Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 22, 2015 | Thanksgiving Service of Praise

Transcript

November 22, 2015 | Thanksgiving Service of Praise · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you guys answered.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: You guys answered.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Something's seriously wrong.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, other people may think that Thanksgiving is just a week of football and food.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, those are good things.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: But you and I know that it means more, that gratitude is more than just sort of a prelude to Christmas, that gratitude is that the most humble people are the most grateful people.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Other people are like, I deserve more.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Humble people are like, I'm so grateful for everything I've been given.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thankful people are the most joyful people.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Book of Romans indicates that thankful people, that's the doorway to becoming a Christian, that you say, thank you, God, for your gift of Jesus.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: That people who aren't grateful for that are not believers.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that divides us, saying, Thank you for Jesus and for giving me the promise of eternal life.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on Thanksgiving service of praise, if you've just joined us, my favorite service of the year, we always have really awesome, you know, worship.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: We don't always do it's all about that base, you know.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: But for those of you that know the song, it's all about that base.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: That was really cool, okay?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: For the others of you, go to YouTube, look up it's all about that base, and then look up it's all about that based.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: So cool.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, but what we do is we also we always have uh family, a couple, a person or two at TBC who gives special thanks on this Sunday for something God's done for them this last year.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do that by video, and we also introduce our Christmas project.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: So to sort of kick those off, I want you to open your Bible to Psalm 116, 116, Psalm 116, which is this remarkable Thanksgiving psalm where the psalmist uh felt like he was dying.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: He he says he felt like the tendrils of death were crawling, like in those movies, crawling up around his body and going around his throat, and he was about to die.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thought he was gonna die, he was helpless.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: He cried out to God, and God delivered him, and now he gives thanks, okay?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And this is gonna be a perfect picture of this uh Thanksgiving video you're gonna see.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, Psalm 116, let me read this for you.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: If any of you go to the Casting Crowns concert this week, because they uh they did one of their songs two years ago, was uh on their album two years ago, was this Psalm, Psalm 116.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So listen to this.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: First 11 verses are what are are how God delivered him.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love the Lord, for he heard my voice, he heard my cry for mercy.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because he turned his ear to me, I'll call on him as long as I live.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm just reading out of that pew Bible that's uh the NIV that's underneath the pew back in front of you, if you didn't bring a Bible.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 the cords of death entangled me.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: What a picture.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: The anguish of the grave came upon me.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you have had this happen.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: You've been in a car wreck, had another, you know, you've been in the hospital, you thought you might die, and you just cried out as in verse 4.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Then I cried out in the name of the Lord, oh Lord, save me.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord is gracious and righteous.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Our God's full of compassion, and he protects the simple hearted.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And when I was in great need, he saved me.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord's been good to you.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul, or my life, in Hebrew, that's what it means.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: My life from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I believe, therefore, I said I'm gratefully afflicted in my dismay.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I said, All men are liars.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, then the last half is, okay, what's going to be my response?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord's delivered me from physical death.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: He's delivered you perhaps from spiritual death, you know, with the gift of his son.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So what's the response?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the response in 12 through 19 starts very famously with the words, how can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'll lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now that verse has even a deeper meaning when you consider that Jesus said or sang that verse the night before he died.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: For Psalm 116 is one of the six halel psalms, the hallelujah psalms that are always sung, even by Jews today on Passover.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: They sing 113 and 114 before the meal, 115, 16, 17, and 18 after the meal.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: So there in the upper room, the night before he died, Jesus is singing about death, which he knows is going to happen to him real soon.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And imagine this moment where he reaches out his hand, grabs the third cup of the fourth cup, the four cups that they always drank, and the third cup, which is called the cup of salvation, he lifts that cup up, and Jesus himself said this, I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: What must that have engendered in his feelings, knowing that he's going to make that the cup of salvation by obediently going to the cross in just a few hours?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the angels, hearing those words, I'm sure, shuddered, stepped back.