From: David Jones [david.jones@lbfc.org]
Sent: Sat 7/29/2003 12:39 PM
Subject:Keeping up with the Joneses

July 29, 2003

Hello Long Beach Friends!

We hope you are enjoying the breeze by the beach. Kansas sure can get warm! I guess I'm just not used to it, though, because people around here don't seem to mind the feeling of not being able to breathe when it is so warm and humid. Our bodies have started to acclimate, but it is still shocking sometimes to walk out of our air-conditioned duplex into the Kansas furnace. Nevertheless, Kansas is not all about the weather, and we have been truly blessed by the Lord during our time here.

You will remember that when we left, one of our prayers was to find a fellowship here in Kansas. We believe that God has answered that prayer. If you recall, in earlier newsletters, we told you of how we came to Eudora and how much of our coming here had to do with the church we are at. If you don't remember the story, we'll tell you again and put in some more details. Here is the story:

Week 1: When Emily, her mom and dad, Aaron, and I first arrived in Kansas, our first job was to find a place to live. Interestingly enough, as soon as Aaron and Mike (Emily's dad) heard about the small town of Eudora, their ears perked up and they said we should go check it out. Honestly, I wanted to live in Lawrence because it is bigger and there is more to do there. So, we looked around Lawrence for two days while Aaron kept reminding us that we needed to go to Eudora because he knew that is where we would find a place. So, we went to Eudora (six miles outside of Lawrence) one morning and drove around the neighborhoods in search of a place to live. While we were driving around, I kept seeing high school and junior high kids walking around the town and I began to pray for them. We were able to look at a place (the place we now live at) and we felt good about it, but we also had numerous places to choose from in Lawrence. After we looked at the apartment in Eudora it was lunchtime, so we went to a place (in Eudora) called Cutters to eat. Next to Cutters was a coffee shop. (We were surprised by this, because Eudora is not the kind of town that would have a trendy-looking coffee shop!) As we looked closer, we realized that the coffee shop was operated by a local church as a youth outreach. Over lunch we asked our waitress about the coffee shop and she told us about the ministry of the First Southern Baptist church in Eudora. We had a great time chatting with the waitress and she gave us a good feel for the type of people who live in the community. After lunch, we all drove back to where we were staying in Lawrence, looked at a couple more apartments, and then came together and prayed about our decision. (I should mention that the whole experience was saturated in prayer and God blessed our "apartment-hunting party" with a great deal of peace throughout the process.) After we prayed, Emily and I went for a walk to talk and pray more about where we were going to live. From a worldly perspective, there was a wonderful place to live in Lawrence-a gorgeous two-story duplex in a super nice neighborhood with a really nice, honest landlord, and a great location for a KU student. But we couldn't get Eudora out of our minds. As we talked, it became clear to us that God had put Eudora on our heart and in our minds, specifically the youth of Eudora. That night, we went to Eudora and secured the place where we now live. We spent the remainder of that week (Wednesday through Saturday) moving into our place.

Week 2: Emily's parents left on Monday and we received one of our first pieces of mail on Wednesday. It was from the First Southern Baptist (FSB) church in Eudora. The church was welcoming us to the community and letting us know about their fellowship. I decided to call the pastor (Waylon), and we talked for about 30 minutes about what God has been doing in Eudora through the ministry of FSB. The pastor's insights into the work of God in the community demonstrated a care for the people here and a desire to be right in the middle of what God is doing regardless of the risks or the costs. Emily and I really felt God leading us to check out this church (it kept coming up - first the coffee shop, then the letter/talk with the pastor!),

Week 3: On Sunday, we went to their service and had a good time meeting the pastor and some of the other people in the church. Monday, Waylon (pastor) and another one of the leaders in the church came over to welcome us to the town and let us know more about FSB and the community. Before they left, Waylon invited us to a couples' dinner that would be held on Saturday. When Saturday arrived, Waylon dropped by in the afternoon to remind us about the dinner (a good thing, because we had misunderstood him and thought it was on Sunday). We decided to go to the dinner, not knowing anyone except for Waylon, and there we met many of the young couples in the church, all of whom have children! I don't remember the last time I have seen so many kids running around. They were everywhere, especially when the wasps attacked! By the end of the night, three or four kids had been stung. While the kids were running around screaming, we were talking to their parents and doing the sometimes uncomfortable work of starting new relationships. All in all, we were very thankful to God for giving us the opportunity to meet with other believers and to begin to become a part of their lives.

