Praise the Lord for such a beautiful city as Istanbul!!  The first couple
days of VBS have been wonderful and challenging all at the same time. Things are definitely coming together as each day continues.  We are getting used to the kids, and they are getting used to us.  After a few schedule glitches, we’ve hit our stride and each day it’s a true joy and
 pleasure to get to know the children’s hearts a bit more.

Our days begin at 8 AM where we have team time and some good corporate time in the Word. We then take a ferry across the Bosphorous (a strait that connects the Black Sea and the sea of Marmara).  That time is the best time for our team to meet local Turks and make connections with them for later in the evenings.  Joe, Chris and Bret have met a few young Turkish men that they have connected with at least once while we have been here. Additionally, Beth has met a few Turkish women, one with whom she and Katie
have been able to meet and even visit a Mosque.  We are all learning a great deal about Islam and the culture here as we meet locals, as well as refugees.

Our hosts, Jen and Armando, are gracious and have been wonderful to have us during our time here.  The local Turks we have met are also very hospitable and inviting.  This part of Istanbul is definitely different than Chicago in that people are freely inviting strangers into their homes and lives for
dinner, tea, and to share life.  It’s been a blessing to be here.

The call to prayer goes off five times a day.  It can be heard through loud speakers all throughout the city.  It has broken the hearts of our team to hear others calling to a god that isn’t the Redeemer.  Yet, it’s made me wonder if my heart is as broken when I “call to” things other than God.

Thank you for all of your notes, prayers and letters.  It has been a great encouragement to our team and the prayers are deeply felt and acknowledged. Please continue to pray for the children attending VBS.  Pray that the truths that they are hearing daily with the songs, crafts, and teaching would sink into their hearts.  Pray that our love for them will translate and last well beyond our time here in Turkey. Please also pray for the local men and women that members of our team are meeting with.  Pray that we 
wouldn’t be hesitant to share truth and love on them, despite some differences in thought process.

A friend recently shared Ephesians 2:10 to me which has been very encouraging, and I would like to share that with you: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for Good Works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Praise the Lord that this has been true of our trip so far, and pray it will continue to be.

Blessings,

Beth

Hey Park!

Our team (Joe, Donna, Bret, Kat, Julie, Katie, Beth, and Chris) has arrived
safely in Istanbul, in the neighborhood of Uskudar! Thankfully, our travel
was uneventful for the most part, and we arrived around 5:30pm Saturday
evening. We were greeted at the airport by Donna, who had arrived here a day
earlier.

We have been blessed by an amazing host couple, Armando and Jen Robles, who
have generously offered their home to us for the next 6 days. They work here
full-time with refugees and with the Union Church of Istanbul. They have
three (really cute) sons who have love playing, dancing and wrestling with
us! On Saturday evening after arriving, we went to dinner together at a
local restaurant down the street and ate some incredible Turkish food. We
finished the night off with some great dondurma (Turkish ice cream).

On Sunday, we took the ferry to the European side of Istanbul and went to
the 11am service at Union Church where Armando preached on Psalm
39. We then spent some time walking through the city and seeing the various
markets and restaurants. On the ferry ride, Donna began a conversation with
a young Turk who told us about the restaurant where he works which is also owned by his family. Joe and Chris began talking with him and he enjoyed practicing his English with us. His English is very good, and we told him that we would come to his restaurant to see him this week. We did have to clarify at certain points, as he thought that Joe was 60 years old! We stopped by the restaurant after church and he treated us to chai and fresh fruit. The guys are planning to go to dinner at his restaurant on Tuesday
evening and will hopefully meet up again this week to help him practice English.

Today, we held the first day of our VBS at the church. Approximately 40 refugee children from various countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa attended. The day went great, although a bit chaotic at times, so we just need to make some tweaks so that we accomplish our goals for the week. We will be leading this each weekday from 11am-3pm and it should be a great way to share God’s love for them! Please pray for flexibility in our approach, wisdom and patience with the children, and clarity of our message. Also,
please pray for our making connections with local Turks here and starting conversations each day – that they would lead to relationships and the opportunity to share our faith.

It has been a great few days already, and we are looking forward to a great
week in Istanbul! Please look for another post on Wednesday and continue to
keep us in your prayers.

