Moving Day
This weekend has been filled with painting and prepping as we literally moving to the end of the driveway. Of course to make a house a home it requires multiple color changes to each wall and it requires that furniture is moved at least 7 times because obviously that is the number of perfection. Have had a good amount of help from friends, youth staff and life group and thanks to all of them. Thankful for the chance to be able to live in this house and have some privacy and freedom for the kids. So thank you to the Eric, Gus and the elders for letting us have this opportunity.
Don’t you love the fact that I am to lazy to take my own picture of the house that I had to steal it off of Eric’s Facebook page?
Night Of Nets
Mary Davis who is on youth staff has been working with World Vision as we partnered with them for our Poverty Revolution weekend. Through Mary’s contact with World Vision we ended up on their website. You can check out the site here or you can read the story below.
On April 25, around 20 high school and middle school students from Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA watched the documentary, When the Night Comes. Mary Davis, a volunteer youth leader at the church, coordinated this screening as a preparation for their Night of Nets event that will take place on June 6.
After watching the film, Mary had the students brainstorm ways to get more students involved for Night of Nets. They decided to show the film during their larger youth group night. It will be a relaxed event, and students will be encouraged to donate $6 (the cost of a bed net). They hope that students will desire to get further involved in the fight against malaria after watching the documentary.
Mary has a great deal of passion for getting students involved with social justice work and missions. She has been in youth ministry for 10 years and explains, “I’ve seen how when kids are exposed to what’s happening in the world, we watch them grow up and choose career paths and live lives that desire to make a difference.”
In March, the youth group at Fellowship church held an event known as Poverty Revolution. Part of this event included participating in the Broken Bread poverty meal to raise awareness about hunger. Through this event, students raised $3600 to go towards items in the World Vision gift catalog.
Mary loves teenagers and college students and has seen first-hand the impact they can have, “I love watching their faces when they recognize what’s going on in the world and the role they can play. There is hope in this realization and that’s what the gospel is all about!”
Mary will continue to engage students at this youth group for years to come with help from World Vision ACT:S. She explains, “World Vision ACT:S makes it very easy to connect these issues to students by having quality products and videos. We are able to take what you give us and adapt it to what will work for our group. Your resources allow us to engage students on different issues, and we are very grateful for this. We will keep coming back to you guys.”
Helping Hands
20 Adults and students left the comfort of Fellowship Church to go to the Dominican Republic to make a difference. Here is the article in it’s entirety that was written by Patti Mengers of the Delco Times. Click the the Delco Times link to see the video.
After a week of medical missionary work in the steamy sun, Dr. Melissa Broyles was about to bid goodbye to the Haitian children she had befriended in the Dominican Republic a month ago.
A girl named Nevolisa approached the family physician and gave her a purple rubber bracelet adorned with pink and white stars, a treasure most likely given to the child by another missionary.
“Para ti,” said the 8-year-old.
Although Creole is her native tongue, the Haitian youth said “for you” in Spanish because she knew the doctor understood the language.
“We were giving, giving and towards the end of the week, the little girl gave me this bracelet. It was really beautiful,” said the 40-year-old Concord resident.
She and her 41-year-old husband, David, also a family physician, were among 20 members of Fellowship Church in Concord who cared for Haitian refugees during a missionary trip to the Dominican Republic led by Chadds Ford pediatrician Dr. Una Brewer March 25 through April 1.
The trip was arranged in conjunction with two humanitarian organizations, the Foundation for Children in Need and Crossroads.
“Last summer, I went to the Dominican Republic for the first time and did my first ever medical mission. It was so amazing living and serving amongst the poorest Haitian refugees. I wanted to go back, take more doctors, nurses and other youth. That dream was fulfilled this year,” said Brewer.
In addition to her husband and children, ages 6, 9 and 13, Brewer took seven teenagers and several adults, including two nurses, a dental hygienist, bankers, an administrator and an engineer.
“It was great to do medical work where people were so appreciative of anything we could do for them,” said Brewer. “It was also great to see the youth from our area interact with the children and teenagers in the village.”
In addition to providing medical care to Haitian refugees, the group executed painting projects and distributed food, shoes and beds to those in need.
“Our kids came back with a whole new appreciation for what they have here in Garnet Valley. My hope is that they will have a serving heart as they grow into adults,” said Brewer.
The group distributed care packages assembled by first- and fourth-graders taught by Meg Hayes, Lauren Castafero and Beth McCarry in the Garnet Valley and Concord elementary schools. Brewer had made presentations to those classes about the impact of poverty on children.
“They collected and assembled over 250 donation packages that included shoes, wash cloths, soap and protein bars. With each one they attached a note wishing the Haitians well,” said Brewer.
