Pastor's Blog: Taking Others Up on Their Invitation
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Pastor’s Blog • June 3, 2018
“Taking Others Up on their Invitation”
Invitations are an ongoing part of life. Hardly a month goes by when we don’t receive some sort of invite to a party or a celebration or to pay someone a visit, and of course, each invitation anticipates some sort of response on our part.
Our church has been fortunate to have received numerous invitations to be with some of our missions partners in recent years, which has strengthened our relationship with them in significant ways. I think of our partners in the Philippines, China, and South Africa to name a few.
Now, our friends at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, Lebanon, have extended us an invitation to visit the campus, along with the opportunity to observe their work with Syrian refugees in the city. You may remember Elie Haddad, president of the seminary, was with us recently and extended again a personal invitation for a group from our church to come over and see the results of our church’s support. Several MBBC members responded favorably to Dr. Haddad’s last visit and inquired as to the possibilities of accepting his invitation.
Our Missions Committee has been in contact with Dr. Haddad and are now exploring the possibilities of sending a group over to Beirut. The potential visit will take place in March of 2019. The seminary will provide the group secured lodging within their walled compound in their guest housing. The group would stay in Lebanon for several days and then make a side visit to Jordan to visit important Bible sites and the ancient city of Petra.
If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, we will have an informational meeting this Sunday, June 3, at 3:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall. This meeting will allow us to gauge the interest level of our church membership so that we might then finalize plans for such a trip.
In the same way that we respond to the myriad invitations that come our way, so our church should make a decision on this one. It is, after all, the right thing to do. So, pray about your interest and then join us at this informational meeting on Sunday so that we can get back to our partners at ABTS with some clear expression of how we wish to work with them going forward.
“During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’” (Acts 16:9).