On this 8th Sunday after Pentecost, July 14th, 2024, Rev. Matt Sapp opens us with a prayer for our country as we gather in the shadow of political violence. Our sermon today is by Rev. Katie Faison and is entitled "Come to the Water." Among other things, she speaks about some of the experiences our members recently had during Passport camp and on our mission trip to Romania. These experiences dovetail wonderfully into how we can drink the living water that God offers us.
(00:00) A Prayer for our Country
(04:01) Welcome and Announcements
(06:19) Sermon: Come to the Water
(28:59) Announcing "Steve & Nancy Cothran Sunday"
(29:43) Benediction
- where all generations worship, grow, and serve together.
- where women and men have equal opportunities for leadership.
- where traditional worship is engaged with excellence.
- and where diverse approaches to Christian faith and theology all find themselves at home under the lordship of Christ.
Want to learn more about Central? Visit our website at centralbaptistnewnan.org or give us a call at 770-683-0610.
[00:00:01]
Matt Sapp:
We gather for worship this morning in the shadow of a shocking act of political violence. An act of political violence designed to short circuit the democratic process that is the cornerstone of the freedoms we have honored, celebrated, and thanked God for from this pulpit and in this sanctuary over these last 2 Sundays on either side of Independence Day. All of our Baptist distinctives are characterized by freedom. Bible freedom, soul freedom, church freedom, religious freedom. And each relies on a free church operating within a free state.
We are among just a small handful of religious denominations, Christian or otherwise, that believes so ardently in the one person, one vote democratic process, that we don't just champion that process in our political order. We choose it for our religious order as well, at every level of decision making in Baptist life, from the local congregation to area associations, to state and regional bodies, to national and international conventions. So as Christians this morning, and especially as Baptists, we ought to be outspoken champions for the freedoms both inherent in and protected by a democratic process free from violence and intimidation.
It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. There is no acceptable level of political or religious, for that matter, violence or intimidation. 2 Sundays ago, as we looked ahead to Independence Day together in worship, I stood right here in this pulpit and said that there is no better way to celebrate our nation, no better way to say I'm proud to be an American, than to work actively and consistently to make our country look more like God's kingdom. In moments like this, here's how you can do that: As those who bear Christ's name as Christians, we should all distinguish ourselves today, in person and on social media, in private conversations with our family, and in text messages with our best friends, in conversations at the coffee shop, and in chance encounters on the sidewalk, we should all distinguish ourselves as Christians today by being the loudest, clearest, and most consistent voices for peace, civility, and generosity of spirit toward all people, and especially toward those with whom we have political differences.
Let's pray together. Heavenly father, as we worship this morning, we pray for president Trump and his family. And we are grateful that he was not more seriously injured. And we pray for all those who were present to witness this act of violence and all the others who have been significantly impacted by it. We pray for our country and for our political process. We pray for your calming influence on it and on us. Remind us that our democratic process is founded in large part on our shared belief in the inherent worth, value, and dignity of all people, because you are present in each of us, and we are each created in your image. Bring that truth to the fore as we remember the distinctly Baptist principle that we can reach our highest and our best in service to you when we are blessed to be part of a free church in a free state.
We offer ourselves and our prayers to you this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:04:01] Steve Cothran:
It's my pleasure to welcome you to this hour of worship. We're so glad that you've taken time out of your summer, out of your busy day, to come into this space where we can all take a deep breath and remember that God is the Lord of the universe. If you happen to be a guest with us this morning here, especially to hear about our, summer missions and ministry experience that our children and lots of people have been involved with, we have a special welcome for you and invite you to take a welcome to central card that's in the pew rack just in front of you. Take a moment during the service and fill that out and drop that in the offering plate as it's passed around a little bit later so that we might have a record of your visit and reach out to you later in the week to let you know some of the many, many opportunities for worship and service that occur every single day right here at Central Baptist Church, where you are the body and the presence of Christ to our city.
As Matt mentioned, the craziness that our world sometimes presents us, Mary Oliver addresses that in her poem about human nature and the sea. The ocean is where some of us have visited this summer, and where some of us find our happy place and where the currents can carry away all of our troubles. Listen to this imagery from her, and especially since we are talking about coming to the water. The sea can do craziness. It can do smooth. It can lie down like silk breathing or toss havoc shoreward. It can give gifts or with hold it all.
