happen.

Dr. Miller cites what is mentioned in the new Catholic Encyclopedia under the heading The 'Quran' includes many studies that attempt to disrespect the truth of the Quran by saying, "The Quran is like a illusion of a sick person." Or the inspiration of spirits and demons Or being taught by some human beings Or taken from the Old Testament ... etc "

Dr. Miller concludes: 'Over the centuries There are many theories about the origin of the Quran. But there is no theory that a reasonable man can consider to be reliable. ”

Dr. Miller said, The church, which intended to adopt these theories, denied the truth of the Quran. Also reject all these theories. But there is no courage to accept the correctness of the Muslim viewpoint.

Dr Miller said that some people said Muhammad falsely lied to be a prophet. But what actually happened was found On the day that Ibrahim, Muhammad's 2-year-old son, died. A solar eclipse occurs. People said It is the miracle of the Prophet. The eclipse happened because of the death of his son. But Muhammad became extremely angry at those words and said that the eclipse was a phenomenon of Allah. Not related to anyone's death

Dr. Miller said that if Muhammad was a liar, pretending to be a prophet. Would follow the social trend and said, "You see, I told you that I really am a prophet. Even the sky mourned the death of my son. "

May Allah repay Dr. Miller for a fair study of God's Bible.

However, before entering Islam Dr. Miller has participated in discussions on Islam and Christianity. Together with Shai Ahmed Deedat, which Dr. Miller Straightforward discussion Until the Muslims who heard it were praised and expected that one day he would accept Islam.

After accepting Islam, Dr. Miller took the name Abdul Ahad Umar and worked at the University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. Petroleum University in the Emirate for many years. Before he fully devoted himself to the spread of Islam. By writing a book And organize television programs, radio, lectures and online media

View some of your work at

(https://themindfulmuslim.com/gary-miller-)(https://themindfulmuslim.com/gary-miller?fbclid=IwAR0IxXy_jbHGF5sJj8FQw47szcy5TOJeFeNiBDGl2Jd1fs1BVJig2kvAuR8)

[relatablemormonmoments]

General Conference October 2019 Sunday Sessions

Morning

Garret W. Gong

We find ourselves becoming free, alive, real

Divine covenants become a source of love for and from God

Comfort the Hurt we feel

Our God is a God of Covenant

God's ordinances and covenants are universal

All things work together for our good if we keep commandments and covenants

Along life'a path, we may lose faith in God, but he never loses faith in us

He will helpnus, one step at a time

We can ask God with a sincere heart

BOM speaks of ancient and modern covenant to you

Alma: enter into a covenant with the Lord and serve him that you might feel joy

Priesthood blessings heal, comfort, and council

Covenant marriage is supernal and eternal- me becomes we

When learn to pray with real intent - strong spiritual confirmation

Genealogy strengthens us

Christina B. Franco

We know who we are - God's children.

God provided perfect plan to his purpose

Satan is an enemy to God's plan

Blessing of comfort and protection - also gave blessing of knowlege and direction

You can't miss the missionaries

"Get into my car! You're coming home to teach me!"

Every day before leaving house, ask Heavenly Father to guide her to someone who needs the church

Gathering of Israel

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

YASSSSSSSSSS

Lord of the Rings - Unremarkable Hobbit presented with remarkable adventure

Most hobbits don't want adventure. Challenging, dangerous

Bilbo leaves comfort behind and embarks

This story is our story too

We knew we would make many mistakes along the way

Potential was well worth the risk

Metaphorical spiders and trolls

Discipleship is like learning to play the piano

Day will come

The only way to progress is to help others progress

Spirit is enlarged and we walk a little taller

Fill heart with pure love of Christ and leave no room for rankor, judgement, and shaming

We joyfully accept that grest commission

Regardless of who a person is or what they do, we invite them to join

Get a good nights rest, eat a good meal, and start off first thing in the morning

Nearly distracted by messy house, but good friend (Gandalf) beckoned him to come

Take courage, compassion, and continue on your journey

Please come back, join again, make us stronger

Come, come and see what the marvelous journey is all about

Talk to missionaries

Walter F. Gonzalez

Blessings come in due time

Accept the Lord's will

Thy will be done

Humble attitude and sincere desire

We can feel broken due to our circumstances

We can place our will into his hands

God's face is brighter than the sun

Fumble towards a God I can trust because he loves us

Power of hope

Savior wants to help us be clean

Accept his will, not our own

He can heal us and lift us up

You can be mended because he loves you

"I will make thou clean

Gary E. Stevenson

Son with white paintbrush

"Be careful, there are a lot of skunks out there" - Uncle Grover

Blissfully unaware of the impending threat

Unsatisfied with truth

Satan would have us question things and replace them

Moses was in a high mountain and in the similitude of God's only Begotten

"Who art thou, for I am a son of God!"

There is much we can learn from Moses' response to the adversary

Moses did not yield

Lord blessed Moses for his obedience

God gives us commandments through his servants

God communes with prophets

Adjustments to procedures and ordinances

Adversary always tricks you into believing he is something hes not

May we recognise Satan's deceptions for what they are

We are the saints of the Almighty God

Russell M. Nelson

Mutual Commitment to Religious Freedom, offered financial Assistance to repair Mosques hurt in Christchurch

Young Blind 14 YO woman's letter to Prophet comparing herself to him (funny AND sweet)

God turns our hearts to the well being of others

The church's humanitarian outreach began in the 1984 fast for Africa's drought. 6.4 mill dollars made by the churchwide one day fast

LDS Charities - more than 2 bill dollars raised in aid throughout world since 1984

Go hungry to help others who are hungry

Power of the law and spirit of the fast

For I was enhungered and ye gave me meat [...] Ye have done it unto me

129 bishops storehouses around world

Almost 1 in 9 pf earth's inhabitants are malnourished

Church supplied emergency supplies for refugees from 56 countries

Afternoon

Eyring

Surely nobody would reject the offer of more happiness

Path to being more holy

Faith in Christ, Exercise it

Certifying Worthiness

You have never been here before, you are remembering a moment before you were born

Miracle of happiness from growing holiness

Happy years of service in temple

Sometimes we feel denied happiness

Job - holy and perfect

Job ready to see his trials in a higher and holier way

Do what is needed for God to change us

Repentance is accepting change

Hans T. Boom

Without sound of Gong- which was only a minor part- performance would not have been the same, even if it was costly to transport

Some of you might feel so overburdened that you don't even feel like you are on the path of life

We must minister to each other

Repentance is a daily process

Attempts to ask of God give us a clearer understanding of who we are and why we are needed

Let us rejoice together

We are all children of a heavenly father who loves us

M. Russell Ballard

Thou shalt live together in love for the result of the loss of those who die

Daily consecrated efforts to keep family together

Watched musical with his wife over and over again (Alzheimer's)

Liive each day together with hearts filled with gratitude

Reunion-Plan of happiness

Physically suffered but spirit was strong, resiliant, and pure.

How sweet, how comforting -Hinkley on Marriage

I find it astonishing how this apostle is worrying about whether or not he's living right. Big mood We stan.

Ongoing battle between physicalnbody and spirits

How can we empathize our eternal spiritual nature

Veil of forgetfulness makes us lose sight of God and spiritual nature

Choose to recieve eternal joy

Slow down a bit and think where you are now

♡Peter M. Johnson

You are wonderful, you are beautiful

All human beings are created in the image of God

You are the elect sons and daughters of God

Deception, distraction, discouragement: Satan's 3 D's of destruction

I really like this guy already

Remember who you are- a child of God

If we do not understand who we are, then it is difficult to understand who we can become

Technology is amazing but it can distract us, be careful, not casual

Do not compare yourself to others

Finished reading BOM each semester through doctorate program

Peace be with you

Let your heart be not troubled

Love God with heart might mind and strength

See Family Friends and Neighbors as Children of God

Pray every day

Read and study BOM every day, with a question in mind

Powerfully partake of the sacrament every week

Ulysses Soares

Accept the savior's invitation and you will expel your loneliness

There is always hope in God for LGBTQ individuals

Accept the invitation even if you've committed serioud sins

Savior's Grace is not limited

We can't repent for others, but we can forgive them

Trust in the Savior's promise

Be humble and trust in God

The Lord's timing is different than ours

Be ready to accept the Lord's will

Neil L. Anderson

FRUIT!

