"Your Treasure" -- OR -- "You're Treasure"

In one single verse (Matthew 13:44) Jesus tells us a parable of the kingdom of heaven. It is one of seven parables in this chapter. If you read all of Matthew 13 you'll also see that there were a couple of the parables that Jesus Himself explained. I wish he had done that with this one!

The verse says: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."

Most biblical commentators identify the "kingdom of heaven" as the treasure, which seems the most straight forward. Such an understanding of the parable points out the surpassing value of the Kingdom of Heaven and the proper prioritization of everything else in life. The Kingdom of Heaven is "Your Treasure!"

I am also inclined to read Jesus' words here with a different understanding. I think that it is quite likely Jesus meant for us to understand that the treasure in the field refers to us -- to mankind! And He, our Savior gave up all that He had to purchase us (redeem) for himself. With this understanding, I'd say, "You're Treasure."

I'd like to explain more to you this Sunday. Worship with us 8:30 AM or 11:00 AM.

Blessings,
Pastor

Packing Up The Dreams...

Let me say to those of you who know how emotional I get when we sing Friends, I DIDNT CRY! (This is Megan!) We had closing worship last night, it was great! Today we planned on going back to sleep after the other groups left, but we ended up leaving shortly after. Our white water rafting trip was AWESOME! I was super scared at first, but once we got on the rapids...it wasnt nearly as bad! We did class 3-4...we all decided that we’re coming back to do a higher level! I didn’t fall out, although we swam through one of the rapids, and I got seperated from the group and I swam around a huge boulder all alone! it was scary...but I did fine.



We came back to the hotel, showered, then ate at Dirty Ernie’s...a barbeque place that was highly recommended by the local people, it was worth it! Now we are all pretty tired, and we are about to watch a movie. We are coming home tomorrow after we go to a church Greg found with mixed style-contemporary and traditional LCMS...so that should be a good time! See you back in Caro! Much Love, God Bless
Megan

A Blog Update

Your regularly scheduled blog content is being interrupted for this announcement:

We are discontinuing the use of anonymous comments for our blog. This means that you must create an account with Blogger to leave comments at Scraps of Grace. Creating an account is easy and helps us maintain the integrity of our blog.

Click here to create an account now. If you have further questions, contact us at admin@stpaulcaro.org.

Thanks for your cooperation. Now back to Greg and the Servant Event crew.

His Banner Over Me Is Love

Every team was required to come up with their own verses that would go with the tune His Banner Over Me Is Love.

They do a great job telling what happened through the week so here we go.

Lynda (The Kitchenette)



Bins Counts Community Center
Kitchen is where I work
Cutting fruit, baking muffins
Breakfast is nothing to shirk
Next comes packing lunches
Cleanup and finally a rest
His banner over me is blest

Dinner prep’s should make mealtime easy
But nothing is as it seems
Ovens not heating, water not flowing
The obsticales can make one scream
Tired, hungry teens are comin
Lord protect me, they’re coming through
His banner over me just grew

Finally the meals are over
And I look at the dirty kitchen and frown
Kids are leavin, time for Bible study
Group discussions-days ups and downs
But wait, some kids are coming over
I’m not a team of one after all
His banner over me is love

Trammel Twins



We tore down Maggie’s deck today and it was really hard
We dug through dirt and rock today and it was really hard
We rebuilt Maggie’s deck today and it was really hard
The work was really, really hard

We nailed 400 nails in that truss and it was really hot
We finished the bathroom floor today and it was really hot
We raised up three walls today and it was really hot
The work was really, really hot

We put up the trusses today and it was really wet
We worked on Maggie’s roof today and it was really wet
Paige even painted in the rain and it was really wet
The work was really, really wet

We built Maggie’s stairs today and Nadine was there
We put in the windows and the door and Nadine was there
And J. R. was always there to hold a tool for you
And Nadine, Nadine was there

Greg gave us a pep talk in the van on the way up
When we got to the site N adine was Natasha
We finished at 11:59 and it was really cool
Now our work, and song are done

Mountaintoppers



The churches called us to their trailer to fix a leaky roof
Their home set up in the stonewall holler with gardens all around
We thought at first it would be simple but boy were we surprised
Each shingle it turned up more problems

Servants On A Hot Tin Roof



Wallace Southerland had a leaky tin roof
Toasting in the mid-day sun
Water damage in the rooms below
Problems that were no fun
He asked for some help from the Binns Count Center
To solve his water woes
Christ’s banner over us is love.

Servants on a hot tin roof responded
Toasted in the mid-day sun
The pitch is steep and slippery
Toasting in the mid-day sun
The love of Christ was shared with Wallace
While putting on a new green roof
Christ’s banner over us is love.

