Light the Darkness

Canned Goods Christmas Trees

We have a strange looking sight in the middle of our atrium at Indian Creek Olathe campus. We call it a "canned goods Christmas tree". Presently it looks more like a pile of food but we are hoping it will grow into a couple of trees. Here's why...

We are collecting food for the 250 children who attend Countryside Grade School and are on the school lunch program. They get breakfast and lunch when school is in session. But when the Christmas vacation begins, like it already has, they don't have the benefit of the food. So we asked the Principal, Amy Hercules, if we could have the kid's backpacks when school is out so we can fill them with food. We will deliver the backpacks after church on 12/27.

Will you help us stock the backpacks by bringing food with you when you come to the Olathe campus? We need to put some miracle grow on this pile of food. We are His hands and feet.

Gary Kendall

Live Out LOUD

I am so excited about Sunday, Dec 20, that I can't stand it. That is the day we give our whole offering away to the four causes--the Global cause, the Local cause, the Multi-site cause and the Community Center cause. I'm hoping and praying that it is our largest offering ever at Indian Creek.

At the same time that this year has been one of our most challenging ever financially we are practicing the spiritual truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive. We are learning that giving is good FOR us. It blesses us and sets the spiritual principal of sowing and reaping in motion. And at the same time it meets needs around the corner and around the world.

It is a privilege to be used of God. Can you tell I'm excited! Oh, I already said that didn't I!

Gary Kendall

$17.65 at the Perfect Time

Cheryl told me a story tonight that I want to pass on. She said she as at work on Thursday when she felt prompted to give a gift to a co-worker. Her initial thought was to wait until another day after she had time to go by the bank and get more money. She only had a ten, some ones and a some change, $17.65. But the prompting she felt was persistent. The thought was do it today. So she put the money in a bag and the next time she saw her friend she gave him the gift.

He said, you aren't going to believe this but the timing is perfect. His car broke down on the way to work. He walked 25 blocks to work. He didn't have the money to fix the car or even to get anything to eat. He'd found someone to take him back to his car. And now he had money to eat. He was amazed to hear Cheryl say that God put him on her mind. And he was grateful for the gift.

This is the kind of thing that happens when we follow the promptings of God. Let's learn to listen and let's trust him to obey. Last week at Indian Creek Community Church we learned in the message series that God has a miracle for us.  This week we learned that we can be the miracle for someone else. When God does what only He can do that's the SUPER part and when we do what only we can do that is the NATURAL part. When the super and natural come together the miracle is on the way. You, like Cheryl, might be the miracles for someone. Let God use you!

Gary Kendall

642 Angels adopted

The culture of generosity continues to grow at Indian Creek Community Church. Margaret Outler who heads up our Angel Tree adoption told me that we adopted 642 angels. At a minimum of $25 investment each that means that over $16,000 is being contributed toward blessing others at Christmas. I love it that when we think of celebrating what Jesus did for us at Christmas we think of passing the blessing on. God so loved that He gave and we've caught His giving spirit. Way to go Indian Creek!

Gary Kendall

Rebecca's Story

Rebecca's passion for Jesus inspires me. Rebecca Everett shared her story with Indian Creek Olathe on Sunday. In case you attend the Gardner campus or you were out of town, I'll pass it on.

I’ve been a lukewarm Christian the majority of my life, and for the majority of my life, I’ve been missing out.  God walked with me, but I did most of the leading.  I knew I was made to worship Him and love Him, but because there were too many other tangible things that stole my time and my love, God never became my ultimate priority.

Thankfully, He loved me too much to leave me that way though, and in order to finally get it, He brought me to the desert where I fought to empty me of me and fill me with all of Him.  And when I finally surrendered it all, God became alive in me. He shouted and broke through my deafness!  He shattered my darkness and washed away my blindness!  I’m breathing and living because of Him! 

For so long I’ve been foolish to think I know better than God…that my ways, my dreams, my plans are better for me than His are. But God is holy, eternal, all-knowing, and all-powerful!  The sun doesn’t rise without getting His permission first.  He is the giver and take of life and everything in it.  And because of all He is, I can’t help myself from falling madly in the love with Him.  Most of us would probably say we love our children so much we would die for them if we had to.  But God did so much more than that.  He took the place of the convicted on death row.  He loves us that much.  And a lot of us might say that we already know that.  I thought I did.  But do we really?  Are we so in love with Him that we would give up anything and everything for Him? 

I have some very deep desires in my heart.  Desires I have tried in my own power to control and desires I thought I could never live without.  God knows them and He hears them as I pray every day believing God’s promises for me are true.  But if I never get married.  If my friend loses his fight with cancer before we’re ready to send him to heaven.  If I’m never able to have more children.  God’s love will be enough.  He will always be more than enough to satisfy me.   

