It's Time to Serve!

Greetings and salutations!,

Well, my trip to South Dakota got cancelled. So instead I spent a few days back home in snowbound Pulaski, NY. It snowed almost 4 feet while I was there. Ah…nothing like home, eh?

So, on with the show! Let me tell you about the mission trip opportunities this summer. There are three options:

1) Pittsburgh, PA (Sunday August 3^rd – Saturday, August 9^th). This service opportunity will be “buffet style”, like the Toronto trip was last year. By that I mean that we’ll engage in a variety of ministries while we are there in order to get a feel for the city and the levels of need that are there. The specific ministry opportunities are still in flux, but one of them will be a children’s hospital. As I am able to hash out the others I will fill everyone in. This trip is geared towards college students, but any young adult is welcome. Cost is $100 per person.

2) Taize, France (Thursday July 24^th – Monday August 4^th). This is a spiritual pilgrimage that is organized and run by the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. It is an absolutely incredible experience. Please check out these links for more info: http://www.gnjumc.org/taize_pilgrimage/ and http://www.taize.fr/en. Cost is $1899. BUMC has a few hundred dollars available for scholarship, and there are other scholarships available at the District and Conference level. I encourage you to consider taking a leap of faith and consider this journey!

3) Atlantic City (TBA). This service opportunity will be a long weekend – likely a Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. The dates haven’t been set yet, but it will either be late May or mid August. This will involve being in service to the poor of the area, working in places like the Atlantic City Rescue Mission. This trip is geared towards post-college young professionals, but any young adult is welcome. Cost is $75 per person.

Please let me know which service opportunity you are interested in. I hope that you will feel led to be the hands and feet of Christ this summer and participate in some type of service to others.

Grace and Peace,

Kevin

I'm making a break for it!

Hello Everybody!,

I’m taking the next couple weeks off before the next semester starts. I’ll still be in church on Sunday, but otherwise I’m flying the coop for a while. So you all have a good couple weeks and I’ll be back in touch the last week of the month. First I'm going to spend a few days at Holy Cross Monastery and then going on a road trip adventure to South Dakota.

But before I go, I’d like to mention to you a couple of Christian magazines. Yes, magazines. Things are still produced in print that you have to pick up and flip through and that don’t appear on your phone or computer screen (I’m not sure why they still exist, but they do). The bigger surprise, though, is that they are relevant to today’s culture (sometimes)! Here are a couple to check out (that are available at the BUMC library):

http://relevantmagazine.com/ This one focuses on God, life, and progressive culture. It’s worth a look at the site to get a flavor for the mag.

http://www.sportsspectrum.com/ This one is about the integration of sports and faith. Typically we never see these two things mixing…but famous athletes have faith lives too, eh?

I’m getting close to posting info (here, on Facebook, in email, on the calendar, etc.) about mission trips for the summer. So stay tuned on that front.

Finally, here’s a link to a pretty good talk about the current culture of 'suckitude' and our 'fault default'. Never mind the schlocky infomercial intro…the content after that is good stuff.

Have a good one folks.

Peace,

Kevin

Auld Lang Syne and the like...

Happy New Year!,

Well, the new year is upon us. It is the year of our Lord 2008. Where did 2007 go exactly? It really seemed to whiz by. Usually this is the time for people to try and improve their lives by making and trying to stick to various resolutions. “This is the year! I’m going to eat less, and exercise more, and focus more on this, and take that more seriously…etc etc”. But it doesn’t usually work out. Trying to alter behavior without altering what is in your heart typically doesn’t work so well.

That’s one of the reason that it’s this time of year when United Methodist recite Wesley’s Covenant Prayer. It is a reminder and rededication of what our Christian lives are supposed to be about. It speaks to and from our servant heart.

There’s an old saying in the IT industry that runs like this “If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.” Changing yourself on the outside but not on the inside won’t change who you really are. If you focus on making sure you have the inside right, the other stuff will work itself out.

The prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

Peace,

Kevin
PS OH! You ever wonder what Auld Lang Syne means in the new years eve song? Find out here.