Merry Christmas

Video version HERE.

Merry Christmas Guys. And a Happy New Year as well. I'm not going to take a lot of time here today, I just have a few things to let you know and talk about.

First, we have a couple of new newsletters out, since the last time I posted. The most recent one focuses on Christmas and our role as Christians in it. Basically, we are to be Christmas lights. No, I don't mean we should be brightly glowing, electrically charged, blazing filaments. Rather that, we are to embody the concept of turning back the darkness.

It is not by chance that Christmas occurs so close to the winter equinox that was revered by many pagan cultures that eventually turned to Christ. The idea that the longest night of the year would begin to give way to ever increasing light served to depict what Jesus did on the cross.

And that is what we are; Christmas lights. We live and breath the light of Christ and push back the shadow of sin, greed, pride and selfishness. Our purpose is to illumine the night and reflect the glory of the Lord. It is an awesome thought that we human beings get to bear the light of God to our world.

Speaking of spreading the light, RMW has been working closely with The Liberia Project, an organization who's mission it is to bring the lights of Liberia together, so that they can pierce the darkness of their region.

Churches coming together and working together is an awesome sight to see. In January of this year they brought together over 150 pastors for a 3 day workshop on Discovering the Heart of God. This coming February they are expecting over 300 pastors to converge on their facility for three days learning about the Heart of a Servant.

We will be sending Duane to represent RMW as a speaker and helper. Also a very talented photographer Mike Fietchner will be going to photograph and video the progress. We also have a bulldozer operator and a heavy equipment instructor going to begin work on the roads and to train Liberians in this skill.

As much as I would like to go, the resources are simply not there at this point. Nonetheless, I am going to continue to prepare to go up until the last minute. Also, we will have daily, if not hourly updates from the field on this trip via internet, so I will be able to comment from home, in my pajamas.

Oh! I almost forgot. The Liberia Project is delighted to announce that they have a bulldozer purchased and it will soon to be on its way to Liberia. God really is making this a nail-biter.

On a personal note, I am done with school for this semester and am enjoying some much needed quality time with my family. In fact, tomorrow begins a four day weekend. So looking forward to it.

Finally, I have a comment question for you. What is the first name of the person who, this year, shared the light of Christ with you, the most? Leave your comment in the space below.

Well, that it for me. I'm Locke Morgan with Restoration Ministries Worldwide. Thanks for watching, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Late Update - TXT

Hi Guys.

Well, is has been a while since I've done one of these but I thought I would catch you up.

After I went to Liberia in January, I came home and hit the ground running with speaking and fundraising for next year's project over there. You can watch a presentation (slash) report of the trip by clicking the link below. You can also click on the link to The Liberia Project's website and get the details on next year's mission

Anthony Sackor and I are still working on this but the highlights are: We have raised over $20,000 and have a $30,000 matching fund to double any contributions. So that leaves us with less than $30,000 to raise in the next couple of months. Now that Fall is in the air, we are lining up speaking at various churches and will be in Port Angeles and Seattle during the next week.

Also, I have links to two newsletters that we have published since the last time I posted. I have been doing a lot of thinking about the nature of the Church and how its people interact. We have problems in the Church that need to be addressed. Pretending like they are not there, is only a recipe for bigger issues down the road. Take a look at those two, I would love to hear any feedback you might have.

RMW has been taking on some projects of its own by partnering with area churches to help hurting families. Through the Shepherd's Call ministry Duane is facilitating the finishing of an addition on one home and the roofing of another. We are delighted to be working alongside Bayside Community Church and Saint Olaf's Catholic Church for these two projects.

Duane is also working with Eglon Community Church to help them acquire a building from Kingston Lumber. It involves disassembling a metal structure and moving it to another location. He has already coordinated with the local Labor Training Union to finish the project in the next week or so. Duane has also been made a pastor of Eglon Community Church and he is obviously enjoying the work.

On a personal note, I am starting a new semester at seminary this week and will once again be buried in theological studies. I'll be making a trip to Western Seminary in Portland every other week this Fall, so I have a lot of long days ahead of me. Also I'm looking for positions at churches and if you have a recommendation, that would be welcome.