It can rise, ebb, froth like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can sweet talk entirely, as I can too. And so, no doubt, can you. And you. Let us hear the sweet words of God that we have in this sanctuary today. Come to the water.
[00:06:19] Katie Faison:
Time flies when you're catching up with a colleague at passport who also happened to be one of my seminary professors. We ended our conversation by agreeing that sometimes we hesitate to tell people how much fun our jobs are because we feel a little guilty admitting it out loud. I'm so grateful to all of you who have entrusted me to be part of each team I worked alongside this summer. Summer at CBC began a little differently this year. We kicked off with a great vacation bible school, where we hosted a 100 and 25 children and welcomed over 70 volunteers.
Less than 1 week later, Ronnie and I accompanied a team of 15 to Romania, where we helped facilitate a camp for 40 Roma children. And last week, myself along with 3 other brave chaperones drove 16 of our children to Meisenheimer, North Carolina so we could experience 4 days of fun filled activities centered around learning about God's love. God works in amazing ways without any intentional planning on our part. Both our VBS and passport theme lined up perfectly. Our VBS theme, which we also carried to Romania, was scuba, diving into friendships with God, and our passport theme was come to the water, where we learned to float, drink, and dive into ministry.
On the first day of camp, our verse was Isaiah 55:1 a. All who are thirsty come to the water. In bible study, the campers talked about metaphors as they would use water metaphors throughout the week to learn about God. They read several passages exploring the use of water metaphors throughout scripture, including Revelation 21:6: He said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. On day 2, our word was float. Isaiah 43 :2 a says, when you pass through the waters, idea that God is always with us so we can relax or float even in the storm.
The students read Mark's account of when Jesus calms the storm. They compared how the feelings you get when you experience a literal storm are often like the feelings you get when you experiencing challenging times in your life. And on day 3, the word was drink. All who are thirsty come to me. All who believe in me should drink. As the scripture said concerning me, rivers of living water will flow out from within him. They learned that just like water is necessary for our life, our relationship with spiritual life. Throughout the week, we learned about our mission partner, Karen Alford.
Karen is CBF field personnel in Togo, West Africa. Through video messages from Karen and night market, which is a an immersive learning experience, and a missions rotation on the 3rd day, the children had a very small glimpse of what life is like in Togo, West Africa. They learned how our friends in Togo, not only don't have access to clean water, but they don't have access to very much water at all. We considered what not having access to water would look like. We thought about all the ways that we use water in our lives for drinking, washing our hands, and bathing, going to the bathroom, growing food, medical needs, and even entertainment, and how easy it is to access water that we need for all of these things.
Karen told us a story about a little girl who was involved in a motorcycle accident, who ended up with a pretty severe wound to her heel. Although it was a bad injury, here in the US, it most likely wouldn't have been a problem to treat it and it for for it to heal up quickly. But because they didn't have access to water, the wound became infected, and she almost lost her foot. Thankfully, Karen and her team accessed some clean water and medicine for her, and eventually got the infection under control. And the little girl is now able to walk again. In bible study, our campers explored the idea of quenching our spiritual thirst by reading the story of the woman at the well.
They talked about what it looks like to drink the living water that God offers us. When can you drink? When we are feeling alone or separated from God? When you want to learn more about your faith? Or when you feel the need to draw closer to God. How can you drink? Spend more time reading the bible or praying. Find a church home where you can get involved and be in community with other believers by caring for others and working for justice. And on the last day, the word was dive. 1st Corinthians 12:5, God's various ministries are carried out everywhere, But they all originate in God's spirit.
In bible study, the children discussed what it means to dive in and how that relates to our faith. The bible study leaders demonstrated spreading God's love by dropping a pebble into the water so that they could see the ripples it creates that signify the change one person's actions can make. As I mentioned at the beginning, I have had 3 extraordinary opportunities to witness these concepts that our children learned about this summer become a reality. When our mission team first arrived in Romania, we did what anyone does when they first arrive overseas, absolutely everything in our power to stay awake till at least 9 PM.
