Photos and Story from West Virginia Mission Trip

Photos and Story by Christy Blanchard of the Grace Writers Group 

 Tony Haywood and Greg Thomas load up the truck before leaving Southern Pines to head to West Virginia to bless folk with food and some toys. 

 Juan Gomez and his daughter, Madison, make children's bracelets from Duck Tape.

 Christy Blanchard (left) and Juan Gomez and his daughter, Madison, riding the van to W. Virginia. 

 Bradshaw, W. Va., church is shown here.

 Greg Thomas is pictured in front of the Bradshaw, W. Va., church.

 Piano in the Bradshaw, West Virginia church.

 Bradshaw, W. Va., church interior.

 Pictured here is the church in Welch, W. Va.

 This board of on the wall of the Bradshaw, W. Virginia, church shows attendance recorded on the Sunday before the Grace Church visited the church.

 Prayer request box in the Welch, W. Va., church.

 Ken Hadaway (left), missions director for Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., stands with Pastor Dean Crane (center) and Tony Haywood of Helping Hands Ministry of Moore County, N.C.

 Stanley Lynn, Juan and Madison Gomez, and Kevin Jones unload the truck.

Kevin Jones, Harmony Hicks and Corey Bittner distribute toy-boxes in Welch, W. Va.

 Christy Blanchard, Harmony Hicks, Melissa Jones, Corey Bittner and Tamara Fore help stock the pantry at the Welch, W. Va., church.

 Stanley Lynn, Josh Blanchard, Corbyn and Ed Farlow unload the truck.

 Julius Fore (left), Greg Thomas (center) and Adam Floyd prepare to cook a meal in W. Va.

 Donna Haywood lays out toys for children.

  Pictured are a Bradshaw church member, William and Pastor Dean Crane.

 Ken Hadaway, Julius Fore, Christy Blanchard and Corey Bittner prepare a meal at the Welch, W. Va., church.

 Pictured is a crowd of people eating lunch at the Welch, W. Virginia, church.

 Josh Blanchard talks with children at the Welch, W. Va., church.

  Pictured is a license plate of a Bradshaw, W. Va., citizen.

 Josh Blanchard (left) pictured with two children at the Bradshaw, West Virginia, church.

 A piece of paper found by Christy Blanchard at the Bradshaw, West Virginia, church.

 Distributing items at the Bradshaw, W. Va., church.

 Kids pictured opening toy boxes at the Bradshaw church.

For the past few months, members of Grace Church of Southern Pines, N.C., worked hard to collect toys to fill shoeboxes. Participants also collected nonperishable food items, blankets, gently used TVs, DVD and tape players, movies, etc.  Some church members volunteered to go on a short mission trip to deliver collected items to two church in West Virginia.  

The group left early on Friday, November 9, 2012, and returned on the afternoon of November 11. The team leader was Ken Hadaway, missions director for Grace Chruch. Team members included Juan and Madison Gomez, Stanley Lynn, Harmony Hicks, Corey and Kimberly Bittner, Julius and Tamara Fore, Josh and Christy Blanchard, Greg and Corbyn Thomas, Tony and Donna Haywood, Adam Floyd, Kevin and Melissa Jones, Doug Stewart, Janelle and Amy Imbriale, Chris and Dalton Leist, Ed Farlow, and Randy Todd. 

The team arrived in Welch, West Virginia, around 6:00 p.m., Friday evening and had dinner and fellowship time at the church. The next morning, the team woke up early and stocked the pantry of the church in Welch with donated food items. The team then prepared a lunch meal of hotdogs, baked beans, chips, coleslaw and lemonade. After lunch, a short church service was held and people who attended the service received tickets that allowed each of them to pick out an item of need, such as a TV or floor heater, as well as a box of food and toys for their children. That afternoon the team arrived in Bradshaw, West Virginia, and prepared a hotdog dinner meal and distributed items in the same way after a short church service was held. At this church, one little girl received toothpaste in her toy box and was so excited that she ran around showing everyone of her new item. 

  Everyone on the team and people who donated items for the trip worked very hard, and our church was able to bless the people of Welch and Bradshaw, just in time for the holiday season.

'The Peacemaker' - Another West Virginia story by Christy Blanchard

  Pictured (from left): an unidentified lady from Bradshaw, W. Va., William (center) and Pastor Dean Crane who ministers in West Virginia. 
 
This past weekend my husband and I went on a mission trip to West Virginia with Grace Church of Southern Pines, N.C. While in West Virginia, we met a man named William. He was older and sometimes talked to himself, but he was very sweet and clearly loved the Lord. He told me that he had survived 22 heart attacks and his doctor finally gave him a “peacemaker” for his heart.

He had some of us sign his Bible and his guitar. He had a lot of signatures in his Bible and even more on his guitar. He said that every time he read his Bible, he prayed for those who had signed it and did the same when he played his guitar. I asked him to play a song for us before he left. I didn’t know what to expect, because he slurred his words a little when he talked, but as soon as he picked up his guitar, he completely changed. He was very skilled at playing the guitar and sounded just like Johnny Cash. I told him that, and he said he had played his music for Johnny Cash in the past. Then he told me he had just played for the governor of West Virginia and pulled out a picture of himself with the governor to prove it.

Before he left, he pulled out two, crisp 2-dollar bills and gave one to me and the other to another woman from Grace Church. He said he just wanted us to have them and wanted to bless us. He ripped his address off of a letter in his pocket and gave it to me, so I could send him a Christmas card. He requested that I get lots of people to sign it, and I told him I would. 

Human Trafficking Addressed by iEmpathize

Ken Hadaway (left), director of missions at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., stands in the Grace Church lobby with Julie and Brad Riley of iEmpathize.

“Do I empathize?” asked Brad Riley of “iEmpathize” as he spoke recently at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C.

Riley, who lives with his wife, Julie, in Boulder, Colorado, is the founder and president of “iEmpathize” (iE), “an international child advocacy and media non-profit” with a mission “to eradicate child exploitation while engaging culture in creative solutions.” The group focuses on the U.S. and Mexico (www.iempathize.org).

“What we want to do is eradicate this stuff,” Riley said about human trafficking. “Sixty percent [of the iEmpathize budget] is used in prevention, restoration and intervention mixed with advocacy.”

He noted that disengaging and apathy are not “the heart of God.” He defined “empathy” as “walking in someone else’s shoes” or as “taking a walk with that person.”

“It’s not just to say ‘I’m not OK with that [human trafficking],’” Riley said. “Sympathy is passive. Empathy goes further. If we don’t step in, criminal enterprises get to do what they want. It’s a criminal problem, first, and a culture problem, second.”

He told of a young girl in Guatemala who saw her father kill her mother before killing himself.

“Her uncle began selling her for sex,” Riley said. He added that when two men, together, sexually abused the girl, she fought them, escaped and found her way to a safe house in Mexico City. No legislation against human trafficking existed in Mexico until three years ago, he noted.

The essence of the Gospel is really about empathy, Riley said.

“When we were in a bad way, the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,” he said. “God built us to be sympathetic beings. When we become insulated and focused on ourselves, God’s kingdom gets stifled out.”

He read God’s words recorded by Amos: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me” (Amos 5:21 NIV).

“Amos accused God’s people of participating in things the heathen did,” Riley said. “In our American church culture, we insulate ourselves from the problems of the world … Instances of injustice are all around us. Google ‘human trafficking in N.C.,’ and stories will come up – right here in our zip code.”

He said the comfort we receive from God should be given by us to other people.

“There’s a poverty in our language when we proclaim the grace of God,” Riley said. “It has to be lived.”

He described “empathetic distress” in a baby nursery: “When one baby cries, the others begin to cry. They don’t know why.”

“Empathy requires a first step,” Riley said, adding, “We can turn off the TV, but the victim of injustice never gets to look away.”

Riley said his mother, a math teacher, repeatedly told him, “If you don’t look at the problem, you’re never going to solve it.”   

“The only way to address darkness is to step into it and bring light to it,” he said. “It may require something radical of us to fulfill a reasonable request.”

Referring to Martin Luther King’s work in the Civil Rights Movement, Riley said, “He [King] asked for reasonable requests but was willing to pay a radical price.”

Bumper Crop for West Virginia - from Grace Church

Pictured are Grace Church of Southern Pines volunteers who worked recently during a “Bumper Crop” project. Many church attendees placed foodstuffs near the bumpers of their vehicles. Volunteers boxed the goods going to replenish seven church pantries in West Virginia areas such as Welsh, Bluefield, Bradshaw and Eliot, according to Ken Hadaway, Director of Missions for Grace Church.

 Photos below are by Frank Martin of Grace Church:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Faith & Politics Group Hears Speaker

Pictured are, from left, Robert Potts of Faith & Freedom Coalition and Eddie Nobles of Grace Church

 

Robert Potts of the “Faith & Freedom Coalition” spoke at an August 22, 2012, meeting of Grace Church’s “Faith & Politics” group, which is led by Eddie Nobles of Whispering Pines, N.C. The meeting was held at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C.

Potts, of Duluth, Georgia, serves as the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s deputy national field director. The organization is described as “conservative and non-partisan.” Potts spoke about “getting out the vote” for the upcoming Presidential election.

“The window of opportunity to communicate with voters is closing,” Potts said, noting that network news viewership has decreased 44 percent since 1980 and that people have “varied news sources.”

He said viewers now have more TV choices and that 24 percent (a 2007 statistic) of U.S. households have DVRs (digital video recorders) to assist them with selective viewing.  

“Maybe 75 percent have DVRs, now,” he said, adding that many people now use cell phones and depend on “Caller ID” to screen incoming calls.    

“Twenty-eight percent of Americans have unlisted numbers,” Potts said.

He noted that in 2008, 17 million registered evangelicals did not vote in the U.S. Presidential election.

“John McCain lost by just eight million votes in 2008,” Potts said. “If you don’t have the numbers, you don’t win.”

Photos below show Robert Potts talking with and to Grace Church's Faith & Politics group. (Left-click once on each photo in order to see it larger.)

'Fight Club - Main Event' at Grace Church

 

 Men Gathered (left-click on images to enlarge them). 

 

Over 100 men gathered for breakfast and a “Main Event” meeting at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 15, 2012.

The Main Event gathering served as the launch of an extended version of a new Grace Church ministry called “Fight Club,” according to Ryan Peterson, a young father, husband and former tennis instructor who serves as Grace Church’s spiritual development pastor.

In advertising the event, Peterson wrote, “For too long, the church of America has made men into ‘nice guys,’ and we are inviting men into an adventure to fight in the front lines of a real battle we are facing every day.”

He says that battle “begs men to become ‘Heroes’ to their families, ‘Leaders’ in their places of influence and ‘Forceful Men of God’ to advance God’s kingdom, forcefully.” 

  Buck Mims, pictured, opened the meeting. 

Buck Mims welcomed attendees and thanked Gold’s Gym of Southern Pines for loaning some equipment for the event. A large punching bag, boxing gloves and barbells “graced” the church’s podium, adding to the “Fight Club” theme.

Mims introduced Peterson. Attendees sat at large roundtables brought into the church sanctuary. 

 Ryan Peterson laid out statistics for attendees.

“Forty-eight percent of males of ages 18-34 play video games an average of three hours per day,” Peterson said.

He said some men continue living like 13-year-olds. He called them “posers” – “boys acting as (and saying they are) men.”

“They have a hard time getting into relationships with men … and women,” he said, adding that some men “look at porn, rather than discover what their wives’ hearts look like.”

Peterson said that many women, today, are asking men to marry them. He noted that three women are raped each minute in the U.S.

“There’s $3,000 every second spent on porn [in the U.S.],” he said. “There are 28,000 people per second viewing porn. What if our Bibles were getting 28,000 hits per second by men? … We need to get more addicted to God’s word than to pornography.”

He said that God’s answer for this nation is the Church. 

“Let’s make sure our lives affect those around us,” Peterson said. “We have a fatherless nation, right now. Many boys are in jail because they had no father figures. … We have to have the humility to know it’s not about us.”

He said men in America have lost “identity” and are “passive.” He advised that men “need to find out who we are, despite what we do.”

 

Peterson referred to Genesis 1:26 NIV: “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

 

“We are made in God’s image,” Peterson said. “There is an image of power.”

He talked about Satan tempting Eve to become like God.

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6 NIV).

Referring to the last words in that verse, Peterson said Adam was “with” her; he explained that the Hebrew word for “with” means “elbow to elbow.”

He inferred that Adam might have stopped Eve from falling for Satan’s temptation, but Adam “sat there, passive.”

Peterson painted the U.S. as “a nation of passive men with identity problems.”

“Satan tranquilized Adam with passivity,” he said. “Thankfully, there’s a ‘Second Adam.’”

He read Matthew 3:17 NIV: “And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”

“Jesus got his identity way before he did anything,” Peterson said. “Go before your ‘Father in heaven’ and listen to who you are. You and I need to hear our names before anything else happens.”

He said Satan tempted Jesus after Jesus was baptized and led by the Spirit in a wilderness. He questioned Jesus’ identity by emphasizing the word “if.”

“The tempter came to him [Jesus] and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread’” (Matthew 4:3 NIV).

“Satan is up to the same thing [as with Adam],” Peterson said. “Jesus was secure in being the Son of God. Before Satan comes, you and I need to know who we are.”

He said Jesus was tempted after he fasted for 40 days.

“When you’re at your weakest point is when Satan hits,” Peterson said. “Satan will attack your identity, so you will become passive, tranquilized. … In the Garden, God asked [Adam], ‘Where are you?’ That’s the same question God’s asking, today. Stop hiding behind your fig leaf. … ‘Where are you in your relationship with me?’ God is asking. … There is a battle that rages.”

He referred to Exodus 15:13 NIV: “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.”

“What if we were more dependent on the Holy Spirit than our own thoughts?” Peterson asked. “Are we living as warriors or as routine men?”

He said God is a warrior (Exodus 15) and that Paul referred to Christians as “soldiers of Christ.”

He quoted Jeremiah 51:20 NIV: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle – with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.”

Peterson said, “God says, ‘I want to use you.’ Before we can ask others to follow, we have to follow. … You and I have to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

He referred to Paul’s statement found in 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

“Walk more in His power,” Peterson said.

He talked about putting on “the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10-20) and said there is a (spiritual) war going on.

 Nine men - some tell about involvement with "Fight Club." 

He invited his audience to watch scenes from “Gladiator.” The audience watched scenes from that movie, and then Peterson invited nine men – men he has been leading in Bible study – onto the stage. (A tenth man had already departed to attend college.)

Some of the men told what being in the “Fight Club” meetings for a year with Peterson had meant to them.

One man said, “God didn’t design us for our wives to drag us to church.”

Another man said the group meetings led him to be baptized in water, something he had not done after his years-age conversion to Christ.

A man said the group had helped him with his problem with anger. “I’d take it out on my wife; God’s definitely dealing with me,” he said.

A grey-haired father said he was the “OG” (old guy) in their group. His son, 19, who is now attending college and leading a Bible group at that college, participated last year in the Fight Club group with his father. The father, who noted that he’d been a Christian for 30 years, said, “This group’s something I’ve never experienced before in Christianity.”

Peterson referred to Philippians 4:13: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” He asked the men in his audience to sign up for more Fight Club groups he wants to help organize at Grace Church.  

### ------------- The below photograph shows Rick Payne, who attended the Sept. 9, 2012, Fight Club meeting. Rick has served a long time as head deacon at Grace Church in Southern Pines. Rick recently suffered a stroke and is recovering. Rick is definitely a Fight Club type of guy, a tender but tough-when-needed Christian man who is admired by many. 

 Rick Payne poses at the Sept. 9, 2012, Fight Club meeting.