Greetings church family!
I've decided to start running a blog here in addition to distributing a new quarterly newsletter in the church bulletin. The idea is to help keep you informed about what is happening in the world of Laguna Chinese Baptist Church. From a pastoral level, we see many things from a broad perspective that give us joy and deep satisfaction, and other things that grieve us and move us to pray. For much of this, the members of our church don’t get the opportunity to share our joy or to help us with our burdens by joining with us in prayer. We hope that this can be a way for you to further share in the life of our church.
At this point of the year, we’ve once again brought a busy summer to a close. The pace of church life seems to jack up a couple notches around mid-June as we work our way through Vacation Bible School, Basketball Camp, Backyard Missions, sending off the Shandong missions team, and of course youth and family Christian camps. We feel the intensity as a staff as we typically give up on maintaining any kind of regularity in our staff meetings, instead getting together whenever time and vacation schedules allow. This time of year, I seem to gain a new respect for our people involved in our children’s ministries, many of whom work eight hours a day and then, without a complaint, put in another four hours a night at church.
Looking back on the summer, I’ve sensed a great deal of success in everything that we set out to do. Backyard Missions had a different turnout than I had expected, but ended up being a deeply fulfilling experience for those of us involved. I was pleased to see so many of our younger people helping with VBS, and all of them were needed with a turnout of about 150 kids. In hearing from the Shandong missions team, I was especially encouraged by the e-mails and reports of Caleb Poon, who used the time he was there to engage in real discipleship with many of the people. In these things and in others, it seemed to me that the prevalent attitude of willing and humble service by those involved was allowing our ministries to thrive.
Now that the fall has begun, it feels somewhat like it’s back to “real life.” I’m not completely sure that I know what real life is, but I hope it doesn’t include a departure from the faithful service that characterizes our summers. Let’s be sure that our willingness to give of our time and energy toward the ministries that we believe in is not the exception, but the norm. May we be continuously devoted to the work that God has placed before us.
God bless you and have a great fall season!
