Post by Richard on Apr 25, 2006 15:26:15 GMT -5
Week 8 “The Dirt Track @ Lowes” Charlotte, N.C. 4/20-23/06
Our mission field this week was right next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway NASCAR track for the COLOSSIAL 100. www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/the%5Fdirt%5Ftrack/
The dirt oval just under a ¼ mile was host for one of the largest dirt late model races known to most. Over one hundred and seventy drivers pre-registered and several thousand tickets sold for the grand stands. Unfortunately the farmers were getting their prayers answered for mucho torrential rain. We arrived Thursday night at about one a.m. and were allowed to park inside the pit area even though the gate closed at 9 p.m. God is good. Friday by mid afternoon over 117 late model drivers had arrived from almost every state in the country. This was the best of the best from all series and local tracks. Robin, Chris, Kristina and I started walking the miles of pits taping church service flyers on each hauler. r.v., and restroom. We placed a modern era track called, “How’s it working for you?” in each driver’s work area as we walked. A few hours later when we had completed two rounds we were able to open the first driver’s meeting with a short devotion and prayer for safety. At the drivers meeting I shared with the nations best about Daisy Chains. While I was jumping out of airplanes for the U.S. Army in the 82nd Airborne division we were introduced to this phrase without a moment to think about it. Usually each jumper would hook to a static line above your head which would allow your Para shoot to open after 4 seconds. This particular time the black hats called for a Daisy chain and I had no clue what was happening. As twelve guys lined up at each side of the plane the 1st guy hooked up to the static line and the next to his cord and so on. Each guy would add 4 seconds to his fall. I of course was last in line. My free fall was a long 48 seconds in which my adrenaline was wide open and I got wrapped up in the exciting moment. Similar to a dream this woman had of a group of people sitting in this huge meadow actually making real daisy chains out of daisies. They were so wrapped up in the moment that they didn’t see about 100 yards from them a group of blind people were headed for a cliff that dropped several hundred feet below into the rocks. Though she couldn’t warn the blind folks or the people making daisy chains she wondered how anyone could be so distracted by a moment to miss such an important chance to help. When I landed on the drop zone that day after a 48 second freefall, I rolled up my shoot and headed back to find the same family, financial, duty, (fill in the blank), problem had not left or been solved. The apostle Paul had this pegged in Colossians 1:28 as he tells them that he will not loose sight of the most important thing, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” I explained the similarities between this Colossial event and the main event of Christ’s’ return. There is nothing wrong with having fun and getting caught up in the moment but let’s keep our eyes on telling others of Christ and teaching them to be disciples. Then I closed with the information and invitation to enjoy both tomorrow at our Dirt Racing Outreach Service at 2 p.m. What is amazing was the northern and western drivers who came to me after the meeting thanking me for sharing and being bold enough to do so. It seems those areas do not have the opportunity or blessing of hearing about Christ or even having prayer in their regions. Pray with me for the laborers and funds to reach those areas for Christ. The fields are ripe for harvest. At 9 p.m., I was put on a stage in front of the several thousand fans to offer the invocation and of course tell the gospel message in my prayer. Can you say OPPORTUNTIES?
