What On Earth Are You Here For?

This week Brad Andrews ( @bradandrews ), who is planting mercyview in urban Tulsa, asks the question "What is the one thing that if you don't do it your life is wasted?"

Listen to "What On Earth Are You Here For?" now…

To find out more about Brad and mercyview, check out Brad's blog – transformission.com

Senkbile Scoop: June 2009

Urban 40

This month, JD was invited by the PJ Smyth, the lead pastor of God First Church in Johannesburg, to speak at the Urban 40 pastors’ conference. The conference was 40 hours focused on church planting in urban contexts, and JD was asked to speak, specifically on the topic of understanding culture and the art of contextualizing the gospel. JD was not only excited to share but also thankful for the opportunity to network with pastors all over South Africa.

Second Quarterly

The day after returning to Cape Town, JD hosted the second Acts 29 Quarterly luncheon. This month’s topic was “Preaching to the Heart,” and we were thankful to have Al Barth from Redeemer Church Planting Center in New York sharing with our local pastors. As with the first quarterly meeting, this proved to be a good time of fellowship with local pastors and a chance to network with and encourage each other in the work of church planting.

Upcoming Travel

The next few months JD will be traveling a fair bit. At the end of June, he leaves for a 10-day trip back to the States. He will be attending the A29 pastors’ retreat in Colorado and will be speaking at two A29 churches in Omaha. June 21 he will be at Core Community Church, and June 28 he will be back at our church Coram Deo.

Two weeks after returning from America, he will leave again for Uganda and will be joined by Jonathan Dodson (A29 pastor) and four others, visiting some local, rural villages and joining Gerald, a fellow A29 pastor, in his ministry in Kampala.

Welcome, Lacy!

This week, we had the privilege of welcoming our summer intern Lacy Barker. Lacy will be living with us until mid-August and will be getting a taste of ministry in South Africa, as well as traveling with JD to Uganda in July. Pray for us, that our family will be a blessing to Lacy, who has given up her summer vacation to expand her vision for church planting.

At Home

Our little Cohen continues to be an explosion of new words every day. Some of our favorites: jucks = ducks, chakchurs = tractors, bishees = fishies, and hairmo = remote. He is a true delight, and we never lack for evening entertainment when he is around.

Sloane is almost four months old and is a girgling, happy, smiling baby who can’t get enough of her dad. She is easy-going, soft, chubby, and just so precious. We just can’t imagine what life was like before she came along, and the poor girl is so smothered with hugs and kisses–especially from her brother. (Side note: Some of you won’t even recognize JD when you see him at the end of this month. He is a total softy these days; it’s ridiculous!)

Much love to each of you and thank you for your support of us…
The Senkbiles

LifePoint Sponsors Convoy of Hope Trailer

Convoy of Hope, a Christian ministry based here in Springfield, Missouri, is one of the frontline ministries in disaster relief today. Traveling all over the world, they are often the first responders on the scene of any major catastrophe or emergency. LifePoint has recently partnered with them to sponsor a project that will help them to expand their operations in disaster relief.

A member of LifePoint Church connected us with Convoy of Hope. Initially we met with them to explore ways of partnering in ministry through personal and family preparedness training in disasters as well as church preparedness training. They had recently been given a fifth-wheel camping trailer that was in good shape but needed to be remodeled and retrofit to accommodate their needs as a mobile operations command center. Many of the supplies they had provided, but not the skilled labor to do the work. LifePoint was able to sponsor the labor to provide the work and some custom flooring to finish the job so this trailer would be operational and ready to roll…literally.

On Sunday, May 3, Paul Coroleuski will join us in our morning worship experiences to tell more about how this trailer will be used by Convoy of Hope in disaster relief efforts. He will bring the newly remodeled trailer to LifePoint so everyone can see the finished product. Plan to join us on this morning to hear more about the work of Convoy of Hope. We look forward to partnering with Convoy of Hope in the future to meeting needs as they arise in our community and around the world.

Winter Update from Impact Partners David & Alicia

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Things are going great here in Central Asia! We can’t believe we just finished our first semester of teaching. The time has gone so fast. Most of our time is taken preparing lessons for our English classes during the day and teaching in the evening. We are blessed to have a three-day weekend every week so we can explore our city and meet with nationals. We’ve gotten to see American movies dubbed in Russian, shop in outdoor bazaars, visit a museum and the city zoo, and see the Moscow circus so far this year.