Fruit has long been. Treasured delicacy

Scriptures compare good fruit to Godly things

Most precious fruit = Plan of redemption

Partaking of the fruit means we embrace ordinances

Staying true to the Lord is still not easily done

Spacious building

Adversary's construction crews are working overtime

Don't allow others to turn you away from the blessings of the fruit

"I just pray for the use of my hands" - never recieved it

Trustedbin God's plans

"We would have to go through hard things, we would make mistakes"

Russell M. Nelson

Become more holy

Personal Holiness

Temples

Prepare yourself to bring blessings

General conference next April will be very unique 🤔🤔🤔

Read Joseph Smith's account of the first vision b4 April

Read BOM b4 April

[bountyofbeads]

‘Something Just Keeps Happening’: Dayton Shooting Hit a City Already in Pain https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/us/dayton-shooting-nan-whaley.html

‘Something Just Keeps Happening’: Dayton Shooting Hit a City Already in Pain

By Campbell Robertson and Mitch Smith | Published Aug. 9, 2019 | New York Times | Posted August 9, 2019 |

DAYTON, Ohio — First, the Ku Klux Klan came to town. Two days later, tornadoes destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and obliterated entire neighborhoods in and around the western Ohio city of Dayton.

Then this past weekend, a gunman stormed onto a crowded sidewalk in the entertainment district — an area of town typically swarming with revelers who stay until the bars close in the early morning — and fired at least 41 shots into the crowd, killing nine people before he was shot dead by the authorities.

“Something just keeps happening,” said Amanda Hensler, an owner of a store, Heart Mercantile, that is across the street from where the massacre took place.

The day after the mass shooting — the second within a 13-hour period in America — residents flocked to Ms. Hensler’s store to buy T-shirts that read “Dayton Strong,” which has become something of a motto for this grieving, shocked city. The customers knew that the store would have them in stock because they had been printed three months earlier, after the catastrophic tornado outbreak.

Indeed, Dayton has been through a brutal six-month stretch, even before the Klan held a rally at the city’s downtown Courthouse Square. Since the beginning of February, the city has also endured a large infrastructure failure and federal indictments at City Hall.

Seeing the city through all this has been Mayor Nan Whaley, 43, a blunt and outspoken second-term Democrat who is believed to have political ambitions beyond Dayton, a city with about 140,000 residents who have endured more trauma this year than many larger cities experience in a decade.

Since Sunday morning, when she first appeared before a throng of reporters, Ms. Whaley has found herself in the biggest moment of her political life — and at the worst moment of her city’s modern history. She has been a whirlwind presence across the city, too, talking to victims’ families, briefing reporters and working with the state’s Republican governor to form bipartisan alliances on gun policy.

And then there is the Twitter feud with the president of the United States.

“She’s going to be governor one day,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, a fellow Democrat who represents Ohio. Mr. Brown was not speaking of Ms. Whaley’s presence solely over the past few days, but over the whole, bad year.

“There have been these three big things, two of them tragic,” he said, “and then you put all that in the context of the past 30 years, with globalization. It’s sort of been one thing after another.”

In February — after a water line break left tens of thousands without water, but before the federal indictments of current and former local officials — Montgomery County granted the Klan a permit to come to town on the last weekend in May. Afterward, the city sued, arguing that a paramilitary-style rally would present serious public safety concerns. Officials ultimately agreed to a consent decree that limited the weapons the marchers could carry.

The rally cost the city at least $600,000 in security costs, but in the end, only nine Klansmen showed up. They were hemmed in by more than 700 law enforcement officers and were easily drowned out by the shouts and chants of the hundreds who had come out to oppose the march. When the rally ended uneventfully, it seemed that the potential for serious violence had passed.

Two days later, the tornadoes hit.

“It was almost as if it was a metaphor of a divine nature,” said the Rev. Renard Allen Jr., the pastor of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church, one of the larger churches in Dayton.

That tornado outbreak on May 27 devastated suburban communities and littered city streets with fallen trees. For weeks, residents lifted branches off strangers’ homes and served meals at temporary shelters.

“I think the tornadoes really brought the community together in a really bizarro kind of way,” said Shelley Dickstein, Dayton’s city manager. “We were very much still in the process of healing from the tornadoes when the mass shooting hit.”

When Ms. Whaley was elected to the City Commission at age 29, Dayton, like much of the industrial Midwest, was struggling to recover from a prolonged decline. Over the decades, factories and Fortune 500 companies had left Dayton. So had nearly half its residents.

But during her nearly six years as mayor, Ms. Whaley has presided over a downtown revival. Buildings that had long been vacant are being redeveloped. Some neighborhoods that had been emptied are seeing an infusion of new residents.

And during this time, Ms. Whaley has steadily built a larger profile for herself, taking on a leadership role in a national mayors’ organization, speaking openly about the toll of the opioid crisis on the state and briefly seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

“People see that she’s striving for a higher political level,” said Gary Leitzell, her predecessor as mayor, who said Ms. Whaley’s ambitions have been seen by some as overshadowing the concerns in some neighborhoods.

“I don’t dislike her,” he added. But, “I do not trust her.”

Still, among mayors across the country, Ms. Whaley has become something of a celebrity.

“She is just so smart, she’s so accessible, she’s so real. Like, what you see is what you get,” said Christine Hunschofsky, the mayor of Parkland, Fla., which endured the unwelcome spotlight last year when 17 people, including 14 students, were killed at a high school in her city. “She is definitely someone other mayors look up to and learn from.”

But on Sunday, it was Ms. Hunschofsky who had guidance for Ms. Whaley. While Dayton police officers were still outside Ned Peppers bar, collecting evidence and methodically combing the vast crime scene, Ms. Hunschofsky texted words of encouragement. Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando, Fla., the site of the Pulse nightclub shooting in June 2016 that left 49 people dead and more than 50 wounded, called Ms. Whaley. So did Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed in a synagogue last October.

At a vigil on Sunday, Ms. Whaley talked about joining an unfortunate fraternity of mayors whose cities had been the site of mass shootings. The crowd roared with approval for the mayor. A moment later, they drowned out the Republican governor, Mike DeWine, imploring him to push for tighter gun laws with chants of “Do something!”

Ms. Whaley said in an interview that she was not sure how Mr. DeWine would react. “After that I said to him, ‘I’m sorry, people are just wound up,’” she recalled. “He said to me, ‘Nan, that’s part of the job.’”

Since that vigil, the two have spoken every day, she said. They have effusively complimented each other at news conferences and tried to put on a bipartisan front for gun control proposals.

“She’s done a great job,” said Mr. DeWine, who grew up about 20 miles from Dayton. “Communities always look for leadership from the mayor when you have a crisis, and she’s stepped up.”

On Tuesday, Mr. DeWine proposed expanding background checks and enacting a version of a “red flag” law that would allow guns to be seized from people deemed dangerous. But feisty exchanges between Ms. Whaley and President Trump have not made a bipartisan alliance very easy.

Before Mr. Trump visited the city on Wednesday, Ms. Whaley said she planned to tell him “how unhelpful he’s been” on gun policy. She also would needle him about mistaking Dayton for Toledo in a national address on Monday about the shooting.

After leaving Dayton on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Ms. Whaley’s characterization of his visit was “a fraud.”

