What Can One Person Do?

A Troubling World
When you watch the world news, it is easy to conclude that we live in unsettled times. This is especially true for people who are old enough to have seen the world years ago. While we do live in exciting times loaded with many opportunities, we see some dark clouds as well. In America we face a troubled financial front, a shrinking job market, sicknesses, and terrorism. The Bible is clear in the book of Timothy that dangerous times will come in the last days.

The Reality of Anxiety
It is easy to become anxious about these and other matters. This is especially true for people who have difficulty sleeping. It is easy to think about trying troubles as you are tossing in bed. It is also true if you get sick or extremely tired. Yes, troubling times can produce anxiety.

The Power of One
So what might we do? Is there a solution? As Christians we know that the Lord will take care of us, but how does that happen?

During times of trouble reading the Psalms is very helpful. But, perhaps, more helpful is prayer. Developing the habit of sincere, prolonged prayer is so helpful. It is the power of One.

James 5 tells us that Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and God stopped the rain for 3 years and 6 months. Men like Moses and Daniel, through prayer, saw God work in outstanding ways. An answer to a troubling world and anxiety is prayer. This is one reason we have been preaching about prayer for the past several weeks.

What can one person do? Pray! We always have that resource so use it, develop it, and expand its use.

Dick Crosby, Senior Pastor

Harvest Festival Update

This Saturday, October 31, we are having our annual Harvest Festival. The goal of this activity is to provide a safe place with a positive atmosphere for children. We also want to use this ministry to reach out to our community and show the love of Jesus Christ. The evening includes games and food.

This year we are including hot dogs and chips. The Harvest Festival runs from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. We are still in need of candy and could always use more volunteers. Please pray for this year's activity.

Pastor John

Time Change

Don't forget to change your clocks this Saturday night. We gain an hour as we move our clocks back. If you forget, you will arrive early at church Sunday and will be be guaranteed a great seat. See you Sunday.

Crippled, But How Did It Happen?

Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury. E. H. Chapin

We have been studying the Lord’s Prayer in our Sunday services. It is really a model prayer or a form to follow when we pray, given to us by the Master Teacher, Jesus. To follow this model for prayer requires the strenuous task of rearranging how many of us practice prayer. Personally, as I have studied this prayer model, I have had to restructure much of what I normally think and say in my prayers.

The next portion of the prayer deals with forgiving others. This is difficult because of our own human nature, the philosophy of our culture, and a desire to be the judge rather than allowing God to do that task. I have labored with a matter that happened years ago that hurt me and my family. But to hang on to such a matter is to mistrust God and continue to suffer internally, missing a sense of contentment that leads to deeper happiness.

Psychologists are studying what makes people happy. "Materialism is toxic for happiness," says University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener. Even rich materialists aren’t as happy as those who care less about getting and spending. The article also quoted University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson, who indicated forgiveness is the trait most strongly linked to happiness. Peterson said, "It’s the queen of all virtues, and probably the hardest to come by."

This Sunday we want to view the benefits of this part of the prayer. Jesus knew how much we would all need to comprehend this truth to climb over this barrier and experience greater joy.

Dick Crosby, Senior Pastor

Mizpah Update

We have finished an exciting summer at Mizpah and look forward to a great winter. I appreciate the many people of Hannaford who have given of their time to make improvements and cover some of the maintenance needs of the camp. This summer we were able to make improvements on three of the cabins, work on the boardwalk, and stain the cabins. We also had a lot of clean up that was done.

There were four camps and several retreats over the last four months. Hannaford’s Junior Camp (grades 4-7) had 28 campers and 11 staff. We had a great camp and an enjoyable time of learning about God and His Word.

Besides the winter events, we have a large winter project in the works. In the last couple of days we have made progress in the engineering for the septic and water system at Mizpah. We are working with an engineer out of Great Falls, and we trust that we will have everything permitted by next spring. Our goal is to work at installation next spring and summer.

Please pray for the ministry of Mizpah. We look forward to God’s continued work through this ministry.

Pastor John