As people plan their vacations and summer plans, thoughts of lounging around the pool and picnicking with friends start to push their way forward in our minds. The sad reality is there are people right here in our area that don’t have these options. Their thoughts are consumed with “Where is our next meal going to come from?” and “Where are we going to sleep?” In a county as wealthy as Loudoun, needs do exist. While we don’t see the homeless man on a street corner necessarily, the needs are there.

Good Shepherd Alliance (GSA) tries to assist families in answering those “where” questions. They are a Christ centered organization that tries to help families struggling with those very needs. However, they can’t do this alone; donations and contributions have to come in from the community.

On May 2, MBC Loudoun concluded a month long GSA needs drive. THANK YOU to all those who participated. The economy is tough on a lot of people right now, but it never seems to dampen the response from the folks at Loudoun. The aid you provided goes directly towards helping single mothers living in the shelters where they are given the opportunity to try to get back on their feet. As you can imagine, these days the needs are greater, and through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, you gave generously.

Thanks also to everyone who helped cart the supplies to the storage area after the services and to Keith for helping me deliver the items today.

I’ve attached a couple of pictures to show you how much stuff you guys collectively gathered. When one of the volunteers at GSA came by the kitchen and saw the donations, she stated, “Wow! The folks at MBC really give!” I don’t say that to make you proud or to boast in the works that we do but to say that God is glorified through your good deeds and your generosity. You consistently amaze me at how you are so willing to give … and often times to folks you’ve never met.

Thank you for living out what Christ has called us all to do – to help “the least of these.”

Thanks for being Jesus with skin on!

In Him,

Greg Lilly

On Saturday, March 20th, I dropped some food off to the food bank at Tysons. I noticed the diamond in my ring was gone. I retraced my steps, but to no avail; I could not find it. A woman noticed that I was looking for something and came over. After I shared what happened, she told me that she had lost a diamond many years back and started to help me look for it. We both searched and searched, but no diamond. I commented “Oh well, maybe the Lord didn’t mean for me to have this ring.” The woman stopped and said, “Well, let’s pray about it.” So, we did, but I was skeptical that God was concerned about a lost diamond stone. We searched some more and then gave up. As we were walking outside together, I stopped and asked what her name was. We chatted some more and she looked down and guess what she saw……it was the diamond!

Our teams… in no particular order

• Parking {led by Eric}
• Welcome Center {led by David & Cindy}
• Ushers {led by Jack & Melissa, Dux & Ramona, Jack & Teresa, Frew, and Joe}
• Communion {led by Carlton}
• Greeters {led by Melinda and Bill}
• Newcomers Meeting {led by Jim & Ruth}
• Newcomers Events {led by Scott & Candice}
• Name Tag Team {led by Ken & Sharon}

Thank you for all you do to serve Christ with such excellence!

At our lunch, we took some time to give God all the credit and honor and glory for all He is doing at MBC Loudoun, in our lives personally, and on our Weekend Host Teams. We looked at 1 Samuel 4-7 – a series of battles between Israel and the Philistines spanning 40 years. Samuel, Israel’s prophet and last judge, led the people to repent of their sins and idols and to purify their worship. {We challenged each other to be a leadership team who does the same – repent of our sins and idols and purify our worship.} Samuel then prayed and sacrificed, and ultimately the Lord defeated the Philistines for them. 1 Samuel 7:12 tells us what Samuel did in response, “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’”

The Lord has helped us on Weekend Host Teams in so many ways! With Samuel as an example, we as a leadership team took stones and wrote on them things for which we wanted to give God the glory and credit and thank Him for helping us thus far. Then we added them to our Weekend Host Teams Ebenezer Jar.

Ebenezers included:

• Amazing community that has developed on our serving teams
• How leading has helped some open up and trust God
• Our volunteers’ excitement to serve and participate
• Relationships and friendships that have developed on the teams
• Incredible leaders (both current and past)
• Refreshment and renewal
• Steadfast key volunteers (some named by name!)
• How serving on a team has helped increase their witness and opportunities to share with unbelieving friends

God is doing some amazing things in the lives of our leaders, teams, and at this church. It is a blessing to be a part.

This past Sunday, Access Ministry was ready for a normal, smooth running Beautiful Blessing classes. The volunteers and nurse were scheduled and confirmed for the two services. My plans were coming together and I was not sweating a thing that morning. However, God had His own plans. See, God has been whispering in a person’s ear about volunteering for Beautiful Blessings for the past couple of months. This person just was waiting for the right time or opportunity to go upstairs and offer to help. My plans started to go down a small hill around 8:45am when the nurse did not show up. Then the hill got steeper. At the 10:45 service, I was the only volunteer with two children. Now, I am starting to sweat. Then, one of my volunteers showed up. I start breathing a little bit better but, the other two children just showed up. I asked the parents to hang out for a little bit while I go and find one of our faithful volunteers. Quickly, I went down the steps to the auditorium and looked around. No volunteer! I really wanted the parents to be able to enjoy the service. I immediately went to the Welcome Center and asked Susie Battle if she knew of any volunteers that could help us out. She pointed over in a direction where some people were and said to try them. I figured, what could I lose, my plans were snowballing out of control. When I approached the group and started to explain that I needed help upstairs. One person said they could help even before I finished my sentence. I was shocked and said follow me. The rest of the Beautiful Blessings class went great. At the end of class is when I found that this crazy day was all in God’s plan. This is when the person shared with me about God prompting them to serve. It is so AWESOME to see God’s glorious plans come together in the mitts of our chaos.

