¤ ¤ 00:00:01.06\00:00:30.08 Hello and welcome again to Issues and Answers. 00:00:30.12\00:00:33.55 Today we're going to be talking about creative bridge building. 00:00:33.59\00:00:38.76 Now sometimes people are thrown off a little by the word 00:00:38.79\00:00:42.72 creative. I've had people tell me, Ruthie, I'm just not 00:00:42.75\00:00:47.24 creative. I haven't had a new idea in 50 years. Well that's 00:00:47.27\00:00:51.73 not true, but people see themselves as uncreative 00:00:51.76\00:00:55.97 sometimes. But I really believe that if you're praying and 00:00:56.01\00:01:00.48 asking the Lord to help you be creative, you may have some 00:01:00.51\00:01:04.91 gigantic surprises ahead because he's the creator and he can make 00:01:04.95\00:01:11.06 you creative in ways that will bring joy to your own heart and 00:01:11.09\00:01:17.17 enjoyment and blessing to the people around you. Do you 00:01:17.20\00:01:21.23 believe that? I really believe it because God is faithful. 00:01:21.26\00:01:25.90 Today we're going to talk about building bridges with creative 00:01:25.94\00:01:30.94 new ideas, new attitudes and that's really where it starts. 00:01:30.97\00:01:35.90 It starts in your mind, in your attitude. If you think you can't 00:01:35.94\00:01:41.34 do something you probably can't. But if you are believing God he 00:01:41.37\00:01:46.21 can help you to do anything. That's what he's promised. I can 00:01:46.25\00:01:51.77 do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's not about 00:01:51.80\00:01:57.29 you, not about me. It's all about him and his promises are 00:01:57.32\00:02:02.61 true. I love the text in Isaiah 44:2 that says, and this is the 00:02:02.65\00:02:07.99 Lord speaking to you and to me. He says, I am the one who will 00:02:08.02\00:02:14.08 help you. How about that for a promise? My guests today are 00:02:14.11\00:02:20.14 Tim Garrison from Camarillo, California. Welcome back. 00:02:20.17\00:02:23.23 Thank you Ruthie. Good to be here. 00:02:23.26\00:02:25.25 And Derek Morris from Forest Lake Church in Apopka, Florida. 00:02:25.29\00:02:31.09 Your church, Derek, is one of the fastest growing and one of 00:02:31.12\00:02:36.56 the largest in our denomination in all of North American and I 00:02:36.60\00:02:42.01 really believe it's because people have been doing some 00:02:42.04\00:02:45.38 creative bridge building. 00:02:45.41\00:02:47.70 Well it's really amazing. We've talked about the importance of 00:02:47.74\00:02:50.95 prayer as a foundation and building that foundation, but 00:02:50.98\00:02:54.33 then giving the Lord of the harvest permission to throw us 00:02:54.37\00:02:57.65 out into his harvest. That may be as simple as a friendly smile 00:02:57.69\00:03:02.54 or helping mow someone's lawn. But I'm looking forward to the 00:03:02.57\00:03:06.42 program today as we talk about creative bridge building because 00:03:06.45\00:03:10.09 I think that we do have a lot more creativity than we think 00:03:10.12\00:03:13.73 especially with the Holy Spirit's blessing. 00:03:13.76\00:03:15.60 I want to tell you about one creative idea that stumped a 00:03:15.64\00:03:19.22 lot of people. In fact, the pastor himself didn't think this 00:03:19.26\00:03:23.45 was going to work. But he'd baptized a man who was about 00:03:23.49\00:03:27.61 65 or a little more. He was a veteran; I think it was the Viet 00:03:27.65\00:03:34.35 Nam war and he had a decided limp. I think he only had vision 00:03:34.38\00:03:40.99 in one eye. He had a real problem with one of his legs and 00:03:41.02\00:03:46.75 one of his arms. So he kind of shuffled about but he was 00:03:46.79\00:03:51.98 ambulatory but he told the pastor shortly after he was 00:03:52.01\00:03:57.13 baptized, he said you know I've been praying about this and I 00:03:57.17\00:04:01.49 really believe God is calling me to a specific ministry. 00:04:01.52\00:04:05.29 The pastor said good, good for you. What is it? He said well I 00:04:05.33\00:04:09.27 want to do something creative. I want to do something that I 00:04:09.30\00:04:13.43 really think is needed in our church and in our community. 