Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · July 17, 2006

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

Celebration Sunday

Of Broadway Christian Church’s Outreach Giving

July 2005 – June 2006 = $150,617.82

Prayer of the Day

God of all creation, you call us to make your deeds known all around the world.  You commission us to tell of the wonderful things you have done.  Be with us this hour, we pray, as we celebrate our partnership with you that reaches from our doorstep to the ends of the earth!  Amen.

Scripture

Ephesians 3:14-21

[Rick:]  Our text today comes from the letter that Paul writes to the church in Ephesus.  Paul has spent about two and a half chapters amazed at the works, the power, and the vision God has for the future of God’s creation.  We pick it up about half way through Chapter 3, and here is what Paul has to say:

My response to this incredible vision is to get down on my knees.  I ask God to strengthen you by his Spirit – not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength – that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him into your life.  And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all Christians extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love.  Reach out and experience the breadth!  Test its length!  Plumb the depths!  Rise to new heights!  Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!  God does not do this by pushing us around but by working within us, God’s Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Message

God’s Love Through God’s People

Louise Hassinger, Guest Speaker

With an Introduction by Rick Frost

Rick Frost

In a world increasingly marred by religious, economic, cultural, racial tensions and hostility, I think it is good to hear again, or for some of us the first time, that the Creator of all that is has a purpose for creation – a plan for how that purpose is to be fulfilled.  Indeed, as Christians, we do not believe that life is at the mercy of some unseen and yet some very powerful cosmic force.  We do not believe in fate or chance as those things that rule the world. 

On the contrary, the Judeo-Christian faith, the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures, as well as 6,000 years of experience assert we as individuals, as community, as nations, indeed as a human family, indeed the earth and the cosmos itself, we have a destiny, and that destiny always, always influences and determines the way we conduct our lives.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, this is called “The Promised Land.”  In the New Testament, it’s called “the Kingdom or the Reign of God.”  It is a very bold claim.  It claims that the Creator’s goals in history are nothing less than the all inclusiveness, the reconciling of, the uniting of, the bringing together of the human family.  It’s what the Bible calls “The New Creation.”

We are called consequently to engage in acts of service and to struggle for justice, and human rights, and finding access to the things and necessities that people require in life.  We’re to do that as a community of faith, because we are to foreshadow what is to come.  We are a people called to model the Creator’s will for a world, that someday, not today but someday, will be free from anguish, free from suffering, free from despair.  Indeed, our life together is supposed to radiate in ways that become a sign for others to see what is to come – what some have called “a new world order” where justice, where peace, where harmony, where prosperity, where love and blessings exist for all creation.

Wow!  It’s a big picture.  It’s a huge vision.  I think it’s no coincidence that one of the Eight Keys that we call Discipleship – that we try to follow, that we try to implement and live by around this place – is the call of our people to develop, to engage in a life of service.  We follow One who, as you know, said very clearly, “I did not come to be served, but I came to serve.  And where I am, my servants who are my friends will also be.  So serve one another in love, wholeheartedly.”

Today, folks, we have a dear friend, a young lady who grew up in this congregation, this community of faith, who has an incredible story to tell.  She has an adventure to share, a witness to offer.  It involves service.  It involves outreach, helping in ways that benefit, assist, build up, support others.  We believe each one of those kinds of acts contribute to the work of Christ and the purposes of God in this world, not only here, not only there, but literally, eternally.

I ask you to please welcome Louise Hassinger, who comes to bring us her story today.

Louise Hassinger

Good Morning.  I want you to know what a privilege and an honor it is for me to be here with you today.  I grew up in this congregation.  I see so many familiar faces that have influenced my life, and I see a lot of new faces.  That’s really exciting.  I want to give you a little background of who I am and what I am doing right now.

Like Rick said, I grew up here at Broadway, and I graduated from the University of Missouri.  I’m a Tiger.  From there I worked with Young Life, which is a youth ministry for high school kids, so I really appreciate Chuck’s comment that you get pretty close to the kingdom of God, because you are praying all the time.  I did that for about ten years.

In 2002, I took my first mission trip to Afghanistan.  It was there we did a wheelchair distribution and worked with prosthetics.  Prosthetics are artificial arms and legs.  We worked with land mine victims.  It was there that I really felt that God was saying, “Don’t forget prosthetics.”  I thought, “Great!”  I just had quit my job and started a new one.  I said, “I won’t forget it, but I have to continue what I’m doing.”

About six months later I made the famous phone call.  That phone call was, “Mom, I’m quitting my job.”  (She’s sort of use to that one.)  “I’m going back to school.”

“In what?”

“Prosthetics.”  (I’m not sure she knew what that was.)

Then here is the famous line.  “I’m going to move home for six months until I get into school.”  (This is what every parent of a 35-year-old wants to hear.)

Since that time, I got accepted into school in California, finished my training and my internship, and I became a certified prostheticist.  Please be careful how you say that.  I have just moved, in the last month, to Washington, D.C. to work at Walter Reed Army Hospital where I’m working with amputees who are coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq.

That’s a little bit of my history and explains why I am here today and my passion for the nation of Afghanistan.

