On Sunday, August 14, we were joined by our ministry partner, Save Our Youth. Save Our Youth has been connecting young people to hope through long-term mentoring relationships since 1994, working to see every young person embrace their God-given worth.
Watch the video above or visit saveouryouth.org to learn more and investigate becoming a mentor.
On Sunday, July 17, we shared a video update from pastor Marwan Aboul-Zelof of City Bible Church, our partner church in Beirut, Lebanon. Here is that video in case you missed it! Learn more about City Bible Church at cbcbeirut.com.
Contact Kyle Nelson, Director of Community, Formation, & Missions, to learn more about what’s happening in the realm of missions at our church.
Since 2017, Andy and I have loved and cared for the missionaries at Beyond through Biblical counseling (my vocation), physical therapy (Andy’s vocation), and friendship.
Although I am able to meet with our missionaries online throughout the year, the rest of our ministry happens at annual Beyond conferences in Southeast Asia. I have attended three of these, and Andy has been to one. He was busier than I was while doing Physical Therapy! This year our kids will be able to join us for the first time, along with the help of Zach and Madelynne Starbeck (Park College Staff and Park Students Intern).
Beyond is a missions sending organization that works solely to bring the Gospel to unreached people groups (accounting for two billion of the people in the world who have never heard about Jesus). In addition to regional conferences that happen annually, Beyond has a global, all-staff conference every 3 years in Southeast Asia. Neither have happened since 2019 due to the last several years of crisis and trials. This July will be the first time their missionaries have been able to gather together for encouragement and equipping since then. We hope and pray that our work and friendship with them will restore, heal, and comfort them.
I have been volunteering as a counselor for the Southeast Asian group of Beyond missionaries for the past five years. A lot has happened since 2019, some good. However, a lot of pain and confusion has been experienced during these past few years as well.
This year we decided we were going to make the trip after our friend Andy, one of the leaders of this group, suddenly passed away (he’s on the far left in the picture above with the “best pop ever” shirt.) It was a tragic loss, and we decided that we should go there to care for them.
I’m also excited that our kids are old enough now to join us so that they will be there to become better friends with the missionary kids. They know some of the missionary kids from when they’ve visited the States. I pray it will be a great encouragement to these missionary kids to to have other kids come to them!
We are asking you to prayerfully consider supporting us with a financial gift to help cover the travel and hotel expenses to attend the conference and get face-to-face with this group in July. You can contribute with a one time or with a monthly gift that will help us continue to serve missionaries through Biblical counseling past the three sessions possible at the conference.
Please, if you have any questions, let me know. To give financially, please use the button below, selecting “Support for Lauren Gage and Missions Care Trip under “Gift Category.”
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In response to the wonder of Jesus’ resurrection and victory over death and the grave, Easter stands alone as the most joyful, boisterous day we observe each year.The past couple years have sucker punched many of us. A persistent anxiety seems to lurk in the corners. Old strategies of survival often fall short. Impulses from within and deceptive delights from without attempt to steal our ability to commune with God. Lingering temptations drag us down. New patterns often leave us lacking the joy we ache to experience.
We must return again to the love of the Father. He runs after us. But to truly see Him, we have to relax our defenses and tune our hearts again to hear His voice singing over us.
Let’s fight together to abide in the pursuing love of God our Father. At this year’s men’s seminar, we’ll gather the men of Park Church over wings and drinks to hear from pastor and author J. Kevin Butcher (Choose and Choose Again, Free). We’ll seek to learn to live as sons, purchased by the blood of the perfect Son. Life and freedom await.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Part V of our ongoing Matthew series covers Matthew 13:53–18:35. We’ll discuss Jesus’ massive public miracles like the feeding of the five thousand and also His intimate, personal miracles like the temple-tax shekel in the fish’s mouth. We’ll study revelations of Jesus’ true identity in the Transfiguration and in His lordship over nature. We’ll learn of an otherworldly form of forgiveness only Jesus provides.Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Before we move on from Christmas, we want to intentionally celebrate the incarnation of Christ. In the historical church calendar, the short season for this observance is called Christmastide, running from Christmas Day on December 25 till January 5.
A night of singing, reading about, and longing for Jesus, our coming King.
Many Christians today feel an aching divide between their worshipping life on Sunday and their working life on Monday. Sunday worship is often viewed as an escape from a busy week of work in the office, the classroom, and the home. But what if that’s not the way God intended it to be? What if God designed human beings to live integrated lives–to carry the cares and concerns of our daily work into his sanctuary in an act of worship. What if we could experience the gospel in new and transformative ways by bringing our work and worship together?