Merry Christmas!

I hope that you are all doing well. It is a fun time of the year spending time with family and friends. I enjoy getting Christmas cards and hearing about what is happening in your life. During this time of celebration it is also easy to get caught up with life and miss the real reason for the season.

One of the things I enjoy is watching our children at Zion Chapel perform. This year the children are presenting a 20 minute children’s musical called “Follow the Star.” It is a great opportunity not only to watch our children perform but it also allows for the Good News to come from their hearts.

What are you doing this year to celebrate the birth of our Savior? It is fun to read the Christmas story to our children and reflect on it. It is amazing what Jesus did for us. Have a Merry Christmas!

Peacemaking

I hope that you are enjoying the great fall weather that we have been having. It is great being outdoors. The conflict solutions team recently went to Washington DC to the National Peacemaker Ministry Conference. It was a great time being together with the other team members.

It is refreshing to get away from the normal routines of life and see different scenery. How do times away from your busy schedule affect you? It is often a good time of reflection for me. Learning new concepts and learning how to put them into practice is exciting. I came away deeply impacted by the conference. The Biblical teaching was outstanding.

I appreciated the foundational review of the power of the Gospel. How do you work through conflict? If we do not understand what we have received through Jesus and His forgiveness for us it will be difficult to forgive others when we are in a conflict. It gave me a deeper gratitude for what Jesus has done for me. It is so important that you and I are helping people resolve conflict.

I spent three days of my week at a reconciling marital conflict seminar. It is sobering how divorce is impacting our culture. Addressing the deepest causes of our conflict in our hearts is essential. It is important that you and I keep our marriages healthy and strong.

Let’s continue to develop a culture of peace within our families and churches. How are you doing in the area of conflict? You and I have the opportunity to have short accounts with God and the people we have contact with. God’s forgiveness is real and alive for each and everyone of us.

Cruisin' to Glory

We had a great day at the Cruisin' to Glory Classic Car Show. I hope that you enjoyed the outside event. The weather was great! I heard a lot of positive comments on how much you enjoyed the service being outside and would like to share with you the changes we made, goals we had set and the outcomes.



- An outside Sunday morning service that would involve the car participants. How did you feel? It felt like our guests were included in the service since they could hear the service from where their cars were parked. I thought the testimonies were great.

- Serving our guests with no strings attached. The car participants were provided a free breakfast and t-shirt along with a gift bag. The winners of each car class won trophies. We were able to cover a lot of our costs through money donated from sponsors. What was neat was that some of the car participants wanted to give a donation back to the car show.

- Provide opportunities throughout the day for ministry. The prayer tent was a big hit. Several people wanted prayer to receive physical healing. Two red bags were picked up from car participants. Praise God! That was awesome! That made all the hard work that goes into the service and car show worthwhile.

- To make it fun for all ages. Children's ministry offered a different venue for the service with singing and a movie. After the service, the kids played games and the helicopter drop was a big hit again. I hope you got to see the kids run after the candy. It was fun to see.



Thanks to all of you who volunteered your time at the car show. I appreciate all of the effort that you put into it. What do you think? I think that God was honored.

The High Seas Expedition

What a week we had at Vacation Bible School! Zion Chapel had over 100 children participate in the "High Seas Expedition." We had great participation with over 75 volunteers serving in various ways. The children sang worship songs, learned Bible stories, played games and had great snacks.

I found out that I still have some kid left in me. I got to dress up as Pirate Santiago. It is so much fun being around children. Being a pirate I sure had their attention at times. It actually made me feel young! Does it wear you out being around children for long periods of time? Maybe it is my age? I did find myself at the end of the week kind of tired. It is fun to act and be involved in drama. Being around children brings the acting out of me.

One of the highlights was on Thursday when we gave the opportunity for the children to come to Christ. It is important to impact their hearts at a young age. With the pounding of nails into the cross, Jesus death for us was made real. Then Jesus appearance that He rose again was great for the kids to see. I heard that a young girl was crying and she asked Jesus into her heart. There were many others very quietly watching as it unfolded.

All the work that goes into an outreach like VBS is worth it when lives are touched and changed. Pirate Santiago even got a lot out of VBS himself. I think it is so important that we keep reaching out to the next generation. Have a great week and keep on serving the One who created you!

How to be a Grandpa

I have great news that came my way when I was in Costa Rica. I became a grandpa! Jewyl Grace Dreier was born Monday, June 14th. The proud parents are my son, Jeremy, and his wife, Issy.

My question is what is a grandpa? I looked it up in the Webster dictionary. A grandpa is defined as "the father of one’s father or mother." People tell me how exciting it is to be a grandpa. When I look at the definition of a grandpa in the Webster dictionary that does not excite me.

What is exciting about being a grandpa? Does it simply mean that I am an old geezer? I do not feel any older but I do need glasses now to read. Am I living in denial? I certainly do not need anymore children to parent.

What does a grandpa do? How should a grandpa act? Is it supposed to be fun? Do I start acting like a kid again? Do I pull out my wallet every time I see the grandbaby and give it anything it wants? Does a grandpa have rules? Can a grandpa get into trouble? I mean what kind of trouble could a grandpa get into?!

Is there anyone out there who can give me advice or counsel me? I welcome your comments.

Costa Rica

I just returned from a short term missions trip in Costa Rica where 20 members from Zion Chapel, made up of youth and adults, got a glimpse of how people in Costa Rica live.

One of the highlights was getting to know people from another part of the world who love God and are content despite not having many material possessions. The team served in a village called Marlavilla, a village in the mountains north of San Vito. It is the rainy season with rain coming 2-3 times a day. When it was not raining, the conditions were hot and humid with little bugs that like to bite. The team worked together digging in clay dirt as we prepared to pour concrete sidewalks around the newly constructed church. We sweat a lot! I did not know how much I was out of shape! Members of the Costa Rican church would often help us. They could easily out work me.

What I discovered is while our team went to serve in this village, the churches in Costa Rica gave to us as well. The hospitality of the Costa Rican people was tremendous. We were fed very well and provided a safe place to sleep. The people that we related with were very friendly and they work hard getting up early in the morning working in the fields to make a living. Harvesting coffee beans, rice, pineapple and bananas are just a few items that they produce.

I loved eating the fruit. The pineapple and bananas were my favorites. The mango and papaya were good too. I got a little tired of rice and beans every meal but that is part of learning their culture.

Our team was involved in three evening services in the village. We gave testimonies and provided ministry through puppets and music. I enjoyed the opportunity to share messages at two of the services although it was different working through an interpreter.

It was great to spend time with long term Costa Rica missionaries, Jorge and Anita Borbon. They have been involved in church planting for the last 30 years and have started over 40 churches. Their heart for people is evident and many people know Jorge and Anita and have been blessed by their ministry.

If you ever get a chance to travel to Costa Rica, go and see how people in their culture serve and love God. You will not want to miss it.

Alpha update

Alpha is a great way for people to understand who Jesus is and what he has done for us. Over the 10-week class, people really start to understand the purpose for living life.

This last weekend we finished our Alpha Holy Spirit session which consists of a day-long session where the baptism of the Holy Spirit is offered. It was so powerful to see lives touched as the prophetic team spoke words of encouragement to the participants. Lies were broken as the truth was revealed. I love to see people's faces change as God's words set them free! What an encouragement for the body of Christ!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! As the Associate Pastor for Zion Chapel, I am starting this blog so I can share with the people of ZC and the community how lives are being touched and changed by God through life-transforming ministries. This is my first shot at a blog so bear with me. I would love to hear your feedback. My email address is jim@zionchapel.org. Stay tuned for updates and great stories of real people encountering God in real ways!