00:04:13.47\00:04:18.06 Good, what is it? Well you know that gym that we've got isn't 00:04:18.09\00:04:22.60 used very much. Let's turn it into a skating rink for the 00:04:22.64\00:04:27.08 young people of our town. And the pastor kind of scratched his 00:04:27.12\00:04:32.00 head and he thought you're the last one to do this kind of 00:04:32.03\00:04:36.41 thing. But how can you say something to discourage the poor 00:04:36.44\00:04:40.79 man when he's sure that the Lord's calling him to this 00:04:40.82\00:04:44.21 ministry. So he said, I've already been on the internet. 00:04:44.24\00:04:49.32 I know where I can get several hundred pairs of skates, shoe 00:04:49.35\00:04:53.69 skates, good condition. There's a big company somewhere that is 00:04:53.72\00:04:58.03 closing down and they're liquidating their business 00:04:58.06\00:05:00.34 and he said I found somebody that'll buy them. Well that's 00:05:00.38\00:05:03.96 creative. So he installed a good music system and put it in the 00:05:04.00\00:05:10.47 newspaper, put up signs and two days a week during the summer 00:05:10.51\00:05:15.56 he was there in the evening with those kids and they showed up, 00:05:15.59\00:05:20.61 they came. And as they came through the door they said 00:05:20.64\00:05:24.88 what's it cost? He said, nothing You need some skates, over there 00:05:24.92\00:05:28.49 There are some rules and he had installed a something like a 00:05:28.52\00:05:34.17 pipe or something, you know a rail around the inside around 00:05:34.21\00:05:39.79 the wall so that beginners could stand up and skate around there 00:05:39.83\00:05:44.87 with one hand to hold them up. And he said, there are some 00:05:44.90\00:05:51.93 rules. You have to be attentive to whatever's going on; the 00:05:51.96\00:05:57.30 girls only then it's girls only and we respect each other in 00:05:57.34\00:06:03.03 here. And he said but before we skate at all we go to the center 00:06:03.07\00:06:07.73 Everybody puts on your skates, come to the center. We're going 00:06:07.76\00:06:11.57 read a text or two in the Bible. We're going to talk about what 00:06:11.61\00:06:15.68 that means to us personally. We're going to pray and then you 00:06:15.72\00:06:20.65 can go out and have fun. Well the kids said, not a problem. 00:06:20.68\00:06:23.50 And so he did that. 00:06:23.54\00:06:26.91 You know what's beautiful about that too is that he's taking 00:06:26.94\00:06:30.34 where he's at, an existing environment, and finding 00:06:30.37\00:06:36.13 creative ways of using it. You know sometimes we think we have 00:06:36.17\00:06:39.63 to go out and invent something new or do something new, but 00:06:39.66\00:06:43.62 the fact is that gym was there already. He just saw something 00:06:43.66\00:06:47.59 that would be different and creative and would meet the 00:06:47.62\00:06:50.49 needs of the community and actually draw them in. The 00:06:50.53\00:06:53.78 beauty of that my guess is it was much easier for those 00:06:53.81\00:06:56.99 families of those kids to come back to the church perhaps for 00:06:57.03\00:07:00.74 another event because they'd already been there once. 00:07:00.77\00:07:04.89 Well I want to say, it seems like they've had 31 baptisms 00:07:04.92\00:07:09.95 from that specific ministry because parents get interested 00:07:09.99\00:07:14.20 and they're saying you know my kid's different. Well of course 00:07:14.23\00:07:18.41 he's different. He has been exposed to the word of God. 00:07:18.44\00:07:22.19 He's been prayed over. He's been treated like a gentleman and he 00:07:22.23\00:07:26.47 has been shown how a Christian treats another person with 00:07:26.50\00:07:31.42 respect and maturity and the kids are learning. And they 00:07:31.46\00:07:36.31 respond. You know, young people, and older people, will live up 00:07:36.35\00:07:41.02 to expectations. And the bridge building, 00:07:41.05\00:07:44.11 wonderful metaphor really is breaking down the wall. It's 00:07:44.15\00:07:48.36 building a bridge that breaks down a wall and that bridge 00:07:48.40\00:07:52.54 broke down the wall of hesitancy for those people to connect with 00:07:52.58\00:07:56.45 You know, I'm in a church plant and so we don't 00:07:56.49\00:08:00.01 have a permanent building of our own. We're a portable church. 