The students also collected pencils and notebooks in which they wrote messages distributed to children in need of school supplies in the Dominican Republic. A fundraiser sponsored by the Chick-fil-A restaurant in Concord helped pay for bins to transport supplies and for T-shirts the missionaries brought to the refugees.
“I plan on doing something similar again next year, and I want to be able to teach more schoolchildren about how they can help make a difference both locally and globally,” said Brewer, who hopes to travel to Haiti in August to volunteer at an orphanage.
When the Broyles heard Brewer speak at their church about her first trip to the Dominican Republic last year, they immediately signed up to go. It was several months before the devastating earthquake in Haiti that would compound the need for help to refugees in the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, which was struck by its worst earthquake in a century Jan. 12. More than 200,000 people died, about 300,000 were injured and more than a million were left homeless in Haiti.
“The very first day, I saw one man who came from Haiti the week before we got there. He was in a 10-by-10 hut in a remote village. He had one shirt, one pair of pants and flip-flops and he was boiling some water and eating a root,” said David.
As did other members of the missionary group, the Broyles paid their own transportation costs and brought their own examination equipment, including blood-pressure cuffs, stethoscopes to listen to hearts and otoscopes to look into ears. Antibiotics, gauze and saline donated by others were already in the Dominican Republic.
They traveled light, relinquishing airline check-in privileges to the bins of supplies they were transporting to the Dominican Republic.
“Most people left their clothes down there with the people,” said David Broyles.
A native of Roanoke, Va., David was no stranger to humanitarian missions. After Hurricane Katrina, he volunteered his services in Slidell, La., doing cleanup and rebuilding houses. He has also volunteered his services to the Delaware County Housing Authority with a church group, rebuilding houses in Chester.
Melissa, a Springfield native, volunteers as an adoption advocate and adviser. The Broyles adopted both their children, 7-year-old Elena and 5-year-old Alex, from Russia. Married 13 years, they met the first semester of medical school at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1993.
Melissa, a 1992 graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., with a degree in biology, is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
“I always knew, ever since I was younger, that I wanted to be a doctor. I like treating the whole family, from grandparents to kids,” said Melissa, who is also a graduate of Merion-Mercy Academy in Montgomery County.
David, a 1990 graduate of Bridgewater College near Harrisonburg, Va., where he majored in psychology with a minor in philosophy and religion, is affiliated he with Crozer-Keystone Health System.
“After medical school, I saw the light and went into family medicine mostly because of the broad range of what you can do in family medicine,” said David.
The Broyles found their expertise in demand during their eight days in the Dominican Republic.
“The first day we had a clinic, we had 70 people,” said Melissa. “The next day, we decided to walk around the village and people would just approach us, and they were ill. It wasn’t that they just wanted attention.”
The doctors were based in Villa Ascension, a community of about 150 cinderblock houses established by Crossroads for Haitian refugees well before the earthquake.
“By them being displaced and not having adequate health care and not being properly hydrated and not having good sanitation and living so close together and having poor hygiene, it has resulted in the spread of disease,” said David.
Villa Ascension was about an hour’s bus ride from the Puerto Plata Airport where the group landed in the Dominican Republic.
“From there, it was kind of funny. We got on a blue bus with open sides. Twenty of us were on benches,” said David.
The road degenerated from pavement to dirt to fields of sugar cane. The bus transported the missionaries through a creek, the bed of which they later restored with rocks and gravel, to get to Villa Ascension.
“The first day, the school kids swarmed the bus. Every day when we came back, they were waiting for us,” said David.
The missionaries brought the first relief and medical care to the community in about two months, said David.
“I think the need was so great that it is almost insatiable. You can’t fulfill all their needs. You do what you can do,” noted Melissa.
The homes were atop a hill accessed by a dirt road. The Broyles and their group stayed at the bottom of the hill in a building where they slept in bunk beds under mosquito nets.
“It was comfortable, but it was hot. It was buggy,” said David.
The physicians worked part of the time in a clinic attached to the building where they were staying. They would also travel by bus to remote villages usually about a half-hour from Villa Ascension. They brought plastic bins full of antibiotics, saline and gauze and would set up clinics in churches and schools.
“The youth, they cleansed a lot of wounds and fungal infections,” said David.
The Broyles would also carry supplies in fanny packs and treat people on the spot for lacerations, indigestion and infections.
“There was a man cut by a machete, people getting hit on the head with rocks, a gunshot wound,” said David, who noted that pneumonia was also common.
The Haitians are not accustomed to organized care, he noted.
“Clinics are hit or miss,” said David.