The purpose of today is to celebrate the joy and blessing this congregation has spread across the world.  I want to do that in three different ways.

1)     I want to say “thank you” for all that you are doing.

2)     I want to share with you my passion and calling to the nation of Afghanistan and the impact this congregation has made in that nation, whether you know it or not.

3)     I want to encourage you to continue to stretch yourself where God is calling you. 

Maybe you’ll hear something this morning that will stir your heart.  Maybe you will see something in the bulletin that you want to get involved with.  My encouragement today is that you just do it.  Don’t wait.  Don’t think about it.  Just do it!  I believe Jesus Christ has called us as his followers to share his hope, his joy, and his purpose to those who have not heard it and to those who have not experienced it.

The outreach mission committee has done an incredible job.  If you look at your bulletin, this is an amazing feat this congregation has been involved with.  As you read these different programs, don’t just think of them as names.  Put a face with them.  Try to picture who these people are that you are impacting their lives, and as you do that, think about where you want to get involved.

Many of you know my Mom and Dad, Ed and Isabel Hassinger.  They usually sit in the third row; so don’t take their seats during the eleven o’clock service.  They always wonder where I get my spirit to go and to serve.  Well, they are my example.  Every Tuesday afternoon, they go visiting at Lenoir, whether it’s taking some flowers, taking some goodies, or just going to share stories.  If they don’t show up, the people they visit are very disappointed and wonder what has happened to them.  My Dad serves three times a year, I believe, with Loaves and Fishes.  He makes brownies, and I didn’t even know he could make brownies.  He goes and serves three times a year.  This is what the mission outreach committee is all about.

Today I want to take a look at Paul’s prayer in Ephesians.  I want to read it to you in a little different version.  This is the NIV Version.  This is Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, but it’s also the prayer that I think about when I think about all of you.

I want to read it to us again.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

First and most importantly, Paul prays that the Ephesians would be strengthened with power through the riches and the abundance of our Father in heaven.  Because of this, Christ dwells in their hearts through faith.  I think this is what Paul thought was most important: that Christ would be center of their lives.  I think that is what needs to be most important to us.

All the good works in the world mean nothing, unless you are doing it out of the power and strength that Christ gives us to do those things.  Once Christ is the center and the focus of all that we do, Paul prayed that the Ephesians would be rooted and established in love.  I believe that this is what motivates us to give and to go.  It’s this love that Christ has put in our hearts that motivates us to sacrifice our one week of vacation.

Many people ask me why I go to Afghanistan, and I say, “For vacation, of course!”  It’s this love that Paul talks about that motivates us to sacrifice, to give, to give more than we have to give, because we care about the people we see in need.

In verse 18, Paul prays that the Ephesians “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”  The key to this verse is that Paul is saying “all the saints” that he was praying about.  Do you realize that you are part of “all the saints” 2000 years later who Paul was praying for?  We are to work as a body.  We are to work as a Church.  We are to work as a whole body throughout the world to share the hope of Christ.

This is where I want to share my passion with you, and this is where I want you to realize the impact that you, as part of all the saints that Paul was talking about, have made a difference half way around the world.  Because of the love of Christ in my life, I’ve been called to share this with the nation of Afghanistan.

This past April, I returned to Afghanistan for my third trip.  To tell the truth, I think I receive more blessings than the people I could ever help there.  That, so many times, is the case when we decide to give and to go.  The blessings we receive far outweigh anything we are doing to help the people that we’ve gone to help.

I currently serve on the board of a non-profit organization called Morningstar Development.  Morningstar is committed to help rebuild the nation of Afghanistan.  They are doing it through four initiatives: education, healthcare, small business development, and agriculture.

The vision of Morningstar is to empower the Church to make a difference in this nation.  We have set up the groundwork, and the programs, and the places where churches can come in and truly make a difference, and see the results of what they are doing. 

You may ask, “Can one church really make a difference?  Can one small group?  Can one Sunday School class?  Can one family really make a difference half way around the world?”

I say, “Yes!”

The change that is happening in this nation is slow, but it is happening.  I want to share three stories of what is going on there and experiences that I was a part of this past April.

Afghanistan has been in a state of turmoil for the last 25 years.  The Russians occupied the country from 1981 to 1991.  When the Russians were run out, the Taliban came in and took over as there was a leadership void.  At this time, when the Taliban came in, the educated people (doctors, lawyers, business people, school teachers) refused to be under the rule of the Taliban, so they left their country with their families.  They fled to refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran.

After 2001, when the Taliban was run out of power, the folks in the refugee camps came back to try to help rebuild their country.  They brought their grown children with them.  However, you have to remember that now there has been 25 years of lack of education, lack of knowledge of how to run a business.  There has been 25 years of a leadership void in that country.  This looks like a hopeless situation.

The purpose of Morningstar Development and what I’ve been working with is to help bring back hope, bring back training, bring back the basic skills people need to run a country.  Morningstar Development has started an amazing program called the Institute of Leadership Development.  This is hope.  This is the future leaders of Afghanistan.  This program involves about 25 students.  They are about 25 years old, and there are actually five women in this class, which is pretty amazing in that the women are given an opportunity to do this also.  The purpose of this class is to teach basic leadership skills.