For her part, Ms. Whaley said on Thursday that she was relieved he had left town.

“We’ve got to get to the work of grieving and bringing our community together,” she said. “All of the national drama about what President Trump is thinking and what he’s not thinking, it’s not helpful to our community.”

And there has been no shortage of help needed in Dayton.

On Thursday, for Ms. Whaley, this meant a news conference at a children’s hospital, lunch with the governor and her regular appointment with a counselor, which she highlighted on Twitter to emphasize the importance of mental health.

Still, officials in Dayton were looking ahead. Plans were already underway, the city manager said, for a New Year’s Eve party to bid good riddance to 2019.

Timothy Williams contributed reporting from New York.

[all-my-friends-were-glorious]

GARY ISAAC HARRISON

The Man Of God

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.” - Paulo Coelho

GENERAL INFORMATION

Name: Gary Isaac Harrison

Nicknames: Garebear, Bear, Blondie, Elder Harrison

Faceclaim: David Latting

Age: 24

Gender: Cis Male

Sexuality: Homosexual Homoromantic Polygamous (VERY closeted)

Height: 5′6.5″

Weight: 134lbs

Birthday: October 16th

Sign: Libra

Occupation: Missionary; Supervisor at local Daycare

JONAH

Jonah is Gary’s little buddy. He loves him very much and is training him to be a therapy dog. Gary spends as much time as he can training him, when he isn’t otherwise busy.

QUICK FACTS

Went on his mission at 18 and returned at 23. Went to Bangkok, Thailand.

Can speak five different languages fluently: English, Thai, Spanish, Mandarin, and French.

Is always polite unless he’s finally had enough with someone treating him/someone he cares about poorly.

Still has a soft spot for Stan.

Sings and plays acoustic guitar very well.

Is very close to his family, and spends as much time with them as he is able.

While he doesn’t know that he fully believes, he’s hoping that that has to do with why he’s gay. If he just believes harder, and he prays more, then he will be ‘healed’ and he won’t have to suffer being disfellowshipped for his attraction to men.

He supervises a daycare near the church, and sometimes works with the kids. He lives to help others and loves the chances he gets to teach people lessons in fun ways. 

As kind as he can be, he won’t take people’s bullshit, and he’s very quick to lose his patience if people are being unduly rude.

While he mostly doesn’t like the idea, he will quietly shun people that offend him to the point that he can no longer handle them. He shuts down and simply ignores them.

Due to a lot of sudden abuse in a short amount of time, Gary has begun to question his faith, and has become quieter than he once was.

Dzianis’ abduction and his captive status has left him addicted to heroin, and he’s terrified someone is going to find out.

At this point, if he is disfellowshipped and shunned by his family, he suddenly doesn’t care. Amanda and David will remain in contact with him, and they have an agreement that he will take them in when they turn eighteen. 

He lives with Alex, though he feels as though he should look for his own place. However, he’s terrified of living alone, now.

As much as Michael was cruel to him, he has a soft spot for him, going so far as to miss him and seek him out.

The same night he was released from Michael’s torture, he was picked up by an elder vampire that was new to town. More torture on top of what he’d already suffered broke him and reinforced his desire to leave the church.

Gary was the Featured Muse for December 2021!

Headcanon Masterlist

TAGS LIST

Jesus Loved The Outcasts He Loved The Ones The World Just Loves To Hate (Gary Harrison)

Crucify Me Hallelujah (Gary Aesthetic)

If My Heart Says I'm Sorry Can We Leave It At That? (Gary Musings)

The Whole World Trying To Tame The Spark (Gary Closet)

I'll Break My Heart In Two More Times Than You Could Ever Do (Gary Headcanons)

There's A Song I'm Trembling To It's Tune (Gary Journal Entries)

Give Me A Paw Too (Jonah)

VERSES

TBD

MAINS AND SHIPS

MAINS

@nxwkid​ -  - Douchebag/New Kid/Alex - New Boy In The Neighborhood Lives Downstairs And It's Understood (Gary and Alex - Nxwkid)

@southxparkxafterxdark​ - Michael - Inside Your Wicked Heart's Still Beating (Gary and Michael - SouthxParkxAfterxDark)

@throughxthexmist​ - Stan - All My Scars Will Heal In Time Now He's Gone With All My Pride (Gary and Stan - ThroughxThexMist)

@throughxthexmist​ - Jimmy - His Gavel's Gone Down Before He Looked In Your Heart (Gary and Jimmy - ThroughxThexMist)

Here - Dzianis - Underground Boxed And Glum Left You There For Rot (Gary and Dzianis)

SHIPS

@southxparkxafterxdark​ - Aiken -  Baby I Was Born Dark Full Of Holes In My Heart (Aiken x Gary - SouthxParkxAfterxDark) 

Here - Dzianis -  Do You Miss Your Head With Your Tattered Clothes And Your Bloody Nose? (Dzianis x Gary)

[estelagellison9]

“Marijuana” Church fighting for Rights in Jurupa Valley

New Post has been published on https://www.therecover.com/marijuana-church-fighting-for-rights-in-jurupa-valley/

“Marijuana” Church fighting for Rights in Jurupa Valley

A city in the midst of a heated dispute with a church that uses marijuana during their sermons has now been approved by a Riverside county judge to close it as of August 15th. Judge Sunshine Sykes authorized the move after nearly 9 months of the organizations operation, and months of confusion between authorities in Jurupa Valley and concerned public asking for its regulation.

“We’ll execute the order based on the timing of other things we have going on — we’re working on several other dispensaries at the same time,” City Manager Gary Thompson said Tuesday, Aug. 21.

But the Vault Church of Open Faith is still trying to fight the order, claiming they are being harassed and discriminated against as a religious entity, even going so far as to file a counter suit against the city along with 15 other similar organizations asking for $1.2 million in damages. Lead minister Gilbert Augirre feels the judge misunderstands what the church is trying to do. Augirre compared his church to the followings of the catholic religion, saying they are practicing their religious beliefs the way other churches before them have done so for the past thousand years.

“(The judge) didn’t understand why we had to have cannabis,” lead minister Gilbert Aguirre said last Tuesday. “It’s like asking Catholics to worship without bread and wine.”

According to Aguirre, who has had no previous formal religious training, says cannabis has been apart of religious practices for centuries, according to the translations of the ingredients in anointing oils and how those ingredients vary across religious scholars.

Minister Augirre says his church is a Christ based church, but has members from various religions, including Buddhists, Muslims and even atheists. During a typical service, Augirre preaches a sermon while the congregation made up of around 50 members; partake in marijuana consumption during the service, either by smoking it or eating it.

“Whatever you call your God, bring your God here,” Fraser said. “We will find a way to harmonize, rather than to fight with you.”

“The moniker of open faith means that we welcome everybody,” he said.

But as of April 16 of this year, nearly 3 months after The Vault filed for incorporation with the state of California on January 19th this year, the church’s address and phone number were posted on the popular medical and recreational marijuana locator app, Weedmaps.

Officials from the city say the app showed the church listed as a dispensary, with various strains of marijuana listed for sale.

The churches’ attorney said they listed the church on the app reluctantly, and only because they did not have an option for a religious or church category. And by listing themselves on the app, they are using the opportunity as a tool to use for its missionary outreach program.

“Weedmaps happens to be a venue that people go to when they are looking for cannabis,” said the Vault’s lawyer Matthew Pappas. “We are trying to grow the membership of the church.”

City authorities believe this piece of evidence is what shows the true intention of the self proclaimed church.

City Manager Thompson agreed, “I’ve never heard of a church selling their sacrament,”

Although recreational marijuana was legalized in California during the November 2018 election, its regulation was left up to the cities, and Jurupa Valley bans marijuana businesses of all types.

