Five For Togo

Racism in America is always a hot topic. The fact that our nation had its economic start primarily on the back of slaves is a sinful fact that continues to follow us today.

In the past month as our country has debated whether a professor was racially mistreated or not, a dear friend of mine, an African-American unfortunately experienced a blatant racist attack.

As she shared the facts with me, I could not believe what I was hearing could happen in today’s U.S.A. Thankfully this person does not harbor bitterness in her heart and has begun to see the perpetrator  as someone to be pitied more than hated.

Hearing this story was eye-opening to me in understanding the evil in the human heart. Sin can become so deeply embedded in us that we act in ways that are beyond comprehension.

But this story also made me thankful to be in a church where whites and blacks interact and worship in many different settings. Through getting to know each other at more than a superficial level, we are able to take direct aim at racism and work to obliterate it from our futures, even if it remains a painful part of our past!

Our survey trip to Togo is growing closer and closer. We have bought our plane tickets and will be getting shots this week. Hopefully the last of our passports will arrive this week, and then we will send them off again for Visas from Ghana and Togo.

On the evening of Monday, September 14th, we will fly out of Memphis to Amsterdam, and then take another flight from Amsterdam to Accra, Ghana. From Accra, we will have a nine hour drive to Kara, Togo. We will repeat this process in reverse on October 9 and 10. Please pray that all of our travels go well, that our kids and luggage behave, and that God is glorified no matter the inconveniences we encounter.

Our time in Togo will consist of visiting villages, the market, an AIDS clinic, spending time with future teammates, eating new foods, and other unknown adventures.

We were given $300 more dollars at church yesterday. People at Holmes Road are so generous. We only need about $1700 more to cover all of our expenses for the trip.

I am also in discussions with many church leaders about our full-time support on the mission field. Please pray that God will match us up with churches whom we can bless,  and then be blessed by them!

I am in the process of contacting churches to get the word out about our future work in Togo. We will probably need the partnership of several churches to have the financial and prayer support we need to do this work. Fundraising is a good humbling experience. People work very hard to make money. The money given to a church is especially valuable because it is often given as a sacrifice by spiritually minded people who have a great sense of God’s grace in their lives.

I believe that our use of that money demands our own hard work and willingness to sacrifice some material things that I might otherwise want. That is why this is a blessing, because we are learning to free ourselves of things that we thought might bring happiness, but often bring captivity.

Please pray for our fundraising efforts, and definitely contact us at 901-486-6558 so we can send you a brochure and dvd that you can give to your missions committee!

Holmes Road Church of Christ had its 50th anniversary over July 4th weekend. Having up grown up there, and now serving as a minister there, it was an especially meaningful weekend to me.

I described to others as a Facebook moment, when people from different periods of my life got together and shared. It was great to see and hear from the McLartys, Ross Cochran, Joe and Vicki Bright, Steve and Gretchen Mahoney,  and too many others to list.

It became clear to me over the weekend that God has blessed Holmes Road in spiritual depth, even it has not always been apparent in numerical growth.

After some feedback from the team, and more prayer and discussion, we have decided to lengthen our survey trip and take our whole family to see Togo.  We plan to be in Kara now for 2-3 weeks beginning the middle of September.

We feel that this extra time will allow us to spend more time with our future teammates and the people of Togo. All of our children will have the opportunity to experience life there as well.

Due to this decision, we now need about $3000 more dollars to go with the $5000 we have already raised.  We need to raise this money in the next month and a half in order to buy plane tickets. If you would like to give to this effort, please make checks out to Holmes Road Church of Christ, 1187 E. Holmes Rd., Memphis, TN, 38116. On the memo line, put Richardson mission.

Thank you for your continued prayers!

My wife, Beth, has a new blog. Bethannrichardson.wordpress.com

On Saturday, Cherle and I returned for a second study with the young women. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they had just gone to the mall, believing that we were to meet at 11:00 instead of 1:00.

There were two young people present, a brother and sister to the others.  So we asked them if they would like to study. They said yes, and then pulled Tiffany out of a back bedroom. Tiffany had been present at the first study as well.

I had been praying about what to study as a follow up to Deut. 6:4-9.  I did not take time to research this from other’s suggestions, so I decided on the story of the woman at the well.

We went through the “thanks” and “needs” first. Tiffany mentioned her need for a job again, and I was able to get her the number for Hopeworks, who provides job skills training. The young man mentioned needing a ride home, which I was able to give him after the study. He also menti0ned recently getting out of jail for the second time, which made me a little nervous about giving a ride, and also requested money for getting an i.d. to get a job.  This is the second request for money from this group that Cherle and I have met. We want to make sure that giving them money does not become a hindrance.

After reading the woman at the well, the group latched onto the point that the woman did not immediately give Jesus water because she was worried about their racial differences. It was not a point that I would have brought up, but in believing that the Spirit is working, I let them ponder that application.

We finished the “I will” statements, had a prayer, and then talked a little before leaving. We waved to the “missing” women as we were leaving. They were across the street after returning to the mall.

At these apartments, you can sense the need for God’s work. There also seems to be a willingness to study out of people’s realization that they need help. Cherle and I have discussed trying to bring these people to church against the idea of trying to start a church at their apartment. I think the latter is the better option, but it is foreign to our way of thinking about evangelism.

For several weeks a few of us from my church have been studying the Bible with residents of the Tulane Apartments.

Not a single person, even though a few have been involved in multiple studies, has visited our church which is about 2-3 miles away at most.

After the Church Planting Movement conference last week, I was convicted about the possibility of using a discovery Bible study method somewhere, and I was praying about the “where.”

Cherle Velez called me at 11:00 this morning saying she had a study set up. The problem was a I had planned on spending the day working on my sermon and class for Sunday. I told Cherle I didn’t have time to help her today.

Then I realized that I was not ready to receive an answer to what I had been praying. I called Cherle back and said I would come and would like to lead the study, trusting that God would help me get these other things done.

We knocked on the woman’s door and  no one answered. We called and no one answered. So we sat down and began calling other residents of the community to see who might be interested in a study. One man replied that he would be ready Monday morning. While we were calling others, the woman came out of the apartment and told us that she was getting people together for a study. Jesus would have called this woman a “person of peace” (Luke 10:6) or “worthy person” (Matthew 10:13).

We waited for several to arrive and had our study with three single Moms and their babies. We all shared what we were thankful for, talked about what needs we had and could meet in the group, and then had the study.

We read Deuteronomy 6:4-9. We read the passage twice out loud, then restated it in our own words. Then we shared what God was asking us to do in this passage. The women talked about their need to teach their children to obey God’s Word so that they wouldn’t turn out like “most people.”

We ended by talking about what we were going to do to meet each other’s needs this week. Some had prayer requests. Some have employment needs. (I will be taking Hopeworks phone number back with me.)

They have invited us back for study on Monday at 12:00. Please pray for us as we see the potential for a church or church planting movement among the poor in Memphis.

Note to self: God’s answers to prayer don’t always come at “convenient” times.