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: God, his father, grieved as he lifted up that cup and said, I'll lift up the cup of salvation.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you and I are sitting here today because Jesus not only lifted up the cup of salvation, but went to the cross that next day and drank of it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says in verse 15, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: O Lord, truly I am your servant.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, his mother, the maidservant Mary, was at the cross.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: I will sacrifice verse 17 a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Second time in five verses that the psalmist has said this, I'll fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people in the courts of the house of the Lord in your midst, O Jerusalem.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now here's the lesson.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Listen carefully.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is the lesson for you, and this is the lesson for me.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord has delivered you from death.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: He has.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: From physical death.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you didn't even know about it, but he spared you from death.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe for some of you you know about it.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: You're at the edge of death, and the cords of death entangled you.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you cried out, and God saved you, rescued you, delivered you.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: What's supposed to be your response?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer he says twice is I'm gonna say it out loud.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna publicly praise the Lord.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give him public thanks.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're gonna see a couple in our church who do that right now in video.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Blaine and Lindy Clark, the cords of death entangled them in a worse way than if you die yourself.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was their baby, it was their unborn baby in the womb, and they heard this awful news about their unborn baby that this baby would not live.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Notice as you listen how God delivered them and how they respond.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Blaine and Lindy Clark.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_04: This is Blaine and Lindy Clark, and this is our story of Caroline her 19-week ultrasound.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_06: Um sh they kept looking at her heart and they kind of kept going over the same thing, and I didn't know what they were looking at, and they finally told us, hey, there's something going on with your daughter's heart.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, we it was devastating.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_06: Birds will be so.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_04: For me, the biggest fear was the fear of helpless.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I I was in the situation where my wife was hurting and the world just crashed down on us, and there was nothing I could do.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_06: I blamed myself at first, you know, trying to see like, well, what did what did I do?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_06: Like what what did we do wrong?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and there wasn't anything we did wrong.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_06: When I would pray, I was like, God, obviously you can do anything because you're the creator and you're so strong, and so there's nothing you can't do.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_06: But I didn't know if he would choose to do that for us.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_05: The flowers have sprung, the day is brand new.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_04: There's nothing special about Caroline or about our family or about anything, aside from the fact that we asked, and God was faithful.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: He showed his He showed his power.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_06: Dear Keller.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_06: My parents live about an hour away from one of the nation's top pediatric cardiology centers.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_06: Um and so that's where we decided.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_06: You read about it a lot, that's where we decided to go.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_04: Five weeks before she was due, Lindy actually moved down to Texas.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_05: Dear Carol Light.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: Our little girl should have died within two or three days of being born.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_04: And now she's gonna be six months old in two days.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just it's because of him only.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: Just to wake alike for us.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_06: So she needs two of the three surgeries.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and after her third surgery, it's more of a let's hope and pray that she doesn't have any further complications.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_06: Most of the kids that have had this particular surgery that have survived are in their 30s.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_04: And he not only allowed this girl to be healed, but she has surpassed everything they've ever said she was gonna be.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_04: She wasn't gonna be a fat little baby, she wasn't gonna be big, she wasn't gonna have energy, she was gonna be fussy and weak and small and frail.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: And she is a tank.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_04: She is an amazing little girl.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: And it's nothing that we did, you know.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: The doctors who were phenomenal were blown away by her.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_04: So that proved that something even greater and beyond them was at work, and it was God.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: Just to winkle like a fireful light to last through the We got to see the fact that the body of Christ is a body of Christ.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_04: We're not just church members, but we're a group of people who are supposed to love each other and sacrifice for each other, and we got a firsthand experience of receiving that.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_06: Sometimes when we were so emotionally exhausted and we were asking other people to pray because like we couldn't carry ourselves that we were being carried, and so but God constantly stepped in and provided, and it was like miracle after miracle after blessing.