A FEW GOOD MEN

At some ungodly hour on Saturday morning we have a team of five men leaving on a short-term missions trip to lend a hand with Island Impact Ministries down in the Dominican Republic.

They're good guys and part of the proof of that is that they'll all leave a significant gap on Sunday morning. In addition to other ways they function, all five are part of our set-up/breakdown team. There'll be an increased workload this week!

Bottom line is this, people who do nothing in a church don't do missions either. Those who do get involved in one of our overseas projects are inevitably fully committed at home too.

Passports are essential if you're part of our church.

I have heard a lot of pastors excuse the fact that they don't have a vison that goes beyond the nearest interstate by saying - This is our mission field right here and once we've won this area for Jesus we'll look farther afield.

How stupid do they think I am? (Don't answer that!)

Truth is, they are totally self-absorbed, probably up to their necks in debt and they don't really want their folks functioning fully in ministry.

God guided us to Ronkonkoma recently, so Ronkonkoma is our mission field. But so is Medford and Patchogue and all the communities in our area. So is Mumbai, India; Kurland, South Africa and Sosua, D.R.

It's not either/or, it's both/and.

We need to keep our vision broad and our opportunities to serve expanding.