The perfect formula to get rid of jet lag as fast as possible. I happen to be sharing a room with 4 others and all of our cell phones were plugged in, just a few feet away from my head. So after falling asleep shortly after 9 PM, we were startled awake at 10:45 PM when all five of our cell phone emergency alerts went off within seconds of each other. You know the one. It sounds like a amber alert or a tornado warning. But in my jet lag fog, as soon as we got them all silence, I laid back down and didn't think much about it.
Until about 5 minutes later, when they all went off again. It was until we were settling down for the second time that it dawned on me. Maybe I should read what it's saying. So I opened my eyes to look at my phone and immediately saw the lightning flashes and heard the hail begin to fall. After getting past the first three paragraphs in Romanian, I began reading the warning in English, take shelter immediately. Strong winds and hail expected. I had a moment of panic. What should I do? Should I wake all of these people up and get them downstairs in the basement?
Jess Wilbanks and I were the only ones awake at the time, so we walked around and assessed the situation, waited a little while, and eventually decided it was safe to go back to sleep. As we were settling in on the second night there, I was headed in to gather the group for our devotional time, when I was met on the stairs by Annie Van Amberg. She had just received news from the States that her husband, Mike, was experiencing a medical emergency. This time, a life storm instead of a literal storm. The anxiety of the unknown, the helplessness lessness of being so far away with no easy way to get back, the pressure to make decisions and make them quickly, The sadness of having to leave behind something you worked so hard for and waited so long to be a part of, and at the same time the willingness to drop everything to be with the one you love.
That night, there wasn't anything we could do but pray, and trust Jesus to give Annie her family enough peace to make it through the next few days. At camp, our children learned that when you're going through a storm in life, god will help you float. Not that god will make it perfect or make it go away, but that God will hold you up on top of the waves until the storm passes. The next day, we took them to the airport as we headed to the mountains to begin camp, leaving Annie and her daughter Sarah at the airport with no official plan has to be one of the hardest things I've ever done as a minister.
A few hours after trying to change their ticket at the airport and me unsuccessfully reaching our travel agent here in the states, it was clear that they would not be flying home that day. So they went back to the church where we were staying, and the pastor of the church, Odie, and his wife showed up and took them downtown, and fed them lunch, and gave them a tour of the city. Something that they would miss later in the week. God's perfect way of keeping them afloat in the midst of a very scary storm. We did finally get in touch with the travel agent, and they were able to leave very early the next morning. And although we missed them greatly the very news is, Mike is well on his way to a complete recovery.
At camp, we learned that we should drink from the living water Jesus is Jesus offers when we are feeling alone or separated from God, or when we want to draw closer to God. If I were to sit down and tell you about my personal experience in Romania, I would have very few negative things to say. But one of the thing that was probably the most frustrating for me, and I would probably the group as well, was the language barrier. Each day, we spent from 8:30 AM until 10 PM, with the children with very little down time. And in order to communicate with them, we had to have a translator, or we had to have Google translate on our phone, or we had to to communicate by pointing or gesturing with short one word thoughts.
So you can imagine that after 5 days of camp, everyone was a little bit tired and a little bit frustrated when they couldn't communicate quickly enough or correctly. And on the last afternoon, we were executing a well thought out, well planned water day, and a well prepped for science experiment where the kids made their own ice cream for snack. But in the midst of our fatigue, our team had a moment of discouragement, and it started to show up just a little on the outside. And as I was helping clean up the ice cream disaster, Ronnie came to me and said, what do you think about taking just a few minutes to have with the team to recenter?
We could pray as a group and retire and remind the team that they are doing really well. So before we started the next session of activities, we gathered on the field, we held hands, and we prayed. We took just a few minutes to drink the life giving water Jesus offers us. Not only did we finish strong that day, but I personally don't think I will ever forget that moment. Thank you, Ronnie, for noticing we all needed a moment to draw closer to God, to love on one another and to encourage each other that we were doing a great job even in the midst of our frustration. A great example of when you are thirsty, you quench your thirst with water.
And when you are spiritually thirsty, you should quench your thirst with the life giving water Jesus offers. This summer, I worked with volunteers, chaperones, and a mission team that could not be better examples of how to dive in to ministry. Think this is the perfect opportunity to thank each of these groups as they could not have created a better ripple effect in our community, our country, and our world with their willingness to love God by loving others. I'll start by saying thank you to our volunteers who helped with Vacation Bible School. When you dive in and give your time and energy to a 125 kids to teach them about God's love, I'm not sure that it gets much better than that.
Teaching children that Jesus is inviting each one of them to come to the water, and sending them back out to live what they have learned creates a very wide ripple effect and impacts God's God's kingdom in an incredible way. In addition to the volunteers who taught our children, there were so many who worked alongside them to pack meals for people who are hungry in our world. We have learned since then, that the ripple effect of our meal packing has made it all the way to Madagascar. Thanks again to all who made vacation bible school a success. Having the opportunity to experience a week long mission trip is life changing.
Our team of 15 started working several months before we left in June. We fund raised, we planned activities, gathered supplies, created camp schedules, kept in constant communication with our host in Romania to be sure we were well prepared for our time there. And that was just the beginning. Traveling overseas for a mission trip means that you have to endure long travel days, jet lag, more planning, and more organizing when you arrive. You have to be willing to take time away from your family, friends, and work. You have to sleep in dorm like spaces and share bathrooms.
You have to be willing to take those cold showers, But really, it's okay because when you get out, you know you're just gonna start sweating again right away. You have to be willing to play badminton for hours at a time because you just can't say no to the sweet little girl who keeps asking. You have to be willing to endure the frustration when you can't speak the same language as most of the people around you. And you have to carry the heartache that will last a lifetime, when tears won't stop flowing, because it's time to say goodbye.
But hopefully, the joy will outlet weigh those hard parts, because you get to see, smell, taste, and experience a culture that you could have only read about before. You get to receive hugs from children who love have loved you from the minute that they met you. You get to try to speak their language and hear them laugh when you don't even say it remotely correctly. You get to experience the overwhelming love of a stranger that brings those tears when it's time to say goodbye. And you get to build bonds with, and friendships with people from your own town, who you got to know better as you spent the week together.
Thank you to the 15 people who gave their time, their emotional energy, their physical energy, and to love our friends in in Romania this summer. I hope you truly had an all encompassing, come to the water experience as the Holy Spirit empowered you to dive in to mission ministry. The true success of this mission cannot have happened without each and every one of you. And last, but not least, if you have never experienced passport kids camp as a chaperone, I have to tell you, you're missing out. A chaperone for kids camp is a very unique position to fulfill in God's kingdom.
As a chaperone at kids camp, you have to be willing to sleep on a very questionable dorm room mattress, sleep on top of the sheets with the hall lights blaring into your room because the air condition cannot keep up with the heat wave going on outside. You have to be willing to stay up until 11 PM and say, time to get in your rooms and quiet down, 400 times. Or willing to walk that one student all the way back to the dining hall, because they just realized they forgot their water bottle. But you also get to experience constant laughter listening to awesome jokes as you walk to and from the cafeteria.
You get to surprise the group to a trip to McKinley's yum yum shop during free time, you get to experience the pure joy of cheering and laughter when the kids stand on the side of the road and do the honk honk gesture at every truck driving by, and you smile when every truck, and I mean, every truck satisfies their want. You get to be proud of your campers when they work together to be the kickball tournament champions. And you get to watch our children get excited about singing and dancing and praising God. Kids camp requires a lot of energy, but I hope that the reward makes the experience worth every second. Thanks again, It absolutely could not have happened without you.
I will leave you with this prayer, our campers prayed on the last day of camp. Let us pray. Spirit of God, hear our prayer. We are diving in with all our heart. Wherever we go and whatever we do, your spirit has prepared the way. Guide our hearts and our hands to love and serve the world. Here we go. We're diving in. Amen.
[00:29:00] Matt Sapp:
2 Sundays from today is Steve Cothran Sunday. Maybe Steve and Nancy Cothran Sunday as we have a chance to celebrate Steve and Nancy in their 35 years of ministry, including six and a half years of outstanding ministry here at Central Baptist Church. We'll host a breakfast, to honor Steve during the Sunday school hour. We'll have some special guests in worship to help us, make that day a special event as well. Remember that 2 Sundays from now. Thank you all for being present in worship today. Hope every last one of us leaves this hour of worship encouraged and emboldened, encouraged especially by this great testimony of our children We'll be faithful representatives both of our church and of our lord Jesus Christ.
