Pastor Mike's Blog

Sunday Service Preview - Palm Sunday, March 28

On Palm Sunday, March 28, our music ministry will lead us in a meaningful and uplifting time of worship.  The service will feature the adult choir, orchestra, praise team, worship dancers, and children's worship dancers.  I will also share a brief meditation that will help us focus our thoughts on Jesus as we enter into this week before Easter.

It will be a great week to invite a guest to join you. As I mentioned last Sunday, if you invite someone and it is their first time at Otterbein, I encourage you to meet them in the parking lot and help them find their way around the church.  Sit with them during the service. If they have children, check out our website so you can see where the kids need to go during the service.  By doing this, you will help them overcome some of the "stress and fear" that often accompanies someone who is visiting a church for the first time.  

I also want to encourage you to come a little early since we are expecting large crowds on Sunday.  If you are able to park away from the church building, it would be helpful in providing spaces for our guests close to the church.

Please pray for our services this week.  I believe God wants to do something very special in our church this Easter season.  Pray for lives to be changed.  Pray for people to commit to follow Jesus for the first time.  Pray everyone who attends will have a sense of God's presence and work in their lives.  And pray for all those who are serving and ministering on Sunday.

March 21, 2010 Sunday Service Preview

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, I am going to conclude the GREATEST sermon series with the message LOVE OTHERS.  In Matthew 22:37-40, we find Jesus' response to the question "what is the greatest commandment?"  Jesus said it is to "love God with all your heart, soul, and mind" and to "love your neighbor as yourself."  On Sunday, we are going to explore what it means to "love your neighbor as yourself" and talk about why it is such a big deal.  The message will be practical and challenging for us regardless of where we find ourselves in our spiritual journey.

Sunday's service will also include a meaningful time of worship led by Dave Besecker and our music ministry team.  I will also take a few minutes and share about our upcoming Easter services.  It will be a great week to invite a friend to join you and I hope to see you on Sunday.

I encourage you to pray for our services on Sunday.  Pray for God to pour out His Spirit in an incredible way.  Pray for lives to be changed.  Pray that each of us who attends on Sunday will hear God's voice clearly and that we will sense He is saying something directly to us.  Pray our worship of God will be pleasing to Him.  And pray for God's guidance and help for all those who are serving in some way during our services on Sunday.

Until then, have a great weekend and enjoy this beautiful weather God is giving to us.

March 14, 2010 Sunday Service Preview

On Sunday, March 14, I am going to begin a new two-week sermon series called GREATEST.  Several places in the New Testament, we find Jesus' response to the question "what is the greatest commandment."  During this series, we are going to look at His response.

Sunday's message is entitled LOVE GOD.  For most people, we know we are to LOVE GOD and we know that it was the commandment Jesus identified as the greatest commandment.  By what does it really mean to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We will look at what the Bible teaches about this important subject and we will also look at some of the blessings that take place in our lives when we Love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

During the services on Sunday, we will celebrate the Lord's Supper and Dave Besecker and our music ministry team will lead us in a meaningful time of worship.  I will also give a brief report on our trip to Haiti this past week.  I believe it is a going to be a great time of worship and learning and I hope you will be able to join us.  It will also be a great week to invite a guest to join you.

Please pray for an outpouring of God's Spirit on our campus on Sunday.  Pray that lives would be changed.  Pray that we would sense God's presence in a special way and that every person who comes leaves with a sense that they heard God's voice.

P.S. -- Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour.  See you on Sunday.

Haiti Trip Update - Home

Our Haiti team (Pastor Mike, Pastor Dirk, Denise Lancaster, and John Horton) arrived back to Waynesboro Wednesday evening around 11:30 p.m.  We were able to accomplish the goals we had for our trip and are thankful we were able to go, learn, and be a blessing while in Haiti.  Thanks for praying for us.  Your prayers made a difference and God took care of us and helped us throughout our time in Haiti.