“The bottom line is we’re just acting on what the voters decided in June,” Thompson said. “The voters decided they don’t want them (dispensaries), and we’ve accelerated our efforts to close them.”

Source : The Recover Newsroom

from The Recover https://ift.tt/2wv7nXo

[wutbju]

Willard “Bill” Stanley Lehman, 89, of Jackson, Michigan was promoted unexpectedly into God’s glory Saturday, October 17, 2020. He was born December 13, 1930, in Berne to Eli and Lorena Lehman. He was married August 15, 1953, to Evelyn “Lyn” Voss.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Bob Jones University (BJU) in 1954 and did graduate work at BJU and Michigan State University. He served as minister of music and youth in Gary, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Pontiac, Michigan. After moving to Jackson, Michigan, he served as music director at Bethel Baptist Church for 23 years while also teaching music, language arts and life science at Northwest Junior High School for 25 years.

After retiring, he and his wife were volunteers with the SOWER Ministry for 18 years providing the grunt work at Christian camps, missionary training centers, etc. so the project could be freed up to do the ministry work. One of the highlights of their lives was a missionary project in Ecuador where they were privileged to be flown into the interior of the Amazon jungle to help paint a school house.

He is survived by four children, Rick Lehman; Dale Lehman; Tonya Crittenden; and Kurt Lehman; two brothers, Luther (Linda) Lehman; and Charles (Louise) Lehman, both of Berne; sister, Phyllis Schweizer of Sterling, Kansas; 15 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his son, Kerry Lehman who awaited him in Heaven since April; two brothers-in-law; and one sister-in-law. His memorial service was held Sunday, November 1 at 3 p.m. at Bethel Church, 1691 Springport Road, Jackson, Michigan.

[therecoversite]

“Marijuana” Church fighting for Rights in Jurupa Valley

New Post has been published on https://www.therecover.com/marijuana-church-fighting-for-rights-in-jurupa-valley/

“Marijuana” Church fighting for Rights in Jurupa Valley

A city in the midst of a heated dispute with a church that uses marijuana during their sermons has now been approved by a Riverside county judge to close it as of August 15th. Judge Sunshine Sykes authorized the move after nearly 9 months of the organizations operation, and months of confusion between authorities in Jurupa Valley and concerned public asking for its regulation.

“We’ll execute the order based on the timing of other things we have going on — we’re working on several other dispensaries at the same time,” City Manager Gary Thompson said Tuesday, Aug. 21.

But the Vault Church of Open Faith is still trying to fight the order, claiming they are being harassed and discriminated against as a religious entity, even going so far as to file a counter suit against the city along with 15 other similar organizations asking for $1.2 million in damages. Lead minister Gilbert Augirre feels the judge misunderstands what the church is trying to do. Augirre compared his church to the followings of the catholic religion, saying they are practicing their religious beliefs the way other churches before them have done so for the past thousand years.

“(The judge) didn’t understand why we had to have cannabis,” lead minister Gilbert Aguirre said last Tuesday. “It’s like asking Catholics to worship without bread and wine.”

According to Aguirre, who has had no previous formal religious training, says cannabis has been apart of religious practices for centuries, according to the translations of the ingredients in anointing oils and how those ingredients vary across religious scholars.

Minister Augirre says his church is a Christ based church, but has members from various religions, including Buddhists, Muslims and even atheists. During a typical service, Augirre preaches a sermon while the congregation made up of around 50 members; partake in marijuana consumption during the service, either by smoking it or eating it.

“Whatever you call your God, bring your God here,” Fraser said. “We will find a way to harmonize, rather than to fight with you.”

“The moniker of open faith means that we welcome everybody,” he said.

But as of April 16 of this year, nearly 3 months after The Vault filed for incorporation with the state of California on January 19th this year, the church’s address and phone number were posted on the popular medical and recreational marijuana locator app, Weedmaps.

Officials from the city say the app showed the church listed as a dispensary, with various strains of marijuana listed for sale.

The churches’ attorney said they listed the church on the app reluctantly, and only because they did not have an option for a religious or church category. And by listing themselves on the app, they are using the opportunity as a tool to use for its missionary outreach program.

“Weedmaps happens to be a venue that people go to when they are looking for cannabis,” said the Vault’s lawyer Matthew Pappas. “We are trying to grow the membership of the church.”

City authorities believe this piece of evidence is what shows the true intention of the self proclaimed church.

City Manager Thompson agreed, “I’ve never heard of a church selling their sacrament,”

Although recreational marijuana was legalized in California during the November 2018 election, its regulation was left up to the cities, and Jurupa Valley bans marijuana businesses of all types.

“The bottom line is we’re just acting on what the voters decided in June,” Thompson said. “The voters decided they don’t want them (dispensaries), and we’ve accelerated our efforts to close them.”

Source : The Recover Newsroom

[godsporncollection]

Sunday GC Sessions Summary

(long version) (personal commentary in parenthesis)

M Russell Ballard

List of how the second coming is described followed by a huge list of the very obvious things wrong with the world right now. 

We pray for you. 

Remember to pray. Pray lots, and for lots of people, because the leaders of the world need divine inspiration. 

Quotes the lord's prayer. 

Pray for everyone, even people you don't like. 

(Do deaf people sign their prayers, when praying alone? What about when they pray in small, maybe family, groups?) 

Prayer will help us by making feel better. 

Pray everywhere you go. 

Personal story of being in pain from a surgery on the hand; prayer helped the pain.

Lisa L Harkness

Story of a child jumping into a lake and feeling she needed help, even though she was safe. Sometimes we do this too, because we can't see that we are safe with god. 

Biblical story of JC falling asleep in the boat that entered a storm and the disciples got scared and asked him to save them. 

Recent events can leave us feeling lost and afraid, but we should have faith in god.

Ulisses Soares

Seek JC in every thought and follow him with all our heart. 

Metaphor of magnet + metal object. Magnetic force holds objects tightly, but looses that power when the object is far away. 

Temptation will fade when we continue to resist it. 

JC told JS when in prison "let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men and women, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughths unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of god. The holy ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth." 

If you fall into temptation, there is hope. 

Story of friend who fell into temptation. He was sad. 

Prodigal son story.

Carlos A Godoy

I believe in angels. They're important. Some are here on earth. I'm gonna talk about those. 

I converted at 16, after two angels (sister missionaries) introduced me to the gospel at a church activity. 

I met another angel at youth conference. Her squad became my squad. 

Then I met two other angels; my seminary teacher and young men president. 

"Thanks to all these angels and many others I encountered during those important early years, I received enough srength to remain on the covenant path as I gained a spiritual witness of the truth." 

"Please, please do not give up on your efforts to be part of this big family. It is the true church of JC. When it comes to your happiness and salvation, it is always worth the effort to keep trying. It is worth the effort to adjust your lifestyle and traditions. The lord is aware of the challenges you face. He knows you, he loves you, and I promise he will send angels to help you."

Neil L Andersen

Jc's resume. 

"A recent study revealed that in the last 10 years, 30 million people in the US have stepped away from believing in the divinity of JC. Looking worldwide, another study predicts that in the decades ahead, more than twice as many will leave christianity than those who will embrace it." 

Use the correct name of the church and talk about JC more. We have to talk more about JC because the world is talking about him less.

Russell M Nelson

'Israel' means 'let god prevail'. 

Israel's descendants stoned the prophets. (...) 

My grandkid's wife was sad that her father was dying, but I told her she was being near-sighted. She felt better after looking at the big picture of god's plan. 

I greive for black people. 

(I can't listen to any more of this asshole, sorry.)

AFTERNOON SESSION 

Henry B Eyring

"My hope is to give encouragement when life seems especially difficult and uncertain. For some of you, that time is now. If not, such a time will come." 

Personal story of pulling weeds as a child and the frustration of the weeds breaking instead of coming out. Mother said "oh, Hal, of course it's hard; it's supposed to be. Life is a test." 

Story of us choosing to come to earth and satan disagreeing and getting followers. "Now, he tries to cause as many as he can to turn away from god during this mortal life." In the spirit world, we must have decided that whatever hardships we were going to face, "the forces of good would be overwhelmingly greater." 

Two quotes that say that god will be with us, and will help us, even in our darkest hours. 

God occasionally shows me the next couple of steps, but never a glimpse of the far future. 

Also, we need to help others. 

Another story of mother, who "all her life, she felt effects of the trials of illness. In her last 10 years of life, she required multiple operations. But through all, she proved faithful to the lord." "The last speaker [at her funeral] was elder Spencer W Kimball. After saying something of her trials and her faithfulness, he said essentially this: 'some of you may wonder why Mildred had to suffer so much and so long. I will tell you why. It was because the lord wanted to polish her a little more."

Jeremy R Jaggi

My youngest brother died two years ago. "We found comfort in the words of elder Neil L Anderson in general conference the week before Chad died: 'In the crucible of earthly trials, patiently move forward, and the savior's healing power will bring you light, understanding, peace, and hope.'" We'll be with him again, but losing him hurt. 

James 1:2. 

We thought 2020 would be all joy. Shit happened, but we're determined to see joy in this year anyway. 

Chapter 6 of 'Preach My Gospel'. 

"Blessed are the meek (etc)". 

Many unsourced quotes saying that the more you seek/follow/believe in JC, the happier you will be. 

Daughter, Emma, is a missionary. "[Emma] asked us to connect [online] with friends she was teaching [in the Netherlands]... We invited them to join our weekly online... study... All have become our friends." They've all converted. 

Nelson recently said "Voluntary fast offerings from our members have increased, as well as voluntary contributions to our humanitarian funds." 

"My brother Chad's passing came just a few months after our release from presiding over the Utah Ogden mission... Of all the 417 missions we could have been assigned to, we were assigned to... a 30-minute drive to Chad's home. Chad's cancer was diagnosed after we received our mission assignment. Even in the most trying circumstance, we knew that our heavenly father was mindful of us."

Gary E Stevenson

I was serving a mission in Japan. Kimball was speaking in Tokyo. I wanted to go. It was a long commute, so the mission president said no, but the rest of the branch went, so we were alone. Kimball announced a temple in Tokyo. I was disappointed to miss it. 

This is like the even deeper disappointment people today experience due to covid. 

How do we move forward? Consider the first verse of the BoM. 

Wife and I met online with many missionaries who still managed to do lots of ministering, despite covid restrictions. 

Think of "JS, languishing in Liberty Jail, feeling abandoned and forsaken, then hearing the words of the lord: 'these things shall be for thy good' and 'god shall be with you forever.'" 

"We, too, can draw parallels, as individual members and as a church, in the way in which we have been highly favored of the lord during the challenging times we have encountered during the past several months." 

"Let [these examples] strengthen your testimony of the seership of our living prophet, who prepared us with adjustments before any hint of a pandemic, enabling us to endure the challenges that have come." 

List of ways that we have been told to prepare. 

Story of a young woman who was just barely able to go to the temple right before leaving for her mission.

Milton Da Rocha Camargo

Gave his entire backstory before getting around to the topic: prayer. 

"An important part of heavenly father's plan is the opportunity to communicate with him anytime we want." 

"Every one that asketh, receiveth (etc)." 

"Recording our impressions is an important part of receiving. It helps us recall, review, and re-feel what the lord is teaching us." 

I like it when I have strong feelings after praying, but, more often, we're likely to hear the "still, small voice of the lord whispering to our mind and heart, 'I am here. I love you.'" 

"Revelation often comes when we are in the act of doing good."

Dale G Renlund

Can I be a better person? 

And "how can I, as a flawed person, qualify to 'dwell with god in a state of never-ending happiness'?" 

"Good deeds are not sufficient. Salvation is not earned... Left to our own devices, the prospect of returning to live in god's presence is hopeless. Without the blessings that come from heavenly father and JC, we can never do enough or be enough by ourselves... Because of and through JC, we can become enough." 

"We can be redeemed and stand clean and pure before god" by the ordinances of the gospel. 

"Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy god." 

*Jewish appropriation* 

Story of someone who had to remind someone "Dr. Jones, you became a physician to care for people and work to heal them. You didn't become a physician to judge them [on a self-infilcted wound]. If you don't understand the difference, you have no right to train at [Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD]." 

Don't think you're above others. 

"To be christlike, a person loves mercy... gracious, kind and honorable. These individuals treat everyone with love and understanding, regardless of characteristics such as race, gender, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and tribal, clan, or national differences."

Kelly R Johnson

Story of daughter who set the microwave to cook [instead of timer] for 30 min. It caught on fire. This is because microwaves need something in them to absorb the energy. 

"Our entire microwave went up in flames and burned because there was nothing on the inside. Likewise, those who have faith and the word of god deep in their hearts will be able to absorb and overcome the fiery darts which the adversary will surely send to destroy us." 

(As someone raised with a fire extiniguisher in the kichen, I feel the sudden urge to suggest this to anyone with children) 

(I have no idea what else he said because he used the word 'power' 34 times in his short talk, and it lost all meaning)

Jeffrey R Holland

Covid sucks and it's going on too long. 

We want to know when our struggles will be over. 

I'm now speaking about "those who would like to be married and aren't or who are married and with their marriage were a little more celestial. I speak of those who have to deal with the unwanted appearance of a serious medical condition, perhaps an uncurable one. Or face a life long battle with a genetic defect that has no remedy. I speak of the continuing struggle with emotional and mental health challenges that weigh heavily on the souls of so many who suffer with them and on the hearts of those who suffer with them. I speak of the poor, whom the savior told us never to forget. I speak of you, waiting for the return of a child no matter what the age, who has chosen a path different from the one you prayed he or she would take." Plus economic, political,and social concerns. 

Your prayers "are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way that we wanted." They'll be answered when and how god thinks they should be. 

We shouldn't ask for a stress-free life; struggles make us worthy to live with god.

Russell M Nelson

"We live in a glorious age, foreseen by prophets for centuries... Despite the world's commotion, the lord would have us look toward the future with joyful anticipation... The gathering of Israel moves forward. The lord JC directs the affairs of his church and it will achieve it's divine objectives. The challenge for you and me is to make certain that each of us will achieve his or her divine potential." 

Let JC be your 'new normal' by "repenting daily. Seek to be increasingly pure in thought, word, and deed. Minister to others. Keep an eternal perspective. Magnify your callings. And... live each day so that you are more prepared to meet your maker." 

Six new temples: Tarawa, Kiribati; Port Vila, Vanuato; Lindon, Utah; Greater Guatamala; Sao Paulo East, Brazil; and Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

[mikemortgage]

ICE quest for detention sites puts Trump county on tightrope

GOSHEN, Ind. — The sermon had been preached, the last prayers offered. Now, Mike Yoder decided, the time had come to share unsettling news.

As congregants at Silverwood Mennonite Church chatted around a Sunday potluck spread, Yoder, a county commissioner for 13 years and a dairy farmer for much longer, huddled with Pastor Jeremy Shue at the edge of the hall. There was a very good chance, Yoder confided, that the nation’s newest immigration detention centre would soon rise from a soybean field north of town.

“One of the only positives is that it would be less of a drive to protest,” Shue said.

Yoder needed no reminder of the potential for conflict. The Republican had paid close attention when nearly two-thirds of Elkhart County’s voters backed Donald Trump for president after a campaign in which he lambasted immigrants. He knew just as well that the politically mixed county seat and the largest local employers had made a place for thousands of immigrants from Mexico — a significant, but uncertain, number of them in the U.S. illegally.

