Upcoming Service Opportunities

November 8th @ 10-10:45am in the Uth room

Bring your ideas for upcoming Uth service projects. What do you see in our future? It’s time to dream big.

December 4th @ 6:15-10pm

Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Packing! You must be 14 years old, wear close toed shoes. Maximum 12 students, 3 leaders.

To the Seed and the future…

We had 7 AMAZING people go to the Mustard Seed to serve dinner. What a great night.

NOVEMBER 8th: NO GIRLTALK/GUTTALK/SIXERS because…

we will meet in the Uth room to discuss what our next missions opportunities will be. Operation Christmas Child? Tailgate party downtown? DemoCrew? Let’s chat.

Amor Going Through a Difficult Time

Amor recently had to lay off 1/4 of their staff. Please pray for Amor Ministries.

http://www.amorblog.org/ (Check out the August 20th post.)

Upcoming Opportunities to Serve

July 27-31- Join our VeBS team and help kids learn about Jesus

September 1- Calgary Foodbank

October 1- The Seed

TBA- We are hoping to volunteer packing shoeboxes again this year, hope you can make it!

Meeting Sunday, July 5

11-12:30pm

Bible Study: Serve Your Way To Success

Mission Trips at Home or Beyond?

     If you were to ask students what they enjoyed the most about Mission to Mexico in past years, they would probably say the relationships formed with God, themselves, the team and the families. In fact, a survey conducted from this year’s participants indicated just that. But can we form these relationships at home? What is so significant about going to Mexico when there are so many needy people on the streets of Calgary or within the province of Alberta?

     My intention is not to de-emphasize the need for mission projects at home. I believe strongly in serving locally. Rather, my intention is for us to understand why mission trips abroad provide the richest opportunities for growth that can breath life in our local mission projects.

     The one major benefit of serving abroad; it’s uncomfortable. Tents are usually not our first choice during a rain storm. Sleeping bags are never warm enough. We don’t know the language. Our team gets mad at each other. We eat too much fast food. Your tent partner forgot their deodorant. You hit your thumb with a hammer twice in one day. Your driver got the van stuck again. You stepped in some sort of black sludge on the side of the road and now you have no shoes to wear. You’re too cold. You’re too hot. You can’t go home.

     God works within us when we face uncertainty. Why? Because when we are uncomfortable the only thing we have to lean on is relationship. God is God. He is never closer to us or farther away. But when we are pushed out on the edge we are more attentive to His voice. Here is the challenge: taking the uncomfortable experience and growth that occurs in international missions and bringing it home. Once we are back in our normal schedule and routine, the pictures seem to become memories that jog our minds of another time and place.

     My hope is to utilize our international missions experience to bring local missions to life. The participants of Mission to Mexico 2009 have all had an experience we will never forget. Let’s use this experience as fuel to move forward. Its only the beginning…

Monthly Meeting

We have decided to make M2M a monthly gathering- the first Sunday of each month after the later service. That means our next meeting is July 5th from 11-12:30.

We will alternate between a bible study and an act of service.

We are currently looking into opportunities for 2010. Keep the ideas flowing!

M2M Reunion June 7

Its about time we got together again! This Sunday we will have pizza at 1pm. We’ve invited Lee Goodman from the Mustard Seed Calgary to join us and talk about doing mission work at home.

Something else to think about: How do you see M2M evolving? Small group? Missions projects at home? Bring your ideas!

A Letter from Gayla and Scott- the Amor Founders

How Are You? ¿Cómo estás? By Gayla Cooper Congdon, Founder & CSO It’s amazing what you can find on the Internet. As we all know, some is good and some is bad. For this eNews, I Googled the greeting, “How are you?” and came across a website called the How Are You Doing Project.

Basically, the website has an 800 number you can call and leave a message about how you are doing. The project is described as an “exercise in everyday empathy.” This website, in my opinion, seems to give people a false sense of empathy when they anonymously air their feelings in a message. It merely reinforces the belief that we are just trying to be kind when we ask, “How are you?” We don’t really want to know how someone genuinely is doing because it might ask us for some type of commitment.

Lately, I have wondered if anyone asked Jesus how he was doing leading up to the crucifixion and actually cared about how he was doing. Did Peter, James, or John sit down with Jesus on that final day to find out how he was handling all that was happening to him? Maybe their caring led Jesus to ask those three to keep watch. Even if they took the time to ask Jesus how he was, they couldn’t hang with the son of God; all three fell asleep. Honestly, I have to admit that I would have probably done the same, I would have fallen asleep as well.

Thinking of the lukewarm church in Laodicea, I have an image in my mind that at every service, people went through the motions of worship and asked each other, “How are you?” not really wanting to know. Lukewarm people probably don’t want to know how you are doing because you might actually tell them how you are, and that could require them to do something on your behalf.

Many of you have called, written, or emailed us at Amor Ministries to ask how we are doing. I usually respond with, “Do you really want to know?” I am going to trust that you do, and I will tell you how we are doing.

We have good days and bad days, just like anyone that is going through the challenges of the current economy, safety concerns of Mexico, and now the swine flu, which, by the way, isn’t as bad as the media made it out to be.

Every cancellation of a Mission Trip hurts. Our Mission Services reps have taken a beating by some of the things that have been said to them. The one that makes all of us the saddest to hear is, “We should take care of our own kind.” Scott and I heard that when we first started the ministry 29 years ago. Those people must have skipped over that perennial Bible favorite of the Good Samaritan.

The team has had to shuffle projects and meet with families to tell them they won’t be getting their house. A lot of tears have been shed.

Despite the difficult times, I want you to know that there is more good going on in the Ministry. We are experiencing team unity like never before. Efforts such as voluntary pay cuts and the Mexico Ministry Planning Board donating back their annual retreat money have allowed us keep of staff intact to this point. Most touching to me, individual pastors in Mexico raised money for the Casa de Amor house sponsorship program. I don’t have to remind you how little they already make. The pastors have been hit hardest by all of this because of commitments they made to families expecting new houses, yet they have sacrificed significantly in our time of need.

We love it when members of our National Advisory Board and Board of Directors consistently call with words of encouragement and e-mail us to say they are specifically praying for that day on our behalf. Others have written to say there is nothing that will keep them from coming, much like group from Bella Vista Church in Rockford, Michigan featured on their local ABC station.

Another encouragement came in the form of groups that redirected their trips this spring to Puerto Peñasco, some driving as many as 18 extra hours. I visited Peñasco several times during spring, and I met some pretty incredible group leaders. The list goes on and on. This is a shout out to all of you!

How are we really? Well, we are not at the point, nor are we even close, to the desperate end where Job found himself. We are trusting God in the present and with our future.

We do need your help, however. In the next week or so, you will be getting a letter from Amor Ministries asking you to stand with us during this difficult time. Your support is needed now more than ever. Without it, Amor could look very different as we enter our 30th year of ministry to the poor.

If you really want to know how we are, then email us or call us so we can tell you. And you can tell us how you are, as well. So, how are you?

Video Two

By now I’m sure you’ve all seen our interview video. Check out http://www.oursaviourchurch.ca for another video. Click on ‘Community Life’ and ‘Student Ministry’. You can find a video of the building process, campfire fun and worship with one of the Emanuels.