DownshoreDrift

Some Recent Photos

Here are some pictures that I have taken the past few months. Enjoy!

 

Long time since I've posted a photo

I took this picture this past Spring on a trip to New Orleans, one of my favorite cities on earth.

Open Doors for Young and Old

I haven't put up photos in a while. These are two from our last trip to India that I particularly like. Young and Old in the first one. The second one was taken inside a hut in a Nepali village in the Himalayas of Northern India. This reminds me what we are supposed to be focusing on.

There is an open door that is emerging for the gospel to penetrate Northern India.  Indigenous Christians are being faithful to carry the message of Christ deep into the mountains, at great peril to themselves. They do not have very much, but whatever they have they use for God's glory. God is at work there in amazing ways.

In this valley, Nepali farmers have come to Christ. From the dirt floor of this mud hut, we heard stories of how God healed the man's daughter and the whole family came to the Lord and was baptized. They are being discipled and are learning to live for Jesus. They have only been Christians for about 6 months, but they are already undergoing persecution from their neighbors who are stealing their seed and trampling their crops. Still, they are being faithful to the Lord.

Here is a picture of this family of new believers. Pray for them tonight. Let's not forget.

Is The Future Passing Us By? A Picture Says a Thousand Words

I've been thinking a lot about the decline in the SBC this past week. It was talked about at our quarterly associational meeting today. As I heard multiple plans for outreach and church growth, the thought ran through my head: We don't have any idea what we are doing. I don't know that I've ever thought that before. I guess that I always thought that someone, somewhere knew what they were doing in regard to church leadership, evangelism, and cultural engagement. But, recently I've realized that all of the experts have been passed by.  All of their plans, strategies, books, and conferences are no longer working. Everyone is groping around trying to figure this out. Even the megachurches are struggling to figure out how to not be left behind in this new environment of a post-Christian, post-modern, multicultural America.  So, here is a picture that I took in India that I think fully captures where we are right now in relation to a rapidly changing culture:

Obviously, we are the boy on the left. Fortunately, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and we can pray. Has it come to that, you ask? Prayer? Dependence on God? The most pertinent words spoken at our associational meeting today were by the youngest pastor there. He gave the devotion and he called us to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified (2 Cor. 2:1-5). He called us back to dependence on Christ and an application of the Cross in our lives. The true gospel of Jesus Christ has power and can still speak to a spiritually dead people. Can these dry bones live? Only by the power of the Holy Spirit. But, we have to stop believing that we can bring revival through our religious acts, devotion, and morality, and become serious about really repenting of our self sufficiency and pride. God opposes the proud, you know. 

Isaiah 58 has some interesting words for us. Perhaps we should heed them.   

God is Moving in Northern India

I just returned from our trip to Northern India where we participated in helping lead a conference with an emerging indigenous ministry network that we helped initiate last year. It was amazing! We also travelled into the mountains to facilitate further development of the clean water project that we have begun with a local Christian hospital. Our travels took us all over the north of India, from the Ganges River to the Himalayas. We even ended up on a safari and saw a herd of wild elephant one morning! The Father worked in powerful ways and we were able to meet many people who have recently come to Him through the work of these holistic ministries.  ALL of them have a story of some type of miracle that took place that caused them to change their direction. Something is happening in this region as people are coming to faith much more rapidly than they have in the past.  Our relationships with the indigenous believers have grown exponentially and we have seen amazing things.  We hope to go back again in the fall, or possibly next year and I wish that I could take everyone I knew with me.

Over the past week, we met with development workers, teachers and leaders, economic developers, medical personnel, and educators - all using their skills to better the lives of people and bring the Kingdom. We are helping the organizations of this emerging network with micro loan programs, clean water projects, church planting, and school start ups and development in unreached areas. I could not be more amazed at what we have stumbled into. We drove along mountain roads, tromped all over God's green earth, sat in huts along river banks and ate over open fires with Nepali farmers who had just recently had a change of heart.  We gathered in a house on the side of a mountain at around 7,000 feet sharing our really great news with over 20 Hindu tribal people in a village where we had just placed a water tank and sat at the feet of the giants of the faith who first brought the message to these mountains. People are opening up in amazing ways as the seeds that have been planted are beginning to bear fruit. I am privileged to be a part of it and to serve the Indian believers as they take responsibility for their own calling.

I have learned some pretty incredible lessons about what we are doing well and what the American Church is doing very poorly when it comes to this type of work and I will be sharing some over the next week or two. Since I just got home today, jet lag is taking its toll, so I'll just stop by sharing a heap of pictures - every one has a story behind it. The first is me on my favorite motorcycle, the Royal Enfield, which is made in India (if anyone wants to get me one, I'll be eternally grateful! -  Kidding. I don't think that would be a good idea just yet!). The rest of the pictures are more focused on the purpose of the trip. Enjoy, and please pray for Northern India. God is on the move!

   

 

Weekend Photos

It's been a while since I posted any pictures here. I'll have a lot more pretty soon, but I went back through my files and pulled out some that I liked. 

In the Mood for Pictures

I haven't posted any pictures lately, but I found myself in the mood to put a few up tonight. This is a wide variety of pictures from a beach trip, to Christmas presents, New Year's fireworks, and even a Southern Snowfall.  Photography has been a really good outlet for me, especially when I get to see my kids through the lens. It is almost like I am seeing them for the first time, or capturing something timeless. It really makes me appreciate all that God has blessed me with.

 

Convoy of Hope Comes to Montgomery

On Saturday, November 17, the Convoy of Hope rolled into town. This is a ministry that provides food, health care, social services, love, and fun to the needy in communities all across America and the world. It came to our city 5 years ago, and the return was a greater success than anyone anticipated. You can read the newspaper article HERE. Altogether, we had over 9,400 guests visit the event to receive physical as well as spiritual ministry. We had almost 1,300 volunteers from 124 churches and 24 different denominations in our city!  It is truly unbelievable what can happen when God's people work together instead of against one another. On this day, there were no Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, or Pentecostals. Instead, it was just the Church of Montgomery working together as the hands and feet of Jesus. It was an amazing event that richly blessed our city. There was a great deal of spiritual ministry that took place as well as almost 500 people made professions of faith. I worked in the prayer/counseling area and it was amazing to encounter so many deep needs in the lives of the people of our community. We had over 30 from our church volunteer, so this morning, many of them shared in the service about how God used them and ministered to them through the lives of others. What an incredible blessing it was! If this ministry ever comes to your city, I highly encourage you to particpate!  A few pics:

Best. Family. Pictures. Ever.

Here are some recent pictures of the family during some recent fun days at the park, our church's Fall Festival, and by just hanging out. I like them - hope you enjoy.

Union Church in India

When we were in Northern India, we stopped by a church in the city of Mussoorie and walked into a Union Church that was basically a protestant church that allowed many different denominations to come together and worship Jesus. The pastor was from a baptist background, but they tried to lift up the name of Jesus over denominational differences. I couldn't help but think of the situation back here in the States. I really liked this picture, by the way.