In James 3:5-12 we can see the power of the tongue. How we have the ability to Praise God and curse man. James gives us 4 more examples of the powers and ability of our tongue. He also calls us to use our tongue for God. We need to strive to be a people who watch carefully what we say, making sure what we say is uplifting to God. We can do so much for the kingdom, and we must strive to be examples, living righteously so that we can be most effective. And if you are at all curious in watching the video of the ruthless and evil squirrel attacking evan, then click below.
Squirrel Attack
This next Saturday is Game Night. So in lieu of going out to eat we are going to stay in. If you are going to starve without eating you have 2 options: eat before service, or grab some fast food and come back. If you do run and grab fast food, get me something the following is my favorite fast food from all local fast food areas
Taco Bell: Mexican Pizza, Taco, Red Mt Dew
McDonalds: Big Mac or McChicken
Carls Jr: Western Bacon with CrissCut Fries
Jack in the Box: Bacon Potato Cheddar wedges and a shake
Arbys: Roast Beef, Cruly Fries
Del Taco: 2 Chicken Soft Tacos Combo
Appreciate it, thanks guys! If you are still wondering what the picture is all about, guess you will just have to come to game night...
We arrived safely last night into Kitale. Our fight was uneventful, just like I like them. We rested well and had an exciting day today. We were able to get into the women's prison, thank you Jesus. We had an incredible time there and we are all still processing our experience. I'll attempt to give you an overview of it. As we walked up to the prison gates we could hear the women singing a Swahili welcome song. We passed throughh the gate and were locked inside with them. We were given seats of honor as they continued to sing to us. One of the chaplens spoke and went through the Kenyan welcome formaliites. I spoke for a bit then introduced April, Linda and Peggy. They each spoke and shared part of their testimony. It was so exciteing to be back there. We gave them some gifts of a few toilitries (that they could not have otherwise) as they continued to sing to us.
The women that were in the original Celebrate Recovery step study group that I started last year wanted to sing to us. They asked us to join them and we all sang praise songs in English. To say it was an amazing expereince is such an understatment. After that we met with the women that had gone through CR, the original group plus another that they had started. They shared wtih us how they had grown and how their lives had changed.
Tomorrow morning we will attend Deliverance Church and then meet with the women's step study group in the afternoon.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We can certainly feel them and have already seen God at work here with us. Please continue to pray for us, for the work we are doing and for our team and as we begin the CR training on Monday.
I'll send another update when we can get to the cyber cafe.
Serving Him,
Jana, Linda, April and Peggy
This week as we start the third chapter of James, we see James focusing on our tongue. A small part of our body, but a part that can control so much of what we do. James devotes this entire chapter to the tongue, discussing how our tongue Directs, Destroys, and Delights. Tonight we see how the tongue can direct our lives and James compared our tongue to the bit found on the bridle of a horse and the rudder found on a ship. Both very small parts of the "machine" but control such a large part. The same rings true of a steering wheel of a car, a relatively small part of the car, but the part that directs the entire car. 
If your car has no steering wheel, your car isn't going to go where you want it to go. It will either go straight without turning, or maybe just get itself stuck doing donuts. As Christians we need to be in control of our tongues as they direct our entire life.
thanks to the beauty of the internet, I can track April's flight all the way from John Wayne Airport to Kitale, Kenya, Africa. Well, technically i can track the flight to Nirobe in Kenya, from there she hops in a bush plane and as amazing as the internet is, it doesnt have bush plane tracking yet. Once she takes off in St Paul I will add tracking for that flight, you cant track a flight until after take-off.
UPDATE: CLICK HERE TO TRACK HER NEXT FLIGHT
Costa Rica is upon us. This Sunday is the information meeting, so whether you are dieing to go, wanting to go, or have nothing better to do, come visit. The meeting is at 1pm in the fireside room. (Where the girls meet for Interface (The Interface shirts look really cool...)) Costa Rica is from August 12th to the 21st. This is a trip that will change your life. 
There are plenty of fund raisers to raise all the money necessary for the trip. But make sure to come this Sunday, even if you are kinda thinking about it. This meeting will go over all details you could ever dream of! If you are curios to where we are going in Costa Rica, we land in the capital city of San Jose (middle of map) we then take a bus east to the port city of Limon, the bus then turns south and we go to Puerto Viejo. This is where we will stay and do most of our ministry. We will be traveling with Alternative Missions and they have written a current report on the mission location we are going to and you can read it here. Look closely April and I are in there...
Silly me, I never finished uploading the Weekend Photos, so without much ado, here are the rest of them, lots and lots of photos
As we close out chapter 2, we look at 2 examples that James gives us for people who not only had faith, but they lived their faith: Abraham and Rahab. We also saw that faith isn't believing in spite of evidence but faith is believing in spite of consequence.
This week we took a step back from our series in James and focused on the Passion Week. A week so named because of the Passion that Jesus displayed, endured, and suffered through because of His love for us. Nothing forced Him, at any moment He had the ability to put everything to an end and save Himself, but His dieing love for us brought him to death and then through resurrection. And just as Christ rose from the dead we too are promised a new life with Him in eternity.
We are not saved by our Works. We are saved by the works of Jesus. But why then does James talk about works? What does he mean when he says "Faith without deeds is dead." Do we need works to be saved or not. Upon deeper inspection we can see that James never states that we need works for our salvation, but he sates that if we have a true saving belief in Jesus then our life will show it. If we believe what Jesus taught then there is no way our lives won't reflect it.
The Summer Calendar is up and as always you can click the links at the top or bottom of the page to view the calendar. And yes, the calendar online is a little less messy than the one to the right. Also don't forget there is a Costa Rica planning meeting Sunday April 15th at 1pm in the Fireside room. If you are thinking of going, wanting to going, or wanting to just learn about the place, all are welcomed so bring your parents and learn about Costa Rica. The deadline to sign-up is April 29th, so come to the info meeting learn all about it, then pray about it and make your decision!