Hello there!

“The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.” Psalm 18:24

You must congratulate me – my sore thumb has turned green! Yesterday morning Gary was looking for me around our house. Instead he found a sign on our front lawn. After finally locating me in the laundry room he hauled me outside and yelled, “Look!” At the edge of our property was a white sign, about a foot square stuck in the ground, inscribed Brampton Horticultural Society, Front Garden Recognition Award for 2011. It is based on visual appeal, overall appearance, general maintenance and individuality. Now that was a real surprise. I have never really thought of myself as a gardener – that was my mom’s job all her life before she passed away. It’s amazing what you can accomplish over the years if you stick with it. My prayer is that I will persevere as much over righteous living as my gardening to receive a better reward from the Lord.

Our son, Rob, arrived safely in Turkey. He reported this past Friday, “Things are going great here. We’ve done 4 shows so far and have had really good turnouts. The program that we’ve put together is real awesome. Definitely worth watching i think …
Original first show cancelled, so we did an impromptu one near the boardwalk in Istanbul. Beautiful evening.” Rob had to leave his passport with the Russian consulate for 10 days to get his visa for Kyrgystan. Please pray that he won’t need it before then.(They were in Ankara Sept. 19th, the day before the bombing – Yikes!) Donations for this trip are still coming in and will be receipted through our charity, Kainos International Ministries. You can mail money to our address below or send me an e-mail money transfer to wendy.carter@kainos.org.

Gary’s radio programs are back – Gary & Kaiya (www.littlebigshow.ca) and our Fellowship denomination (www.fellowshipradio.ca). Please remember to pray for our new national president, Steve Jones who began his leadership this month.

Gary is still getting his digital sign ready to attach to our mailbox which will advertise Go7777.ca. This website will give short explanations about our church, the Bible, Jesus etc. Our neighbours already know about my award sign resulting in interesting conversations. One lady asked Gary last night about his passion that drove him into all that he does. She commented that his great love for Jesus seems to have spilled over into our children’s lives as well.

Home Group happens this Thursday at the Burtons at 7:00 p.m. We are finishing up the Don Carson video series we have been watching.

Gary and I leave for the US after church this next Sunday for two weeks (returning Oct. for another writing/vacation trip. Please pray for our safety in travel and helpful, creative writing accomplished. He can still be reached at gvc@kainos.org.

Almost autumn!

Wendy
wendy.carter@kainos.org
This blog is a summary of our 9:00 Sunday morning services held at 7777 Churchville Rd., Brampton, ON L6Y 0H3, 905-230-8116. It can always be found at www.blog.heartlandfellowship.ca.

Planting Seeds by Gary Carter: Wendy plants Lavatera seeds (from the Holly Hock family) around the Carters’ backyard well each year. After these pretty pink or white flowers bloom from July to October she collects the seeds from these tall plants and saves them for the next year to plant. Unless she separates them she doesn’t know which colour is which. Our 3-year old Carleigh Burton gave some of these seeds left on the plants to each person and taught them how to remove them from the stems. These were placed in envelopes to be kept for next year or given to a neighbour/friend. Check out Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 for Jesus’ parable about the weeds. Often when you rip out weeds you wreck the good plants as well. You can’t stop weeds from growing. Christians will many times focus on ripping up weeds but that’s God’s job. One of the ways Wendy has gotten rid of her Creeping Charlie weed in the backyard is to overseed with good grass seed. We need to sow more wheat and leave the sorting out of the weeds to the Lord.

The Places/People by Steve Macdonald: Paul began his third journey in Antioch and travelled to 30 additional cities (some again revisited on the return trip), many of which he had travelled to on his previous journeys – Tarsus, Iconium, Ephesus, Troas, Neapolis, Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Berea, Thessalonica, Apollonia, Amphipolis, Philippi, Neapolis, Troas, Assos, Mitylene, Kios, Miletus, Cos, Rhodes, Patara, Tyre, Ptolemais, Caesarea, and Jerusalem.
His circle of friends got larger. In Antioch/Tarsus/Iconium (also likely Derbe and Lystra) he strengthened all the disciples (Acts 18:23 - Lois, Eunice, Tertius who pens Romans for Paul a few years into this trip). In Ephesus there were Sceva and sons (Acts 19:14), Erastus (Acts 19-22), Timothy, Aristarchus (Acts 19:29), Gaius (Acts 19:29), probably Onesiphorus (2 Timothy 1:16 & 4:19), Priscilla/Aquila (1 Corinthians 16:19), possibly Demetrius, Chloe (1 Corinthians 1:11), Stephanas, Fortunatus, Achaicus (1 Corinthians 16:17), probably Apollos (1 Corinthians 16:12), Titus (2 Corinthians 7:13), and “the brother” (2 Corinthians 8:18). Where Barnabas, Silas or Judas Barsabbas with him? In Troas, Neapolis, Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth (Acts 20:4) there were Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, Trophimus and Luke (as it says “we/us”). Other possibilities were Dionysius, Damaris (Acts 17:34), Titius Justus (Acts 18:7), Crispus (Acts 18:8), Carpus and maybe Phoebe (Romans 16-1:2). From Romans 16:22-24 if written in Corinth or Cenchrea, are the following in town? Tertius, Epenetus, Lucius, Jason, Sosipater, Gaius, Erastus, and Quartus.
On the return trip in Berea, Thessalonica, Apollonia, Amphipolis, Philippi, Neapolis, and Troas, his companions were Eutychus, Carpus, Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, Trophimus and Luke (we/us). In Assos, Mitylene, Kios, Miletus, Cos, Rhodes, Patara, Tyre, Ptolemais and Caesarea, there were Philip the evangelist and his daughters (Acts 21:8-9), Agabus (Acts 21:10) and Mnason (Acts 21:16). James is the only name mentioned in Jerusalem (Acts 21:18).
All in all, in12 years he made three trips to 66 towns/cities, travelling over 6900 miles. He suffered 195 lashes (5 times), three beatings with rods, one stoning, three shipwrecks (2 Corinthians 11:24-25) and was not finished.

