By Otto & April Habeger

Imagine your life if you had never heard of Jesus – if His Words, His teachings and His message of salvation were not      accessible to you. Or maybe you come to church and hear the message of Jesus, but in a language that is hard for you to understand, not in your heart language.

What is a heart language? It is the language you grew up with,       express your emotions through, dream in, and relate deep truths with. 

As one young African man, who was fluent in five languages, once said, “I can understand God’s Word in these other   languages in my head, but when I read God’s Word in my own mother tongue, the message goes all the way to my heart.”

Another pastor from East Asia said, “All these years I’ve used the local trade language Bible, not fully understanding. It was like reading in the moonlight. But now, reading this in my language is like bright sunlight.”

As people hear God’s Word in their own       language, God can use it to speak to people’s hearts and to change their lives. It is estimated that today 2,200 language communities do not have access to a single verse of the Bible in their own language.

This is why Wycliffe Bible Translators has taken the task of seeing that God’s Word is accessible to all people in a          language that speaks to their hearts.

This is why we, as a church, support the work of Bible Translation, giving God’s Word to people in the language they understand best. Bible Translation is a foundation for many other types of ministry.

How can you disciple new believers without God’s Word in their own       language? How can they be equipped against false teaching and cults without God’s Word in a    language that they     understand fully?

If the task of missions is to make disciples of all people groups, then the greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue.

Do you know which of our missionaries are serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators?

Do you know which are translators and which support the work of Bible Translation using other skills such as administration, mechanics and teaching?

Check out the missionary prayer cards at the    welcome desk and pray for them as they seek to make God’s Word     available to all peoples in the language they      understand best.

By an AWANA Worker: Jeff Fleharty

For starters, I love our Church Body, its leadership, and the way God has been working in and around us.

I can’t pretend to know the lives of everyone in our body, how busy we may be, or even how we are or aren’t serving the Lord.

What I do know is that in our AWANA program, especially the 3^rd—6^th grade girls and boys,   approximately only 35% are churched children.        

Although this shows that we have a great outreach to unchurched children, we should have better participation from our Body. After all, these children are our future leaders.

We go through our days talking about the public school agendas and the influences that our children are subjected to, but how much Bible verse memorization do the children do that will help them fight off the enemy?

In AWANA that is exactly what they can do.  In addition, there are numerous other ways the   Gospel is presented to them in counsel time by our Church Leaders and other godly people. Fun and fellowship are also a great blessing.

If you can’t afford the time or financial parts of participating, there are AWANA Leaders that would love to pick up children from their homes and deliver them back safely.

We also have scholarship programs for financial hardships regarding   registration fees or    uniforms.

Another thing is the shortage of Leaders. Most of the adults who volunteer for an hour and forty-five minutes every Wednesday don’t even have children at home anymore. They just love kids and want to serve.

If this has caused any stirring in your heart, please come and see us a little before 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening to learn more. Or, call Dave Sottana (347-4665), Shawn Bainbridge (347-4993), or Dave Wagner (722-9358).

by Dave & Debi Lopez

There are two basic economic principles that all families must strive to obey: (1) If you don’t borrow, you can’t get into debt, and (2) if you don’t borrow any more, you can’t get further into debt. 

The first thing that must be done is to determine you are not going to go further into debt. 

How to get out of debt:

Give to God first. 

Your first commitment should be the tithe from your gross income.

Pray. 

Ask for the Lord’s guidance.  As you eliminate debt, the Lord blesses your faithfulness.

Rely on God’s Word. 

Base financial decisions on the principles of God’s Word, not the world’s.

Stop borrowing. 

A Christian in debt should begin buying on a cash-only basis until all indebtedness (home mortgage excepted) has been satisfied.  Refuse to borrow any more money.

Develop a spending plan.

This is the primary tool for managing family finances.  Carefully track your spending and look for areas where you can cut back to create some margin in your finances.

Practice saving. 

A Christian should practice saving money on a regular basis, including those in debt.  Even if it is only $5 a month, develop a discipline of saving.

Determine essentials for living. 

A Christian in debt must stop any   expenditure that is not absolutely crucial for living. 

List assets. 

Consider each item - furniture, cars, etc. - and determine whether you should sell any.

List liabilities. 

Most people don’t know exactly how much they owe.  A list of liabilities gives you an accurate picture of your current financial position.

Develop a payback plan with creditors. 