Saturday brought a few more inches of monsoon downpours, (precipitation). Guys the track is not much different than your hometown church when it rains, people who were coming to church are persuaded by the roaring lion to stay dry and in their r.v.’s and haulers. We did have a faithful few, close to 40 come to church service, including three drivers and a few crew men along with one car owner. A sweet little girl named Bonnie sang for Jesus and Tony Morris driver of the 31M gave an inspiring testimony of his life before and after Christ. Then Ray Cook lead us all in worship with Amazing Grace followed by my great friend and legendary driver Mike Duvall sharing more testimony and scripture with us as we praised God for his amazing grace and unconditional love. Spirit lead, I preached on Choices and Voices and Sheep or Goats a two fold message starting with John the Baptist as a voice preparing the way for Jesus in John 1. Were we a good voice yesterday? Did we prepare the way for today’s lesson on Jesus? Out of thousand of fans and drivers are enough here today for worship? Did we make the right choice and hear the right voice? There are many voices in this world, voices of discouragement, fear, worry, and fitting in. I used many examples of voices, babies, mommas, animals, kids; they all know and hear voices. People tell us as we travel, “hey I am a Christian but I just don’t hear God.” I’m thinking this; maybe you are not a sheep. I read John 10 to them and pointed out 3 key elements in knowing you are a sheep not a goat per Matthew 25. Sheep hear God; Sheep know God, and Sheep follow God. Then I proceeded to tell them of a man who heard the wrong voice and ultimately made the wrong choice. Luke 23 tells the story of Pilate and how he had Jesus tried three times and found him innocent three times. Not to mention his wife had a dream and told him to do nothing to that just man. But ultimately, the crowd’s voice overcame him and he allowed Jesus to be crucified. We offered an invitation and one person accepted Jesus as their personnel Savior. We rejoiced and fellowshipped with each attendee and then took down and put up the muddy chairs, tents, sound equipment, and resources. Unannounced to any person in attendance was the fact that we traveled to Charlotte with very little to spend on gas, food, propane, and necessities. By the time we got their both accounts were empty with the rising cost of fuel and propane. God didn’t need an announcement, people started sticking cash in the donation box at the resource table and Mike passed a hat around the tents. God provided the amount needed to get home and possibly to the next track and back. Don’t tell me we serve a God who doesn’t care or show up on time! He has proved himself over and over and our tree is planted in the richest soil. I asked Mike Duvall to offer prayer at the drivers meeting allowing the drivers to see a peer and legendary driver go boldly to the throne and share Christ in his prayer. Every driver then was seated by number and the fans poured in to get their autographs. I followed the line and let each driver know I was praying for them to have a safe race and God willing I’d see them soon. Once more a mega storm passed through and drivers were getting wet even under the bleachers. Robin and I got up every poncho we had purchased and were able to pass out about 40 to drivers allowing them to keep their drivers suits dry. God blessed with safety and planted many seeds that will blow all over the United States prayerfully on good soil. Please pray for a driver who was hit Friday night by a mud clod and had a concussion. And we thank each of you for supporting us as we share Christ.
Please lift up the James and Greg and their families in the loss of their mother to cancer.
Our mission field this week was right next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway NASCAR track for the COLOSSIAL 100. www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/the%5Fdirt%5Ftrack/
The dirt oval just under a ¼ mile was host for one of the largest dirt late model races known to most. Over one hundred and seventy drivers pre-registered and several thousand tickets sold for the grand stands. Unfortunately the farmers were getting their prayers answered for mucho torrential rain. We arrived Thursday night at about one a.m. and were allowed to park inside the pit area even though the gate closed at 9 p.m. God is good. Friday by mid afternoon over 117 late model drivers had arrived from almost every state in the country. This was the best of the best from all series and local tracks. Robin, Chris, Kristina and I started walking the miles of pits taping church service flyers on each hauler. r.v., and restroom. We placed a modern era track called, “How’s it working for you?” in each driver’s work area as we walked. A few hours later when we had completed two rounds we were able to open the first driver’s meeting with a short devotion and prayer for safety. At the drivers meeting I shared with the nations best about Daisy Chains. While I was jumping out of airplanes for the U.S. Army in the 82nd Airborne division we were introduced to this phrase without a moment to think about it. Usually each jumper would hook to a static line above your head which would allow your Para shoot to open after 4 seconds. This particular time the black hats called for a Daisy chain and I had no clue what was happening. As twelve guys lined up at each side of the plane the 1st guy hooked up to the static line and the next to his cord and so on. Each guy would add 4 seconds to his fall. I of course was last in line. My free fall was a long 48 seconds in which my adrenaline was wide open and I got wrapped up in the exciting moment. Similar to a dream this woman had of a group of people sitting in this huge meadow actually making real daisy chains out of daisies. They were so wrapped up in the moment that they didn’t see about 100 yards from them a group of blind people were headed for a cliff that dropped several hundred feet below into the rocks. Though she couldn’t warn the blind folks or the people making daisy chains she wondered how anyone could be so distracted by a moment to miss such an important chance to help. When I landed on the drop zone that day after a 48 second freefall, I rolled up my shoot and headed back to find the same family, financial, duty, (fill in the blank), problem had not left or been solved. The apostle Paul had this pegged in Colossians 1:28 as he tells them that he will not loose sight of the most important thing, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” I explained the similarities between this Colossial event and the main event of Christ’s’ return. There is nothing wrong with having fun and getting caught up in the moment but let’s keep our eyes on telling others of Christ and teaching them to be disciples. Then I closed with the information and invitation to enjoy both tomorrow at our Dirt Racing Outreach Service at 2 p.m. What is amazing was the northern and western drivers who came to me after the meeting thanking me for sharing and being bold enough to do so. It seems those areas do not have the opportunity or blessing of hearing about Christ or even having prayer in their regions. Pray with me for the laborers and funds to reach those areas for Christ. The fields are ripe for harvest. At 9 p.m., I was put on a stage in front of the several thousand fans to offer the invocation and of course tell the gospel message in my prayer. Can you say OPPORTUNTIES?
