Prayer Breakfast
0700 at BJ’s Restaurant
Hamilton, Montana
1. Opening - Round the Table
Individual Prayers
2. Breakfast is served
3. Morning Psalm: 1
4. Breakfast Reading: Matthew 20:20-28
5. Breakfast Discussion Topics:
News around the valley
Uniform
in Christ
Community Aid through Christian Churches;
we must to teach our community to fish and to provide mutual aid to local
governments.
Action
Plan
1)
Contact “March for Jesus Christ” churches
2)
Change weekly bulletin in the newspaper
3)
Pick first venue
4)
Pick follow on speakers
5)
Always finish with “Breaking Bread”
52 Weeks to
Preparedness by Tess Pennington
Week
32 of 52: 1 Month Supply of Food (List 2)
6. Closing - Round the Table
Individual Prayers
Upcoming Events:
1 Sep 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
8 Sep 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
15 Sep 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
22 Sep 2014 –
0700 – Push Back with Prayer Breakfast
4 Apr 2015 –
0645 – March for Jesus Christ
Tasks:
Mission
Statement for Community Aid
Fellowship of Christian Veterans:
Our 3Circles:
1) Outside (Feeder) Circle: Churches
& Church Organizations, Veterans Organizations, Special Events, and Word of
Mouth
2) Middle (Prayer Groups)
Circle: Prayer Breakfast every Monday at 7am, Prayer Lunch (still needed), Intercessory Prayer, and Veteran Outreach
3) Inside (Serve the community with
Care) Circle: Fellowship of Military Brethren
On
the Web: http://cvbitterroot.blogspot.com/
On Twitter: @Walk_April_4_15
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/military.bitterroot
Week
32 of 52: 1 Month Supply of Food (List 2)
One of the golden rules of prepping is “it’s better to be over prepared than under prepared.” A great prep, therefore, would be to ensure your family has the right foods stored to maintain a healthy diet in an emergency. Stock up on food with essential nutrients to maintain body functions: proteins and carbohydrates, fats for energy, as well as foods that are not high in salt (the more salty your food is, the more water you will drink). To calculate how many calories you will need in your diet, click here.
Those who are thinking of solely investing in canned goods could be surprised at the amount needed and expense of such an investment. Keep in mind that on average, one person’s rations of canned goods for a month is equivalent to:
- 20 cans of canned meat
- 34 cans of canned vegetables
- 26 cans of canned fruit
Since we are concentrating on preparing for extended emergencies, we must anticipate and prepare for the scenario that our stored food supplies could dwindle. This could occur from improper food storage calculations, survival garden difficulties, or dry good depletion over time. In Week 18 of this preparedness series, we started learning different skills to preserve your perishable food storage for future use. Food dehydration happens to be one of the easiest ways to preserve food for long-term storage. Nutritious snacks can be made from dehydrating fruits, vegetables and meat. Dehydrated soup mixes can also be made for families on-the-go or can be added to bug out bags or emergency vehicle supplies. Canning foods is another suggestion to preserving food. Because the food is canned at the plants’ peak prime nutrient content, they will retain most of their nutritional content, if not gain more nutrients from the canning process. Canned food will keep 12 months or longer in some cases. Start learning these essential skills today in order to be more self reliant in emergency situations. The more you practice, the more confident you will feel in your abilities.
Can you imagine the nightmare of living through an extended emergency? Being prepared can put you way ahead of the game. While many who are unprepared for disasters will be battling to find a way to meet their basic needs, being prepared can keep your mind on what matters most: your family’s well being.
Preps to Buy:
- Dehydrated vegetables and fruit
- High energy snacks (trail mixes, peanut
butter, whole wheat crackers, etc.)
- 2-gallons cooking oil (plant based
oils lasts longer)
- Bulk quantities of canned
vegetables, fruit, meat and soups
- Monthly dry and packaged goods
(pastas, pasta dinners, rice dinners, cereal, dry oats, etc.)