Wednesday Haiti Update

As I write this post, we are flying back to the United States and expect to arrive back to Washington around 9:00 p.m.  Early this morning, we visited a girls orphanage, Delmos Church, and a school that Pastor Martinez provides leadership for in the Port au Prince area.  As is the case in most 3^rd world countries, homes, schools, churches, etc. are fenced in for security reasons and this was true of the place we visited this morning.  I mention that because in almost every one of the places that Pastor Martinez and O.E.B.B (Bethel Baptist Evangelical Organization) oversees, they have people living in tents in the compounds.  These are people who have either lost their homes because of the earthquake or in some cases, are living with great fear of another earthquake and are afraid to return to their homes.  Pastor Martinez and O.E.B.B.  have a heart and passion to help these people and are providing a secure place for them to live, tents to live in, and food and water for their basic needs.

 

During our time in Haiti, I have been impressed with Pastor Martinez Jovin and his wife Emma.  They are Haitian nationals who have a great passion to minister to the people of their own country.  Pastor Martinez and Emma both received college education in England (Martinez in Biblical Theology/Pastoral Ministry and Emma in Nursing) and returned home to Haiti where they have given their lives to minister to the people of Haiti.  It is clear they are well respected and have significant influence in the lives of people.  They are people of great faith and while we were in Haiti, we saw several occasions where their faith played out in trusting God for something that seemed impossible and yet God provided.  Their hospitality and care for us was very good.  They provided great meals for us and their home had access to water, electricity, internet access, and bathrooms much like we have in the United States.  Public electricity was not reliable and at times our electricity was provided by an inverter system (they also have access to a generator) which was more than adequate.  I mention all of this to paint a picture that while many people have so little in Haiti (and Pastor Martinez has a great passion to help those who have little), not everyone lives in poverty.  Pastor Martinez has worked hard throughout his life and has been blessed by God to be in a position to be able to help and minister to the people of Haiti.   I consider it a privilege for us to have spent time with him and for Otterbein to partner with him in his ministry and the ministry of O.E.B.B. both during the trip and in the future.

 

We look forward to sharing more with you in the weeks ahead about where we think God is leading Otterbein in regard to our work in Haiti.  Thanks for praying for us while we were away.  Please continue to pray for God’s hand to be on Pastor Martinez and the people of Haiti and pray for God’s continued guidance as we take our next steps in ministering to the people of Haiti.

Tuesday Haiti Update

Everyone on the Haiti team (Pastor Mike, Pastor Dirk, Denise Lancaster, and John Horton) continue to feel well and are having a good and profitable time in Haiti.  One of our primary goals for coming to Haiti was to get a sense of how God might want us to be involved in the future and determine priorities for our future involvement.  This evening, we spent a great deal of time speaking with Pastor Martinez about this and we believe we have some clear direction both in regard to our involvement and partnership in Haiti as well as a timeline for future involvement.  We look forward to sharing more about this when we return home and have a chance to process it in the next week or so.

 

As you know, the people of Otterbein gave generously toward earthquake relief.  Some of the money given was used to purchase food and water for the people of Haiti in the week that followed the earthquake.  We wanted to have a clear sense of the best way for the rest of the money to be used.  As part of our trip, we gave Pastor Martinez $500 while we were here which will be used to help provide salaries for the teachers of the school at Marbial.  The reason this is important and part of the relief effort is due to the fact that the school was destroyed in the earthquake and since that time, they have been unable to have classes.  As I mentioned yesterday, classes are schedule to resume on Monday, but Pastor Martinez has continued to pay the teachers during the time they had no classes so the teachers would not find jobs at other locations and would be available when the school opened.  It was also important to pay them because they had no income for food for their families.  Once the school reopens, it is also believed that the families of the students will not be able to pay the tuition for the schooling (at least initially) because of the impact of the earthquake and thus there will need to continue to be outside help to make sure the kids can get their education.  After visiting the school ourselves and speaking more with Pastor Martinez, we believe this is an important use of the relief funds and are happy we could provide it to him.

