Last Day - Sign Painting Crew

Pastor Jeff here. Today Judy, Amanda, Meghan, Joey and I went to the Gateway Center. I am amazed after being gone 2 and a half years how much has happened with the Gateway Center. This massive old factory building is teaming with ministries to assist the poor, reach out with the love of Jesus and provide a safe place for teens to hang out. Part of that hang out ministry is the indoor skate park and laser tag facility. One problem, a lot of folks don't even realize that the old Chautauqua Hardware factory hosts these options for young people. We remedied that with a massive painted sign that is visible from Foote Avenue a major street in Jamestown. If you come to Jamestown look for our sign!

August 3rd - Kingdom Bound!

Hi everyone! This is Becca and Will, reporting about our Wednesday trip to the Kingdom Bound festival at Darien Lake. After about a 2 hour drive from the Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center, we arrived at the theme park.

We wasted no time getting into the Spirit of things (haha!) and headed to the Worship Tent to spend time praising God to awesome music. We also got to walk through the Christian merchandise tent, buying some books, Christian music CDs, and some Bible verse jewelry.

I (Will) headed to a seminar on utilizing social networks for Christian outreach. Pr. Jeff and I (Becca) stayed in the Worship Tent for some more God time.

Then the deluge happened. For more than an hour and half, rain came down in buckets. We found some shelter in a pizza place in the park, and Pr. Jeff found the time useful, since he needed to write his sermon for Sunday! Come to church this Sunday to find out if he was successful…

Once the first draft of the sermon was done, we went back to the Worship Tent even though the rain was still going.  Unexpectedly, the teens showed up at that point as well, and we all worshiped together to Christian blues music.

We all ate dinner after that, and then the teens went to hear a speaker and save spots for us for the Chris Tomlin concert, and we went to the Worship Tent to worship a bit and to hear Robin Mark. Everything was running late, though, so once they did their sound check we only got to hear 1 ½ songs before we had to power walk across the park to see Chris Tomlin.

The concert was AWESOME!!!!!!! About 20,000 Christians were gathered in the Performing Arts Center, all singing along to Chris Tomlin’s songs and praising God.  It was an experience that was unlike anything we had ever seen or experienced, and we will never forget it.

We didn’t get back to LCLC until about 1am, we were exhausted! The teens were able to pass out in the car on the way home, but the three adults were wide awake. Well, I (Becca) was wide awake for most of the ride…

So, in short, Kingdom Bound was an amazing, worshipful experience!!!

~Becca and Will (Mostly Becca)

Children of the Corn August 4

OK, how about children of God in the corn. Pastor Jeff writing. Will Becca and I went back to the Chautauqua Rural Ministry today, planning to move furniture in their warehouse. I know that sounds really exciting. When we got there it was decided that it was so much more important for us to sort clothes hangers. For a half hour we mastered the coat hangers - then we moved furniture. Actually what we did is set the thrift furniture store back up after it's space had been painted. So we got to use both creative spacial skills and mindless back breaking work. By lunch time we were done. Yay! Josh from CRM said, "Hey, would you folks like to glean corn?" 'Yeah, that would be great," I said while Becca and Will were trying to get my attention with their shaking heads. "Oh come on it will be fun!" Off we went to the town of Sheridan. An hour and a half later, much dirtier and much sweatier we had 16 large bags (about 50 pounds each) ready to go to feed the local needy. It was a hard day, physically, but a good day that was capped off by Ron from LCLC treating us by taking us sailing and allowing use to kayak.

August 2nd - St. Susan's Kitchen

Hi Saints!

Judy here! We began the day by celebrating the birth of Meghan.  Happy 17^th birthday, Child of God!  Every candle on your cake makes our world brighter.

Breakfast grace was sung to the tune of Superman.

Thank you Lord, for giving us food!  Thank you Lord, for giving us food!

Thank you Creator!  Thank you Redeemer!

The gender-specific language led us into an animated discussion of God’s gender.  No surprises – nothing was resolved.

Will, Amanda, Meghan and I went to Saint Susan’s – a busy soup kitchen in Jamestown where we sliced, diced, mixed, served, bused and scrubbed.  We met some amazing volunteers!  The young man who worked in the scullery with Will is unemployed and spending his time volunteering while he awaits work.  The others were all older retirees like me.  Many give one day a week year round to this labor of love.  We saw God’s light in their willingness to serve.

