Yesterday, July 4th was a rare moment of triumph for me in the Benedict household and the culmination of a 7 month long wait for vindication. Sound dramatic? Well, it was! Backstory: As everyone knows, I have a vegetable garden in the back yard. One of the pleasures of moving back to Pennsylvania has been a very productive garden turbocharged by the legendary topsoil of Lancaster County. It’s not for nothing that our area is called the “Garden Spot.” But…
Good Friday Evening! It’s 10 PM here and I’m happy to report that we’ve completed our mission in Jamaica! I am so proud of this team and the hard work, sweat (lots of sweat) and tears they have invested in God’s kingdom work. Yesterday (Thursday) I didn’t issue a report. One, because I was exhausted and couldn’t seem to get my head around a cogent report and second, because the majority of our day was at Robin’s Nest Children’s Home…
Hi Friends, Today was a replay of yesterday with a few notable exceptions. At our devotions as Flankers Primary and Junior High School, Isaac gave a devotional about being whole hearted and Becky read the Max Lucado classic story, “You Are Special”. Then our group divided into teams and spent about 20 minutes in classrooms interacting with the children. Our team returned to WestHaven home for the less-abled and several of our boys participated. I was very proud that these…
Today we did several new things. It was our first time of doing devotions at Flankers Primary and Junior High School and our first trip to WestHaven, a home for “less abled” children. The work projects continued and we had another good day at the after-school program. Flankers Devotions: When our bus arrived on campus at the school, we knew it was going to be a fun time. Out of school room windows peaked a dozen little faces with huge…
All of our leaders were so impressed with our teens hard work today. We knew from the start that our first day would be challenging… and it was, but our team rose to the challenge. We had a few program elements fall through at the last minute, so today was all hands on deck to get a jump on the ambitious work projects we committed to this week in Canterbury. At Redemption Chapel we are painting ceilings, replacing windows, repairing…
Happy Sunday from Jamaica! Today our team worshipped in 3 different churches over the span of a 5 ½ hour period. That’s a lot of church. But no one complained. One of our team jokingly said, “If God keeps track of how much we go to church, we really gained ground today.” Our first church experience started at 8 AM at the Uprising City Church, the church housed on the Jamaica Link facility, Fairhaven. Jamaican men and women in their…
We have safely arrived in Jamaica for our week of ministry with Jamaica Link Ministries! Let me step you through our eventful day. We gathered at Bethany church at 5:15 AM and were on the road by 5:38 AM. Not bad! Everyone came ready to roll with suitcases packed and our 7 ministry boxes were loaded, labeled and zip tied shut, ready for transport. We gathered for a brief prayer and I challenged the team with Ephesians 2:10… that each…
A few weeks ago at Bethany, we had an all-church luncheon following our morning worship service. Our quarterly luncheons are one of my favorite activities at the church. It’s not just the food, which is always delicious, but the connection. It’s so encouraging to see people who have been here 2 weeks mingling with people who have been here 20+ years. One of our church values is to be “community embedded.” We define that as, “God desires intimate relationship with…
Last Tuesday I received a brief email in my church inbox from a Gmail account I didn’t recognize. It said, “I need to talk to you asap.” That’s it. I was instantly suspicious. Because my church email address is public on the church website, I frequently get phony or unsolicited emails- people phishing, random people asking for money, and tons of dubious links that I instantly delete. This email had all the markings of a fake, but I didn’t want…
A devotional by Mari Madonna We all can relate to misplacing something that’s important; our credit card, an invitation or worse our wallet. I am great for never knowing where I put my phone or glasses. I have glasses in every room but never seem to know where they may be! Recently, l misplaced the key my neighbor gave me to watch her house while she was away. I thought I knew exactly where I put it. When I found…