Isaias Gabriel – Making The Difference in the DR

Proud to call this man friend. Pray for him and his ministry.
http://isaiasgabriel.blogspot.com/

The Difference between hard and easy!

Ok, in life there are some things that are really hard and some things that are not so hard. The really hard things you tend to remember for years. You may even tell your kids and grandkids about the time that… (insert story here). There may have been walking uphill both ways in waist deep snow in June involved in your tale or some other Bunyanesque feat to which you will lay claim.

We do those things because they were hard and caused us to struggle and sometimes consumed our every waking moment.

Giving to the MCC Mission Team has nothing to do with that. You just click a button, type and little and your done. It is so easy you most likely won’t even remember it tomorrow. It will not be a tale you tell you grandchildren because it was just too easy. No pain, no hours of effort, no overcoming incredible odds. IT’S JUST CLICKING A BUTTON, FOR PETE’S SAKE!

So click away and see how quickly we forget the easiest things in life.

The Difference Your Donation WILL Make

I just wanted to show everyone who has donated and is considering a $10.00 donation what your donation WILL do.

As you can imagine, it can get very hot and humid in the Dominican making outdoor construction work even more difficult. One day last summer while I was working there it came a much welcomed midday shower. We were building a church and feeding center in the middle of what was originally a garbage dump for the city of Santiago. Santiago’s poorest have now claimed this dump as their home and have built makeshift wood and concrete buildings there. It is a town within a garbage dump within a city. As the shower continued a swell of water began to run down in front of the feeding center/church. Soon we picked up the stench of the water and realized it was actually sewage being forced to the surface. Unknowing children, like children everywhere, began to do what children do. They played in the “water”. Everyone on our team began to realize the importance of what we were doing and how it can and will change lives.

I hope you realize what importance just $10.00 can mean to the lives of these children. This video has been watched hundreds of times on YouTube. It says a lot about the innocence of children and our responsibility to look after all of God’s children, no matter where they are. Click HERE to see that blog post with video from last year.

Your Turn To Be The Difference

For the past two years a team from Morgantown Community Church has traveled to the Dominican Republic for a week of self sacrifice and service. This year will be no different. On July 14th the team will board a plane and make the trip once again.

Each year the team works to raise funds in order to make this trip. I thought it would be fun if we could show them our support by giving them a little boost finanacially. This will also allow you to relieve some of their personal financial burden. I encourage you to just give something. I already have and it felt great to know I could set in my living room and help feed a child or help build a church in the Domincan Republic.

Just click on the DONATE button to the right and you can help feed children and build churches too.

I thought I would give you link to a video of our team from last year to give you a glimpse of what our team will be doing.

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The Difference God Can Make

This past Sunday my home church, Morgantown Community Church celebrated its 13th anniversary. Our  pastor, Josh Scott, gave a great message centered around Joshua 4. Back in 1996, God led a group of nine adults and their families to plant this incredible church.

MCC Founding Members and Families

We have seen God be so faithful to us and all of MCC through some extremely amazing and devastating experiences. We have seen entire families come to the Lord. We have witnessed God’s love and grace in ways the nine of us could have never imagined.

Josh reminded us all that while remembering the past acts of God is wonderful and important, living in the past does not honor God and only limits what He can do in our lives in the future. The Difference between the two can be subtle at times for us all but we must always look for God’s leadership in our lives. If we look for His leadership we are saying we are ready and willing to follow; now, immediately, at this very moment.  Josh used the following scripture to drive the point home.

1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 ”Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” 4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” 8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, 11 and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the Lord and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. 12 The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. 13 About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war. 14 That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses. 15 Then the Lord said to Joshua, 16 ”Command the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan.” 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” 18 And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before. 19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Joshua became the accepted leader of Israel not because of clever ideas or a new program but because he listened to and followed the direction of the Lord. The Difference between a true leader and a faux leader is humility and faith. Joshua knew what God knew, that someday all of us would need to be reminded of the power and love of God. That reminder didn’t have to be an extravagant temple or shrine, it was just twelve stones carried by those who witnessed the work of the Lord.

My hope and prayer is that those of us who heard God’s voice thirteen years ago can be the stones used to remind us all that God is God of all, that he loves everyone no matter who they are or what situation they find themselves in and that He is faithful to always forgive and lead if we will trust His leadership.

Look what the Lord has done!

MCC Worship service 2003

The Difference Between hungry and HUNGRY

First of all I am sorry for the long time between posts. Work has been overwhelming for the past few days and has allowed me little time to keep up. I hope you were able to visit Jeff and Vickie’s blog from my last post. They are special people who my wife and I love dearly.

Border Crossing from The Dominican Republic to Haiti at Dajabon

On my first trip to the island of Hispaniola with Jeff we were able to travel to Haiti and spend the night in the town of Ouanaminthe which is just across the border from the Dominican city of Dajabon.

Laundry Day on the Massacre River

After passing through customs, which didn’t seem to be a small feat, we were immediately greeted by UN troops and then crossed the Massacre River. (This all sounds terribly inviting doesn’t it?) All this and the stark difference between the Dominican Republic behind me and Haiti in front of me caused a slight sense of fear, ok not that slight but I don’t want to have to cash in the ole man card just yet.

