Update: Warren K in Czech Republic

Hi All-

We arrived safe and only short two bags (both boys have no clothes).  The
blind rental of the "hostel apartment" is great, two big bedrooms, a
living
area and a kitchen & two WC's!!!  Seems family run and hopefully secure.

Tired and going to nap before dinner.

Warren

July 4th Chili Cook Off and Picnic

The winner of this year's chili cook off was, once again, Dennis T! I heard his secret ingredient was... chocolate.

Financial Peace University

18 families have signed up for our inaugural Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey's course of getting out of debt, building wealth and giving like never before.

Six of the 18 are from outside our church family.

We had more than a dozen inquiries from the community and one call from the Dave Ramsey website.

Keep this ministry in your prayers.

Humility

Pastor Judy preached last Sunday. Her "Thrive" series topic was on humility.

Humility is a strange thing, the minute you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.

 

The problem of how one practices humility proved to be a problem for the early church.  Early dessert father’s solved the problem by going off into the dessert alone where the competition and strain of community life were essentially non-existent.  Then along came St. Benedict in the late 5^th century who felt that monks alone in the dessert became their own idols and were usually nothing like Christ.  St. Benedict saw community life as essential to becoming like Christ and that humility was the cornerstone of that community life in that the stress of living in community assisted transformation into Christ-likeness.  So St. Benedict came up with a “Rule” to order community life.  Communities were made up of 12 monks with an abbot.  And they all lived by Benedict’s “Rule,” although, I must tell you that this was not as easy as it sounds.  St. Benedict’s first group of monks tried to poison him!

 

That aside, what Benedict concluded was that in order to grow in humility, one dare not focus on humility, but focus instead on the love of God and love of neighbor.  Benedict’s suggestions here are timeless and became the dominant structure for corporate religious life for over 1,000 years.

 

St. Benedict's 12 Degrees of Humiliated, Slightly Adjusted to be of Use to Us Today

God focused:

1. Fear God, have healthy respect for the creator and author of all life.  He is to be obeyed and served because he is God and we are not.
2. Follow the Lord’s will and not our own.  We should endeavor to look at life as God sees it.  He is the center of the universe and it is about him, not us.

Community focused:

3. Submit to others.  Get input from others.  Take advice.  If you know more than everyone else, you’re in trouble. 
4. Persevere with a superior’s instruction.  This develops our character.  Life never goes exactly our way; this helps develop us.
5. Share candidly, openly and transparently with a trusted friend (for monks it was the abbot).  Allow someone to hold you accountable.  This helps us take responsibility for our actions and speaks another viewpoint into our ego-centered minds.
6. Be content.  Accept willingly the challenges life presents.  Doesn’t mean we don’t correct bad circumstances (our trusted friendship help us here), but there are some things we simply are forced to just accept.  
7. Put ourselves lower than others.  We can do this in safety in Christian community where the community works to look out for the best interests of others, lifting others up and helping one another to understand how we need each other’s service.
8. Follow the rules/laws set forth by the community.  Enough said.
9. Speak carefully, words that are thoughtful, truthful, encouraging and helpful.
10. Check that our laughter does not come from the ridicule of someone else, that it comes from joy, delight, appropriate humor.  Laughing at someone else’s expense feeds our ego!
11. Use reasonable words and a humane tone of voice.  Our speech should lift up, not tear down or destroy others.
12. We must be aware of our physical posture, that our body language and manner of dress do not serve to distract or offend others.

 

We live at a time when many people are suffering and struggling.  Job losses, home foreclosures, economic uncertainty coupled with the usual stress and strain of life in terms of health problems, personal conflicts and destructive addictions.  These are tough times.  Humility is NOT a slapping down, the loss of self-esteem, groveling and being devalued.  On the contrary, it comes from just the opposite.  Jesus knew he was God.  He knew and had confidence in the work of the Father, so he did not have to struggle but surrender to his life of service doing the will of the Father and the results were incredible!  In Christ we are God’s treasure, his beloved children.  We have a future and a hope.  Humility is not demeaning, but it is a firm conviction of God’s power and authority in the midst of our circumstances that frees us to focus on the needs and concerns of others. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking about yourself less!  Friends, for us today, in Christ, we are called to humbly serve God and to humbly serve each other, to minister to the hurting and struggling around us even as we ourselves hurt and struggle.  We can trust God with the outcome.