Susanna and the kids are doing well, there's a great picture of children in the last newsletter.

Well, I'll keep it short here. Thanks for praying for us.

Oh, before I go. I do have a comment question for you. "What inspires you the most in your faith?"

I'm curious and really want to know. Leave your remarks in the comment section below. I'm Locke Morgan with Restoration Ministries Worldwide, have a great day!

Liberia Presentation
The Liberia Project Website
Newsletter 1
Newsletter 2
Newsletter 3

Breakdown and News - TXT

Video version available HERE.

Well, Fall is upon us and it is time to warm up the blog and talk about what God is doing. There is some news and updates, as well as a thought I had about broken stuff.

You see, my car just died. It didn't suffer, and it wasn't in any pain. It just died a natural death of old age. Sure it had wrinkles (I called them smile lines) and emitted great quantities of noxious fumes, but, nonetheless, I loved the old girl.

Why, just a couple of days before her demise I was giving her a bath and I thought I detected a tear coming from under her windshield wipers. She must have known, in the way cars do, that this was to be our last car wash together, in this life.

Ah well, as I think about all the investment and care we put into our vehicles, I'm reminded that we are challenged to care for this thing called church. You know, the gathering of people that follow Jesus.

Think about it. A car cannot just be left to it's own care, it needs gas, oil, new tires, the occasional tune up and parts break down and need to be replaced. Any group of people needs the same maintenance, but the kicker is that we are both the mechanics and the components of this contraption.

God has been talking to me a lot about the value of the parts that make up the whole. I mean, everybody loves the spark plugs that ignite conversation and action, or the pistons that gets things moving, or the tires that actually put rubber to the road.

But what about the radiator that keeps the rhetoric from overheating, or the wind shield wiper that does the jobs no one else wants to do, or the air bag that everyone thinks is just full of itself, but may save a life one day.

Anyhow, we've got a newsletter out that goes into this topic a bit as I write about the almost businesslike way we are challenged to live together. It's also got news about what Shepherd's Call is doing in the Kitsap community, an announcement about our fresh new website (check it out), and a special report on the Liberia mission coming up in January.

This Liberia thing really captures the idea of what I'm getting at here. This is an opportunity to give a native Liberian mission the tools it needs to be a mechanic to the followers of Jesus in that country. This trip will be to lay the groundwork for literally sending a bulldozer over there, with the objective of unifying the churches as they work shoulder to shoulder to repair one another's roads. It's a long story of how this idea came to be, so read the newsletter for more details.

In case you are wondering, I did get a replacement for my old van that died. And the timing of that was blessing, because I was just starting the Fall semester at seminary and needed a working vehicle to get to the ferry. God is good.

But you know what else is good? The comment question of the day, which is, "So, what part are you?"

Be sure to leave your interesting, creative, humorous or insightful responses in the comment section below, or on FaceBook. And if you have any questions for me, post them and I will respond to them here. I'm Locke Morgan with Restoration Ministries Worldwide, thanks for watching.

Driven To Give

Video version available HERE


L: Hi Guys. Today I'm here with Joe Bridger, a local children's pastor and recent recipient of a the car you see here, through RMW's Shepherd's Call ministry. We also have his wife, Dorothy, and his two great kids, J.J. and Josiah with us to say, "Hi." They are a terrific family that loves God and is driven to serve the cause of Christ in this world.

J: On behalf of the Bridger family and on behalf of everybody that we have the opportunity to serve, we want to say 'thank you.' Because if it weren't for you giving to Joe Needs Wheels or walking up to us in a coffee shop or handing us some cash or just saying 'hey we love you and are praying for you,' if it weren't for those moments we would not have experienced the joy that we have experienced now, and now we can go and see people in a new way, thanks to your love and support.

J: You know, when you give to God it really does transport you to a new place of joy. Just like getting into a car, it takes you to a place that you may never have been before.

L: We can give to God in many ways, like with our time, money, effort, what we say, the choices we make and the people we hang out with. Joe and I feel called to put the pedal to the metal in Christian service, and have chosen to make that the driving factor in our life's work.