A sweltering hot walk on a dusty road led us to a feeding center sponsored by GO ministries. What little Spanish I knew was now completely useless as Ola had been traded for Bonjour. One amazing thing about children is they all need love and a chance, no matter how they say Hello.

As we arrived at the place we would sleep that night, a courtyard in a makeshift orphanage, I was amazed at the poverty around me. It seemed all that was on most peoples minds were where their next meal was coming from. It was a feeling I will NEVER forget. After a tour of the facilities the people with GO delivered us our evening meal.

Our Saturday Evening Meal

The meal consisted of fried chicken and fried plantains. While I was hungry, after being so hot and worn out, I could eat only what I considered a polite amount of the meal and began to take it to the trash can near my cot. As I started to throw it away my hand was intercepted by one of GO’s missionaries, John Martinez. John reopened the container and motioned for two young men who had evidently been eyeing my less than acceptable meal.

 

A lesson I will never forget

At that point I began to have trouble breathing as I watched John tear my scraps into small pieces and feed the two young boys. Tears filled my eyes as they politely stood in line and ate every bite that I had considered to be less than acceptable and in fact ready for the trash. These were the most humbling and eye opening moments of my life. What I considered trash they saw as treasure. It reminded me that while the bible says my best is but dirty rags to The Father, I am now His treasure due to the sacrifice of His Son. I pray for these young men and others in the orphanage often as I remember the lesson God burned in my soul at that moment.

The reality of their lives made The Difference in mine.

A Couple Making The Difference

I want to introduce you to a great couple who have dedicated their lives to making The Difference. 

 

Jeff and Vickie Rogers are an incredible couple who have a great testimony how God told them they had to leave the sidelines and get in the game and boy did they get in. They went from comfortable “We love Jesus lives”, to “Jesus is our lives”. Sherry and I have known Jeff and Vickie since they were dating students at Western Kentucky University, GO TOPS! (Sorry but I love my Toppers) We were fortunate to be able to share in ministry with them back then and God graceously reunited us for ministry 3 or 4 years ago and it has changed our lives.

Instead of me trying to tell their story I will just let them tell it. BTW, Sherry and I don’t normally look like we have been staked out on the beach for a week but this photo was taken in Santiago, Dominican Republic at the end of a hard and rewarding week of serving. Before you go see what Jeff and Vickie are up to for yourself, let me ask you to comment on this question. 

Has there ever been a time when you felt God leading you to do something that you felt most friends and family would find insane?

So What’s The Difference?

I guess a lot of you have been wondering that.

What is The Difference? 

The Difference is a phrase that you hear used so many ways. 

“You were the difference in the outcome of the game.”

“You’re love and prayer made all the difference in the world.”

“Why should I care, what’s the difference?”

I’ll bet you can think of a bunch more. I guess that is why I was drawn to the title. The Difference can be whatever we want it to be.  For those of you who followed me here from Facebook you may have noticed this pic.

A man sifts for "usable" garbage in a stream of sewage

 

This photo was taken while I was in the Dominican Republic a couple of years ago. I was really more interested in the surroundings than in the man. In fact I didn’t see him at first but after looking at the photo a little later I haven’t been able to see much else. You see, this gentleman, human being, child of the living God, the apple of God’s eye is going through garbage that has been washed onto the bank of a stream of sewage. I could not begin to grasp all that this picture was trying to tell me. Truth is, I still can’t. A million questions, almost literally, have run through my mind. 

How is this fair?

Why is this not me?

What can I do to help?

 

 

I still have many more questions than answers concerning this photo and many other images I have seen while working with those “who are less fortunate”, to coin a tired phrase.

I am always drawn to the scripture that says, Master who sinned this man or his father? Paraphrasing the question they were wanting to know, how did this guy wind up like this and and how can I make sure it doesn’t happen to me. That’s what I wonder as well but more importantly I wanted to know how I could help him better his life.? Is it even possible?

God would not let me get this and similar situations out of my mind. 

So to make a year long search and struggle with God short, The Difference was born.

I cannot tell you how excited and frightened I am about this and the potential that it has.  I hope many of you have been just as frustrated as I have; feeling helpless to change the life of the hopeless. 

Here’s how I think it’s going to work. First, I hope to share with you ministries that are working to make The Difference in cities and towns and villages and huts and hearts all over the world. We will look at the people involved, what they do, how they do it and how we can help them be The Difference. 

The idea is if enough of us really believe we can be The Difference, then that’s exactly what we’ll be. In some cases even The Difference between life and death. You will be given the opportunity to assist each ministry highlighted by donating right from this blog. I am hoping we can develop a huge readership and ask that each reader just donate $10.00. Of course, you can give more or less but with some ministries $10.00 times 100 committed readers could make a big difference.

This is our chance to do it. This is our chance to be the difference. No more sidelines or excuses. It’s game time and the coach is sending you in. 

My hope is to show you exactly how the money was used for each ministry we highlight. I hope that some of you will even be given the opportunity to travel to some of the locations  and report back to us; allow us to see first hand The Difference we are making. I need your prayers as we begin this journey together and can’t wait to see what God has in store.

Today’s question;  Have you seen situations where you wanted to be The Difference but didn’t know how?