On Mission Celebration
November 13, 2006
We arrived in Schenectady around noon on Wednesday. It was raining and had rained all morning on our drive from Horseheads. We located the church where we were to meet around five or so and headed for a place to eat. We stopped in the Barnes and Noble and got wireless access to check email and the news. We also took advantage of the in-house Starbucks for coffee and dessert – pumpkin cheesecake which we shared.
We met at Trinity Baptist Church for orientation to the association and received our assignments for the rest of the week. The church hosted supper and each of the participating missionaries shared a short testimony in the “getting to know you” segment of the service.
We really are lucky to be staying with such a great hostess, Ginger. She has met all our needs for food and rest and sleep during the week and is such an interesting person. We have been glad to listen to her stories about the mission work she has done. She is a fascinating woman.
I had the privilege of speaking to the women’s Bible study that meets on Thursday mornings. The women are so dedicated to the Word and what It has to say to them. We were hosted for lunch at the home of Paula and Jeff and their two darling daughters. It was neat to hear from them about their ministry to the youth and Paula’s past experience as a short-term missionary to an Eastern Europe country.
On Thursday evening we had dinner with the associational director and his wife and eight children. It was a neat experience to meet them all and see how disciplined each one is and had great fellowship around the table. After dinner Sean drove us to the town of Amsterdam for the evening services which are in English and Spanish. Clayton and I took turns with both groups so got to speak Spanish. The pastor is bi-lingual and has a fantastic ministry.
Friday was a “play day” as the pastor and his wife took us all to Albany to go through the state museum – a fascinating place which many different exhibits. Clayton and I could have stayed in there all day! We went up to the 42nd story of the Corning building and had a panoramic view of the city, the Hudson River, etc. It was a great place to pray for the people of the area. We got a quick tour of the capitol before heading out for lunch at a place called “Gramma’s” with lots of country cooking. We had a quiet evening as many of the church were involved in a wedding.
On Saturday the association had its annual meeting so we were able to hear reports about the work in the area and were impressed in the leaders’ sense for increasing the Kingdom. We each had a time to share about the work in Argentina and hear about the other missionaries’ work in different areas. We also had a time with the children in their program learning about missions. The children were fascinated with Clayton’s “gaucho” articles – the hat, poncho, knife, belt and maté. They reported back to their leaders about the “cool” items they saw. We also shared about the children in Argentina. The afternoon was “display” time as each person had the opportunity to share individually articles from their places of service and talk to people one-on-one. That evening we returned to the church to meet with the youth and answered questions about our call, the people, especially the youth in Argentina, what our life was like, etc.
Sunday morning we were up early for the early worship service. I did the children’s message in both morning services and spoke to all the adults during the Sunday School hour. After church my hostess took me on a drive to Massachusetts for an outing. Clayton preached in Spanish at the Amsterdam church and enjoyed it so much that he said he was homesick for Argentina. That evening we were back at the Trinity church for an evaluation meeting with the planning committee and to speak to the children during their program
What a great five-day opportunity we had in New York with the Lord’s people. It was so inspiring to see how they work and minister to the people in that part of the state.
We arrived in Schenectady around noon on Wednesday. It was raining and had rained all morning on our drive from Horseheads. We located the church where we were to meet around five or so and headed for a place to eat. We stopped in the Barnes and Noble and got wireless access to check email and the news. We also took advantage of the in-house Starbucks for coffee and dessert – pumpkin cheesecake which we shared.
We met at Trinity Baptist Church for orientation to the association and received our assignments for the rest of the week. The church hosted supper and each of the participating missionaries shared a short testimony in the “getting to know you” segment of the service.
We really are lucky to be staying with such a great hostess, Ginger. She has met all our needs for food and rest and sleep during the week and is such an interesting person. We have been glad to listen to her stories about the mission work she has done. She is a fascinating woman.
I had the privilege of speaking to the women’s Bible study that meets on Thursday mornings. The women are so dedicated to the Word and what It has to say to them. We were hosted for lunch at the home of Paula and Jeff and their two darling daughters. It was neat to hear from them about their ministry to the youth and Paula’s past experience as a short-term missionary to an Eastern Europe country.
On Thursday evening we had dinner with the associational director and his wife and eight children. It was a neat experience to meet them all and see how disciplined each one is and had great fellowship around the table. After dinner Sean drove us to the town of Amsterdam for the evening services which are in English and Spanish. Clayton and I took turns with both groups so got to speak Spanish. The pastor is bi-lingual and has a fantastic ministry.
Friday was a “play day” as the pastor and his wife took us all to Albany to go through the state museum – a fascinating place which many different exhibits. Clayton and I could have stayed in there all day! We went up to the 42nd story of the Corning building and had a panoramic view of the city, the Hudson River, etc. It was a great place to pray for the people of the area. We got a quick tour of the capitol before heading out for lunch at a place called “Gramma’s” with lots of country cooking. We had a quiet evening as many of the church were involved in a wedding.
On Saturday the association had its annual meeting so we were able to hear reports about the work in the area and were impressed in the leaders’ sense for increasing the Kingdom. We each had a time to share about the work in Argentina and hear about the other missionaries’ work in different areas. We also had a time with the children in their program learning about missions. The children were fascinated with Clayton’s “gaucho” articles – the hat, poncho, knife, belt and maté. They reported back to their leaders about the “cool” items they saw. We also shared about the children in Argentina. The afternoon was “display” time as each person had the opportunity to share individually articles from their places of service and talk to people one-on-one. That evening we returned to the church to meet with the youth and answered questions about our call, the people, especially the youth in Argentina, what our life was like, etc.
Sunday morning we were up early for the early worship service. I did the children’s message in both morning services and spoke to all the adults during the Sunday School hour. After church my hostess took me on a drive to Massachusetts for an outing. Clayton preached in Spanish at the Amsterdam church and enjoyed it so much that he said he was homesick for Argentina. That evening we were back at the Trinity church for an evaluation meeting with the planning committee and to speak to the children during their program
What a great five-day opportunity we had in New York with the Lord’s people. It was so inspiring to see how they work and minister to the people in that part of the state.
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