Well, we made it. The weather hits you pretty hard as it is not only hot (113 in the day) but humid...that's a bad combination. I would think the people here would be in a worse mood because of the weather...but so far they are all pretty pleasant. Garry, the guy who runs the mission here, has friend who is cop and he got us through customs with out any charges (maybe that is why everyone is so nice).

Luke has gone over to orphanage while I am giving you the first update. We hope to start filming tomorrow and getting you some more pictures.

Thank you for praying for us.
Aaron

We leave for our trip to Haiti next Tuesday and here is the place you can be kept up to date. Don't get angry if I have a gazillion typos because my wife won't be there to edit my posts. I leave you this picture of sandals and toothpaste because if you want to send something with us to Haiti, they are asking for shoes/sandals and toothbrushes and toothpaste for kids 4-14 years of age.

Sunday there will be a big box marked Haiti and you can put whatever you want to in there.

So, here is to Haiti...be posting soon.
Aaron

In the Catholic Bible, the Old Testament contains extra books called the Apocrypha (some have called them "LOST BOOKS"). A lady from Element is in a Bible study with some Catholic ladies, she sent in a question and asked why our scriptures do not include the additions to Esther that the Catholic scriptures do. So, here is my not so short answer for all of you.The verses in question are Esther 10:4-16:24...This is a whole can of worms so bear with me.

I'll give you a short answer and then a long one - the short one is this: The  Additions to Esther is most likely the work of an Egyptian Jew, writing around 170 BC, who sought to give the book a more religious tone, and to suggest that the Jews were saved from destruction because of their piety. The additions completely change the tone of the book from what was originally intended from the Hebrew Manuscripts...and the additions were NEVER in the Hebrew scriptures.

Now for the long answer:

I'd like to know the church policy on taking communion at the service. Can anyone take communion? Any restrictions etc?

[blockquote]I'll answer and then give some explanation...

The only restriction to communion is that someone must be a believer to take communion (if someone doesn't believe it would be pointless to them anyway, right?)

We do communion after the message because it is an act of worship and should be a response to what God has done in us first. Scripture tells us that we are to take communion whenever we gather AND in remembrance of Christ. (1 Cor 11).

Scripture talks about taking communion in an "unworthy manner." An "unworthy manner" would be in a way that doesn't honor Jesus. Some in the early church, when they gathered, would eat and get drunk at communion (or the Agape - or love feast). It was originally a meal shared with an entire church body...people became selfish and made it about getting their own needs met rather than meeting others needs and lifting up Christ (hence an "unworthy manner).

We do communion weekly because it is when we gather...and, as I said, should be in worship and remembrance of all Jesus has done. It resets our hearts and minds to remember that true life is one lived with Christ, and that our lives are a gift graciously given to us by our great God. We lay our burdens down at His feet in remembrance of what He has done for us. [/blockquote]

My name is Jean Morse and this ‘story writing’ is nerve-racking.
My story………well, I have been a Christian for some time now……. but just have never been baptized. I believe I have always loved God – but I just didn’t know Him. In my childhood we really never went to church except for holidays here or there. The first church service I can actually remember was spoken in Latin (Guess I just dated myself)! I did all the catechism and confirmation classes, but that was all formalized and repetitive prayer with lots of fear thrown in (the only thing I remember about it was being scared). I always longed for the God I loved.

My name is Shannon Harris.

My journey of how I got to the place where I wanted a relationship with the Jesus is a pretty long story, and I will have to shorten or you could still be reading this booklet long after the baptisms are done.

I was not brought up in a house that went to church. My mom would tell us about GOD and how he was “out there somewhere” and could hear all your prayers and see all your sins (He kind of sounded like Santa Claus). But in my head, I thought “Whatever, how could He see all and know all?” When I was 18 years old I was engaged to my first husband whose family were strict Catholics. His family wanted us to get married in a Catholic Church...for that to happen I had to attend “night School” to get all of the Catholic Church “requirements” done.

Have you ever found yourself so overwhelmed with meaningless things that you couldn’t finish all the things you had to do in a given day? Have you ever found your mind so cluttered with things to do that you essentially “overload” and don’t do anything at all? Have you ever found yourself spending massive amounts of time reading internet blogs and not actually doing your work while at WORK?

It is interesting that we call all these things being “busy.” I personally feel like I am “busy” all the time but can usually find a few moments to do something I want to do, such as writing a new blog, researching said blog, and then publishing said blog to the world wide web.

This may be a blog and it may not...either way it is up and you get to read it.
A little over a month ago I (Aaron) gave the guys on the board a copy of “The Celtic Way of Evangelism” by George Hunter. I then ask them a couple of questions which I thought would be helpful for you to see our thought processes. Hope you enjoy it...

Aaron

In chapter one we read that the Roman churches saw its job in missions as "Chritianizing and Civlizing." They essentially made the goal of Christianity barbarian propriety rather than Jesus. How can we keep from doing this at Element ourselves?

I Woke up today on “the wrong side of the bed,” not literally as that means I would have rolled over my wife like an out of control steamroller driven by an angry cal-trans worker – BUT metaphorically. Days, like today, leave me a lot of time for introspection, but I realize I don’t like a lot of introspection because I don’t really enjoy much of what I see on the inside of myself so I don’t spend a lot of time doing it (if that makes sense).
As people our emotions are fickle like a junior high girl trying to figure who she thinks is cute or who her new best friend should be. Our emotions are triggered by what we read, what we dreamed about while we slept, what we watched on TV, and even by what we ate the night before and yet I find it interesting that so often people stay stupid stuff like, “follow your heart.” If your “heart” could simply be the regurgitated ramblings of the pizza you ate last night then it probably is not a very good guide.

Christmas is here with its lights, sounds, print ads, jolly men in red, angry shoppers, frustration, insecurity, debt, and hopefully some hope (yes I meant to use the same word twice). The “Black Friday” weekend is over and stores are happy but in trepidation that sales may not continue, Shoppers are going nuts for bargains but worry about their credit card bills, and those who haven’t shopped at all are sitting back worrying that there may not be anything left that anyone wants on their Christmas list.

How odd that a time that is meant to inspire and fill the world with hope has come to mean so little in retrospect. I am not even speaking of world changing events, I am simply referring to the difference that Christ came to make in our own hearts that should spill out into the world around us.