 

We also committed an additional $15,000 of relief funding to be given to him as soon as we are able to transfer it to Haiti.  This money will be used for site clearing for the damage that was done to various buildings that are part of the ministry Pastor Martinez oversees.  The money given will primarily be used to pay the salaries of people who will do the work.  Not only will this help to get the sites cleared for future reconstruction, but it also provides jobs for people (something desperately needed) so they have money to purchase food, water, etc. for their families.  Pastor Martinez identified this as one of the important priorities for him in regard to relief and we are happy to partner with him in this way.  Other organizations are involved in food and water provision as well as the provision of tents and our funding was not necessary for those needs at this time.

 

Throughout the day, we visited downtown Port au Prince and saw even greater damage from the earthquake than we had previously seen.  As I said yesterday, the extent of the damage is almost indescribable.  People are living in tents and makeshift shantys all over the city in every public place and any undeveloped areas like ravines, etc.  Some public port a potties are available, but toilets, etc. are an issue.  Kids are not in school and people wander the streets and hang out together because they do not have homes and work.  Right outside Pastor Martinez’s home, there are about 100 tents which families living in them.  Today, food arrived for about 50 families and we watched as it was distributed.  It was a pretty amazing thing to watch and not everyone was able to receive food today.  With that said, there does seem to be food and water available with some regularity and we know that additional shipments are to arrive later this week for distribution.

 

Tomorrow we are scheduled to travel home around noon.  In the morning, we plan to visit a girl’s orphanage and view some of the other ministry work Pastor Martinez is involved with here in the Port au Prince area.  Thanks for praying for us.  God has been working in some special ways.  I will try to update you tomorrow (Wednesday) if possible once we reach the United States.

Monday Haiti Update

Today, our team (Pastor Mike, Pastor Dirk, Denise Lancaster, and John Horton) traveled to Marbial, Haiti which is a mountain community southwest of Port au Prince.  We left Port au Prince around 6:00 this morning.  Even though Marbial is only about 19 miles as the crow flies, it took 4 1/2  hours to travel by vehicle.  The last hour of the trip was traveled on a river bed with rocks and water.  After spending 4 hours at Marbial, we back to Pastor Martinez's home in Port au Prince where we will spend the night.

The work at Marbial includes a clinic, orphanage, school, and church.  The school was damaged signicantly by the earthquake and the kids have not been able to attend since the earthquake.  They hope to begin having school again on Monday even though they will not be able to meet in the school buildings because of the damage.  They are trying to use tarps, etc. to provide shelter for the classes.  Hopefully, all will go well with the start of school on Sunday.  We were also able to spend time with the 10 boys at the orphanage.  The boys range from 7-10 years old and are loved and care for by their house mom.  They live in the childhood home of Pastor Martinez who grew up in Marbial.

Marbial is primitive and a laid back area.  There is no electric, no sewer or water, no telephone service and in many ways it is like living in the 1800's.  With that said, the people are content and have smiles on their faces.  They were able to laugh and are extremely hospitable and lovely people.  We were able to get a good sense of the needs of the community and we will spend time talking with Pastor Martinez more tomorrow about how we might be able partner with them in the future.

If you would like to see pictures from our trip today, you can CLICK HERE to see the pictures posted in Facebook.

We were able to get a better glimpse of the extent of the earthquake damage.  It is hard to express in words how great the damage is and how hard it will be for the people to overcome the devastation.  People are living under tarps all over the area. While in the US there has been some debate about whether there were actually 200,000 killed, it appears to me very likely that that many and perhaps more were killed.  The destruction really is overwhelming and the needs are very great.  Yet with all the destruction, we couldn't help but to notice today the smiles on many faces.  When we talked about it with Pastor Martinez, he said that those who survived the quake feel blessed to be alive -- even though they have lost so much.  It was a pretty amazing perspective.

We are unsure what we are going to be doing on Tuesday.  There was a hope that two additional shipments of food would come from the Dominican Republic tomorrow for Pastor Martinez.  However, the government of Haiti  is tightening up the restrictions for bringing things into the country and it is beginning to look like it will not happen.  I would like to ask you PRAY SPECIFICALLY that the food somehow is able to get across the Dominican/Haiti border.

Thanks for praying for our team.  We are very weary from the long day and from not getting much sleep the last two evenings.  Other than our tiredness, everyone is doing well.  Hopefully, we will update you again tomorrow and provide a little more information to you.

