Home again!
Our team has made it back safe and sound! Their trip home was uneventful, and they arrived in Wheeling around 1:30am on Wednesday morning. Thank you for your faithful prayers. ...
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What Do You Remember in the Night: The battle for your thoughts when the house gets quiet
When the house is quiet and the lights are off, our minds often replay every fear, disappointment, conversation, unanswered question, and failure. In Psalm 119:55, the psalmist teaches us a better way: “I remember your name in the night, O LORD.” This post reflects on how God’s Word helps us stop listening to ourselves and start preaching truth to ourselves in the night....
The Wide Place of Obedience: Why God’s Word does not confine us, but sets us free
Psalm 119:45 says, “I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.” That may sound surprising in a world that often sees God’s commands as restrictive. But the psalmist teaches us that obedience is not bondage. God’s Word gives direction, anchors the soul, and leads His people into true freedom. This post reflects on the wide place of obedience and why God’s truth sets us free, even when life feels pressured and confined....
Let’s Get to It, FBC: Learning to Meditate on Scripture
Biblical meditation is not complicated or mystical. It is intentional thinking about God and His Word with the goal of personal application, prayer, confession, and heart-level conviction....
Come, Lord Jesus
When we talk about the end of the world, some people get excited about charts and timelines while others feel afraid and would rather avoid the subject altogether. But Scripture does not point us to fear or speculation. It points us to encouragement, endurance, and prayer. In Luke 18:1–8, Jesus tells His disciples a parable so they would always pray and not lose heart. This post reflects on how the return of Christ changes how we live today, why a broken world teaches us to long for His coming, and why believers should keep praying, “Come, Lord Jesus.”...
Jesus Sees You in the Crowd
In Luke 7:11–17, Jesus meets a funeral procession outside the town of Nain. Everyone sees the funeral, but Jesus sees the grieving widow. She has already lost her husband, and now she has lost her only son. Yet on the hardest day of her life, Jesus sees her, has compassion on her, speaks comfort to her, and interrupts her sorrow with life. This post reminds us that Jesus does not look away from the hurting. He sees, He cares, He comes near, and He is able to get in the way of our sorrow too....
No Grumbling!
Complaining comes naturally—but Scripture points us to a better way. Discover how God's power enables believers to replace grumbling with gratitude and become lights in a dark world....
The Christian Who Finishes Well Stays Curious {…because we never graduate from God's classroom."
In Psalm 119:33–40, the psalmist prays with the posture of someone who knows he has not arrived. He asks God to teach him, give him understanding, lead him, incline his heart, turn his eyes, confirm His promise, turn away reproach, and give him life. This kind of prayer reveals one of the marks of a Christian who finishes well: a teachable spirit. Curiosity is not spiritual immaturity when it leads us back to God’s Word. It is part of humble dependence on the Lord....
Doing What We Are Created to Do (Growing Chicks Part 11 - Finale)
In the final post of our Growing Chicks series, we look back on Michele’s chicks from their earliest spring days to their move into the “general population” of the luxury chicken coop. Along the way, they reminded us of new life, awkward growth, patient care, and finally the joy of seeing God’s creatures do what they were created to do....
What Are Your Eyes Teaching Your Heart to Love?
Your attention is not neutral. What captures your eyes will eventually shape your heart. Psalm 119 gives us a prayer for distracted souls: “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things.” Accompanies sermon 5 in the Walking in the Word series: The Path to Finishing Well...
Cold Brew Coffee: A Very Friendly Primer for the Slightly Suspicious
At our Father’s Day festivities, we set up a cold brew coffee station and quickly discovered that many in our church family were not entirely sure what cold brew was, how to drink it, or whether it should be trusted. Since we have some left over and plan to serve it again during our Fourth of July festivities, here is a very friendly, very unofficial cold brew primer. Learn what cold brew is, how it is different from iced coffee, where it likely began, and a few simple ways to enjoy it....
Drawing to a close...
On Sunday, our team traveled to the BMDMI Good Shepherd Children's home, near to the Mission Home. They had the priviledge of visiting with the children, and then attending a worship service with them. The children's home presently houses 97 children, and they are expecting five or six more to arrive this week. If you are interested in learning more about this outreach, pl...
Keep ReadingLast day in Maraita
This is our hard-working medical team. They saw 97 patients on Wednesday (half day of clinic on the day they arrived), 579 patients on Thursday, 400 patients on Friday, and 150 patients on Saturday. That is a grand total of 1,226 patients in less than four days! (Plus one more; story below!) This is the pharmacy team who fulfilled any perscriptions for all of the pati...
Keep ReadingAnother busy day!
The second full day in Maraita for our team began bright and early (before 5am!), and was another hot and busy one. So busy, in fact, that they ended the clinic early because all of the patients had been seen! The pharmacy ran very low on supplies, and the clothing closet is almost empty. Our team had the priviledge of leading two ladies to Christ while they were waiting...
Keep ReadingFull & Busy Day!
Our team had a very busy and successful day on Thursday, their first full day in Maraita. Running on little sleep (due to leaky roofs, barking dogs, fighting dogs, mooing cows, and roosters!), our team was up bright and early for breakfast and devotions. After that, their busy day began! The people came, and long lines formed to get into the clinics all day. Before seei...
Keep ReadingLong Journey to a Little Village
Our team left FBC in the wee morning hours on Tuesday, and traveled to the airport to begin their journey to Maraita, Honduras. Their early flight from Pittsburgh took them to Atlanta, where they had a brief layover--made a bit longer by a delay for replacement parts on the plane after they were already boarded. Eventually, they were in the air, and arrived in Tegu...
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