Monthly Archives: March 2009

Nathan Kwak

by Steven Hong

Last summer, the encouragement level at Lighthouse took a dip when Nathaniel Kwak left San Diego indefinitely. Upon completing his undergraduate schooling at UC San Diego, Nathan moved up I-5 to La Palma, California to be with his family. Nathan always stood out as an encouraging brother, greeting anyone and everyone with a warm smile and a friendly word. The Beacon had a chance to catch up with Nathan, who is now a member at Good News Chapel in West Covina.

Where are you now and what are you up to these days?

I currently live in La Palma, CA. I’m working at a corporate Bank of America office, pretty much a cubicle 9am-5pm job. During nights and weekends I’ve been involved with my church, meeting up with people to get to know them better. I’m also involved with some new programs that we are starting up in the new season coming up at our church.

How was the transition in regards to moving churches? Were there any particular lessons you learned at LBC that helped the transition?

Since I was already a member of GNC prior to LBC, I had ties when I went back. However, it still was (and continues to be) a work in progress as the time away in college was long enough to lose some intimacy in relationships. I felt very much at home at LBC and losing much of the weekly (and sometimes daily) relationships made it tough in terms of accountability and the expectations I had for church. LBC has such gifted preachers and teachers up on the pulpit. But two main things that I took away from LBC were the importance of committing to a church and the importance of discipline in the individual. Being a very shy guy initially, having these two things drilled into me really aided in getting acclimated to church quicker and with much joy knowing that I am a part of the body of Christ.

What advice would you give to those who make a similar move after college ends?

Even though church is a main topic at LBC, something that I had to do upon returning home was to dive straight back into Scripture and understand the role and importance of the local church. As I studied, I, as an individual, really took a back seat as I saw how God uses His church to glorify Himself. This provided much comfort as well as rebuke time and time again, especially when selfish thoughts/motives tried to control my thinking. So understand the church and apply that knowledge. No one person is safe from falling away, especially when accountability is lacking.

How have you been growing and challenged since you’ve left LBC?

I don’t know how much space I have, so I’ll keep this short. As well as learning much about the church, God’s been continually growing in me a deeper and more intimate faith. Sometimes I used to wonder, am I serving God because it’s the thing everyone is doing? Or am I truly Christian, having died to myself and following Christ in his righteousness? A lot of strengths that I thought I had were immediately dismantled having returned home, especially having to once again live with family. They bring out the best and worst in me. And in hard financial times, I had to once again re-evaluate, is God the one and only satisfaction in my life? When Paul says to live is Christ and to die is gain, do I believe it? Do I count all as loss? No, no, and NO! I didn’t. And I’m still learning to let go of all the things that I’m holding onto. As I’ve prayed hard and received counsel of going into seminary, a deep fear of God is becoming entrenched. In the midst of growing deeper in my relationship with Him, I don’t think I’ve ever had a deeper fear of God.

Read any good books lately?

Desiring God by Piper, Reflections by C.S. Lewis are two I’ve recently finished. Man, its been so much harder to with work! Props to all you workers out there… I respect and admire all of you so much more having become a part of it.

One that I pick up a lot is the Valley of Vision, the Puritan prayers. I love and deeply recommend this one to everyone!

What are your plans moving forward and how can we keep you in our prayers?

I’m going into Talbot Seminary in the fall, God willing. Please pray for guidance from Scripture and to continue to grow in fear of God. My character is a concern of mine always, as I see the high calling of the gospel something that is frightening. Man, I’m not sure I knew the depths of what I was getting into when I became Christian. But it becomes more and more amazing as I understand the heart of God better each day. Please pray as the economy has caught our family in a deep crunch as well, especially as my parents have been delayed now in going to Vladivostok, Russia as long-term missionaries. I’ll be praying for you all as well.

Grace Yi

by Courtney Chow

God has brought an array of people to Lighthouse and to be part of the church family. Among the believers with very different backgrounds is cheery and gentle Grace Yi. She is in her second to last quarter as a UCSD undergrad. Grace is actively a part of the Collegelife ministry as well as Lighthouse Kids Club, and Cleaning Ministry.

I know you’re not a native to the San Diego area so what do you consider to be your hometown?

