Sermon

40 Years of Faithfulness

Calvary Boise Sermons

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  1. We are going to do a kind of missions focus.

  2. I, I realize that I've been the pastor for about 10 years now,

  3. if you can believe it. It's coming up on 10 years and

  4. many of you are in the last 10 years, you know, new to this

  5. church. You maybe even in the last

  6. couple months you just started coming.

  7. And it is impossible to separate our church from the story of our

  8. mission. So I think it's such a good

  9. thing for you to know the church story that you're walking into

  10. and for all of us who maybe have been around since some of these

  11. mission fields broke ground, for just us to remember what God has

  12. done. And, and the really cool thing

  13. as we put this date on the calendar and said, you know,

  14. between Titus and Advent, let's just have a missions focus.

  15. As we were putting together all the stories and going down

  16. memory lane, we realized that the very first mission trip that

  17. we ever took as a church was in 1985.

  18. And in the year 2025, almost to the month, we are celebrating 40

  19. years of foreign missions as a church.

  20. And so this was God's timing to just take a pause and remember

  21. what God has done. And so, you know, if our mission

  22. focus for for this time doing it had a title, it would be called

  23. 40 years of faithfulness. So last week I I gave you guys a

  24. challenge to read some Psalms of Thanksgiving.

  25. Maybe you read the one that we're going to read the Today as

  26. we prepare our hearts for what we're going to do in a couple

  27. weeks. But here it is Psalm chapter

    Psalms 105 chapter mention

  28. 105, verse one through 20. Give thanks to the Lord, call

  29. upon his name and make known his deeds among the people.

  30. Sing to him, sing psalms to him and talk of all his wonderful

  31. works or wondrous works. And so part, part of our praise

  32. is to tell stories about how good God is in our lives.

  33. And I hope that's maybe a, a, a preview for what you're going to

  34. do on Thursday in a couple weeks is just tell stories of God's

  35. goodness and let it turn into praise and Thanksgiving.

  36. But I think it's good to do as a collection of people that belong

  37. to a story of God. If you go to a church church,

  38. whether you've been here since the 80s or you've been here

  39. since August, you're walking into a story there you have God

  40. has made himself known through the people he's called to be a

  41. part of this church and the people that he's called to be

  42. sent by this church. And so I just want to frame all

  43. of this as some stories of our church.

  44. This is the, the stories of God's goodness of how we got

  45. where we got how, how is it that those names flash on the screen

  46. is there's so many stories of prayer and faith and giving and

  47. trial. And so this is for the most part

  48. chronological. It's not perfectly chronological

  49. because we certainly did in the, you know, our church has been

  50. around since 1981. I can always remember how old

  51. our church is because I'm the same age.

  52. So if you ever wonder how old we are, we're 44.

  53. You can just ask me and, and very early on in the, in the,

  54. the, by the mid 80's, the, the founding pastor, lead Pastor Bob

  55. Caldwell was, was trying to figure out how to reach beyond

  56. Boise. It's just, I think a healthy

  57. vision of a church to go beyond their own footprint.

  58. And so India was not the very first attempt at reaching people

  59. beyond our city, but it, it really is such a foundational

  60. ministry of our church. So I'm going to start with India

  61. and, and India really got going in 1980.

  62. So in, in 1988, you can see this woman in purple in the top right

  63. and left corner. Her name is Nadine.

  64. She might be here right now because she still goes to our

  65. church. She was the very first person

  66. that did any kind of on the move for Jesus work that our church

  67. was able to give a little offering and get an update from.

  68. And as you'll see in a, as a theme from these stories, she,

  69. she kind of helped just open a, a, a work that wasn't

  70. necessarily what she went out to start.

  71. She was with a mission organization and, and, but she

  72. opened up a work for God to just connect our church to India.

  73. So if you've never heard the story, the the real fun story of

  74. India gets started in 1989. And there is a man named Guna

  75. who I'll put on the screen. Guna, you've probably heard of

  76. stories of Guna. If you've walked our lobby,

  77. you've seen Guna in Victoria over the years.

  78. Just frame picture faithful ministers, the kind of founding

  79. work of India. But before there was ever a send

  80. Hope India that was birthed out of our church, there was this

  81. guy Guna who had a sister living in Garden Valley, ID.

  82. And so he's like, I'm going to go visit my sister and and he

  83. and her somehow got into the flower delivery business in the

  84. 80s in Boise. So that's a probably a tough

  85. business to crack. And he's seeking the Lord and

  86. he, he has a burden for his people in India that he just

  87. loves. And he wants the Lord to, to

  88. reach India. And so he decides to, to come to

  89. a church in Boise to try to connect with some church in

  90. Boise on how to reach India. And as he is walking through the

  91. doors of our old location, if you ever pass the Albertson's on

  92. coal on the way to church, there's a church there called

  93. the well now that used to be Calvary Boise.