[00:29:42] Lynleigh Hadden:
Lindley, lead us, please. Come to the water. Float knowing God is with you. Drink the life giving water of Jesus. Dive in to serve others. Let the water carry you as we go from this place. Amen.
We gather for worship this morning in the shadow of a shocking act of political violence. An act of political violence designed to short circuit the democratic process that is the cornerstone of the freedoms we have honored, celebrated, and thanked God for from this pulpit and in this sanctuary over these last 2 Sundays on either side of Independence Day. All of our Baptist distinctives are characterized by freedom. Bible freedom, soul freedom, church freedom, religious freedom. And each relies on a free church operating within a free state.
We are among just a small handful of religious denominations, Christian or otherwise, that believes so ardently in the one person, one vote democratic process, that we don't just champion that process in our political order. We choose it for our religious order as well, at every level of decision making in Baptist life, from the local congregation to area associations, to state and regional bodies, to national and international conventions. So as Christians this morning, and especially as Baptists, we ought to be outspoken champions for the freedoms both inherent in and protected by a democratic process free from violence and intimidation.
It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. There is no acceptable level of political or religious, for that matter, violence or intimidation. 2 Sundays ago, as we looked ahead to Independence Day together in worship, I stood right here in this pulpit and said that there is no better way to celebrate our nation, no better way to say I'm proud to be an American, than to work actively and consistently to make our country look more like God's kingdom. In moments like this, here's how you can do that: As those who bear Christ's name as Christians, we should all distinguish ourselves today, in person and on social media, in private conversations with our family, and in text messages with our best friends, in conversations at the coffee shop, and in chance encounters on the sidewalk, we should all distinguish ourselves as Christians today by being the loudest, clearest, and most consistent voices for peace, civility, and generosity of spirit toward all people, and especially toward those with whom we have political differences.
Let's pray together. Heavenly father, as we worship this morning, we pray for president Trump and his family. And we are grateful that he was not more seriously injured. And we pray for all those who were present to witness this act of violence and all the others who have been significantly impacted by it. We pray for our country and for our political process. We pray for your calming influence on it and on us. Remind us that our democratic process is founded in large part on our shared belief in the inherent worth, value, and dignity of all people, because you are present in each of us, and we are each created in your image. Bring that truth to the fore as we remember the distinctly Baptist principle that we can reach our highest and our best in service to you when we are blessed to be part of a free church in a free state.
We offer ourselves and our prayers to you this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:04:01] Steve Cothran:
It's my pleasure to welcome you to this hour of worship. We're so glad that you've taken time out of your summer, out of your busy day, to come into this space where we can all take a deep breath and remember that God is the Lord of the universe. If you happen to be a guest with us this morning here, especially to hear about our, summer missions and ministry experience that our children and lots of people have been involved with, we have a special welcome for you and invite you to take a welcome to central card that's in the pew rack just in front of you. Take a moment during the service and fill that out and drop that in the offering plate as it's passed around a little bit later so that we might have a record of your visit and reach out to you later in the week to let you know some of the many, many opportunities for worship and service that occur every single day right here at Central Baptist Church, where you are the body and the presence of Christ to our city.
As Matt mentioned, the craziness that our world sometimes presents us, Mary Oliver addresses that in her poem about human nature and the sea. The ocean is where some of us have visited this summer, and where some of us find our happy place and where the currents can carry away all of our troubles. Listen to this imagery from her, and especially since we are talking about coming to the water. The sea can do craziness. It can do smooth. It can lie down like silk breathing or toss havoc shoreward. It can give gifts or with hold it all.
It can rise, ebb, froth like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can sweet talk entirely, as I can too. And so, no doubt, can you. And you. Let us hear the sweet words of God that we have in this sanctuary today. Come to the water.
