Wednesday's Summary:
The Pillars Summit has concluded, and it was beyond anything our team could have imagined. They will have a day off on Thursday when they plan to visit a local national park and hopefully see some wild animals - besides Scott and Mark! On Friday, Hillary's wife, Joyce will graduate from seminary, a major milestone achievement, and Mark will begin his journey home. Mark's cookies were a big hit during the Pillars Summit.
A true classic: Mark's Monster Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Wednesday's Prayer Requests:
1. The Coaches and Pillars who were at the summits these past few days to experience God's refreshing and insight as they continue to mentor and encourage their own disciples; for them to give to others the same love and care they have received from Our Four.
2. The Holy Spirit to orchestrate the remaining details of this mission trip and GREATLY bless Hillary and Joyce, James and Susan, and their families; may he water them as they have watered so many others.
3. Major rest, refreshing, and rejoicing for Mark and Scott; grace as they prepare to return to their families and many different (additional) responsibilities at home.
Wednesday's Details:
Today I'll let Scott speak for himself and then wrap up with a couple cultural moments.
Scott said, "Thank you so much for those of you who prayed for the Coaches Summit and the Pillars Summit. It was really an amazing three days. The coaches were really challenged to step up their commitment to the disciples in their groups. Specifically, they were challenged to present their disciples fully mature and to help them raise up new groups.
"Pastor Hillary preached a powerful message about paying the cost that had people really looking at their lives. We had Communion after that message, and I was really moved by how Communion means joint participation with Jesus' broken body. This was really made clear by Hillary's call for the coaches to be willing to, as a seed, fall to the ground and die in order to bear much fruit - disciples who will make disciples.
"At the Pillars Summit, we installed two National Directors and then talked of how nurture is the fuel of disciple-making. After that, we demonstrated this as I washed the National Directors' feet and they washed the feet of the Pillars."
"These Pillars had never experienced anything like this. Everyone left so encouraged and re-energized regarding the hard work of raising others."
Shifting now to a different kind of washing, Scott captioned this next picture, "Kenyan washing machine."
Joyce doing laundry... is that one of Scott's shirts?!?
And if you've ever been to Branson and found the traffic there to be challenging, it's evidently nothing compared to Nairobi's! Here's an :08 "Drive through the streets of Nairobi" video to give us all some perspective.
Mark and Scott have certainly been immersed in a very different culture in recent weeks. But like them, may we all have the same perspective and attitude of Jesus (Philippians 2:5) as we pray today for our team in Kenya.
Blessings,
Patty