Loving Our Neighbors
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark last time, last week, we talked about how Sovereign Grace Churches has been stepping up to embrace the privilege of financially providing for partners globally who are really struggling even more than we are when it comes to food shortages and things like that. But, apparently the rest of Sovereign Grace and some we didn't know about at the time that had already happened, you know, basically said, hold my beer. And all kinds of things have happened giving wise since then? Can you tell us about that?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, it's so encouraging. I want our guys to hear there's been this explosion of generosity and let me say it that way. Within the last week, we've now raised over $90,000 that's making its way, if it's not there already, to two nations that have real needs of people that basically need food during this pandemic. So, I'll just give you a little bit of an idea.
Liberia at least $10,000 your region gave to that and Sovereign Grace Church in Sydney, both churches in Sydney, gave to that. In the Philippines, well over $22,000, Sovereign Grace Church of Orange, Covenant Life Fellowship in Roseburg, both churches in Sydney, Rich’s church, Center Church in Gilbert, Arizona and Sovereign Grace Church of Pasadena. And then we gave some money out of the central budget. We sent money to a closed nation where Scott Crook has taken initiative to train pastors theologically from that nation. He's from the Midwest-Northwest region. So, churches in that region have given.
Again, the Roseburg church gave $8,000, Bolivia, almost $20,000. An individual donor gave $5,000. Center Church in Gilbert, the church in Richmond, Kingsway, Grace Church in Clarksburg, the Mid-South region. And then there's some needs in Mexico that's emerging. So Rich’s church gave money there. And then Ricky Alcantar’s church, Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, gave almost $1,900 to a pastor by the name of JP. He was at our conference a couple years ago and I've already received pictures back where he's distributing food to people in their area. So there is a strong global partnership right now that's functioning in this pandemic.
Benjamin Kreps:
So beautiful. Just the surge of generosity coming from churches in our denomination. And you had some thoughts about what's behind that. It’s not just a desire to be kind to people, but something even more substantial.
Mark Prater:
Yeah. I think that it’s the effect of a couple of things. I believe it's the faithful preaching of the gospel week in and week out by our pastors in our churches. And it's the intentional way that we have always built a gospel culture. And we've got to credit C.J. for teaching us how to do that. We all stand on his shoulders, but we're continuing to build that gospel culture so that the good works that God's created us to do, Ephesians 2:10, really does flow from the gospel itself.
Benjamin Kreps:
The general generosity proceeding from the generosity of God in Christ.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, exactly. And by the way, we're not just seeing this globally, we're seeing it locally. So I've started hearing reports of how churches, Sovereign Grace Churches, where members are taking initiative on their own. So work with local food banks to get food and then distribute that food in their community or to members of the church in need. So that's happened in Marlton, New Jersey and Souderton, Pennsylvania. I was just up in Wissinoming in Northeast Philadelphia with Dan Birkholz, his church. They're doing that so that it's not just a global work that's being done. It's a local one as well. In fact, you're doing a similar thing there at Living Hope.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah, we are. A couple of weeks ago we worked with a local food pantry, big organization, to purchase 322 boxes of food, I believe, 35 to 40 pound boxes of food. And so we had a drive through food blessing two weeks ago and again on a Friday. And we had a couple of hundred cars passing through, actually about 300 cars passing through.
Over the course of two hours, a team of folks from a community group were out there handing out boxes and so it was something that we haven't done before. We haven't tried something like this before, but it was gratifying to see how much of a blessing it was and how much we were actually meeting the need without amount of people that were driving through. So that was the idea of a community group and in our church.
And so we're doing it again tomorrow, so the podcast won't be till Monday, but Friday we're doing another one, same amount of boxes essentially. And, again, that's community groups that are coming together to purchase many of the of food and actually to staff the handout. So the thought is a God's doing unexpected things and expanding our vision about what it means to be a blessing in our community and to reach others with the love of Christ.
Mark Prater:
So, Ben, how would you say that strengthens the gospel culture you're building at Living Hope?
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. Well, you know, of course an essential part of ensuring that there's a healthy gospel culture is that we're actually, our lives are lived in accord with the gospel and we're walking in a manner worthy of the gospel. So this is just a practical way to put feet and hands on those things that we hold dearly when it comes to generosity.
And wanting to see the glory of Christ fill Middletown because of the gospel. So this just gives us a fresh opportunities to step into practically walking out the beauty of the gospel in being a blessing in our community. So it just put its put legs on it for us in a way that maybe we haven't quite done before.
Mark Prater:
And all of that's being done, what I've seen, is with joy. So joy marks a gospel culture, right, Philippians 4, rejoice always, again, I say rejoice. With an explosion of generosity, I think there's an explosion of joy.
Ben Kreps:
Yes, yes, definitely. So, well, the stories keep piling up and we anticipate that we will hear more and more stories about churches that are stepping into generosity and seeking to be a blessing and to love people, love our neighbor during this season. So, thanks for filling us in with some of those stories and we'll talk again soon. So, thanks Mark. And thank you everybody who's been watching. God bless every pastor who's watching this podcast as you seek to be faithful and love your neighbor and express the beauty of the gospel and your local context. So we'll see you next time.