We’ve really enjoyed exploring the culture through food, music, and language. We have eaten several tasty dishes and drunk many steaming cups of tea with friends. Although we are working to learn Russian, most people we meet want to practice their English since it is rare for them to meet native-speakers. But they love to ask us how we say things in Russian, and they wonder how we can function in such a different environment!

Meeting with people has proved to be more difficult than we had expected. There is a barrier even greater than language. It is time. Most of the people we know are students or teachers, and they are extremely busy. Students have school six days a week and several private lessons throughout the week for dance, music, sports, art, or school subjects. Teachers work 12 hours a day, six days a week. The only day off for most people is Sunday, which they spend sleeping in late and then hanging out with family and friends or catching up on things at home. Most people say their ideal vacation would be a week for sleeping! During the end of December and the beginning of January, all the schools have a winter break for two weeks. We are hoping this will be an opportunity for us to meet with our students outside of class while they are not consumed with lessons.

Lately we have been talking to people about the American Christmas holiday, which they generally don’t celebrate here. Most of what they know about Christmas comes from American movies. Central Asia has many similar traditions in their New Year’s celebrations, like decorating trees and giving gifts, but it is lacking the significance of the first Christmas. We hope that our students will come to know the founder of Christmas in the coming year.

We are looking forward to our second semester of teaching and growing the relationships with our new friends. We are also beginning to think about where we will be next fall. We are definitely interested in continuing to teach in Central Asia, but there are many things to consider. Please lift us up as we discern what direction to go.

If you’ve been watching your email for regular updates from us, you might be wondering why there hasn’t been one since September. That’s because the Internet is a very finicky thing here. Sometimes you can only access email but not other websites, sometimes you can get into Facebook but not email. Sometimes you can read email, but you can’t send anything out. Obviously, it’s been a little frustrating for us. Fortunately, I seem to be able to access my blog regularly, so I have been posting there and include links to my photo albums in Facebook (you don’t have to be a member to see the photos). Sorry for the inconvenience if you’re not an Internet junkie. To help you wade through the mass of blog posts, each post includes some keywords that you can use to sort through by subject. You’ll find the list of keywords on the side of the blog, and if you click on one, you’ll only see the posts related to that keyword. The posts are also sorted by date, with the newest ones coming up first. If you would like to read about our adventures in Central Asia and see the pictures, please visit our blog at http://backpackdownload.blogspot.com.

For your convenience, there is also a link to subscribe to the blog. This will notify you every time a new story is posted. We’d also love to hear what’s going on in your world. Feel free to email us, just know the response may take a few weeks.

We love you guys and miss you all!
Alicia & David

Feliz Navidad de Costa Rica from Partner Sunshine Loveland

Sunshine Loveland, LPC’s impact partner with Christ for the City International, wrote us this note for Christmas:

I am so thankful to be celebrating the birth of the world’s savior and mine–Jesus–with my friends and family. I am so grateful to be place in Costa Rica by God this year and look forward to all that God has in store for me next year.

The past four months have been amazing! There have been some challenging moments and some amazing moments. I have finished by first trimester at language school and have been co-leading a Bible study at the Women’s Restoration House. I am daily learning what it looks like to have Christ as my first love.

I am so encouraged by all your prayers and encouragement. It means so much to me and gives me that extra push when I need it most. It helps me to return home to San Jose, Costa Rica, knowing that I have such amazing people talking to God on my behalf! Thank you for blessing me in this way!

LifePoint family, thank you so much for all your prayers and support. I’m so grateful to have a home church in the States that loves Jesus so much! You are an encouragement and blessing to me. Thank you so much.

I pray that you will see, feel, and experience the amazing love of our Savior Jesus, who was born for us.

Merry Christmas,
Sunshine

60K in 60 Days Update from Mystery Church

LifePoint received this note from Steev Inge, pastor at Mystery Church in Joplin, regarding their 60K in 60 Days capital campaign in December:

I wanted to take a few minutes to give you a brief update and sincere and heart-felt thank you. God has provided a location, and through you, your generosity, and faithfulness, he has met our need! Jesus provided over $60,000 in under 60 days–simply amazing! Please join us in celebrating his provision and grace.

This is to say thank you for believing the gospel and supporting us. You’ve made a huge difference and provided an incredible tool for mission. We’re hard at work preparing to move into the new downtown Joplin location the second week of January.

If you are in the area, I would love to show you around. Again, we are so grateful for you and are praying for you, your families, and your churches.

In Christ & Amazed by Grace,
Steev Inge