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_06: Just to winkle like a fireful light to last through the night.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_06: He's personal, he has showed up.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_06: Sometimes feels like he has physically shown up in our lives, and so at that point, I'm like, you can't tell me God's not real.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_06: I've met him.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_05: The darkness is gone, the flowers are spread.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_06: I always knew God was big.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_06: God is much more personal than I ever thought.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'm grateful that he chose us.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_04: I'm grateful that I have my sweet little girl.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_06: I'm thankful that God has sustained us through this whole thing and He He has let us keep her here because every day, even if it's hard, every day is one more day that she's here with us.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_06: Even if your life doesn't start with a miracle story, he has a plan for you.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that you need more when you are helpless and entangled with death.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing that you need more than the God who is both powerful and personal, right?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what God was for Blaine and has been for Blaine and Lindy.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we think God wants us to be in the lives of some other helpless children down in Haiti.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I want to introduce you to our Christmas project and how God wants us to get involved at this orphanage and these churches in Haiti.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Play a two-minute video, and I'm gonna ask you guys to come on up.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Haiti, a jewel of the Caribbean where rocky mountains marry clear ocean waters, plundered for her wealth and exploited for her people, now the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: A nation born out of suffering, a people made stronger for the struggle.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Haiti, a country prone to chaos and confusion, for people forever fighting for freedom, protection, and justice, for people strong, proud, and capable.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Where need does not hide its face and suffering has no shape, where man's brokenness is undeniable and unavoidable, where 70% of people live in poverty and 15% of all children are orphans.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: Haiti, where a small but powerful woman set out to change her village and change her culture, one hungry child at a time.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Where Centered Children International lifeline to Haiti Six, an oasis of calm and country's dangers.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Where children are fed, clothed, educated, and given shelter to forever families, where villagers have access to clean water, quality medical care, where families find help and hope.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Haiti Lifeline Ministries began in answer to a call to support the orphaned and widowed, to meet the need of the helpless and fatherless.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: We exist to provide food, shelter, education, and medical care to those in need, in answer to God's calls.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: We exist to share the love of Jesus with his people's sister, to be his sister.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: In sharing that love, we often find Jesus in our sins.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: We go to answer a call.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Full disclosure, uh our church, Topeka Bible, is deeply involved already in Haiti, but we want to take another step up.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And Emily, uh hi girl, my daughter-in-law.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh would you and Matt tell us a little about the whole, for especially for the sake of people just visiting this party, a little a little bit more about Haiti Lifeline and why you guys are so inspired about that?
• 17:08
  unknown: Yeah.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_13: Um for those of you who don't know Haiti Lifeline very well, um, Haiti Lifeline Ministries exist to empower and encourage the community in Quadabouquet, Haiti, where we have a Center Children International.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_13: And uh through that, there's uh a school, there's a clinic, um, there's an orphanage there, as uh as well as a partnership um with churches.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_13: Um and so Haiti Lifeline um supports them financially.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_13: Um we support them through the school and allow funding for that, as well as the kids that live there.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_13: Um we support them uh spiritually and prayerfully, um, as well as sending teams around that do dental and medical clinics, um vocational camps or vacation bible school, um, things of that nature.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_13: I actually got started um going on a medical team uh very last minute a couple spots opened up in Jim knew that I had a passion um for medicine and it's my background, um, as well as the children, and it's kind of the combination of my two big passions.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_13: And so I I got to go on a medical team almost two years ago and that's where I really got started.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_13: Um and really I keep going back, not just because it's where my passion lies with kids and with medicine and with providing that to people who don't have that, um, but because God is changing me personally each and every time I go.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_13: Um I am naturally a very independent, task-oriented, I get things done, I don't rely on a lot of other people, and um I am fully capable and able to get things done.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_13: And um God uses that to prepare for teams, and we need that, and and and yet I I act that way towards God.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_13: Um and God uses Haiti, and in Haiti, you are not in control, you are not able, you're weak, you're helpless.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_13: Um Matt and I laugh all the time about how we get there.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_13: We get sick, I lose my voice every team, I get three hours of sleep a night, I'm exhausted, and so I continually have to fall at the feet of Christ and give him everything.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_13: I'm not able, and it's very apparent.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_13: Um, and so he uses these teams to humble me and make me come to him as a little child, to be weak and helpless, and to show that if I'm to do anything, I need to rely on him to be able, and through him I'm able.