Every decision I make is led by God because I know that apart from Him I am nothing and I never want to find myself living outside of His will.  Nothing I have or desire in this life will ever compare to what God has in store for me in eternity.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have bad days.  I still have painful tear-filled days where life is just plain hard and I feel alone but I daily choose joy because I’m confident that God is who he says he is, and God can do what he says he can do.  As much as I want the best for my daughter and would give her the world if I could because I love her, God loves me so much more than that.  I am loved unconditionally by the creator of the universe and my life will never be the same!

Thanks Rebecca for your transparency. I love what God is doing in you and through you.

Gary Kendall

But wait, there's more...

Last week I shared how Indian Creek Olathe rallied around Mark and Shana through the Reverse Offering.  Sunday Shana found the courage to share their story, with great gratitude, with the community.  Here is what happened after that. Way to go Indian Creek! You inspire me. Praise God for revealing Himself through His people.

I just wanted to thank you for giving Mark and I the opportunity to share our story. I was really timid about it at first, mostly because I felt like I was "airing our dirty laundry" but God promised me that He would use our story to help others. After talking to so many yesterday, I can certainly tell He kept his promise!

 

For us, it was even more encouraging as God nudged a couple of other people into helping out. Two couples we know were moved to each give us  $500. They said they knew it was from God when they looked at each other and realized they were both writing a check for the same amount. Another young lady whom I don't know, but her name was Julia, handed me $100 in cash and said that her husband and her had a good year this year, and they felt they needed to do this. I could tell she was moved by their generosity because she was tearing up after I started crying. Both of these happened after the first service. Another young lady, with her infant son in her arms, offered us her extra baby swing, high chair, and other baby equipment. Though we don't need them, it was awesome to see her love for us and willingness to give.  Two gentlement offered assistance to Mark, Tim Love and Doug Courtney, and their words of encouragement and tips helped him to finish the job tonight!

 

With the checks, we were able to put together our November mortgage payment and pay it today.

 

But that's not all -- during the second service, I felt prompted by God to return 10% of what we had received to Him. (I think a little bit of your teaching moment had something to do with that. :) ) Immediately the cash went into the offering basket. I hadn't been able to make a contribution this week, and it felt really good to be able to do that. Part of me feels guilty that I gave away some of the money that was given to us out of God's love and provision, but it just felt right!

 

And then, today, I was at the grocery store and a little old lady was in line in front of me and was short $5 to pay for her bill. As she started deciding what to take out of her Thanksgiving meal preparations, I handed the $5 to the clerk. Yesterday, I wouldn't have been able to do that. But today, I had enough breathing room to be able to pay it forward, and as always, it felt good to be able to help someone else out. I haven't been able to do much of that lately.

 

Again, thank you. I was truly blessed beyond anything I can express.

 

We won't be in church Sunday as we'll be heading back from family in Dallas. Please pray for safe travels for us! I'm still a little nervous about whether everything is TRULY fixed, but am leaning on Phillipians 4:6 and Luke 12:22 heavily today. I've always been a worrywart and since I became a Christian 12 years ago, this has been my biggest battle!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Yes it is!

 

Gary Kendall

Gardner's Amazing Generosity

The ripple effect of generosity is AMAZING! Here is a story from Mary Friesen who is the Indian Creek Gardner Journey Student Ministries leader (along with her husband Brian).

Tonight, the Gardner youth had an awesome opportunity to be generous to a member of the community! Matt issued a challenge last week to identify a person or persons to bless this week during service. We were told we would get $20 base and could add to the amount. We were also given guidelines to not just give the cash out, but to make it something meaningful and make it anonymous.

 

The students happened to choose the xxxxx family, as a few of the students went to school with his oldest son. I issued the challenge last Sunday for a few students to snoop and find out what the family could use. With the help of a parent, we discovered that xxxx and his wife, were having trouble paying their bills/ coming up with grocery money. When we gathered for the baptism service, Brandon handed me $65, money he had raised from people to use for the cause! We decided to get the family a gift card to Walmart so they could buy food and or personal items they may need. Brian and I chipped in the last $15 and were able to purchase a $100 for the family. Our group also purchased a card to put the money in and wrote a simple note saying that we were praying for them and wanted to bless them during this difficult holiday season. We decided that I would bring the card to the front door since I had never met the family.

 

We pulled up a few houses away in the white church van (de-badged of all the ICCC identifiers) and I was thinking I would just walk to the door, ring the bell and give the card. As I was walking to the house, I saw a tall, slender man with a teenager walking toward the same house. He asked me if I was looking for xxx and, shocked, I said why yes I was! He greeted me like I was a long lost friend and I had never met him before. I handed him the card and he asked me if I could come in for a minute so he could open the card with his family. Shocked, I agreed. I never expected him to invite me in!

 

Before we entered the house, his neighbor came out (the one he was returning from when I got there). She was sobbing and telling him how amazing he was and how blessed she was to call him friend, that she didn't deserve all his kindness and that she could never thank him enough. He vary graciously accepted her praise and took me inside, apologizing for wasting my time outside.

 

When we got in, he introduced me to his wife and 2 sons and opened the card and read it out loud. With tears in his eyes, and in his wife's, he graciously thanked me and said it was very difficult for him to not just run out to our white van and peek in to thank the people inside. I apologized and told him I was not allowed to say who was inside, nor where they (or myself) were from. I only told him that these were young people who knew him, his story, and his family.

 

He asked that I share with the group the story of why we ran into each other out front. He and his son were taking a basket of Thanksgiving dinner (full of a turkey, pumpkin pie, etc) for his neighbor because they were having hard times next door. He proceeded to tell me about this woman, and her 3 young children and about how she had lost her job and they wanted to make sure she and her family had a good meal. He told me he needed his son because the basket was too heavy for him to carry on his own. He said the timing was incredible and that they were very grateful. He then gave me a hug, as did his wife, and each of his sons and we parted ways. He only requested that he meet the people who had been so generous to him sometime, even if in passing. He said he understood their anonymity but wanted me to share that they were always welcome to stop by and say hello, even if he had never met them, and that they would not have to share that they helped in this gift card.

 

I shared with the students his amazing story. Incredible how a family struggling to meet their own needs would go above and beyond what they could probably afford to serve another family in need. Just the experience and the chance to meet the family was a blessing to me. They treated me like I was a long lost friend with whom they were eager to catch up with. Deep impact on our group. God does amazing work, doesn't he?

Yes He does! Thanks for sharing Gardner youth!

Gary Kendall

Mike Gee discovers Generosity

The stories just keep coming, here is Mike Gee's story. 

I'll give you the Reader's Digest version:  I normally don't carry cash on me and have always tithed with a check.  I had some cash left over after driving to Topeka last week (to pay the tolls) and had left it on the kitchen counter.  As we were heading out the door to go to Indian Creek , I felt compelled to take the money with me.  I now know that this was God speaking to me.  When I heard Gary talk about the reverse offering I remembered the cash in my wallet ($17) and figured I could throw in the two one's, because I had plans for the rest.  Then I heard God say, "Throw in the five," so I did.  It was only $5 so I wasn't expecting anything in return - especially after hearing your $200 story. Anyway, in today's mail was an envelope from OIathe Medical Services which I thought was another bill.  Nope, it was a $40 check for an overpayment they discovered during an internal audit!  ove you brother!

What's your story?

Gary Kendall

Generosity Strikes Again

This is Tim Stout's story

 

Kristin Levitt talked to me about going to China with Project Partner to shoot video on the first Sunday of Crazy Generosity at Indian Creek. (great timing, right?) I thought I'd throw out a fleece. I had just come back from South Africa shooting a documentary "Call Her Momma" and I was guessing I had about $5k to pay off for the movie based on my budget. I knew this going into the shoot but felt strongly that it was God's will. So my fleece was that I would get a call about freelance to help pay the bill which would make me feel better about spending money to go to China.

When I got home from church I had an email about a large freelance video job.  So I felt that confirmed the China question. 

Friday night I finally had time to sit down and compile all my receipts from the South Africa trip. I put them all in a spreadsheet and divided by the exchange rate. And then I double checked because according to the numbers instead of being $5k over what was in the movie account, I was about $1.5k under. I couldn't believe it. I mean I might have forgotten a meal or something but nothing close to that much.

So now Aid 2 Orphans (movie crew) is going to buy shoes or some other Christmas gift for the Kwa-dick orphans that Indian Creek supports. I shouldn't be amazed. I believe in an amazing God that knows and supplies all our needs. I guess I am amazed and humbled that God uses me in a small part to supply other's needs.

 

Way to go Tim! Thanks for sharing. We're going to China together buddy!

A Teen Gets It!

Even the teens at Indian Creek are getting generosity:

You never know if  your teenager gets it.  When we had the reverse giving Sunday, Nicholas was sitting in front of us.  When it was time for the offering,  Marianne and I where up to do prayer partner so I was going to give Nick some money to put in the offering.  When I tapped him on the shoulder, he turned and had $5 dollars out.  It was $5 I had given him for lunch.   I asked him what he was doing with his lunch money and he said, I do not need it, someone else does.  So he gave his lunch money for someone else.  It may have only been $5, but that was all he had.   I praised God for letting me know, HE GETS IT!!  Rick Keaton

 

I heard two great stories yesterday. Keep trusting God and let Him give you your own story.

 

Gary Kendall