"There's Still a Lotta Love Here in These Troubled Fields"

Friday Greetings Rock Creek Family and Friends,

“Do you ever think about rain?”

This was the question that one of our congregants and my friend put to me on Halloween night. Honestly the answer for me was, “No.”

He raises cattle for a living though. 

And we are some 18 inches behind in rain fall for the year....this when we normally receive some 53 inches a year. A substantial and felt lag. 

It reminded me of Nanci Griffith’s “Trouble in the Fields” wherein she puts the biting conditions and plight of the farmer in lyrical form, “Our children live in the city and they rest upon our shoulders, they never want this rain to fall or the weather to get colder.”

Then, this morning I received a text calling for prayer as a wildfire is approaching Lookout Highlands where several of our families live. 

As you know, Signal and Lookout Mountains have been having a number of hard to contain wildfires in the drought conditions (which is why there was no bonfire at the Mountain Gathering as originally planned!).

So I wanted to ask you all to start praying for rain, if you are not already. 

An example in the Scriptures of effective prayer is of course, Elijah who prayed it wouldn’t rain, and that it would start up again. A different circumstance than ours for sure, but he and his story are offered, because “he was a man just like us.” The point, our Father listens when his people ask him for what the world needs.

The Christmas Store

Also, we have opportunity to pray and work toward a different sort of provision in this year’s Christmas project at Rock Creek. Starting Sunday at either site, you’ll have opportunity to buy Christmas gifts to benefit two separate communities.

One set of gifts will be for Hope for the Inner City’s Christmas Store. The Christmas Store is an opportunity for low income parents to actually select and purchase gifts for their children rather than having someone come in and provide their kids with what they weren’t able to provide. It’s much more dignifying and as you would want, lets parents have the joy and self-satisfaction of providing for their own children during Christmas. 

Our role will be to either donate money that will be used to buy the footballs, sleeping bags, or dolls that will be on the shelves at the Christmas Store or to actually go and get those things yourself which we will deliver to the Store for you. The way to do all that will be clear at the foyer at both sites on Sunday and for the next several.

West African Orphanage

Our other privilege is to make donations which will go to the 100 child orphanage led by Jeremiah Swaray and his wife in Sierra Leone. If you don’t remember Jeremiah, ask your kids! 

I’ll bet they remembered his story when he spoke a few weeks ago! We already partner Jeremiah through our Missions Committee with regular support, but these Christmas gifts will go directly to feeding and providing medical care for children as those costs never go away for him and his wife.

So that’s it. Pray for rain. And pray and act at Christmas to help children either locally or abroad. 

And while we are at it, let’s pray for a downfall of replenishing mercy in our country as well. It’d be great if the work of the church convinced the world, as Nanci sang in the song listed below, “There’s still a lotta love, here in these troubled fields.”

See you Sunday,

Pastor Eric