Haiti Trip Sunday Evening Update

We (Pastor Mike, Pastor Dirk, John Horton, and Denise Lancaster) arrived safely in Haiti this afternoon.  The trip was uneventful and we were thankful that all of the checked bags we brought containing tents, tarps, food, etc. also arrived.  As we prepared to come to Haiti, we had planned to rent a vehicle to use for our travel to the mountainside community of Marbial.  Pastor Martinez had made arrangements for this but as we arrived today, we found that the vehicle we thought we would be renting was not available.  We spent a good bit of time trying to find another vehicle and finally found one that will meet our needs on Monday. It appears that the reason for trouble finding a vehicle is due to the large number of relief workers who are coming to Haiti.  The plan we traveled in to Port au Prince today had several hundred people on it and it appeared that most were here for relief work of some kind.

Pastor Martinez, his wife Emma, and our team will be leaving Port au Prince at 5:00 a.m. and traveling to Marbial on Monday.  We plan to return back to Marbial late Monday evening.  For a number of reasons, it was decided that we would not spend the night on Monday at Marbial as we previously planned.

Our view of the earthquake damage was limited today.  The airport was damaged significantly and it appeared that temporary provisions were made to provide for air transportation.  We also saw homes that were destroyed and the tent cities that have been erected to care for those who have lost their housing.  We did not go downtown today.  There are also many homes that were not destroyed by the earthquake.  Pastor Martinez's home did not have much damage and we are sleeping indoors tonight.  We have electricity (which evidently just came back on in the past couple of days), running water, bathroom facilities, etc. in Port au Prince.  The accomodations for our team is more than adequate for us.

Thanks for praying.  We would ask you to continue to pray for our trip to Marbial on Monday as we seek God's guidance for Otterbein's future involvement in Haiti.  We will try to give an update on Monday evening of our trip.

On Our Way to Haiti

Everything went well this morning as we checked our bags and prepared to fly to Haiti.  Beyond our basic needs, we also took along 6 tents, 10 tarps, 120 lbs of rice, 3 cases of canned meats, and miscellaneous groceries.  Currently, American Airlines is allowing every person to take two checked bags without paying fees, a carryon, and a personal item and so we thought we would load ourselves up with everything we could take with us.

We leave Washington at 8:25 and fly to Miami for a connecting flight 1:30. Thanks for praying for us.  Please continue to pray for a safe trip and one in which we will sense God's leading for our future ministry in Haiti. 

Haiti Trip Preview

As of Saturday evening, everything is on track for our trip to Haiti tomorrow.  I (Pastor Mike), along with Pastor Dirk, John Horton, and Denise Lancaster fly out of Washington, DC on Sunday morning around 8:25.  We will fly into Miami and then to Port Au Prince arriving on Sunday afternoon around 4:00.  We expect to attend church in Port au Prince on Sunday evening and spend the night with Pastor Martinez Jovin and his wife Emma.

On Monday and Tuesday, we plan to travel to Marbial.  Marbial is the mountain community that we had planned to visit to distribute animals that were purchased from our GiftGiver emphasis prior to the earthquake.  We have heard that the school and other buildings at Marbial were destroyed by the earthquake.  We hope to see the extent of the damage and seek God's guidance about Otterbein's possible future involvement in helping the people of Marbial.  Please pray God would help us to sense His leading as we spend time with Pastor Martinez and visit Marbial.  We would also appreciate your prayers for our team as we visit the Marbial area.  Prior to the earthquake, the conditions were somewhat challenging in regard to travel to Marbial and lodging at Marbial.  We are preparing to "camp" over night at Marbial and hopefully visit the local market on Tuesday morning before returning back to Port au Prince.  Pray for safety and that things go smoothly during this part of our visit.

We will return back to the US on Wednesday afternoon and are scheduled to arrive back in Washington around 9:00 Wednesday evening.  I hope to update the blog (and as a result our Facebook Fanpage which is automatically connected to the blog) as much as possible throughout our trip.

Thanks for praying.  We look forward to exploring how we might join God in what He is doing in Haiti.