Saturday brought a few more inches of monsoon downpours, (precipitation). Guys the track is not much different than your hometown church when it rains, people who were coming to church are persuaded by the roaring lion to stay dry and in their r.v.’s and haulers. We did have a faithful few, close to 40 come to church service, including three drivers and a few crew men along with one car owner. A sweet little girl named Bonnie sang for Jesus and Tony Morris driver of the 31M gave an inspiring testimony of his life before and after Christ. Then Ray Cook lead us all in worship with Amazing Grace followed by my great friend and legendary driver Mike Duvall sharing more testimony and scripture with us as we praised God for his amazing grace and unconditional love. Spirit lead, I preached on Choices and Voices and Sheep or Goats a two fold message starting with John the Baptist as a voice preparing the way for Jesus in John 1. Were we a good voice yesterday? Did we prepare the way for today’s lesson on Jesus? Out of thousand of fans and drivers are enough here today for worship? Did we make the right choice and hear the right voice? There are many voices in this world, voices of discouragement, fear, worry, and fitting in. I used many examples of voices, babies, mommas, animals, kids; they all know and hear voices. People tell us as we travel, “hey I am a Christian but I just don’t hear God.” I’m thinking this; maybe you are not a sheep. I read John 10 to them and pointed out 3 key elements in knowing you are a sheep not a goat per Matthew 25. Sheep hear God; Sheep know God, and Sheep follow God. Then I proceeded to tell them of a man who heard the wrong voice and ultimately made the wrong choice. Luke 23 tells the story of Pilate and how he had Jesus tried three times and found him innocent three times. Not to mention his wife had a dream and told him to do nothing to that just man. But ultimately, the crowd’s voice overcame him and he allowed Jesus to be crucified. We offered an invitation and one person accepted Jesus as their personnel Savior. We rejoiced and fellowshipped with each attendee and then took down and put up the muddy chairs, tents, sound equipment, and resources. Unannounced to any person in attendance was the fact that we traveled to Charlotte with very little to spend on gas, food, propane, and necessities. By the time we got their both accounts were empty with the rising cost of fuel and propane. God didn’t need an announcement, people started sticking cash in the donation box at the resource table and Mike passed a hat around the tents. God provided the amount needed to get home and possibly to the next track and back. Don’t tell me we serve a God who doesn’t care or show up on time! He has proved himself over and over and our tree is planted in the richest soil. I asked Mike Duvall to offer prayer at the drivers meeting allowing the drivers to see a peer and legendary driver go boldly to the throne and share Christ in his prayer. Every driver then was seated by number and the fans poured in to get their autographs. I followed the line and let each driver know I was praying for them to have a safe race and God willing I’d see them soon. Once more a mega storm passed through and drivers were getting wet even under the bleachers. Robin and I got up every poncho we had purchased and were able to pass out about 40 to drivers allowing them to keep their drivers suits dry. God blessed with safety and planted many seeds that will blow all over the United States prayerfully on good soil. Please pray for a driver who was hit Friday night by a mud clod and had a concussion. And we thank each of you for supporting us as we share Christ.
Please lift up the James and Greg and their families in the loss of their mother to cancer.
