Can you believe it is already November? Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Then Christmas Day (with a special Christmas Day service at Twin Oaks) and New Year’s Day and in the blink of an eye 2011 will be gone. Does it ever seem to you that life is just flying by? You’re 20 and your whole life is ahead of you. You blink and are shocked to discover you are 35 with kids in school. Blink again and you are 50 and empty-nesting. You wake up one morning and you are 60 and grandparenting. Need I go on?
 
The point is: “Life is short. What are you doing to make yours matter?”I want to challenge you today to live deliberately. Find some areas to make a difference and take some deliberate steps to live life to the fullest TODAY, not “someday”. In these updates each week there are usually a few ways to matter in the world. Volunteer your home for a small group. Become a “Treasured Friend” to a GEMS girl. Stack chairs (it really does matter in the ministry of our church). Become a Freedom Stylist or recruit the stylists at the salon you go to. Love a neighbor. Visit a home-bound person. Invite a friend to Twin Oaks. There are a million ways to make a difference. Choose one. You are the light of the world. Shine!
 
THIS SUNDAY we begin a new series called “Modern Family”with a message called “First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage…” We’re going to be looking this month at marriage and parenting and this would be a great time to invite a friend who could use some help in either of those areas.

It is so good to be back. Thank you for your prayers as Chris and I did Kids Club work in Cambodia and took a few days to love the girls at Rapha House. It was an amazing, inspirational, emotional, productive trip. There were so many moments that made our hearts soar, and other moments that broke them once again. So much has impacted us and so many memories will stay with us: tiny Pisey kissing my hand over and over at Kids Club; adding 11 new kids to the “sponsored” list, including one 10 year old orphan and a 14 year old girl who was working in a factory to try to save enough to go to school; the image of little Sryna standing in a foot of contaminated water in her one room shack, smiling as she opened her sponsor gifts; seeing teenage girls selling themselves on the streets of Phnom Penh and thinking of my Rapha girls in their place not that long ago; and the final few hours that held the best moment of all. I’ll tell you that story and maybe a couple of more this Sunday (and I’ll tell the story behind the first photo in the flickr.com link below)  

A couple of prayer requests from the trip: “R”, the blind Rapha girl we’ve been praying for since February is not doing well. She is still having severe seizures and they can’t seem to find a cure. Also, a former Rapha girl we’ll call “Rachana”, who I have prayed for these past several months, is still on drugs, still prostituting herself, resisting the staff’s pleadings to just come back home to Rapha House. Stephanie visited with her while we were there to no avail. Please pray that she chooses life, not death.

Thanks again for your prayers. It felt like you were with us, especially as we distributed the rice and medicine that your generous impromptu offering provided, and while spending time with the Kids Club children that so many of you sponsor. We bring back their “Ah Kun” (“Thanks) for your generosity. I can’t wait to take a dozen of you back with me in February.

I had a great “Starting Point” class Sunday afternoon. We usually begin by having people tell what denominational background they come from. I tell them just keep it to “Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, etc” and don’t tell me why you left your last church. But Sunday night I heard over and over: “I haven’t been in church in years”; “I’ve wondered away from God for quite awhile”; “I’ve always believed but never really felt close to God” and so on. But then they’d say that for one reason or another they felt God drawing them to Him and they knew they needed a church and they’d say “I found what I was looking for at Twin Oaks.” It was inspiring hearing just a tiny bit of their testimonies and I’ve visited and emailed with a few of them since then and been inspired even more. And I feel that there is a quiet revival taking place at Twin Oaks. Not that people haven’t been experiencing life change through Christ all along. But something special seems to be happening. A movement of the Spirit. And it is a wonder to behold.

THIS SUNDAY I’ll be finishing up the “God Connection” series with a look at “Connecting with God: Through Baptism”and I’d like your help. If you have a story of how your baptism helped you feel more connected to God, please email it to me today. If you’ve been putting off your baptism this Sunday would be a great time to take that step of faith. Just contact me and we can set that up.

This week’s update comes to you from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I wish you all could join us for one of these Cambodia trips. They really have a way of helping one gain perspective. Sunday I’ll be speaking at the Women’s Island Church. I asked the pastor’s daughter, Theara,  this afternoon if many of the islanders would be able to get to church with all of the flooding (she had told me the water was over their heads in places) She said “No, they will carry some clothes over their heads and when they get to the church they will change into their dry clothes. Then after church they will  put their wet clothes back on for the walk home.” Then she said, “It is kind if convicting. Because a lot of Sundays when it is a little flooded I don’t want to go to church. And I don’t have to walk through it.”

It is kind if convicting isn’t it? What was your last excuse for missing church? The next time you are tempted to sleep in, head out, tee up, or whatever tempts you to do something other than go to church on Sunday to worship God, think about these faithful Cambodians wading through flood waters to bring their praises to the Father.

Sunday they will get a special bonus for their faithfulness. Pastor Sath and I will take $1942 from the good folks at Twin Oaks and purchase tons of rice to distribute at church Sunday and at Kids Club next week. We will also use some of the money to buy medicine as the contaminated flood waters are causing rashes on their legs and other medical issues. Let me just say again that you guys are amazing! Sunday when I made a low-key announcement at the end of service that we’d be doing a little flood relief this week, and that if anyone wanted to give me $1, or $5, or $10 to help out, we’d put it to good use, I figured maybe we’d get $500. Instead it seemed that everyone in attendance stopped me in the foyer to hand me money until my pockets were overflowing with over $1,900!!! You are the best!