  94. I have memories running around in the basement down there.

  95. And he walked into that church. He maybe dropped off some roses

  96. to Albertson's, walks into the church that we used to gather at

  97. on coal and Fairview. And he says, can I talk to the

  98. pastor? And the response that he got was

  99. our pastor is in Bangalore, India right now trying to figure

  100. out how to reach people for Jesus.

  101. And so as he's come to Boise, our pastor, who at the time, if

  102. you never met Pastor Bob, let me share the most flattering photo

  103. ever of Pastor Bob. He's he's in India while Guna is

  104. in Boise. And that was just a, it was like

  105. a beautiful picture of God's hand of faithfulness, doing what

  106. you could never do. You can't plan those kind of

  107. stories. But Bob comes back from India.

  108. Guna and Bob connect and they pray and they fast.

  109. And after a, a series of time of, of Guna just being as part

  110. of our local church, he goes back to India and we get

  111. connected to do a work that has now become a, a mission in

  112. itself. So one of the things you'll hear

  113. at the end of this service is how you can get involved with

  114. Send Hope The The work they started in 18/19/89 with one

  115. baptism in one slum church grew to churches all across the slums

  116. of all the regions of India, orphanages and child

  117. sponsorships. And so it's a foundational work

  118. that grew from 1989 to present after just story by story by

  119. story of God's faithfulness. And, and I wish I could tell all

  120. the stories of just India, but I can't.

  121. So just know that that's one of the regions that we're just

  122. connected with as a church. We just have a story from Boise

  123. to Bangalore. And you know, one of the

  124. encouragements I got in that as you not only hear stories of

  125. missions, but also just get a vision for how missions works.

  126. I think India is a great reminder of Proverbs chapter 16,

    Proverbs 16:9

  127. verse 9. It says a man's heart plans his

  128. way, but the Lord directs his steps.

  129. Our our missions blueprint from region to region and story to

  130. story has never been the elders sitting in a situation room with

  131. a map on the wall, you know, trying to overtake the world for

  132. the Kingdom of God. It has always been stories of

  133. God just sending people in and sending people out.

  134. And and so I've got to quickly move to really our next region.

  135. And if you could kind of think through these 40 years by

  136. decade. We're we're now into decade 2 of

  137. our church, which is the 90s. And so by the 90s, Calvary Boise

  138. had moved from Coal and Fairview down to Longmont.

  139. There's actually a church now in our old church on Longmont

  140. called Trademark. So no, it's not true.

  141. It's Table, Table Rock. Yeah, Table Rock.

  142. Yeah, they were, they, they meet at Longmont now.

  143. I love that location and it kind of represents a, a new work that

  144. God was doing at this point. You know, by the 90s, Europe was

  145. totally transforming the, you know, is the end of kind of the,

  146. the, the Berlin Cold War war Soviet, the collapse.

  147. And so there's just a bunch of stuff happening in Europe in the

  148. 90s. And Pastor Bob said, hey, we got

  149. to go see what's going on over there.

  150. And so he started leading trips of mostly college students.

  151. There was a small little college age ministry that was just kind

  152. of budding in the basement of that little brick church down

  153. off Broadway. And for three summers in a row,

  154. Bob said, Hey, let's just get in the van.

  155. And for those of you guys who can afford to save up your money

  156. and come to Europe with me, we're just going to drive and

  157. try to connect with different spots in different cities and do

  158. outreaches and do tracts and gospel presentations.

  159. And, and it's another story of, you know, letting the Lord kind

  160. of open one door to open a bigger door.

  161. And so they they dubbed those trips the Magical Mystery tours,

  162. which very spiritual, to name it after a Beatles album.

  163. But those trips turned into the Lord planting seeds in some of

  164. those, you know, college students and and servants of our

  165. church that said, hey, this is more than a short term mission

  166. for me. And so this is if you've ever,

  167. you know, I hope you've seen our prayers for Calvary Chapel,

  168. Rome. But they were on those early

  169. trips. Brent and Hope Harrell were on

  170. those early trips to Europe and Brent started praying for, you

  171. know, where God would have him and he heard from the Lord that

  172. he needed to go to Rome. And so from those trips, it led

  173. to a, a former youth pastor of our church, my youth pastor,

  174. moving him and his wife to Rome. And that is how we have a

  175. connection to Rome to this day. So when you go out there, you'll

  176. see a little booth representing Italy.

  177. And, and from that, we just had kind of a decade of, of movement

  178. towards Europe. We had a couple in our church

  179. after we moved from Broadway to here.