00:08:00.04\00:08:03.97 We come in, you know, with the truck and trailer and all our 00:08:04.01\00:08:08.12 equipment into a middle school in the middle of the community 00:08:08.15\00:08:11.63 and we were thinking of ways to try to build bridges to the 00:08:11.67\00:08:15.12 school that we meet in. So I went one day into the 00:08:15.15\00:08:20.27 principal's office and I just talked with her and I said we 00:08:20.31\00:08:23.64 would like to do something for your school, just to kind of, 00:08:23.68\00:08:27.97 you know, build a bridge. And she said well our dictionaries 00:08:28.01\00:08:32.24 are really old in the classrooms So I went back to our group and 00:08:32.28\00:08:36.90 we decided that we would equip every room in that school with a 00:08:36.94\00:08:41.53 brand new dictionary. And the principal was so grateful. 00:08:41.56\00:08:46.34 I want to stop you. I love it. But what did that cost? 00:08:46.38\00:08:51.13 It wasn't much. No, no it wasn't. I mean less 00:08:51.16\00:08:54.23 than $1000, to build that bridge Well the principal was really 00:08:54.27\00:09:00.40 grateful and every year the school has an opportunity for 00:09:00.43\00:09:04.94 business people to come in the school and judge presentations 00:09:04.98\00:09:09.21 made by the students and they invited me to come. You know, a 00:09:09.25\00:09:12.93 pastor, a Christian pastor, from the community to come into the 00:09:12.96\00:09:16.61 public school and actually participate in the classroom 00:09:16.64\00:09:20.52 helping the students with their presentations. 00:09:20.55\00:09:23.48 Because you had built a creative bridge. You had done something. 00:09:23.52\00:09:28.60 You'd filled a need as Christ did and they wanted to say to 00:09:28.63\00:09:33.13 you in their own way, you've become our friend. 00:09:33.16\00:09:35.87 Now that's not the end of the story. I have another aspect of 00:09:35.91\00:09:39.63 the story because one of the things we'd decided in our core 00:09:39.66\00:09:43.38 group development was we wanted to really reach out and join the 00:09:43.41\00:09:47.10 local chamber of commerce. I don't know how many churches 00:09:47.13\00:09:49.90 have really considered this, but when you consider the fact that 00:09:49.94\00:09:53.25 you have a huge business community there and the chamber 00:09:53.28\00:09:56.29 is the place where you can connect and you join and they 00:09:56.32\00:09:59.32 have a breakfast every month and you go there and wear your 00:09:59.35\00:10:02.25 badge, you know, as a pastor. You interact with the different 00:10:02.29\00:10:06.76 community people and when they have like a big event, Easter or 00:10:06.80\00:10:10.66 Christmas concert, you prepare little cards and I place the 00:10:10.70\00:10:14.95 cards at each place at the breakfast. So I did that this 00:10:14.98\00:10:18.16 one year and it happened to be the breakfast where they were 00:10:18.19\00:10:21.96 hosting all the principals from the schools in the school 00:10:21.99\00:10:25.22 district. And they were having each principal get up and give 00:10:25.25\00:10:27.90 a little statement about their school. Well when the principal 00:10:27.94\00:10:31.96 of Mesa Verde Middle School where we meet got up she held up 00:10:31.99\00:10:36.29 one of the cards unbeknownst to me and she said I just want to 00:10:36.33\00:10:40.06 encourage all of you to attend this program here at Moorpark 00:10:40.10\00:10:43.80 Community Seventh-day Adventist Church. 00:10:43.83\00:10:45.89 Ah that's wonderful. You said one thing. You said it 00:10:45.93\00:10:49.91 didn't cost that much, $1000, and some people go that's a lot 00:10:49.95\00:10:54.05 of money. Why would we bother to spend $1000 to build bridges? 