[00:06:19] Katie Faison:
Time flies when you're catching up with a colleague at passport who also happened to be one of my seminary professors. We ended our conversation by agreeing that sometimes we hesitate to tell people how much fun our jobs are because we feel a little guilty admitting it out loud. I'm so grateful to all of you who have entrusted me to be part of each team I worked alongside this summer. Summer at CBC began a little differently this year. We kicked off with a great vacation bible school, where we hosted a 100 and 25 children and welcomed over 70 volunteers.
Less than 1 week later, Ronnie and I accompanied a team of 15 to Romania, where we helped facilitate a camp for 40 Roma children. And last week, myself along with 3 other brave chaperones drove 16 of our children to Meisenheimer, North Carolina so we could experience 4 days of fun filled activities centered around learning about God's love. God works in amazing ways without any intentional planning on our part. Both our VBS and passport theme lined up perfectly. Our VBS theme, which we also carried to Romania, was scuba, diving into friendships with God, and our passport theme was come to the water, where we learned to float, drink, and dive into ministry.
On the first day of camp, our verse was Isaiah 55:1 a. All who are thirsty come to the water. In bible study, the campers talked about metaphors as they would use water metaphors throughout the week to learn about God. They read several passages exploring the use of water metaphors throughout scripture, including Revelation 21:6: He said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. On day 2, our word was float. Isaiah 43 :2 a says, when you pass through the waters, idea that God is always with us so we can relax or float even in the storm.
The students read Mark's account of when Jesus calms the storm. They compared how the feelings you get when you experience a literal storm are often like the feelings you get when you experiencing challenging times in your life. And on day 3, the word was drink. All who are thirsty come to me. All who believe in me should drink. As the scripture said concerning me, rivers of living water will flow out from within him. They learned that just like water is necessary for our life, our relationship with spiritual life. Throughout the week, we learned about our mission partner, Karen Alford.
Karen is CBF field personnel in Togo, West Africa. Through video messages from Karen and night market, which is a an immersive learning experience, and a missions rotation on the 3rd day, the children had a very small glimpse of what life is like in Togo, West Africa. They learned how our friends in Togo, not only don't have access to clean water, but they don't have access to very much water at all. We considered what not having access to water would look like. We thought about all the ways that we use water in our lives for drinking, washing our hands, and bathing, going to the bathroom, growing food, medical needs, and even entertainment, and how easy it is to access water that we need for all of these things.
Karen told us a story about a little girl who was involved in a motorcycle accident, who ended up with a pretty severe wound to her heel. Although it was a bad injury, here in the US, it most likely wouldn't have been a problem to treat it and it for for it to heal up quickly. But because they didn't have access to water, the wound became infected, and she almost lost her foot. Thankfully, Karen and her team accessed some clean water and medicine for her, and eventually got the infection under control. And the little girl is now able to walk again. In bible study, our campers explored the idea of quenching our spiritual thirst by reading the story of the woman at the well.
They talked about what it looks like to drink the living water that God offers us. When can you drink? When we are feeling alone or separated from God? When you want to learn more about your faith? Or when you feel the need to draw closer to God. How can you drink? Spend more time reading the bible or praying. Find a church home where you can get involved and be in community with other believers by caring for others and working for justice. And on the last day, the word was dive. 1st Corinthians 12:5, God's various ministries are carried out everywhere, But they all originate in God's spirit.
In bible study, the children discussed what it means to dive in and how that relates to our faith. The bible study leaders demonstrated spreading God's love by dropping a pebble into the water so that they could see the ripples it creates that signify the change one person's actions can make. As I mentioned at the beginning, I have had 3 extraordinary opportunities to witness these concepts that our children learned about this summer become a reality. When our mission team first arrived in Romania, we did what anyone does when they first arrive overseas, absolutely everything in our power to stay awake till at least 9 PM.
The perfect formula to get rid of jet lag as fast as possible. I happen to be sharing a room with 4 others and all of our cell phones were plugged in, just a few feet away from my head. So after falling asleep shortly after 9 PM, we were startled awake at 10:45 PM when all five of our cell phone emergency alerts went off within seconds of each other. You know the one. It sounds like a amber alert or a tornado warning. But in my jet lag fog, as soon as we got them all silence, I laid back down and didn't think much about it.
