Petula Myers

From the day I was born more or less not the day off. Maybe we didn't show up that day. But sometime very soon after that since my parents did move to Monroe while Mom was in the hospital after she'd had me and there was an ice storm outside. So so so dad and my relatives finished the house and Mom gave birth to me and then came home to a house without electricity. So they moved to Geneva for just a few days until she could have electricity in the house for me. So I'm so I literally have just live two blocks away from this church for most of my life until I moved away to school for a while, but then I was home for a while again. So more than half of my life is pretty close has been spent in Monroe, but one of the things as they are as this video talks about Is God speaking to you even though I've been actually working for and been a part of an alliance church for now almost 22 years and I've been working for them for 18 years. One of the things is that my story today. I want to talk about things that are unfinished and so and people stories and so my story really did start here in this church because this is the church that taught myself and I am sure that my brother and Julie would say the same that this is the church that taught us to serve people and to love people in the name of Jesus and to love missions and to love the world beyond the borders of where we are here. And so I thank all of you for being a part of that cuz many of you or my Sunday school teachers, I remember Connie and Karen leading Us in sin song and and Sunday school and in children's church, and so so many of you have a part of my story and my journey and so as we talked today about missions of the theme that the organization I work with the Christian and Missionary Alliance has chosen this year's unfinished and I think 20/20 many of us have many many things that were unfinished but we have one thing we would all really like to be finished and that would be covid-19. If we have to choose one thing we'd really like to fix that can be finished but there are many other things that we would like to see finished as a church that we would like that are unfinished through this year. And so one of those things of course is we would like to see the task of sharing the gospel with the world as that we can say that it's finished because we know that that means that then we all get to go live with Jesus and I think that if this year has taught us anything it is definitely taught us that the world that we live in is far from perfect and very unpredictable. And so no matter how hard we try we cannot predict what will happen and what how our lives will change in a moment. And so I think that many of us always knew that but I think that that has that lesson has been learned by a lot of people in the world this past year and so as we think about the idea of being Finished and some people say why do you have missionaries come and speak? Why do you have a missions emphasis Sunday or why do you have missions moments? Well, it's because the story of what God is doing in the world and what God is doing in our lives is unfinished. And so the very first reason that we want to do that is for each of us individually and as churches to be reminded that our Journeys with God our unfinished and we want to invite God to be a part of that everyday and every moment of what we're doing and and it's just like Connie said that was such a great story and I was actually just thinking of that story right before that's that was a really small act that that boy made the choice to take his lunch and give it back and give it to Jesus and then he got that one's back but not only he got it back but you know, we know that 5,000 was only them counting the men who were there. So if we think about the women and children that could have been as many as 10,000 people who were fed from that one boy taking the small. If he had and giving it back to Jesus and so when we think about that and when we think about the gifts in the talents that God has given each one of us. Some of us really have the gift of prayer or cooking or decorating or whatever it is. And if we take that small gift and give it back then he can just multiply that in an unbelievable way and so as I'm thinking about unfinished Journeys then I think about the first picture that I'll have Brian put up. Hopefully it is I think about this family that you see so the older couple that are sort of close to the end. They actually were some of the first Christians in Bosnia-Herzegovina the wife who who is there off 240 Off to the right second from the right. Her name is Irene and she is actually the office assistant in our Center. And so and then her husband is down at the end and he was the worship Pastor for many years in his church, but he came to church because he was in a rock band and in the siege of Sarajevo, they had a battle of the bands because sorry I would like to think of themselves as very rebellious and so they said even bombing our city will not start stop our love for music and the Arts and rock and roll so they had a battle of the bands in the middle of the siege rock and roll Under Fire or something like that, you know, so it was very 90s.

Who won the Battle of the Bands they were all in there like late teens or early twenties and then like a week after they've or the week before they sign their contract their professional contract the lead singer in the band came and said, I'm quitting the band because I've decided I'm only going to sing for Jesus.