00:10:54.09\00:10:58.12 I think it comes back to the attitude. If I just view myself 00:10:58.16\00:11:01.75 saying you know I'm a follower of Jesus. I just want to try to 00:11:01.78\00:11:05.53 stay out of trouble until Jesus comes and everybody else can be 00:11:05.57\00:11:10.59 damned then you're not going to spend $1000 on building a bridge 00:11:10.62\00:11:14.22 But if you really believe that it's something that Jesus has 00:11:14.25\00:11:17.89 asked you to do and something he modeled then you have the 00:11:17.92\00:11:21.23 attitude of saying that was a small investment to build such a 00:11:21.27\00:11:24.55 wonderful bridge. But you know the interesting 00:11:24.58\00:11:27.64 thing is the principles of the kingdom and building the kingdom 00:11:27.68\00:11:33.42 of heaven aren't based on $1000. He said give a cup of cold water 00:11:33.46\00:11:39.17 For instance, at a sporting event there were people that 00:11:39.20\00:11:46.39 were handing out cold bottles of water. It was a hot, hot day 00:11:46.43\00:11:51.94 in Cincinnati, Ohio and people said, I'm dying of thirst. I 00:11:51.98\00:11:57.00 needed this cold water. Why are you here doing this? May I pay 00:11:57.03\00:12:01.84 you? No, no, no. But here's a little card. This will explain 00:12:01.87\00:12:06.65 On one side it says, Demonstrating God's love in a 00:12:06.68\00:12:10.72 practical way. On the other side it has the name of the church, 00:12:10.76\00:12:15.85 the website, maybe a phone number for the pastor and people 00:12:15.88\00:12:20.86 go away drinking that cold water and reading this and shaking 00:12:20.89\00:12:25.40 their heads and they don't throw the card away. They put it in 00:12:25.44\00:12:29.82 their pocket and a lot of people have gone the churches because 00:12:29.85\00:12:34.30 there have been just little creative ways. It doesn't always 00:12:34.34\00:12:38.76 have to cost a thousand dollars. 00:12:38.79\00:12:40.05 Well that's true, that's true. Every year in Moorpark they 00:12:40.09\00:12:43.48 have what they call a peach festival and the chamber 00:12:43.51\00:12:46.59 sponsors it and local businesses can buy booth space and so we 00:12:46.63\00:12:51.98 always get a booth for our church. We had made 00:12:52.01\00:12:56.06 up these little 00:12:56.10\00:12:57.49 stress balls you know, stress balls that you squeeze and it 00:12:57.53\00:13:00.73 was actually a world globe, a little world globe and we just 00:13:00.76\00:13:05.25 put on it He's got the whole world in his hands. We handed 00:13:05.29\00:13:08.64 those out and people were squeezing them and looking at 00:13:08.68\00:13:12.00 them, you know. Just small things like that. 00:13:12.03\00:13:15.80 Was there anything that told them who was giving them this. 00:13:15.84\00:13:18.75 Yes, our logo was right there Moorpark Community Seventh- 00:13:18.78\00:13:21.66 day Adventist Church. Because they want to know. 00:13:21.69\00:13:23.04 Exactly. We have a fair in our city and 00:13:23.07\00:13:26.00 know about our Prayers and Squares Quilting Ministry which 00:13:26.04\00:13:29.73 is typically give to people if their sick or if they're facing 00:13:29.77\00:13:33.30 a challenge to remind them that people are praying for them. 00:13:33.33\00:13:36.83 But we noticed they had a grandmother of the year award 00:13:36.86\00:13:41.21 for the city. So we thought well what about one of these 00:13:41.25\00:13:45.63 beautiful quilts that our quilting ministry makes and give 00:13:45.67\00:13:50.36 that to the grandmother of the year without thinking how much 00:13:50.39\00:13:55.00 advertising we get from that but just building a bridge and that 00:13:55.03\00:13:59.65 has become an annual tradition of the fair that the Forest Lake 00:13:59.69\00:14:04.28 church Prayers and Squares Quilting Ministry presents a 00:14:04.31\00:14:08.48 quilt to the grandmother of the year. So someone somewhere 00:14:08.52\00:14:12.48 will remember that and perhaps will say you know those are 00:14:12.52\00:14:16.45 people who build bridges rather than walls. 00:14:16.48\00:14:18.60 I like in your book, and you can remind me of the author, but 00:14:18.64\00:14:24.74 it's called Seed Flinging. 00:14:24.77\00:14:26.15 Oh yes, Steve Sjogren. 00:14:26.18\00:14:27.49 Yes and that's such a nice thought because that's really 00:14:27.53\00:14:31.28 what we're doing; we're flinging seeds. You know stress 00:14:31.32\00:14:35.15 balls or wonderful quilts, you know whatever it is we're 00:14:35.19\00:14:38.30 planting those seeds and the Bible tells us clearly that we 00:14:38.34\00:14:41.42 are seed planters and he is really the harvester. 