Sonja and I greatly enjoyed our visit to McLaughlin, SD to be with Pastor Carl/Anna Nobles and their dedicated congregation this past weekend.
Our McLaughlin church primarily serves the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The Nobles have devoted 18 years (and counting) to this area. And while the needs can seemed overwhelming, they remain steadfast in their commitment to these precious people.
Honestly, Sonja and I were deeply touched by their commitment and sacrifice. They are credentialled Church of God Missionaries and I can think of no more worthy couple to invest in if you are looking for a missionary to support. Also, they would gladly welcome mission teams to come and minister/build.
You can support them through Church of God World Missions (cogwm.org/projects/carl-and-anna-nobles/)
Project 065-0107 or through the Regional Offices (www.ncrcog.org).
If you are interested in visiting them leave me a note in the comment section below and I will follow up with you.
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This weekend we will be going to Rapid City, SD and will worship with our congregation there under the leadership of Jeff Bowman. He and his wife Katie are doing a wonderful job and we look forward to spending a little time with them this Saturday and Sunday.
However, our main reason to be in the area is to attend a funeral Saturday morning – the funeral of eighteen-year-old Nathaniel Peterson who was tragically killed in a plane crash last Sunday.
During our time in the North Central Region, Sonja and I have grown close to the people of the Union Center church and we count them as dear friends. Wade/Carrie Peterson and their beautiful family are especially dear to us. Over the last five years we have enjoyed watching their children grow and mature. It was just a few weeks ago that Nathaniel and I had a good conversation about his hopes and dreams as a young man…and now he’s gone. I have no worries about his eternal destination but I do grief mightily for his parents, siblings, extended family and church family.
Please keep Wade and Carrie in prayers.
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It is amazing how you can get acclimated to weather. Before moving to Bismarck I lived all of my life in sunny and mild South Carolina. However, now I am going through my fifth winter in the Dakotas.
This week, as I was planning to run an errand across town, I was reflecting on what I needed to wear to protect myself from the cold. I checked the weather and thought, “It’s 16 degrees, that’s not bad.” And I choose a light jacket. Later it dawned on me, there was a time in my life when weather in the teens would have been major news! I would have bundled up with the biggest coat I had.
There is one thing I still haven’t gotten acclimated to, however. On our weekend trips it is common to pass frozen lakes and see people out on them driving their big pickup trucks and setting up little houses on the frozen surface (for fishing…or whatever). Now that I am still not prepared to do.
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This week I tried my hand at writing a poem. I titled it:
A Golden Prairie
Such soul-stirring beauty,
As far as the eye could see.
It was like golden honey,
Flowing over an ancient sea.
It begged the question:
Is there a Creator?
“Yes!” My soul cried,
How could there not be—such beauty.
But there must also be man,
For who planted the wheat?
Oh God, thank you for this amazing beauty,
But help me to do my part—someone’s got to tend the wheat.
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Happy Birthday to Mark Voigt! (February 3)
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Standout Quotes:
- “The fundamentals of ministry, like the fundamentals of most vocations, are made up of daily routines that are mostly unremarkable.” __John Koessler, Mark Galli, The Radical Pursuit of Rest: Escaping the Productivity Trap
- “Every time I have waited for inspiration, I have ended up falling asleep.” — A Life That Matters: Five Steps to Making a Difference by P. K. Hallinan
- “When we commit to a vision to do something that has never been done before, there is no way to know how to get there. We simply have to build the bridge as we walk on it.” _Robert E. Quinn, Building the Bridge as You Walk on It, p. 9
- “The opposite of belief isn’t just unbelief. It’s false belief.” _Mark Batterson, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible
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Closing Comment:
This morning (Friday) when I woke up I lay in bed reflecting on how fast my life was passing by. Seems like just yesterday it was January 1 of a new year and now January is in the books and the first week of February is almost over. It all seemed so futile – my life, like sand in an hour glass, just rapidly passing away.
Then the thought came to me, what else is there to do? Life was meant to be lived. That is why we are here.
We’re not meant to hoard time and store it up for a rainy day. Rain or shine, minute by minute, like walking on a conveyor belt that will not stop, we are called upon to get up and live. What other option is there?
Here’s to making every day count.
Live well my friend…Run2Win (I Cor. 9:24-26)
_david l. kemp
The ONE THING 