by Janet Chew

You may have seen us around church between services, the older couple with a seemingly different infant every month. Your eyes do not deceive you, since we started foster parenting 2.5 years ago, we've had 7 newborns. It's like we are perpetual "new" parents! 

I was first moved to consider foster care when Evergreen SGV was placing special needs orphans from China, had an orphan day, and several sermons on caring for widows and orphans (James 1:27). Wil on the other hand, still remembers when I first brought up the subject, he flat out said no! So I let God work on his heart and a few months later I brought it up again and God had changed Wil's heart and mind...so our journey in fostering began. We paired up with Childshare, a Christian foster care organization. Training and certification took about 4 months and at times felt counterintuitive and very intrusive. God reminded us: you cannot plan or prepare for, you just commit and pray and He is faithful. 

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of newborns needing homes in this county. Each time we are ready for a child, there's no wait. We have learned a system cannot raise a child, it takes a committed family to unconditionally love and nurture each child.  Each child brings joy and blessing into our family in their own unique way. Seeing a newborn start to recognize your face, smile and coo is such a wonderful experience it can’t help but make you feel that you are making a difference. Don't get us wrong, it's a LOT of work: feedings, changings, no sleep, but God has called us to love each baby like our own and pray for them like God's own. Because of the short time we have with each one, we need to cover them in prayer, love and security. Hopefully that carries them through the many challenges ahead. 

So many tears and heartache follow each baby as they move from our home. Most people ask, why do it then? We feel that God must have placed this ministry on our hearts because we are uniquely experienced due to the loss of our own son 15 years ago (Romans 8:28).  Through our healing process, we learned that we can recover, we know God has a plan, and we know God redeems our tears (Psalm 126:5). 

So the next time you see us don’t hesitate to stop us. We welcome the opportunity to share the baby's story, or of course they always just love to be held! We are so blessed that the Lord has led us to be able to share our lives with children in need.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

I prefer strength to weakness. When I am in a situation where I believe I’m adequate for the task required of me, I feel at peace. The mental, emotional, physical and intellectual energy that will be necessary to accomplish the task at hand is not dreaded but actually welcomed. I feel commendable.

Commendable? Yes, I feel commendable - worthy of praise.

When you are adequate for what’s necessary, you usually don’t recognize the feelings of worthiness that you have in your soul. You just immediately do whatever is required of you because you are sufficient for what’s needed. So, it’s a weird thought to think that a person would feel worthy of praise (commendable) when he’s simply adequate for what’s needed. For some of you, it may even seem to be a pitiful thought.

But think for a moment about how you feel when you are confronted with your insufficiencies to fulfill a need that’s required of you. In your workplace, how do you feel when you fail to finish a job or project that’s been assigned to you? In your family, how do you feel when your spouse or child tells you that they don’t feel loved or cared for by you? In your friendships, how do you feel when your friend reluctantly informs you that she’s disappointed in the way you listened to her (or more like didn’t listen to her)?

How you feel is inadequate and weak. You’ve failed to meet the needs of someone and so you feel unworthy and maybe even condemned.

This sense of unworthiness in weakness and inadequacy is exactly what Paul is speaking to in 2 Corinthians 12:9. Paul was pleading with the Lord to take his “thorn in flesh” away from him because he was feeling completely insufficient in being able to please and fully follow the will of the Lord.

How does the Lord answer Paul’s prayer? Does he take away his inadequacy and give him the ability to overcome his weakness? No, he doesn’t do that. What Jesus tells Paul is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Essentially what Jesus tells Paul is that he’s going to have to reinterpret his feelings of unworthiness in the midst of his weaknesses. He’s going to have to do this because the truth is that God greatly favors and loves him in his weakness AND God’s power is most effective in and through Paul when he is insufficient to fulfill God’s will.

To reinterpret the feelings of unworthiness and condemnation that naturally flow into our souls when we are inadequate to fulfill what’s needed is a tall order to fill. Yet, that is what has to happen in our hearts if we are going to hope in the power of Christ to work in and through our weaknesses. We are going to have to confront our inadequacies boldly and dare to believe that our feelings of unworthiness and condemnation are only empty threats from the enemy. And that God’s love for us in our weakness is greater than we could ever imagine and that His power in us is most awesome when we are at our weakest! That’s the truth and I believe that as we battle to believe it, the Spirit will actually begin to reinterpret the way we experience our inadequacies and weakness.

by Harvey Moriyama                                                               

Coffee – it’s that dark drink that gets most of us going in the morning. Many of us don’t really think too much thought about it when we are drinking it. Most likely the coffee beans are from some far away land. Someone actually had to take care of the coffee shrubs and eventually pick the fruit at just the right time. Then the beans are sold in large quantities to a reseller. Eventually they make their way to a roaster and then gets distributed to a nearby store.