- Bulk quantities of baking goods
such as baking powder, baking soda, yeast, salt, vinegar (white and cider
vinegars), corn meal
- Tea and coffee – 1 box with 16 bags
or 1 (2-ounce) jar instant coffee
- Drink mixes
- Emergency food bars
- MRE’s
- Specialty foods for those with
special diet concerns
- Pet food
Action Items:
1.
Begin
practicing dehydrating different types of fruits, vegetables and meats to feel
confidant in this skill set.
2.
Remember
to take into account the calories and nutrients your food storage will provide
you.
3.
Store
any special diet needs along with your existing food supply.
4.
Don’t
forget to include pet supplies to your emergency food storage. You’re furry
friends want to eat too!
Christians
Playing it Too Safe? Chicago Megachurch Pastor Says Leaders Paralyzed by Fear,
Unwilling to Stick Necks Out for Marginalized
Wilfredo
"Choco" de Jesus, pastor of New Life Covenant Church in Chicago,
Illinois.
By
Nicola Menzie
August
22, 2014|11:05 am
Wilfredo
De Jesus, pastor of a Chicago megachurch that oversees more than 130 ministries
to the poor and disenfranchised, believes Christians in the U.S. have been
playing it safe for far too long. He says many are unwilling to stick their
necks out for the marginalized who are suffering in the cracks created by
society's broken systems and abusive structures.
De
Jesus, pastor New Live Covenant Church, the largest Assemblies of God
congregation in the U.S., says it is fear of being ridiculed or ostracized that
has paralyzed some leaders and kept them confined to their churches, limiting
their engagement with a world in desperate need for people willing to help
bridge those gaps.
"A
gap is a place of weakness, vulnerability, and danger — a place of real
threats," explains De Jesus in his new book, In the Gap. He explains in
the book that while gaps can be as broad as illiteracy and human trafficking,
they can be as personal as an unfaithful spouse or an abusive family member.
De
Jesus, senior pastor to more than 18,000 NLCC members worldwide, believes that,
just like God called on Nehemiah, Esther, Noah and others in ancient times to stand
before Him in the gap as intercessors, "God is still looking for men and
women to stand in the gap in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in our cities and
towns, in our nation, and in every corner of the world."
De
Jesus was named in 2013 as one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential
People in the World" and is former vice president for Social Justice for
the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, which represents more
than 40,118 Evangelical congregations.
In
a phone interview with The Christian Post, De Jesus (often referred to as
Pastor Choco) discussed his reasons for writing In the Gap, what he believes
are some of the defining issues of the present time, why he is a firm supporter
of comprehensive immigration reform, and why he thinks the Republican Party has
"lost its way." The interview has been edited for clarity.
CP:
What is it that you wanted to accomplish with writing In the Gap?
De
Jesus: The whole premise of the book was that gaps have always existed in our
society, but today they're wider and with more destructive force. I'm hoping to
get out of the book, that people will engage in those gaps from different
levels in our society. Education, government, poverty, social justice. It is
not only a Christian book. It's a book that will provoke people to find a gap
wherever they're at, in their villages or in their community, and then do
something about. That's the idea of the book, to engage it. Then, also to
reveal the broken system we have in our society. It's only going to get wider
and more destructive if the Body of Christ, first of all, and then humanity if
they don't get involved in certain issues we're facing as a nation.
CP:
There are a lot of "gap" situations we can point to right now all
over the world. Overseas, there are conflicts in the Ukraine. In various
countries in the Middle East, there are cases of Christian persecution. What
would you say is perhaps the most significant or defining "gap" issue
of our current times?
De
Jesus: Here in the United States, or around the world?
CP:
Whatever comes to your mind naturally.
De
Jesus: What comes to mind is the situation that we're facing in our society is
that 80 percent of humanity lives on $10 a day. When you think about one
billion children don't read or write on this planet, that is just a troublesome
stat. When you look every 40 seconds, someone around the world is committing
suicide. These are some of the gaps that have been presented that have to be
engaged. When you look at the United States, if we bring it home, the average
homeless person in America is not 32 years old, it's 9 years old. That's the
average homeless person in the U.S., and that's just unacceptable, to have
eight-year-olds and nine-year-olds and 10-year-olds sleeping in the streets of
our cities.
