“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the LORD.” Luke 2:11
May the LORD show Himself powerfully in your lives this Christmas season and into the New Year.
In the love of our Savior and LORD,
Greg West
Our longing is for the Kingdom of GOD to come here on earth as it is in heaven! O that the values of heaven would be embraced by people on our planet. This is GOD’s plan, this is what we work towards and pray for, just as Jesus taught us. With this in mind the Board of LIHN recently voted to provide a $3,000 scholarship for someone who embodies this vision. Wayne Credle Jr. is a second year student at Duke Divinity School. Before Duke, he was a student at Virginia Wesleyan College (VWC). Wayne started a ministry in 2009 called Under Construction for Christ (UCC) that expanded to VWC in 2010.
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| Wayne in the Marlin Ministries Lounge at VWC |
When Wayne was a Senior, we talked about handing off this ministry to other student leaders. Not only did Wayne successfully do that, he also continues to shepherd the leaders from Durham. When he is back in Hampton Roads, he meets with them to listen, encourage and disciple them. It is a beautiful model of Biblical discipleship happening on the VWC campus! Wayne’s call to ministry was revealed to him in 2004 at his mother’s funeral and through the grieving process, Wayne joined his father in raising his four nephews and niece in that same year. His short term goal is to become a federal prison chaplain and his long term goals are to become a local pastor and to create a fellowship that serves to mentor and encourage other pastors and ministry leaders. Wayne was a part of the 2011 Mission trip to Nicaragua with me and this past summer he served as an interim pastor for 5 Methodist Churches in the Bahamas! Somebody has to do it! Thanks Wayne!
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| Wayne, 2nd from the left, and the Under Construction for Christ ministry at VWC |
“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:4-6
Pete Kovalcik’s Departure from the Board
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| Pete loves both to play all types of guitars and to build them! |
Pete has been with us from the very beginning, helping us get established as a 501-c3. Pete served as the President of LIHN for 3 years. We are super thankful for his leadership and service. He is leading two YMCA branches and simply has too full a plate! Laura Houck, who has been serving as the Vice President is now in the role of President. Laura teaches at a new Seminary in Hampton Roads. Brian Sixby is the Pastor of First Fox Hill UMC in Hampton and serves as our secretary. Mike Senecal serves as our Treasurer; he is on staff at Redeemer Church in Chesapeake as the Pastoral Administrator. In Pete’s letter to the Board he shared the following:
“It has been a pleasure and a blessing to work with each of you as we provided guidance and support to Greg and LIHN from the very beginning. I’m going to miss our meetings as they were always a wonderful time for sharing, reflection and prayer.”
We will also miss Pete’s presence and leadership, but know that GOD has different seasons of ministry for each of us.
New Home Built in Nicaragua ~ thank you for your support!
We received word from Youth with a Mission in Diriamba, Nicaragua that the new house has been built for Lillian and her family! Migdalia, the YWAM base director shared that after everything was moved into her home, it started to rain. This brought tears of joy and gratitude to Lillian as she said, “None of my belonging will get wet in our new house.” One more house is being built with funds from those who support Life in His Name. Thank you! Just $3,000 for a new home. Pictures to come as we will visit this Spring!
Greg Co-Teaching Course on Methodism with Dr. Terry Lindvall
“It’s way more exciting than it sounds!” This is my opening line in trying to convince students to sign up for the class and then I share: “Methodism is the only denomination that started on a College Campus as a renewal movement requiring weekly small group participation!”
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| I came across this from the Methodist archives. The Methodist Colleges were seen as the 'chief source' of raising up new proclaimers of Jesus & the Kingdom! |
In the class, we will certainly focus on the marvelous understanding of God’s grace revealed in Jesus and poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit. Grace that pursues us before we’re even aware of the good news of Jesus. We will look at the goal of this movement: Holiness of Heart and Life. We will look at Wesley’s genius in organizing the movement so that the masses were awakened in the field preaching, experienced the new birth in the class meetings and became disciples as they lived out the teachings of Jesus together! This is no mere academic exercise. We will be seeking ways to reapply today the principles that made this movement so vital and widespread.
We will also spend some time looking at some very interesting passages from John Wesley’s journals about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, miraculous healings and instances of deliverance from evil spirits.
The class will not be boring!
L.I.F.E. Groups at VWC—Living in Faith Everyday
It’s conclusion is in the title and I will simply say this is a phenomenal resource. I took 3 pages of notes while watching and learning about bacterial flagellum and irreducible complexity. The scientists in the video say science points to a Great Designer of all things. One of the Biology students shared with the LIFE Group about another student mocking the world view of Creation, she engaged the student in dialogue and stumped him with reasoned arguments for Intelligent Design! I thank GOD for my own learning and growth and the equipping that is happening on campus. A fantastic online resource that I use with students is: ww.veritas.org—whose purpose is “to engage students and faculty in discussions about life’s hardest questions and the modern relevance of Jesus Christ.”
The Redistribution of Wealth? A Different View . . .
This topic has been in the news a lot lately. I thought it was both relevant and stunning to consider how John Wesley used and distributed money.
While at Oxford, an incident changed his perspective on money. He had just finished paying for some pictures for his room when one of the chambermaids came to his door. It was a cold winter day, and he noticed that she had nothing to protect her except a thin linen gown. He reached into his pocket to give her some money to buy a coat but found he had too little left. Immediately the thought struck him that the Lord was not pleased with the way he had spent his money. He asked himself, Will thy Master say, “Well done, good and faithful steward”? Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from the cold! O justice! O mercy!--Are not these pictures the blood of this poor maid?
Perhaps as a result of this incident, in 1731 Wesley began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. He records that one year his income was 30 pounds and his living expenses 28 pounds, so he had 2 pounds to give away. The next year his income doubled, but he still managed to live on 28 pounds, so he had 32 pounds to give to the poor. In the third year, his income jumped to 90 pounds.
Instead of letting his expenses rise with his income, he kept them to 28 pounds and gave away 62 pounds. In the fourth year, he received 120 pounds. As before, his expenses were 28 pounds, so his giving rose to 92 pounds.
Wesley felt that the Christian should not merely tithe but give away all extra income once the family and creditors were taken care of. He believed that with increasing income, what should rise is not the Christian’s standard of living but the standard of giving.
This practice, begun at Oxford, continued throughout his life. Even when his income rose into the thousands of pounds sterling, he lived simply, and he quickly gave away his surplus money.
One year his income was a little over 1400 pounds. He lived on 30 pounds and gave away nearly 1400 pounds. Because he had no family to care for, he had no need for savings. He was afraid of laying up treasures on earth, so the money went out in charity as quickly as it came in. He reports that he never had 100 pounds at any one time. ~ from Dr. Charles White's article entitled "What Wesley Practiced and Preached About Money"
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