00:14:41.45\00:14:45.36 I think there's a very important principle here and we would be 00:14:45.40\00:14:49.88 remiss if we didn't point this out and that is. That is 00:14:49.91\00:14:55.01 sometimes we have been taught that in order to be sharing our 00:14:55.05\00:14:59.03 experience or sharing the love of Jesus in just the right way 00:14:59.06\00:15:03.98 we have to be able to expect and measure some results. Wrong! 00:15:04.02\00:15:08.96 I think we need to be doing anything that we're doing with 00:15:08.99\00:15:13.90 no strings attached. 00:15:13.93\00:15:15.69 Not only are there no strings attached, Ruthie, but there's no 00:15:15.73\00:15:18.99 stereotypical way of responding. Sometimes we think 00:15:19.02\00:15:23.47 well I'm supposed to be witnessing and we have this kind 00:15:23.51\00:15:27.03 of regimented approach and some people say well I'm just not 00:15:27.06\00:15:29.30 like that. The beautiful thing about bridge building is I'm 00:15:29.34\00:15:33.33 doing things with no strings attached and I'm doing them 00:15:33.36\00:15:37.28 in a creative and spontaneous way and just allowing the Spirit 00:15:37.32\00:15:41.25 to use my gifts... 00:15:41.28\00:15:42.71 And it doesn't have to look like anybody else's. 00:15:42.75\00:15:44.10 Exactly and I think that what makes it so enjoyable because 00:15:44.14\00:15:47.29 I'm just saying God just lead me, the prayer that you talked 00:15:47.33\00:15:50.30 about, Tim. Just lead me and I'll just be building bridges 00:15:50.33\00:15:53.27 all day. And you never know, you never 00:15:53.30\00:15:55.24 know where he's going to take you. 00:15:55.28\00:15:57.15 Well that's the exciting part really is just move into your 00:15:57.19\00:16:02.20 day of being sensitive, allowing God to sensitize you 00:16:02.23\00:16:05.22 so you understand that there will be opportunities that will 00:16:05.26\00:16:08.05 come. For example, in our church plant one thing that I talked to 00:16:08.09\00:16:12.36 the Lord about was the school district sends a paid custodian 00:16:12.40\00:16:17.09 to be there every week and I said I am going to develop a 00:16:17.13\00:16:21.79 relationship with this custodian each week and the 00:16:21.82\00:16:24.46 custodians take turns because they make time-and-a-half on the 00:16:24.50\00:16:27.53 weekends, you know, so it's a good thing for them. Anyway so 00:16:27.56\00:16:31.21 they do about five weeks at a time. Now I kind of compared it 00:16:31.25\00:16:35.55 to Paul when he was in prison and he had the guard there and 00:16:35.59\00:16:39.86 he determined to witness to that guard. 00:16:39.89\00:16:42.15 A captive audience. A captive audience, exactly. 00:16:42.19\00:16:43.32 So I've made it a point to learn the names and ask about their 00:16:43.36\00:16:47.59 families, to develop a relationship with them and now 00:16:47.62\00:16:50.81 after five years I know the full custodian staff of the Moorpark 00:16:50.85\00:16:55.07 school district. I know them by name, I know their families and 00:16:55.10\00:16:59.46 when I come for a setup they come right over, Pastor Tim how 00:16:59.50\00:17:04.38 are you. I just see that as a way of connecting with them, 00:17:04.41\00:17:09.26 planting seeds and seeing them and how they respond. 00:17:09.29\00:17:12.85 I like that. You know somebody has said, may have been my 00:17:12.89\00:17:17.03 husband, he gets pretty profound sometimes. But somebody said if 00:17:17.07\00:17:22.75 you go too long without listening you forget how to talk 00:17:22.78\00:17:27.41 and if we aren't listening to the people around us, if we 00:17:27.44\00:17:31.81 aren't gearing what we're doing to meet their needs, if we 00:17:31.85\00:17:36.53 aren't just flinging seeds, if we aren't doing something 00:17:36.57\00:17:40.39 totally for them, totally for the kingdom then we can be 00:17:40.43\00:17:44.22 doing our own thing and be totally out of touch. 