CP:
Do you think Christians are involved enough to help with the issues you just
mentioned, like homelessness and poverty?
De
Jesus: I think we believers and Christians for the last 40 years probably have
played it safe. We have seen these things, we've heard about them and probably
have not moved to engage it because of the risk factor. So that is, when you
talk about the Body of Christ not responding to the needs, I think that's…at
the core of it is fear, fear of the unknown, fear of being ridiculed, fear of
being ostracized.
Just
imagine, every gap person in society, every gap person starting from Jesus
Christ, always was ostracized or killed because [they] became a gap person.
There's a risk factor when you decide to stand for what you believe. You talk
about John the Baptist, who got killed. You think about Dr. King, Martin Luther
King, Jr. got killed. You think about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German scholar who
got killed in 1945 trying the help the Jews, he was hung. So anytime you decide
to take a stand in a gap for those that are most vulnerable, you'll always be
open to ridicule and even threats.
CP:
In your book, you give nine examples of Biblical figures who stood in the gap
in times of need. If you could take on of those figures and transport them to
our current time, which one would you choose and why?
De
Jesus: I would have to choose Nehemia. The reason why [is] because Nehemiah
neither was a king, was not a priest, wasn't a prophet. Nehemiah was a
layperson, and this is the season of lay people in our society. Nehemiah heard
about the walls of Jerusalem. He was 766 miles away living in Susa, [with] a
great job, a great retirement plan. And yet what he heard disturbed him to the
point that he cried. When a moral condition has been revealed to you, you have
to act because with revelation comes responsibility. We have to act and so
Nehemiah would be the person I would highlight [because] of just his tenacity
and his strength to sacrifice, travel all those miles, ask for help from the
king to restore the walls.
In
the story of Nehemiah, the walls were destroyed. The temple was built by
Zerubbabel. The walls were destroyed, that means that the temple is exposed,
the people are vulnerable … The word of God is exposed and vulnerable, we have
to protect it as Christians, we have to stand. Nehemiah, he engages the people
in that town to stand up. … He motivated the people to get involved. The other
gap person I think without even saying, would have to be David. David, when he
came before Goliath, he filled a gap that was needed.
CP:
You're saying Christians in the U.S. are kind of complacent or fearful of
stepping out, so what do you think would have to happen for U.S. Evangelical
Christians to take the kind of initiatives you're encouraging?
De
Jesus: I think every pastor, every leader has to see what we're seeing
firsthand, because once you see it you're moved to do something. Like the
63,000 children at our borders. Like the homeless issue. If we just do it in
the four walls of our churches, we're not gonna see the broken systems, broken
structures. So what would need to happen, our pastors and leaders of our
churches across this country, need to go outside and engage. Then, only then
would we be able to fill those gaps.
CP:
Touching on immigration a bit, I know you've been very involved in that and the
most recent issue that has been highlighted is unaccompanied immigrant children
entering the U.S. illegally and their treatment. What are you involved in right
now, and what is your heart on the issue?
De
Jesus: My heart with comprehensive immigration reform is this. I've travelled
16 cities fighting for immigration reform. I'm Puerto Rican, I could take the
side of, 'Hey, this is not my issue.' But the reality is, this is a moral
issue, this a moral decadence that's happened in our society. When you think
about the unaccompanied minors, and they travel from 1,460 miles from Guatemala
through Mexico, to the borders of the United States. Why? Why would a
10-year-old risk their life on a train, and to get through and be raped and be
robbed through Mexico and get to our borders? Unless what they're going through
in their homes in their particular countries, it's even as risked. Then they
come to our borders, and then we treat them as if they were animals.