Conversations with Jesus – When the Rubber Meets the Road (Luke 9:1-10) by Chris Burton: Jesus led His disciples by example so that they could also drive out demons, heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom of God. In this Gospel Jesus drove out an impure spirit, healed a man with leprosy, forgave and healed a paralyzed man, saw the faith of a centurion which healed his servant, raised a widow’s son, calmed a storm, restored a demon-possessed man, raised a dead girl and healed a sick woman. He encouraged them to stay in one house probably to develop strong bonds with that family. The disciples had hands-on experience, teaching and healing; so that more could happen through the power they had been given by Jesus. He advised them to leave a town without fanfare when they were asked to leave.
The twelve disciples had been with Jesus for some time watching as He ministered to the people. They heard His message and watched Him. Now it was time for them to follow His example. They weren’t powerless in their mission. Jesus gave them the authority to do as He did. They were give simple instructions to travel with “nothing” - no fan fare or fancy robes - no “pitchman” travelling ahead to announce their coming - no extra spending money. Stay at the first place welcomed - leave if not accepted (shaking the dust off the feet). And who was it that took notice of this as they went from town to town? Herod did! What does that tells us? Their ministry must have had an impact or Herod wouldn’t have heard about it! What can be taken away from this? Jesus empowered them with the ability to do what He sent them to do and He gave them the example. BUT, it was up to the twelve to use these powers or they would not have been welcomed into the towns they visited even thought they always didn’t see the master plan. They would not have been able to expect others (strangers) to take care of them if they could give nothing in return.

Obstructed View – Why Can’t They See? by Gary Carter: Old time pastors were often treated as the only one to make things happen.  Jesus nor Paul operated that way. They used teams. Gary’s objective all his pastoral life has been to be a kingmaker rather than becoming a king himself.  When he started out in ministry he set the goal to deeply impact 25 people in his lifetime. This is consistent with Jesus’ pattern. It does get discouraging when you invest many hours in a person’s life and it goes nowhere.
A sinful nature is very much part of our lives. All the seats in life have obstructed view - people don’t tell you about it and few are willing to admit it. Most just complain about it in others. People are amazing with their special endowments and responsibilities. When have animals ever created clothes? Every tribe or nation decorates themselves. Everyone is responsible to respond to God and the primary goal is to glorify God. But they are not responsible to figure it all out, invest in a solution, play God, redefine God or define the rules. They are not capable of that because of disordered drives, inhuman acts, ignoring the sense of ought (if marriage doesn’t work, kick him out – an alzheimer’s spouse is free to divorce. What about “until death us do part?”) and squandering higher capacities (e.g. wasting time on inane computer games).

Romans 1:16-32 teaches us that all people should know better because God made enough about Himself known through nature that they should eagerly seek to know him. Therefore nobody has an excuse.  (Romans 1:20)

People are broken and can be renewed through a faith-based system designed by God Himself. We will be studying the first few chapters of Romans over the next few weeks. We can plant seeds but only God can make the seeds grow.

Communion: The passover meal was a family event for the Jewish people that lasted for about four hours. When Jesus and His disciples met together their individual families were not present. We don’t know anything about their children. This became their new spiritual family. They learned what Jesus was symbolically saying about His body that would be broken for them - and for us in the future. The sacrificial lamb system was not foreign to them so they understand about His blood being poured out for them when He died on the cross.

Literary Puns by Steve Macdonald:
Man on a Ledge by Will E. Jump
Where’s my Hat? by Sonia Head
The Gardener by Moses Lawn
The History of the Sword by Ray Pierre
Southern States by Louise Yanna
The Visitor by Enoch Zatador
Peek-A-Boo by I. C. Yu
Never Give up! by Percy Vere
Travel Across the Desert by Mustapha Kamel