Clothes were soiled, knuckles scraped
While putting on the new green roof
Megan made it up the ladder
And got stranded on the new green roof
Chimney and fan came crashing down
And as we perservered
Christ’s banner over us is love

Today is Thursday

Sometimes that means the Servant Event hits the wall. Well, we haven’t done that. It can also mean that the energy level is low. That is true! It was hard to get out of bed this morning, then when I climbed the hill to the center I thought “man, I’m sore” and on the work sites it didn’t seem to go as well as some previous days. We just aren’t moving as fast as we once did.

Despite that we made some good progress today. The Trammel Twin site is about four things from being done.



The “Servants on a hot tin roof” have about 1/3-1/2 to finish on one side of the roof.



The “Mountaintoppers” have to finish the peak and put gutters up and their done. (Must be due to Rob being able to carry three bundles at one time) So, tomorrow the work all gets finished.



Back to this morning: we were treated to a visit by Sister Mary. Sister Mary is a Catholic Nun who runs a medical mission in this area. She drives this huge Winebago-like vehicle that is a doctor’s office on wheels complete with three exam rooms, a waiting room, Mary’s lab area, a bathroom, and you can drive it down the road as well. She shared some sad statistics about this area: the life expectancy is 10 years less than the national average, and suicide is the number two killer in the area. Black lung disease is also a huge problem with the coal workers. Mary is a wonderful person and we were blessed, as are the people in this area, by her.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Yesterday we had no water, and weren’t happy with that.

Today we got more water than we wanted! It started raining about 11:00 and rained pretty much non-stop from then on. Sometimes pretty hard.

We nearly lost two adults from the “Servants on a hot tin roof” crew. Today they were “Servants on a slippery tin roof.” As the story goes, Tony grabbed the foot of Donnie who was then followed quickly by Mike slidding into his back. Unphased by that they were still on this roof and Tony grabbed Donnie’s foot as he slid again. Finally they had to pack it up early and head back to the Community Center.



The “Mountaintoppers” shut their site down early due to the rain because everyone was up on a roof up in it. The Trammel Twins site happened to be headed up by me, the notorious slave driver, continued to work in the rain till 4:00. We placed a plastic sheet up above the group building a little deck and steps, some worked inside the house, while some just plain worked in the rain. As we said: “once your underwear gets wet, you can’t get any wetter!”

Tonight we went out to a local restaurant for dinner and had some wonderful discussion with Bible study!

This Group Stinks

That doesn’t sound nice, but I’m not talking about the community life and I really do like the group here. But they stink.

Today was fairly hot and sunny, and we worked HARD. At the Trammel site we put up the walls, built trusses and finished the bathroom floor. The Mountain toppers tore down a chimney, removed about 1/2 of the old tin, and put on about 1/2 of their new tin (Megan wants everyone to know that she got on the roof) and they all came back covered with tar. The Mountain toppers put OSB over all the bad spots and shingled 1/2 of their roof. Needless to say we needed a shower when we got back to the Community Center.

That’s where the problem began. When we got out of the van we were greeted with the news that there was a water main broken in another town and that there was NO WATER! Which meant NO SHOWERS!



Worry not, we finally did get showers around 8:00. Now we can rest at ease tonight!

Monday Update

Hey, this is Megan and I’m a member of the “Servants on a hot tin roof”...well I am a member, but I havent been on the roof yet, please pray that I get the courage to go up tomorrow! We worked hard today...about an hour before clean up, we realized that we used the wrong length of tin...because there were like four different ones, instead of two like we thought. Tony got over his fear of heights quickly in the day, and spent the afternoon demolishing the chimney that wasnt being used for anything anymore. Mike and Donny, our adult leaders went to town taking off and putting new tin sheets on...with me on the ground moving them to the right place, and lifting them to the brave men on the roof! Tomorrow I think we will get a whole lot more done because we know whats going on now! Oh! Our family that we’re working for bought us pizza, pop and “lunch cakes” aka- little debbie’s raisin cream pie. I hadnt heard of them, but its just like an oatmeal one, but with raisins instead! Well...thats all from us!


This is Curtis from the “Mountain Top Group.” We are reroofing a double wide trailer. Well the day started out well. Half of the roof was removed before lunch. As the day went along we ran into a couple of problems. There were a half dozen pieces of sheeting that were rotten. As we started to replace them, Rob decided to put a sky light in the kitchen. Luckly no one was hurt. We will wait to see how Tuesday will go.

The “Trammel Twins” sites went like this: the first one was actually finished today! We stripped a 16’x16’ section of the roof, framed in the rotted rafters, sheeted the section and replaced that section of roofing.

