Archive for the ‘Life and Ministry’ Category

No Excuses

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , on November 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

November 2010

It has been too long since I last posted here.  School, family and ministry have kept me very busy.  However as the title states I am not here to make excuses.  I am here to tell a little about what God has been doing in my life over the last few months.  I started my Senior year of college at CBC online at the end of August.  It was going to be my Junior year 2nd semester but God is good and the Registrar at CBC took what I think are extraordinary steps to make sure that I received all the credit possible for my prior schooling.  The final result is that at the end of the Spring semester I will only have one course left to receive my BA in Bible and Theology.  This semester has been an awesome experience for me and not only with my classes.

We have had a great multiplication of ministry opportunities since our summer of ministry and travel.  God has been great at opening and closing doors of ministry, putting us where HE wants us to be.  The Lewis House newsletter describes some of those events.  We have also been blessed with many opportunities to serve at Compelled Church.  We are very blessed to have been accepted as Covenant Partners at Compelled during a very exciting time in God’s work there.  As the church prepares to open a campus in Toledo we find ourselves drawn by the Holy Spirit to the lost and hurting people of Toledo.  It is amazing how God is combining the vision and ministry opportunities at Compelled with the vision and opportunities at The Lewis House. Pray for us as we continue to pursue a move to the Lewis Ave. area.  I am going to try to attach the Lewis House newsletter to this post but here is the url if I fail:

https://fanintoflame.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/november-2010.pdf

I now have my WordPress account shortcutted on my school netbook so hopefully I will get back here a little more often.  Here are a couple of specific prayer requests:

1.  Allana is creating a Children’s Choir for Compelled Church.  The will be performing for the first time before the Youth production of Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer.  It will be presented as a dinner theater on December 10th and as an open performance December 11th.  All proceeds benefit Speed the Light.

2.  God’s provision as we look to moving into Lewis Avenue area. 

3.  God’s provision as Compelled Church looks to launch the Toledo Campus.  Specifically we are still looking for a suitable location. 

4.  God’s blessing on all those who came out for the inaugural launch team meeting, especially Pastor Kelly and Pastor Curtis!

5.  God’s continued grace and blessing on myself, Allana, Robert, Emily, Samantha and Chayla.

Read Full Post »

Build the Muscle

Posted in Life and Ministry on August 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Wow, it has been a whirlwind of activity since leaving the Lewis House.  What an awesome month of service and blessing.  When we serve the Lord it opens the way for blessings to flow.  It is amazing how He stretches us and strengthens us and then provides the opportunities for us to utilize that newly developed spiritual muscle.  Then He stretches us and strengthens us and provides the opportunities for us to use the new ….well you get the idea.  In just the same way if you sit back and admire what strong arms you have but do nothing, that muscle will atrophy away.  The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14) ends with a pretty stern warning:

29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Use it or lose it.  If you you use it, God is faithful and there will be increase.  The it is an important factor.  When you use “it”, “it” must be from God.  When I have tried to do out of my own talents, my own abilities and my own resources things did not go so well.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  II Corinthians 10:4

It is important to be sure that the muscles that we are exercising are spiritual muscles supplied and powered by God.  This does not mean that we do not utilize our God given talents and skills but that they empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit.  When you try to build muscle on your own it is much like athletes that use steroids.  Performance and growth appear to be enhanced but in the end the results are destructive, both to the athlete and to those around.  The achievements attained by that athlete are forever tainted.  It is only when we submit  to God’s training program that we see the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

So I started this blog on August 13.  The whirlwind got  faster and a little rougher from then until now, but what an amazing experience.  So many opportunities for ministry in so many different forms.  So many opportunities for fellowship with awesome brothers and sisters in Christ.  So many opportunities to worship and glorify God.  It is now the Thirtieth and I am sitting enjoying the hospitality of Pastor and Debbie Bosworth in Indianapolis IN.  Tomorrow we make the relatively short trek home to Adrian filled with blessings and memories that will inspire us for a lifetime.  As I look to the end of one adventure several others begin.  I look forward to what God has in store for the Guidry family in September!

Read Full Post »

Posted in I'm Just Sayin', Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Wow, here we are in Colorado.  Three weeks into our trip I am amazed at the hand of God in our lives.  He has provided ministry opportunities at every step, both opportunities to minister to people and opportunities to be ministered to.  I have been so touched by so many people already I am excited by what God is going to do over the next 17 days. 

