Be Full 2024

For the next three Sundays we’ll be celebrating what God has done this year through our “Be Full” missions program – i.e., the things that we as a church do for those outside of our church family, both “Across the Street and Around the World,” to show and tell them about the love of Jesus. We believe that when churches are healthy they should make a difference in their community and in the world, so we’ll spend the next three weeks hearing stories of how God has used our church’s generosity to do just that.

Kevin and Emilee Falde, Missionaries to Haiti (Colossians 3:1-4)

• The Faldes have been serving full-time in Haiti for almost 10 years; prior to that they made frequent trips there while pastoring a church in South Carolina. Kevin grew up in Haiti as a missionary’s son; now Kevin and Emilee’s grown children are highly involved in the ministry.
• “Haiti is a mess. Port au Prince is overrun with gangs to the point that the airport is no longer safe to fly into, and the roads in and around the city are too dangerous to travel on. Many missions organizations and missionaries have had to stop their ministries and leave the country.”
• “When we’re there, our protection comes from the community we serve; you have to have friends and neighbors who love and respect you – that’s where your safety comes from.”
• The main focus of the Falde’s ministry is church planting (22 churches planted so far!). A church plant typically starts with a leader and a few people in a village who meet in a home or a simple lean-to structure. If resources can be raised (around $30k), a church building is built – a bare-bones cinder block building that is usually “the nicest building in the community” and used for many purposes.
• The Faldes are also building a children’s home in their “home town” of Cayes Jacmel on the southern coast. “We’ve helped too many families bury babies and toddlers – the need to help them is so great. The Lord started working on our hearts to build a children’s home to try to save some of them.” Phase I of the home is complete and the first babies are being taken in – babies who would otherwise die of neglect and malnutrition because their parents are either dead or unable to care for them.
• “We don’t have every detail of a long-term plan [for the home] worked out, but when you’re just trying to save kid’s lives from dire poverty, you’re not too worried about every detail. We’re just hoping to restore life.”
• Since Haiti is so dangerous right now – not to mention very hard to get to – why keep working there? “First, Colossians 3 reminds us that we’re already ‘dead’ and our [real] lives are “hidden with Christ in God.” So if that’s true, then we should have no fear of death – and we try to live by that in our work.”
• “One of the motivating questions for me in ministry – including in something like the call to adopt the [Haitian] twins – is ‘how will I explain it to Jesus when I’m standing before him if I don’t do what I believe he’s calling me to do?’ I want to be able to give a good report of what I’ve done in this life.”
• “Also, when you’re ministering in a place of such desperate need, even the simplest act of service makes a huge difference in people’s lives. There’s so much joy in that because, paradoxically, it turns out that taking our eyes off ourselves to love and serve others brings us an overwhelming joy that we weren’t even looking for – and that brings a fullness to our lives; the fullness God wants us to have.”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE

These passages may provide additional insights related to the subject of this week’s message. All verses are NLT unless otherwise noted.

Proverbs 19:17; Isaiah 58:10; Luke 14:12-14; James 1:27; 1 John 3:16-17

Video of the Week: Generosity by the Bible Project

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

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1. After hearing about the Falde’s ministry in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, what aspect of their ministry stood out to you most? 

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2. Pastor Ben mentioned that the Falde’s story of ministry and service in a dark, difficult and dangerous place both humbled and inspired him. What do you think he meant by that?  

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3. Read Colossians 3:1-4 again. How does “setting our sights on the realities of heaven” lead us toward a life of loving and serving others?  

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4. What do you think it means (v. 3) that believers have “died to this life”?

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5. Kevin explained that that truth (that we as believers have “died to this life”) keeps them serving in a place where there’s a realistic possibility that they will be killed. What effect does the truth of Colossians 3:3 have on your life today?

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6. What’s one takeaway from this week’s message for you – something you will think about differently, perhaps, or maybe something you’ve been inspired to do because of what you heard from the Faldes?

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