So is 18 19 and 20 year olds, you can imagine whose dream is to be a rock band. You can imagine how they felt and so so he showed up at church the next Sunday cuz he needed to see what could be so enticing that you would quit the bands and ruined all of their dreams. And so and it's really funny. He's a very quiet person be this is an incredibly talented musician. He's taught himself to play about. The only thing he hasn't been able to teach himself to play. He said is the violin and sort of the piano but everything else he could figure out on his own and so he plays a lot of instruments and and he said he was never really interested in brass instruments. We never taught himself to play this but I'm he plays any kind of stringed instrument you can imagine and the flute and so one of the interesting things about that is the Fate. He's very quiet and sort of brooding at times and so they said that he just Walked up to the front of the church after the service picked up the guitar and then they said he just never left. He kept coming back every week and picking up the guitar. So that was how they came and then eventually the two of them were married until in the middle of a couple in the middle are actually the two younger on the outsides are their son and his girlfriend, but the couple in the middle are is their son and they're not now daughter-in-law so they were married in September. I was the caterer for their wedding. I'm not really sure how that happened. But their daughter-in-law actually used to be my office assistant. And so she asked me if I would help with the food and she really likes that I made like finger foods little mini things. So we just made millions of many things for their wedding party. We also did roast a lamb on a spit. So because we are that kind of people that we were both lamps on Spitz. I did not roast a lamb on spit that I do not do that. We ordered it from a man who does it but it was really a blessing be Is actually only the second generation and their family so Irene and her husband or the first generation who have Ever Raised their children in a Christian home that followed Christ and follow Jesus and now their son and daughter-in-law will be the second generation that do that and so so really and they got married at the camp. We have a camp that's outside and the and the tooth a couple sort of met at the camp. And so they decided that in Fall. They wanted to be married at the camp. A lot of people thought they were really crazy on the road up there is terrible into the mountains, but they did it and so it's just exciting because to me they have a very unfinished Journey God has really blessed them and amazing ways and and really been caring for their family. And so I'm excited to see and to be able to be a part of their unfinished Journey that God is opening up just the story, you know, they're in their mid-20s. So there's their story is just starting about how God will use them. She actually works now as a supervisor a production supervisor for Are the CNN affiliate that's in sorry. It was so God has given her a really amazing job and she's a girl who came from the village. She came from a village her mom left her father with her when she was a little girl and got his just done amazing things to bring her out of a background of Islam into a relationship with Christ. And so one of the really cool things about that is the next picture and this is actually her younger sister and so actually her younger sister two years ago was a part of our film festival and her team one. And so one of the things she did is when her sister wasn't getting ready for high school. She knew that the high school and their Village was not that great. So she has a college student took on the responsibility of her sister from her father. She said if you send her to me, then I'll take care of her and they said well, we don't want to pay for all the expenses and she said it's fine. I'll figure it out until the Lord is really provided for them through the church and three different jobs that she put her her. Easter through high school and paid for her to live with her and and all of their living cost and now her sister is in college as well. And and so it's just a and they both are followers of Christ and I've been around her sister because of the film festival and heard that she really openly speaks of her face and she's probably the only believer in her whole High School of four or five hundred and she's very well-known and she's very open about our faith. And so it's just been a blessing to be a part of that journey. And so when you think about giving gifts to missions here or to Ministry, you are a part of those stories as well because without the funds that you have given to my Ministry I wouldn't be able to do some of the projects that I've done that reach live like like Adrienne and her sister and so it's just an amazing thing that you are also a part of that. So when you see them you can know that you are also a part of that story and so Then the other thing is when we look at our own stories for those of us who are believers, but then we also have the unfinished stories of people who don't know Christ yet. And so it was talking about if you knock on doors that takes you six people in America to find somebody that's a follower of Christ in about 500 in post modern Europe. So that would be Germany France places like that. So I live in Eastern Europe and so are the Balkans is us what we're known as yes, we did invent our very own term. It was invented vulcanization. It means a mutually hostile groups living in the same place. And that is exactly what they are. They mutually dislike each other but still all live in the same place as we look at that. I figured it out cuz they were talking about it can be as high as 30,000. So in Bosnia, I would take you about 7,000 houses to find someone who was a Chris. So, I mean I don't even think you're a couple times over in Monroe. You'd have to go around a couple laps to find a person who was a Believer so In and so I've been working now some of you have probably heard us talk about this we have a center is called The Source Center in the capital city of tsarevo. And so we open that in 2010 and in 2011. I became the director of that Center and so that the idea for the center was that we felt like the churches we have about four churches and sorry if I'm with about a hundred total Believers for a city of about half a million people. So that's still not a lot of people but we also felt like the church had wasn't really reaching out to more people and they didn't know how to because they are very tight social structures and and circles so they don't really go to clubs and things to make friends with people. They aren't like, you know, they don't go to the Y and work out and so they would meet somebody there. So one of the things that we did it open the center and so I threw the center we met a guy who is her to become