J: But there is a reason why we do what we do, and it is the same reason why every member of Body of Christ gives to God. When you and I accepted Christ, our hearts became an engine of compassion for the pain all around us.

L: You see Christians are designed to give of themselves sacrificially. Don't believe me? Look in the Bible at Romans chapter 6 and you will read that while we are indeed freed from sin, we have also been commandeered for righteousness.

J: Christ set a pattern of righteousness that contoured itself around touching lepers, eating with sinners and dying on a cross. And He did it all with a sense of purpose that this is what His life was meant to do. And those same master plans have been applied to you, as a Christian.

L: So, if you feel a drag on your performance, then there could be a broken valve in your compassion regulator. On account of it having nowhere to go. Maybe you've got a warped U joint that is taking up that space, and it needs to be realigned?

J: The conundrum here is that the compassion we have, actually came from God in the first place. We are simply converting the potential energy of God's grace into a combustion of service that propels us forward to live in Christ. When functioning properly, you might call it the "Eternal Compassion Engine."

L: Simply put: it's grace in, compassion out. That's all that giving to God means. The biblical book of Matthew in chapter 25 says, "...to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me."

J: Isn't it cool how God's mind works? I mean, to design us in such a way that we find fulfillment in investing in other people the very grace that we receive from Him, is shear genius. It's almost like He wants us to work together in harmony and love.

L: But you know what also works together in harmony and love? That's the question for the day. Which is: "If you had to spend a million dollars in a week, what would you spend it on?"

J: Be sure to leave your interesting, creative, humorous or insightful responses in the comment section below, or on FaceBook. And if you have any questions for Locke (or me), post them and we will respond to them here. I'm Joe Bridger...

L: ...and I'm Locke Morgan with Restoration Ministries Worldwide, thanks for watching.

All: Bye!

Mistakes Were Made - TXT

Video Version Available Here

Hi Guys,

Well if you got a notification email from about last week' blog post, again this week, then my apologies are in order.

Yes, a mistake was made. The kind that comes from having lots to do, and relying on automated programs to do the remembering for you. I feel awful...and dirty...like a spammer.

Anyhow, there is something that we can learn here. And I'm not going for the "everybody makes mistakes" cliche. That's so overdone. No, I want to talk about the value of mistakes.

If we look at mistakes from the perspective of God, who has an intense desire to see us mature into healthy, productive, well rounded, beings within His Kingdom, then a mistake is not just a screw up, it's an opportunity.

When James and John, disciples of Jesus, got their mom to pitch the idea that they should be the Messiah's sidekicks, it was a massive fail. But Jesus used it to teach humility to all the disciples, and to all of us.

When David, the old testament king of Israel, got all adulterous and murderous, you would think that God would just cut His losses and raise up a new king. But, no, David was family, and warts and all God loved him back to righteousness.

Even today, I look at my life and can see that in spite of the mistakes, fumbles, foibles and outright wrong things that I have done, He has used them all to make me less of a drooling, childish human being. I can look back and be aghast at the things I've done only because I have learned from them.

It's like with my kids, I try to tell them that unless they learn from their mistakes, then they are most likely going to repeat them.

On the other hand, if they do recognize the error of their ways and build the kind of character that will prevent them from doing the same thing again, then my fatherly heart is greatly warmed. And that is how God feels when we finally get it.

It's not about condemnation and gotcha games. Mistakes are those wonderful slices of life that allow us to see the very real consequences of our actions and change because of it. Unfortunately, much of this world has dedicated themselves to recasting their mistakes and failures as enlightened success.

Aren't you so glad that, as Christians, we don't have to do that?

But you know what also doesn't have to pretend to be something it isn't? That's the question for the day. Which is: "What would you say to a spammer?

Be sure to leave your interesting, creative, humorous or insightful responses in the comment section below, or on FaceBook. And if you have any questions for me, post them and I will respond to them here. I'm Locke Morgan with Restoration Ministries Worldwide, thanks for watching.