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is me and a cookie line, so it's very evident that I go for the cookies.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um Emily's been a big asset to our ministry, and and I'll probably embarrass her a little bit now, but um she has uh she has helped us tremendously over the last years as we've picked up teams and and I had a need in that medical department as well.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: So um she's uh currently raising funds if anybody uh is interested.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I keep going to Haiti um for several reasons.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I got involved um many years ago right after the earthquake, and every time I go, God um uses it to humble me um in new ways.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I do pray every time uh before going that God would show me um uh would would break my heart again because I don't ever want to become deaden to what uh what I see every time I go.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so uh ten days ago, we just had a couple teams get back uh within the last couple weeks, and ten days ago we were out um buying supplies for the team and we were at a little um uh shop on the on the side of the street buying coke, actually.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and as we sat there waiting for the coke to come out, there was a little girl that was running around from from person to person, you know, uh didn't appear that she had any caretakers with her.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a flashback to uh when we first met our daughter at the at the orphanage and and she was of the same size, you know, same same little tiny little legs, um dirty, uh no shoes running around in the street there.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um her hair was braided the same way, but the ends were orange, meaning that she was malnourished.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um had this moment where I where God just used that again to wreck my heart and in a way that that told me this is why we're going.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh our daughter had the chance to be in at Lifeline, she doesn't.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: She's on the street, maybe, maybe she'll be able to go to a place like Lifeline or find a family someday.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So as we were pulling away, she she waved and um they you know tried to stick her on our truck.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's a horrible, horrible feeling.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But that's why we keep going back.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let me cut, can I I'm gonna call up four other Connie, would you come up?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And Angela, Melody, um, Brian, would you guys come up?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: I want to interview, because all four of them, how how many people this is how many trips this year?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: What does that make?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_13: Um we had a team in January, team in April, two teams in June, team in July, and then the two teams in November.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, uh I'm Mel.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: I grabbed Melody because she's my wife and I love her.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, and you're down working on uh roasting the turkeys thing?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_12: Uh, they're all done.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_12: They're just waiting to be eaten.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_12: Wow, how many, how many this year?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_12: Uh 18, 20 pounders.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_12: Wow.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds really Mario and I could eat one by ourselves.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we need to.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, this was your first trip down, wasn't it?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_12: It was.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_12: It was uh my first trip.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_12: I I think everybody else in my family is gone, and so um it worked out that I could go and uh I can't say enough about this ministry.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_12: Apart from the fact that I'm related to this girl, she's amazing.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_12: And Matt and the work that they have done and started and continue to do is incredible.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_12: I've gone a lot of missions trips.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_12: This was special for me.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_12: And it's right down my alley because you're meeting physical needs.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_12: In case you didn't know, he's the brain and I'm the braun.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_12: And uh and so I have to be working and swapping things.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_12: And uh so I'm a really physical person, and so meeting physical needs uh is kind of my thing, and so this was uh a perfect trip for me.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_12: Um I'm also used to being in charge, and I wasn't, and so it was great to just be bossed around and um and to work with the lights of great documents.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_12: I said somebody else, honey, not you.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_12: Um Brian, uh Brian Boyd, uh I have known for several years but never uh have worked with him, and he was great.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_12: I will just tell you, he has a sense of humor that's not it's very worked.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_12: He would um he would look at the older ladies that came into the medical clinic, and he would get this very puzzled look, and he'd say, You, two babies, two babies, and they go, Oh no.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_12: So it was kind of the standard joke, but um my job was to be a medical clinic runner, and so I would take the patient and I would take them to their exam room and then follow them to the end and help uh by means of a translator uh describe what prescriptions and all they needed.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_12: And so that was I got to live out my Florence Nightingale childhood dream of being a nurse, and so I just looked at the part, I really didn't have any idea what I was doing.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_12: So um, but it was great.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_12: Two things that I walked away with the Haitian people are so grateful.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_12: They are grateful for anything, but especially when you're meeting physical needs, they are grateful to have doctors and nurses that can see them, and they are so grateful to walk away with a baggie full of multivitamins.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_12: Something that we would just take for granted.