  180. We're in a tent over where the kind of gym area is now.

  181. There was a tent. Any tent dwellers, any of the

  182. tent people glory days, right? It was big fans, everybody come

  183. in with, you know, sweaters in the winter and fans in the

  184. summer. But we were in the tent and

  185. Bob's preaching about what's going on in Europe and I I love

  186. this story because I I hope we hear more of these stories or

  187. someone that was listening to the faith of missionaries to

  188. move their family to Europe and they both at the same time

  189. thought are we supposed to do that?

  190. So careful as you listen to these stories, don't get too

  191. comfortable in the paradise of Ada County.

  192. But the Fouts family went from the tent working great jobs at

  193. Micron and set up in the Boise, you know, grow your family in

  194. the best city in the world to I think we're supposed to go to

  195. Romania. And so that is how we got to

  196. Romania, which turned into a continued effort of Calvary

  197. Chapel, Bistritza and the missionaries, Natalie Bridges

  198. that still help there and many people that are part of our

  199. church that were part of that movement as well.

  200. I think of the greens that went and the hubs that were part of

  201. the efforts in our Europe family.

  202. I think of Kurt Krager who went with the Heralds to Italy.

  203. Remember our pastor Kirk? This was a time where Kirk was

  204. like, send me to actually he was another one of my youth pastors.

  205. I remember him with a tape, what were they called?

  206. Walkmans. He had one of those Walkmans and

  207. he was listening to study of how to learn Italian.

  208. And, and I was, you know, I was like this guy with a goatee and

  209. a, you know, a 90s youth pastor necklace.

  210. And I was like, wow, this guy's really giving it all to learn

  211. Italian for Jesus. And then one day he moved Italy.

  212. That turned into him getting transferred over by the Lord to

  213. Calvary Chapel in England. And so we had a connection to

  214. Stockport for many years and eventually Kirk would come home

  215. and rejoin the Calvary Chapel family.

  216. And in the 90s, early 2000s, there was just something the

  217. Lord was doing with our church in Europe.

  218. So we had a a couple in our college age ministry that had

  219. parents that were serving in a foreign mission field in

  220. Germany. They eventually became supported

  221. by a church and that is how we got the house Nazareth ministry

  222. with Clark and Anne Petticord that you've probably heard

  223. about. We've been praying about for

  224. many years. And then finally, we kept taking

  225. ministry trips to Europe. And one of our youth girls,

  226. Whitney, went on a trip to Slovenia and met her future

  227. husband, Alish, who is now the pastor in the church that we

  228. support in Slovenia. So you've got, you know, the

  229. Lord doing this great work to set the foundation in India,

  230. then he does a work to set the foundation in Europe.

  231. And we, we continue to support those churches in Europe now.

  232. And I, I, I hope that you can go visit and get some more details

  233. for the, the countries that are represented through these

  234. booths. And then around 2005, there was

  235. just a new movement happening. We had our very first ever

  236. mission trip to Canada and that was in 2005.

  237. S Canada kind of opened up a new territory for our church that

  238. started with our beloved faithful junior high youth

  239. pastor Reggie Etheridge. And this is another one of those

  240. great stories of God just he, he just connects people to open a

  241. door and walk through it. And other people are going to

  242. and go serve long time. But I said, Reggie, how did you

  243. get connected to, to Canada? Why were you going to Vancouver?

  244. And he said, funny enough, it was the, the youth pastor at

  245. Trinity, where he now serves as the lead pastor, who told him

  246. that there was an awesome why Wham up in Canada.

  247. And so Reggie started taking trips to with the youth group in

  248. 2005 up to Canada. And he would come back with this

  249. report of all this stuff that the Lord was doing in the why

  250. Wham in Vancouver. And he would tell this to our

  251. church and, and the the staff and the pastors.

  252. And Marlon Brown gets inspired to pray about Canada.

  253. He was initially thinking about Morocco and because of Reggie

  254. kind of going through the door and coming back with a report of

  255. what God was doing, Marlon had a change in plans based off the

  256. Lord's doing. And Marlon moved his whole

  257. family to Canada in 2015, 2014. And so another theme of our

  258. mission. So we're giving stories, we're

  259. giving vision, you know, the, the, you can make the plans, the

  260. Lord directs it. And also one of the themes is

  261. like someone goes 1st and then someone follows and then the the

  262. doors are opened. And so I love what it says in

  263. Corinthians. It says I planted Paul speaking,

  264. Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

  265. It's like there was this guy that connects from Boise to

  266. Canada and he tells Reggie and Reggie goes and checks it out,

  267. goes on three trips and he's never been back.

  268. But he tells Marlon and he moves his whole family there.

  269. And, and now Marlon has been been faithfully serving in

  270. Canada for 10 years. And as I was talking to Reggie

  271. about all that, they're now in partnership to get Reggie

  272. reconnected with Canada. So he's pulling Reggie back into

  273. the story. So, so we've got, you know,

  274. unfolding in decades by the the teens, by the early kind of the

  275. turn of the teens, you know, there's more doors opening.