Pastor Judy

Garden Progressing Slowly but Surely

We picked a peck of oranges from the two trees on the church property and delivered them to Shepherd's Pantry for distribution to their clients (we also have a lemon tree and some unruly grapevines).

This is an overview shot of progress to date. In the foreground are a few of our six plots in various stages of production. In the middle background is our pumpkin patch (note the small mounds where pumpkin plants are sprouting). In the far background are loads of steer manure for fertilizer and tree chips for weed abatement. 

I'm not sure you quite believed me when I wrote that pumpkin plants are sprouting in those little mounds of earth. Each mound has its own drip water source.

Secretary Lizz prepares to break ground in her little Eden. I am supervising.

While Lizz sputters through the dust cloud she just made I double over with laughter (that's how I roll as a manger). By nightfall we had her little plot fairly well prepped.

Church Garden Update

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Matthew 9:37-38 NIV

Our Church Garden Food Ministry Team met again last night to review our progress and plan next steps. Long-term site plans were discussed as well as the City of Glendora's new water restrictions.

We meet next on Thursday, July 9 at 7pm. All are welcome.

Sign Saying

DON'T WAIT FOR 

SIX STRONG MEN TO

BRING YOU TO CHURCH!

Church To Church Opportunity

Peter Pan Tickets Available

Katelyn is performing as "Smee" in Peter Pan the next two weekends. Opening night is tomorrow (Friday). There's a Saturday and Sunday matinee and a Saturday evening performance both weekends. We have a limited number of tickets for sale for $13 each ($19 at the door).

A Whole Lotta Self Going On

self sufficient

self torture

self starter

self seeker

self rule

self respect

self policing

self medicate

self sustaining

self care

self defeating

self composed

self feeding

self restrained

self controlled

self destruct

self defined

self conscious

self devotion

self preservation

self reproach

self serve

self knowledge

self hood

self inclusive

self indulgent

self interest

self hood

selfish

self save

yourself

self fulfilled

self hate

self help

self loathe

self important

self evident

self effacing

self educated

self discipline

self doubt

self contained

self concept

self esteem

self mutilation

self improvement

self aware

self identity

self injury

self protection

self perception

herself

himself

itself

myself

oneself

self same

self...

***************************************************

What about this one: selfless.

Or this one: self renunciation.

Jesus: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us."

William Penn: No Cross, No Crown

Sign Saying

SELF DENIAL DISCIPLINES:

FASTING, SUBMISSION, SOLITUDE,

SERVICE AND SIMPLICITY

Youth Promotion Party

Carpet Installed in High School Room

All these years we've lived with a painted floor in the high school room. In our grand scheme we just couldn't afford to carpet this 20ft by 30ft room with so many other pressing needs at church. But our friend, Rafael, generously donated his time and labor as well as the carpet, making this room warmer, quieter and more attractive (plus the carpet color matches the current paint scheme really well).

Morning Is Still by Gina Butler

The trees are standing

without breath

The sky lays heavy like

a comforting blanket.

Quiet is covering our

hearts.

Oh Lord, are you listening

to us?

We hear nothing but

love, mercy,

grace & truth.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Our church garden food ministry met for the second time last night to discuss our garden outreach ministry

We took action on two items.

1. We'll start planning for the long term by individually drafting site plans for the garden. We'll bring these drafts back to our next meeting on Thursday, June 25, 7pm, and pool our ideas to come up with the best overall long term plan.
2. Most of this season's garden will be planted in pumpkins. But about a fifth has been subdivided into six 3' x 20' plots. Drip water lines will be installed. Teams of two have been assigned to garden these plots. These plots are for this season and will not necessarily make it into the final long term plan (but then again, they may).

All are welcome to join us. We're not a happy gardening club to meet our own green thumb needs. We're gardening to advance the Good News of Jesus Christ in our community.