00:17:44.25\00:17:48.07 That's correct, yeah. I had one of these custodians come to me 00:17:48.11\00:17:52.72 one week with a very personal family situation and right there 00:17:52.76\00:17:57.34 at the entrance to that gymnasium at that school, the 00:17:57.37\00:18:00.65 two of us bowed and had prayer and I was able to provide 00:18:00.69\00:18:03.90 pastoral care for this custodian as he was going through a very 00:18:03.94\00:18:07.01 tragic situation. And I think that's what happens when we 00:18:07.04\00:18:11.20 plant the seeds then the Lord uses us to minister to people. 00:18:11.23\00:18:15.84 You know, here's a very, very simple, simple thing but it 00:18:15.88\00:18:19.91 means everything in our community. For instance, we had 00:18:19.95\00:18:24.49 a bathroom party and because... That's a true story. 00:18:24.52\00:18:29.03 Explain what that means. 00:18:29.06\00:18:30.41 Because we needed a bathroom remodel and all the people who 00:18:30.45\00:18:35.07 came to work on the bathroom liked what we were doing because 00:18:35.10\00:18:38.90 we knocked out a wall and put in a window and brought in some 00:18:38.93\00:18:42.66 pretty tile and everybody that was working on it said, I want 00:18:42.70\00:18:46.11 to see this when it's finished. My wife would like to see this 00:18:46.15\00:18:49.53 when it's finished. So what could we do? We had to invite 00:18:49.56\00:18:52.10 everybody and have a party. Well they loved the idea of having a 00:18:52.14\00:18:56.32 bathroom party. But there have been so many serendipity things 00:18:56.36\00:19:00.53 that have happened since that time. People have said to me 00:19:00.57\00:19:04.26 we've got to get better acquainted, could we study the 00:19:04.30\00:19:07.83 Bible together. These are invitations. I want to come to 00:19:07.87\00:19:11.39 your home and we want to get better acquainted with you. My 00:19:11.43\00:19:15.67 boyfriend wouldn't go to your church for anything, but he 00:19:15.71\00:19:19.47 would come to your home if you'd invite him to come up for 00:19:19.50\00:19:23.19 a meal and we can pray together at your home. See these are open 00:19:23.23\00:19:27.84 doors and one of the vendors, our cabinet man said I have a 00:19:27.87\00:19:34.00 new place of business, and he has a gorgeous new office and 00:19:34.04\00:19:38.63 showroom and he's worked very hard and it's a beautiful, 00:19:38.66\00:19:43.18 beautiful new place of business. He said I want you and Don to 00:19:43.22\00:19:47.32 come down and bless my place of business, have a special prayer 00:19:47.35\00:19:51.42 service. And we still are planning to do that. But I drop 00:19:51.45\00:19:55.53 by once in a while with something like cookies or 00:19:55.57\00:20:00.57 something. The other day he said to me, why are you so good to 00:20:00.61\00:20:05.29 Lucille and me? I said, you're just great people He said, Wow 00:20:05.32\00:20:09.97 we are aren't we? So let me get this straight, Ruthie. You're 00:20:10.00\00:20:13.59 literally and figuratively breaking down walls, huh? 00:20:13.62\00:20:16.21 You know what you illustrated which is so important is once 00:20:16.25\00:20:21.52 you've built a bridge, you can pass back and forth and this 00:20:21.56\00:20:26.80 cabinet maker can also come across that bridge and say 00:20:26.83\00:20:30.51 would you pray for my new showroom. Because the bridge is 00:20:30.55\00:20:34.49 there it is easier for that person to come back and connect 00:20:34.53\00:20:38.44 with you. And I think that emphasizes that it's not a 00:20:38.47\00:20:42.36 one-time event. It's a process. 00:20:42.39\00:20:44.06 No it's a cultivated relationship. And something that 00:20:44.10\00:20:47.70 by husband does; and at first I thought this seemed a little 00:20:47.74\00:20:53.17 strange and what difference does it make, but every time he 00:20:53.21\00:20:56.90 drives by on the way to the post office the bank, whatever, he 00:20:56.93\00:21:01.12 has to go by Phil's new showroom and so he taps on the horn three 00:21:01.15\00:21:05.53 time, beep, beep, beep and I thought who's going to hear 00:21:05.56\00:21:10.10 that, who's going to care. But he and Phil were talking about 00:21:10.13\00:21:14.60 it and Don said, you know every time I drive