Team Slovakia

For all of you LBC attendees this Sunday approaches with extra excitement. We’ve been promoting it as “Team Slovakia Day.” Our 9 member team will be departing for Slovakia in 6 weeks to assist our missionaries Don & Cherry Eade. Sunday will be our big church promotion to raise prayer and financial support. This team and our missions strategy is very close to my heart. I have desired from day one to develop LBC into a missional church devoted to reaching our community and communities around the world where we have missionaries placed full-time with the Gospel. This April marks the beginning of my 6^th year as pastor and the 1^st overseas mission team in our history. BUT make no mistake this will not be the last, so if any of you feel cheated because you’re not going with us. The future will bring your missions experience, and I do expect you to sign up.

Two Reasons for Confidence and Excitement

First, we serve an amazingly powerful God

a) He desires all men to be saved.

1 Timothy 2:3-5

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,

b) He sent Jesus to taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2:9

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

c) He laid at our feet the responsibility to proclaim the Gospel.

Acts 26:17b-18

I am sending you to them ¹⁸ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

The second reason I have great excitement and hope in our success is because of the talented individuals God has assembled to Team Slovakia. Let me tell you a little about these amazing people (starting from left to right in the picture). Brandi Barnette is the brain-trust of our team. She is the email guru and will ensure that no detail will be left out. Seriously, I can say without hesitation the show would not go on without her. Darlene Irvine: I had no doubt Darlene would be first in line to join and the first person to step on Slovak soil. She has a pure heart for missions, with a specialty in caring for our missionaries themselves. Remember our Christmas gifts for missionaries a few years ago? That was completely Darlene. Sandy Hostetter: Since I must go on the trip without Sarah, my wife and Chloe, my little girl, I want Sandy to be my designated caregiver. She epitomizes a servant’s attitude willing to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. Corey Matteson, aka Adrian Monk: foreign countries present many germs our immune systems have never faced and defeated before, so Corey has a purse full of hand sanitizer and wet wipes. In addition, she is by far the most musically talented. Chad Nicely: here is our only single adult on the trip. Take a good look. He is very attractive. We plan on coming back with a nice Slovak girl to answer Marion and Pam’s prayers. Chad has a great voice, soft heart & loves the Lord. Tosh Barnette: Tosh is our conservation police officer. He is unflappable, so when adversity comes we will look to him. Also, Tosh is very good in our wordless drama. Danny Hostetter: He loves the Maryland Terrapins, but God let him go on the trip anyway. Danny has the biggest heart, so big I honestly believe he’ll leave much of it with the Slovak people. I love to hear Danny pray, so expect to get asked a lot, especially when we’re getting on the plane. Danny Moore: Danny became a new deacon in January. He is doing a fabulous job. During our time of manual labor on the trip Danny plans on showing me how real men work and inviting me to join them.

This is our team. All kidding aside they are an outstanding group of Christians. I can wait for April to get here so that we can give our all to share the Gospel with the Slovak people.

If you would like to learn more about our trip, how you can make a contribution or join our prayer team you can leave me a message in the comment section.