March Youth Update

PRAISE GOD!! Winter has arrived…..AGAIN! So much for the Groundhog! As I work here on my computer I am having visions of deep snow in the driveway that will take up hours of my time. Oh well, March has come in like a lion and hopefully this means it will go out like a lamb…and how appropriate with Easter on the last weekend of March. The good news is that the storm is in the middle of the week and we LEAVE for Guatemala very early on Saturday morning.

Our Guatemala mission begins in the middle of the night on Friday evening when we will journey to Battle Creek with our team members and lots of luggage bearing gifts and materials. We’ll park our cars at the North Avenue Church of God, which has very graciously agreed to drop us off in Chicago’s O’Hare airport with their 25 passenger bus and pick us back up on the following Sunday morning. David Beam, our missionary, is anticipating our arrival late Saturday night into Guatemala City. Then we’re off in a whirlwind as we worship with the church of the TRACKS Sunday morning and then begin our week of construction and interacting with the people of the Tracks. Everyone is going to be BLESSED! God has answered MANY prayers; we have paid all of our expenses so far, and have only luggage costs and transportation yet to deal with. However, we have money in the bank. Praise God for blessing us!! PLEASE keep us in your prayers this week, March 5 through 13, and we will see you in church the following Sunday. Continue reading →

December Youth Update

Merry Christmas! It’s a wonderful season for the church as we celebrate the most important moment in human history. It’s a time to be with family and friends to celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is moment where a miracle became a reality and we learned that nothing is impossible with God. It’s a story of the eternal promises of life, Jesus becoming a man with the ultimate sacrifice of death to pay for our sins through His resurrection, the fulfillment of prophecy and becoming our Messiah, our Savior, our hope in a hopeless world. The reason we celebrate Christmas, the miracle that changed the world. It’s for me, for you, for us, and the world. May your Christmas season be joyful! Continue reading →

The Pattern of the World

A couple of weeks ago, on November 1, I preached on Romans 12:1-2. The sermon, part of our series on evangelism, was a call for us to experience deep transformation in Jesus Christ and then to live into the perfect will of God. The sermon led directly into sharing the Lord’s Supper together, an experience of deep transformation in which we encounter the crucified and living Christ in a mysterious, powerful way.

In the sermon’s conclusion, I spoke these two sentences:

The world’s way of living is to ignore the mercy of God and to live for our own comfort and preservation. When we separate ourselves from those who are not like us, we are simply accommodating to the pattern of the world.

I would like to expand on those thoughts with you now. Especially now, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Continue reading →

November Youth Update

We enter November with Olive’s yard raking project completed and two events in our history. We had a successful swimming party at Four Seasons Health Club on October 11th and enjoyed the corn maze, hayride and other activities at Grandma’s Pumpkin Patch last Sunday. Our youth meetings are reaching about 8 kids a week and our GRAD meetings are hosting 5-6 young adults. We are continuing to reach out to those families to join us regularly with Sunday morning Worship participation & attendance then urging parents to help in having their youth to grow spiritually through the ministries of Mt. Haley. Continue reading →

Yearning to Breathe Free

Tara and I sing with the Midland Chorale, a choral group that presents a number of concerts throughout the course of a year. This fall, we are singing a new piece by Mark Hayes called “The American Spirit.” In three movements, it tracks our nation’s historical emphases on self-reliance, individualism, equality, justice, optimism, and dreams. The second of these movements draws the bulk of its lyrics from a sonnet entitled “The New Colossus,” written in 1883 by Emma Lazarus.

The civil war in Syria began in 2011. For the past four years, violence, oppression, and despair have marked the lives of everyday Syrians. You have probably seen the news, especially in the past month, of how many people have fled from their homes in Syria because of the ongoing conflict. Presently, some four million Syrians have left their country, fleeing – often on foot or via traffickers – to nearby places like Turkey and Lebanon, as well as more distant nations such as Germany and Egypt.

Continue reading →

Let’s Go to Guatemala!

Guatemala! —A mission, a week with God’s people, lives being changed, a community far away but yet very close, friends, homes, God’s love, a calling!

God’s servants are being called to Guatemala for our annual mission to worship with the people, help meet their needs with items for daily living, help in providing a home for a family, to encourage and bless them, to reach out to our community of believers and to honor God and give Him glory. Every year we spend approximately a week in Guatemala at the “Tracks” in Guatemala City. Registration for the Mt. Haley Guatemala Mission trip to Guatemala will be due by Sunday, September 27th, 2015. The registration is $100 with a $250 balance + (plane fare, passport & insurance) due by February 1, 2016. The trip is tentatively scheduled for approximately March 5-12, 2016.

The $350 for the mission covers the cost of our food, lodging, transportation, gas and other miscellaneous needs the trip may entail. Every person must have a U.S. passport (you would need to apply for it SOON); we have a small fee for insurance (unknown presently) and money to cover airfare to Guatemala & back. Airfare has been somewhere between $350 and $750 per person as we strive to obtain the best possible rates to meet our needs. (Flight, luggage, carry-ons, times, etc). A safe estimate would be to plan for a thousand dollars for the mission. People from other churches are welcomed and encouraged to participate. The group needs to raise $5000 to cover the costs of helping a family build a home at the Tracks and is helped by the churches involved with the project.

After registration, each participant is asked to attend and participate in four monthly meetings prior to the trip to help the group grow in unity, purpose, spiritually and be prepared for their experience. Attendance is expected.

Guatemala is an incredible life-changing experience, blessing David Beam, the community and friends we work and visit, the family we help with having a house, plus blessings we receive, that probably outweigh the blessings we hope to give. It’s a chance to live out our Christian walk and strengthen our walk with Christ as we serve in our own community and church. Guatemala – a calling in life to serve Christ and others!

Feel free to contact Pastor Jerry Graham with any questions, concerns or thoughts as we begin to plan for this year’s mission.

Eulogy for James

My friend James died this past Sunday at 10:45am. He died of a rare and aggressive form of leukemia that whittled away at his strength for the past couple of years. James did not want a funeral or memorial service. He will be cremated, and the world will move on.

Most people would not care to know James. Let me introduce him to you. James was an ex-con, incarcerated on three separate occasions: once for statutory rape, once for breaking and entering, and once for check fraud. His last conviction was his “third strike,” and he spent twelve years in prison as a result. Continue reading →