Chris' Sermons
For anyone who is interested, Chris' most recent sermons at Liberty Chapel are online at sermon.net.
Here are directions to find them:
1. Go to www.sermon.net
2. Find the tab that says "for the listener" (located across the top of the page); hover your mouse above it
3. A drop-down menu will appear; choose "sermon search"
4. Scroll down the page to "Advanced Search". In the first blank ("ministry/organization"), type in Liberty Chapel; scroll down and click "Go"
5. All sermons posted by Liberty Chapel were either by Allen or Chris. Click on one of Chris' sermons (by title) to listen. He also usually types up notes to accompany his sermons that can be opened once you have opened the individual sermon.
Chris' sermons that have been uploaded thus far:
"Freed Unto Christ's Righteousness" (Sept 7, 2014) - I'm not sure if this recording worked; I can't get it to be loud enough to hear on my computer...but who knows, maybe your computer can project better than mine :)
http://libchapel.sermon.net/main/main/20179833
"New Habits for New Life in Christ*" (Nov 9, 2014) Romans 12:12
http://libchapel.sermon.net/main/main/20237931
"Giving Thanks: An Integral Expression of the Heart of Worship*" (Nov 23, 2014)
http://libchapel.sermon.net/main/main/20249828
"Jesus Christ, God's Gift to Mankind*" (Dec 7, 2014)
http://libchapel.sermon.net/main/main/20261031
*includes downloadable notes
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| Kind of unrelated, but cuter than a picture of Chris preaching: Josiah "helping" Chris as he practices to play during the praise time on Sunday |
Women's Resource Center
When we lived in Fort Wayne, I was very fortunate after having each of my kids to be able to be involved almost every week in the Breastfeeding/Mom-to-Mom support group at Dupont Hospital. When both of my babies were newborns and were just learning to nurse, it was so helpful for me to be able to look around the room at moms whose babies were a little older and now nursing with ease. When Josiah got a little older, I continued attending and loved being able to offer hope and advice and support to other new moms who were struggling, who were just beginning their journey and going through similar things that I had gone through. Even when Josiah aged out of the group at 12 months old, I continued meeting weekly for a playdate with other moms with kids Josiah's age that we had met in that group at Dupont.
When we moved here, I was hoping to find a similar support group... However, I quickly realized that there was nothing like that in the area - in fact, you can't even have a baby at the hospital here in Crawfordsville! ...Welcome to Rural Living, folks! :)
Anyway, since I didn't want to drive 45 minutes away to Fishers or Lafayette for a similar group, I started trying to think of a way that I might be able to start a group.
I got in contact with the director of the local Women's Resource Center, and she was excited about my idea and offered for me to use her facilities if I got a group started. She also asked if I would be willing to teach a monthly class on breastfeeding to pregnant women who come to the center. I definitely hadn't foreseen that and wasn't sure that I was qualified to teach a breastfeeding class, but I told her I would do my best for the time that I am here. I called the lactation consultant who leads the group at Dupont, Tina, and she was extremely helpful in providing materials and suggestions as I put together my materials. I have now taught two classes (one in Nov and one in Dec) and I'm loving it! We are hoping to be able to begin a support group soon for mothers who decide to nurse, but right now the main work is building interest in pregnant moms and waiting for babies to be born. ;)
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| My classroom shortly before teaching :) |
Recent Internship Assignments and Training
...On second thought, maybe I'll see if Chris wants to write about this since a lot of it has been more directly his work. :)
Support Update & Upcoming Presentation
We are so excited and thankful to share how the Lord has been providing for us during this internship. You may remember that in order to allow us to dedicate as much time as possible to serving the church and the community, Village Missions does not allow us to have outside work; we are to depend partly on support from the mission itself and partly on support from people who feel that God has called and provided for them to support rural ministry (you can read more about that here and here). The absolute minimum in support that Village Missions will allow us to have is $700/month, but they warned us that we should strive to reach our goal of $1400/month in order to adequately provide for our family's needs and the extra funding that ministry and missionary work require (gas for rural travel and house visits, food for hospitality, etc). When we moved to Crawfordsville in June, we were barely over our $700 minimum, but the Lord has continued to lay this need on the hearts of His people, and we have reached $1000 in monthly support. We can't begin to express how thankful we are to all of you who have participated in this ministry to us as we learn to minister to others. We appreciate your prayer support as we work the reach the remainder of our goal before being placed on a field this summer.
We will have a chance to present about Village Missions and this need next month on January 25th at Living Gospel Church in Nappanee, IN, during their Sunday School hour. Chris' maternal grandparents (and his aunt and uncle) attend that church, and Grandpa Soliday is one of the pastors there. We have greatly appreciated their godly example, leadership, generosity, and advice through the years, and are grateful for this opportunity to be able to visit with them and share at their church.
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| Chris and me with Grandma and Grandpa Soliday on our wedding day (5 1/2 years ago!) |
December 2-3: Visit with our District Representatives
Earlier this month we were privileged to be able to host a visit from the Midwest District Representatives (D.R.s), David and Joann Hernandez. As D.R.'s, part of their job entails visiting each mission field in their district twice annually and staying a night or two with the missionaries of that field. No pressure, right?! Haha - I kid, but in truth we were excited for their visit, and were not disappointed. We were greatly encouraged by them and took the opportunity to ask questions about Village Missions and different mission fields (both occupied and open fields awaiting missionaries), and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and their story a little better.
For someone to qualify to be a District Rep with VM, he must have been a Village Missionary for a minimum of 15 years. I think this is an excellent requirement and well-thought out, as it prevents someone who has never been a Village Missionary from coming in and overseeing the missionaries of a certain district. The district representatives have been "in the trenches" and personally know the difficulties, the joys, the potential for burnout or discouragement, and the needs of the missionaries.
David and Joann have been with Village Missions for almost 16 years (if I remember correctly). They just became DRs this past summer. Before that, they served Union Chapel in West Liberty, OH, for 15 years as the missionaries there. Earlier in their marriage they had also been short-term missionaries in Spain, spending a year in training and 2 years on the field. They have three adult daughters. David has been known to, on occasion, randomly burst out in song (I guess if God gives you the voice for it, you might as well use it!). Both David and Joann have very warm and inviting personalities, are friendly and fun and a joy to know. We are so thankful to have them, at least for now (and in the future if we are placed in a church in the Midwest), as our District Representatives.
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| Joann reading stories to Josiah; she knew how to win his heart :) |
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| Apparently Charis was napping when we had our photoshoot |
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| Joann & David |
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Well, it's getting late, so I should be getting to bed - we all know that in BabyLand and ToddlerWorld, there is no such thing as sleeping in! Hopefully I'll be able to prod Chris to write about our growing internship responsibilities soon. :) I also have a few fall pictures I had been wanting to post, but I'll wait for another day to do that (hopefully before posting Christmas pictures)! Thanks for reading, and thanks for praying!
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