Last April we had the opportunity to work on a water project in Thailand with Integrated Tribal Development Program (ITDP). Having worked alongside them, we have come to learn that they are really good friends in Thailand. Because of that, we are always searching for ways to support them. Constructing water filters is only one facet of what ITDP does. They also oversee a large co-op of villages that are farming coffee for Starbucks of Thailand. It is sold under the label Munjai.

They also sell this same coffee in the United States under the Lanna Coffee Co. in Fresno, CA. After much prayer and discussions, it has been decided to start using Lanna coffee here at Evergreen SGV. We have begun using it for coffee hour and staff usage. It is slightly more expensive but our purchases are making a difference in a Thailand village. If you happen to enjoy the Lanna coffee and want to make a purchase for your home use, you can see about home delivery at www.lannacoffeeco.com. We can make a difference, one cup at a time.

By Darren Inouye

Today as an American Christian, you can find encouragement just about anywhere. There are thousands of sermons online, live-streamed worship events, endless amounts of Christian books on just about every topic, and a church on every block. On the internet, we are flooded with images of horrific and terrible things that should break our hearts and move us into action. It seems that in this time and with all these resources there is no excuse to have an apathetic heart, shallow relationship with God, or misunderstanding of His will.

Yet why do I find that this is not always true of me? Why do I find myself apathetic in heart, feeling distant from God, and having no idea what He is calling me to do? These are questions that I feel are more common than not in the American Church today.

I believe that we as the American Church have greatly misunderstood what God desires of us. I feel that we have pursued the “knowledge of God” so hard that we have forgotten to simply believe in Him. We have spent so much time analyzing Him that we have forgotten how to follow Him. We have spent so much time reading and hearing about Him that we have forgotten how to just talk with Him. I feel we have exchanged our greatest teacher of all, the Holy Spirit, for books, sermons, and man’s opinions.

So how do we re-engage? I believe the key is gathering together as a corporate body to pray and seek God’s face. Evergreen House of Prayer (EHOP) provides such a place to meet with God. We have a lot of knowledge; now it’s time to act upon what we know by believing and praying.

As we pray, I believe God will touch our hearts in His presence and grow compassion for the things that we never thought we would care for. I believe He will speak to us directly about what our role is in His great story and plan. I believe we will hear from our greatest teacher the Holy Spirit, and we will develop our ears for His voice.

As we simply read from God’s word, worship, wait for Him, and pray, He will meet us as individuals and as a church. His invitation is for everyone great and small, old and young. Come, let’s meet with our Father. 

By Pastor Terry Gee

“…victories don’t come by accident.” – Miss Clara, War Room

We hardly win at the major battles of life without a plan, and this is never truer than in our fight as Christians. How many sins have you slain by accident? Have you ever grown in holiness by random chance? More than likely, God gave you grace to make intentional plans that led to decisions that moved your heart away from sin and set you up to grow in holiness. Most of us must purposefully plan out a strategy for life if we want to live as we should. Make no plans to read the Bible and you probably won't.  Pray only when you feel like it and your devotional life will be likely be stunted. 

The same is true for us as a church family. Should we never take time to look ahead at what the current battles of our day are and address them, we will find more sheep destroyed by wolves as we look on. If we do not intentionally seek the Lord, we may run the risk of veering off track and missing what God is doing in our world. Should we go about our ministries with no grounding in prayer, we will find ourselves powerless and fruitless in our efforts.

A new war room at Evergreen is about to emerge. Amidst the many expressions of prayer and intercession that already go on in the life of our church, Evergreen House of Prayer (EHOP) seeks to be a place where we as a church can come together to intentionally worship, pray, and seek God concerning the things going on in the life of our church. As God’s great story unfolds upon the earth, the church must gather to pray, as our God leads us in victory.

The launch of EHOP is planned for October 26th. Consider coming on Monday nights to worship, pray, and war as a church family.

There are few children of God who do not often find the season of prayer a season of conflict. The devil has special wrath against us when he sees us on our knees. Yet, I believe that prayers which cost us no trouble should be regarded with great suspicion. I believe we are very poor judges of the goodness of our prayers, and that the prayer which pleases us least, often pleases God most. … One thing, at least, we all feel: we must pray. We cannot give it up. We must go on. - J.C. Ryle, A Call to Prayer