It was a balancing act in this part of northern Indiana, founded on sometimes conflicting views about business and faith, community and law. And the proposal for a 1,200-bed detention centre put decision-makers on the tightrope.

“It was like a microcosm of all the different issues of immigration,” Yoder said, “right here in this county.”

——

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has long sought to consolidate immigrants held in scattered Midwest jails. Since 2011, contractors have proposed detention centres in seven communities near Chicago, from the exurb of Crete, Illinois, to the steel centre of Gary, Indiana.

“This is a game of whack-a-mole,” said Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, who has worked with activists to push a number of those proposals to defeat.

Local governments in Texas and California recently cancelled agreements to hold detainees for ICE even as other communities seek the jobs and dollars that doing so can generate.

But demand for those facilities is rising. Though Trump talks up building a border wall, his administration has focused a large part of its policy on arrests away from the border and is seeking new detention sites.

ICE does not own most of these facilities. Instead, it hires companies whose for-profit lockups hold two-thirds of the immigrants detained for being in the country illegally, with others in local jails under contract. The agency spends about $134 a day to hold each detainee, government figures show .

Last fall, ICE put out a request for new detention sites near Chicago, Detroit, Salt Lake City and St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as in South Texas, as it sought to expand capacity from 40,000 migrants to 51,000.

A proposal by CoreCivic Inc., one of the nation’s largest private prison companies, put Elkhart County on that list.

The county, two hours east of Chicago, is the hub of the booming recreational vehicle industry with around 2 per cent unemployment. A large Amish population has long provided many factory workers, but with 9,000 openings, “we have a lot of jobs that nobody wants,” said Yoder, whose father once led RV manufacturer Jayco Inc.

Immigrants have filled much of the gap in the workforce, yet residents remain divided on issues including immigration. More than 7,000 packed an Elkhart school gym in May to cheer Trump. But the county seat of Goshen — dotted with multilingual yard signs proclaiming “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbour”– is a counterweight, home to a Mennonite college and large Latino population.

The proposal for a detention centre would jab at those complexities. Yoder jumped in first, trying for a dialogue instead of a dispute.

“Commissioners had a mess to deal with, and that’s the reason I reached out early,” Yoder said. “It didn’t go as planned. Maybe that was because I was naive.”

——

Richard Aguirre had spent months helping start an ID card program for Goshen’s immigrants, many barred from obtaining driver’s licenses because they were in the U.S. illegally. To Aguirre, a Goshen College administrator, it was a victory, however local.

On campus, he knew dozens of students brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Aguirre had childhood memories of relatives struggling to get by without work papers.

“It struck me as unfair that depending on which side of the border you were born on, you had a good life or a fairly miserable life,” he said.

When Yoder heard about the detention centre, he knew it might antagonize people like Aguirre. But the project would be difficult to turn down, Yoder said. It would reap jobs and taxes from a site across from the county landfill and jail. Many Republican voters would likely back it.

So he asked his pastor to arrange a meeting with Mennonite clergy, many of whom preach a message of welcoming the stranger. If a detention centre was going to get built, Yoder said, maybe it would be best where clergy could minister to detainees.

He also was mindful of the county’s growing Latino population and Goshen’s more liberal voters. Elkhart County is about 16 per cent Hispanic, drawn to a region that produces 4 of every 5 RVs in North America. In Goshen, though, nearly a third of residents are Latino, accounting for more than half of school enrolment. Downtown, taquerias mix with wine bars and antique shops.

So the same day he spoke to pastors, Yoder met with Goshen Mayor Jeremy Stutsman, Aguirre and others.

“I’d really like your help communicating calmness,” the commissioner said.

“My reaction was, ‘No way!”‘ Aguirre said.

That night, he started a Facebook page for the Coalition Against the Elkhart County Immigration Detention Center. Activists had already planned a rally to celebrate the ID cards. Aguirre recast it as a protest.

Driving toward the courthouse on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Aguirre figured icy rain would cap turnout at 60. Then he climbed to the top of the granite steps, handing a microphone to Felipe Merino, an immigration attorney and the president of Goshen’s school board.

“I want you to raise your hands if you believe that we do not want an immigration detention facility in Elkhart County, Indiana!” Merino said.

More than 200 thrust fists from under umbrellas.

“No!” they shouted.

——

Listening to Yoder explain the detention centre, Neil Amstutz, pastor of Waterford Mennonite Church, knew it was a proposal he could not abide.

Years before, he had served as a missionary in Bolivia and worked in San Antonio, Texas, to settle refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala, becoming fluent in Spanish. After talking with fellow Mennonite clergy, he called a Mexican immigrant pastor, Jose Luis Gutierrez, whose Pentecostal church sits alongside an apple orchard two miles from Amstutz’s own.

Gutierrez’s church, Comunidad Cristiana Adulam, is named for the biblical cave where King David took refuge.

“Some people from my community find that kind of protection — they feel like refugees — in the church,” Gutierrez said. “It’s a safe place for worship because of the language, and it doesn’t matter if they have documents or not.”

With another pastor, Gutierrez and Amstutz invited clergy from around the county to meet, and the group made plans for a communitywide service to oppose the detention centre.

On Dec. 17, in a sanctuary decorated with candles for the holiday, an impromptu congregation filled most of the pews of Elkhart’s First Presbyterian Church.

“Why are we here?” Amstutz preached. “To show that whether or not our government builds a bigger wall to keep immigrants out, God’s church is about breaking down dividing walls!”

But many immigrants were increasingly apprehensive.

When 19-year-old Lizeth Ochoa first heard about the detention centre, she imagined a lockup filled with criminals.

“But then I realized, oh, it’s for people like me,” said Ochoa.

When Ochoa was 9 months old, her mother paid a smuggler to spirit them from Mexico. They joined her father, who had already found work in Elkhart.

Now, though, her place in the U.S. felt increasingly tenuous. President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative had eased concerns about deportation, but Trump was pulling the plug on the program. At home, she and her parents avoided talk of the detention centre, fearful of upsetting her four U.S.-born siblings. But quietly, she considered what they would do if ICE officers newly assigned to Elkhart knocked on their door.

“It’s been very stressful, (thinking) that my siblings might end up in foster homes because my parents and I would get deported,” said Ochoa, who will be a junior next fall at Goshen College. Nearly a quarter of its 900 students are now Latino, many brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children, and so Ochoa was not alone in worrying.

Trump’s election had already unsettled some in Gutierrez’s congregation. Talk of a detention centre renewed their uneasiness.

“If ICE can do that in this county, people are going to go away,” said Luis Fraire, a mechanic who came to Elkhart from Mexico 11 years ago, married and started a family and a business.

“We are all brothers in God,” he said, as fellow worshippers filtered out of Adulam one Sunday. “We pray to God because nobody else can stop this but him.”

——

To others, a detention centre was just what the county needed.

“Make sure you build it big ’cause it’s going to be overflowing,” George Holiday, a retired forklift driver, posted online.

In an interview, Holiday said the county had changed tremendously in recent years, with more signs in Spanish and new arrivals who don’t seem to speak English. Immigrants work hard but disregard laws requiring permission to enter or stay, he said.

A decade ago, Bob Schrameyer and fellow Goshen residents lobbied police to partner with ICE, and pushed employers to vet workers’ legal status. The problem, Schrameyer contends, is that many immigrants don’t pay their fair share of taxes, while collecting welfare benefits.

When he sought tighter controls, those who disagreed argued that enforcement was the federal government’s job. But when the Trump administration tried to do it, people complained about that, too, said Schrameyer, a retiree and founder of the local Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement.

The detention centre “was a no-brainer,” bound to bring in new taxes, Schrameyer said.

“But the loud opponents of it were the supporters of illegal immigrants in the area and, of course, they were worried the storm troopers were coming to town,” Schrameyer said.