Until about 5 minutes later, when they all went off again. It was until we were settling down for the second time that it dawned on me. Maybe I should read what it's saying. So I opened my eyes to look at my phone and immediately saw the lightning flashes and heard the hail begin to fall. After getting past the first three paragraphs in Romanian, I began reading the warning in English, take shelter immediately. Strong winds and hail expected. I had a moment of panic. What should I do? Should I wake all of these people up and get them downstairs in the basement?
Jess Wilbanks and I were the only ones awake at the time, so we walked around and assessed the situation, waited a little while, and eventually decided it was safe to go back to sleep. As we were settling in on the second night there, I was headed in to gather the group for our devotional time, when I was met on the stairs by Annie Van Amberg. She had just received news from the States that her husband, Mike, was experiencing a medical emergency. This time, a life storm instead of a literal storm. The anxiety of the unknown, the helplessness lessness of being so far away with no easy way to get back, the pressure to make decisions and make them quickly, The sadness of having to leave behind something you worked so hard for and waited so long to be a part of, and at the same time the willingness to drop everything to be with the one you love.
That night, there wasn't anything we could do but pray, and trust Jesus to give Annie her family enough peace to make it through the next few days. At camp, our children learned that when you're going through a storm in life, god will help you float. Not that god will make it perfect or make it go away, but that God will hold you up on top of the waves until the storm passes. The next day, we took them to the airport as we headed to the mountains to begin camp, leaving Annie and her daughter Sarah at the airport with no official plan has to be one of the hardest things I've ever done as a minister.
A few hours after trying to change their ticket at the airport and me unsuccessfully reaching our travel agent here in the states, it was clear that they would not be flying home that day. So they went back to the church where we were staying, and the pastor of the church, Odie, and his wife showed up and took them downtown, and fed them lunch, and gave them a tour of the city. Something that they would miss later in the week. God's perfect way of keeping them afloat in the midst of a very scary storm. We did finally get in touch with the travel agent, and they were able to leave very early the next morning. And although we missed them greatly the very news is, Mike is well on his way to a complete recovery.
At camp, we learned that we should drink from the living water Jesus is Jesus offers when we are feeling alone or separated from God, or when we want to draw closer to God. If I were to sit down and tell you about my personal experience in Romania, I would have very few negative things to say. But one of the thing that was probably the most frustrating for me, and I would probably the group as well, was the language barrier. Each day, we spent from 8:30 AM until 10 PM, with the children with very little down time. And in order to communicate with them, we had to have a translator, or we had to have Google translate on our phone, or we had to to communicate by pointing or gesturing with short one word thoughts.
So you can imagine that after 5 days of camp, everyone was a little bit tired and a little bit frustrated when they couldn't communicate quickly enough or correctly. And on the last afternoon, we were executing a well thought out, well planned water day, and a well prepped for science experiment where the kids made their own ice cream for snack. But in the midst of our fatigue, our team had a moment of discouragement, and it started to show up just a little on the outside. And as I was helping clean up the ice cream disaster, Ronnie came to me and said, what do you think about taking just a few minutes to have with the team to recenter?
We could pray as a group and retire and remind the team that they are doing really well. So before we started the next session of activities, we gathered on the field, we held hands, and we prayed. We took just a few minutes to drink the life giving water Jesus offers us. Not only did we finish strong that day, but I personally don't think I will ever forget that moment. Thank you, Ronnie, for noticing we all needed a moment to draw closer to God, to love on one another and to encourage each other that we were doing a great job even in the midst of our frustration. A great example of when you are thirsty, you quench your thirst with water.
And when you are spiritually thirsty, you should quench your thirst with the life giving water Jesus offers. This summer, I worked with volunteers, chaperones, and a mission team that could not be better examples of how to dive in to ministry. Think this is the perfect opportunity to thank each of these groups as they could not have created a better ripple effect in our community, our country, and our world with their willingness to love God by loving others. I'll start by saying thank you to our volunteers who helped with Vacation Bible School. When you dive in and give your time and energy to a 125 kids to teach them about God's love, I'm not sure that it gets much better than that.
