God Is Calling Us To Great Things!

God is calling us to great things!

NY mission trip recap

We arrived at Laguardia Airport

We could see the Mets stadium on the way to our hotel.

We stayed at the Best Western in Jamaica, NY - Queens

South Asian Center in Jackson Heights, NY Queens to teach ESL

They use the Bible to teach ESL.

Met a fellow from Bangladesh

Met a guy from Tibet and Colombia

Had a fall festival for the kids at Hart Park

Had games, balloons, story time, and candy

Camille the director met with parents to see if they would like ESL

Went to the Brooklyn to meet with Florence

Meet Mommu from Gambia - common name

He had to crawl through the bushes for 50 days to keep from being seen and shot, then went through several countries before coming here and then next he was to go on to South America to see his family.

We then went to the Bronx to go to the community center there to teach ESL.

About 25 people were there for us 5 and 2 to teach.

We broke into groups of 5 or so and each of us took a group and taught ESL

The people were mostly from West Africa

Some were from Columbia and Saudi Arabia and other places.

We saw Yankee Stadium from the train.

We went to LeFrack area in NY to an apartment center there.

The big apartment center had people mostly from South America.

Peru, Argentina, Brazil, etc.

The church was in the basement next to a Jewish temple and a mosque.

Hurricane Ida flooded the church in the basement so they had all of their belongings stacked in the middle of the church so the sheetrock could be replaced.

We moved all of the belongings to the Sunday school rooms, cleaned up the floor, and set up chairs and disinfected them.

On our day off we went to

Manhattan

on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty so we also went to Staten Island.

So we got to see all 5 NY boroughs! Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island!

Mission trips can bring a lot of anxiety.

You are going to a strange place and you don’t know what you are getting into sometimes.

It was way out of our comfort zones! For sure!

You can look at it like, I changed my mind, I don’t want to do it, or you can look at it like I’m here to do a job so I’m here to work!

Sometimes when we get nervous we want to back out but then when we realize it’s for a good reason we press on (hopefully)!

So we swallow our fear and step up and do what we were there to do!

Fear and doubt sometimes keeps us from doing great things!

When you overcome fear and doubt, sometimes you are blessed with seeing the great things God is calling us to do!

When you let fear and doubt overtake you, you may miss that blessing and you don’t get to see those great things that God is calling us to do.

Pre Question:

What are you afraid of? What is fear and is it rational? Does fear paralyze you?

When you are faced with a challenge do you shrink away from it or face it dead on?

How do you feel our church would fare in a spiritual challenge?

Does stepping out of faith ever look safe?

How do you know when something is foolish or the right thing to do? God vs feelings?

We will never see great things if we are fearful and doubtful.

Casting Crowns has a song called the Voice of Truth that’s really good.

Oh what I would do to have The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone To the realm of the unknown where Jesus is And He's holding out his hand

In Numbers we see where the exiles from Egypt wanted to go into the promised land.

But before they did, they decided to scope it out to make sure all was fine to do so.

So they sent 12 spies into the land to scope it out and report back what was found there.

Numbers 13:27-33

27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.