This soup kitchen feeds between two and four hundred folks a day.  Spaghetti, the freshest of salads, cantaloupe, mandarin orange slices, soup, beverage and dessert were available.  We saw infants and the elderly, those infirm of body and those wounded in mind and spirit.  We saw families and those who arrived, sat, and left alone.  Some sat with downcast eyes and avoided our gaze.  Others sought our smiles.  A fellow in a bright Hawaiian shirt engaged us in enthusiastic conversation.  Many were grateful for the lunch.  Many were not.  Many were helpful and brought their trays to our bussing station to save our poor legs. 

A hundred and fifty years ago H.G. Wells believed that the revolutionary new technologies would allow mankind to wipe out sickness, ignorance and poverty by the beginning of the 1900’s.  But Jesus said, “You will always have the poor around you.” We don’t see them in Clifton Park.  Today was a startling reminder.     

Having grown up Protestant, I associate saints with the Roman and Episcopal churches and always wonder about what a saint did.  Saint Susan, I discovered, was a saint just like you and me – a believer, a worker for the kingdom, “nothing special.”  She was simply a young woman of 21 who was fatally injured in an accident in the area, and spent her final days being cared for by the skilled and compassionate staff of the local hospital.  In gratitude, her family created Saint Susan’s in her memory.   Like yours and mine, her simple life was not filled with great deeds, astonishing miracles or intentional self-sacrifice.  Yet each day the poor and the cast-down, the spat upon and the ratted on are greeted by her angelic smile and are fed in God’s name.   

As the detritus of the luncheon meal was cleared away, a fresh batch of volunteers arrived to begin work on the supper meal and we left to restore our souls beside the still waters of Lake Chautauqua.   Will got us home without benefit of a map by listening to an angelic female voice coming out of nowhere telling us when to turn right or left.  Is it magic? 

August 1st- Joint Neighborhood Project, Day One

Written by Meghan Berman and Amanda Gibson

Today we traveled to the Joint Neighborhood Project Daycamp, to help counsel children ages 4-11. At the start of the day, we joined the six and seven year old campers in an invigorating game of kickball, followed by bracelet making with the girls, while the boys made collages. Soon after, it was time to eat lunch. Many lovely women served us, as well as the children, pizza and homemade chocolate chip cookies. During lunch, Amanda and I were able to get to know all of the campers and gain a sense about their home lives. Although the children spend their summers in a daycamp, they were really loving and were quick to get to know and accept us.
After lunch, many of the campers took a local field trip to the YMCA to go swimming, while others traveled to the musical education center, Infinity. Amanda and I accompanied the campers to Infinity and assisted the counselors in making splatter paintings with toothbrushes and participated in a Zumba class with a local dance instructor. The campers were very grateful of the opportunities presented to them and after class, somehow still had energy to play a game of four square.
Spending the day at the Joint Neighborhood Project daycamp taught us that although some children may have hard lives, God is always looking out for these children, providing them with opportunities to be loved and to live their lives to their fullest potential.

 

The Friendly Kitchen - Dunkirk, NY

Hey all, Will here with an update on our progress so far. It's about 4:00 in the afternoon and Pastor Jeff, Ministry Associate Becca and yours truly have just arrived back at Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center from our first day out doing God's work this trip. Today Jeff, Becca and I worked at The Friendly Kitchen, a community kitchen project run by Chautauqua County Rural Ministries of Dunkirk, NY.


Originally we were supposed to be helping move furniture around for another one of their ministries but it seems the Lord wanted us to be in the kitchen today instead because someone (unknowing to the coordinator) told the kitchen staff to not come in today because volunteers were going to be running the show all by themselves (panic!) Thankfully, God made sure one of the regular staff came in anyway to give us helpful hints. Today's meal was meatball subs with cheese, carrots and french fries.  With the exception of the french fries (which we burnt a little), we were able to successfully serve about 80 adults and children in Dunkirk.


Our mission today may actually end up being a dry run for tomorrow's mission when some of our team will head over to St. Susan's Kitchen in Jamestown, NY where we will be helping to feed more mouths. As I finish writing this, I hear all the young (and young-at-heart) members returning from their mission to the Joint Neighborhood Project Day Camp and we are all just so excited to hear how it went.  I will be putting together a photo album later tonight after we grab some dinner and head down to watch Chautauqua Idol. 


God's Peace,
Will