Pastor Jay //

We are grateful to have a story in the local paper (here - Citizen Observer, March 15, 2007, A7-8) about our upcoming 3-team mission trip to Romania. However, I would like to clarify a few of the statements.

• “yearly mission” - we have gone each year, but we have not made plans to go yearly in the future.
• “Our goal…is to help people build relationships with God.” Yes, but, more importantly, with Christ. Most of the people of Romania seem to believe in God. They just believe that God is unknowable in the sense of having a relationship. When we go, we talk about the “National Bible Reading Campaign” and encourage the Romanains to read the Bible for themselves.
• “When buildings are put up, you automatically eliminate a group of people and their chance to experience a relationship with God.” I think what I actually said was something like “as soon you build a building, it immediately limits how many people can come.” We are focused on starting house churches that can spread more rapidly than building buildings.
• “Many feel that they are not even allowed to establish a personal relationship with God.” It is not so much that they think they are not allowed, they just don’t know how or know that they can. Their concept of church is that you follow the rules, pay the church, and attend church to get to heaven. Many do not live transformed lives. Our missionary Troy Geddes, calls them “repenters” instead of believers, because they exhibit changed lives.

 I’ll stop there. Thank you Cameron-Citizen for the exposure. We are exited to see what God will do with this work in Galati, Romania and how that will positively effect Cameron. Everyone who goes comes back as a better citizen of Cameron to make an impact here at home. Thank you for supporting the trip.

When I was about 10 years old, I remember being at a summer boys camp. It was an incredible week. We had so much fun fishing and hiking. One of the most memorable events of that week was what happened on the last day. Everyone was packed and the church vans were loaded to leave, but we had one more session in the old tabernacle. The camp pastor began to speak to us about commitment. I don’t remember the words that he said, exactly, but I do remember that it was a challenging moment for me. What was I going to do with what I had learned? How was I going to live my life?

He challenged us to make a life commitment. We were given a piece of foil and a notecard. On the notecard, we were challenged to write a message to God. I remember putting a message to God on that card about my desire to live my life for Him. We were encouraged to take that card, wrap it in foil, and hide it somewere on the campground. The foil was intended to preserve it. I went out into the woods and buried it under a pile of rocks. I will always remember that day. There was a sense of permanence about that moment that has stayed with me over the years. I returned to that campground several years later and searched for my message to God, but I was never able to find that exact location again. I know that whether that rock pile remains, the commitment that I feel in my heart is as strong as that day when I wrote those words on the card, wrapped them in foil, and buried them under an altar of rocks.

God is asking you to make a commitment to Him. He is the only one who can make your promise stand the test of time.