On a recent morning, Roland Weaver put aside the trowel he was using to seal the foundation of his home, down County Road 7 from the proposed detention site. Such a facility would uphold the rule of law, he said, but there was more to it.

“We have a Constitution founded on the principles of God, and a lot of them, the illegals, they don’t have that where they’re from and so they can bring in their beliefs. That’s what waters down what this country was founded on,” said Weaver, a tiler at an RV plant.

“A lot of people say Jesus, he loved illegals and he didn’t have borders when he was on this earth. But, hey, it’s a different world.”

——

At a holiday gathering in late December, Mayor Stutsman ran into retired cardiologist Mark Smucker. Talking over the proposal, the men were joined by Galen Miller, owner of a poultry company and a friend of Smucker’s since childhood.

“The argument I made was if we ever solve our problems with immigration in this country, either by reform or by deporting everybody, at some point we aren’t going to need an immigration detention centre,” Smucker said. “It seemed to me that the people in the RV manufacturing community would not like to see even more of their workers drift away.”

Stutsman, a Democrat, proposed a letter of opposition. Miller agreed to reach out to executives at Elkhart’s RV companies.

Back when CoreCivic had first called, Yoder said he cautioned a company official that the biggest potential pitfall would be wariness from major employers. But any concerns had largely been kept silent.

“There is this dilemma,” said Jim Siegmann, former owner of a printing company who is active in business and civic circles. Many of Elkhart’s business leaders, he said, are politically conservative but count on immigrant workers, though some are in the U.S. illegally.

“They know they couldn’t run their businesses without them,” he said.

When a small group met in Stutsman’s office, several executives endorsed his letter.

Worries, though, were stretching beyond profits. Civic leaders, wary of recessions and the region’s reputation as flyover country, had long invested in projects to make the county a draw for companies and workers. How did a detention centre fit that script?

On a recent morning, Pete McCown, president of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, pointed from his office window to construction turning an industrial island at the junction of Elkhart’s rivers into a new hub with hundreds of apartments. Construction workers clambered over a shell that will house a $68 million community centre with a natatorium for competitive swimming.

Elkhart wants jobs, McCown said. But a detention centre would add positions that could be difficult to fill, while potentially labeling the county as a place to lock people up.

“We don’t want that to become our identification,” he said.

——

Stopping by the Electric Brew coffee shop in early January, Yoder ran into Aguirre.

CoreCivic officials were coming to meet business leaders, the commissioner said. Activists, whose online group had swelled to more than 2,000, organized a news conference, so representatives from the Nashville-based company would arrive to find their proposal in headlines.

The next morning, Jan. 17, Aguirre and others held protest signs outside Ivy Tech Community College as visitors in suits filed in.

Inside, CoreCivic representatives laid out their plans to executives from Thor Industries Inc. and Forest River Inc., the country’s largest RV makers; parts supplier Lippert Components; and other major employers.

They and other executives declined to comment or did not respond to calls or emails. But people who attended the meeting or spoke with those who did said that after listening to CoreCivic’s presentation, local executives were very direct.

“I do business here. I’ve been here my whole life, and I don’t want you to come here,” Forest River CEO Peter Liegl is said to have told the visitors.

Employers’ biggest issue was that a detention centre “would create concern and fear within the Latino community and would lead them to relocate,” said CoreCivic spokesman Steve Owen, who attended the meeting.

“That, to me, was the defining moment,” said Yoder.

The next day, Stutsman released his letter.

“Any tax dollars generated by the project wouldn’t be enough to offset the long-lasting damage such a facility would do to our county,” he wrote, backed by 45 CEOs and civic leaders. “Join us in showing all newcomers to our communities how welcoming we are.”

Yoder counselled CoreCivic officials to think over their next move. It came the following Monday.

“After careful consideration,” a company official wrote, “CoreCivic has decided to withdraw its application.”

“We won!” Aguirre posted on Facebook. “We won!”

——

On the first Friday night of each month, Goshen residents gather around the Elkhart County Courthouse for a street festival.

In early June, an Amish couple sold kettle corn. Children scribbled their names on the sidewalk with chalk. A local band, Los Ortega, pumped Mexican dance tunes across the grass.

“I love living here,” said Pepe Urzua, a roofer who arrived from Mexico eight years ago, cradling his infant daughter. “It’s a place where you want to raise your kids.”

Across the grass, Rob Emahiser, a salesman for a tire manufacturer, looked out over the crowd.

“I’m a Trump-loving Republican, and I love everything about this community,” he said.

Emahiser raised his beer to the tax cut Trump signed into law. Then he praised Latino co-workers and neighbours for working hard and taking care of their families — and pointed out that sometimes he and the president would have to disagree.

“They wanted to build a detention centre in this town,” he said as a guitarist led a line of dancing Latino couples through lengthening shadows. “That’s just not who we are.”

——

Geller can be reached at ageller//twitter.com/AdGeller

Read more of AP’s coverage of the reverberations of the Trump administration’s policies on immigration here .

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2LKFu6w via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[gracegoestoecuador2018]

A beautiful work & taste of home.

By: Lennart Boecken

May this blog give glory to our God and encouragement to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is 10:25pm Ecudorian Time (11:25 Eastern Time) as I start writing this post so please forgive me if it sounds jumbled or incomplete.

Before jumping into what has happened on this trip so far, there are a few context related matters I want to make you aware of. First was that going into this trip, I knew that it was the Lord’s will I go. However, while it also was in my heart to go to serve the people here in Ecuador, something told me that there was another reason for me to go, one of which I was not aware yet. Secondly, I am German by birth and still hold citizenship there and it has been growing steadily on my heart over the last year to return to my homeland, the Lord being willing to let me go, to serve my people there.

Going from this, our 1st day here was one of resting (AKA we were tourist for the day) and while perhaps interesting, is not significant for this blog. It was on our 2nd day that the work started as we headed to the Nate Saint house down in Shell, Ecuador to do some necessary repairs around the home. We also delivered boxes from Samaritan’s purse to a local pastor, Wilson, and distributed them to approximately 85-95 local children he and his wife minister too. The 3rd day we continued our work at the Nate Saint House, spending all day there this time and also having the opportunity to fly into the jungle to visit the tribe which the five men who were speared tried to visit so many years ago. Personally, I did not go due to time constraints, yet I know it was in the Lord’s plan that I not see the Huaorani for reasons beyond me and I am content knowing this for as the Psalmist writes,

He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake.. (Psalm 23:4)

However, he did have other plans for me as you will see. While in Shell we stayed at a small hotel / hostel, where at the same time a couple with their two children were staying as well. This couple happened to be German. During our time there, I had the opportunity to speak with my fellow Germans in our native tongue, something that I cannot do everyday and least of all expected on this trip. As many of you can understand, there is something to your homeland or Vaterland as it is called in German and having my culture and language almost forcibly taken from me when I first came to the States, my longing for my country is deep and my desire for it and my people has been growing greatly over the last year, that they may know Christ and glorify him. This small gesture from the Lord touched me deeply. Furthermore, upon their departure, one of our members took the time to pray for Tobias and his two children, Vinzent & Cornelius and his wife. Again, a small gesture that means much to me for Germans are a proud people, many of whom have rejected God and to know he loves them as he loves all is an unspeakable joy to me.

