This past Sunday, we heard testimonies from members of the recent mission trip to Eastern Europe. Over 10 days in March, they traveled over 650 miles to 7 cities in 3 different countries to bring the hope of the Gospel to multitudes of refugees from Ukraine who have been displaced from the war. They had countless conversations, gave lots of hugs, shed many tears, and laughed many laughs. In the places they visited, they had dozens of opportunities to pray over people, serve others, and share Jesus as the Spirit led, provided for, protected, and spoke through them.

The harvest is plentiful in Eastern Europe, especially among the scattered Ukrainians. This little team from Refuge poured their hearts out as God used them powerfully. Watch our time together from this past Sunday as they shared highlights from their trip and testified that the global Church of Jesus is alive and moving powerfully!

We are confronted daily with headlines about wars, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorists, disease, and death. If God existed, surely He would not allow these things to exist or to continue…or would He? And if so, why? Couldn’t He prevent some of these things? Couldn’t He have made a better world? 

Guest speaker Charlie Campbell answers these and several other tough theological questions related to evil and suffering. For those who have wrestled with these questions, this message is comforting and instructive; but it also equips Christians to be better prepared to answer atheists who think evil and suffering disprove the existence of a loving God.

Learn more about Charlie Campbell and Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry at AlwaysBeReady.com

​The Apostle Andrew was quiet, courageous, curious, compassionate, bold, and faithful—and always bringing others to Jesus, including his brother Simon Peter. And even though he may have been overshadowed by his older brother, without Andrew, Simon would have never become Peter.

Andrew found his brother, told his brother about Jesus, then brought him to Jesus. Without Andrew’s quiet, humble, and courageous faithfulness, Peter wouldn’t have preached on Pentecost, and thousands wouldn’t have been saved!

The life of Andrew is encouraging for quiet and courageous followers of Jesus. God sees you and wants to continue to use you in all sorts of extraordinary ways. The body of Christ needs followers of Jesus like Andrew—quiet and faithful yet boldly finding someone to share the Gospel with and bringing them to Jesus.

​This past Sunday, we continued our study of the twelve ordinary men Jesus called to be His apostles and focused our attention on Andrew. Although we read more about his older brother (Simon Peter) God knew that this quiet, bold, faithful, and humble man would be willing to do what God had called him to—the good work of The Good Shepherd.

There are three passages in the Gospel of John where Andrew is mentioned individually. In each instance, we see Andrew bringing people to Jesus. Watch our study of Andrew as we meditate on his willingness to come to Jesus and concern that others would come to Christ, too.

​Jesus chose and equipped gloriously ordinary people as ministry workers in His harvest. These people were not religious experts or super-spiritual, but people like Simon, who was called Peter.

Simon (which means hearing or heard) had difficulty with following through. He was the son of Jonah (which means soft mud). And Simon, son of Jonah, accurately described his life before being born again. He had a loud mouth and vacillated between moments of faith and foolishness.

But Jesus chose him and transformed him from Simon to Peter (which means rock). This change from soft mud to rock had nothing to do with Simon’s efforts. It was Jesus who changed him from the inside out. When Simon’s self-reliance and gusto were finally gone, Jesus transformed, strengthened, and led him by the Holy Spirit. Then, he was called Peter.

Maybe you can identify with Simon. Perhaps you waver between faith and foolishness. The Lord sees you. He knows you and what a mess you are in—full of muck and mire. He knows how many times you have failed Him and how many times you will fail Him. But take heart—even knowing this, He still loves and calls you! He wants you to draw near so He can transform you from the inside out and strengthen you with His grace.

​Jesus, fully God and fully man, is still only one man. He knows that the opportunities for pastoral ministry are endless, but those willing to partner in the work with Him are few. He instructed His disciples to pray that more workers would be sent into His harvest.

When these ordinary people prayed, they probably thought that God would send experts from religious institutions in Jerusalem or super-spiritual people like John the Baptist to do this work. Jesus certainly wouldn’t choose them to be the fulfillment of their prayer…would He?

As we continue our study from Matthew 9 to Matthew 10, we read that Jesus did just that—calling gloriously ordinary people, equipping them for ministry, and sending them out as ambassadors for Him. And first on this list was Simon, who is called Peter.

Watch our study from Sunday as we consider this fisherman from Galilee who became a fisher of men only through the transformation that Jesus made in his life.