Hello, everyone!
It has been passed two months since Lisa and I moved into the Carleton community. Many of you asked us how things are going with our new ministry and the life in a new parsonage. The answer is: Lisa and I like our new home very much. Lisa especially enjoys seeing fireflies in our yard. Everything is going well, and we love to be part of our Carleton community. We are enjoying our new appointment and getting to know the people in Carleton. Thank you for your prayer and concern.
Walking and Talking
A few weeks ago, Lisa and I started walking around the church. While we are walking in the parking lot, we could talk about many kinds of topics. But most of the conversation was about our church and church families. We tried to remember individuals’ names in our dialog and prayed for them. If we heard the prayer request about some of our congregations and people in the community, we pray for them to see God’s heavenly power to touch for healing and fix all kinds of problems in their lives.
I made the name of it as “Walking Talking Group.” Our walking reminded me of a biblical event in Joshua. Jericho was the first battle to Israelites after they crossed over the Jordan River. Joshua’s walking army walked around Jericho for seven days. It was just walking around silent prayer with faith, but finally, they collapsed the heavily fortified wall in Jericho to get into the promised land to enjoy a peaceful life. However, I want to let you know one crucial theological reason why God told
them to destroy Jericho. Because if they did not drive the enemy from the land, the enemy could kick Israelites out from the promised land. That is the reason why God told Israelites to tear down Jericho because Jericho will tear them down if they didn’t do it.
It is biblical truth. Walking and praying will allow us to develop and strengthen the Christian Spiritual attitude from loser’s mentality to winner’s mentality to fight against all kinds of our hardships and temptations. And the other benefit is to build up your healthy body and mind. While we walk around the church, we share our daily lives and families, talking about our neighbor’s concerns and needs, and everything that popped up in our conversation will be our prayer because we are a little army of God. That’s why I say that it was not only walking but also praying and sharing.
Sharing a small Joy with a big vision.
When we walked around the sunset, the gentle breeze was one of the festive refreshments. It looked small, but we feel that it has significant benefits beyond merely physical, but walking and talking provide for mental and spiritual well-being. The atmosphere will help us getting out of the stress, and breathing the air is natural stress relief.
Lisa and I have experienced walking around the metro parks around this area. It was a good time for us, but we thought we needed to find a better and comfortable place, which we don’t have to worry about bikes passing and aggressive mosquitos. It was a bit inconvenient. Now Lisa and I have found the perfect place for walking. By the way, Lisa loves to walk in the church. She wanted to walk every day, but sometimes I am a little lazy. However, making a healthy habit of walking and having fellowship with our people is noncomparable joy. If you have a plan to walk in your daily life, please come to the church, and let’s walk together.
Our ultimate goal is to share the vision for the church that God has put into our hearts. We dreamed our Kingdom dream with hope and joy. We also pray that if we can use our church property for the community, it will be a good opportunity to reach out to the people in the community.
All of you are in our prayer God Bless you
September~October.2021
Pastor Cloud
@ Photo on Unsplash