by I give you three 00:21:14.64\00:21:18.13 little taps on the horn. That's saying, we love you, we're going 00:21:18.16\00:21:22.33 by and we care about you. The last time that I stopped by to 00:21:22.37\00:21:26.42 see Phil he was talking to me about something that was coming 00:21:26.46\00:21:29.84 up and he said, I've got to tell you something. I said, what's 00:21:29.87\00:21:33.60 that? He said, you know what your dear husband does? I said 00:21:33.63\00:21:38.23 hard to tell. He said, he gives me a three-tap on his horn 00:21:38.26\00:21:43.28 hello every time he drives by here. You know I really didn't 00:21:43.31\00:21:48.20 think it was such a big thing, but apparently God can take the 00:21:48.23\00:21:53.61 simplest things and if we're praying, I believe that's the 00:21:53.65\00:21:58.96 bottom line. If we give the Lord our day, if we acknowledge our 00:21:59.00\00:22:03.60 need of him and if we say Lord I'll be obedient then he can 00:22:03.64\00:22:08.43 take the strangest, simplest things and used them for kingdom 00:22:08.46\00:22:13.22 business. Yes, and I think people need to 00:22:13.25\00:22:14.28 hear that. They need to be reassured that in their setting 00:22:14.31\00:22:17.75 there are ways that God can use them in simple, easy things. You 00:22:17.79\00:22:22.23 know, it's not complicated, this is not difficult. It's simply 00:22:22.26\00:22:26.67 being open and using their unique gifts in a simple way. 00:22:26.70\00:22:30.73 You know, in our neighborhood I've tried to connect with the 00:22:30.77\00:22:34.73 people and it's a very intimate, close neighborhood and there are 00:22:34.77\00:22:39.90 four pastors in our neighborhood and we all know each other and 00:22:39.93\00:22:44.10 one neat thing about planting seeds and about reaching out and 00:22:44.14\00:22:48.10 building bridges is you can go both ways on the bridge. And 00:22:48.13\00:22:52.18 it's a mutually beneficial type thing. And I actually have a 00:22:52.22\00:22:55.28 Catholic priest that I'm a good friend with that lives down the 00:22:55.31\00:22:58.34 street and when we see each other out on the street, he 00:22:58.37\00:23:01.20 calls me and I go over and we talk to each other and 00:23:01.23\00:23:03.99 inevitably he'll say let's pray for each other and so he prays 00:23:04.03\00:23:08.62 for me and I pray for him and together we have a sense that 00:23:08.66\00:23:12.83 we're both in the work for the Lord. That's the beauty of 00:23:12.86\00:23:16.91 creating these bridges because there's this greater community 00:23:16.95\00:23:20.97 out there of people that the Lord is using in his work. 00:23:21.00\00:23:23.93 You know, once you've built the bridge you have the credit to be 00:23:23.97\00:23:27.80 able to do that. If you just walk randomly up to someone and 00:23:27.83\00:23:31.29 say let me pray for you, you're invading their private space, 00:23:31.33\00:23:34.76 they don't know who you are, maybe you're going to steal 00:23:34.79\00:23:36.52 their wallet, you know. Once you've built that in simple ways 00:23:36.56\00:23:41.95 a smile, a honking horn, whatever it is, then you have 00:23:41.98\00:23:45.45 those time, like with the lady where you could pray for her and 00:23:45.49\00:23:49.13 pray together. So maybe to use the analogy of the bridge, the 00:23:49.17\00:23:52.78 bridge gets broader and stronger as time passes. 00:23:52.81\00:23:56.24 I couldn't believe that Phil said to me every time your 00:23:56.28\00:24:01.66 husband goes by he honks and I could tell that was really 00:24:01.70\00:24:07.05 meaningful to him. It was a reminder to him that 00:24:07.08\00:24:09.46 there was a bridge between you. 00:24:09.49\00:24:10.53 Now how hard is that? 00:24:10.56\00:24:12.64 That's a simple thing that makes a connection and to carry the 00:24:12.68\00:24:16.62 analogy further, I think as you make the connection you find 00:24:16.65\00:24:20.89 more people on the bridge. You know, in the community, in the 00:24:20.93\00:24:25.08 neighborhood as the word gets around; well I had prayer with 00:24:25.12\00:24:30.10 that pastor or he helped me then others collect that word and 00:24:30.13\00:24:34.27 pretty soon they know that you're open to the possibility 00:24:34.30\00:24:38.41 of you ministering to their needs. 