Saturday, April 24, 2010

Greetings from Wichita Falls!

Happy Saturday! Early rising makes for lots of coffee drinking! The coffee pot seems to always be hot here at the church where the food prep is done to be taken into the prison. Today I have cut up strawberries and sauced five pans of brisket. I know there is more to come, but for the moment I am finished and taking time to write.

I have been given two prayer partners who are two of the men participating on the weekend. One of them is reported to be absolutely on fire for God and the other is reported to be illiterate and feeling very outcast and alone. Isn’t it interesting that this teacher is given as a prayer partner someone who cannot read or write? I have often questioned throughout this journey why I am serving in this capacity. Maybe this is one of the reasons. I think the most amazing thing is that these two men who do not know me are praying for me, too. Wow!

If any of you are wondering abut life on the inside let me share something with you. We (on the outside) are so blessed with so many things and we absolutely take them for granted. Last night the meal taken into the unit was grilled hamburgers with all of the fixin’s. These men never get hamburgers and I think we were told that one of participants ate 5 burgers. But the biggest hit of the night was fresh sliced tomatoes. Report came back that said that they just stood and stared at the plates of these beautiful tomatoes and the tears started to flow. Makes me a bit ashamed when I am not grateful for the bounty of which I am blessed when these men have nothing.

Exodus 15: 13 “In Your steadfast love You led the people whom You redeemed; You guided them by your strength to your holy abode.”

God, through the leadership of Moses, led the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt to live on His holy mountain of Mount Sinai. The Israelites came out of slavery into freedom and were called to live in the presence of God. For the Israelites, the holy abode of God was Mount Sinai.

When we receive Jesus we walk out of an old life and begin a new life with Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We are called to live in Him. The holy abode of Jesus is in our hearts. We do not have to travel to a mountain to be in the presence of God.

God sent His holy Presence to earth in the form of Jesus so that we could know Him. Jesus lived and walked among living, breathing people. We become His holy abode because He dwells within us. And today, within the walls of a maximum security prison surrounded by razor wire and sharpshooters in towers, dwells the presence of God because His people are within those walls sharing the Word, praying and worshiping.

I ask you to be in prayer with me and the team that works outside the prison and the team that brings God’s Word inside. I ask you to pray that these outcast and forgotten ones learn that they do not have to go to God, that God is there with them and will dwell with them forever.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Greetings from Wichita Falls, Texas!

Happy Friday! Fridays are usually great and today was no exception. The Chili cook-Off and “Are You Smarter than a First Grader …Texas Edition” was enjoyed by one and all and won once again by the first graders, although I must say the parents gave us a run for our money. We beat them by only one point. These wonderful parents had to say those dreaded words “I am not smarter than a first grader!” at the end of the game.

I left school early to come to Wichita Falls to participate in the Kairos Prison Ministry weekend event at the Allred Unit. Upon my arrival the chaplain said, “I am so glad you are here because you are on!” I led the evening devotional. I spoke on the outcast people and how God came for the outcast.

Exodus 14: 21 “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided.”

In this scripture lesson the nation of Israel is leaving the land of their enslavement and heading toward the Promised Land. God through Moses caused the waters to part and the Israelites to walk safely to the other side. The Hebrew nation went down into the sea as an enslaved people and came out on the other side as a free nation.

This past week I began work on the final project for my class on the Book of Common Prayer. The project was to plan worship for the Great Vigil of Easter. In the Lutheran church the Great Vigil is celebrated on Saturday night before Easter Sunday when there are people who want or need to be baptized. Baptism drives the worship. If we think about baptism using the wonderful Randy Travis song “Down with the old man, up with the new…” we find the song sums up baptism pretty well.

Well, God baptized the Hebrews and set them on a journey to the mountain where they were to worship and serve the God of Abraham and Isaac. Later, God called Jesus to be baptized in the Jordon river and then sent Him on a journey of obedience that would lead to the cross and then to resurrection. Yesterday, 42 men began a journey. They started out as individuals who did not trust each other or the strangers they were about to meet. These men are beginning to walk on dry land as they open up and accept more of Jesus through each talk that is given, as each song is sung, as each meal is served and as each cookie is offered. And by the time this community gets to Sunday, most, if not all of them will have lost their chains of sins and shame and will have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb of God.

In each letter I wrote signed off with “peace be the journey.” When this weekend is over and they return to their lives as incarcerated men, the world in which they live will not have changed, but they will have changed. My God continuously bless them with His presence and His peace.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all so much and pray for Geni and Travis as they are holding down the fort at home! Bruce and Gaylene.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Wednesday!

