MarketPlace - July 9, 2008

I’m writing this article on the morning of July the 4th. Hardly a day goes by when I’m not aware of two things: that I am privileged to live in the most wonderful country the world has ever known, and that I am grateful for those who have given their time, their energy and their lives to protect it.

I’m also thankful for a church that has taken its responsibility for caring for others so very seriously. At the meeting of our Annual Conference at Lake Junaluska in early June, our Outreach co-chair Elizabeth Montgomery received the Harry Denman Laity Award for Evangelism. The award is given to the one person in the annual conference each year who has done the most to bring people to Jesus Christ. This year’s presentation represented the fact that West Market has become our annual conference’s (and I would say the southeast’s) leading outreach congregation.

Just look at the facts. Last night my wife Lynne and I were at West Market at 2:30 a.m. to greet our daughter Mary Katherine and the 17 other West Marketers (14 youth and four counselors) who were returning from their mission experience in Costa Rica. And though everyone in our downtown parking lot was tired (and many, including me, bleary eyed) there was an incredible electric excitement related to what had just happened. The fact is that lives were changed and relationships built among the body of Christ.

Later this month I will accompany 17 other West Marketers to Bulgaria, where the Christian community is begging for aid. New reports over the past years have detailed the fact that Bulgaria presently has no religious heart, and that countries in the Middle East (including Saudi Arabia) are pumping billions of dollars into the country seeking to establish radical Islam as the predominate religion.

At the World Methodist Conference meeting in Seoul, Korea, two years ago, Lynne and I heard passionate appeals from Bulgarian Methodists for aid and assistance. That led to our adoption of three Bulgarian Methodist churches last year. The hope is that we might play a small role in giving Christians in that country a fighting chance to share the message of Christ and fend off a hostile takeover from religious fanatics seeking to spread oppressive forms of religion.

Early next year a couple of us will make a trip to Kenya seeking to build relationships with Africans who are presently struggling with an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has left millions of homes and communities broken and children parentless. I believe God will call us to adopt/partner with a village (and local Methodist church) there in order to provide educational assistance, clean water, medical care, and construction and housing expertise. I believe God will also call us to provide Christian fellowship and inspiration to those of His children who are experiencing unimaginable pain and suffering there.

Not that West Market has forgotten our own citizens… Our members have just returned from even another mission trip to Mississippi where they participated in the continuing rebuilding effort necessitated by the ravages inflicted by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

And on July 20 (at 5 p.m.) we will dedicate the Habitat House we have built (with assistance from another local congregation) that will provide a home for a deserving Greensboro family.

Oh my, how God is working through us! I must tell you it makes me proud —- to be an American, a follower of Christ, a United Methodist and a leader at West Market, which I believe just happens to be the finest community of faith in the world.

Your gifts of time, energy and finances to God through our church are saving lives, spreading the Gospel and encouraging the lost. If you’re not involved, now is the time to help change the world! May God lead us to renewed passion for it all.

Dave Melton