Week 4: On Sunday, we went to Sunday school and church and then we went out to eat with the pastor, his wife, and two other couples. They really made us feel welcome and made us laugh a lot (see our newsletter where we told you about Randy and Marlene-the couple from Louisiana). I went to church on Sunday evening and met more of the congregation and shared my thanks to them for welcoming Emily and me into their lives. On Tuesday, one of the guys in the church (Mike Bennett) invited me to go to a men's bible study. I went with him and was amazed to see grown mid-western men being vulnerable with each other and seeking God's heart together through the scriptures and through prayer. This definitely surprised me because in my mind mid-western men are tough guys who shoulder all of their own burdens, work hard, and play hard. But they don't talk about stuff that really matters. Well, not these guys. God has captured their hearts and they truly demonstrate childlike faith and a real desire to grow closer to each other and to God. On Wednesday, Emily and I went to the mid-week youth group gathering at the coffee house and met many of the youth as well as the youth pastor, Jeremy, and his wife, Kimberly. Thursday night marked softball practice for me (the church is having a tournament in late August-and yes, I still throw the ball twenty feet over the infielders' heads!) and Emily went to a women's dinner. On Saturday, Mike Bennett and his wife Jody had us over for dinner (I shouldn't neglect to tell you that they have two little kids, the older of which spent a good twenty minutes continuously climbing onto a chair and jumping off for our entertainment).

Week 5: Again, Emily and I went to Sunday school, church, and then to evening church. Jeremy Newborn made it known that the church needed another couple to go as counselors to the youth camp-Super Summer. When I asked him about it after the evening service, we found out that counselors going on behalf of a church need to be members of that church. Emily and I had been praying and thinking about going to Super Summer (we saw it as a great way to get more involved with the youth and the church), and we knew that church membership was something that we would need to think about. Super Summer proved to be the catalyst for encouraging us to think about it sooner. On Monday, I invited Waylon to come over to our house so we could talk about the beliefs of the church and what church membership would mean. Like LBFC, FSB takes membership seriously in the sense that they see a God-given responsibility to look after the spiritual and physical needs of their members. If one of their members moves away, like LBFC they consider that member under their care until God has placed them in another fellowship. When someone desires to be a member at FSB, they have a class that explains what the church believes and why. This class also provides potential members, or simply people who are attending the church, with an opportunity to ask questions about the church and to learn about the good news that God's Kingdom is at hand. This way, people don't enter the church with misguided notions about what the church believes and how it operates.

On Tuesday, I had breakfast with Jeremy (youth pastor) and we talked about many things, but specifically we talked about the lives of the kids in the youth group. As we talked, I remembered something that Sam Ginder said at one of the meetings Emily and I had with you when we were considering coming here to Kansas. Sam asked, "How much did you know before you came to LB? Did you know what you were being called to?" I explained to him that I only knew that I was supposed to go to LB. God made the specifics clear along the journey. I told him that, in the same way, Emily and I didn't know exactly what God was calling us to in Kansas, but we knew He was calling us. Sam then said, "Well, if not, then maybe God is sending you to Kansas to do the same thing that you did with us. Maybe some other guys need you now. Look at the family you now have here. Maybe God wants to do this somewhere else." Maybe Sam knew more than we did, but either way we feel that God has put us here to be part of youths' lives in Eudora and specifically at FSB. Initially, I really wondered if youth would really need anybody out in Kansas. Doesn't everyone have it together in the Midwest, land of a thousand churches and old-fashioned values? The answer to that is a resounding, "No!" In fact, out of the entire youth group, there is only one youth who does not come from a broken home. Divorce has ravaged this area and many of the kids here are trying to figure out how to piece together their broken lives.

For the rest of that week, we participated in the regular life of the church here (men's bible study on Wednesday, softball practice on Thursday, etc.) and on Saturday Jeremy did a class on the beliefs on Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Week 6: So, with only a week left until Super Summer, Emily and I sat down and talked earnestly about the decision to become members of FSB. We reflected on the past weeks: meeting the people of FSB, becoming involved in their lives, seeing their commitment to grow in Christ, and watching them be a family to each other, especially to so many from broken homes. We remembered how clearly we felt led to visit FSB, and how we really saw God's hand in our times of fellowship over the last month. We prayed again that God would reveal His will in our decision, and we both felt Him continuing to confirm our place in this body of believers.

So, this past Sunday, Emily and I indicated to the congregation at FSB that we would like to become part of their fellowship. What does this mean? This means that God has answered our prayers and your prayers that we would find a church to be part of. This means that we will be active in the life of FSB and committed to serving there. It also means that FSB has committed to look after our physical and spiritual needs. Practically speaking, it means that God has given us a local church family in the context of where we live. What does this not mean? This does not mean that we will stop communicating with you about what is happening in our lives here (we also enjoy hearing what is happening in your lives-thank you to those who have taken time to call or write to us). Nor does this mean that we will stop caring for you and praying for you.

I should mention that when Emily and I moved to Kansas, we asked God to make it clear as to what church body we should be part of. We didn't want to waste time going from church to church. Evidently, God didn't want us to waste time either, because short of dropping us a message from the sky He did all He could to show us where we are supposed to be. Even so, we miss you and often think of you. I have looked at the church picture and prayed for your faces so much that I could tell each one of you where you were standing (if I wasn't color-blind I could tell you what color of shirt you were wearing!) We wholeheartedly echo Paul's words in his first letter to the Thessalonians, "We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." We love you all, and we look forward to hearing even more about the amazing things that God is doing at LBFC!

Trusting in His promises for yet another week,

Dave and Emily