I’m a Navy brat, so my hometown has always been where my family was. Currently, my parents and youngest brother live in Seoul, South Korea. Most of my tours were international, each lasting 1-3 years. College is actually the first time I’ll be in one place for four consecutive years!

Wow. We don’t have many people who grew up in Navy families at Lighthouse. What is your family like?

My family of five includes my two younger brothers: Jonathan, 18, and Michael, 13. Contrary to what many may think, life with a military dad is actually quite relaxed, apart from our morning physical training sessions and marching practices. Just kidding. We’re a pretty relaxed bunch and frequently organize family trips. While there is no evidence that they are believers, I’m extremely thankful for them nevertheless. God has used them to teach me to cling to Him.

Since you did not grow up in a family of believers, how did you become a Christian?

Despite having been a faithful church attendant and participant for a good chunk of my life, God began shedding light on my heart’s true condition towards the end of 2007. I had begun attending Collegelife earlier that year, and to this day remember how moved I was to hear the series on the Foundations of the Gospel. It wasn’t until that fall that God helped me see how ugly my heart was by my hypocrisy; my words and actions were not aligned with what I was learning from God’s word. He showed me how undeserving I was and how much I needed Him. I stand before you today as one who loves Christ more than ever. We serve an amazing God.

Why did you decide to become a member at Lighthouse?

I decided to become a member because I wanted the accountability. Over time, God showed me the importance of a church family and the wonderful blessings that came with being apart of one. I wanted others to help me grow in my love and devotion for Christ, and, God willing, the opportunity to help others love Christ more; membership was that chance to make that happen. Also, I was very encouraged by how serious the leaders of LBC took the issue of membership. It was great to see how passionate they were to have the church fulfill the MVP. To this day, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

What aspects of the Lighthouse family are you most encouraged by?

I am so encouraged by how the LBC family strives to be disciples of Christ 24/7. Sunday mornings and Friday evenings are not just a time to charge up their religious power meter to cruise through the rest of the week. Instead, this family shows a concern and passion to honor God every minute throughout each day, week, month and year. I’m also encouraged by how members have followed the command to serve. From the guys in the sound booth to nursery staff, I appreciate seeing how people have stepped up to the plate.

How do you want to be involved at LBC in the next year?

God willing that I am in California next year, I hope to be more involved in the lives of LBC’s families. Serving in Lighthouse Kids’ Club has given me the amazing opportunity to meet the children, but I hope to build relationships and serve their families as well.

San Jose!

by Moon Choi

On January 25, 2009, Pastor John ended his sermon titled, “Make Disciples and God Plant a Church!” with a statement foreshadowing big news that would be broken at the members meeting later that evening. “It could be life altering for some,” he said before ending in prayer.

There was a lot of excitement and anticipation after the service ended. Some may have had no idea what he was talking about – others had heard things on the down low and made guesses. Whatever people’s knowledge of the situation was, they came with high energy to the members meeting, awaiting the potentially life altering announcement.

The meeting began with a very sober tone. But soon after, Pastor John made the announcement that the elders had decided during their retreat to pursue a church plant in San Jose. The announcement was met with loud cheers. A good number of members are originally from the San Jose area and some old members have moved back there but have had trouble finding a solid, Bible preaching church. “We have always considered the possibility of northern California,” Pastor John said. “But we were also considering other areas like Seattle or other major metropolitan areas.” He went on to mention that the elders felt as though it was finally time to act on our vision statement to plant churches.

There were a number of events and factors that culminated in the unanimous decision at the elders retreat. Mike Chon mentioned that while Pastor John took his leave of absence, Pastor Patrick was able to fulfill the role of senior pastor, giving him confidence in seeing him in that role indefinitely. Though you may think their discussion at the retreat was long and intense, Mike Chon said with a laugh that it was like a 20 minute discussion. Across the board, everyone had agreed that this was the proper course of action.

Even Peter Lim, the “voice of reason” among the elders, agreed. “As our church was approaching our 10 year anniversary, the elders were evaluating how well we had been doing on our MVP statement,” he said. They thought that the strongest area was the mission – making disciples with many people coming to know Christ in the past 10 years. The passion, to love God and people, was a weaker area within the church, resulting in 2009’s theme of “For the Love of Christ.” As for the vision, it had been carried out through short term missions to the Czech Republic and to Argentina which Peter said was “understandable for a church in its infancy” but said that they wanted to take a major step forward and actually plant.

