When we moved to the States in 1991 there were all kinds of things that were new to us. Did you know that in the UK to turn a light on the switch is pushed down, the opposite of here? Then of course there was the joy of driving on the wrong side of the road, discovering shopping malls (that was more of a delight for Gill to be honest) and of course savoring treats like bagels and real pizza.

One of the biggest changes for me was that I had to learn some new sports and say farewell to some old ones. There’s not much cricket on TV here and when Americans talk about football they don’t actually mean a game where you kick the ball with your feet. No decent soccer here either. But to compensate, I got aquainted with some new games, like softball. I’ve always been part of a church with a softball team and I love the game.

Seven innings of Saturday night fun and maybe a little tension at times too!

Just seven innings. I keep thinking of that number when I realize that in three weeks from now we will be celebrating the seventh anniversary of Grace Church. If this was softball we’d be almost finished!

The good news though is that this isn’t a game. It’s a life or death pursuit of men and women who need to receive the gift of eternal life. It’s bringing people into forgiveness, freedom and purpose in life. There’s no end to that, so the conclusion of our seventh year may well be around the corner, but there’s a heck of a lot more we need to do. We’ve hardly started.

Tomorrow I’ll be talking about the way we’ll celebrate our anniversary on October 2nd. It’s a challenge, it’s a change and as we seem to say fairly often, we’ve never done it before!

Hasta manana!

I love that classic sermon by Tony Campolo – it’s about Easter, but it’s a constant reminder that however bleak one day may be, God is the God of resurrection and of the new day. Campolo’s one of my favorite preachers and writers. He has a lot of insight and is extremely funny with a tendency towards being outrageous – guess he’s my kind of guy!

Since this is the start of Week 2 of this new communication tool, here’s what I’d like to do on Fridays. First to give you a heads up on what will be in the printed View on Sunday. That way if you should have to miss us this weekend (and who dares after last Sunday’s message???), you’ll be in the picture about what’s happening. Then on Friday’s I want to nominate a Cool Person Of The Week.

Here’s Sunday’s View -

Welcome to Grace Church on this special Sunday morning. There is a lot going on in our service today and all of that makes this Sunday different –

Remembering Our Heroes
Today is September 11th, a date so sealed into our memories that when we say it, no one asks what year we are talking about. We are thinking of those horrendous scenes in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. on a late summer morning in 2001. Today we salute those who gave their lives trying to rescue others; we remember innocent victims and we pray for those who still mourn.

Metamorphosis
We’re starting a new teaching series today that will run for the next two Sundays. It’s all about change. None of us stays the way we are – we are all changing in different ways. God helps us to be transformed during the course of this journey on earth and it all starts with today’s topic, Stage One: A Change Of Heart.

Hurricane Response
We’re receiving a special offering at the end of this morning’s service that will open a fund to give us the resources to respond to some of the incredible needs of those whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The fund will remain open and donations may be made at any time by designating gifts “Hurricane Relief”.

Better Together
Today we’ll be setting the scene for a fall campaign called 40 Days of Community. For six weeks, starting October 23rd, we’ll be joining with hundreds of churches nationwide and looking at the question What On Earth Are We Here For? During that time, in Sunday services, small groups and special events we’ll be looking for answers and taking steps to develop community within the church so we can serve the community around the church.

HURRICANE RESPONSE TEAM
We are currently putting together a first response team to leave for Pascagoula, Mississippi next weekend and spend a week in this town helping people salvage what is left of their homes. Pascagoula is receiving little outside help, but the folks living there need others to come alongside them and assist with tree removal, taking up ruined floors, removing flood damaged sheetrock, etc to try to save their houses.
It’s hot, humid and inhospitable. Our team will need to travel by road so they can take in all they need, including tents to sleep in. It’s going to be a rough trip and it’s only open to men this time. But we do have a couple of spots left for a few more guys. Talk to Frank Summers today if you want to be part of our first response effort.

BRINGING IN THE FOOD
We’re feeding hundreds of people each month through our Grace Care programs and appreciate all who make it possible. If you have a couple of hours a week to help with food pick-ups (which include loading and unloading the van), please call the church office or talk direct to Kerry Tooker at the Grace Care cart in the foyer today.

COOL PERSON OF THE WEEK
Our first Cool Person Of The Week Award goes to three people so it’s persons of the week this time. And they are (drum roll please Steve) …

Jake and Johanna Fagerland and Jake’s friend Gary

Jake and Johanna did two great things last Sunday. First, Jake brought his neighbor Gary to church with him. Second, all three of them decided they wanted to do something to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. So they put together a plan to collect change from people as they came into the movie theater for the service. They set up their sign at a table in the foyer and waited with their magic change jar. It wasn’t really magic of course, but it did count what was going in and kept a running total, which is pretty cool. So by the end of the day these two younger members of our congregation and their guest had collected $115-71. Great job kids! Way to go! A real example to us all.
Note to everyone: They’ll be there with the magic jar again this week, so be ready to part with all your change at the door. Rumor has it the candy lady will be back too!

Okay, Frank Summers is going to lead our first Hurricane Relief Team, leaving for Pascagoula, Mississippi next Friday night, September 16th. We already have four people ready to participate and should quickly fill the remaining spots.

Ramp Ford in Port Jefferson Station are donating the use of a 15-passenger van which will carry both personnel and equipment.

Check back for info on ways you could help the team.

I just had a heart-rending conversation with a lady in a town I have never heard of before – Pascagoula. It’s near the Alabama border and away from the glare of the TV cameras, but there are homes there that have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina and people there who don’t know where to start putting their lives back together.

So here’s our first missions project to the Gulf Coast region:

We need six men – sorry ladies, this one is not for you – to go drive down to Mississippi next Friday night (September 16th) and spend four or five days in that town, helping people to salvage what is left of their homes.

They’ll be relieving a team from my friend Tony Liston’s church in Iowa, who will be there this coming week. The team will need to camp while they are there, take care of themselves and help strip the ruined sheet rock out of homes, remove fallen trees, etc., etc

Carolyn Ezell, who is our contact there, wept as we talked on the phone. She is one of the pastors of a great church in California, but has gone home to help her family and community recover from this devastating blow.

I saw Rick Warren on TV today. He was asked, “Where is God in all this?”
His reply was, “I kneeled on the floor of Houston Astrodome and talked to an evacuee and as I did so, I looked at all the caring people around me offering support and help. God was right there.”

If you can be the hands of Jesus in Mississippi for a few days – now is the time! Please call our office for more information.

It started this morning with the follow-on from a mini-retreat we sponsored in June for ten local pastors. We met up again today and I continued to take them through the DVDs of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church Conference. Now to be honest, I preferred the setting of Montauk Yacht Club to the basement of a church in Patchogue and we ate better out there than the steamed vegetables from the local Chinese place that I crunched my way through at lunch time today.

But what a profitable time we had as we talked, prayed, studied, laughed and discussed things together. They are a great bunch of guys, including the lone lady who is brave enough to associate with us, Sister Elaine from the Lighthouse Mission.

Then tonight was the Town Board meeting where they were discussing the proposed amendment to the town code that is really a thinly veiled attempt at halting our plans to build. We had some great presentations made on our behalf and it was good to have four local pastors speaking up in support of churches retaining the automatic right to build in residential areas. After we had all done our bit, it was left with the Town Board. At some point in the not-so-distant future they will decide whether to go ahead or make places of worship exempt from their revisions.

God knows! It’s all in his hands and the people who sit on the Town Board are there by divine permission if I read my Bible right.

You know what I thought was best about tonight? It was great that we have the freedom to voice our opinions, make ourselves heard and confront our lawmakers face to face. It may have its flaws, but this is a great country and I for one am thankful for the freedoms we enjoy.

I just got back from our Labor Day Picnic – what a great afternoon! We’re always in such a hurry on Sundays as our time at the movie theater is limited, that there’s little time for fellowship, so it was great to have around five hours hanging out with so many of our church folks. Best of all, today has helped remove a dark cloud that has been hanging over me for the past twelve months.

You see, we had no pincic in 2002 or 2003 because it rained both those years. One of them was the wettest Labor Day on record. I can’t remember how many inches, but it was cold, wet and windy.

Last year Gill and I went on a cruise the week before Labor Day. It was a great deal that I found on the internet and I couldn’t believe the price for a two-stop, five nights sail in the Gulf of Mexico. Of course not long after I had parted with my cash, some kind soul pointed out to me that the reason the prices were so low is that they can hardly give away reservations at the height of hurricane season. Hurricane season! I never thought of that, but was sure it wouldn’t affect us.

And it didn’t – not until the third day of the cruise when we learned a hurricane was approaching southern Florida and would be slowly making its way up the west coast and through the Gulf. So we had an extra four days at sea at no extra cost, bouncing around on the extreme edges of the storm.

We didn’t get back to Long Island until Wednesday, although we had been due home on Saturday. We missed the Labor Day Picnic, which had been held for the first time since 2001 on what turned out to be a spectacular summer’s day. And then the rumours started to circulate. The name of Jonah was being mentioned under their breath by certain people.

When Rog was here, they reasoned, it rained. This year he and his bad weather are 1500 miles away and here it’s sunny. They thought they had found the weather connection – it was all my fault. So tonight I feel vindicated. I was here for the picnic and the weather was beautiful. No humidity, clear skies and the upper 70′s.

So you can’t blame me any more. However, we do need to continue the hunt for the Jonah before next year’s picnic comes around!

We had a good service this morning.
At first I thought it was going to be a difficult day when I couldn’t find the pants I planned to wear and put on some others – only to discover they didn’t fit. Since I leave the house early on Sunday mornings, I didn’t want to disturb Gill, so after some hesitation I took one more look and of course the khakis I was looking for were right there in my closet, but a little nearer the back than I had expected. Wardrobe sorted out, it was all plainsailing from thereon in!!!

This was the last week of our Survivor: Long Island series and I was speaking on Staying The Course. In opening I mentioned that over the past few weeks we had looked at some of the tough things we have to attend to if we are going to come out winners and I mentioned that today’s subject was difficult too. Then, I can’t believe I said this, but I know I did, I added – “And if you leave here today feeling kicked in the stomach, I’ll know I did my job!”

When things were getting put away at the end of the service, someone told me that a lot of folks had mentioned to her they were going home feeling kicked in the stomach! A lot of people went home with the tape of the service too. In fact one of our pastoral team suggested to me that everyone in the church ought to hear the message and said we should get CD’s made and mail them out.

So that’s what we’ll do. For the sake of the many who were not with us as this is unofficially the last weekend of summer and also so that those who were there can be doubly sure they got the point, we are getting copies made for the whole church and will mail them out.

That’s not because it was a particularly brilliant sermon. It’s because Long Islanders probably need to hear the heart of the message more than most. In a world where we run ourselves ragged, it really is necessary to follow the example of Jesus and focus on the one thing that should direct our lives -
Philippians 3:13-14 – One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Too often God is tacked on in the little space that’s left – if any – when everything else is done and everyone else’s demands on us have been met. But there’s a better way, putting our desire for him first and letting everything else take its place behind that.

So, look out for the message in the mail – we hope to get it to you within the next seven days. It’s essential stuff if we want to be winners.

Several light years ago, when I was a kid living in a simple but loving home in the southwest corner of England, there was one day I dreaded more than any other. It wasn’t the day school started up again after those long idyllic summers, or the arrival of the six-monthly reminder from the dentist that it was time to sit in the torture chair again. I hated Christmas Eve.

Not because it was Christmas Eve or that I disliked Christmas. Hey I was a kid, I loved Christmas, but when I woke up on December 24th, there was only one thing standing between me and Santa’s goodies – what always seemed the longest day of the year. That’s why I didn’t like it. I wanted it over with. Why couldn’t it be the only three hour day in the year? Give the other 21 hours the rest of the day off! So I waited and waited and waited, all the time getting more and more excited about what I would discover early the next morning. Impatiently I wished the hours away.

