Come Hear What God Has Done
August 24, 2008
Last week I joined a group of local pastors for a time of encouragement, vision-casting, and prayer. At one point we were all asked to share one great thing God had accomplished in our church family over the recent months. The Lord energized our hearts during this time as we heard stories of a meth-addicted family being transformed by the gospel, a dying man ministering with increasing vigor in his waning days, and the spread of Christ’s message through an international mission trip.
This concept of reporting God’s activity in our midst is nothing new for the church. In Acts 14 we read about Paul and Barnabas’ return to Antioch after their first missionary journey: “And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples” (27-28).
We have a glorious opportunity before us this Sunday evening to experience this joy of hearing “all that God has done” with brothers and sisters who have gone out from our midst over the last four decades. If you are newer to the Whitton Avenue family, you may not know that a string of missionaries connected to our church served in Papua New Guinea reaching back into the 1960s. God used that work to ignite a massive gospel movement that is still continuing today. We will hear about this work of God from Kobol and Magdalene Kang, who oversee more than 100 churches in PNG.
Another faithful missionary connected to our fellowship is Rick Spinos, who left 25 years ago to see the Great Commission fulfilled in Brazil. God brought Sandra into Rick’s life not long after his arrival in Brazil, and they have been working as a team ever since, along with their sons Brian and Erich. Rick has decades of pastoral experience and currently oversees a cell-based church in Macapa. We look forward to hearing about what God has been doing in the church there and about what lies ahead for this ministry.
Please plan to join us at 6 PM on Sunday evening to experience the sights, sounds, and stories of God’s work in Papua New Guniea and Brazil (nursery will be provided). May God use this time together to reinvigorate our hearts for fulfilling his Great Commission and to inspire the next generation to join God’s spreading work of bringing glory to his name.
Pastor Chris