The country has been run on a sense of fear, a sense of shame for so long that the skills of honesty and integrity are not even known.  It’s not that they don’t want to do it.  They have just never been in that setting before.  This class runs from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. before these students go to their regular jobs five days a week. 

I had the privilege of teaching there for three days about basic leadership principles.  These students were hungry.  They were asking questions about how to make their country better.  This is what hope is all about.

My question for you today:  Are you a professor?  How are your leadership skills?  Do you run your own business?  Are you involved in development?  How about community rebuilding?  Have you ever thought about teaching the future leaders of Afghanistan?  Where is your expertise?  Will you share it?

The second story I want to share with you today is of a rural medical clinic.  It is a four-hour jeep ride through tough terrain, but a pure treasure has been created out of that terrain.  The scenery was beautiful.  The riverbed we had to drive up to get to this area was breathtaking.  What awaited us was the new medical clinic at Jegdelak, that Morningstar had opened three weeks prior to us getting there.

This area is toward the Pakistan border and serves 30,000 nomadic village people.  Until this clinic was built, there was no medical service in this area.  Morningstar Afghan doctors run this temporary clinic.  The medicine is limited.  The long-term funding has not been secured at this time, but the children are being vaccinated for the first time.  For $60,000 a year, this medical clinic can provide healthcare to 30,000 people.  That’s $2, not a day, but $2 per person per year to treat basic health issues like intestinal and upper-respiratory diseases that people die from there but are easily treated with medicine.  The elders of the village welcomed us.  They are so happy we are there.

The medical clinic will succeed because the Afghans have taken ownership.  It is run by Morningstar, but it is their medical clinic.  That is how change is going to happen.  The elders of the village have set aside a huge piece of land for Morningstar.  They want us to come and build a community center, a new medical clinic, an education center, and a communications center.  This is how change happens in that country.

In the first three weeks the medical clinic was open, 785 patients were seen.  They were also getting ready for the midwife to deliver the first baby in the clinic.  In the past, the mortality rate for infants was one in five.  The clinic will change this statistic.

Do you have medical experience?  Would you like to mentor Afghan doctors?  Are you a nurse?  Do you like to raise money for new rural medical clinics?  Think outside the box.  How can you make a change half way around the world?

The final story I want to share with you is about the Girls’ School in Wardoc.  Wardoc is a very conservative province right outside of Kabul.  Many of the Taliban have come from this area.  This area struggles financially.  There’s not much chance for economic development in this area.  Morningstar, a couple of years ago, began developing a relationship with the elders of this area.  They began doing food and blanket distributions during the winter.  Because of this relationship, the elders of the village have allowed Morningstar to open four girls’ schools.  Up until this time, girls have never been educated.  Most don’t know how to read and write.

I visited the girls’ schools a year ago.  There were 150 girls in school.  There were limited school supplies: a few pencils, a couple of tablets, and a couple of reading books.  Thanks to you, thanks to the outreach missions committee, this year in April, we took over enough school supplies for these girls’ schools.  Fifty girls received a book bag.  Do you remember what it was like when you went to the store to buy your school supplies and the excitement of your first day of school?  The pride in the eyes of these girls was amazing when we handed them their own pencils, their own tablets, their own reading books, and enough material for them to make their own school uniforms.  This became a whole-village celebration.

Morningstar has been invited to build a community center in this remote, isolated area where very few foreigners are invited to come in.  This is how change happens: education, healthcare, communication with the outside world.

Thank you for making a difference.  Thank you for starting the process in this rural area.  You are making a difference. 

My hope this morning is that I have given you a picture of change, a picture of hope.  When in our lifetimes do we get to see change happen in a country like this?  When do we get to see democracy starting to take place?  When do we see a chance for religious freedom?  When do we actually get to be part of it?

Morningstar Development has two trips planned this year.  One is in October and one is in June.  If I’ve stirred your heart a little bit, and you want to go with me, please let me know.  I’m not planning on going on any trip yet, (don’t share that with my parents), but I will be going back.  And if this is something that Broadway is passionate about, then let’s talk.

My challenge for you today is not to wait for the mission outreach committee to represent Jesus.  My challenge is that you would represent Jesus somewhere.  It might be at Lenoir.  It might be at the Habitat Garage Sale.  It might be in Afghanistan.  Where is it for you?

Paul closes in verse 20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”  God has the power to work through us.  “Immeasurably more” means “way more” than we can ever dream about.  Are you going to allow him to work through you?  I can’t wait to hear a year from now how God is working “way more” than we can imagine through this congregation.

Let us close in prayer.

Father, thank you for this time.  Thank you for these people who have been called and are making a difference here in Columbia, in the United States, and around the world.  We pray that you would do “way more” than we could ever imagine through us and change the world for your glory.  In your Son’s name we pray.  Amen.

Benediction

Blessed God, thank you for hands and hearts that know and respond with your love, power, and possibilities.  Help us to spread your many blessings that all people might know your spirit.  We want to reach up in thanksgiving and reach out in grace.  Amen.