like an adopted brother to me. He's our videographer even though he's not a believer. This is his son. He's much bigger than that yesterday. I was just talking to him yesterday and he was yelling at me on the phone cuz he didn't like me on the phone. So he doesn't like the video camera that thing off off talking to her. You thought I was a show. He didn't enjoy is of course that are videographers wife. And so true a videographer I met her and we've become friends and they're not Believers, but that is one of the unfinished stories are videographer works for us is work for us for 10 years. He was actually in a Christian rehab center. But he's just never gotten to the point where he is ready to give his life to Christ just cuz of different things in his background to do with Christianity and and that but you can always pray for them and then also threw her I met one of her friends as well. And so last year they asked me if I wanted to do the Race for the Cure with them so we went and did The Walk For The Race for the Cure and so I visit them every 7 to 10 days. So I'm sort of like the adopted Auntie to their son cuz they aren't really close with any of their other family as far as siblings. And so I've sort of come in as that adopted family member so so when we think about that we see that that God is doing so much because actually I'm already out here comes from a mixed background at one of his parents was Orthodox and the other was Catholic and then she comes from a Muslim background. So actually within their marriage and their household they have all of the religious groups of Bosnia-Herzegovina combined in there the two of them and so so that's just sort of an example and God just really has allowed us to bless them. He works for us. Sometimes she does as well. She teaches she studied fashion in school. So she teaches fashion class for tweens, so they make dresses they made dresses once out of newspaper and napkins and and great ape. Duct tape duct tape works for everything including a dress for the prom because I've been a nanny I was be able to sort of help them cuz she had no friends actually who had had kids even though she's in her mid-30s. Most of her friends haven't had children yet and she did it and she thought her mom's like child-rearing plans were a little bit crazy bosnians have some weird like things about babies. So she wasn't allowed me through my experiences in Nanny to sort of comfort her and help her with when she first had the baby cuz they were sure they were going to break it when I went over to their house there. Like, how do you hold it? We just don't know how to hold it. Like we're afraid we're going to crush it and I feel like you're not going to crush the baby, but that was a fun time to spend with them and to see him growing and so soon I talked about the fashion class the next Sure is actually a young girl the one who's in the front taking a selfie because she's an expert. This is actually we did The Race for the Cure again this year. They didn't have a big race, but we did it as they're our office. So the other women in the back with me or actually my co-workers from the office on some of them are from the state. Some of them are from Bosnia and then this young girl so we all went out it was pouring rain and we walked in it and right when we got done with walking the three miles than the rain stopped, but we decided we were going to do it anyway because we'd already planned on that time. So she actually has been coming to our Center since she was six years old. And so she now is a Helper and our kids program and also her parents come really regularly to all of our events. And so again as we talk about when you guys give to missions and you give to my Ministry, you're a part of her life and so it's just been great to get to know her and to build relationships with her and his team's, and as we have insurance for all believers, she spends time with them and hears about On what God is doing in their lives and what they believe and so even though I've never had a direct spiritual conversation with her. I know that she has had the gospel shared with her and we continue to pray for her and her family they call us part of their family. They say when we come to Thanksgiving the Thanksgiving party. We feel like we're coming to a family gathering and so I mean there's a hundred people there. So it's for some of you that is a family gathering for my family. That's a little bit so it's just been a blessing to see so you can her name is Emma so you can pray for her and pray for her family. And and so then another one that I wanted to show you is another young girl who came to our Center. So the two girls on the right or actually sisters and they actually are both hearing impaired and we met the one in the middle because she we were helping this a school for people with speech and hearing and pediments to raise funds for their pre-school so they did I craft projects for the kids and then we had this like we let them use our Center and they did an auction a silent auction and people bought things so that they can build a preschool or they could redo their preschool for the for the kids who go to the center until we met her because she actually was sort of one of their spokespeople. So even though she has 80% hearing loss. She actually speaks three languages and plays five instruments. So she's pretty impressive. But she also now to serves as the behind-the-scenes photographer for a film seminars and she participated as is her sister. And so we've had a relationship with her now for 5 or 6 years and I've just been blessed that God is letting us be a part of what he's doing in her life and to share Christ with her and to encourage her as she goes to sleep disorder figures out what she wants to do with her life. And so and she actually recently just with the other women in the picture they started To teach people in Bosnia how to to use sign language. So it's like a sign language class but through YouTube videos that they do and so they were sponsored by the UN to make the set of videos for sign language in Bosnian. So we were really excited to see that and we've been promoting it so that people will and we're hoping eventually when covid over to maybe have even a sign language class at our Center some people who wanted to learn could come and learn to to assign so that they could learn to share cuz it's people with disabilities are not really well treated sometimes in Bosnia and there's definitely not inclusion or any of those things that we're trying to work with the young people like her to help fight for the rights of people with disabilities so that they can be included in sort of normal society and in schools and things like that. So I'm so that's part of what we do. And so the last thing I want to show is just a really quick video and this is just thinking about the unfinished, Miss. Of all the people who still have never heard the gospel.