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_12: That is incredible, and they just have a contentment that comes from deep down from the Lord, and their joy comes from the Lord, and that's all they have, and that's all they need.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_12: Um you can meet physical needs.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_12: There are just a lot of them.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_12: There's a box outside, if I fail to mention it, and um there are just physical things that they need all the time baby formula, um, diapers, uh, feminine hygiene products, um, school supplies, those kind of things are there, there's just physical needs that they need.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_12: Um my last story is just that uh uh when I was in the clinic, I as I said, I would go down the line with someone and I was waiting in line for my translator to get done to to be able to tell my patient what they needed to do.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_12: And there was a father with his two sons, and I'm guessing they were five, seven years old.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_12: Um, and they were there and they're just the cutest boys.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_12: And I was thinking of my grandsons at the time and about how they're how they were about the same age, and big big eyes, and and sitting there.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_12: And the father became more and more animated with the translator, and they were talking back and forth really quickly, and we couldn't figure out what was going on.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_12: Only later to find out that um the father was frantic to be able to talk to Mama Nicole, who you saw on the video, Mama Nicole, who's in charge of the orphanage.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_12: And basically what he was telling um the translator was, I must talk to Mama Nicole, I must talk to her because uh we have too many children at home to take care of, and I need her to take my two sons.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_12: And um, that uh was hard for me to get over the rest of the night and to come home and to think physically not being able to provide for two of your own children and for those two children who sat there hearing their father having to give them up um to an orphanage.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_12: And uh, if you don't think we're meeting needs there, we are.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_12: It's a it's a phenomenal ministry, and I encourage you to go.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, all right.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Brian, um come on up here with you.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you're part of this medical thing.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: You were telling me last service you've gone four times.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_10: Yes, sir.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you're a surgeon.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Chris, your doctor why what what does she do as an Chris is an oncologist?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_10: She's been every time that I've gone.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite things was helping you with surgery.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I was doing most of it, but you know.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you're part of the medical thing.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad, and you're also adopting uh a child from down there.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Tell tell us a little about this for you.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_10: Uh touch on the this latter first.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_10: Uh adopting a child.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_10: We were we're a couple years into that process and you had a little small miracle there.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_10: Um, Carissa and one of the Schaefer ladies, oh man, they're awesome, Cindy and uh Carly Schaefer, but that we were working side by side and they had this uh basically the long story made short, we got to meet the uh our adoptive child's older sister and just got some insight into their life and their home that we never otherwise would have had in one of our community clinics.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_10: But like Pastor Jim said, we've been there for four years, uh going we four trips, and as uh we've been blessed to uh see how much um with y'all's support and prayer, how much God is just um changing this into a wonderful place.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_10: This um our first trip that Pastor Jim alluded to um kind of summarizes the conditions very nicely.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_10: We're on this dirt floor, open air, tin roof building doing some operations there.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_10: And uh one guy that vividly sticks out in my head is a guy that we took this golf ball-sized chunk of something out of his head.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Medical, that's the medical term for it.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_10: Yes, yes.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_10: And Tom Bryan is holding the flashlight and he's like, Boy, do you need to take more?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_10: Boy, do you need to take more?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_10: And the guy is in the stool in front of me just taking it, and he's so grateful.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_10: But every time he feels pain, he's hitting me on the leg and we eject more lidocaine.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_10: And that was our uh one of my first experiences going there.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_10: And um we used to pack we packed all our supplies in suitcases, all our instruments, our um uh linens, medicines, everything was just out of suitcases.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_10: That was our first clinic experience.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_10: Now we've had a um TBC um had a Christmas project and has funded a medical clinic that's been built.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_10: It has uh climate control for to store our medicines safely.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_10: We have generators and diesel powered and such.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_10: And we have uh we can do laboratory tests with blood and urine and ultrasound now.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_10: Um so um it's just neat to see how God's blessed that.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_10: God's faithful.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Angela, and now your husband's a doc too, and you guys went down together this time.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_11: Yes, it was my first time and my husband's second time, and um so that was a blessing to be able to go down um together like Carissa and Brian have done.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_11: Um but I I just got back like a little over a week ago, so I'm still in the what we call processing phase of it all.