Danville Blog & Events

On Wednesday nights this summer, we are taking the fun to the Long Run Community Apartments. Last Wednesday night, we had a great time eating ice cream, playing corn hole, and creating masterpieces on the sidewalk! What better way to spend a hot muggy night than eating watermelon and cooling off with a slip ‘n slide? That’s what we will be doing tonight!

Serve the City Summer Wednesdays are a great time to bring your whole family out to love the people at Long Run for Jesus. Meet us tonight at 7pm at the apartments!

Something powerful happens when we serve others. It has the power to transform our hearts. When we serve, we connect with our Savior, Jesus, who came and lived a life of absolute service and sacrifice. The world’s criticism didn’t stop Jesus from spending His time with the least of these - from an impure woman at a well to a deceitful tax collector, Jesus gave His life so others could live.

When I think about serving, I remember what Mother Theresa said: “Whenever I meet someone in need, it’s really Jesus in His most distressing disguise.”

Wow. That’s a powerful statement that has the power to transform every encounter we have with someone who is less fortunate than us. What if, every time we saw someone in need, we saw Jesus? Would it deepen our desire to meet their need? Would it move us to action? Her words are a challenge to me. The words of Jesus in Matthew 25 are the inspiration for Mother Theresa’s comments: “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” -Matthew 25:40

This summer in Danville, we have the opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters at the Long Run Community Apartments! Each Wednesday night, we will have a different “Summer Wednesday” activity. From ice cream parties to slip ‘n slides, each Wednesday in June and July, we will be building relationships with the neighbors, sharing the love of Jesus with those in need, and telling them who Jesus is. If your family is looking for a place to serve, we would love to have you!

If you are interested in helping us unleash a revolution of love in Long Run this summer, please contact me or meet us at the Long Run Apartments at 7pm on Wednesday nights!

We have heard from many of you who want to go to Moore, Oklahoma to volunteer with the tornado relief effort. We are so excited and grateful that we have a community who generously gives to others all over the world through their many resources, including time!

Our contacts in the Oklahoma City area continue to update us on relief efforts and needs of the area. Our primary contact, LifeChurch.tv, has about 1,500 families in their church who have been affected by the devastating tornado. They are working with national and local organizations on the distribution of supplies and resourcing of local volunteers to those families and more. LifeChurch.tv is asking us at this time to continue helping in these two ways:

Donations
You can donate money to LifeChurch.tv’s tornado “Relief & Restoration” fund here.

Prayer
Pray for peace, comfort, rest, provision, healing for families impacted by the tornado.
Pray for strength, endurance, rest, wisdom, discernment for the first responders, relief volunteers, and LifeChurch.tv staff.

We will continue to keep you updated on relief effots here on the blog when we know more.

We’re continuing to listen and learn about what our response as a church will be to the Oklahoma tornado disaster. At this time we are not sending teams to the area at the counsel of partner churches who are on the ground in the area. They have advised us at this time to hold off on sending people due to the large volume of people already helping. We continue to pray for those impacted by the tornado and for the local Church in that area. We encourage and invite you to do the same.

We have also learned about a need of one of our Haiti missionary partners. The family of the Alexanders, missionaries at Sonlight Ministries in Port-de-Paix, Haiti lost their house in Moore during the tornado. They are going to be the recipients of this week’s Dollar Club so they can recover and start to rebuild their home.

As a church, we stand available to serve as needs are brought to our attention by our partners in the impacted areas. We will continue to update this blog as opportunities are brought to our attention so please continue to check here for future updates.

If you would like to donate money beyond the dollar club or volunteer with a relief organization, we recommend the following organizations:

Lifechurch.tv: Life Church is a church who we partner with based out of Oklahoma City with many campuses in that area. We have strong ties to them and are staying in contact with their leadership as they assess the needs. Right now, they are accepting donations on their website.

Samaritan’s Purse: Volunteer opportunities to go to Oklahoma and help with the disaster relief are available through Samaritan’s Purse. You can find more information on their website.