Recently I had the opportunity to serve with nine other MBC Loudoun volunteers at the Good Shepherd Alliance’s Campfire Program. This program allows volunteers the opportunity to eat dinner with women and their children who currently reside at a local homeless shelter and to play games / do crafts with the kids afterwards.
We had 3 women and four children attend the Campfire program. We had a great time in fellowship, eating spaghetti and afterwards playing Bingo with the kids. We learned during our visit that one of the boys actually accepted Christ at the shelter a week or so ago!
A couple of prayer requests:

• Pray for the House Mother who lives at the shelter and supervises and guides the women and children on a daily basis. Pray that she will have opportunities to share Christ with these families and that their hearts will be open to the truths that she shares with them.
• Pray that the women will be interested in attending the Campfire Program. This program is not mandatory for the residence but they are encouraged to participate. When we visited the shelter last week, there were 8 women and 10 children residing at the shelter but just over one- third of them attended.
• The mother of the boy who accepted Christ a few weeks ago is not a Christian and I was told she has no interest in hearing the gospel. Pray that her heart might soften and that God will be able to use her son to get through to her about the importance of salvation.

Receiving:
For many of us, when we think about our childhood, we have fond memories of those moments with our loving parents, annoying siblings, and the friends we couldn’t get enough of. The holidays were especially exciting times when we would start thinking about all the possibilities of the gifts we would find on Christmas morning. Remember how you could hardly contain the excitement of having a box handed to you, getting to tear off the wrapping paper and revealing the gift inside? Remember the joy you felt knowing that the gift inside was all yours and knowing that someone loved you so much to give you that present?

Giving:
At some point in our lives, we become aware of the unique pleasure we can get by giving something special to another person. Do you remember making your mom or dad a homemade gift for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day? Have you ever gone on vacation with your family and picked a souvenir for your best friend? Did you ever create a mixture of meaningful songs for a love interest? Have you watched your child’s unbridled excitement at seeing that perfect gift they “always wanted?”

Now imagine putting together a gift box of various items for a child you have never met. All you know is that the recipient of this box may never have experienced the rush of being a receiver or a giver in the scenarios mentioned above. The child that will receive your gift lives in a world where items that we tend to take for granted are truly treasures. The potential impact that your gift will have on this child is immeasurable. All this child knows is that a follower of Jesus Christ put together a gift of love for him or her. That act of love will most likely be remembered for that child’s lifetime, and may inspire further acts of love, kindness and sharing.

As hard as times are here in the United States, in your complicated and often frustrating life, it is a life of luxury by these children’s standards. Please consider sharing some of your time and resources to bring joy and tenderness to a child. Have fun picking out items that will light up a beautiful face with a smile and heart full of love. Take advantage of the opportunity to impact a life in Jesus’ name.

Are you inspired? Go to http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/ for instructions on how to give.

NEW this year! Donate online and print out a tracking label for your gift box. You will receive an e-mail with the destination of your box and information about how Operation Christmas Child runs in that country!

The Welcome Basket Ministry team met September 1st for fellowship and service to assemble 25 baskets for the fall season. We would like to thank the volunteers who gathered basket items as well as assembled baskets. Their hearts for serving the Lord and helping this ministry grow are a delight to MBC Loudoun. We also sing Praise to the Lord for answering our prayers for more ministry members and help in preparing these baskets. How wonderful is our Lord who gives us a wonderful gift like faith to know that all things work together for good to those who love Him!

As stated in McLean Bible’s Core Value #9: Our church must have an evangelistic impact on our community – Acts 6:7, Thessalonians 1:8. The Welcome Baskets ministry was formed to serve and evangelize to new neighbors in our community and invite them to join us for Sunday services at MBC Loudoun.

Each basket welcomes new neighbors with items to meet their practical and spiritual needs. Baskets include household items such as spaghetti, snacks, soaps, note pads and homemade bread. They also include spiritual information including devotionals, pocket Bibles, Lon’s testimony CD’s, and invitations to MBC Loudoun.

Church members may purchase a basket from the Welcome Center for $20, the cost of the basket and goods, for new neighbors (or anyone else really!) as a helpful tool to love and witness to others. This has been a wonderful tool for God to impact the Loudoun community!

If you are interested in joining this ministry in one or more of the ways listed below, please contact Ashley Mitchell:

• Assemble baskets
• Costco goods purchase/pickup (all items are reimbursed)
• Michaels/AC Moore goods purchase/pickup (all items are reimbursed)
• Prayer for the ministry and God’s impact on the community
• Spreading the word about the ministry and that church members can purchase the items to welcome and evangelize to new neighbors

Contact info: Ashley Mitchell, ashley.mitchell@mcleanbible.org or 703-244-7083

If I could have taken one home, it would have been Teressa.

Teressa (short vowels, beautiful rolling “r”) has deep passionate eyes and a sweet smile. She is 7, but probably weighs as much as an average American 4-yr-old. Every time I saw Teressa, she was wearing an emerald green tank top and muddy boy’s sneakers at least one size too small.
She also had this nagging cough that made me cringe every time I heard it.

Teressa was God’s reminder to me that, more than anything else, children (and all people) need to feel loved. You see, we had brought down all kinds of toys: balls of every size, beads for bracelets, and markers and crayons for drawing. While the hundred other children were playing, Teressa wanted to stay on my lap. Even when the local band was brought and a congo line started, Teressa tucked her head under my chin and buried herself as deep in my arms as she could get. She didn’t need toys and games and entertainment; she needed love.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35

by Brian Lem

Our church is actively seeking volunteers for the DC Schools Project, officially known as the DCPS Beautification Day 2009, on Saturday, August 22. I strongly encourage everyone at our Loudoun campus to participate. My oldest son, then 13, and I volunteered for last year’s project. We both found the project to be meaningful and worthwhile. This project offers a chance to share our faith with other community activists and volunteers. For more information, visit the McLean Bible website. If you wish to register yourself or your small group, please email James Misner at james.misner@mcleanbible.org by Sunday, August 2. Thanks!