Several different locations were in consideration. Pastor Patrick said that previously, they had tossed around the idea of Los Angeles, Seattle, even overseas to the Czech Republic or Argentina but that “these were just thoughts.” He had a feeling that once Pastor John came back from his leave of absence that he would want to plant a church. “By this time, I had figured it was a real possibility so I had already thought through it and prayed about it quite a bit,” he said. Then when Pastor John brought it up, they were able to talk about it. Though Pastor Patrick and Christine were willing to go, after talking to Pastor John, it just made more sense for Pastor John to go, as he was the visionary who kept moving forward and Pastor Patrick was fit to keep a programming running once it got started. “I know this is an overgeneralization, but it’s all to say that it made sense,” he said.

When Pastor John went to San Jose recently to speak at a college/singles conference, an arrangement that had been set up a year in advance, he realized that there weren’t many like-minded churches there, making it difficult for former Lighthouse members to receive the same teaching that they did in San Diego. There was a New Years potluck party with former and present Lighthouse members and people kept on asking whether they were going to plant a church in San Jose. “I could only reply that we needed to pray about it and that we were very hopefully in considering the possibility soon. I had also talked with my wife Angela as well as the kids to see if they would be supportive of the move.” This was a difficult decision, as their extended family was in San Diego, but regardless Pastor John’s family was excited.

As for the announcement of the church plant, Pastor John gave his perspective:

“I remember I was actually quite nervous as there were some other issues to address that were kind of a serious nature. But when it came time to actually share that we would plant a church, it almost became kind of like a movie scene and it felt really strange, almost a surreal kind of feeling that something very monumental was going to take place. So I gave the announcement and there were cheers from our congregation, probably the NorCal members being the most excited. But since I had kind of given a little preview in the morning service, there was actually quite a bit of anticipation and so it was really an exciting moment in our church’s history.”

Plans are moving forward. There have already been two interest meetings with more people than Pastor John had expected. Things are still in the preliminary planning stages as Pastor John has yet to become familiar with San Jose geography. During the second interest meeting on February 19, Pastor John asked a series of questions geared to get the minds focused on the purpose of the church plant. He emphasized that this church plant wasn’t an end to itself—rather, he looked to San Jose as a launching point for another church plant. He said that he didn’t want the next church plant to take 10 years. He called this a reproducing model, with a church being planted, growing as a baby would, then maturing, then reproducing. “Church planting is future-oriented with a multi-generational mindset,” he said. He pointed to Paul’s example and how missions was primarily planting churches. It’s a New Testament pattern, he said. Those who question church planting are questioning the New Testament. Before launching into his series of questions, Pastor John laid this principle down: “We’re going because we want to establish God’s redemptive plan.”

Among Pastor John’s series of questions, he asked for the number of the unsaved in San Jose. There was a silence before someone responded, “A big number.” He acknowledged that before asking if San Jose could use another church, though there were already churches there. He made it clear that it wasn’t about stealing sheep from other churches or even asking why we should plant a church if there were already churches there, he explained. As long as there are non-believers, we need to go because “there are people dying today who need to know the gospel.”

There were other questions but he prevalent theme of all of the questions and answers was trusting in God and praying desperately. Pastor John mentioned the early days of Lighthouse and said that there was a lot more prayer because everyone was desperate. There was even a fasting and prayer chain so that someone would be fasting and praying 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There was a desparate need to trust in God. Then he pointed that out that we still need to be desperate, all the time, because we are always completely dependent on God.

Toward the end of the meeting, Pastor John talked about how we can prepare for the plant. He asked the group how they could personally prepare. Response included continually growing, praying fervently, practicing evangelism, and loving the people here at Lighthouse. However, these weren’t just things for the goers to prepare for – Pastor John mentioned that the maintainers, the people who will remain at LBCSD, will also have to step it up. Peter Lim expressed this concern, “The more important question centered around the people who might be involved in actually leaving San Diego for this church plant and whether our church in San Diego would be strong enough to send out some people who were majorly involved in San Diego.” This was a point that Pastor John touched upon many times and even said that some of those who may be considering going may actually be called to be a maintainer.

