A Day in the Life of a Cambro!

I had the privilege of spending time this week with some wonderful folk from New York, Kentucky, etc. doing Disaster Relief work in Niskayuna, New York. Our task was to prepare 6500 sandwiches on Thursday evening in the fellowship hall of the Trinity Baptist Church which was kind enough to host the feeding unit from Kentucky. What a tremendous sight to see 150 volunteers form multiple assembly lines and get the job done! Many of these people were new to DR work, but proved to be fast learners and made quick work of the task. DR work is not for the fainthearted as we then awakened to start cooking hot meals at 2:30am. By 10:00am we had sent out 5200 hot meals to be trucked to Binghamton for the more than 20,000 families displaced by the flood waters dropped by tropical storm Lee.






A glossary of terms is necessary for any enterprise and DR work is no different. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ministry has an outstanding reputation among care giving agencies at work today. Red Cross does the delivering of the meals prepared by SBC DR. They do this delivering via a vehicle that resembles an ambulance. They are called ERV's, Emergency Relief Vehicles. When the hot meals are cooked, they are placed in a type of ice chest looking container called a cambro. These containers are lined with a specially designed plastic. Each cambro holds approximately 200 meals. These are transported to the site via Red Cross ERV's and then served to affected individuals.






My colleagues (Dr. Terry Robertson, Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New York, and Mike Flannery, BCNY DR Director) and I left the Niskayuna feeding unit and traveled to Grace Community Church in Washingtonville, New York, where they are hosting the BCNY feeding unit. The team staffing this unit is made up of volunteers from New York, Mississippi, Tennessee, New Mexico, California, Ohio, etc. They are currently feeding approximately 1100 meals per day to affected areas as far as 2 hours away. We then traveled to Binghamton to do initial assessments as to how we could help there. Our first stop was the campus of Davis College, a strong partner with the BCNY in our kingdom challenge here in this territory. En route we had learned that approximately 150 students and faculty were stranded on campus with no electricity nor drinkable water. We asked Red Cross what we could do to help. We arrived on the Davis campus simultaneous with the ERV carrying water and other food supplies for those eager students. Among this delivery was a familiar site. One of the cambros we had assisted in preparing earlier Friday morning was now being delivered to those desperately in need. Karen Smith, Kentucky manager of the Niskayuna feeding unit, says, "we don't often get to see where the cambros go". So there you have it, a day in the life of a cambro!




We need more volunteers to man the feeding units and to do the mud-out work that will continue for the foreseeable future in all these areas, as well as, in North Jersey, where there are at least 15,000 damaged homes. For more information or to volunteer, contact Mike Flannery at 716-432-5333. Training can be done on the job.

From Little River to Indian River in Forty Years!

Sunday, August 21, 2011, it was my privilege to preach at the Indian River Baptist church in Philadelphia, NY. This is a delightful congregation on the banks of the Indian River Northest of Watertown, NY. (near Fort Drum) While Dolly and I traveled the almost two hours to the church, I began to think about forty years ago this month when the Little River Baptist Church in Southern Monroe County, Alabama had the poor judgement to call me as their pastor. Yes, next month will mark forty years since my ordination to the Gospel Ministry. I have often thought that I should send those fine folk a sympathy card for the sermons I forced them to endure.
We served there for about eighteen months while I finished my under graduate degree at what is now the University of Mobile (formerly Mobile College). We saw seventeen folk baptized and built and paid for a new educational building. We dedicated the building one Sunday and I resigned to go to seminary the next.
You may be thinking, how does one get from South Alabama to New York State. When asked, I often respond that I am directionally challenged. But the truth be told, it was a circuitous route. It actually started in the cafeteria at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS). I got a degree in cafeteriology. While sitting with classmates over cups of coffee, we would pontificate on a variety of subjects. One young man, who shall remain nameless, said boldly, "I will go anywhere the Lord wants me to go, as long as it is in the state of Mississippi!" Somehow that statement got ahold of me. When I went home that evening, Dolly and I had a prayer meeting and agreed before the Lord that we would not place any territorial limits on where the Lord might use us. We truly agreed that "wherever He leads, we will go". We agreed never to play the Jonah card. We were filling out paper work to volunteer for international missions when Dolly fell down a flight of stairs at seminary and our FMB (now IMB) advisor told us to stop because no one would appoint her with chronic back problems. We took that the mean that we would serve within the United States. The rest is history.
It has been a fun ride from Little River to Indian River and we cannot wait to see how He leads us on in the future!

Praise As You Pray!

The Model Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 ends with, For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. It ends with a hallelujah chorus, if you please. Never pray utilitarian prayers without acknowledging to whom we are praying. There is a difference between thanksgiving and praise. Thanksgiving is expressions of appreciation for what is done for us. Praise is the expression of adoration of the person without regard, if you please, for what they have done for us. It is the recognition that it all begins with "who" we are before the "what" we do. Praise is about the "being" and thanksgiving is about the "doing". Praise Him for who He is!
Holy! Holy! Holy!

Pray Avoiding Temptation!