  276. And we also, as you have seen people be prayed for, have

  277. gotten mission updates. We are also in Africa.

  278. That's one of the regions of our church starting in 2013, who

  279. would open the doors to to Africa.

  280. Of course, it was Reggie once again.

  281. He he connected to a program that was happening out of

  282. Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale and Calvary Chapel Fort

  283. Lauderdale had been doing work in Liberia.

  284. And so Reggie connected from Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale

  285. to Liberia and started taking teams that were just serving

  286. there's, you know, it was Liberia was war stricken.

  287. And so they were, they were doing just practical help serve

  288. short term trips, helping Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale.

  289. And through that there was just kind of a stir once again in our

  290. congregation for like what's going on in Africa.

  291. And a couple years later, there was a man in our church named

  292. Jason Zweigel, who said I would love to connect us to a mission

  293. that I'm a part of in Sierra Leone.

  294. And so in 2018, Reggie and me and Jason went to Sierra Leone

  295. and we connected with a, a mission in Sierra Leone that we

  296. still support to this day, that that basically takes kids off

  297. the street and gets them an education.

  298. And I would put the, the Africa mission into kind of the

  299. category of what does the Lord have for us in Africa?

  300. So that's one of the mission fields that we're going to go

  301. visit soon and kind of give a report of what's going on and

  302. what the Lord has in the future. And, and just by God's grace as

  303. he opened the doors to Africa, it's a giant continent.

  304. There's actually a family in our church, faithful family of our

  305. church named the O'briens who raised their child in the way

  306. they that he should go. And since he was in 7th grade,

  307. he took a field trip to Mission Aviation Fellowship, which is

  308. right over in Nampa. He takes a field trip.

  309. He sees the hangers. He sees this mission of people

  310. going to Africa and and flying to get people to remote places

  311. and get Bibles and Medicare medical needs.

  312. And he says, someday I'm going to do that.

  313. And by God's grace, that little 7th grader is now supported by

  314. our church in the Congo. And so we have Danny O'Brien and

  315. his family, who he is raising to commit to the Congo for as long

  316. as they're there. They are now living in the

  317. Congo. He's flying planes and working a

  318. hangar in Kinshasa, Congo. So and so if you want to know

  319. more about them, his parents are actually at the MAF slash

  320. O'Brien booth in the in the lobby missions market.

  321. So, so that's kind of the the unfolding of the Africa region,

  322. Canada, Europe regions, India region and will come full

  323. circle. I said our very first mission

  324. trip was actually to Mexico. There was a little singles group

  325. in our church, small little church meeting off Northview

  326. Winstead Park and they went to pass out Bibles in Mexicali and

  327. that just planted a little seed that would be checked in on over

  328. the years. One of my very first memories of

  329. this church was going in 1987 on a mission trip to Mexico with

  330. Calvary Chapel Boise. So I'm old enough to, to

  331. remember the 80s and remember, you know, some of the early

  332. stages of our church's missions. But then the Lord just kind of

  333. brought all of that back into the, the church.

  334. We know. We, we, we, we kind of focused

  335. on other areas. But around 2014, 2013, as the

  336. Lord was bringing a ministry of our church to reach out to

  337. Spanish speaking people in our church or in our valley, we made

  338. a connection to someone who had family in Topeka.

  339. So we sent Saul and his family to Topeka where they still are.

  340. Pastor Parker just got back from visiting them.

  341. And then as the years unfolded, we made a strong connection with

  342. Miss AL in Oaxaca. And so now we have a Calvary

  343. Chapel in Oaxaca. They they were a church that had

  344. been there for a long time, but they said we want to associate

  345. appreciate with Calvary Chapel and we're going to be a Calvary

  346. Chapel and we've been sending teams there since the early

  347. twenty 20s. Well, the twenty 20s.

  348. And so I would I I I end with Mexico for the same reason I

  349. started with India. Mexico is there's just it's kind

  350. of what I was describing about those other regions as the Lord

  351. was just stirring. There was a season where he was

  352. just stirring India and he was just stirring Europe.

  353. There's just a stirring right now in Mexico.

  354. The youth is very active and going.

  355. You're going to hear reports of people coming back.

  356. And telling stories. We've got active teams going,

  357. we've got a trip coming up to drop off mercy boxes very soon.

  358. And so there there's something going on with our churches

  359. connection to Mexico. But all of that in the, the

  360. short amount of time that I that I have for today is just to say

  361. how good is God, how faithful is God that without coming up with

  362. a formula or a plan, God just continually sends people in and

  363. gives people the grace to go and gives our church this blessed

  364. story that he's a God that loves the whole world.

  365. And we get to see all of these regions as as I was, you know,

  366. kind of going down memory lane with, with the people that were,

  367. were helping me, you know, remember our history.

  368. It was just a story and how blessed we've been as a church

  369. to be part of all of these regions of the world and to be

  370. able to look at this and say, for 40 years, God has been

  371. giving us these stories. And every one of these regions

  372. has story upon story upon story of when they get there, God

  373. using them to preach the see people saved.

  374. And so I just want to encourage you, if you go to this church,

  375. which I'm assuming you do, you're here now.

  376. God, God has set us aside for his work and we have been called

  377. to something that is bigger than Boise.

  378. And you have been faithful to give to that and to pray for

  379. these people. And I also want to encourage you

  380. that none of this was part of a pastor's plan that there is

  381. God's faithfulness remains and we are entering into a new 40

  382. year work of whatever God wants to do to reach the loss and to

  383. use the people that can send to be part of that.

  384. And so thank you guys for your faithful prayers and your

  385. faithful giving and your faithful sending your faithful

  386. going. And thank you for some of you

  387. who will be the next stories of what God does to stir our church

  388. up for missions. And so the the only other

  389. mission field that that I won't really put names or faces to,

  390. but you're going to hear a lot about the underground church.

  391. And so I just labeled it the Middle East.

  392. It's an active mission field. We have people that we're

  393. working with in areas of the Middle East that are that are

  394. just amazing stories of God's goodness.

  395. And you'll also find representation for that out in

  396. the mission market. So for this one specifically, I

  397. would love for you to just, if you have an interest in that,

  398. how you can be involved in praying and just supporting, I'd

  399. love for you to talk to the people that are out there.

  400. So Amen to what God has done and Amen to what God is doing.

  401. So I started with kind of a story of putting things into

  402. order and appointing leadership to, to, to make sure that things

  403. are overseen well, and I'm glad I get to present new elders to

  404. you. And I also want to present to

  405. you the way we're going to that for missions moving forward in,

  406. in 40 years, there's been so many versions of how we have

  407. sent people and who, who, where we're working.

  408. And, and it requires someone to just care for them and to, to

  409. organize our church and how we pray and serve them.

  410. And so we are going to appoint a new leader of our missions

  411. department as a church. This was a role that the last

  412. person that was that was appointed to do this was Kurt

  413. Kreger. And he's now at Living Stones,

  414. formerly Cole. So I have about 6 months ago, I

  415. asked Noah to pray about doing that.

  416. And I said it would be great if we could give a little story of

  417. what that prayer looked like on a Sunday.

  418. So I'm going to invite Noah up and if you would welcome him as

  419. our new missions pastor. So, Noah Beamer, you've been

  420. part of our church for. I think I landed here in 08, so

  421. 17 years. Cool.

  422. Well, thank you for your faithfulness.

  423. And like I said, I, I asked you six months ago, maybe, you know,

  424. I would love for you to consider just based off, you know, kind

  425. of your history in missions and your love for what I think is

  426. such a, a care for people. I think it would be a great fit

  427. to fulfill this void that we have in in the department.

  428. So I'll let you tell your own story.

  429. What was it like to get asked and why did you feel like the

  430. Lord gave you the grace to say yes?

  431. Well, it's always nice to be asked and it's all invitations

  432. are always special, you know, and I think I have to just

  433. honestly first share a quick, quick blip on just what my wife,

  434. she leaving my house 1 morning. She said, hey, I've been praying

  435. that God would invite you what he wants you to do next.

  436. And at the moment I just kind of brushed it off.

  437. I was like, thank you wife, that's so nice.

  438. And then I had it out. But there was also a stirring in

  439. my heart of just like just God, what do you want me to really

  440. put my time and effort and resources into, you know?

  441. And so I left. And that morning I literally got

  442. a text invitation to go on a trip to go somewhere foreign.

  443. And I was like, that seems coincidental, but let's just see

  444. where this goes. And so that was kind of the

  445. first little chapter, but I to really absorb the question and

  446. the invitation to step into this role, I had to go all the way

  447. back to when I was a missionary overseas.

  448. I spent four years overseas in Bible school and serving in a

  449. church in the South of France. And that's where I met my wife.

  450. That's where we ended up getting married.

  451. And that's kind of where our story started.

  452. And then we landed here. You know it.

  453. So that's the real quick version, but I would, I

  454. remembered back kind of thinking in the time when I was there and

  455. what it felt like. And to honestly, for me, it was

  456. about 3 months into being a missionary in France.

  457. Most people forgot about me. And I don't say that like, but

  458. it's just kind of out of sight, out of mind, you know, and you,

  459. you have people excited and praying for you and supporting

  460. and, and all that still continued over the years, but

  461. this kind of the enthusiasm of them staying in touch kind of

  462. disappeared. And so I rode those waves of

  463. just kind of feeling lost or just on my own.

  464. And I'd try to, you know, try to keep in touch with people, but

  465. communication like it is now wasn't as good in O5 when this

  466. started for me, I think, or O four O 5.

  467. So I just felt I'd feel lonely and I, I went through this

  468. season of depression of the first time in my life and over

  469. in France. And occasionally there would be

  470. people that God would send into that moment into that space

  471. where I was in France and to just encourage me.

  472. And I remember specifically, and it's kind of cool because it's

  473. connected to Calvary Boise, one of the guys that has carried the

  474. mission hat over the years. His name was Kelly Link.

  475. And he was on a trip that Bob had sent him over to Europe with

  476. a video guy to kind of connect with all the different missions

  477. that they were a part of with Tucker mentioned many of them

  478. already. And my wife was then a sponsored

  479. missionary by Calvary Boise in the South of France.

  480. I'd never been here and so these guys come over.

  481. These guys are great. We're having fun.

  482. But Kelly specifically just had on his heart to pray for me.

  483. And he was there to visit my wife technically, but we kind of

  484. became friends because we were dating and just got to hang out

  485. with him. And he spent an evening just

  486. praying for me and pouring into me and just caring for me and

  487. like a soul care kind of way that really just spoke to me and

  488. gave me the energy. Honestly, that kind of fueled me

  489. for the last year that I was there.

  490. And so I was, as I was thinking about the question, thinking

  491. about the invitation, praying, thinking about my own history in

  492. the past, I just thought, man, what an like, what a moment in

  493. time for me. That was so special that God

  494. knew exactly what I needed and just cool that it was Calvary

  495. Boise connection. I don't think that's

  496. coincidental, but just so special because then I didn't

  497. end up moving here in 08 and he was my only friend that I first

  498. knew when I got here. So, so that helped me in my

  499. decision making. I went up to Canada twice this

  500. summer or in fall and summer to help Marlon up there.

  501. And I got to spend the second trip up there just praying and

  502. worshiping with his church and just spending time in God's

  503. presence. And I just kind of got weepy

  504. when I was there because I, I went back to that moment of when

  505. I was in France alone and someone came and just sat with

  506. me and prayed with me. And so I kind of, I kind of lost

  507. it in the room there, but with these guys, but it was so unique

  508. and so special. And I said, OK, Lord, if this is

  509. what you want me to do, if this is how you want me to encourage

  510. people around the world, it's just getting to be in your

  511. presence together with them, building a stronger

  512. relationship, pointing them to you to give them an

  513. encouragement because they might be feeling like I felt.

  514. Then I said, I'm in and I'll do that.

  515. And I saw that was, I know that's the short story, but I

  516. just think it was so, so special how God kind of put those little

  517. moments in my heart just to say yes to this.

  518. You know, I think my heart's always to care for people, serve

  519. people, pastor people well. And I never thought I would be

  520. on this stage and talking about it in this way, but I just

  521. thought, wow, Lord, what a, what a cool opportunity that how I

  522. get to be a part of what somebody did for me and maybe

  523. encourage somebody out there. And the missionaries that said,

  524. I've had great relationships with them over the 17 years I've

  525. been here. And so I'm just excited to, to

  526. get to hang out with them in a new way and spend time with them

  527. and encourage them and come alongside them and, and support

  528. them in the ways that they need supported.

  529. And then also prayerfully, God, what, what is it, the new things

  530. and new adventures that you want us to be a part of in, in 40

  531. years? My goodness, that's incredible

  532. legacy. Well, I think, well, first of

  533. all, thank you for one, really praying and allowing the Lord to

  534. give you the confirmation and seeing this whole story from you

  535. meeting the missions pastor at Calvary Boise in Europe to

  536. becoming the missionary pastor in Calvary Boise.

  537. And it too. And I just want to, I just want

  538. to say to, you know, maybe the vision of our church, I think

  539. church is not meant to be a boring thing.

  540. You know, church is not meant to be just a classroom.

  541. It's not meant to be like going to college for adults.

  542. We we want to know the Bible and we want to teach it, but so we

  543. can live it. And one of the greatest things

  544. about being a follower of Jesus is getting to see the stuff that

  545. he does. And we oftentimes see that in

  546. the world of missions in church planting and evangelism and

  547. outreach. And so I hope that, you know,

  548. even just taking a Sunday to talk about it and maybe planting

  549. a little seed in your hearts that we can all be really

  550. excited and hungry for the next stories of our church to be

  551. like, wow, that's crazy. There's there's this guy went

  552. here and then it got connected. And so I want you guys all to,

  553. to be willing to live by faith and do whatever God tells you to

  554. do. And if he tells you to do any

  555. missions, I want you to know that we have a pastor to serve

  556. you. And so this is Noah Church is

  557. Noah. And hopefully you know him from

  558. all the other roles and hats. He's one of our church, but he

  559. is here to serve in two ways. He's going to serve our current

  560. missionaries, to love them, support them, visit them, make

  561. sure that they are encouraged to to keep enduring in the very

  562. hard task of following Jesus in foreign missions.

  563. He's also going to bring the story of missions to us and so

  564. that we can keep our vision of what God is doing bigger than a

  565. Sunday morning in one city. And so I want you to kind of

  566. give a little vision for how you can do both those things.

  567. How can, how can we stay connected with missions more?

  568. Because it won't be just, you know, a Sunday once a month.

  569. Yeah. And I think that that's the

  570. best, that's the best part for this side and stateside, it's

  571. like, how do we connect the stories and connect their, them

  572. out there with the people here? And so I think that's the,

  573. that's the biggest part of my heart is how do we keep people

  574. that are far away in front of us, you know, and it's, I don't

  575. think we can rely solely on a Sunday morning time where we see

  576. a picture or we get a chance to pray for them in our community

  577. groups. There has to be other platforms,

  578. other avenues, other ways that we're finding to connect them.

  579. So, so we're going to have a way that you guys can reach out and

  580. basically stay in touch with all the missions.

  581. My hope moving forward in the new year is to kind of send out

  582. more updates, kind of newsletter vibes.

  583. I'm dreaming and scheming of, you know, having podcasts and

  584. having them on the screen, split screens, getting to talk to

  585. them, what's going on, sharing their stories more actively with

  586. you guys through the the ways we can communicate now in this

  587. world, which is incredible. So, but I think it'll allow us

  588. to have way more exposure for what's going on out around the

  589. world, you guys to stay connected.

  590. Moments like this, which these three gals that set this

  591. missions market up, incredible. And so I'm so excited for you

  592. guys to get a chance to go hang out around there.

  593. But more things like that, where we're getting to see what God's

  594. doing around the world more than just the Sunday opportunity.

  595. So our friend just put up subscribe to our newsletter on

  596. the screen. So I love seeing the phones out.

  597. That means the world to me. Those of you who don't have your

  598. phones out, French church a good job and then keep your phones

  599. put away. But those who do have your

  600. phones on this one moment, this is 1 moment.

  601. So once a month I have asked Noah to basically send out a

  602. newsletter on behalf of the news and reports of our mission

  603. field. I in that will will include, you

  604. know, ways to be praying ways to be aware of things we're going

  605. to be doing locally and things that are upcoming.

  606. I think it's a great thing to go and see mission trip fields and

  607. our mission fields. And so we we want to be able to

  608. communicate directly to those of you who are interested in

  609. missions. So this will be a way for anyone

  610. who's interested in missions to get everything in the world of

  611. missions from NOAA once a month. And so which now the final

  612. question and then leave time for the market.

  613. Give me some ways people can get involved.

  614. Practically. How can people help?

  615. I mean, there's very low hanging fruit out there to is just to

  616. give to what's going on. You know, there's going to be

  617. trips to go and serve and care for them in physical ways as

  618. well. But the low hanging fruit is

  619. always just to give. And so we have an entire market

  620. out there that's been crafted to just basically most of those

  621. funds are all going to go directly to the the missions

  622. that they're representing there. And so I think that's just an

  623. incredible thing. Go buy Christmas presents, go

  624. buy some fun things for yourself.

  625. That's really easy because I think that's a lot of what God's

  626. given us is a role here on this side, this state is to give and

  627. to be a part of what God's doing.

  628. And there'll be opportunities to go.

  629. So that will come too. And then I wanted to highlight

  630. just a couple really cool milestone ways that specifically

  631. our church, I think has an opportunity to be a part of

  632. today. The 1st is Send Hope is kind of

  633. at a milestone moment, which we've never seen before in the

  634. history of our church, which I think is so special.

  635. And so they have, they only have, I think it's 20 full

  636. sponsorships left for kids to basically have all the kids

  637. covered, which has never been done in the history of Send Hope

  638. or trying to get this the sponsorship for the kids.

  639. So yeah, we have 20 full sponsorships There it is.

  640. And we have 14 partial sponsorships left.

  641. And so the, the team sent hope they're wearing T-shirts and

  642. they have cards for the the kids to sponsor the kids.

  643. They're going to be at all the exits when you leave.

  644. And so if that's something that's ever been on your heart,

  645. and I will say from a person that's done it for many, many

  646. years now sponsoring the kids, it's just an incredible

  647. privilege to get to be a part of what God's doing and getting to

  648. be there just this last March and see the effect and the

  649. impact that it has to sponsor a kid in that way.