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_11: So um but uh it's a really it was an incredible experience, very heartbreaking, very um difficult experience, um, but very sweet moments and sweet kids.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_11: And uh one little boy that I kind of bonded with, his name was John, about four years old, very new to the orphanage and very timid.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_11: And so I kind of took him by the hand and asked him what he wanted to do, and I took him over to the swings, and he just kind of stared at it, and he didn't really know what to do with the swings.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_11: And it dawned on me that he didn't even know how to swing.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_11: He didn't know what a swing was.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_11: And so I got him on there awkwardly, and I mean to try to explain what was going on.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_11: He speaks Creole and I don't.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_11: And so anyway, he started swinging, and it was like the coolest thing that's ever happened to him.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_11: His eyes and his his expression was just priceless.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_11: And then we got to take that same little boy to the ocean, and the wonderment of of his joy was just awesome.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_11: And um but probably one of the hardest things was at the end of that week I had to tell him I had to leave the next day.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_11: And I mean, it just breaks your heart.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_11: I have to leave these kids.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_11: And um God whispered to me, I'm going to redeem these people and my people, and I'm a god of redemption.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_11: And uh that may sound obvious, but when you step off that truck and you're in desperate needs for seven days, so many people and so the so many environments need redeeming, you get really overwhelmed, and you just want to fix it and you want to take the people out of it.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_11: And he's like, No, that's not the way it works.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_11: And I didn't do that with you.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_11: So um anyway, so he's he told me he was gonna just you know, redeem Haiti through the Haitian people in a way that makes sense to them.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_11: And he's gonna redeem uh uh Haiti through the least of these, which are those beautiful kids in the orphanages around Haiti.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_11: And so my prayer quickly changed to, okay, so what can I do to help?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_11: And he's I'm already working there, just join the people that are working there and join the people that are working stateside.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_11: And so that's that's where we are.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_11: God is a God of redemption.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, kind of uh grab a mic.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, there's something else, there's a whole nother part of this work.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about children, orphanage, educating, feeding, and so forth.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, Haiti Lifeline understands that to really do like Angela said, to help transform the whole country, you need to transform it by communities, and so you need to build into the pastors and pastors' wives in those communities, many of whom have no church building or anything.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so a part of this trip, Connie.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you and you and Patty went down there to actually train pastors' wives.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: There was a pastor training thing going on.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: So tell us a little about that part.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's a whole nother side of this.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_14: Right.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_14: I didn't realize until after I got down there that this was the first time in the 30 years that Pastor Daniel has held this conference that the wives were actually invited.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_14: So we were super excited when we found that out.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_14: Um, Patty had been praying about what tool and um ministry to bring to them, and God had laid on her heart this study that takes them through steps of freedom, not only from sin in their life, but from strongholds that the enemy might have in areas they might not have even been aware of.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_14: So it's a very eye-opening study personally.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_14: But then um, those of you who know Patty know that her passion is not only to minister to women, but her, but the word of God.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_14: She loves God's word.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_14: And so she was able through Mama Nicole to translate what it was that God had laid on her heart so that they might then understand that God intended to equip them so they could go back as people, as women, of in positions of influence to the gals and their communities and their churches.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_14: But one of the things that really stuck out to me was that sometimes when you're doing something for God, the enemy will come in and he'll try to thwart God's plan.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_14: And he certainly was at work in this situation.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_14: Patty's mom had been very, very sick, and she questioned whether or not she should even go.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_14: And through a lot of prayer, God just laid on her heart, you know, I've got this, you go.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_14: And so with all confidence and peace, she said, I'm getting on that plane and leaving.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_14: And that was just days before we were leaving.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_14: But also the one tool that we had for them, a booklet that was going to enable them to reach these women with the same exact tool Patty brought, was translated just during the week before we left.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_14: And when we got down there with all these really cool spiral-bound notebooks, we realized that the first page wasn't in fact Haitian Creole, but the rest of the booklet was in Spanish or Espanol, for those of you who speak Spanish, and no one in Haiti does.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_14: So uh, in a you know, I don't want to say we panicked, but Melody and Patty and I went straight to the back room and we just started praying.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_14: You know, we have this worthless tool now, God.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_14: What are you gonna do?