The second “Trammel Twins” site was Maggie’s place. We knocked, pryed, and moved the old floor and support beams out of the way, all by 10 AM. The rest of the day was spent digging post holes, setting 6x6 posts, attaching stringers, floor joists and nailing down our new floor. We’ve got a nice level, sturdy dance floor now. We also spent a couple hours removing the old floor in the bathroom and replacing a floor joist. Tomorrow we get to put up some new walls.

Maggie's Place

Yesterday when we heard about the area we were told about the town of Trammel. Today we saw Trammel.

Trammel was a town built in the 1930’s by one investor (I’m assuming a Mr. Trammel). Everyone worked in the coal mines, was paid in script (good at the company store), and lived in a cookie cutter house which they didn’t own. Finally Mr. Trammel decided to sell the town so all these houses were sold in one day by auction. The families which lived in these houses had to try and come up with the money needed to buy the house they were living in.



Maggie is one of those people that bought her house. She said her husband worked for the coal mines until finally his health failed. She bought her house for $4,000. It may not be much of a house to the rest of us, but to her it’s where her and her husband raised nine children.




This week we’ll be tearing down the floor and posts from a room that was built on the back of the house, and then rebuilding a brand new room. We’ll also be rebuilding the bathroom floor.



The other two houses that we saw today both needed roofing work. Greg is another Trammel resident and he has some a particular corner that is leaking. That crew is going to strip back the roofing and see if the decking boards are going to need replacing or not. The third house we saw has steel roofing on it. The kids bought Mr. Phillips materials for a new roof and he hired someone to replace the roof. That individual ran off with his money! So, we are going to reroof the house for him. We didn’t get to see the fourth house, but I’m told it is stripping off an old roof and putting a new one on.



After seeing the houses we worshipped and had some free time out a beautiful park called the Breaks.

On The Road Again

After getting on the road at 1:30...yes, that’s AM, not PM, we have been driving all day. We stopped in some rest area in the middle of Ohio and all slept for an hour. I should say, I slept for an hour, they all HAD been sleeping before that.



We have seen some beautiful landscape, very different from Michigan...and yes, Megan, those are mountains under there and not just really tall trees.



Because we left early we’ve had extra time and once we saw some interesting signage we took a little detour (intentional) down a gravel road. It was there that we saw this...



If the trails had been shorter we might have gone for a little hike.

Anyway it was about time for a late lunch and I told them that I wanted to find a “greasy spoon” and none of them knew what I meant. The waitress denied that she knew what that meant but we found it! The mother and daughter were both present at “the Old Country Inn” which was established by Thelma, Lynn & Mary Campbell in 1973.

We’ve come to the realization that we might be the ones who talk funny now, which might (but maybe not) expain why Curtis had to ask: “What’s on the turkey and bacon club.”

Finally, here is my late night update:
After a 20 mile detour in Kentucky we finally arrived in Nora. We looked briefly in Nora (it’s not that big) for the Community Center and decided we should ask at the one gas station. I walked up to the lady behind the counter and asked where the Binns Counts Community Center was. She looked at me with a blank stare and said “I’ve never heard of it.” I just looked at her with a unbelieving look and said “Don’t tell me that!” Well, come to find out she was giving me the business. She was the director’s daughter!

We arrived just in time for dinner and then we jumped right into a presentation about the situation and some of the history of the Appalachian area we will be serving. We learned everyone’s name and had some community builders. The groups are from Maryland and North Carolina. We’re 21 servants and already the friendships begin.

This Hat I Wear

Okay, so I woke up thinking about hats and Greek words...it could happen to anyone.

This past winter I wrote a Bible study about the Greek words that we translate "servant" in our English Bibles. Without boring you with all the details (you'd have to attend a Servant Event next summer for that honor) here's the skinny on Leitourgos: A leitourgos is literally a public servant. We all have many “liturgies” that make up who we are. Those liturgies are the roles of our life, the “hats” that we wear, those that we are responsible to. When the church started using the word liturgy it was because it recognized it’s responsibility to bring the needs of the world before the throne of God. God wants to use our liturgies to bless others. We are the “delivery truck” of His blessings.

You see, I'm in the position of switching hats (pretty much on the fly during the summer) from Servant Event leader to husband (who really should be painting bedroom trim right now) to father to band leader back to Servant Event leader, on and on and on.

We are all called to be servants in all of the hats that we wear...that's our liturgy!

It's a good thing I look good in it! (at least that's what the Mexican I bought it from told me)

Thank you for tuning into this "storytime with Grandpa Greg."