Our time in Minneapolis was awesome.  Beth, Bruce, Grant and Luke were a blessing to us while we enjoyed their hospitality.  It was also great to be able to spend time with my son John and the most recent addition to our family his wife Julie.  We are so blessed and excited that God has provided teaching positions for both of them.  We know that they are going to be a blessing to their schools and to the children they teach.  Those of you that follow us on Facebook know of the great time that we had at Healing House.  Our time with the residents was such a blessing as well as the opportunity to contribute in some small way to the facility.  Highlights with the Olson’s included tubing on the Mississippi River, a visit to Big Lake, Great food, Neat fellowship and conversation for all; as well as an awesome day of playing Airsoft with the boys. We enjoyed our visit to Twin Cities Bible Church and it is always a treat to hear Julie play her violin no matter what the setting.  We are also thankful that God prompted Bruce and Beth to highly encourage us to take the time to travel through South Dakota and stop at Mt. Rushmore.  It was such a blessing to see so many facets of God’s creation.  It was also the beginning of the chain of events that led us to Mule Creek Junction and a visit with Velcro, head of  www.freeicewaterservices.com and of a Wyoming Biker Church (www.churchwithanattitude.com).  We enjoyed the free ice water, the kids enjoyed the free sugar-free cookies (yes they had sugar-free cookies!) and we were all blessed when Velcro prayed over our family.  The kids got a quick lesson in biker prayers and we were all touched by the Heart of this big burly biker, his wife and Coaster his associate from biker church.  We look forward to many more God-Appointments on this trip.  Be sure that God’s outlook calendar is full of appointments for all of His children.

So here we are in Westminster Colorado, enjoying the awesome hospitality of my other sister Lisa, her husband John and their kids Micaiah, Hannah, and J. Samuel (ok Joshua).  After one day of much needed rest I joined John, his father, Micaiah and Robert on a trip to the summit of Mt. Evans, 14,210 feet above sea level.  Fortunately there is a road almost all the way to the summit.  Unfortunately we parked about 1500 feet below the summit.  Fortunately the trail to the top is only 1.7 miles from where we parked.  Unfortunately this trail is UP the side of the mountain.  Fortunately I am not in horrible shape.  Unfortunately there is NO OXYGEN TO BREATHE…ok maybe a slight exaggeration.  Still I made it up…and back down so qualify as a hiker that has conquered a 14er as they call them.  There are over 50 of them in Colorado.  Robert has now climbed 3.  The view was incredible.  Again those of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen some of the pictures.  I may post some here but have not transferred them to my computer yet.  I am glad that I did not know exactly what I was getting into when I decided that this 1.7 mile hike couldn’t be so bad (Lisa did try to warn me!).  I might have decided it was too hard, that I did not have what it takes to succeed.  I would have missed the incredible Spiritual experience that it became for me.  I would have missed a view of God’s world that is breathtaking. If God has placed a mountain in your path, keep climbing.  I know that every joint in your life aches and that you feel like you can’t breathe, but the view at the top is awesome and God would not have you there if he did not KNOW that empowered by HIM you can do it. (Philippians 4:13)

We have another week of experiencing God’s blessings here in Colorado and then we head to Kansas City and Independence MO.  We are looking forward to visiting EPIC Church and Pastor Bobby Hawk (along with his lovely wife Vanessa and their new baby), as well as seeing Derek and Becca friends from the Lewis House!

Read Full Post »

Ministry Is…..

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , on August 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

So if there is one thing that God has been teaching this summer it is about what Ministry is…

We often have a very narrow view of what ministry is. As the lovely pictures of me that my wife recently posted on Facebook demonstrate, sometimes ministry is getting beat at basketball by an 11 year old on an elementary basketball hoop. Ministry is demonstrating God’s love in an authentic way 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. It is an expression of the relationship that we have with God and flows exclusively from the renewed mind and spirit of the born again believer. (Colossians 3:1-17, Romans 12:2).  As Paul shared with Philemon (verse 6), it is also the way that we can appreciate and experience all the best that Jesus has for us!  Share your faith.  Share God’s love.  Minister and know the best that Jesus has for you, whether it is playing basketball, saying hello, smiling, crying, sharing, be the pipeline to the world of God’s kingdom of power and love!

Read Full Post »

Metro Hope Ministries

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , on July 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

www.metrohope.org

God is so cool.  I knew when we started this trip that it would not just be a vacation but a journey of ministry.  When we first came here it was weird because I did not feel the need to search for opportunities.  I had asked around for some ideas but the urgency that I had felt at other times was not there.  It was almost to the point that I was questioning my committment to the idea of ministry on this trip when God just gently nudged me to look around online.  It was pretty amazing.  My friends at Bethel would say that the choices were highlighted to me.  I still don’t really understand what that means but I know it happens.  Within a couple of minutes online I was looking at www.metrohope.org and knew that this was the place that God had for us.  I emailed them and 15 minutes later was talking to Mary A. from Metro Hope Ministries.  They are a Jesus centered addictions recovery ministry here in the Twin Cities.  We will be serving at a facility that houses women who are battling addictions and their children.  We will be helping out with the daily program they have for the kids.  I am excited about what God is doing in our lives and excited to what God will do through our lives!

