Today was the first Kenya team meeting at Mariners Church. I appreciated the way the leader framed this trip - not as a missions trip, but as a faith adventure. We were encouraged to see it as a narrative rather than an event. An event happens once and is over. A narrative is an ongoing conversation, one where we keep listening for how God is speaking. He also spoke about the importance of relationships - with one another as a team, and with the people we'll meet in Africa. We were reminded that God works through relationships: when God sees a problem, He sends a person. That's exactly what He did when He sent Jesus to address our sin problem. This trip, then, is ministry with people, not to people. We were encouraged to view this faith adventure through a global lens rather than an Orange County one. Our leader, Christian Mungai, is an African missionary to Orange County - a reversal of the direction we usually picture missions moving. He talked about how we are all equal in...
I was commissioned as a Shepherding Elder at Mariners Church in June. Prayer is an important part of serving as an Elder. I pray for people and their expressed needs, including praying for healing and, when appropriate, anointing people with oil, following the teaching in James 5:13–16. Around that same time, I read J. P. Moreland’s A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles . The book challenged me to expect and look for God’s active, miraculous involvement in everyday life, rather than treating prayer simply as an exercise. Moreland observes that people in other cultures often have a much greater expectation that God will respond to prayer. That idea prompted me to seek an opportunity to experience a different perspective on faith and prayer. Fortunately, Mariners offered a Faith Experience trip to Kenya, and I signed up. I am now committed to traveling to Kenya with a team from Mariners Church this November. I’m looking forward to seeing what God will do, learning from the p...