00:24:38.44\00:24:40.29 What's happening in my development, my wife and I walk 00:24:40.33\00:24:43.52 together and one lady fell down while we were walking and we 00:24:43.56\00:24:48.45 prayed with her and she asked about us and I told her I was a 00:24:48.48\00:24:52.38 pastor and somehow word got around to all the walking people 00:24:52.42\00:24:56.29 and sometimes people I don't even know will say Morning 00:24:56.32\00:24:59.89 pastor, you know. A bridge has been built and they had bridges 00:24:59.93\00:25:03.81 to other friends and only God knows where that ends up. 00:25:03.84\00:25:08.02 Just recently we had an interdenominational event 00:25:08.05\00:25:11.33 in our little town. And before we did that a little group of us 00:25:11.37\00:25:16.32 interdenominational, got together and prayer walked. 00:25:16.35\00:25:19.86 We prayer walked the entire church where this was going to 00:25:19.90\00:25:23.81 be held. We went to the pulpit and we prayed for the sermon. 00:25:23.85\00:25:27.27 We went to the piano because we knew that was going to be used. 00:25:27.30\00:25:30.64 We walked up and down the aisles and prayed for the people who 00:25:30.67\00:25:34.84 would be there and we prayed that God would send unchurched 00:25:34.88\00:25:39.02 people. Now when you say prayer walk, 00:25:39.05\00:25:41.32 you pray as you walk? 00:25:41.35\00:25:43.85 That's right. Yes. One person prays out loud. You usually have 00:25:43.89\00:25:48.81 two or three in the group. One person prays out loud and the 00:25:48.85\00:25:53.14 others pray silently. But you are agreeing in prayer. You're 00:25:53.18\00:25:57.16 asking God to do something at that specific place. And it's 00:25:57.20\00:26:01.37 based on the text in Joshua where God said wherever you step 00:26:01.41\00:26:05.55 your foot, I'm going to give that to you. 00:26:05.58\00:26:08.92 Now you just said something that I think is really important. You 00:26:08.96\00:26:12.50 said that's what it says in Joshua. You know, what's 00:26:12.53\00:26:15.19 interesting is when we have this attitude and we pray that God 00:26:15.23\00:26:18.79 uses us, suddenly the scripture comes alive with ideas. 00:26:18.82\00:26:22.52 That's right, that's right. But this prayer walking became a 00:26:22.56\00:26:27.61 very significant event not only for the people who were going 00:26:27.64\00:26:32.32 to be there, the speakers, the musician a couple days later, 00:26:32.35\00:26:35.81 and we told them. We said we have prayer walked this place 00:26:35.85\00:26:39.85 for you. They loved it. But it also was meaningful for the 00:26:39.88\00:26:44.19 group who was prayer walking. They loved it. And that's just 00:26:44.23\00:26:48.51 creative bridge building. 00:26:48.54\00:26:49.74 You were building bridges with the group as well as bridges to 00:26:49.78\00:26:55.39 the community. And there's no end to prayer 00:26:55.42\00:26:58.86 walking or to bridge building. You can use prayer walking 00:26:58.90\00:27:04.29 anywhere. You can use bridge building anywhere. 00:27:04.32\00:27:05.90 When you consider that, it's only as big as God's potential. 00:27:05.94\00:27:10.23 Which means that it's absolutely limitless. 00:27:10.26\00:27:12.64 That's right, that's right. Well we're just about out of time, 00:27:12.68\00:27:16.96 but I want to think you both. It's so good to hear your 00:27:16.99\00:27:20.57 stories and to hear your profound wisdom from scripture 00:27:20.61\00:27:24.12 and your experience. I'm sure that our audience enjoyed it as 00:27:24.16\00:27:28.81 much as I did. And I hope that it piques all of us and our 00:27:28.85\00:27:33.43 curiosity and our minds to think I want to be creative. I want to 00:27:33.47\00:27:38.37 ask God to use me to build bridges wherever I go, wherever 00:27:38.40\00:27:42.30 he puts me because he has a purpose and a plan for my life 00:27:42.34\00:27:46.17 and he is faithful. He has big surprises. Thanks for joining 00:27:46.21\00:27:51.32 us. We'll see you again next time. 00:27:51.35\00:27:53.54