Good workers working in 142 cities around the world. And so some of the last reason that we need to be reminded of missions is because it's definitely an unfinished Mission just like I talked about when we started and sew in the world. They're still estimated to be 1.2 billion people who have never heard the name of Jesus ever and there's probably no one living anywhere near them not to tell them about Christ. And so just as we see in this video though people who are seeking the truth. God does come to them and speak to them and he brings people to them and and in our own Ministry in Bosnia-Herzegovina, especially during the war we had lots of people from the slim backgrounds who came to us or came to play this is where the church was working on because they were LED there by a dream or a vision that they had that told them to go to a certain address and in the city and the state would find help and so we do know God speaks to people in miraculous ways. But but there are still 1.2 billion people and more than 4,000 people groups who have no one living among them to tell them about Jesus. And so it's one of the reasons that I love working for the alliance because the alliance, you know more than a decade ago made a commitment that they would go to the people who hadn't heard himself in some places where they already felt like the mission was growing in the churches were growing. They pulled people out to specifically re locate them into places where they could share the gospel with people inside this traffic is really small, but but it does sort of show you some of the parts but the parts that are important is that you know, the organization. I'm working with the Christian Missionary Alliance. We have 700 workers who are with 70 people groups in 142 City. And so it's the thing that excites me the most about the movement that were in are they like the color denomination of movement and not a denomination because of the idea that we're moving and we're always moving ahead. And so I'm for me. It's so exciting. I'm just seeing what God is doing and it's been really fun for me to be home here in Monroe and helping with the food pantry and hearing about the plans that you guys are making as the lighthouse because because I really see you guys saying that you understand that the the mission that got his unfinished weather that tear in Monroe or in Adams County, Indiana the United States or even Beyond and so I just am so encouraged by what you guys are doing. And so I just want to close I'm reading from acts 15 Conversate it says in God who knows the heart for witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us and he made no distinction between us and them having cleanse their hearts by faith. And so I've just been thinking of socially in the last few days in the last few months and years and I don't even know how long it lasts. It's been lasting anywhere. We seen a lot of division. I think even in our own country a lot of fear in a lot of pain and we question what's going on, but I think I'm always comforted by the fact that I know that God knew about everything that was going to happen before it happened. He sometimes still allows bad and frightening things to happen because he knows there's a greater good in all of it. But I know it's been a tough season for all of us, but I believe that God is opening new doors, and I'm so excited for myself in the ministry that we're doing. We're re-evaluating things that we're doing and looking at new ways to minister and we're excited about what God is Doing but I'm excited too about what God is doing here in this church and through all of you and in your lives cuz I do think that he's going to do great great things and that you are going to be some of the people that unlock the doors for some of those people. I'm not just Syrian women, but people around the world who still don't know about Jesus and you're going to be the people that helped to unlock those doors for them. And so I just want to thank you so much and I actually just would like to take a really quick opportunity to pray for the church and pray for all of you as a way of thanking you for the support that you've given me in my Ministry. Father God I just thank you so much for this church for the Lighthouse for the gifts that this church and its people have given me through prayer and encouragement and financial support, but also Street the lessons they taught me and arfer and my brother and so many of us as children Lord to love you to serve you and to love others in your name. And so Lord Jesus I just asked now as they've again this transition and this new this new Journey that you have set them on a new path that you would give them wisdom and blessing and encouragement and all that they do and that they would truly be a lighthouse for you in this community and it's in your name that we pray. Amen.