God's Harvest

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                 

In Water Use by Trees, a report of forestry research, Tom Nisbet asserts, “In general, isolated single trees in the landscape have a much higher water use on account of their larger canopy and greater exposure.”

Nazarene Work and Witness teams go to all nations.  Their mission is to collaborate with other Nazarene congregations by donating labor, materials, evangelism, and compassionate ministries.  This summer during our trip to Hawaii, we collaborated with Wahiawa Community Church of the Nazarene and the Wahiawa Filipino Church of the Nazarene.  Both congregations meet in the same facility.  Our project included, painting both the interior and exterior of the church, painting the exterior and part of the parsonage interior, and tiling some on the church basement.  Our mission was a compassionate ministry of love and giving of ourselves to the people in the church.  Last year, our team replaced the roof of their church and loved the people.

Without the influx of our labor, financial resources and love, those churches were on the brink of death.  They felt abandoned and more exposed like an individual tree during an extended drought.  They described themselves as a “ghetto church” because of the deteriorated facilities and hampered outreach.  Last year we found a church family with little hope.  Their fruit was beginning to be affected. This year they were revived.  They generously gave back to us in love, food, and labor.  During the year, several new families joined the church and the neighbors are being reached for Christ.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.   Jeremiah 17:8

We worked long hours and accomplished much, but some things were not finished.  There was some tiling to complete and the cupboard doors were still drying.  The people there at Wahiawa promised to finish these jobs and listed more they planned to start in the next few weeks.  Through us, God sent water to the churches of Wahiawa.  Together, we were all refreshed.

This coming year the churches at Wahiawa plan to raise funds to replace the windows in the church and ask if the Crossing Church would be interested in returning next summer to install the windows. Pray that God sends workers into His harvest field.

written by Bonnie Young

Mount up With Wings

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

Our tasks on the work and witness trip are daunting.  Monday night it looked like we would leave with numerous tasks unfinished.  Our strength and endurance was waning.  Tuesday, God provided a cool day, a union painter, an invested volunteers, and cooperative team members.

By Tuesday night two sides of the church were completely finished, the sanctuary was painted, two side of the parsonage were half finished, the kitchen/living room was almost done, and primer was on all the cupboards.

Both the house and the parsonage look much more attractive.  Neighbors and church attendees are astonished.  I have been hugged by strangers and church members with tears in their eyes while they try to explain what a blessing our team is to them.  I know that God is good and these blessing are from God.

The kitchen is painted and the cupboards have one coat of paint.

Written by Bonnie Young

God's Love

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

As humans, we often fail to be loving. However, God works through us to change our hearts and lives. He makes us new creatures. This afternoon we experienced an example of God's work. The Wahiawa Filipino Church of the Nazarene and the Wahiawa Community Church of the Nazarene met together for a combined service. God is moving hearts. They  used the same building since the 1950's but did not fellowship or worship together. Today, the two worship teams joined to lead the music and Pastor John preached for the combined service. The sanctuary was full with people standing across the back and into the lobby.

 

He spoke about Jesus' incarnation.  The Son of God became the Son of Man.  Jesus became a part of the people group and experienced life as a man. He lived with the people, yet was and is God.

 

We are to identify with those to whom we minister. We must live the love of God in their midst.  The altar was lined with seekers.  Two precious children that attended Vacation Bible School asked Christ into their hearts. The Spirit of God moved on hearts of others in their seats. Love never fails!

 

 

The church honored Vern  and Paul for their many hours of service.

 

 

Eddie relaxed a moment at lunch with one of the precious babies.

 

Real Story

At breakfast Saturday morning, we were told that Rachel, the young mother with cancer died during the night.  She is with Jesus.  Last night her mother came to thank the church and to pick up her granddaughter.  She had never been in the church before.  Her face was radiant as church members hugged her and told that they had prayed for Rachel and her. 

Our team jobs for Saturday were all clean-up details to prepare for the grand opening of the Solid Grounds Café.  One of the most exciting was the installation of the stained glass cross.  For years, their cross was an almost opaque yellowing window.  During the power washing, they found that the window was covered by deteriorated plastic.  There was an attractive textured glass cross under the yellow plastic.  They now have to decide where to put that original cross window.

 

Saturday Bill was asked to organize all the supplies and equipment for the team.  Much of the paint for the church is in five-gallon pails so Bill decided to use a skateboard for moving the heavy items back into the Lanai.  We teased him about being rather a mature man for carrying around a skateboard.

 

Eddie from the Wahiawa church designed and mounted the sign for the new café and arranged for a band from the First Samoan Church of the Nazarene to perform for the grand opening.  Jordon, one of our team members joined them on the drums.

The café was a great success.  Several neighbors came. Seven Nazarene church were represented.

The REAL story in all that we have seen since we arrived is not the physical labor or the café.  It is the changed lives.  Last year the church members felt helpless and were barely clinging to hope.  This year many have expressed immense thanks for their new sense of hope.  Because of their new confidence they are growing spiritually and reaching out to the community.  Several neighbors stopped in this week to talk about watching last year’s team and this year’s.  Several neighbors cooked for our group numerous times this past week.

One lady told me, “You and your teams have brought us many blessings.”

I responded, “All good things come from God.”

 James 1:17 - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

 

Written by Bonnie Young

Amazing

I was able to spend some time with Peter today.  He is amazing.  He is not forming words but is communicating ideas.  He calls out to people, he interacts with nearly everyone, and wants to be involved.  Today he went to vacation Bible school and when he became excited he hopped out of his chair and walked around without any help or prompting.  Tonight he stood up and went down the hallway looking for his mom and when he did not find her he came back out to the kitchen.

 

The man in the picture hunts wild boar.  He brought this one and butchered it in John and Carla’s backyard.  The lady beside him is Ruth, the wife of the former Filipino pastor.  This evening she bought us a full meal of pulled pork and cabbage, flan, and banana lumpia.  Last year she never came out to meet us but this year she stops us to visit, she brings food, and offers help.  God is opening the hearts of the two churches meeting in the Wahiawa Church of the Nazarene building to come together as children of His.

Painting the exterior of the church was the second project on our to do list.  The church front and west end are almost complete.  All the exterior columns are a brown/gold and the walls are yellow.  The floor in the church’s lanai is a dark gold.  Several people in the neighborhood mentioned how pretty it looks.  During our evening meal a stranger stopped, rolled down his car window, and called to tell us on the lanai how nice the church looked.  God is working the hearts of the watchers.

The lady that is extremely ill with cancer prayed with John’s help to accept Christ this morning.  She is not expected to make it through the night.  Her family needs your prayers.

Psalm 145:18  The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Written by Bonnie Young

Weird Animals

 

Matthew 19:14  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Beth began teaching “Weird Animals” vacation Bible school today.   She had 13 precious children enrolled.  Each afternoon they learn about an unusual animal and hear the truth about Jesus.  Today when I stepped in to take pictures they were all totally engaged in learning about and animal from Peru.

Yesterday when the crew was pressure washing the side of the church near the lanai, our eating area experienced an invasion of strange animals from the small garden.  Several people including me screamed when a creature jumped out of hiding.  Maybe God was preparing us all for vacation Bible school.

  Beth

 

 

 

Painting the youth room was another one of the projects.  Rachel, the youth pastor, chose to have red walls.  She said that red is a symbol of healing.  Jesus' blood cleanses us from all sin.

 

Written by BonnieYoung

Sacrifice

Our projects are underway. The boom arrived late because the delivery person thought it was for something on the military base. The guards refused to let him on base so he found the church about an hour late.  With two men working on the boom, three sides of the church are stripped and are ready for primer.

front of church                                                      back of church                    

 
 

 

Three of us worked in Carla's kitchen prepping the cupboards for paint. Beth learned to take down the cupboard doors but please don’t tell her husband she has that skill.