A world away from Exter in the 1950′s, Saturday evenings have become my new Christmas Eve. Here I sit at my computer just waiting for it to be time to go to bed, so that I can wake up and it will be Sunday.

You see, I get excited about Sundays. I’m pumped here tonight. Who is going to be there? What people will visit Grace for the first time? Who will be encouraged, built up by the service? How many people will give their lives to Jesus? How many will find fresh hope?

We’ve been planning tomorrow for months. I remember back in May when we decided that we wanted to teach the lessons we’ve been covering this past few weeks and then thought that they would fit into a series we could call Survivor:Long Island.

That was over three months ago and tomorrow we get to develop all that we have been planning and praying over. But it’s not all about good preaching material, great music, class video or even the special fun segment for the finale of our series – it’s about God using all we do to transform lives.

Is there anything better to be involved in? If there is, please let me know. Meanwhile, playing the waiting game here on Saturday evening, I’m pumped because in little more than twelve hours from now, we’ll be doing stuff that will radically affect some people for eternity.

I look forward to seeing you!

We received this great photo from our missionaries in the Dominican Republic yesterday. Rob and Kelli Nelson are pictured standing beside the brand new van they have been able to buy for their work in needy communities all around that impoverished country, thanks to the amazing response of Grace Church members during our Mission Possible series in May.

They had just picked it up from the dealer when this shot was taken. Then they loaded it up with supplies and drove off to Arroyo Seco, located in the hills above Bella Vista, to offer health care to people who have absolutely none.

Next month we have a 22-person missions team from our church going down to work with Rob and Kelli. The men are going to undertake a work project with one of the churches they are linked to, while the ladies assist in medical clinics. We have teams going down there at least twice a year, so now would be a good time to start making plans to be part of the Spring mission. Stage One is to get a passport if you don’t have one already.

I sometimes think that having a current passport should be a basic requirement for being part of our church! Do you know that by the end of November more than 10% of our adults will have been on a missions trip this year? – Either to the D.R., India, South Africa or Indonesia. You never know when God might touch your heart and whisper that this next venture is the one for you, so it’s best to be prepared. You could start saving too – put back a few dollars a month so that when the opportunity arises, you will already be prepared.

By the way, the figures I gave do not count those who will be headed for the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You can read more about that by just scrolling down the page.

Your gifts are the main support for the Nelson family and for all they do. And it is your caring hearts that have put them back on the road. I am tremendously proud to be part of this church.

With the heart-rending news reports coming in all the time from New Orleans and Mississippi, there’s a question that I’m getting asked all the time? Are We Sending A Team?

Now this is not just coming from people who are a part of Grace Church, it’s being asked by those who don’t come to our services but clearly know what we’re about. And the answer is “Yes!”. Of course we are. This is what we do.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not looking for people to fly into who knows where, drive along non-existent highways and go dredging through flood waters for victims and survivors. The professionals are doing that. But when the dust has settled and the immediate response teams and charities have gone home, thousands of people are going to need help putting their lives back together.

So here’s the plan -

+ On Sunday September 11th, we will be receiving a special offering that will open a fund for Hurricane Relief in the Gulf Region. So if members of your family or the people where you work are wondering what to do, here’s the answer. In fact, why no be pro-active and initiate a collection for our relief fund?

+ We have registered with several agencies and are actively doing all we can to stay abreast of things so that when we find openings for hands-on involvement, we can send people to help and give them the funds we have accumulated so that they can disperse them.

That strategy worked well in our Tsunami Relief efforts and today there are families in Banda Aceh who will have their homes rebuilt because we got involved. Sadly, for all the billions pledged by governments and donated to aid agencies, nothing has reached the hundreds of thousands who are still homeless, living in the rubble of Banda.

In this domestic disaster, we are looking for hands-on involvement and a real investement in the lives of others who are hurting terribly right now. So that’s the strategy. Collect resources and then send people.

That’s what we do at Grace – but the concept is not original. It all started with a guy called Jesus!