Read Full Post »

Get Uncomfortable

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , on July 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

Spent most of the day painting the concrete floor in the basement today.  It already looks awesome and we are not even close to being done with it!  Then off to Everfree tonight.  Johnny Kelley of www.bikeforthelight.com .   He challenged the youth of Everfree to “Get Uncomfortable for Christ and change the world”.  It is kind of a punctuation to my life this year.  God has certainly removed me from my comfort zone and is getting me used to being uncomfortable for Him.  I saw just a little fruit of that tonight as I watched Emily, who came to live with us last June get up on the stage as part of the worship team for Everfree.  I look forward to seeing the fruit as the community center portion of the Lewis House gets into full swing in the fall and winter.  Johnny is certainly right.  When God’s people move out of their comfort zone things happen.  Back to Gideon for a moment.  His comfort zone was at the bottom of a winepress so he could hide the grain that he was winnowing.  This is the place that God called him from.  If he had said, “Thank you Lord but I am doing just fine down here at the bottom of my winepress.”  we would have some very different chapters in Judges.  Gideon listened to God and then stepped out of his comfort zone.  First among his own people and then in opposition to the Midianites.  I think that sometimes we believe we are ready to go out and fight the Midianites when we haven’t accepted God’s call for us right in our own home towns, among our own family and friends.  What is God calling you and me to do.  Feel that knot in your stomach, the sweat building up, the nerves rattling your bones… Get Uncomfortable for Christ and He will change the world through you.

Read Full Post »

Bringing His Kingdom to Earth

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , on July 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

July 2010

Bringing His Kingdom to Earth.  This link is the newsletter for the ministry that we are serving this month.  What a joy it has been to serve God here.  What an awesome goal this ministry has.  I think that sometimes we have a skewed view of what it means to Bring God’s Kingdom to Earth.  We measure that in so many ways that have moved our focus from God to so many other things.  The kicker is that the things are not bad, they can even be important parts of our Christian walk, but when they become the focus instead of the means of our walk with God then we begin to lose the essence of His Kingdom. 

 Sometimes we feel that we are inadequate to bring God’s Kingdom to Earth.  We dont’ have the skills.  We don’t have the confidence.  We have a past that continues to haunt us.  God’s word is full of the unskillful, the timid, the downright fearful and those with pasts full of evil, whom He has used in OUTRAGEOUS ways to serve His Kingdom.  He may not call you to be his vessel for parting the Red Sea, or defeating 135,00 Midianites with 300 men, or raising the dead and bringing the Gospel to the totally un-evangelized, (and then again maybe he will).  He IS calling you.  Focus on HIM.  Let the “locusts” fade and way and then serve.  Clean a floor, paint a wall, hold a hand, high-five a child, raise the dead, part the sea.  Ministry is in the focus.  The opportunities are out there.  Let God enhance your vision of the world.  When you focus on him ministry opportunities abound.

14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body ; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.  Colossians 3:14-17

Read Full Post »

Too Early?

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , on July 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It may be too early in the morning for me to Blog but I am going to do it anyways.  Of course that begs for the question to be asked, “Why are you up so early?”  I fear that I do not have an adequate answer.  I woke up with a bit of the sniffles.  I don’t know if I have managed to acquire another cold of if my allergies are kicking in again.  I guess we will see what happens over the next few days.  So I have been spending my morning FBing and working on my blog as well as having some quiet time with God.  l guess really it is no longer so early.  All things considered the morning has been productive so far.  It is actually a little chilly which is nice after the spell of hot weather that we have had.

We are beginning to iron out the plans for the second half of the summer and are looking to the fall also.  Allana is going to Pittsburgh in October for a Worship Leading conference.  She is very excited and a little apprehensive.  I have been invited to take a trip to Haiti later in October and I am feeling led to do it.  However it will really be stepping out in faith financially. 

The whole school thing has bogged down a little bit but I am still working on it.  It is nice that I can work on it over the internet.  There was a misunderstanding about the paperwork that I needed so I am in the process of getting everything to CBC that they need.  I am just trusting that God has it under control and that he will work it out the way that he wants and the way that is best!

Well of course having had my morning coffee and now that it is after 8 and the girls should be up soon, I am beginning to feel drowsy.  Well today is pretty much an unplanned day.  We went to church last night and most of the Lewis House will be away.  I should be able to nap, catch up on some Bible studay and just generally relax.

