Antioch has been able to play a small part in the Habitat build for our friend Robyn Cooper. She is a great lady, a good mom and a faithful employee for Habitat for Humanity.
On August 20 her house will be officially complete and ready for dedication. I really encourage you to come out and be a part. If you didn’t get a chance to help on the build, you can still help with the move. If you have a truck or a trailer or two arms you are qualified to help! Check it out!
Antioch family, Robin and her daughter Carley, need our help completing their home off of Empire and Boyd Acres Roads (63140 N Lancaster Rd). The house is behind schedule and the next step to completion is drywall . Have you ever put up drywall? Do you love to serve? Come and lend a hand with ANY experience that you have with drywall! See you there!
This project begins this Friday, July 30th to next Friday, August 6th.
The next project begins on August 7th. American Clay has donated all of the clay texturing for the house! Mark your calendars to join in on this project and help complete a beautiful new home for Robin and Carley.
by: Whitney Stewart
This week I am living intentionally. What does that mean, you ask? It means I am seeking out the root of the things that I consume on a day-to-day basis. This means recording the states and countries from which my clothing and food come from, and laying out a map on my floor and tacking these places to see with my own eyes the scope of my diet and wardrobe.
Today, I have found out that my outfit is almost entirely made in China. It is bizarre to think that everything that I currently have on comes from a country that I have never visited and that I don’t think about on a regular basis. We are accidentally global. We know our clothes are made in different countries and that our food is imported, but we don’t have the time to think about it. Let’s face it, if I wasn’t doing this project I wouldn’t have time to research the companies and countries my clothing and food come from.
It has been 3 days so far and I have found myself neck-high in trade policy documents, phone calls to Urban Outfitters’ headquarters, sifting through websites, and inquiring local businesses about where their products come from. You would think this question wouldn’t be so hard to answer: Where does this come from? Many people are skeptical of my motives and I get the feeling that they think I am trying to dig up dirt on their company, which I am not. Right now I just want to know how connected I am to the world via the things I consume.
So far my ties reach to greater Oregon, Ecuador, California, Texas, Washington, China, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and to the unknown.
The unknown is what I am getting at. The unknown is what keeps tapping on my shoulder and asking me how my daily choices affect the world in which I am accidentally connected. The unknown makes me wonder about the people in China who made my clothing today. Most of all, the unknown makes me want to know. That is where I will start.
To do justice or evangelism…that is the question. As a seasoned Bible school student, I have set alarms in my mind when the words “social justice” enter a conversation about missions. I have learned that preaching the gospel is the most important task of any Christian. I have been taught that social justice is a cheapened attempt at true spiritual transformation. There are even terms coined for the various camps that form around this issue. Since coming to Antioch my alarms have been ringing and I have been forced to define my philosophy of missions and what that has to do with preaching the gospel and justice.
So here I am, with a growing passion for justice in one hand, and a love for the gospel in the other. I wonder if they can merge, marry, fuse, join forces. I wonder if it is wrong to desire redemption for the physical and spiritual realms. I am afraid of undercutting the power of the gospel in my attempts at bringing about justice here and now in the small ways that I can. All I know to do is look at Jesus; he preached the gospel, and he healed sickness. Why then do I feel so wary when Jesus himself saw value in redeeming the spiritual and physical? I believe it comes down to the fact that I do not want to be accused of doing one and not the other, or doing one more than the other. I do not want to give opportunity for people to put me in a camp–a propagator of the watery “social gospel”, or a Bible-thumper who walks by a brother in need.
The problem with polarizing on this issue is that humans are physical and spiritual. We are people who have daily needs: to eat, sleep, breathe, and find shelter. Underneath these basic needs are the spiritual needs: a sense of purpose, a need to worship, a need for fulfillment. Jesus came to usher in the kingdom of God and beckon his people to worship him–to redeem the roots of humanity that have been ripped out by sin, to replant them in the soil as they were meant to be. The other truth in this redemption is that it is a total renovation. People are made in the image of God, and thus of utmost importance to him, but we cannot forget the earth that is aching for renewal.
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we await eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:22-25)
So we hope, and we wait. In this time I have been forced to reset my alarms and recognize that estranging one another and polarizing abandons unity in missions. I believe that if we find Christians who are bringing justice and failing to preach the gospel in love, we should come alongside. If we see brothers and sisters preaching the gospel and abandoning physical needs, come alongside. I propose that we hold these two sides in tension–that we pray to be people of word and action. That we be people with the gospel on our minds, and compassion in our hands. This sounds like the church to me. This sounds like missions to me.
We’ve got another adoption night coming up! Join us Saturday evening, July 24th, at 6:30 at the Kilns (550 SW Industrial Way, #44 Bend, OR 97702). This month we will be hearing from a couple of families that have adopted, and continuing to develop the vision for Antioch’s adoption ministry.
Last month we were blessed to hear some great ideas about adoption ministries from Glen Litwiller. His daughter, Stephanie, joined us to share her heart about adoption and why adoption is important for Christians to care about. Check out this video from our discussion!