We as Christians should all be striving to grow, to step it up in the local church, to be practicing a lifestyle of evangelism and simply loving others as Christ loves us. Pastor Patrick said, “Chris Mueller and I were talking at the recent college retreat about how much we would miss John. But it’s not like with other church situations where this is a bad break up. It would be wrong to even call it a split. This church planting effort would be the church working together to fulfill the Great Commission God’s way, through the vehicle of church planting. I’m excited to be a part of this and hope God will grant us success as He did when we first planted Lighthouse in San Diego.” This plant will require a high level of commitment. Pastor John firmly said at the end of the interest meeting that people will have to commit sooner or later and that the elders were looking for a group of people fully committed by this summer.

As for the actual plant itself, Pastor John is looking to early summer of 2010. He joked, saying that perhaps they will have a U-Haul at Jenna’s graduation with a banner on it that read, “Congratulations!”

PRAYER REQUESTS

It’ll only be by God’s grace that this church plant is successful. As Pastor John mentioned, we should always be in desperate prayer. This church plant is no different. Please pray for the following:

  • Spiritual growth and maturity for those who go
  • A willingness to be sacrificial, work to the point of exhaustion, and love God and people fervently from the heart.
  • That we would establish firm convictions regarding what a church looks like according to Scripture.
  • That we would all be prayerful.
  • For the San Diego home base to be supportive and willing to sacrificially invest in the San Jose plant.
  • That we would continue to be devoted to taking a stand on God’s word and to actively share the love of Christ.
  • That we find a good site that would be centrally located in San Jose between universities and neighborhoods that would create a true sense of community.

Book Review: Love or Die

Book by Alexander Strauch

Review by Garrett Glende

The first time I saw Alexander Strauch’s book, Love or Die, I was immediately intrigued by the title and went on to read about it on a few blogs. Its reviewers praised it tremendously and I quickly added it to the list of books I wanted to read. After Pastor John’s recent sermon bearing the same title, I was convinced that this was a mustread and after reading it now, I can whole-heartedly say that it lived up to my expectations.

In Love or Die, Strauch exposits Revelation 2:1-7, where Jesus speaks of the Ephesian church. While the church had many strong points, there was one aspect that it severely lacked in. Christ commends the Ephesians, saying, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.” He also extols them for their perseverance and endurance for His sake. Strauch writes that “He praises this church because it had no tolerance for those who profess the Christian faith but justify an immoral lifestyle.” They were a church that sought to uphold sound doctrine and persevere through trials.

However, Christ’s heavy rebuke to the church resounds: “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Their love for Christ and for one another was not the same as it was at the beginning. Strauch puts it this way:

Their love for Christ and for one another had once motivated all they did. It brought joy, creativity, freshness, spontaneity, and energy to their life and work. But now their energy source was depleted. Their work had become mundane, mechanical, and routine, and their lives the picture of self-satisfaction.

In light of this rebuke, Strauch writes six ways that the church can cultivate love. This section composes part two of the book. Each chapter is devoted to a separate topic on the development of love. He encourages the church to study, pray for, teach, model, guard, and practice true love. I found these chapters to be very practical and helpful, specifically the ones on praying for love and practicing love. Strauch’s words are insightful, yet not overly complicated, and concise, yet not lacking in depth. He gets to the heart of the issues and does not waste time with periphery issues.

The importance of Love or Die’s message cannot be overstated. In this short book, Alexander Strauch has reminded us of the supremacy of love in our lives. It is a message that should never drift far from our hearts and minds. Love or die!

An Interview with Martina Mellwig

by Grace Wu

Editor’s Note: Before the Mellwigs touched down in San Diego, Grace Mao Wu got a hold of Martina and had her share some thoughts about Lighthouse’s big anniversary, their visit to the States and life as missionaries.

How have the Lighthouse missions trips been helpful to the church and to your family?

