merry CHRISTmas....with love from "604" :)

merry CHRISTmas

happy december, all!

what a remarkable year this has been...i really cannot believe it's about to come to a close. while i think i have confessed it seemed to drag on earlier in the year, in retrospect it really seems to have flown by. sunday, i had a chance to share with my new church family at the Light about God's faithfulness to me over the past year and recounting all His goodness was a good refresher for me. He has faithfully answered all the selfish and foolish questions i've asked about the wisdom of His will and set me in the midst of family in this city so far from the family i've always known. i've been equipped in new kinds of ministry and been introduced to a world of church i had never before known so intimately...or by which been so deeply burdened. i've had the chance to learn from the wisdom of other servants in ministry much more seasoned than i and passionately committed to Kingdom work.

while i am suffering from extreme Christmas break fever at the moment, the last two weeks have been so full of joy as i have sought to be positive and intentional in my time at the office. i'm astounded by God's faithfulness that reaches even to the little things of life...He is so very good and gracious with me.

we were putting together some praises for our embrace newsletter today- let me share a few with you!

Praise for the 80+ events already planned and scheduled for 2009

Praise for Theresa’s quick and full recovery and return to work

Praise for newly engaged BBA churches

Praise for pastors networking together for future ministry collaboration

these are just a few things for which to thank the LORD as we look to a brand new year. i can't wait to see what all He holds in store for us.

i leave on thursday afternoon (2 days!) for Arkansas. i'm so looking forward to seeing some sweet familiar faces and sharing a little more with my prayer warriors at first baptist, rogers. you all have been such a source of strength and encouragement for me and i pray you know the impact of your support. see you very soon.

merry Christmas, all...may you experience the joy, presence and power of Christ in a brand new way this Christmas. much love. :)

isn't God good?

so yesterday was one of those days that make me smile for no identifiable reason. :) i decided over the weekend to choose joy and positivity in my work, in the mundane as well as the exciting and it paid off as we sat down together to sort through our reporting system and a year's worth of tracking yesterday. the reporting process here is definitely the mundane side of what we do, but a large part nonetheless. my day ended in Acts 28 and i found myself seeing great application for the American church as well as a deep conviction over the impassionate, complacent nature in me that seeks to rise up in the day to day things. i'm excited to be in this great city as God continues to bring things to my attention about what the church is called to look like and how we are called to love and serve in the city.

on another note, God has been showing off in some other great things as well....my co-worker theresa who was out due to breast cancer for the last month is already back in the office and looking great! she had surgery back in late October and then one very hard week of radiation and has returned to us with what seems to be a clean bill of health. she'll have a couple follow-up appointments over the next few days so keep her in your prayers!

little kaia-lyn, dawn's niece is still hanging in there. she has lost the few ounces she gained, but i think they're still feeling pretty positive about her condition and continued development. she is a fighter and has a host of prayer warriors on her side.

one of our ethnic pastors, Samuel Cho, is starting a house church with Bhutan refugees here in the city and has seen some GREAT response. they recently hosted a Thanksgiving meal with a time of worship and singing, clothing giveaway and instruction on how to adapt to American culture (specifically the cold weather since they are not accustomed to it!). i called Pastor Cho yesterday to see how things went and he said about 100 people came! great, wonderful things are happening in that community with refugees from both Bhutan and Nepal all through the obedience and love of a Korean pastor. pray for him and his wife as they are older and battling some cold-weather sickness and fatigue. he is busily developing church leadership, so pray also for that discipleship process that God will bless the work of his hands.

we have a host of college mission teams coming through baltimore in March and while we're very excited to have them come serve, there is a lot of work and planning to be done before they arrive. pray for our churches to plan ahead and think of how they can best utilize these teams. we're looking at approximately 200-250 college age kids invading our city with the love of Jesus and a passion to serve and we want to put them to work building the Kingdom and loving the lost. thanks for your prayers...and by the way, if you want to come, we'll put you to work too! ;)

i also have the sweet blessing of living 4 hours away from a dear aunt and uncle i never lived close enough to to visit more than once a year or so. i've gotten to visit them 4 times this year and spent Thanksgiving with them last week. praise the Lord for family! it was a fun time of fellowship and rest.

and for you Arkansas folks, 16 days before i get to see your marvelous faces again! i am so very excited to come home and spend a few days catching up with everyone and celebrating this sweet season with my family. thank you all for your precious prayers and love for me.

love you all!

new church start in baltimore

hey friends! captivate is one of our new church starts being planted by tally wilgis a baltimore native who feels God leading him to bring his young family back to the city he grew up in to plant a church. check out his site thru this link and be praying for the work he has already begun in the initial stages of this new church!

here's another of tally's sites to check out...

http://thebaltimoreproject.com/

state convention highlights

"faith is the source of our power. hope is the core of our message. but love is the only thing that will win us a hearing." - Dr. David Lee (BCM/D Executive Director)


i had the privilege of attending my first BCM/D annual meeting this week...the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware convened in Dover, Delaware and Lily and Brandy and i got the job of manning (womanning?) the Embrace Baltimore booth for a few days (Sunday-Tuesday). southern baptists produce a lot of tremendous people. :) once again, i was blessed to spend some time around some great state missionaries as well as catch up with some of our sweet pastors and their wives. such a neat thing to have developed a relationship with those guys and now to get hugs every time we see them and know about their families and lives so we can encourage them and support them in more than just their immediate ministry efforts.