Along with all of you our hearts go out to the people in Moore, Oklahoma who have experienced devastation and heartache. Pray with us that the love of Jesus would surround those impacted by the tornados.

We are in the process of gathering information. We’re contacting local churches, organizations and people closest to the destruction to help us develop a plan of action. But in the meantime we know many of you would like to help in some way so here are some things you can do now to get involved:

• Pray, pray, pray - it’s our greatest resource and we want to be sure we’re praying for those impacted by the storm.
• Give to the RED CROSS: text 90999 to donate $10.00 or call 1-800-RED CROSS.
• Give to the Salvation Army: text STORM to 80888 to donate $10.00 or calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

Thanks for your part in the efforts to help. As needs become assessed we’ll want you to stay informed so check back for updates to this blog.

Updated 5/22:

The Bluegrass Region of the American Red Cross will host a telethon for Kentucky Cares Oklahoma Tornado Relief this **Wednesday, May 22 from 12 pm (Noon) to 12 am (Midnight)**. The telethon will be aired on multiple television stations and donors can call 859-977-5366 to donate during that time.

**We are recruiting volunteers to answer phone lines during this 12-hour period.** Volunteers will report to our call center at the Bluegrass Chapter location at 1450 Newtown Pike, Lexington KY, 40511.

If you are interested in volunteering for one or more shifts, please email Cally Edwards at cally.edwards@redcross.org or call 859-253-1331 x327.

**Volunteer Shifts:** (shift times can be flexible if necessary)

  Noon – 2 pm
  2 pm – 4 pm
  4 pm – 6 pm
  6 pm – 8 pm
  8 pm – 10 pm
10 pm – Midnight

Here at Southland, we generously extend hope to the poor by spreading a revolution of love through our Global Outreach Ministry. Each year through your generosity, Southland gives about $1.5 Million to support works all over the world!

Global Outreach is working in areas like Haiti, Mozambique, Asia, Europe and the Northeast United States. From rocking babies to meeting medical needs, Southland is involved and reaching out to people.

We'd love for you to get involved! We have three amazing opportunities that can make a huge impact in the lives of others:

1. Take a Trip
Short term trips are a great way to understand what we're doing all over the world. Head over to our Global Missions page to see upcoming trip details. If you'd like to know more about what these trips are about, or want to look into going with us, contact Andy.

2. Sponsor a Child
We partner with Danita's Children who rescue orphans, feed, clothe, and provide life-saving medical care and shelter to many needy children in one of the poorest countries in the world. Your family can sponsor a child for just $29 a month. If you'd like more information on sponsoring a child, contact Mark.

3. Pray for Global Missions
We're praying for Global Missions for 30 straight days beginning May 24. Sign up to receive four emails that include a daily schedule of what to specifically pray for on each day. Each email will go out on Friday mornings from 5/24-6/14.

 

Imagine your church moving each week from location to location, being led by women because the government does not think women can lead churches, and always thankful for the Lord’s protection. This is the case of many Christians around the world, including places in Central Asia.

Imagine growing up under Communism, working for the KGB, and then your world...

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In John 12, Mary gave an outrageous offering to Jesus - a fragrance worth a year’s wages! She took the perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet with it. Her love was costly but the fragrance filled the entire house!

Saturday, May 18, we will have the chance to send up a fragrance of Jesus’ sacrificial love at Jennie Rogers Elementary. We are throwing an end of the year block party in the Jennie Rogers parking lot from 11am-1pm to celebrate the hard work of students and teachers this year. There will be food, face-painting, a slip ‘n slide, carnival games, and more!

Bring your family out to unleash love on the students, families, and teachers at Jennie Rogers before they go home for the summer. If you are interested in volunteering at one of the activities, please let me know!

Each year at Southland, we have the opportunity to support the ministries of Assurance Care Center in Lexington and The Pregnancy Resource Center of Central Kentucky. With your help, these ministries can offer free confidential medical and counseling services to men and women in the midst of crisis pregnancies and also healing through a post-abortive ministry.