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_14: How can we equip these women?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_14: And one of the things that he said to me during our prayer time was just um what was it?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_14: I said it three times now.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_14: It's laughable, thank you.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_14: My goodness, this is laughable.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_14: What the enemy is trying to do right now is laughable.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_14: He has no foothold, he has no authority.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_14: I've got this.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_14: And so we just got on that truck, we went in there, and with Patty's passion and Mama Nicole uh in the translation, even you could just see God laying on her heart exactly what he was going to empower these women with because she was on her toes and she's ministering to these women, and this grew every day 45 Monday, 50, Tuesday, over 60 women by Wednesday.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_14: And it absolutely was trans was transferred, transcended really, um, what God wanted to do in the hearts of those women, and they were hugging her neck and kissing on her, and you could tell they felt empowered, they understood that God was going to use them to change the lives of women in their communities.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, our Christmas project this year that the board's approved, step forward here, Matt, is to build a church for in one of these communities.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: We want to train these pastors, their wives, and so forth.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this is part of a larger vision.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think every one of these people here, and anybody else that's traveled to Haiti or another place like that may come home with uh this overwhelming sense of what Angela touched on, that the needs are so great, and there's absolutely no way for us to meet all those needs, but God is God is bigger than that.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um we as a we as a ministry have uh made a decision to do this one body uh program which which will hopefully pair people, organizations, churches, Sunday school classes, with communities in Haiti to not just build churches, but um disciple and um enable those folks to find employment.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and of course part of that is building a church.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and we've uh we've we're we'll finish the third church in January.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're hopeful that we'll build two or three more this next year as well.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is 25?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: 25 churches in 10 years.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they they are uh roughly around$30,000 to build a church in Haiti.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well let's show them the final video and then I'll have you step forward and we'll end.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's uh about five, six-minute video that we want to sort of close with, and then we'll wrap up that'll explain this a little more.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_09: My goal when I started is to change the life of the little children and change the life of some Haitian people, some children, so you can be changed.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_08: Haiti Lifetime Ministries is a multi-purpose ministry in the orphanage.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_08: Besides just being a home to originally like 20-25 kids to accommodate as many as 100.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_08: Basically, the basic needs was children, is the first primary role of the ministry.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_08: And then, secondly, it was to provide a Christian elementary school education, which is very valuable, and then, of course, the fresh water supply and medical care, so there's different facets of it, but they're all very important, very much needed, and very much appreciated by the community of around the city.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_13: There is a huge difference when you see the kids that are in the orphanage.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_13: There's a huge difference between them and the school kids that we see once a year, and the level of care is huge.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_13: Our kids are a lot healthier, they have less issues, they have better teeth, people are getting dental care annually.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_07: And it kind of makes you feel good about what we're doing here.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_07: Like there's a plastic impact when we leave here the kids have sprayed.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_07: I love nasal spray for allergies.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_07: There's a lot of stuff we leave behind for the office to treat the kids.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_13: And what we're doing is a huge, huge deal.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_13: The kids here are well fed, they're hitting their height and weight, that they're supposed to, their ages, they're developing what they should, as opposed to a lot of the kids that we see outside of here.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_15: Nicole does so much more than just the kids here at the orphanage.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_15: There are hundreds of village kids that come in for education each week.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_15: The clinic that is here on the orphanage compound services village people and people from the church that her husband pastors at.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_15: So her hands are very full.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things the Center Children International Lifeline does is provide fresh, clean water for the community.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's a well and a lifeline and then a pipe that goes outside the wall in an area where people can bring buckets or barrels and get good clean, fresh water and carry it back to their houses.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_08: The Danton shipment program is the shipment of supplies going into the Haiti to the orphanage, and we sand up to 100,000 pounds maximum for shipment, which is 50 tons.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_08: And that allows us to sand a lot of things, then we've sand trucks and tractors and a lot of building supplies, and then food supplies, educational supplies, clothing, shoes.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_08: There's a lot of shoes.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_08: Those are all things that are not available there.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_08: And if they're donated here, they go on this ship.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_16: After several years of talking with Nicole, Vacation Bible School, we kicked it off in 2013.