I
went to Texas to a prison where there were almost 400 undocumented women who
were waiting for deportation. I went there with my wife, and I apologized on
behalf of the country and how we were treating them. Over 87 percent of the
women were Evangelicals. They're not murderers, they're not rapists, they're
not drug dealers. Yet, we incarcerate them. It's really discouraging. So as an
Evangelical, I have to stand in the gap for them. They're being told to sit
down and to be quiet. I have to speak up.
CP:
I'm going to read you the most-agreed with comment left by one of our readers
on a Christian Post article about you being named among the TIME 100 list:
"Social Justice mixed with Christianity that is two different sides of
religion today. Christianity is NOT about social justice it is about bringing
people to GOD. Social justice is a political agenda that has no business in the
church." What's your response to Christians coming from that angle, who
don't see it as you see it?
De
Jesus: It's just unfortunate. When you think about social justice,
unfortunately you've got people who have created it on a political, that I may
agree with. However, throughout the Bible you'll see justice and social justice
being taken… Jesus with the adulterous woman, he brought justice to the
situation. They wanted to killer, and yet he stood in the gap for her. So when
you've got Christians saying that these are two opposite things or they should
not be mixed together. That one is political and one is Christian, I would
disagree with that comment because I'm about not just the thousands that are in
my church, I'm about taking care of the people that are outside of my church.
The Gospel has to be reached to those people. So in my community, I don't just
represent the 17,000. I represent the 72,000 that live in my community, and
that they're being treated harshly. God has given us Christians a platform, and
that platform cannot only be used on Sundays, it has to be used…
Yesterday,
I'm marching in the streets of Chicago against violence. Two hundred and forty
people have died just alone in the city of Chicago; 11 in my community. And I'm
marching through the community. It was just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of people marching with us, and children. The church is the tip of the spear.
The Bible says that the church is the head, not the tail. So if you don't
engage the justice part, then we're just taking up corners in our cities, and
not really caring for the wellbeing of the entire community, not just the 60 or
the 100 or the thousands that come to our churches. I see myself as a pastor
not just for those who come on Sunday, but to stand for the kid who does not
come to my church, and fight for him. That's justice.
CP:
I read an article where you said something to the effect of that the only way
the Republican Party can woo Evangelical Latinos, which is a major block now,
is through immigration reform.
De
Jesus: What I suggested, or what I said was we Christians, that we should
neither represent the donkey nor the elephant. We represent the lion from the
tribe of Judah. However, the Republican Party is not a Christian party, or the
Democratic Party. What I suggested was they lost the election because the
Republican Party did not address immigration.
When
(Sen. John) McCain was running against Barack (Obama), it was McCain at first
when he was a senator, that he presented a bill for immigration reform. But
then he becomes a presidential candidate and then he slips on us on this issue.
So I suggested and said the Republican Party lost the election on this issue of
immigration because they put our people to the side.
CP:
What are some of the issues for Latino Evangelicals when it comes to lack of
trust or confidence in the Republican Party, especially now with it trying to
rebrand itself in a way?
De
Jesus: I think the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, both groups have
really deceived...they have a trust problem. These politicians, they have a
trust problem. For the Republican Party to win the trust of Evangelicals… We're
just no longer just pro-choice and pro-choice and the sanctity of marriage —
which I do believe in the sanctity of marriage and I'm pro-life as an
Evangelical. However, when you've got 65 million Latinos who are Americans and
we're saying, 'Hey, we're neither the Republican or the Democratic. We're for
life, we're for about fighting for justice for everybody.' When you have a
party like the Republicans at one time, you know we had our views closer to
them than the Democrats. Back in the day, maybe 30, 40 years ago, there was a
group as a Republicans you thought, 'Hey, this was the Christian group, this
was the conservative...' They've lost their ways, the Republican Party. They've
got to do a lot to win the trust, not only of just Hispanics, but the entire
nation.
CP:
Any final thoughts?
De
Jesus: I would encourage every leader and every pastor to empower the
laypeople. It would be the laypeople that will galvanize in our streets and
bring the message of hope. We can't do it alone. So we have to give power away
and we have to trust the lay people, like Nehemiah.
Online:
http://inthegapbook.com/
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