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Creative Career Ministry

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Fifty-seven years working for one ministry deserves to be honored. Word of Life is now eighty-five years old, and Rick Brooks has been serving on staff for fifty-seven of those years. That is a dedicated record. When Rick began his ministry with Word of Life they were just expanding into the west from their base in Schroon Lake, New York. He took on the responsibility of training a team to serve in the Rocky Mountain states and stayed with that project for twenty years. As the ministry expanded overseas, he served in England for three years, training a team to do that work. Word of Life now operates in eighty-eight countries. Next, the ministry asked him to become the assistant to the Overseas Director . In that role he became a missionary to missionaries. He helps missionaries raise funds for building projects, recruits doctors and dentists for healthcare trips, and provides encouragement and care for those who serve the Lord around the world. This has been a ministry for both Ric...
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CREATIVE HOMESCHOOL DRAMA

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  Serious question! Where do you find a script that includes twenty-nine actors ages 4-18 and presents a gospel message? Serious answer! You write your own. That is exactly what Marjean Moffitt did recently in South Carolina. She turned the story of P.P. Bliss into a play which was presented entirely by homeschoolers. They performed the drama twice, at Agnew Road Baptist Church in South Carolina, and again at Grace Baptist Church in East Flat Rock, North Carolina. Mrs. Rebekah Hawkey directed the play, assisted by many mothers who helped with costumes, props, lights and staging. One mother served as the accompanist and arranged the music for two of the songs. A sophomore, David Hawkey, wrote a new tune for the Bliss song “My Prayer.” Marjean worked with the fifth and sixth grade boys on their lines and lyrics. “It was a challenge at first,” she says, “but I was so proud of them by the end.” Practices were held once a week for two months with parents driving many miles t...
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CREATIVE OVERSEAS TRIP

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  One of the first articles I ever had published was a short story called “God Believes in Nurseries.” Based on a true incident while Dwight Turbett and I served in a summer ministry in Little Rock, Arkansas, it celebrated the oft-overlooked Nursery workers in our churches. One of their greatest contributions involves making it possible for parents to focus on the worship service of the church. A team from our church recently fulfilled that role in a unique fashion. They traveled to Freiburg, Germany, for a Baptist Mid Missions Conference. Their purpose in going was to oversee a children’s meeting so that missionary parents could concentrate on the teaching and worship taking place in the conference. Missionaries from both Germany and France participated. The eight team members from Fourth Baptist Church worked with children of a variety of ages. They took them hiking in the Black Forest. They played disc golf and other games. They read books and sang songs. They conducted a se...
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CREATIVE CONNECTIONS

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  It is not easy to stay in contact with a growing family. Along with others in our extended family, my wife and I are in that stage where grandchildren are graduating, getting engaged, and expanding the family through the addition of spouses. We love it, but keeping track of birthdays and anniversaries does become more difficult. And pictures. My wife loves to have current pictures of all the children’s families hanging on the wall. That’s where this great idea from my brother-in-law comes in. Marcus Moffitt, my best friend, who had the wisdom to marry my wife’s sister and so become my brother-in-law, conceived the idea of Selfie Day. One day a year, randomly chosen by him, every member of the family is challenged to send a selfie to their Signal Chat. The pictures can be individual, group shots, or pictures with “friends.” They just have to include children, grandchildren (twenty-five of them), and spouses. He reports a nearly 100% participation on their last Selfie Day, Ap...
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Creative Concert Tour

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  I wish I could have been in Poland last week. Sam Rotman, an outstanding Juilliard-trained classical pianist, was there on a concert tour. If you ever get a chance to hear him, go, even if it means a trip to Poland. Sam came to Christ from an orthodox Jewish background during his years at Juilliard School. He shares his testimony at every concert. The reason I know about this tour is because my cousin Becky Miller’s husband Carroll is serving as Sam’s chauffeur. Becky and Carroll visit Poland often to meet with and train believers.   They were able to introduce Mr. Rotman to Robert Merecz, pastor of First Baptist Church of Szczecin, Poland, and that became the impetus for the tour. This was Sam and Carroll’s itinerary last week. May 15 – Concert in Eberswalde, Germany. May 16 – Master class at the Art Academy in Szczecin, Poland. May 17 – Concert at Szczecin Baptist Church. May 18 – Two musical pieces and preaching at Szczecin Baptist Church. May 18 – Concert...
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Creative Van Ministry

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  Missionaries home on furlough need transportation. Thirty years ago, Wes Lindstrom, a retired farmer near Westbrook, Minnesota, saw that need and set about to fill it. He provided the vehicles. Har and Char Anderson of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, scheduled missionary use and made certain the vehicles were maintained. Lindstrom and the Andersons desired to see the ministry continue as they aged, so three years ago they contacted Berean Baptist Church of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Pastor Cary Flinck took the offer to the church which agreed to oversee this creative van ministry. They now do the scheduling and maintenance for the vans. The transportation made available to approved missionaries now totals four seven-passenger vans. The vehicles are maintained by men of the church in cooperation with a local auto repair shop. “If a church desires to start a missionary van ministry, they should provide good used, seven-passenger vans with stow and go capability,” says Pastor Flinck....
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CREATIVE SLIDE PROJECTOR

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              Thirty years ago my father carefully placed slides into his projector, preparing for a multi-state preaching tour. After twenty-nine tours to Israel, his specialty lay in prophecy conferences. He chose carefully because he had taken thousands of slides on those trips.             That summer my brother David noticed some erratic driving on the part of Dad and suggested a physical before driving all those miles. With the discovery of a brain tumor, the tour had to be cancelled. Seven weeks later, my father moved up to heaven.             I inherited the slide projector and for years it sat in storage. After all, we had moved on to Power Point and video. When our son Chris asked about the projector however, I knew exactly where to find it. The slide carousel still held one hundred pictures from the Holy ...
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