When they did clinics, the doctors were assisted by one or two interpreters. Haitians’ first language is Creole, although they could understand Spanish, which Melissa studied in high school and college.
“Every day we ventured out somewhere,” said David. “Once they learn you’re a doctor, they stop you and pull you into their houses or tell you what’s wrong with them.”
Among the Haitian refugees they served were earthquake survivors.
“I met several young moms who told me their husbands had died in the earthquake and they had several young children around them and they couldn’t feed their children,” said Melissa.
David observed many Haitians were significantly depressed from losing loved ones in the earthquake.
“In the United States you say, ‘Get an anti-depressant,’ and you’d put them with a therapist and connect them with social services, but they don’t have those resources. They’re just worried about eating and shelter,” said David.
They found one frail woman, sitting in a chair in a home atop the hill.
“We’d say, ‘How can we help you?’ She was also malnourished and depressed,” said Melissa, who noted that members of the group eventually just surrounded her and prayed.
Melissa was especially moved by Francis Antonio, a baby born via Cesarean section at a local hospital the day the group arrived. The doctors were summoned to examine the infant when his mother brought him home.
“We walk in and the mom takes off the little baby’s bootie and his foot is deformed and she’s asking me to help with the foot. It was way beyond our expertise,” said Melissa.
She discovered that both the baby’s feet were deformed, one more severely than the other. Her own son had club feet that were repaired at the Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., when she brought him home from Russia four years ago.
“I’ve been calling duPont, trying to get this baby help. That has just stayed with me,” said Melissa.
Francis Antonio was also dehydrated because he was not latching onto his mother’s breast. Fortunately, Brewer, a pediatrician, was on the mission, as was Kala Sareyka, a lactation nurse from Concord.
With their fellow missionaries, they distributed milk, bread and care packages to Haitian refugees and delivered mattresses and bunk beds to those who were sleeping on bare floors.
“In addition to relief work, we were holding children, playing with the kids, talking to moms. It was kind of hands-on relationship building,” said David.
They also went to the local dump where some villagers would scavenge for recyclable items, such as plastic and cans.
“Melissa and I provided medical care there and gave out food and clothes and just played with the kids,” said David. “There were kids whose parents were there trying to make a living.”
Melissa befriended three girls who were about the age of her daughter.
“We’d go in the field and blow bubbles and play jump rope with sugar cane,” said Melissa, who noted that she would like to take her own children with her on a missionary trip some day.
The Haitian refugees, she said, were “desperate, needy and grateful.”
“They’re very loving with their actions — touching, hugging and kissing. Some knew English, but not many,” she said.
Both doctors foresee themselves doing more missionary work in the Dominican Republic or Haiti.
“We were there and we were helping, but we were just scratching the surface,” said Melissa.
She would like to help teach Haitian refugees to be self-sufficient so they will have better living conditions and less disease.
“I’d like to teach them agriculture and how to live off the land,” said Melissa. “I can treat them for pneumonia but not prevent it from happening to the next child or next generation.”
Breaking the cycle of poverty for Haitians is difficult, especially since the Jan. 12 earthquake caused such death and devastation in their country, said David.
“They’re the poorest of the poor. They came from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and they’re displaced to another country,” said David.
The Broyles were happy to hear from translators that some of the young people they treated during their trip expressed an interest in studying medicine.
Said David, “Just by being there and helping to inspire them, it gives them a vision.”
The ME Monster
Challenged yesterday by Gus our Executive Pastor in our staff meeting about having a genuine concern for others. To show them enough courtesy to actually look them in the eye and listen to what they have to say and be able to respond with questions. So many times we get caught up in the busyness of the church and we get running and have a list of people that we are trying to connect with that we don’t stop and listen to the stories of the people who matter…you.
On the other side is listening with only the intention of answering. Not really listening. Listening so we can have an answer and sound smart. We covered this in our life group last week. Sometimes listening does not require an answer. Sometimes listening is giving the other person a chance to talk through their thoughts. Sometimes our only intent is to answer to sound smart. To one up them. To turn the answer around so that it becomes about us. I have found myself several times doing this. Answering to sound smart, to hear myself, to impress others. It really is pathetic if you think about it. I have been working on the spiritual discipline of silence. I am currently trying to learn from everybody and anybody no matter who they are or what their age.
For me if I ever get to the point that I convey I know more or even feel like I can’t learn from somebody else then I have a pride issue and I have lost my right to lead. If I ever get to the point where it is all about me and hearing myself answer to sound smart, or to impress or to appear to have it all together, I have lost my right to lead. If I ever get to the point that your story does not matter to me, I have lost my right to lead.