Gayla Parker, (in the photo with me, Brandy, and Lily - yes we all happened to be matching- only the girls and i planned it, Gayla was a funny coincidence!) BCM/D's Executive Director of WMU and a very dear friend of mine from AR Acteen years was sharing her WMU update in the last session on Tuesday and gave me a 3-minute spot to share a testimony of Acteens. only about one or two churches in all of the MD/DE convention have a functioning Acteens group and Gayla and i are teaming up in hopes of helping some of our churches catch a vision for implementing this life-changing ministry. please be in prayer for this desire that the Lord has laid on our hearts that we might see even one new Acteens group birthed from these efforts.

and to reference my pastors once more, i caught the eye of a couple of them while i was sharing from the podium and my heart just swelled to see the smiles on their faces. these are my pastors and i am their missionary and i can't thank the Lord enough for the blessing it has been to form these relationships with them. :) what an encouragement!

i do have a special prayer request to share - my roommate dawn has been at home in GA for a few days off and a couple of days ago her sister in law, Heather had to have an emergency C-section delivering a 14 oz. 10 inch long baby girl names Kaia-Lyn Hope. The baby is less than 5 months along and is currently in ICU. that she is still alive is a miracle as they expected her not to survive, but please keep mom (Heather) in your prayers as her blood pressure is way too high, her body is not getting rid of enough fluids, and she is on a seizure watch. pray for dad (kevin) for peace and trust in the Lord's provision for his young wife and baby girl. and pray for baby Kaia-Lyn that the Lord would keep His hand on her tiny body. thanks for your faithful prayers.

love to all of you!
m

long overdue update

good friday morning! it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood and a slow morning in the office. mom has been after me to be more consistent with my updates and i do apologize for being so negligent with those. that in mind, i am trying out this blog idea to see if it will help me be more diligent to keep my praying friends and family updated! i've been in baltimore for 10 months now (or ten months next wednesday). while not many non-natives find the city too enticing, i have fallen quickly and deeply in love with it and have been blessed by the work taking place here.

while i know summer has long passed, heaven's victories are still fresh so let me share some of those with you!

• 31 of our 74 churches hosted 34 Vacation Bible Schools with 234 children coming to faith in Christ.

• 10 of our churches hosted 29 Upward Sports Camps with another 129 professions of faith.

• 10 more churches hosted other sports camps with 67 salvations.

• overall, we had some 160 evangelistic events taking places in our churches and communities all throughout the city this year

• Hundreds of national volunteers from all over the country invaded our city with the love of Christ and hearts to serve. Hundreds more from our own local churches decided to be pro-active with the love of Jesus and began (some for the first time!) to embrace their local communities and love on their neighbors through evangelistic outreach and service.

it has been a tremendous summer. these results may not seem too earth shattering for those of you who, like me, were born and raised in the Bible belt, but keep in mind this is a city that scores 2nd highest in the nation for a whole slew of statistics that no one wants to claim - high school drop-outs, teen pregnancy, AIDS, and homicide among them. furthermore we are serving with an association of churches that for some time now have simply been existing and in some cases just surviving. the joy that we are now experiencing comes from seeing several of these churches go from survival mode to rebirth and renewal. the members are becoming engaged and burdened with the needs around them, and our church leaders are gaining a vision for how to connect with the local community and make a difference in the lives of their neighbors.

the great prayer need now is for this burst of new life to be deeply rooted in the foundation of the Holy Spirit's power and provision. vision is a wonderful thing until it becomes just a man's vision. please pray...

• that our churches be wholly submitted and surrendered to the Lordship of Christ
• that they would develop self-sustaining strategies for doing Kingdom work
• that they would NOT grow weary in doing good
• that pastors would have wisdom and discipline in raising up leaders and disciples
• that church members would fully engage and become more than pew-fillers
• that the local unbelievers would begin to see church as a relevant and real body
• that Christ would burden believers to truly LIVE as believing and Christ-following people

this week i had the privilege of hosting a Vacation Bible School 2009 planning meeting here in our office. 16 churches and 21 people attended! this is a great praise report considering a couple of things.
1.) our churches rarely get on board for early planning (this is NOVEMBER talking about SUMMER 09 events!)
2.) with so many churches accustomed to being unengaged in the association and operating entirely on their own, 16 churches coming out for such a meeting is a great success

additionally, just giving them an opportunity to be in a room with that many other churches and church leaders and allowing them talk time to share stories and ask questions and network was a great joy as well. as the association we get to be the "connector" for these churches, but as a general rule they rarely come together to share and benefit in this way, so to help facilitate that was very exciting.

this month also offered me the wonderful blessing of being able to fly down to Albemarle, North Carolina to spend a few days sharing with the local churches there about the work happening in Baltimore. their association, stanly county, was hosting an On Mission Celebration and i had the privilege of spending a few days getting to know 27 other missionaries serving all across the globe. the public speaking was great practice as well! :) it was a blessing-filled week!

and to close up my october i had a weekend visit from jered, my sweet big brother. i admit homesickness has been tough on me lately, so it was so good to get a visit from "home." i believe thanksgiving will be spent in newport news, VA with an aunt and uncle there, but i am looking forward to Christmas already as i will get a chance to spend some much needed time at home in Arkansas.

so, there is a bit of an update, i apologize for the lengthiness and delay in getting it written! perhaps, i'll be better about these if i can become a faithful blogger! :) big wonderful fall blessings on each of you and thanks for your faithfulness to pray for me and to read these long, rambling updates!

much love from the city!
maria