Decorating for a Missions Conference

I walked in.  The signs were everywhere. The missions committee in this church had done an excellent job of alerting the people to what was going on during missions conference. 

I expected to see the flags in the sanctuary.  That idea is fairly standard for missions conferences.  In this church, those flags hang only during missions conference, so it is an immediate visual cue that missions conference has begun.

Signs greeted you on the stairs.  It would be very hard to miss them.  I overheard people trying to pronounce the strange words of the people groups as they climbed.


This sign was everywhere.  It became very clear that the theme for this year’s missions conference was reaching the least reached. There were signs on the ceiling and high on the walls – in places that would be very hard to reach.  All over the church, the signs got people thinking about the “least reached”.



A bulletin board gave locations of various unreached or “least reached” people groups.





A poster gave detailed information and statistics on various unreached people groups in the world.

The overhead was in use to announce the various upcoming activities. This one caught my attention.  Yum!

This was a church we were just visiting, so we were not one of the invited speakers.  It was very encouraging to us to see this church doing what it could to reach the world.

Combating Negativity

Negative ads abound.  The other candidate can’t do the job as well as my candidate can.  The other will fail.  The other doesn’t have a positive track record.  He lies.  Etc., etc.  That doesn’t bother me when I see it on an ad or a political campaign. They know the American public responds well to negative publicity.  If they want to win, they believe its their job to churn out lots of negative information about the other candidate on the air waves.  Those don’t bother me.

However, when I hear negative talk coming from Christians, it bothers me a lot.  Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of complaining.  We complain about the state of our country.  We complain about the political process.  We gripe about supreme court decisions and about supreme court justices.  We grumble about our president, senators and congressmen.  We whine about the lack of family values in our country.  In other words, we murmur and complain and we do it a lot. 

What happened to Christians who pray and keep themselves from speaking ill of others?

We also criticize.  I am not talking about constructive criticism, nor am I talking about pointing out things that are important for guarding our hearts against lies and sin.  Instead, I am talking about the mean-spirited jokes and mocking of those for whom we are supposed to pray.  We’re commanded to pray for those in authority over us and even for those who despitefully use us.  Instead we ridicule and vilify those with whom we disagree.  Have we become just like the world around us?  Is there no difference?

Instead of being people of joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and love, we have gotten caught up in a world of negativity.  No wonder we’re not making much of an impact.  No wonder we don’t shine like lights in the world (Phil. 2:14-15). 

So for the rest of the political season and beyond, I want to be a person of prayer – someone who will pray instead of criticize and rejoice instead of grumbling.  I want to be a light in this dark world.

Will you join me?

Our Maine Bag

Every once in a while we are really touched by a special approach to missionary care.  This past weekend we were in our home church, West Hampden Baptist Church.  Several years ago while we were still there, they began a tradition that is still going on.  The church collected Maine-made items for a “Maine Bag”.  This bag is always presented to the missionary wife, if she is present.  So it was my privilege to receive the Maine bag at the ladies’ lunch and to bring it “home” to show Charlie.

Inside the bag were all sorts of treats.  All of the treats are made in Maine. It was obvious to me that care went into selecting the items.  We do not have a house, so it is entirely appropriate for us that most of the items in the bag are expendable.  In fact, for most missionaries on home assignment, the same holds true.  I know that each missionary’s bag will vary depending on what the church collected, but here is what ours contained.  (In the picture, I’m starting at the back and then going left to right with each “row”.)

1. An L. L. Bean tote bag was used as the container.
2. “Bob’s Sugarhouse” Maple Barbecue Seasoning.
3. Balsam Fir lotion
4. Capt’n Eli’s root beer
5. A “Maine” embroidered kitchen towel.
6. Sitting on that is a little knitted holder for a hand sanitizer.
7. Beddington Ridge Farm’s wild blueberry jam.
8. Stonewall Kitchen’s roasted garlic mustard.
9. Stonewall Kitchen’s maple pumpkin butter.
10. Down to Earth Pottery’s soap dish
11. Cape Shore’s Sea Lavender scented soap
12. Carol’s Country Crafts’ quilted coasters
13. Bluehill Spoonworks’ wooden spreader
14. Two handpainted notecards (not pictured).

What I love about this bag is that everything came from Maine.  That makes it unique and a great reminder to me of this church.  Most of the things will be used up rather quickly and we will thoroughly enjoy them..  The soap dish and the tea towel, however, will make their way into a storage box to wait until the day that we can unpack our storage locker and move into a house.  Since we do not have a house right now, the edible nature of most of these items is very appreciated.  We still need to eat, even though we don’t have a house. 

Thank you, West Hampden, for your care for us and other missionaries as well.  Thank you for loving us and caring for us.