Of course the main reason Lighthouse and our church got in contact was because of the language. We did one with another church in Ostrava 13 or 14 years ago, and we found it a great opportunity to naturally share the gospel. People over here are very eager to learn other languages since Czech is only spoken here in the Czech Republic. So we were delighted when Peter Smith introduced John Kim to our church 10 years ago. Over all those years looking back there are so many ways Lighthouse has been helpful to us. First of all, as I already mentioned, is the English camp. Through all those years you came over to teach, even if you weren’t teachers. You came to help our church in ministering to the people here in the Czech Republic. You folks came over, spent your free time and vacation time serving the Lord – every single year! This is truly a great encouragement to our people and to the unbelievers as well! You faithfully prepared for the lessons, classes, activities, games, church meetings. You sang, you preached, you shared, you tried hard even with the Czech language. We visited convalescent homes together, did street evangelism, sang in the hospital and so on. You purchased so many good and useful items to our church like the guitar. And most of all you loved us! In the beginning maybe our and also your goal was to serve the Lord and to witness to other people. But I have the feeling that over the years by God’s grace we became true friends with the same mind and the same goal and the same love for the Czech people. We truly appreciate that! Not only have we seen people coming to Christ through the English camps but also been encouraged by your faithfulness and loving spirit!

What are you looking forward to the most about the visit to USA?

First of all we want to thank Lighthouse for their gracious invitation. We had always wanted to come and visit Lighthouse but couldn’t afford it. So again THANK YOU to all of you!

For me, it is a privilege to be with you in your home country. Visiting your church, sharing a bit of your time here, seeing how you live, what your normal life looks like. Being a German missionary in the Czech Republic is already an adventure. But for you coming abroad and serving in another continent must be totally different. You were brought up differently, many quite normal things over here work differently and life’s challenges may be different as well.

Then of course we are delighted to be with the Kim family and have the opportunity to stay with them and spend time together with John, Angela and the girls. They are like family to us (even if we don’t look alike)! The next thing is that we also hope to be of little help to your congregation. We pray that Meinolf’s messages might be an encouragement to your church and that we might have the opportunity to serve your church as well.

And then we are thrilled to meeting all the former team members who had already been over to Ostrava, spending time with them, meeting their families and renewing our friendships. And of course we are looking forward to getting to know all the other people in Lighthouse and getting to know this year’s team members!

What are your thoughts about Lighthouse’s upcoming 10 year anniversary? You have been partnered with us for a long time, so what changes have you seen in the years partnering with Lighthouse?

This is a hard question. Because we had never been here before, we can’t compare things over here how you do them now or handled them ten years ago. For us the main change probably is your tremendously growing number of church members! You have seen by God’s grace coming so many new people to Christ and to church that to us it is truly God’s Hand in this! It is encouraging to see your church grow so quickly and constantly. It is a witness to the world that true Bible believing churches can still be attractive to people and that especially young people are not always necessarily looking for fun . But that true believers even young at age and maybe young in faith are longing for a good foundation of faith. And that people especially nowadays are looking for a church with strong leadership, good Bible teaching and caring fellowship who wants to serve and worship the one and only God.

How did God call you two into missions?

That was not long after we got saved. Meinolf and I had the feeling we could do more for God and maybe something different with our lives. We started with some Bible courses over a period of approximately 2 years. It was when we already had 2 children that Meinolf attended a missions meeting in our home town in Germany where he got the calling from the Lord into missions. And I at once could see God’s guidance in this because Meinolf never did (and does) things so spontaneously! We started to prepare, Bible school and talking to church elders and leaders of mission agencies. And the Lord led us to the right people who gave us good and helpful advice. We got in contact with SEND International which is to this day still our mission agency in combination with the DMG, German Missionary Fellowship. And they actually introduced to us the thought of serving in the Czech Republic. It was truly God’s wise guidance because the more we see ourselves at the place where He wants us to be.

What are important characteristics of being a missionary? What advice would you give to someonewho wants to be a missionary?

Another hard question!

People are different and so are tasks in life. We ourselves, like I shared before, had the calling into missions quite early. We were born again Christians maybe only for a year or so. But by then we at the same time felt quite insufficient, inadequate to be missionaries. As I said we got good and wise advice from our elders or other godly people. We had missions training for almost 4 years. But first of all we started to pray for God’s guidance in our lives and for our future. And at the same time we became involved in ministry in our church and served together with them for a couple of years. I myself can’t imagine anyone becoming a missionary without ministering and serving in his church where he lives, grew up or became a Christian himself. I think it is necessary to first help and serve in the place where you are and where the Lord put you. And then if even others can see your faithfulness, your willingness and your longing to serve the Lord it may come the time to pray for different tasks.

I have been told the Czech language is one of the hardest in the world to learn. Tell me your experiences learning the language.

