LOCALLY & GLOBALLY

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LYDIA-ZION

We had the privilege of sharing at Lydia-Zion United Methodist Church (LZUMC) in Jordan, MN this past Sunday. I got the chance to see several of the youth from Red Rock Camp where I have served as a senior high boys counselor for the past eight summers. One of the boys I counseled, Mark Boettcher, serves as Sunday School Superintendent LZUMC. Mark might be the youngest Sunday School Superintendent I have known at only age 20 and he knows how to do his job well. 
Mark & Bryan circa 2008...?

I always enjoyed counseling Mark and his younger brother Alan at Red Rock, but little did I know that my connection would go further. This past year Molly and I both counseled at Red Rock Camp and also served as the Missionary speakers for the week. It had never come up before, but I found out that Mark and Alan are the nephews of Wayne and Cindy Boettcher who were formerly missionaries to Bolivia through World Gospel Mission.

The church’s connection with Wayne and Cindy made the discussion at Lydia Zion flow very well. Some of the congregation already had a decent knowledge of Bolivia and it was a really great time to share our story. Thank you so much to Lydia-Zion for your prayers for health and safety in Bolivia.

We were also privileged to share in the church’s birthday tradition. As they celebrate birthdays they have a basket filled with papers that have “mission projects”. Each person celebrating a birthday takes the basket around and gives an assignment to someone in the crowd. That paper might say, “Visit someone in a nursing home”, or “carry someone’s groceries”, or any number of other great local mission project. When the person completes the task they pin it up on the bulletin board at church. I thought this was a great way to remind everyone that mission work starts in our own backyard.

Praise be to God for always preparing the pathway ahead of us and preparing the hearts that will hear us.

Amen. 

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