Teaching children that Jesus is inviting each one of them to come to the water, and sending them back out to live what they have learned creates a very wide ripple effect and impacts God's God's kingdom in an incredible way. In addition to the volunteers who taught our children, there were so many who worked alongside them to pack meals for people who are hungry in our world. We have learned since then, that the ripple effect of our meal packing has made it all the way to Madagascar. Thanks again to all who made vacation bible school a success. Having the opportunity to experience a week long mission trip is life changing.
Our team of 15 started working several months before we left in June. We fund raised, we planned activities, gathered supplies, created camp schedules, kept in constant communication with our host in Romania to be sure we were well prepared for our time there. And that was just the beginning. Traveling overseas for a mission trip means that you have to endure long travel days, jet lag, more planning, and more organizing when you arrive. You have to be willing to take time away from your family, friends, and work. You have to sleep in dorm like spaces and share bathrooms.
You have to be willing to take those cold showers, But really, it's okay because when you get out, you know you're just gonna start sweating again right away. You have to be willing to play badminton for hours at a time because you just can't say no to the sweet little girl who keeps asking. You have to be willing to endure the frustration when you can't speak the same language as most of the people around you. And you have to carry the heartache that will last a lifetime, when tears won't stop flowing, because it's time to say goodbye.
But hopefully, the joy will outlet weigh those hard parts, because you get to see, smell, taste, and experience a culture that you could have only read about before. You get to receive hugs from children who love have loved you from the minute that they met you. You get to try to speak their language and hear them laugh when you don't even say it remotely correctly. You get to experience the overwhelming love of a stranger that brings those tears when it's time to say goodbye. And you get to build bonds with, and friendships with people from your own town, who you got to know better as you spent the week together.
Thank you to the 15 people who gave their time, their emotional energy, their physical energy, and to love our friends in in Romania this summer. I hope you truly had an all encompassing, come to the water experience as the Holy Spirit empowered you to dive in to mission ministry. The true success of this mission cannot have happened without each and every one of you. And last, but not least, if you have never experienced passport kids camp as a chaperone, I have to tell you, you're missing out. A chaperone for kids camp is a very unique position to fulfill in God's kingdom.
As a chaperone at kids camp, you have to be willing to sleep on a very questionable dorm room mattress, sleep on top of the sheets with the hall lights blaring into your room because the air condition cannot keep up with the heat wave going on outside. You have to be willing to stay up until 11 PM and say, time to get in your rooms and quiet down, 400 times. Or willing to walk that one student all the way back to the dining hall, because they just realized they forgot their water bottle. But you also get to experience constant laughter listening to awesome jokes as you walk to and from the cafeteria.
You get to surprise the group to a trip to McKinley's yum yum shop during free time, you get to experience the pure joy of cheering and laughter when the kids stand on the side of the road and do the honk honk gesture at every truck driving by, and you smile when every truck, and I mean, every truck satisfies their want. You get to be proud of your campers when they work together to be the kickball tournament champions. And you get to watch our children get excited about singing and dancing and praising God. Kids camp requires a lot of energy, but I hope that the reward makes the experience worth every second. Thanks again, It absolutely could not have happened without you.
I will leave you with this prayer, our campers prayed on the last day of camp. Let us pray. Spirit of God, hear our prayer. We are diving in with all our heart. Wherever we go and whatever we do, your spirit has prepared the way. Guide our hearts and our hands to love and serve the world. Here we go. We're diving in. Amen.
[00:29:00] Matt Sapp:
2 Sundays from today is Steve Cothran Sunday. Maybe Steve and Nancy Cothran Sunday as we have a chance to celebrate Steve and Nancy in their 35 years of ministry, including six and a half years of outstanding ministry here at Central Baptist Church. We'll host a breakfast, to honor Steve during the Sunday school hour. We'll have some special guests in worship to help us, make that day a special event as well. Remember that 2 Sundays from now. Thank you all for being present in worship today. Hope every last one of us leaves this hour of worship encouraged and emboldened, encouraged especially by this great testimony of our children We'll be faithful representatives both of our church and of our lord Jesus Christ.
[00:29:42] Lynleigh Hadden:
Lindley, lead us, please. Come to the water. Float knowing God is with you. Drink the life giving water of Jesus. Dive in to serve others. Let the water carry you as we go from this place. Amen.
