Hi Everyone!
It’s been a while since I sent what used to be a “normal” Play. Story. Eat. Update with just text and pictures to tell you about the latest in the ministry. In the past few months we have been working diligently to create videos and content for helping our friends “Be the Church” no matter where they are or what their COVID-19 restrictions. For me, it has been a big change of pace, because I have not traveled to Guatemala since right before the pandemic in February. And the longer I stay home, the more I get invited by my wife, friends, and family to participate in remodeling projects!
At the first stage of stay-at-home orders in March, Nola had me painting and then installing a new ceiling fan light.
One thing I’ve learned about doing home improvement, if you are averse to kicking up dust, you will never get anything done! And in a similar vein, I believe that is true in ministry. For those of us at Play. Story. Eat., we have been in a season of remodeling and preparing for the future - making a mess as we go!
Thank You for Your Patience!
From your perspective, you may have wondered why we are sending these “Be the Church” emails. Admittedly, they are different from what we used to send all the time. Without a whole lot of explanation, we just started sending you these things, hoping you would engage with them and that they would help you “be the church” with people in your neck of the woods. Some of you have given us feedback, and we are extraordinarily grateful for your help.
In the process, we have learned a lot. For one, we learned that when we send emails with three or four videos, NOBODY gets to the third or fourth one! It’s just too much dust to see through! So we have begun to try to scale back to one video of about 3 to 5 minutes and offer more small bites more often than our previous once every two or more weeks.
Another thing we are learning is that we need to give you more of a heads up on the content that is coming. We are putting what we believe are some gems out there, but we haven’t prepped people to know about it and have a reason to say, “That’s exactly what I need!” As we get some of this content up, we plan to package it into things like “A Seven Day Guide to Being the Church” or “30 Days of Life-Giving Conversations with God.” For now we believe we are getting the individual building blocks in place so that in next year there will be a prettier, finished product. So stay tuned as we kick up more dust!
Jesus is Inviting Us to a Personal Remodeling Project
In our last Be-the-Church blog, Bill shared from John 14:23 that Jesus wants to make His home in us. And the question is two-fold. Have you given Jesus the key to enter? And have you given Him the authority to make all the remodeling decisions? If you are like me, there might be a room that you are working on all by yourself, or you haven’t given Jesus the authority to call the remodeling shots. If we are true disciples of His, we must give Him the access and the authority to every part of our lives. What a challenge! Yet He is the One who can do more than we could ever hope or imagine. (Check out the story at the end for a final word on Jesus’ remodeling project!)
More kicking up dust! A couple of weeks ago, a roofing crew came over to my house and had to replace some deteriorating plywood before re-roofing the house. Amazingly a couple of the guys were from a town in Honduras that I have been to!
10:02 PRAYER
Cesar has asked me to consider a strategy to provide a Facebook Live broadcast to our cowboys and ranchers in Guatemala. We are praying through the implications and logistics of starting that and how often we can do it. Please pray for wisdom. Continue to pray that as we create the Be-the-Church content, our translated materials will be both understandable and helpful.
ENGAGE
As we send out more Be-the-Church videos, we appreciate your viewing and sharing these with others. Keep passing them on through email and/or social media! And thanks for your continued feedback.
INVEST
Keep those cards and letters coming! You are making a difference to us. Every penny you send means so much. Thank you!
CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.
Now one last thought…
You Are Jesus’ Remodeling Project
When we signed up to be a disciple of Jesus, whether we realized it or not, we were signing up to an ongoing remodeling project where Jesus would be our guide, and our lives would be His to do with as He wills.
Several years ago, I was at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Buried there is Billy’s wife, Ruth. Before Ruth died, she and Billy drove through a construction zone. A sign read, “End of Construction—Thank you for your patience.”
“That’s what I want on my tombstone!” Ruth declared to Billy.
I snapped this picture outside of the Billy Graham Library. I love Ruth’s sense of humor!
Ruth, I believe, says it for all of us. If we follow our Lord, our very lives will be a remodeling project for Him until the day we die. So only on our tombstone can we truly say “End of Construction.—Thank you for your patience!”
May we be open to His daily transformation. And may we let the dust fly!
Love y’all!
Steve