Bruce is preparing to leave in the morning for the prison ministry weekend. He is doing laundry and putting the finishing touches on the talk he will give inside the prison this weekend. Due to a conflict with school on Friday, I will not leave until Friday afternoon for Wichita Falls. We will stay in a hotel at night so I should be able to post each evening, I ask you for your prayers for the 42 brothers in white who will be receiving the Word of God over the next four days. I ask you to pray for the safety of the team as they go inside and the outside team as they prepare meals and support the inside team and participants. I ask you to pray for all those who remain behind (Geni and Travis) supplying prayer support and awaiting our return.

Psalm 100:2, 4 “Serve the Lord with gladness…be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.”

How appropriate a scripture for tonight as about 60 people are preparing to submit themselves in service within the walls of a prison. Tonight the entire team is most likely doing what Bruce is doing in preparation for their leave taking. Tonight is the easy part with laundry and packing. The prep work has been done. Cookies have been baked, food has been purchased and an advance team is already in place at the church making sure everything is in place for cooking, serving and worshiping.

Now is the time to surrender our hearts, earthly plans and schedules over to One who is sending us out on this mission and ministry and trust in God. Even if plans do not go as we plan for them if we do what God tells us then all will be well. It is now the time to follow the divine Commands and walk in unquestioning obedience. True sacrifice is putting the needs of others before our own needs.

During this weekend there will be love, joy, peace, listening, laughter, tears, singing, praying, worshiping, cooking and work. The greatest of these is the love with which each offering is made and the joy that is returned in the service rendered. When we go to serve we go with every intention of serving others and we always end up being served in return.

At Advent Lutheran Church, at the end of each worship on Sunday morning we close with “Go in peace and serve the Lord. We can go in peace because we know that God has sent us and will guide our steps and make each path straight.

Friends, I pray that each day when you go to work or school or greet others in your daily life you go in peace and serve the Lord with a smile, a kind word and an offering of God’s love to those you meet.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

ps. The next post will be probably Friday evening.
Happy Tuesday! (*please note that this is being posted Thursday evening, along with the post from Wednesday. My fault. Sorry. Bruce)

Matthew 28: 1-3 “ Early on Sunday morning as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning and His clothing was as white as snow.”

I know this was part of the passage from last night, but as I was having my prayer time this morning a new thought poured in. I got really excited about it and thought I would share it with you.

Disclaimer: Gentlemen readers…I love you all dearly and I want you to understand that this passage is about the importance of women in Jesus’ life.

Jesus came into this world through a woman. He was not created out of dust or whirlwind or shot from heaven on a beam of light. Mary had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and the result was Jesus. God announced the coming of Jesus through an angel to His earthly mother, Mary.

Later in the gospel story of the woman at the well, Jesus tells her who He is. He really doesn’t tell His disciples who He is point blank, but leads them to deduce His identity.

Fast forward to the tomb. These two women have come to tend the Lord. The disciples have all fled and are in an upper room somewhere and who gets the news from the angel? Mary Magdalene and Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

An angel announces the coming of Jesus to Mary at His conception and an angel proclaims His resurrection to His mother, Mary. Wow!

Jesus came for the outcast, the marginalized, the down trodden. Women at that time were considered second class citizens. I find it so ironic that these announcements were not made to kings, heads of state, wise men or even priests in the temple. God chose women, a down trodden class to announce His coming and proclaim the resurrection. God trusted these two women who had followed Jesus to go and tell the disciples that their Lord was risen just as he said.

Is God’s plan any different for us? Maybe there weren’t heavenly beams of light and angels present, but the message was still very clear. God trusts each of us, men and women, with the same mission and message: Tell everyone you know that I am here! What a joyous journey God has planned for each of us.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Happy Monday!

My student teacher is teaching by herself this week. I am sitting outside my classroom working on various things and doing individual testing on the children. May times today my colleagues would walk by (including my daughter ) and say, “Is it only Monday or is it still Monday?”

I am working on my final project for my class on the Book of Common Prayer. The project is on the Great Vigil of Easter. Part of the project is to write the major themes of the sermon in just a few sentences. I became inspired as I read the passage from Matthew 28:1-10.

Matthew 28: 6-7 “He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as He said would happen. Come see where His body was lying. And now go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and He is going ahead of you to Galilee.”

I Can Only Imagine…

Mary and the other Mary are at the tomb when the earthquake came and they witnessed the angel from heaven roll away the stone. Their description almost defied words in trying recreate to the disciples what they saw at the tomb. Since the scripture does not say that Matthew was witness to this amazing sight I can only imagine that these two women recreated this scene to Matthew and the other disciples just as the angel instructed. These women were given the greatest task ever …they were given the mission to go and tell that their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was risen just as He said.