While it is true that it is no sin to be tempted, it is a dangerous thing to get comfortable with being tempted. Chuck Swindoll says that we are prone to want to fly close to flame, hoping not to get burned. However, I have learned that there is an intersection where temptation and opportunity meet and when they do, there is an occasion for sin. I recommend that you avoid that intersection all together. Weight has always been an issue in my life. If there is ice cream in the fridge, I will eat it.(Opportunity+Temptation often=Sin) But if I do not bring it home from the grocery, then I will avoid it. Matthew 6:13a says, And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Satan tempts you so you may stumble. The Lord tests you so you may succeed at developing your character. Lord, help us not to fly so close to the flames that our hair is singed by the fire.
Chuck Lawless teaches that sin (temptation) looks so inviting while we are being wooed by it. However, when we step across the line to act upon the temptation, we are then trapped by the Evil One (Satan). One drink or one use of whatever the drug of choice it might be will not hurt is the lie. But then you are addicted and cannot get free. We even call it the "monkey on our backs". So we are taught to pray for deliverance from the Evil One.
I John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I think we get this, that God will forgive us after we have sinned against Him. However, Matthew 6:13a is the preventive measure. If we prayed this one, we'd have to pray I John 1:9 much less often.
Pray Avoiding Temptation!

Pray With Forgiveness!

Did you know that it is possible to pray the Model Prayer and be asking the Lord to refrain from forgiving you of your sins? Notice Matthew 6:12, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. In other words, forgive me in the same manner in which I forgive others. It is easy to see that if you are unwilling to forgive those who have wronged you and you repeat this prayer, then you are asking the Lord not to forgive you. You may take out the as in verse 12 and insert an equal sign (=) in its place. So you are actually praying forgive me equal to the way I forgive others. The same door you open to give out forgiveness is the one through which the Lord will come to deliver your own forgiveness, so if you don't open it, He will refrain from forgiving you. That prayer can be scary. Do you harbor ill feelings toward anyone in your heart? The book of Hebrews calls this a root of bitterness. I once read that anger and bitterness held toward someone else is like an acid, it is worse on the container than the one on which it is poured. I know that, in my life, I have learned that I can only find room in my life for one enemy and that is Satan himself.
You may want to suggest that perhaps no one has ever hurt me like they have harmed you. And if I had experienced what you had been through, then I would not be able to handle it even as well as you have. He was dying on the cross for our sins and said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Surely you and I have faced nothing that can even be compared with the torture of crucifixion, the bearing of our sins, and yet He was able to forgive us.
Every word in the Bible is inerrant and inspired and is there by the Spirit's design. Of all the elements in the Model Prayer, only this one is repeated in the following verses after the prayer. When the Lord sees fit to repeat something, I think it means we need to give it some special attention.
Pray with forgiveness!

Praying Dependently!

In Matthew 6:11, our Lord teaches us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread. It is interesting that at no time does He indicate that we should pray for our monthly needs, annual budget, retirement to be vested; but for our daily ones. Many people are finding that there is more month at the end of their pay check during these times of recession. Throughout biblical history, there is an emphasis upon daily dependence upon the Lord for our provisions. The children of Israel tried to store the manna provided for them for multiple days only to find that it spoiled. It was as if its built-in obsolescence was for 24 hours only. This required the followers in the wilderness to trust that the Provider would not forget them tomorrow. This fact prompted the words, His mercies are new every morning! No need to eat leftover mercies when His are new every morning. However, that requires us to trust Him! By the way, my wife refuses to ask the blessing over leftovers. She says they have already been blessed.
It is also interesting that He never suggests that we pray for our daily steak and potatoes. But we are taught to pray for our needs to be met, not our luxuries and wants to be satisfied. My dear bride and I will soon celebrate forty-one years of marital bliss. But when we first married, there were some rocky times. She is the baby and I am the oldest. We had many discussions about what is a necessity and what is a luxury. For instance, if you have seen a recent picture of me, you would know that I consider all hair brushes to be a luxury that I can see no need for.
Philippians 4:19 reads, And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Pray dependently!

Praying Submissively!

There is a beautiful couplet in the Model Prayer in Matthew 6:10 that reads, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This is a statement of fact, Thy kingdom come, followed by a statement of amplification or description as to what that statement might look like, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. The Scripture teaches that the kingdom of God is not territorial. In other words, you cannot say it is here or there, but it is in you. In short, the kingdom of God is in your life when you let Him be the King of your life. When He is King in your life, you will do His will. Surely if there is any place where the will of God is done, it is in heaven. This verse says that His kingdom becomes reality in us when we obey Him as is true in heaven.
Mr. Hughes, a fine deacon who served in the FBC, Central, (near Baton Rouge, LA) once told me that so often in his life when he reached the end of his rope, he just tied a knot in the rope and kept hanging on. He went on to say that he really only lived in obedience when he turned lose of the rope and fell into the loving arms of our Lord. You cannot submit to His will as long as you are still nursing your own will. Except a person die, he cannot live again!
When we pray, we do not seek to have Him submit to our will, but we submit to His! Pray submissively!