Your part is simple. This weekend, May 11/12, grab a baby bottle after service, fill it with change, cash or checks, and bring it back on Father’s Day weekend (June 15/16). 

Your change will go a long way to help these ministries offer healing and hope to post-abortive women and men.

Every week in several central Kentucky neighborhoods, we visit families to pray with them, meet basic needs, and build relationships to share the love and hope of Christ. We call this ministry Serve the City.

If you're interested in serving with Serve The City, please watch this simple training video to learn more and follow the instructions after it's over, if you want to serve. We would love for you to partner with us to unleash a revolution of love in Kentucky! 

Serve The City Locations & Times:

• Downtown Nicholasville - Tuesdays at 6:30pm
• Woodhill Neighborhood (Lexington)- Mondays at 6pm
• Downtown East End Neighborhood (Lexington)- Tuesdays at 6:30pm
• Long Run Apartments (Danville)- Wednesdays at 6:30pm

Waiting. Waiting for anything seems to become more and more difficult these days as our culture bulges with quick fixes and instant gratification at every turn. While we may not be good at waiting, we all would defend that there are things worth waiting for, and that many times the things or people we’ve had to wait on, are the things or people we value the most.

Scripture encourages waiting and even offers insight into how to wait and some of the benefits of waiting. We wait on the Lord, but sometimes, I believe He waits on us. Certain requests God makes of His people do not require waiting, they simply require doing.

We’ve been introducing a new song lately called “Here and Now.” This song calls us to action and says, “I want these things to be true for us right now. These are things we don’t have to wait for, these are things we can be and do in the here and now.” For me, this song creates a modern day creed for the church or manifesto...

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This past January, my friend Emmily started a once a month Bible study and prayer time for kids at the Woodlawn Elementary School. There is about 40 kids so far that meet in the library on the third Tuesday of each month. Different people from the community and all different churches have had the opportunity to lead the kids.

This past Tuesday, three of our Boyle County High School girls, that serve in the children's ministry every Sunday, spoke to the kids and led them in prayer. I was so proud of the way they were each on time, prepared, smiling, and confident in what God had given them to share. Our kids were hanging on every word, because they could relate to them. The girls shared their favorite scriptures and how they try to lead out at school for God.

I thank God for the opportunity to know and serve alongside these girls.

My dear friend Monica, a volunteer on the worship team, recently went to Haiti. She shared a story with me that truly touched my heart and I couldn't help but share one of the experiences she had while serving there. May it encourage you to worship God at all times, in all things, through every circumstance.

True worship is not only displayed when we sing pretty songs at church on the weekends. People will see and come to know our God through our daily interactions with others, how we treat our kids...

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At the beginning of April, I was given the opportunity to lead worship at a youth conference in Haiti and it really changed my life. The conference was at Sonlight Church and School, which is the same one that Jon worked with when he lived down there. It was the same church a group of production staff from Southland visited and did a technical install last fall and it was an amazing experience.

After a days worth of plane rides and a six hour bus ride, it was great to arrive at the church and see that most everything was working great from our install last fall. There were a few things to tweak, but for the most part everything looked and sounded great.

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Look in the mirror. Do you see pig-tails and make-up? No. Why? Because you're a man. And a man is different than a woman. A man says he is thinking about nothing because he is in fact thinking about nothing. A man likes to watch things blow up every once in a while. A man likes to fix things, even when they don't actually know how to fix them. A man hears the word "Braveheart" and begins shouting "FREEEEEDOM" in his head. A man does a lot of things. But most of all, a man hangs out with other men at Man Night. Food. Music. Chest bumping.

We want to invite men from all three Southland campuses to our Harrodsburg Road Campus on Thursday, April 25, from 7-8:15pm. We'll eat manly food, hang out with old friends or make some new ones, and hear Rusty George, lead pastor of Real Life Church in Valencia, Calforina, as he shares some wisdom on being a man who loves Jesus.

^{Childcare is available. To register your child, please contact Nancy.}