I just began reading the book What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey. Here are a few quotes from the first chapter. I hope you are disturbed by them:

I told a story in my book The Jesus I Never Knew, a true story that long afterward continued to haunt me. I heard it from a friend who works with the down-and-out in Chicago:

A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter—two years old!—to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable—I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naïve shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

What struck me about my friend’s story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?

…

The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church,” says Gordon Macdonald. “You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace.” MacDonald has put his finger on the church’s single most important contribution. Where else can the world go to find grace?

…

I sense, in fact, that is why any person goes to church: out of hunger for grace. The book Growing up Fundamentalist tells of a reunion of students from a missionary academy in Japan. With one or two exceptions, all had left the faith and come back,” one of the students reported. “And those of us who had come back had one thing in common: we had all discovered grace…”

As I look back on my own pilgrimage, marked by wandering detours, and dead ends, I see now that what pulled me along was my search for grace. I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else.

So I'm sitting here, I've got a few minutes before I leave Redmond, Oregon to return to Forest Grove. This trip has been one of the best I have ever taken. Why? I think because I didn't prepare a huge presentation.  Weird, huh? Sure, I prepared sermons and such, but when meeting with missions committees, I'll show a few photos and then we'll just get real, share our lives, talk about our great God... trying to stay away from a dog and pony show. We'll talk about successes, failures, difficulties, and encouragements. We pray and bask in God's presence as brothers and sisters.

Here's a photo of me preaching last weekend at Wapato Valley Church: (You can check out tons of other photos from Wapato (that I didn't take) by clicking here):

It was a phenomenal weekend. God is causing some soul searching amongst the leadership at Wapato and the entire body seems to be feeling growing a sense of anticipation for what God is doing...  very encouraging

Driving through the Cascades, specifically around Mt. Hood, was one of the most intensely emotional experiences that I have had in a long time (more photos here). So beautiful. God is so great. I am such a sinner. His love for me is so intense. Here's a photo I stopped and took while driving through:

You can check out other scenic photos I took here

10 intense days where I will try to meet with as many people as humanly possible. Here is my general itinerary:

• May 18th (Friday) - fly out from Montreal
• May 19th (Saturday) 7:00am - speak at a men's breakfast at the legion hall in Forest Grove
• May 19th (Saturday) 5:00pm - preach at Wapato Valley Church
• May 20th (Sunday) 10:00am - preach at Wapato Valley Church
• May 21st (Monday) evening - spaghetti dinner with dear friends at Berean Baptist Church in Eugene, Oregon.
• May 22nd (Tuesday) 12:00pm - lunch with dear friends in Kent, WA
• May 22nd (Tuesday) 6:30pm - round table discussion on missions at New Heights Christian Church in Kent, WA
• May 23rd (Wednesday) 5:30pm -dinner with the global ministries committee of Eastmont Church in Bend, OR
• May 23rd (Wednesday) 7:30pm - speak to the middle school group at Eastmont Church in Bend, OR
• May 24th (Thursday) -dinner with dear friends in Forest Grove, Oregon
• May 25th (Friday) - massive barbacue and presentation in Forest Grove, Oregon
• May 26th (Saturday) all evening - prayer walks and presentations at New Hope Community Church in Hermiston, Oregon
• May 27th (Sunday) - being interviewed, speaking to youth group and adults, and all church potluck at New Hope Community Church in Hermiston, OR.
• May 28th (Monday) - family barbacue in Forest Grove, Oregon
• May 29th (Tuesday) - fly back to Montreal

We thought it would be funny if we all slapped on the old shades for a prayer card photo. This is our seventh attempt at a photo. However, we finally settled on a photo that was shadeless.

We're putting on an evangelistic evening will take place this Sunday with music, preaching, and a café atmosphere afterward.  Here's a translation of the flyer at right: 

Ecclesia: An Evangelical Baptist Church in St Jerome

Next get together:

Sunday, 6 May, 7pm

601 Lachaine, St Jerome

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17)

Whether you are curious, skeptical, or an athiest, or if you have known Jesus Christ for a long time, we invite you to discover Jesus Christ with us.  Our desire is to konw God and experience His love together.

While this is an evangelistic event, it is also another opportunity for our core group to work together, building the solid foundation necessary for a long-term witness for Jesus Christ in this region.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1) That several people would be radically impacted for the first by the radical love of Christ for us.

2) That our core group would continue to grow into a cohesive unit, building the solid foundation needed for the long-term.