Yes I have the same feeling; the Czech language must Be the hardest in the world! But by God’s grace even this one is possible to learn! If He calls you here, you’ll make it!

Count It All Joy

by Pastor Patrick Cho

On a couple of the trips when we were in Argentina we had the joy of serving alongside our friend Israel Contreras. Israel worked with Eduardo Buldain’s church planting ministry and helped us as our head interpreter. One thing that stood out about Israel was his attitude during times of hardship. Whenever things didn’t go according to plan or whenever our team was hit with trials, Israel would say, “This is not a problem. It is an opportunity to grow.” I always appreciated this outlook towards trouble because it is consistent with a biblical worldview. He trusted in God’s sovereignty and could take joy even in the midst of trials.

James 1:2-4 is a familiar passage for most believers. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” For many in the church, 2009 has already gotten off to a difficult start. Our members are facing trials of various kinds. The literal idea behind the word “various” in this passage is that the trials have a variety of colors. This is one of those comforting truths in the Bible. It doesn’t matter what shade of trial you might be facing, whether you are undergoing an intense time of suffering or some lighter but still troubling times, God still cares. God understands that there are varying degrees of hardship and He gives grace to endure every level.

James tells us in light of these sufferings to “count it all joy.” This is a command from Scripture, and so we must be obedient to it. But like with all commands in Scripture, this one is able to be disobeyed. When suffering enters our lives, the call from God is to consider it all joy. This is not joy mixed with complaint or grief. It is complete. All we are to feel is joy because God is behind the circumstances in our lives. So often we fail in this because of the sinfulness of our hearts. We doubt what God can do through trials. We focus more on the circumstances than on God who is sovereign behind them. Sometimes we are even tempted to blame God and complain to Him when we encounter trials.

The reason why trials are helpful from James’s perspective is that the trials lead to greater growth in faith. The testing of our faith produces steadfastness or endurance. This word has the idea of undergoing hardship and being able to stand up under it. God tests our faith so that we can be better at standing in our faith. This is particularly relevant to me as a new parent. Sometimes baby Eden is sitting up on the bed and we see her losing her balance. Inevitably, we know she is going to fall because she doesn’t possess the strength yet to hold up her heavy head! However, we also know that as she grows she will develop the strength she needs. She’ll slowly learn from all the falling over that she needs to keep herself propped up. Our trials teach us in the same way. At first, we may not be good at trusting the Lord through our difficult circumstances. God’s solution is not to remove trials from our lives but to introduce new ones so that we will better learn to stand.

Ultimately, these trials are what lead to our completion or perfection in the faith. Of course this doesn’t mean that we will no longer sin or fail. Until we die or Christ comes again sin will always be a struggle for us and we will constantly be in the fight for faith. But James says through our patient endurance through trials we will be led to greater completion. Small trials will be less and less of a hindrance for us because we will have learned from experience that God is good and sovereign behind them. Eventually we will learn to endure greater and greater trials because of the grace of God. This testing is meant for our good and God uses our troubles to bring us to great maturity in the faith.

We should thus take hope that God is working in our lives. When we encounter various trials, we can be sure that God is active behind the scenes. In some ways, we should be more concerned if everything is going well. Take some time to consider how God is growing your faith. How is He introducing the kinds of trials into your life that will cause you to lean on Him in a greater way? And how are you responding to those trials? Are you seeking to honor Him through your response or are you simply complaining because times are not easy and comfortable? Thankfully, James gives us a better perspective to see that God is faithful even in the times that might cause us to doubt Him the most.

Editor's Note: March 2009

by Steven Hong

What a blessing it was to share in sweet fellowship with the Mellwigs. As Meinolf preached during the Missions Conference and many at LBC had the opportunity to interact with Meinolf and Martina for the first time, it was a great reminder that the work of God stretches far beyond our San Diego. To know that we have like-minded partners carrying out the same work of the Gospel in the Czech is an amazing thought to consider.

With fresh memories of our dear partners, we can begin to prepare to send out our own summer missions teams. Whether you are physically going or not, please be in prayer and consider how you will continue to do Gospel-work in making disciples of Christ.

Are you a member and interested in writing for The Beacon? Do you have a comment, question or encouragement regarding the newsletter? If so, please contact me.