The other members of the team painted the sanctuary a light cream.  It is beautiful.

We are here on this trip to offer ourselves as a pleasing sacrifice to God.  Pray that God gives us wisdom, skills, and strength to accomplish His tasks here.  Pray that the community sees Jesus in us.

Hebrews 13:16 Don't forget to do good things for others and to share what you have with them. These are the kinds of sacrifices that please God.

Written by Bonnie Young

Preparation

Today was another day of preparation.  Eddie, Hunter, and I went grocery shopping.  Unlike last year, we had the Miller’s van and our groceries did not fill it up.  However, as I finished putting the groceries away I was asked to go back for some of the things still we needed.  After another shopping trip of $78.00, we had what we needed for tonight’s meal.

This morning we found out that the refrigerator we bought yesterday off Craig’s List was not cooling the food.  Carla took it apart and found a fan that would not move.  She took the fan apart, fixed it and now we have a working refrigerator. 

The team arrived from Colorado around 5:00pm.  They met church members, visited, then enjoyed the Hawaii Luau Eddie and several women from the congregation prepared.  As you can see from the picture batman came.  Isn’t he cute? Pastor John wore a grass skirt.  Jordon, from Eastborough church and Mike from Wahiawa church played and sang together.

 

Ecclesiastes 3:13 (ESV)

Everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

 

Written by Bonnie Young

 

Worship

Saturday was another busy day of preparation.  Carla, Pastor John’s wife, found a refrigerator and made arrangement for it to be picked up.  Most of the tile was picked up and is waiting at the church for the work to start next week.  The remainder of the tile will be delivered Monday.  The Crossing Church sent money for a grill.  Both the church here in Hawaii and the work and witness cooks appreciate their generosity.

 

Sunday morning we had a wonderful time of worship and fellowship.  Pastor John spoke about our need for a personal relationship with God that encompasses our whole life.

The team members that are here met this evening to lay out the plans for the two weeks of work. During their meeting, I rushed to the grocery store to buy food for the evening meal.  On the way back from the store, God had a surprise for me.  Stretching across the sky was an amazing rainbow.  Seeing God’s promise made me sing,

“Bless the Lord, O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

Oh my soul

I’ll worship your holy name”

 God’s promises are unending.

 

Urgently Pray for an eight-year-old child whose mother is in the last stages of stomach cancer.  She is spending every night at the hospital with her mother and the days at Pastor John and Carla’s house.

 

written by Bonnie Young

Anxious

This is our second work and witness trip to Wahiawa, Hawaii to help in the Wahiawa Church of the Nazarene.  Last year we put a new roof on the church.  This year we are scheduled to paint the exterior and interior of the church, lay tile in the basement, and paint the public living area in the patronage.  We have a huge task and fewer people than last summer.  Sometimes we are tempted to be anxious but the Bible tells us not to be anxious.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Matthew 6:25-34

Today we planned the menu for the next two weeks, searched for a boom lift, and bought tile.  It might have been easy to be anxious about everything.  There were questions, about time, money, and materials.  Worry could have immobilized us all, but we stepped out in faith.  The boom lift is scheduled to be delivered on Monday, and costs as much for the week as we were told it would cost per day.  The order for the tile was canceled by some unknown person for an unknown reason but did not sell.  We bought it today, and God supplied a vehicle to pick up all 45 boxes tomorrow.  Many calls were made to find a refrigerator off Craig’s list.  Either we did not hear back or there was something wrong with the refrigerator so we still need a refrigerator to store the food for the team.  Pray that God provides that in His time.

Our Father, God, shows us that we are loved not because of what we do but because we are His children.  We can rest in His mercy.  If we do not have the courage to trust Him with our future, God shows us that fears only hold us back.  We are valuable to Him.  He planned for our lives here on earth and for eternity and His grace and mercy is not just for us, but also for us to share with everyone we meet.

Do not be anxious.  God has a plan for the people of Wahiawa and He will carry it out. He is our loving heavenly Father.

Written by Bonnie Young