Prayer

From the Spiritual Formation Committee, here are some suggestions to guide you as a pray for the campaign:

Praise God:

• for the good turnout (over 100 people) at our first "Praying Tours" last Sunday.

Pray:

• for God to use the soon-to-be-mailed 30-day devotional guides in the lives of the congregation to help them make prayerful campaign commitment decisions.
• for upcoming events, specifically the quarterly day of prayer and the second of the praying tours, both on March 2.
• that the Lord will multiply the efforts and money directed toward church plants, as part of the campaign's city outreach efforts.

We have also had an encouraging update from the Band of Gideons. George McFarland reports that there are now 40 people who have signed up for the Band of Gideons and are praying daily for the Campaign! If you are interested in joining, please send him your name and email address at gmcfarland@dccs.org. You are also encouraged to share any particular blessing from the Campaign. Here are a few encouraging quotes that the Band considered in a recent email update:

"Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence." Charles Spurgeon

"Jesus did not pray about things, he brought things about by prayer." Armin Gesswein

Survivor

Survivor with new ball

The capital campaign contains designations for global outreach. One of the projects that the funds would support is the continued construction of the Rafiki Village in Monrovia, Liberia for orphans. Ed Bland, a missionary to the Rafiki Village, shared the story below in his February newsletter. It is easy to start to think of some of these projects and fund designations as bullet points in a list, but as the story below demonstrates, this is about supporting real people with real stories. Our contributions and prayers will bring us alongside people like Ed Bland as they participate in and witness the powerful work of God.

"Survivor." No, not a television show. A child. The people caring for this little boy gave him that name when he survived infancy. No one thought he would.

It was in the last years of the long Liberian civil war. Some people fleeing to Monrovia found him in the "bush," tied to his dead mother's back and brought him along. Everyone said he wouldn't survive. He did. Barely.

Several people kept him for a while and, finally, one woman agreed to care for him. She didn't think the baby would make it, but with some emergency feeding at a Red Cross center, "Survivor" continued to live. In fact, he has made it to his fourth "birthday." (No one knows his actual birth date.)

When the Red Cross and the Ministry of Health asked us to consider him for placement with Rafiki, we went to his home to meet him and talk with the family who had cared for him. The house was very humble. Many people resided there. These people had done what they could, but they wanted him to have an opportunity for a better life and for education.

We knew "Survivor" might be close to five years old, so we were surprised at how tiny he is. (He is wearing size 2 clothing.) He sat quietly, his large brown eyes taking in everything. The family assured us that although he wasn't saying anything while we were there, that he would be full of questions after we left. Initial interviews and medical testing were done and, soon, Home Office approval came to accept him.

Last Saturday, we went to bring "Survivor" to his new home at Rafiki Village Liberia. The old grandpa of the family told us that Survivor had been waiting every day for us to come. He said, "Every time Survivor saw a car drive near their home, he would say, 'Those are my people!'" (Yes, we are now definitely "his people"!)

As we were leaving, I asked the grandpa if Survivor had any little favorite toy that we should take. "No, " the grandpa said, "he doesn't have any toys, but I'm sure if someone gave him a toy, he would play with it!"

So Survivor came home to Rafiki Mother Charlesetta's house (Ephesus cottage). New clothes, new toys, medicine for the usual problems (malaria, worms, ringworm, etc.), lots of good food, and lots of love.

God is good. And He is able.

Thank you for standing with us.

Survivor age 4+ with Anna 18 months

Survivor at his old home (Yes, that is a chicken at the lower right!)

A few days later came this update about Survivor from Ed Bland.

Just thought you might enjoy a little more on “Survivor’s” new life at Rafiki. Last Saturday the President of Liberia and her entourage traveled down the road in front of the Rafiki Village to a town nearby. The Rafiki Mothers and the children were in the dining hall, having a snack, and heard the sirens. The mothers took the children outside to wave at the motorcade. Upon seeing the children, the President ordered her driver to stop, got out of her vehicle, and entered the Village to greet the children. So, at the end of his first week in his new home, little “Survivor” (we are calling him Benjamin here and he is pleased with his new name) met the President!

“Who is like the Lord our God? ... He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes…” Psalm 113:4-8

Sneak Preview

On March 1st you will have the opportunity to attend the Managing Your Money seminar at Tenth. (Contact Nancy Hala at nhala@tenth.org to register.) One of the speakers is Bryce Bartruff. Bryce has attended Tenth since 1980 where he has taught regularly on personal finance and has also served as the treasurer of the diaconate. He recently provided me with some more information, provided below, on the content of the seminar. I also asked him for his thoughts on what the purpose of the seminar is. He shared the following with me:

The idea is to provide Christians of every age and economic level the insights they need so they can be confident they are making wise financial decisions and lifestyle choices. The balance between saving for the future, living a nice lifestyle today and being able to contribute to the church in the way the Lord desires requires insight and wisdom. We will provide appropriate tools to be able to do just that.

Here are some of the talks you can look forward to hearing as Bryce, Dr. Ryken, Gary Morris and others work to equip you to achieve the balance that Bryce mentions:

• Understanding God’s Financial Plan for Your Life
• Establishing a Foundation for Making Financial Choices (designing a budget)
• Simple Steps for Making Wise Lifestyle Choices (building a personalized budget)
• The Beauty of Giving
• Biblical Principles for Navigating Modern Debt Choices
• Transportation
• Alternative Ways to Give
• Tightwads Guide for Frugal Living
• Recovering from Debt Bondage & Living Debt-Free
• Fundamentals of Investing for Retirement

Items for Prayer

From the Spiritual Formation Committee, here are some suggestions to guide you as a pray for the campaign:

Praise God for

• a good beginning to the children's program and the enthusiasm it's generating.
• the 25+ members who have thus far signed up to be part of the "Band of Gideon" prayer team.