(For those who’d like to follow our trip blog go to http://twinoakscambodia.wordpress.com/. )

Thank you for your continued prayers as we minister in Cambodia this week. The toughest moment of the trip so far may have been last night. After a Cambodian/Thai massage at a place owned by a friend of Stephanie’s (never have I paid so little to be hurt so much we made our way back to the hotel. On our way we passed through dusty streets where young girls in short shorts and skirts were sitting alone on the edge of the road, or standing in groups in front of a bar, just waiting for the first man with a little money to come along and rent them for awhile. Most looked to be 14-17 years old. One looked to be more like 8. Some looked frightened. Others looked hardened. But in my mind what I saw were the faces of our Rapha House girls. I couldn’t shake the image of these kids I have grown to love, only a few years ago possibly standing on a street corner like these girls I saw last night. I would have loved to have stopped and loaded our truck with as many of these girls as possible. I would have loved to have stopped and said “Come with us. We have a place where you can be safe, and loved, and healed. A place where you can find hope and a future. Come with us.” I would have loved to have done that. But for many reasons we couldn’t. What I will do instead is go back to Kids Club tomorrow and hug those kids a little tighter and love those kids a little stronger and work a little harder to keep them from ending up on a street corner themselves. In a couple of days I’ll go to Rapha House and once again soak in the miraculous power of God to heal the most broken children and give them hope and a future. And I’ll pray that those girls on the streets of Phnom Penh will one day experience that healing power in their own lives. Please join me in that prayer. (to keep up with our trip go to www.twinoakscambodia.wordpress.com. )

This time next week Chris and I will be in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working on Rapha House Kids Club business. Preparing for this trip I’m reminded how much has been accomplished over the last year with your help. It was a little over a year ago that we challenged Twin Oaks to donate enough money to sponsor 10 kids for one year in the new child sponsorship program. Now over 50 kids are sponsored through TOCC and a total 144 are sponsored through TOCC,  other churches and individuals.
 
Last Sunday I talked about the 3rd priority of discipleship which is to “Serve the World”. And you live that out in such a beautiful fashion in the way you have adopted Rapha House and Kids Club as part of living out your faith in Jesus Christ.  It has enriched the soul of our church, and it has changed the lives of hundreds of children on the other side of the world. So next week I believe a part of you goes with us as we take His love to the children of Cambodia. Please pray that God will use us to strengthen the effectiveness of this important ministry. Pray for the families that Kids Club reaches out to as once again flooding last week has greatly impacted them. Pray for a team from Arkansas that will be there for part of our time that God will raise up great advocates in cause of child trafficking. Pray for the other staff from the Joplin office that will be there to help further develop the ministries of Kid Club and Rapha House. Most of all please continue to pray for the children that God will keep them safe and that they all will find hope and a future through Jesus.

Someone asked me this week if Twin Oaks is a “pro-life” church. How could we not be when we serve a pro-life God? As soon as a baby is conceived He begins to knit it together in its mother’swomb(Psalm 139:13-15) He knows every day of our lives before we take our first breath (Psalm 139:16). And all of the days of our lives we are never out of His sight or far from His heart (Psalm 139:1-12) But God didn’t create us just to breathe and survive, He created us to thrive. Jesus said that the reason He came was to give us life to the fullest (John 10:10) So in the greatest sense God is pro-life, and so is Twin Oaks. But what kind of pro-life church are we? We are the kind that defends the pre-born and speaks out on their behalf (Proverbs 11:4), and at the same time passionately seeks to connect those who have made terrible mistakes to the grace of Christ that can cleanse every sin and heal every heart (1 Corinthians 6:11). 

On Sunday October 2^ndfrom 2-3pm we will have the opportunity to do both. The annual National Life Chain will take place across the country as tens of thousands of Christians prayerfully holds signs beside busy roads silently reminding those who drive by that each life is precious and that “Jesus Heals and Forgives”. There is no sign-up for this. Just show up at the SE corner of Telegraph and King at 2pm, Sunday, October 2^nd. If you have any questions contact Joe Rubbo at 734 377-6840.

I hope you all are participating in the Twin Oaks Challenge this week and unplugging the media each evening to plug into God and your family. And I hope you’ve been blessed by it as much as I have. I’ll confess – most evenings when I get home from work I just want to plop down on the coach, turn on the TV, and veg. And the TV is pretty much just background noise. I’m usually on my laptop and Chris is cross-stitching and we’re talking… but it is never quiet.

Sunday evening we were unplugged, and honestly, a little bored after reading for a couple of hours and not knowing what to do with 3 hours of quiet time. So we went for a walk in our neighborhood. Walking past Our Lady of the Woods church we passed a man walking his dog and said “Good evening”. He said “Hi” and walked on. Then I heard “Pastor Wheeler?” Turns out he’d been at Twin Oaks for the first time that morning and loved it. He told me he would be back next Sunday and that his kids had gone to school with my kids and he planned to invite them. I never would have had that conversation if I’d been home watching TV or surfing the net.

I’ve almost polished off one book this week (“Not a Fan” by Kyle Idelman – Great book but don’t read it yet. We’ll read it together as a church in January) and I’ve read a few chapters of another for my Connection Group. And last night Chris and I sat out on our covered porch swing on our back patio as the rain gently danced on the tarp above us. Heavenly. We would have missed all that without unplugging for a few hours.

So tell me how you’ve been blessed by unplugging this week. Tell me how you are pursuing God through worship, giving, serving, or repenting. Are you finding your love for God growing already? Keep it up. When we get quiet and honest in our lives we put ourselves in position to hear the whispers of God.