Okay, let’s look at the last sentence of this passage; “…and He is going ahead of you to Galilee.” Do you suppose Mary and Mary heard that part of the announcement? These two women have been through a lot in the past few days. They witness Jesus murdered before their very eyes. They watched Him taken down from the cross and then tended His body in the proper Jewish way. They witnessed him laid in a tomb and the stone rolled in front of the opening. The One they loved so dearly and followed so faithfully was gone. Their hearts were broken and the only thing they knew to do was what Jewish women did and that was to continue to tend His body with spices. I can only imagine their quietness and each consumed with their own thoughts as they journeyed to the tomb, each carrying a part of the oils, spices and wrappings. Maybe they walked slowly in silence wishing with every ounce of their being that they were doing anything but this sad, but dutiful task.

Here they are at the tomb prepared to perform this last service to their Lord when all of a sudden the ground begins to shake and a flash of heavenly light forms before them and an angel appears rolling away the stone. What are his first words? “Do not be afraid!” (vs. 5) He is risen!” What are the first words spoken to those shepherds 33 years earlier as the angel announces Jesus birth? “Fear not! For behold I bring you tidings of great joy!”

God comes into this world heralded by His own angels to simple shepherds who are then sent to see the child and tell others of His birth. God returns to this world heralded by one of His own angels to two simple women who are then sent to tell others that He is back! God announces His coming with flashes of light and an angel’s announcement.

How did God announce His presence to you? Were there flashes of light or rolling thunder and voices from the heavens? Or was there simply someone telling you what God had done for them? Is it time for you to share with someone else what God has done for you? Just some thoughts for the journey…We can only imagine.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.








I Can Only Imagine…
Mary and the other Mary are at the tomb when the earthquake came and they witnessed the angel from heaven roll away the stone. Their description almost defied words in trying recreate to the disciples what they saw at the tomb. Since the scripture does not say that Matthew was witness to this amazing site I can only imagine that these two women recreated this amazing site to Matthew and the other disciples just as the angel instructed. These women were given the greatest task ever …they were given the mission to go and tell that their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was risen just as He said.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Blessed Sunday to you!

Worship was so wonderful this morning. It was a morning of praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The praise was lifted up in the Word written, the Word preached and the Word in song. Today’s lesson was from the book of John and the story of Jesus appearing on the beach to Peter and some of the other disciples.

John 21: 3 “Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing! They said to him, and we are coming with you! So they went out and got into the boat and throughout that night they caught nothing.”

The disciples gathered in an upper room following the crucifixion of Jesus. They were frightened and their lives were in danger from the authorities. And Peter, being Peter, was, as Pastor Marc said so well this morning, “ “going stir crazy and had to get out of that room.” So what did he do? He went back to the only life he knew. He went fishing. He and the disciples left the room probably after dark, found a boat and went out into the sea. And even though they were still sad, broken hearted and grieving after the crucifixion, it must have felt good to get back to doing something normal. How wonderful the sea air must have felt on their skin and the smell of the ocean after being cooped up for so many days. And yet after fishing all night their nets were empty.

Now I do not know if that was God’s plan or if the fish were just not biting, but once again their nets were empty. On the shore there was a man who had built a fire and was cooking fish and had some bread. He called to the fishermen and invited them to come to breakfast. When the disciples and Peter reached the shore the smell of freshly cooked fish and warm bread must have been so inviting, and the fire had to be a warm and welcoming from the cool ocean water they had experienced all night long. To have spent the night fishing (which is really hard work) and having no catch to show for it, the disciples must have been tired, cold and hungry. And here is a man on the beach who can feed their hunger, warm them by the fire and allow them to rest from their nights work.

Imagine if you can this scene. When the bread is offered the eyes of the disciples are opened and they are seeing Jesus. Now imagine being Peter and you are now eye to eye with the one you swore to go to the grave with and yet you denied him three times. Talk about a “Come to Jesus meeting!”

Jesus, the wonderful teacher, never misses an opportunity to teach a lesson. Right there on the beach he uses what these disciples know about fishing and tells them they can use those same skills to further the kingdom and fish for men where their nets will never be empty again.

These men were not only warmed by the fire on the beach, but their hearts were filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit and they were ready to listen to the call of Christ. Jesus told them to now go and fish for men.

Have our hearts burned with the fire of the Holy Spirit? Are we ready to hear God’s call to further the kingdom? Are we ready to sit down and listen and give over to Jesus all that we are for the sake of the kingdom? So I guess here is the question…Are you fishing to catch fish or are you just fishin’?

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.