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_16: The place is full, I think we're around a thousand kids or so.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_16: Vacation Bible School is such an impact in that community.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: The support grew and we're able to help Daniel with the church more.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: The goal is to build 25 churches in 10 years, we're two years into it.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_03: We've built two churches.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_13: Essentially, Haiti Lifeline Ministries is doing everything they can to partner with Haitians here to help them.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_13: So through the orphanage, through community churches, through community clinics.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_09: We do many things, and through this little something, I remember when people were laughing and I said, you know, nothing can be something we've got.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_09: It is not easy, and like I said, sometimes we laugh together, and sometimes we cry together.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_09: But it is what the Lord said.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_10: We have a lot of good times, and you know this is uh more fulfilling for me than if I had spent a week on the beach in life.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_10: We always come back more fulfilled and more blessed somehow.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_10: It's paradoxical, it's ironic, I can't explain it, but it's uh that's the truth.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_10: People, a lot of the time when they hear we're coming here, they say, Oh, what a wonderful thing you're doing for those kids.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_03: But what we notice is we are so fulfilled when we come here because it's it's just such a great feeling for you.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_10: These have been some of the most fun and fulfilling things I've done ministry-wise in a long time.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_15: This place has impacted many, many lives.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_15: The people that come to serve as well as the people that live here.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_15: I'd really encourage each and every one of you who see this video to think about maybe how I want to use you to serve or less lifeline in some capacity.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_15: Coming on a mission trip, being here, serving will grow you anyways.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_15: If you've never been on a mission trip, it's really hard to understand.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_15: But it is from people with hearts and blessings with hearts and much of some others that this legacy money.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_15: So that is, I think, my ultimate prayer is that's blessing to leave to be on this legacy.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_09: It is very hard, but through your grace and through God's grace, through your help, we're going on.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_09: We're not going to stop it.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_09: No matter what comes, they said Haiti should be changed.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_09: We should be a part.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_09: By your help, we should be a part to change some of the life of Haiti.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_09: And then you see, it is a good, good work you're doing.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, wrap this up for us, if you would, Matt, and then I'll close in a word of prayer.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um as I was thinking about what to say today, um, I I remembered that I've been sitting in this church for most of my life since I was three or four years old.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: You were so cute.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things have changed since then.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've lost my hair.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um this this no, and you were bald back then.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was bald, yeah.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um this church building's changed, um, yeah, people have changed, but the the message that this church promotes of being involved in redemption has not changed.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Being involved in redemption through missions.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and I just really appreciate the fact that there's so many people here that are willing to partner in that effort.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Redemption always has a cost.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: For Christ, it cost his life, and for us it it it costs less.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I just appreciate the fact that this church is involved in in many things, many awesome organizations like NetReach and Trash Mountain, Haiti Lifeline.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about the verse in Philippians where Paul says um he's so grateful for partnering in the gospel.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and every time he thinks of the Philippians, he's just he thinks of gratefulness.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: And as we sit around team meetings and see folks from this church and other places, we're just we're just very, very grateful for you and for Jim's leadership uh in and making that a fabric of this church and part of the community here.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: Bow with me in a word of prayer.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: Father, we are so, so, so, so grateful.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: Grateful that you created us, then you sent your son to redeem us at great cost, at great cost.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: And now we thank you for for the uh the kinds of ways that you show us your favor.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: We think of Blaine and Lindy and Caroline and the way that you redeemed them from death, and how you've redeemed us, how you've saved us repeatedly from catastrophe and tears and death, so that we might, as the Psalm says, walk before you.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: We want to walk before you in a way that advances your kingdom and your worship and your glory around the world.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: We think especially of Haiti.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: We think of these children, we think of these pastors, we think of these communities.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: We ask that you would use us.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: We step forward, offer ourselves to volunteer, be volunteers to be servants, to advance your cause in Haiti.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the opportunity to do so.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, all God's people said, Amen.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming.