THE MISSION...
"Jesus didn't say anything about services but he said a lot about serving..."
Jesus said a LOT about serving but nothing about services. He said a LOT about relationships but very little about religion. He never established an organization or an institution but He established a new order and kingdom. The old order was based in darkness. It was about hiding, covering up our wrongs, rationalizing, excusing etc. The new order is about truth, transparency, humility and taking responsibilty for ourselves and those around us. It's a new kindgom not based on fear or control but based on love and giving. It's a kingdom no longer rooted in selfishness but selflessness.
He calls us not to comfort but to a cross, not to security or worldly success but to a life of risk. He calls us to "lose that which we can not keep to gain that which we can not lose" (Jim Elliot's words). He calls us to a revolution of love not a revolting self-righteousness. He calls us to self-negation not self-realization. He calls us to a life of JOY, PEACE and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. He calls us to the infinite pleasures that only a God pleaser can know. He commands us to LOVE GOD WITH ALL We'VE GOT, LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELF, PREACH THE GOSPEL, MAKE DISCIPLES...
Every day in our everyday life we can do it. He enables us. HE IS the life the truth and the WAY. Say no to yourself, say yes to Him, live the mission today, in little and big ways, anyway you can, and experience the fullness of joy that only those who live THE LIFE can enjoy. You'll be singing that song; "When I do His will, I feel His pleasure... ", Oh how great it is!!!
BLESS YA
JDE
Monday, August 14, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Here's our latest Update gang...
Eastlick Update AUG. 06
We really enjoyed our visit to the states and seeing most of you. It is so good to be home again though. We heard about the heat waves and Brazilians here are praying for you, of course they don’t realize that what is considered heat wave there is just normal Amazon weather here. We wanted to write to thank everyone and to give you an update.
SO MANY THANKS…
Thanks so much to the Cole’s and the Ruggle’s for the vehicles, hospitality, food, gas money and even cell phone!!! WOW! If it had not been for you guys we would have been grounded and unable to do most of the other things we did! Thanks also to the Mason’s, Thom’s, the White’s and the Eastlick’s for all their hospitality and help. Thanks to the Wedel’s, Grandma, Grandpa, my bro’s and to Tonya and the Loberg’s for taking care of our kids. Thanks those of you who gave the special offerings if it wasn’t for you guys we would have actually spent much more than we took in on this trip and our budget would have been busted. We pretty much broke even after paying tithes. We thank God and each of you he used!
We also wanted to thank New Covenant who blessed in a huge way, friends from St Paul M.B. Church and Eastgate and of course 4th base and everyone at Crossroads who invited us in the first place to come, who support us monthly, have sent us to Brazil and cover us in prayer. Thank YOU all!!
Thanks to the couple who came forward on a Wednesday night and committed to help. (You know who you are, bless your hearts!) Thanks to them we have re-started the wrestling academy and will begin to build back up the numbers and minister to the guys again. We also had a dear friend commit to support us on a personal level an amount that will help us so much and allow us to begin to support my brother-in-law who has been just a tremendous help to us in the ministry here and yet with no support other than what he makes doing odd jobs. He moved here from Belem to work with us and has been such a blessing.
Thanks to Banz’s for all your work for the picnic to happen! Thank you to the guys who grilled for us! It was all so cool! Thanks to everyone who came and made it so special. Thanks to Pastor Steve for hooking us up with the day on the lake. Thanks to Chato and Frank for two of the best meals I have had in my life. You guys should open a restaurant! Thanks Chung, Kathy & Greg, Pastor Greg, Pastor Ron, Keith, Julie, and all you friends I already mentioned for just being such good friends and blessings!
ILLINOIS/ WISCONSIN run…
We preached 10 services while home. We logged at least 1500 miles on the cars we used. We met with the kids ministry team, 4th base, the Jo Davies campus, area leaders, some of the youth ministry team, the “Harp and Bowl” prayer ministry team, mission Freeport folks, several couples, many friends and all our family. It was a very full time. I got to go fishing twice and Dulce got to go shopping twice. Unfortunately she had a LOT more luck than I did. All I caught was some brush and trees, snags and sunburn but I sure had fun doing it. On the way home we got blessed with $1,200 airfare credit for our entire family, a stay in a nice hotel and 3 meals just for giving up our seats on an overbooked flight. Hopefully we can use the airfare to visit Dulce’s family again or to help get Talita to the states in December.
TALITA’S NEWS…
While we were in the USA Talita worked with short term mission teams on the Amazon river. She got to lead devotions for one team and helped lead worship. She worked translating vacation Bible schools for the kids along the river. She sang, teaching the kids and involving them as well. She got to tell them the story of Jesus and many children gave their lives to Christ. She shared how beautiful it was to see so many children praying to receive Christ and how she cried when each group left. She also got to take some of the gang from the mission teams to youth group at our church and translate for them as they made new friends and later went to play soccer together. She wrote in an email to us: “I really got to love this group of guys. I got to see how God changed them after seeing the village Indians. It was so awesome! These trips made living in Brazil worth it.” She also shared how one of the translators really challenged her to keep the missionary dream alive. It was really cool what God did.
Talita also just turned 17!
(Some pics from her Birthday party)
PRAYER NEEDS and PRAISE REPORTS
Upon our return we have some praise reports and prayer concerns…
Praise…
-We got blessed on our way home with flight vouchers, hotel room and some great meals
- We have restarted the academy and have plans to restart ‘church on the mat.
-Juliandrey’s brother who had tried to commit suicide just before we left for the states got saved!!!!
-Our church went through some “Bondage Breaker”, inner healing type teaching that was very good and some of our cell group people were so ministered to.
Prayer needs…
- Several of the guys have fallen off from the cell group while I was gone. At least one has seriously backslidden. Please pray for them and for us to be able to bring them back and help them get on more solid footing.
- Juliandrey and his “fiancé” need to get married and they have had some pretty big setbacks, even though we are working through things, they really need prayer as do we to counsel them.
- We need grace to readjust and get back into the groove.
- We ask for prayer for wisdom and favor as we try to find our place where we can be most productive for the church and for the kingdom here.
- We need God to work out the stuff with the tickets. We still have not been refunded for the 5 tickets we originally bought to go to the states that were cancelled by the airline. (That’s about $3500.)
- We continue to ask for prayer for God’s protection, provision, health and peace as we serve Him.
BLESS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, FRIENDSHIP AND FOR PRAYING!!!!
EMAIL US SOMETIME AT :joneastlick@yahoo.com
God bless ya!!! Love,
Jon, Dulce, Talita, Israel, Lucinda
Eastlick Update AUG. 06
We really enjoyed our visit to the states and seeing most of you. It is so good to be home again though. We heard about the heat waves and Brazilians here are praying for you, of course they don’t realize that what is considered heat wave there is just normal Amazon weather here. We wanted to write to thank everyone and to give you an update.
SO MANY THANKS…
Thanks so much to the Cole’s and the Ruggle’s for the vehicles, hospitality, food, gas money and even cell phone!!! WOW! If it had not been for you guys we would have been grounded and unable to do most of the other things we did! Thanks also to the Mason’s, Thom’s, the White’s and the Eastlick’s for all their hospitality and help. Thanks to the Wedel’s, Grandma, Grandpa, my bro’s and to Tonya and the Loberg’s for taking care of our kids. Thanks those of you who gave the special offerings if it wasn’t for you guys we would have actually spent much more than we took in on this trip and our budget would have been busted. We pretty much broke even after paying tithes. We thank God and each of you he used!
We also wanted to thank New Covenant who blessed in a huge way, friends from St Paul M.B. Church and Eastgate and of course 4th base and everyone at Crossroads who invited us in the first place to come, who support us monthly, have sent us to Brazil and cover us in prayer. Thank YOU all!!
Thanks to the couple who came forward on a Wednesday night and committed to help. (You know who you are, bless your hearts!) Thanks to them we have re-started the wrestling academy and will begin to build back up the numbers and minister to the guys again. We also had a dear friend commit to support us on a personal level an amount that will help us so much and allow us to begin to support my brother-in-law who has been just a tremendous help to us in the ministry here and yet with no support other than what he makes doing odd jobs. He moved here from Belem to work with us and has been such a blessing.
Thanks to Banz’s for all your work for the picnic to happen! Thank you to the guys who grilled for us! It was all so cool! Thanks to everyone who came and made it so special. Thanks to Pastor Steve for hooking us up with the day on the lake. Thanks to Chato and Frank for two of the best meals I have had in my life. You guys should open a restaurant! Thanks Chung, Kathy & Greg, Pastor Greg, Pastor Ron, Keith, Julie, and all you friends I already mentioned for just being such good friends and blessings!
ILLINOIS/ WISCONSIN run…
We preached 10 services while home. We logged at least 1500 miles on the cars we used. We met with the kids ministry team, 4th base, the Jo Davies campus, area leaders, some of the youth ministry team, the “Harp and Bowl” prayer ministry team, mission Freeport folks, several couples, many friends and all our family. It was a very full time. I got to go fishing twice and Dulce got to go shopping twice. Unfortunately she had a LOT more luck than I did. All I caught was some brush and trees, snags and sunburn but I sure had fun doing it. On the way home we got blessed with $1,200 airfare credit for our entire family, a stay in a nice hotel and 3 meals just for giving up our seats on an overbooked flight. Hopefully we can use the airfare to visit Dulce’s family again or to help get Talita to the states in December.
TALITA’S NEWS…
While we were in the USA Talita worked with short term mission teams on the Amazon river. She got to lead devotions for one team and helped lead worship. She worked translating vacation Bible schools for the kids along the river. She sang, teaching the kids and involving them as well. She got to tell them the story of Jesus and many children gave their lives to Christ. She shared how beautiful it was to see so many children praying to receive Christ and how she cried when each group left. She also got to take some of the gang from the mission teams to youth group at our church and translate for them as they made new friends and later went to play soccer together. She wrote in an email to us: “I really got to love this group of guys. I got to see how God changed them after seeing the village Indians. It was so awesome! These trips made living in Brazil worth it.” She also shared how one of the translators really challenged her to keep the missionary dream alive. It was really cool what God did.
Talita also just turned 17!
(Some pics from her Birthday party)
PRAYER NEEDS and PRAISE REPORTS
Upon our return we have some praise reports and prayer concerns…
Praise…
-We got blessed on our way home with flight vouchers, hotel room and some great meals
- We have restarted the academy and have plans to restart ‘church on the mat.
-Juliandrey’s brother who had tried to commit suicide just before we left for the states got saved!!!!
-Our church went through some “Bondage Breaker”, inner healing type teaching that was very good and some of our cell group people were so ministered to.
Prayer needs…
- Several of the guys have fallen off from the cell group while I was gone. At least one has seriously backslidden. Please pray for them and for us to be able to bring them back and help them get on more solid footing.
- Juliandrey and his “fiancé” need to get married and they have had some pretty big setbacks, even though we are working through things, they really need prayer as do we to counsel them.
- We need grace to readjust and get back into the groove.
- We ask for prayer for wisdom and favor as we try to find our place where we can be most productive for the church and for the kingdom here.
- We need God to work out the stuff with the tickets. We still have not been refunded for the 5 tickets we originally bought to go to the states that were cancelled by the airline. (That’s about $3500.)
- We continue to ask for prayer for God’s protection, provision, health and peace as we serve Him.
BLESS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, FRIENDSHIP AND FOR PRAYING!!!!
EMAIL US SOMETIME AT :joneastlick@yahoo.com
God bless ya!!! Love,
Jon, Dulce, Talita, Israel, Lucinda
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