-Joe and Chris

Hello Park!

We arrived in Joplin, MO late Wednesday night after a long but safe trip with 11 Park volunteers and a truck full of supplies to donate. When we first arrived, we had no idea what to expect and were eager to help after spending time in prayer. We had seen photos of the devastation and got a glimpse of the destruction on our way to the work site early Thursday morning. We signed in at the Americorps location at Southern Missouri University in Joplin with about 100 other workers. We were then were bussed to the work site. It took a while to sign in and get everything organized, but when we eventually got out to the site, it was overwhelming to see the destructive force of the tornado in the neighborhood. There were houses that had been nearly flattened to the ground and belongings were tossed everywhere in heaps. My initial reaction was to question: How could anyone survive this? Scott Clifton describes it well when he compares what took place here to someone coming in and picking up your house, flipping it upside down, shaking everything out and then just throwing it back down on the ground. Trees were stripped bare and many were completely uprooted. When we first arrived, it seemed like it would be difficult to make an impact as the damage was so extensive. It reminded me of the task of Christian ministry which can seem daunting on our own. But through the work of volunteers from across the country we came together as God’s hands and feet to make a significant difference in the cleanup effort. After spending our day on the cleanup crew, we spent the evening working with Forest Park Baptist Church in Joplin. This church has very effectively organized a food and supply depository for those in need. The depository holds everything from clothing to toiletries to Bibles and of course, an army’s supply of canned food. This depository has already been a blessing to many victims of the tornado, and will continue to serve them for many months to come. As Christians we are not alone, and this trip has encouraged us through seeing our brothers and sisters in Christ coming together to support each other in a time of great need.

Please continue to pray for the community here!

Molly

The team is back from East Asia!  It was an incredible 10 days of seeing God move in the hearts and minds of the students we met.  It was also an incredible 10 days of seeing God moving in the hearts and minds of each of the team members too.  After we taught the university classes we all had several opportunities to meet up with students and begin to build relationships.  God was faithful in giving each of us ways to share the gospel as we spent time with the students in cafeterias, coffee shops, at dinner, playing sports.  Some team members even experienced one of the students’ favorite things to do… Karaoke!

Doing life together with the students over the 5 days allowed for some great relationships to form and technology will allow us to continue to foster those relationships as we water the seeds of the gospel that were planted.  Several of us have already been emailing back and forth with the students since we have been back in the states.

Here is an excerpt from an email sent to one of our team members from a student they spent time with:

“Thank you for the reply my letter! I am so happy! I think this time you have in Chicago. Are you miss you home so much? Every day I always study English at school.  I always talk about you with my friend. I recently I was reading the book. This book was you sent me. Do you remember? This book can give me a lot of about west knowledge. Sometime I can talk about this book with my friends.”

The book she is referring to is called “The Life of Jesus.”  It is a compilation of the four Gospels and was written in their language and English.  That way the students can learn about the life of Jesus and practice their English, which was exciting for them.

We ask for continued prayers for the people we shared the gospel with as well as the friends they will share our conversations with.  As you can see from the student’s email, conversations are being sparked with their friends!  Also, please pray for our team members – that we stay engaged with these students and that the Holy Spirit guides us as we continue to communicate through email.

After arriving back in America, many of us are feeling the full impact of the trip as we unpack our experience.  It is very moving and humbling that God enabled us to be His hands and feet.  What an awesome privilege to be stretched and refined as we shared our lives and the gospel with people half way around the world.  To Him be the glory!

- Lisa B.

This just in from our team currently serving in East Asia:

Hey all,

Just a quick check in. The team is doing great.  Between the 10 of us, we have been to several universities and have taught over 40 classes, mostly to Freshman and Sophomores.

It has been a pretty cool experience interacting with the
students – the main objective was to use teaching as a means to meet the
students in class and then have a chance to meet up with them again during
the week to build relationships.  This has been working out great – God
has been faithful in bringing people to us that we can share His Truth
with.

Last night, a couple of us met up with 4 girls from a class we taught.  One accepted Christ! Amen! Her American name is Kitty – please pray for her that her faith takes root and grows!! Two of the other girls are still asking very good questions and the team has been great at continuing to meet with them – please pray for them as well.

A guy on our team and I met with some guys after a class and one has been reading the Bible since high school  – he does not get the full impact of the Gospel message and salvation but he too is asking good questions and is a very good critical thinker – please pray for him -his name is Jammy in English. The other guy Christi started reading the Bible about a year ago because he wanted to learn English.  Great place to start!  Please pray for his heart to accept Christ too!

Tonight a few of us met with 7 students and hung out for about 5 hours at a coffee shop – we had great conversations about Christ and many seeds were planted.

Many of the other team members are building relationships with the students as well so please pray for their conversations. Most of the people here do not really have any kind of belief or faith – at least the kids we are talking to.

As the team continues to meet up with several students in the next 2 days – please pray that those meetings are fruitful.

Hope all is well on your side of the world.

In response to Osama Bin Laden’s death, Pastor Jackson Crum tweeted:

Osama, a criminal, was caught, but that doesn’t mean I celebrate his death. Shouldn’t I mourn over a life lived apart from the God of the Bible? -@jaxnc

This is a good question for followers of Christ to wrestle through.

While it is no easy thing to navigate the emotions that arise from this news, we must think through how the Christian should respond. Some have responded with profound thankfulness and gratitude that justice has been served. Some have celebrated that a dangerous mass murderer has been eliminated. While others have been disinterested and unmoved, Crum is suggesting we mourn over a person who has met his end potentially apart from the gospel.

Our response is important because it demonstrates to the world around us who we believe our God is. It communicates what we believe to be true about this life and how we are to live as resident aliens. It’s an opportunity for the church to bring compassion and speak truth in a violent world.

Consider Matthew 5.13 where Jesus says:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

In this passage, Jesus speaks to the office of every Christian – to salt the earth. Apart from Christ, all that we have within us is tasteless until we have been seasoned with the salt of the gospel of Jesus. Salt preserves and seasons. Commenting on Matthew 5, the Puritan theologian John Owen said,

Salt does not mock rotting meat, it saves and seasons where it is able; and where it is not able it weeps.

Salt does not look at rotting meat and laugh or joke at it’s saltless state. Salt mourns and weeps.

This seems to be what Crum is saying. The Christian weeps over the unrepentant and mourns the death of the wicked because the Christian knows salvation is of God and not our own doing. The Christian knows that nothing separates us from a mass murderer save the grace of God in the heart and mind of a person. We cannot boast that we have chosen a particularly better path than the terrorist and therefore mock or celebrate their ruin. Such a response indicates not only our lack of self awareness as sinful beings, but also our failure to comprehend the gospel and inability to see the world and its wars through the viewpoint of the cross.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1). The gospel changes us and transforms our motivations and choices. There is no boasting save in the cross of Jesus Christ. Any attempt at celebrating a death only demonstrates our profound misunderstanding of the gospel that gives life and grace to undeserving sinners.

Our response as salt and as light is mourning and weeping over a life lived apart from the God of the Bible.

Response to the Japan Tragedy

March 19, 2011 in Impacting the World,In the Press with

March 19, 2011 by JR Kerr, Teaching Pastor, Park Community Church

Friday afternoon I received a text from a deacon in our community, commenting on the following statement. Yahoo news reports that, Sebastian Pflugbeil, president of the private German-based Society for Radiation Protection, said Japan’s efforts to pull the Fukushima plant back from the brink signaled “the beginning of the catastrophic phase.” “Maybe we have to pray.”

Times like these shake us all.

We watch and wonder how could something like this happen? How can we help those people who are suffering? How do I explain this to my kids? Where is God?

At Park we call you to be Gospel centered and Culturally engaged. We believe that even though it will not always make sense, God is ultimately working the circumstances of history towards his glory. Even circumstances like the ones in Japan.

So as the church…there is no “maybe”…we must pray. We should pray for safety and we should pray for protection. We should pray for courage for the relief workers and wisdom for the scientists trying to stop the effects of radiation on those people.

I know…it doesn’t feel like prayer is doing much.

