Oak Crest Family,
I am very excited to announce our next outreach opportunity presented by the Outreach Team. Each year hundreds of people gather at the MISD Multi-Purpose Stadium for the Midlothian Fall Festival. This year Oak Crest will be hosting a booth to provide information about our church but primarily to engage people at the festival with the Gospel. We will have teams of two manning the booth in two hour time slots with the objective of engaging people with the Gospel. In conjunction with and preparation for the Fall Festival, we will have evangelism training on Sunday, September 28th, from 12-2:30 pm. This training is available to everyone in the church but especially to those who are interested in manning our booth at the festival in October. Lunch and childcare will be provided for those in attendance. I’m sure many of you are eager to work the booth at the Fall Festival but feel unequipped to share the gospel with people there. Our evangelism training of September 28th will be a condensed version of the "Way of the Master" basic training course. If you are not familiar with "Way of the Master", it is an evangelism method that is non-confrontational and gospel centered. In other words, if you attend the training you will be equipped to share the gospel in any context with any person. If you’d like to know more about Way of the Master check out wayofthemaster.com. A signup sheet is now available in the foyer to sign up for our evangelism training course. Please make this a priority as we have a great opportunity to be light in the darkness at the Fall Festival. If you have any questions regarding the festival or the training, please contact me or Terry Bristow. In Christ, Nathan
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Our students will be leaving on Monday for Eastland, TX on our fourth World Changers trip. I look forward to this week with our students every year. We will be put into crews of 10-15 people made up of students from all over the country. All week our crews will be working on homes in the community that need repair. Our main objective is sharing the gospel with the homeowners, neighbors, and others we come in contact with throughout the week. We have a group of 19 going and thanks to Courtney Steele and Susan Highsmith for filling our need of female sponsors. God is good and I look forward to what he has in store for our team next week. Please pray for our students and leaders while we are there. It is going to be a challenging week. Pray for selflessness as we look to others needs before our own. Pray for patience as we will have a strong witness in the community. Pray too for safety. It will be hot and our kids will be working hard to make these homes look nice. We look forward to sharing with you all that God does while we are in Eastland.
In Christ, Nathan We are getting down to the last few days to fill our final female sponsor position for our World Changers youth mission trip. On Monday, I spoke with the project coordinator and he has made special arrangements for us. If you are a senior adult or someone with minor health issues who would be interested in helping but cannot be in the heat all week there is a place for you to come and do behind-the-scenes work at the host church during the day. In other words you would stay with our girls during the evening but would stay behind during the day to help with odd jobs that might come up around the church. If you are interested in this, please contact me in the next few days. I understand this is a lot to ask but thought someone might appreciate this opportunity serve our girls. If you are at all interested or for more information please contact me at: [email protected] or 972-217-6408 or call the church office at 972-775-2593 .
In Christ, Nathan Clardy For Muslims around the world this is a very important time of year. It is the month of Ramadan. As our church is directly connected to missionaries working in a Muslim context and as Islam is possibly the fastest growing religion in the world (according to U.S. Religious Census 2010 Islam is the second largest religion in Texas), it is important for us to be mindful of what the significance of Ramadan is and to pray specifically during this month that God would reveal himself to these people.
To understand what Ramadan is we have to start with the five pillars of Islam. These are the five essential practices observed by faithful Muslims around the world that have been practiced in the same way for over a thousand years. Essentially, the more faithful a Muslim is in keeping these practices, the better chance they will have of entering paradise. The pillars are the confession that “there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet”, ritual prayers performed five times a day, fasting during Ramadan, the giving of alms to the poor, and a pilgrimage to Mecca. Ramadan, the third pillar, is the name of the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is a month set aside for daily fasting. This year Ramadan is from June 28-July 28. During Ramadan, Muslims are not allowed to touch food or water from sunup to sundown. All Muslims are expected to observe this month and the most devout Muslims will not even swallow their saliva so as to keep the fast pure. As soon as the sun sets each day during the fast, food is prepared for a feast to end each day. Ramadan is the greatest expression of faith for a Muslim and they are very proud of this expression. For them it is a great distinction and sign of superiority from all other religions of the world. It is all done for potentially earning a place in paradise. How can we pray for Muslims during Ramadan? One way to pray, as Muslims around the world right now are seeking God through praying and fasting, is that he would reveal himself to them. Muslims genuinely want to do what is pleasing to God. Pray that they will see that there is nothing they can do to please God apart from the redeeming blood of Christ. Another way is to pray for relationships. For Muslims, Ramadan is all about relationships. The daily breaking of fast is a huge celebration with friends and family. Often times Christians are invited to these celebrations. Pray that missionaries and believers in Muslim contexts would have opportunities to share the hope of the gospel with Muslims they have relationships with. Pray that God would do a mighty work in drawing these people to himself during the month of Ramadan. In Christ, Nathan |
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December 2015
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