Most will work with those who want to repay them.  (See below.)

Consider earning         addtional income. 

Pay off debts with additional earnings.  All money generated by the extra work must go to eliminate the debt for this to be effective.

Learn to trust God. 

God knows what you need, so begin to trust Him – wait for God’s provision.

Exercise self-discipline. 

Curb impulses to buy. If it isn’t budgeted, don’t buy it. A Christian who is in debt (and even those who are not) should think before every purchase. Every      purchase should be evaluated as follows: (Continued on next page)

·  Is it a necessity?  Have I assessed whether it is a need, want, or desire?

·  Does the purchase reflect my Christian ethics?  Can I continue to subscribe to magazines or belong to book, CD, or movie clubs while I owe others?

·  Is this the best possible buy I can get, or am I purchasing only because I have this credit card?

·  Is it a highly depreciative item?  Am I buying something that will devalue quickly?  (boats, swimming pools, RV’s, etc.

·  Does it require costly upkeep?

Be content with what you have. 

Limit television, magazines, and catalogs.  The more TV you watch, the more you spend.  The more you look at magazines and catalogs, the more you want to spend.

Consider a radical change in lifestyle. 

Temporarily reduce cost-of-living  expenses.  If it isn’t an absolute necessity, it should no longer be in your budget.  Stop newspaper and magazine subscriptions, cancel cable or satellite TV, and discontinue all entertainment that has to be paid for (movies, concerts, sports events, etc.).

Seek wise counsel. 

You may require help to establish and maintain a spending plan and work with creditors.

Don’t give up! 

Getting out of debt is hard work, but freedom from debt is worth the struggle.

Rollover method for Paying off debts:

By applying the “rollover or snowball method,” you can begin to pay off your debts and eventually become debt free.

Here’s how to begin:

(1)  Make a list of all your creditors, ordered from smallest balance to highest balance, including interest rate and minimum payment amount.

(2)  Go to www.crown.org.

· Click on “Financial and Career Tools.”

· Click on “Calculators.”

· Under “Debt Calculators,” click on “Accelerated Debt Payoff Calculator” and follow the directions: Enter the creditors name, current balance, interest rate and minimum payment amount for all of your debts (up to a maximum of 10 debts) in order from smallest to highest balance.

· Click on the “Calculate Results”  button.

(3) Next, enter a monthly dollar amount you could add to your accelerated debt payoff plan and click the “Calculate Results” button again.

This calculator will show how much time and money you could save by paying off your debts.  As each smaller debt is paid off, the freed-up payment amount is then applied to the next larger debt, and so on until all debts are paid. 

This method can save you a ton of money in interest charges, and get you debt free in a very short period.  Our experience has shown that this accelerated method is a huge motivator for clients.

Patience, Persistence, and Progress:

Everyone can become debt free and stay debt free if they have the desire, discipline, determination, and time.  The main point is to take control over your debt, and your spending and saving habits, NOW!

by Nick Braito

At every Elders’ Meeting, Deacons’ Meeting, and Leadership Meeting our church leaders spend time in prayer for Neighborhood Church.

Although these times of prayer almost always include prayer for specific individuals in our church who are in need, there is a list of items through which we always pray. Among these items are the following:

Our Discipleship Process: We need God’s help as we seek to build deliberate disciples who are always discovering, developing, displaying, and declaring joy in God.

Key Ministries: We always pray for the health and growth of key ministries such as our small groups and for Men’s, Women’s, Children’s, and Student Discipleship.

New Believers: We rejoice at each person who is part of our church family, yet long to see God bring new believers into our midst.

Future Growth: As God blesses our church family with new members, we also seek wisdom to know how we should prepare for the future growth He will bring.

Future Leaders: Since tomorrow’s church leaders are being shaped today, we ask God for guidance as we invest in potential future leaders.

Finances: We ask for God’s provision through an economically challenging time and seek wisdom as we use resources that God has entrusted to us.

International Workers: We are blessed to be used by God in the worldwide missionary task, and so we pray for missionaries and international workers with whom we partner.

Future Missionaries: We also pray that God would raise up future missionaries from within our own church family. Could He choose you?

Families in Leadership: Having seen many attacks on families in leadership, we pray for God’s protection over these families.

A Praying Church Family: We pray that our church would be known as a praying church family, and so we invite you to pray along with us for the items above and that God would be glorified in and through the lives of everyone who is part of Neighborhood Church.