Yet, as followers of Christ we understand something about the world. Last week, we studied James 4:13-17. The passage calls us to a life of hope. This life of hope sees our world as transitory and as belonging to the will of God. It understands something very basic about our experience in this life. It is brief and it ultimately belongs to Jesus. When we pray we submit our understanding, the circumstances of this world, the outcomes of people and nuclear plants across the world to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

So pray. Pray that Jesus would bring healing to those people. Pray that the church of Japan would remain a strong and significant light for the Gospel. Pray, because even in times like these we believe that Jesus Christ is the king of history and he alone has hope to offer the people of Japan and the watching world. Oswald Chambers says this about prayer, “The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of God equally present, all the time, in every condition.” So pray that all of us would experience the grace and truth of Jesus Christ, even in times such as these.

If you have questions about this piece, or would like discuss this topic more, you can leave a comment in our comments section below, or email JR Kerr. We would love to know what you think, so don’t hesitate to interact.

Please respond as you feel led through prayer and a possible financial donation to one of the organizations that are on the ground in Japan. If you feel led to respond financially, please feel free to explore the following options.

How are you responding to the tragedy in Japan?

Do you think what is described above is enough? Do you think we should do more?

Impacting The World :: Team Nairobi

March 17, 2011 in Impacting the World with

As we ready to head off to the coast of Kenya, Kwale to be precise, it might be nice to know how this all began. This past October, 4000 delegates from around the world convened in Cape Town, SA for the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Donna Crum was part of that gathering and was charged with investigating opportunities for partnership within Africa to enable Park to become more actively involved in addressing the overwhelming needs on the continent.

Donna served as a table leader and was privileged to meet Pastor George Shiramba from Nairobi Baptist while there. As they dialogued over the week around the Word and global issues at the table, it became apparent that there was a synergy developing around the possibility of working together to reach the unreached and to care for the needs of those in the slums of Nairobi. You see, George had been charged by his elders to much the same thing Donna had been, to investigate possible partnerships. The similar nature of the churches (urban, gospel-centered, size, demographic) prompted them to commit to pursue the idea of partnership in the months following the Congress.

Fast forward to March 2011. After skype calls and a myriad of emails, Dan Jenson successfully navigated the planning of the trip the 5-person team (Kelly Zehfuss, Scott Clifton, Dan Jenson and Jackson and Donna Crum) now find themselves on. It has been a sweet time of fellowship with our African brothers and sisters, a compelling time of learning and experiencing various ministries of the church and a sharpening time in regard to how and whom we serve.

The Spirit seems to be in this relationship and an invitation to the leadership of Nairobi Baptist to meet us in Chicago to continue the process has been extended. The possibilities are immeasurable and the challenge is great, but our God is greater and we are grateful for what this new relationship has already afforded us.

Renewing Nairobi

March 15, 2011 in Impacting the World with

A small team from Park arrived in Nairobi this past Saturday to visit with a church in the heart of Nairobi.  Its been amazing to see how they have engaged in faithful and practical ways to engage their city neighborhoods with outreach from the emerging middle class to the slum dwellers of Kibera.  Often we have felt like we have been in school, learning from genuine urban practitioners how they engage people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday (Monday) we met with Liz who directs their “NOW’ program–Nairobi Outreach in Welfare–it was impressive how they discovered the ‘holes’ in their urban context and then as a church sought to meet those needs.  For instance, handicapped people in Kenya, and from what I understand most of Africa, are truly the hidden people.  If you are disabled there are no real services for you and often a parent will lock you up in a room.  It is not uncommon to see crippled adults drag themselves down sidewalks with rubber patches covering their knees and gloves to cover their hands because there is just no way for them to afford or access a wheel chair (let alone the chairs that go 10-15 mph in the states!)  NOW has established a project that is purchasing wheelchairs for these individuals and people are being professionally fitted for them.  They are 3 years into this project and to date, have give out over 100 wheelchairs.

It is not just good works, however, the ministry is also committed to letting the people know that the reason they do this is because of the love of God found through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Last year they saw a Muslim cleric who was crippled and in need of a wheelchair engage in a conversation about Jesus and eventually stepped over the line of faith.  This is the kind of transforming ministry that this church is having in their city and it has been incredible to have a front row seat to see these dedicated men and women at work.

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