Pray that:

• upcoming events--particularly the praying tours on 03/02 and 04/06, and the quarterly "Day of Prayer" on 03/02--will be well-attended.
• upcoming communications--especially the devotional guide to be mailed out in late February--will help members determine their level of campaign participation.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS--Our Journey in Faith

Today's post is a piece written by Elmer Snethen, Capital Campaign Chairman. While many of you may have heard him share this before, such as at the January congregational meeting, I encourage you to read it as it serves as a reminder of why this campaign is much more than a fundraiser or list of projects to check off.

“It is January 20, 1852. Dr. Henry Augustus Boardman has invited several gentlemen belonging to Tenth Presbyterian Church to his house to discuss plans for founding a daughter church. They believed the time was right and by June had purchased a lot on 17th and Spruce. Then everything went wrong. They raised only half the money they needed. The help from other churches fell through. And within a year, Dr. Boardman seemed to be heading to Princeton. Then, the country entered a full financial depression that began developing in 1854 and did not let up until 1859. What did the people do? They thought it was the right time to move forward. In 1855, they laid the cornerstone, and in May 1856, the colony of thirty-six people began worship. See the sanctuary they built in 1857. You can’t see the steeple that towered 250 feet as the highest structure in Philadelphia. What vision they had!

Now think about this: their vision was too small! The sanctuary cannot hold half of Tenth’s membership and associates. And the only reason we can crowd the numbers who come for worship and study and fellowship and ministry is that one generation bought the Delancey building. Reception Hall was the office facility. The pastor’s study was up by the choir loft. What would we do without Delancey, which doubles as Sunday school classes? What would be have done if that same generation had not dug out the basement and created the classrooms and worship space of the Catacombs? What would we have done if our own generation had not purchased the 315 Building to fill up with more classes? And we still do not have enough space! Our vision has been too small!”
- Pastor Marion Clark

But let us go back to the end of the first paragraph. What vision they had. Yes, they truly had vision, but what they demonstrated the most and what they brought to 17th and Spruce was their tremendous faith. They were the first generation to fill this incredible place with faith and all the following generations have compounded it. That is what you feel when you come into this building and that is what makes this place so special – their tremendous and uncompromising faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can feel it, can’t you? I know you have either brought people to Tenth and have had them share “There is truly something special here!” It is so so true. You can have a beautiful building, which it is, but it is only a building. But, to have a building filled with faith, that is a treasure given by the hand of God.

To me, this is not a Capital Campaign, but a Journey in Faith. Our session has spent a great deal of time and especially prayer discerning the Lord’s leading in His vision for the next generation. They unanimously believe in the Lord’s calling at this time in our church’s history to move His vision forward. His call, our response. What is Faith? We are clearly told in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

How do we get faith? Once again, the bible clearly gives the answer in Romans 10. “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God.”
There is no other place that I know that teaches the word any clearer and more consistently, for almost 179 years, than here at Tenth Presbyterian Church.

Hebrews 11:6 reads, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him…” Oswald Chambers shares, “Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life.” Faith always works in personal ways, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children. The life of faith says, “Lord, you have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in your word.” “Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”

This is His call and His gift to each and every member and regular attendee, as well as the corporate church, to grow in faith. He is offering this amazing gift to all; no one is to be left out. This is our time, our turn. His call, our response to pass on to the next generations our filling of His church with our generation of faith. If we accomplish everything on the Capital Campaign list - renovations, organ, elevator, etc., and as individuals and as a church have not grown in our faith, to me we have truly failed. Through faith all things are possible. Through faith we will accomplish both. But most importantly is to pass on our faith to the next generation. We are here for such a time as this. His call, our response.

This and That

There is a lot going on so here are a few quick updates to keep you in the loop.

• So far, 34 people have signed up for the Band of Gideons! It’s never too late to join, so don’t hesitate to email George McFarland (gmcfarland@dccs.org) in order to sign-up.


• In the next few days, you can expect to receive an e-newsletter. Be sure to check it out, especially if you’d like to hear Gresham Smith’s story, pictured above during the first collection of the children’s program.


• Don’t forget to sign up for the Managing Your Money Seminar on March 1! Brochures are available at Tenth and you will be able to find more information on the blog soon.


• And finally, some food for thought recently shared with me by a member thinking about the campaign: “Keep always before your mind the greatness of your calling, that is to say, these two things: the immensity of the task before you, the infinitude of the resources at your disposal.” Benjamin Warfield, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, to his students on October 4, 1911.

Praying Tours

If you’re like me, by the time the 11am service ends breakfast seems a long time past and after a few quick hellos you’re on your way out. But, this Sunday eat an extra granola bar and think about sticking around for another thirty minutes to participate in one of the praying tours. This is an opportunity to hear more about the campaign projects, participate in some Q & A and pray for the campaign. The tours will start at 12:30 and will last about thirty minutes. Here’s the list, so start thinking about which session you want to attend and some good questions for your host! By the way, if you find it difficult to select just one session, the praying tours will be repeated on March 2 and April 6.

Project, Location and Hosts

• Facility Improvements - Catacombs - Ron Ferner and Kim Dengler
• Digital Organ - Choir Loft - Dr. Paul Jones
• Property Acquisition - 18th St. Amen Pews - Frank Harder
• Elevator - Nursery - Rev. Carroll Wynne, Bob Sharrar and Darv Dombach
• Global Outreach - 1 West - Dr. Bruce McDowell and Bill Langford
• City Outreach-church planting - 2 West - Dr. Phil Ryken and Michael Hatem