Be careful with trying to sound or appear wise because in the end you will sound and look like a fool. Make sure that people matter to you and make sure that what they say matters to you because I guarantee what they have to say matters to God. Who they are matters to God.
Do you ever find yourself doing any of this? I would love for you to share.
Below is a Brian Regan clip and a SNL clip about the ME Monster. What does it sound or look like when it’s all about you?
Philadelphia’s Worst Ten List
Was listening on the radio which is always accurate in reporting the facts, and I heard that Philadelphia has been placed on many lists that most major cities would not want to be on. The lists cover such things as: commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes (both income and sales), unemployment, violent crime and weather. So far Philadelphia is in the top ten or in the top five on 5 lists…2 of them sadly we are number 1. Still looking for facts to back this up on the other most reliable source, the Internet.
- Philadelphia ranked #1 as the fattest city in the U.S.
- One of the most bitter and angry cities to live in due to our sports teams.
- One of the most miserable cities in the U.S. to live in.
- One of the most dangerous cities in the U.S to live in.
- Philadelphia ranked #1 as the ugliest cities in the U.S. to live in.
With all that being said, it is no coincidence that God has placed Fellowship Church right outside of Philly to reach and connect those who are far from God with Him. Those lists may be true but our God is bigger than all of those lists. Share with people your story and the story that God loves them…it just may make a difference.
East To West
Building and maintaining healthy relationships is one of the greatest challenges we face in life. It’s a struggle. Getting along with people is a huge struggle! Sometimes we may even wonder if healthy relationships are possible. There is one key that helps in this process of having “happy relationships” and that key is forgiveness. This series will investigate the depths of forgiveness, and how we can have a clean, new start with the people we hurt and the people who hurt us. Our journey will help us know how to give forgiveness, seek forgiveness, and guard against refusing forgiveness.
East To West Series from Fellowship Today on Vimeo.
100 Day Prayer Challenge
Eric on Sunday challenged the church to 100 days of prayer. I thought why not challenge everybody who reads this blog to jump on board and pray as well. You pray for my church and I’ll pray for your church if you list your church below. The only way we will see God move throughout is if people humble themselves and pray for His will and not ours. Below is what our church [Fellowship Church] is praying for and I believe it to be universal.
- Be unified and motivated to serve
- Grow as a community who love and accept each other and new people wherever they’re at
- Develop a heart for our local community, our schools, our neighbors, in demonstrating our love for them and meeting their needs, expecting nothing in return
- Become people who invest in our community and invite them into our church family
So how about it? Can you commit the next 100 days to lift your church and mine up in prayer to God?
Discover God’s Heart from Fellowship Today on Vimeo.
25 Days Of Christmas_Day 20
I love the clip from the Elf where Buddy starts shouting Santa, I know him. Made me think with church be canceled today there is a lot of anticipation for Wednesday and Thursday as Eric takes the reign as lead pastor of Fellowship Church. Can’t help but think when I hear that clip, that instead of Santa, I know him, it’s Eric is coming, I know him. Looking forward to Christmas as I hope you are. Who have you invited who needs to hear about Jesus?
25 Days Of Christmas_Day 18
I was thinking about how everybody followed the star of Bethlehem to see Jesus and how weird it must have been to be directed that way. After all it’s not a common practice to follow stars to your location, I tried to follow one to the Outback the other night only to realize the star I was following was actually a glare on my windshield from my iphone…so no luck there. The star led them to place they needed to be, to be a part of something extraordinary.
That is sort of like the staff of Fellowship. Although I am not attempting to compare our journey together as the weight of the Savior of the world being born…however think about this for a second and how God has orchestrated His plan.
- Gus was from the Delaware Valley.
- Kristi by default was from the Delaware Valley.
- Ben was from either Georgia or Florida. I think it was both if that is possible.
- Jeff is from Iowa.
- Dan is from Boston.
- Shari is from Alaska.
- Nancy is from Illinois.
- Eric is from Illinois.
- I am from California/Washington State
And yet God orchestrated His plan to bring all of us together to redefine church in the Delaware Valley. Each of us has different gifts and talents that we bring to the table. We each come from a different perspective. We each have baggage and we are all imperfect and yet God uses us to shape His Kingdom. If God can use this bunch, He can use you.
Are you ready to be used by God? What is the story that is God is writing through you? During the Holiday season, has God called you to do something extraordinary? Are you exactly where God wants you?
25 Days Of Christmas_Day 10
Some people wonder what in the world does a staff do during preparation for our Christmas services? That is a valid question. Below is just a clip of what a day in the life of some staff members of Fellowship Church look like.
Staff Elves from Ryan Geiger on Vimeo.