  650. Is it they're doing it over there.

  651. It's the real deal and it's so special.

  652. I know those of you have got to go just see that first hand.

  653. It's so incredible. So that is just very easy, low

  654. hanging fruit. Some of these kids are older

  655. kids that just need support. Some of these kids are very sick

  656. and very hurt. And so they're going to need

  657. support for a longer time. But what an opportunity to be

  658. the hands and feet of God in their lives in this way.

  659. And so my, the biggest thing on my heart when I was been praying

  660. about this a lot is that the scripture always boils down for

  661. me, love God and love people. And it just makes it so simple.

  662. I think when we have opportunities like this, the

  663. other one is we do our Christmas mercy boxes that we're sending

  664. out in our Oaxaca table out there in the corner.

  665. They're taking the boxes. So if you have them, please

  666. bring them back. But they're also still have 70

  667. boxes left that we're going to go deliver in December.

  668. And so if you have on your heart to just make a kids Christmas

  669. awesome, the Oaxaca is an A neat church that goes into other

  670. places, more rural places to bring these boxes into kids

  671. homes. And so those are two, I think

  672. really low hanging fruit. So give but then also give in

  673. the other ways. Give encouragement, write

  674. letters, connect with these missionaries that we have and

  675. send them encouragement because I know that I considered my

  676. story a little quickly. That's all I needed sometimes,

  677. which is little encouragement. One of our booths out there, I

  678. won't name names, but she, she wrote to us.

  679. I was just a couple days ago and she, I guess she was telling her

  680. advocate that that stands for her here.

  681. Like I'm, I'm tired, I'm done. This is so hard.

  682. I don't feel like I got anybody in my court or fighting behind

  683. me. And this gal just told her about

  684. the market that was coming up and what we were doing.

  685. I just by happen chance left her a message like a day after that.

  686. And so she was getting kind of peppered and she just left me a

  687. message yesterday weeping and with her, her and husband and

  688. just seemed like, Oh my goodness, God is so faithful

  689. just to encourage me when I need it.

  690. And so just those little things like, Hey, we're doing this and

  691. we want to tell you about it. Hey, we're trying to raise funds

  692. for you in a special way and getting to and let them know

  693. that I think that is a great way to give to just sending your

  694. notes. And so there's ways where you

  695. could sit down and write a card to one of these missionaries

  696. that's going to go so far and just be an encouragement, let

  697. them know you're praying, let them know that you're thinking

  698. about them. So yeah, there's ways to give in

  699. more ways than just monetarily. And then for those of you who

  700. did sign up for the newsletter, we're going to be sending out

  701. some dates for an interest meeting ongoing.

  702. So we're going to try our best to just do what we've always

  703. done as an effective way to just see what God's doing.

  704. And it's just activate people who are in a season where they

  705. can go maybe for a couple weeks, maybe they go for a season.

  706. But we'll give more information on those interest meetings from

  707. the newsletter. And other than that, we prayed

  708. for our elders. I'd like to to pray for a pastor

  709. in this role. So if I could invite the elders

  710. to come up and the, the elders are now 5.

  711. And while they're coming up, if the ushers, if you guys would

  712. pass out communion, we're going to end with, as always, try to

  713. never miss a time where as often as we gather, we remember the,

  714. the reason for our membership is not, it's not because we, we try

  715. our best to go out and, and do good work for the Lord or tell

  716. stories, but it is in fact, the cross.

  717. And it's the free gift of the perfect life of Jesus given for

  718. us. And so that is the message that

  719. we stand on week by week by week.

  720. And it's the message that we send our missionaries to go

  721. preach. And we're going to remember that

  722. now. But as that's getting passed

  723. out, if you guys would stand with me and I am going to have a

  724. couple of you guys lay hands on Noah now.

  725. And we're just going to pray for you, brother, that the Lord

  726. would use you for the faithfulness he has planned in

  727. the mission fields of our church.

  728. So love you man, Father in heaven, we come before you in

  729. this special calling that you placed on Noah and his family.

  730. The Father we ask for protection for his family and his children.

  731. But Lord also the seal that you placed by your Holy Spirit on

  732. Noah in this missions that you started, you initiated and we

  733. ask this in. Jesus name Amen.

  734. Father, I just add my prayers also we lift up Noah to you and

  735. this congregation, pray you to equip him with wisdom,

  736. knowledge, discernment, energy, organizational skills.

  737. Father, love and grace. Father, I also so thankful for

  738. this congregation who has. Been so generous in providing

  739. all the resources that allows us to do missions and I just pray

  740. that you'd continue bless this congregation and give us a heart

  741. to continue to share our resources so missions as

  742. possible. So Father, yeah, we just lift up

  743. Noah, commissioned him as our missions pastor and bless him in

  744. this new responsibility. Jesus name Amen.

  745. Thanks for joining us today. If you would like to watch the

  746. full service, check out the link in the description.

  747. For next steps and to learn more, visit calvaryboise.com.