Read Full Post »

Feeling the Power

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , on July 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Wow what a day yesterday!  Allana was still sick so she was out of the picture for most of the day.  We got Sami and Emily up and moving.  They are on half days of school.  Then it was time to feel the power…the power washer that is.  We are getting the basement floor ready to be painted.  Chipping, scrubbing and spraying with the pressure washer and then channeling all that water to the available drains.  It was DRAINING.  I know all of us were beat but our Friday night meeting started at 7:00.  We enjoyed an awesome dinner of hamburgers and pasta salad (thanks Sarah!)  Then we were thrilled to have 4 kids come.  We played games, colored and spoke the fruit of the spirit into their lives for two hours.  Then we headed off to BCC for the fireworks.  By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted.  This leads into our busy day today.  No school today so we were able to sleep in a little.  Then it was breakfast, some nice fellowship at the table with Naomi and then off to our Party in the Park.  We were able to hand out a bunch of invitations to the Ice Cream Party that we are having next Friday night here at the house.  We are looking forward to sharing our lives with these wonderful children in the neighborhood.  Big Kudo’s to Chris and his gang from Calvary Bible Chapel.  They are bringing God’s kingdom into the darkness that is life for many children in this area.  Robert jumped right in with the neighborhood kids.  He is an awesome model for relational ministry.  Tonight we are headed to New Life on Summerfield near Petersburg for their fair, then greeting at BCC and then possibly back to the fair.  God is opening the doors of peoples hearts.  So many are ready receive, they just need someone to model the Love of God and speak the Gospel!

Read Full Post »

Wow What a Day!

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , on July 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Another awesome day at the Lewis House.  It started off a little rough with Allana down with a bad cold.  She is still wrestling with the sniffles now but looks and feels better.  Stacey, one of the full-time workers here, took Robert (instead of me because of Allana’s condition) to Sydney (I don’t know if I spelled that right) to stop at a ministry that helps to supply our foodbank here.   We were getting a little thin in the pantry.  I know this is a big problem for  food driven ministries now.  Fishes n Loaves in Adrian is running low on food also.  So if you have extra or want to donate to a food pantry now is a good time.  There is almost certainly some sort of Organization helped to feed the poor who could really use your help.

So since I did not go to the foodbank, I got to move furniture and sweep floors.  We prepared the floor in the  fellowship hall to be power washed which we are doing tomorrow.  Sami and Emily did an awesome job carrying about 100 chairs up two flights of stairs from the hall to the auditorium.  George and I stacked tables and swept.  George had previously finished putting the plugs in for the lighting.  As we moved the furniture we planned out our plan of attack tomorrow.  By the time we were done the place was ready for powerwashing.  This is a very different face of ministry.  Yet it is ministry.  We need to stop narrowly defining what is and is not ministry.  I believe at least in part this was Martha’s issue in Luke 10.  Martha thought she had a lock on what the ministry should look like, and she WAS ministering.  Her mistake was thinking that Mary had to be serving in the same way.  You may be called to be Martha and called to be Mary all in the same day.  We were blessed to be Martha this morning.

Later in the day one of the regular attenders to our Friday night meeting brought in a homeless man whom she came across in the Kroger parking lot.  George was busy so I put together a food box for him and prayed with him.  God said love him…so I did.  It was a learning experience.  Don’t judge…love.  Don’t assign blame for his circumstance…love.  Don’t be the cynic…love.  It felt good.  I may try some more of this loving the people that God loves even when my flesh wants to be cynical thing…It feels good when you can feel God smile.

Dinner was a potluck affair with some of our regular Friday night crew and people from the neighborhood.  WHAT A BLESSING!  We had a great night of fellowship.  Relational ministry, love the people that God love’s.  Definitely the lesson for today.  Love the unlovable.  Love that family member who is a pain.  Love your neighbor.  Love the little kid down the street who is desperate for any kind of attention.  Love the brothers and sisters in Christ  who are all around us. 

Robert had an awesome day on his trip.  He has been so awesome with the kids here.  Plus they got chickens, not frozen oven roasters, real live chickens.  You can see a picture of Emily holding one of the chicks in my facebook mobile uploads album.  The kids in the neighborhood when wild.  They mobbed Stacy when she pulled back into the neighborhood.  She had called one of the Mom’s and let her know that live chicks were coming.  Stacy spent time letting them all see the chicks.  Relational ministry, Love them.  Love the little children who mob you.  Love their silly questions.  Show them God in action.  It requires love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  Hmmm I think I have heard that somewhere before.  I guess I need to do more than memorize it.

Pray for Allana that she feels better soon.  Pray for the people in our neighborhood, that they would know Jesus!  Pray for the people in your neighborhood, that they would know Jesus…then show him to them.

God Bless and Goodnight

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »