Hey everyone-

Have a happy and safe new year. Don't forget that we don't have any services New Years Eve at the church and our regular schedule will resume on Sunday, January 4, 2009.

I am officially in class again. This means more studying, but actually more refreshing as well. Therefore, the blog posts will pick up tremendously mainly due to the amount of information that I will be taking in to myself. More than likely, there will be more on the topics of theology, doctrine, and their relevance to everyday life that stem from this post and we led to write it. I will add more tomorrow about the article where I found this but for tonight I would like to share this thought with you all.

The people that know me know that I love music. Students often say that they can tell what kind of mood I am in by what type of music is playing on my iNeighborhood in my office at FBC Sylacauga. (It is an iNeighborhood because it is way too big to be an iHome.) Anyway, I obviously love hymns and songs of praise and worship. But more than this I love to acquire understanding of what the writer experienced to write the song. One of the more popular contemporary worship songs currently is God of this City by Chris Tomlin. Here is the story of this song:

"Nov 2007, Bluetree are heading out to Pattaya Thailand to participate in an event arranged by Belfast missionaries living in Pattaya, Thailand called Pattaya Praise. We've no expectation of the event; we were just looking for an opportunity to serve somehow.

We didn't know much about it before we left, but Pattaya is a dark place. It's a small seaside town notorious for it's sex trade. Throughout our time there we heard countless stories of girls who are bought from their parents for a price, sold to the sex industry at ages as young as 5 years old. Arriving in Pattaya the spiritual climate seems to change, it's hard to define, but there is a very tangible change. On the bus journey in we'd been our usual cheery selves, but entering Pattaya at 10am and turning on to a street lined by girls ready for business, the bus became very quiet. We're in total shock. It's a sunny day but it's incredible how dark it feels.

'Walking street' we learn is the epicentre of the sex trade in Pattaya, it's about a mile long and at night springs to life with neon signs. Thai people are generally conservative in their dress sense – it's generally considered provocative to bare your shoulders. But on their street the girls are wearing very little, and offering anything you can imagine for a price. It's easy to look around with human eyes, see the depravity and get angry. You see older men walking hand-in-hand with young girls – as a daddy, that's hard to take in. It's easy to get angry, it's easy to judge – but that's not our job, so we grit our teeth.

We were in Pattaya to be part of a praise event not far from this street, the soul purpose of which was to worship and show God's light in a dark place. We wanted to play more than the scheduled slots while we were there, so we found out that one of the bar owners would let us play a worship set in her bar on the proviso that we brought as many from the missions team who would buy coke-a-cola all night. We walk in to the bar which is about the middle of walking street, girls are lined up on the stairs waiting for business. We get set up, we're really nervous and quite uncomfortable but we kick in to a familiar beat of worship and soon it's ok. God starts to speak and we started to move in to this spontaneous song. The truth is when you worship in a place, you start to see God's heart for that place. What would God say to a place like this?

Amidst the depravity God say's, I'm the God of this City, I'm the King of these people and Greater Thing are Yet to Come, Greater Things are Still to be Done HERE. The song wasn't written before that night, but we came out of the bar having worshipped with the song that is now the title track of our album – God of this City (Greater things). The song isn't just for Pattaya – it's for your city, and it's true. By faith we must expect that greater things are still to be done."

Many that will read this post have been afforded the opportunity to walk on foreign soil and be totally immersed in another culture for the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the nations. Even now you can see the faces of the children that you made crafts with and prayed with in their humble homes. You can smell the air even though you are not there. We leave with the intent that we will never forget and there is a new flame in our heart to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ with all that we meet. Whatever city you find yourself living in or traveling through as you read this please do not forget that God is the God of that city. He is the King of those people and greater things ARE yet to come. If we do not see God doing great things there for His glory then we need to change our location. Either we are going to change the community around us, or we need to change the community around us.

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Now that we have returned from the spiritual high of our international mission opportunity and the reality of life back in North America has reminded us of how much work there is to do where we live, I want to take time and share a few of the hundreds of photographs and thoughts from our journey.

The picture to the left is the inside of New Dawn Baptist Church. Several years before I arrived at FBC Sylacauga, teams from our church were a part of this building project. If my memory is correct, then NDBC is the seventh church plant of Jerusalem Baptist Church. Pastor Saul and his ministry team have developed the 1 + 1 strategy of reaching people in the surrounding community. For those that went and helped with the building years ago a lot has changed around NDBC. Some people told me that there were fields that encompassed the new church. Now there are homes on both sides of the streets next to the church and across from it and extend for ½ mile.

The people here were extremely inviting and courteous to our team. It was truly an incredible place to begin our work in Honduras and a place to worship with other Christ followers.

Hello to all of our friends back in the United States.  Everything is going incredibly well here.  My original intentions were to update the blog nightly but after 12 hour work days it is not that important.  It is obvious that God is blessing our ministry efforts here in San Pedro Sula Honduras.  Today we went to a small village called Choloma and did evangelism and crafts in a small school called Japon. 

Jameson shared his testimony about what Christ has done in his life for the first time.  I have to say that it is much like watching a new child being born.  He did an incredible job!  Afterwards I was given the chance with the afternoon session of students to share  the plan of salvation.  There were about 200 children in the morning session and in the afternoon session.  I will try to write more after supper.  The weather is beautiful every morning but as the day goes it rains every afternoon.  When it does it makes the internet and televisions stop working here.

To Christina Willi am and Jackson.... I love you all!  Boys be good for your Mommy!  Daddy is going to bring them home some soccer jerseys from one of the best soccer teams in all of Central America... Real Espana!  I will write more soon!

En Cristo
Kenny

We have arrived safely in Honduras with no problems. =3B Praise God!&nb= sp=3B Customs did not open one of our bags and in fact all of the bags made= it here safely. =3B We have had an amazing morning so far and I will c= ome back and post more after our services tonight. =3B Please pass the = word that we are here safely! =3B
 =3B
I love you Christina=2C William=2C and Jackson!
In Christ=2C
Kenny

It=92s a talkathon =96 but it=92s not just talk. Check out the i=92m Talkathon.