Moving from here or perhaps in parallel to this, during our time visiting our brother Wilson, who ministers to extremely poor villagers, having moved to live among them with his wife, and during our time serving at the Nate Saint house and seeing the work inspired by and still going on today in Ecuador because of it and lastly seeing ahead in anticipation of the work that awaits us these next few days, it is humbling to see the Lord working through all sorts of means to reach the people of Ecuador, that they may know him and have eternal life in Christ Jesus. His hand in Ecuador here is evident and he has inspired a beautiful vision and dream in my heart through this. Yet before we go there (again, sorry if his seems disorganized), let me share with you about the work going on in Ecuador. First and foremost, there is much work going on in different places. Accompanying on this trip is Gary Meier, who having served for 26 years in Ecuador is now living back in the States. While he may no longer labor today doing this work, he worked in radio for many years here and also help build part of a school (which we will visit later this week) and many others projects. Then there is the people who flew some of us out to he Huaorani tribe (forgot the name of the organization). Brother Wilson works for them while also serving with his wife to serve some of the poor communities of Ecuador as previously said. Their radio man, is a man who speaks only Spanish, married to an American who came here to serve as a missionary. Then there is the Nate Saint House itself and those who help preserve it and the testimony it serves as and then there is the Huaorani tribe itself, who are now believers today. These are only some of the faithful servants of the Lord I am aware of serving here in Ecuador and we can be certain there are many more. I tell you, even though my heart yearns greatly for my people and my homeland, it is an equally great joy to see the Lord and that he is good and faithful, nurturing and growing his church in beautiful Ecuador. He is the source of all good things here in Ecuador and around the world.

May glory be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who sits as King of all Kings and Lord of all lords. May every tongue, tribe and nation bow before him who his worthy of all praise!!

O how sweet his joy is, seeing him work all around the world to build his church for the praise of his name! To know him and to call on his name as Lord and Savior is a gift beyond our wildest imaginations, for he truly knows how to give good gifts to his children! To return to testifying about this trip, as I had mentioned, seeing the work here in Ecuador spoke deeply to my heart with this clear thought that, Lord willing I will one day return to my people to minister unto them the same way, Pablo and so many natives and foreigners do to the people of Ecuador. The Great Commission stands true to this day and will until he returns. Oh my dear brothers and sisters, how and where he calls you certainly is unique to you, yet please do not ignore his call for in answering it you will not only be a great blessing unto many who are now in darkness but will discover that the riches of Christ are far greater than you ever imagined.

May our Lord Jesus Christ keep you and provide you overflowing mercy and grace and may you be strengthened by him to answer his call to sacrifice all for the sake of his great and glorious name.

Your brother in Christ, Lennart Boecken

 PS this blog was written in one shot and while it may not make the most sense at all times, I hope it lays out my heart for you to see what God has done.

[pamphletstoinspire]

THE BEST PLACE TO PRAY

When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (Matthew 6:6)

The obvious answer to the question is, anywhere and everywhere, “walking in public or strolling alone... seated in your shop...while buying or selling...or even while cooking” (St. John Chrysostom). There are no limits.

When I was teaching high school, I used to work out at a local fitness center that many of the students used. They would see me running on the treadmill at night, praying my rosary. Often students asked me, “Does praying on the treadmill count?”

I think there is a special place in purgatory for the person that originated the notion that some places count more than others do. Did this individual ever consider what this implies about the God who longs for us? Imagine God saying, “I’m not listening, Gary, because you are on the treadmill.” That is certainly not the God of Jesus Christ. The Father always hears us, whenever and wherever we cry out to him.

THE PERFECT PRAYER SPACE IS WHERE YOU MAKE IT

Just to be clear, one of my favorite places in the world to pray is the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (I prefer sitting in the left-hand corner if you’re facing the tabernacle). The trouble is, I do not live in Rome, and I am rarely there. When Jesus tells his followers to go their rooms to pray, he is speaking about our capacity for interiority. He is not referencing a specific location. While designated places of prayer are invaluable, not everyone has regular access to them. What each of us can do, however, is fashion a prayer space of our own. Many martyrs of the Church turned their prison cells into great oratories where they poured out their souls to Christ. Many horrific, inhuman spaces have been consecrated by the women and men that used them as a place to commune with God. I think of Maximilian Kolbe singing God’s praises in solitary confinement while dying. I also think about all the lives saved because faithful members of Christ’s body prayed outside or across the street from abortion clinics.

It would be great if every day when we go off by ourselves to pray we could do that in a chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. This is unrealistic, and not even what the Church commands. For this reason, when we do have occasion to be alone with God in the presence of his Eucharistic Son, we should be grateful. Nevertheless, most of us will spend the majority of our alone time in our homes (or perhaps for commuters, in our cars, on public transportation, or walking). It is important that the space we use, like the time we spend, be the same. Our familiarity with designating a particular space for prayer will help move us into meditative, reflective conversation.

I have set aside a corner of my bedroom. I use the chair I sit in to pray only for that purpose. I place nothing on it, nor do I sit in it to tie my shoes or talk on the phone. I use it only for prayer, and the little stand that is next to it holds only my prayer book (and a statue of the Little Flower and a picture of Mother Teresa and a chaplet to the Blood of Christ). When I enter into this precious little space, I know I am doing so to be in the presence of God.

The choice of location is extremely important. Ideally, the chosen place should not be the center of commotion and activity. A quiet place that is comfortable, soothing, and familiar lends itself to what we are about, namely a retreat into the interiority of our hearts. We should be physically comfortable and as free from all external distractions as possible. A cramped awkward space next to noisy appliances, loud neighbors, and other intrusive noise is not necessarily helpful, especially when starting out. If you chose to make a prayer space outside, on a stoop, a patio, or a balcony, keep in mind the same parameters.

Should you choose a space favorited by your dog or cat, they need to learn you are not there to give them attention. They will learn over time and will even pray themselves. I had a cat that would join me each morning in the chapel in the house I lived in at the time. She would come in and sit calmly next to me the entire time I was at prayer. I know she was blessing the Lord just as dolphins and all water creatures do. My iguanas, snake, and parrots, on the other hand, never blessed the Lord in the chapel. Where I live now, a beaver that lives on the river where I fly-fish likes to sit next to me while I say Morning Prayer. As the sun crests over the mountains, we sit side by side (about fifteen yards apart) and together bless the Lord. That beaver is extremely devout.

MAKING YOUR SPACE WORK FOR YOU

Wherever I have lived, I have created a place that I use only for conversation with the Lord. I have found this to lend itself well to the task. I know this may appear to be difficult for those with young children at home, so a little creativity may be helpful. Tell your children what you are doing and why. This can be a great teaching tool. For those that are married, work together on identifying the right space.

If in identifying a regular time you decide that the commute to work offers the best opportunity, then make certain your car is properly equipped (e.g., a clean interior). What also may be helpful is a holy card afixed to the dash, a rosary hanging from the rearview mirror (if legal), and a bottle of holy water that can be used to bless the interior before you begin your drive. The Missionaries of Charity always pray when driving from point A to point B, even if only driving a block. I rarely have passengers in my car and am not in the habit of listening to the radio, so I constantly talk to the Lord while driving. You will be surprised at how quickly you will look forward to and become accustomed to the drive because it means you are alone with the Lord.

In truth, we can consecrate any space to the Lord, but we should give special attention to ensure that our prayer is not competing with whatever else may regularly be going on in the space (for instance, the bathroom). For many, the bathroom may be the only place to grab a quick few moments alone, which is fine, but it should not become the go-to place for substantive time with the Lord. This is not to suggest that the demands of the body are bad (the Jewish people have a prayer that is said after having attended to the needs of the body); it is simply that everything about the space can be an obvious hurdle to overcome. I pray in my bathroom every morning. While I shower, I renew my baptismal promises as the water falls over me. It proves to be a concrete way of reminding myself that I do reject Satan, his works and empty promises. I also affirm what I believe because of the person I have become.

Insofar as we all experience many natural distractions, it is important that the place we choose in being alone with God does not have too many built-in or customary distractions. Having said this, if you find that the only place in your home available to steal away and be with God is the bathroom (the tub, shower, etc.), then have at it. Be sure, however, to do something similar to what I mentioned about the car. Sprinkle some holy water and physically make the room a place for prayer. Do not simply do this in your mind. It must be a physical, overt act.

Written by: Fr. Gary Caster