So what is Safe Families for Children?

The quickest way to describe it, is that it is a christian alternative to foster care.  It is an opportunity for the Church to be obedient to Christ by taking care of those in need.

Safe Families for Children is in many States and preparing to be launched in Canada and England.  It has been established in St Louis since the summer of 2010.  In the first 6 months they were able to help 10 children, and last year they helped 98, but sadly had to turn away over 200 due to the lack of host families.  As of yesterday morning, there were 14 children waiting in St Louis for a family to be willing to take them in.

The need for the Body of Christ to serve theses families is huge, and only going to get bigger as Safe Families for Children is becoming more well known throughout the community.

Below is just one example of how Safe Families for Children can help.




Could you help your neighbor?  Could you be a host family, or a family coach, or someone to walk alongside the parents, or help with transportation, or help support the host family with their extra expenses etc, etc ... There are so many ways you could help.  So please pray.  Ask God how you can get involved and ask Him to raise up people in His Body to reach out to the weak and vulnerable.  What an incredible opportunity we have to share Christ to those in need. 


If you would like more information please, please contact me.

Thanks

Michelle

The Reality of our war!

Sara

Sara's Story from Trinity Grace Church on Vimeo.

Make disciples by David Platt

Casual Acceptance or Absolute Surrender?

Katie Davis with David Platt at Brook Hills Church

I know this video is long but please take the time to listen all the way to the end.

Are we all to 'GO'?

Almost immediately upon arriving in Japan I was handed a book to read titled 'Radical' by David Platt, which I highly recommend that everyone read. I have been wanting to talk about this book here on the blog, as well as, I have wanted to expand on the topic I was talking about at the end of my last post 'Japan', but have not been able to get my words together to do so. My Pastor brought a sermon before the church on this topic this past Sunday in which he handled this subject far better than I could have ever done, so I have embedded it below. Please take the time to listen and ponder on what God is saying to His church through His Word.

Gary

The Gospel and the Poor: A Case for Compassion

Tim Keller: The Gospel and the Poor: A Case for Compassion from Here's Life Inner City on Vimeo.

Listening to the Sermon

As we have been looking for a church home Gary and I have had many discussions about what we wanted in a church. Ideally we would like to be part of a family integrated church, but are unable to find one in the Leeds area. The reasons for wanting to be involved with a family integrated church are many (I will address those on another post or you can read about them here). Having said that we are happy with the church that the Lord has led us to. While they do have segregated church with children's Sunday School in the morning, they do not make any provisions for the children in the evening. This is great for us as it gives us a chance to worship the Lord as a family.

We have had many say "It is not worth the children being in Church during the sermon because they don't listen, because they can't understand". While it is true that they often don't understand, it isn't true that they don't listen. We had proof of this last week. Deanna, who is only 3, 'appeared' not to be listening during the sermon, when all of a sudden she looked up to me and said "Mom, he said 'stupid!". She was listening!!

Michelle

John MacArthur on True Salvation

John Piper

Looking for a Church

Back in the States we lived 9.3 miles from our church and it only took 20 minutes to get there. Sunday we decided to visit a new church which was 9.8 miles away from where we now live .... it took us 2 HOURS to get there!!! And yes, we were late for church, but only by 10 minutes. Let me explain ...

 

We left home at 8.45am to catch the bus. On the way to the bus stop Nicholas lost his mp3 player, so we had to take a couple of minutes looking for that. Then, I remembered the backpack still sitting on the kitchen table with our lunch in it. Gary volunteered to run back and get it. We weren't sure if he would make it back to the bus stop in time ... but he did. After a 25 minute ride into Leeds we needed to change buses. Gary and the kids got off the bus and I asked the bus driver where we could get the #1 bus - he didn't know. Thankfully a lady sitting on the bus informed us she knew where we needed to go and told us to get back on the bus and she would show us.

 

She kindly stayed on the bus, past her stop, to show us where to go. We arrived at the bus stop and waited patiently for the bus. When it arrived the driver told us we were in the wrong place and to try a different bus stop on that street. We did and finally found where the #1 bus stopped. After about 10 minutes it arrived only to be told by the driver that he was driving the #1 bus which was going south and we needed the one going north. He pointed us to another bus stop where we had a 15 minute wait for the right bus.

 

After getting off this bus we had a 10 minute walk to the church. We had to walk fast as it was starting to rain AND Jeremiah needed the bathroom!!!!

Finally we made it. We were dry and only 10 minutes late!!!

We thoroughly enjoyed the church. The Church consisted of sound preaching, a congregation of many nationalities and, more importantly to the kids, other children!! (The church we had previously been visiting had no other children). Jeremiah and Deanna's class had about a dozen children, although Nicholas, Naomi and Elaina made up 75% of their class on Sunday morning. Hopefully there will be more in their age group next week.

We were considering going back next week when a lady approached us and invited us to lunch next Sunday, after church. Who can turn down lunch? - not us!!! It was so nice to be shown such kindness through this act of hospitality, so we will definitely be going back next week!!

Maybe Leeds Reformed Baptist will become our new church home. We will let you know, but we hope next week it will only take us about 1.25 hours to get there!!!!

Michelle

The Sad State of the Church

Today we traveled across Leeds to visit a new church. What disturbed me was some of the things I saw while on our journey. This 'church' was trying to attract people of all religions.

 

As we walked past this 'church' for the second time (we had gone to the wrong bus stop!) I was deeply saddened by the number of people that were arriving for the service.

The picture below is a notice which was posted on their bulletin board.

 

We continued our journey North and passed a beautiful old church building that was no longer being used to worship God but had now been turned into nightclub.

Oh how far England has traveled away from the ONE TRUE GOD and her rich Christian heritage.

Michelle