Three Rivers Grace Community Church

I asked Kayti to write about her recent mission trip to Romania. Please read and be encouraged! Here is what she wrote:

I am so thankful, beyond what I can begin to express with words, that the Lord has called me to be a part of what He’s doing in Romania. It’s like standing on the front line of a battle and knowing you’re in the service of the always victorious King. Like so many truths we know about our faith and our Lord, it doesn’t always feel that way, but praise God that our emotions do not dictate truth.
On my first short-term mission trip to Romania (July 2007), God opened my eyes to the reality of the world He has created. It is infinitely greater than I am, just as He is infinitely greater than I am. There is so much more to it than what I can even begin to grasp, just as there is so much more to Him than I can begin to grasp. To see that there is life outside my little social circle, to see with my own eyes that there are places in this world where people don’t believe that all men are created equal and don’t believe that all human beings have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we need to send missionaries to the ends of the earth to be fishers of democracy. What the Romanians need, what all sinful men in this world need, is to hear the truth of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to learn the freedom that is only found in Him, to see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. God opened my eyes to see so many ways He has blessed me that I take for granted every single day. When I saw the Romanians and especially the Gypsies and observed their lifestyles- they have nothing and want for nothing- I was appalled at my own selfish discontent with what I have and where the Lord has me. That is a lesson I need to be taught again and again at the start of each day. He has redefined my concept of “needs.” On this project, He opened my eyes a little wider, to see the different mindset we have as Americans. We are so prone to thinking that we are entitled to certain things. It has been ingrained in our minds that we have these unalienable rights. But the Bible tells us that we’re sinners and the wages of our sin is death. If we have anything good in our lives at all, it’s all by God’s mercy. I think it’s easy to lose sight of that truth when we live in a society that’s constantly telling us we deserve luxury. I am blessed beyond measure to be able to see people who have virtually nothing thanking God for what He has given them, and deeply convicted when I see how much God has given me and how little I thank Him for it. It puts my life quite radically in perspective.
I have been studying the Romanian language for seven months now. Somehow, by His amazing grace and power, He gave me both the ability and the opportunity to share my testimony in Romanian. We did a lot of door-to-door witnessing in several different villages, some Romanian and some Gypsy, which is a rather stark contrast. I met so many people, even among the believers, who felt like they could not have assurance of salvation because of the weight of their sin. We know that if this were true, if we could actually commit a sin that God could not forgive, then the cross of Christ would be insufficient and God sent his only Son to die for nothing. On the other hand, I think we often forget how ugly and detestable our sin really is in the eyes of our holy and perfect God. If only I could stretch my mind and wrap it around both concepts simultaneously, and spend my life rejoicing and praising God for His great love and abundant grace towards a wretch like me. It makes me wonder how big God must be and how great His mercy.
I met a woman in a gypsy village. Her name was Stana Maria. When my friends and I asked her if she had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, her tone became very violent and she told us that she refused to pray to God anymore. When we asked why, she replied that God didn’t answer her prayers, so she prayed to Satan and he gave her what she wanted. She laughed as we tried to tell her the truth of the gospel; she disputed the truth of God’s word and refused to accept its inerrancy. She scoffed when we told her that God sent his only Son to the world to pay the penalty for her sin. She became very grave and told us that she did not believe that God could forgive her for what she had done. I had felt that way before, I had spent a long time struggling with the truth that Christ’s death on the cross paid for ALL my sin- past, present, and future- and no sin is too great for Him to forgive. I shared with her what God has done in my life, how “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost,” and if He could forgive me, I knew He could forgive her. Through tears, she confessed her sin and prayed with us that God would forgive her and help her. The things she confessed were shocking and real, and God opened my eyes to see that my sin, no matter how seemingly small it is in my own eyes, is just as offensive in His. “For God shows no partiality.” I am eternally grateful for that lesson. I pray for that woman every day, I will never forget her. I can’t wait to go back to Romania and see how God has changed her and how He has grown the seeds that were sown in the freezing snow and rain on that cold day in November.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” –Ephesians 3:20-21

In Sunday School we are going through the "2 Ways to Live" evangelism tract. Each week we are studying one of the 6 points presented in the tract. You can view "2 Ways to Live" by clicking on the link at the bottom of our church's homepage. Or you can pick up one of these tracts in the lobby of our church.
But here's how I want to encourage you during the Christmas season. Take a moment to think about some ways that you can turn your conversations toward Christ. There are probably some family members and friends whom you rarely see, but you will spend time with them this month. Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel. Maybe you could use an evangelistic tract like "2 Ways to Live." Or you could open the Bible and read the Christmas story.
When you have a chance to share what Christianity is all about, I suggest talking about it in this way. Start with God and His holiness. Then discuss the problem of sin and the punishment for sin. Once a person understands his/her predicament as a sinner, the sacrificial, substitutionary death of Jesus Christ will then make sense. And finally, a person needs to repent of sin and trust in Jesus to receive His forgiveness.
May God give us joy in this Gospel, and may our joy in Him be contagious!

“Three Rivers Grace Church exists to delight in the beauty of God’s greatness, to proclaim the truth of God’s Word, and to ignite a joyful passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ among all the peoples of Pittsburgh and the world.”

“Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!” (Psalm 67:3).

Practical goals for moving toward the fulfillment of statement 3 in our mission statement: “to ignite a joyful passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ among all the peoples of Pittsburgh and the world.”

Larger Vision: We want to initiate a larger vision for reaching Pittsburgh with the God-centered, biblical Gospel that we know and love.

Small Groups: One main component of this vision is our small group ministry. Our hope is that these groups will edify believers, invite and welcome unbelievers, and minister to practical needs. We also hope that new leaders will emerge from these groups who can then lead other groups. Lord willing, these groups will multiply, and we will establish groups in more and more areas of the city and the surrounding area.

Downtown Venue: Another component of this vision is finding a location in downtown Pittsburgh where we can hold our Sunday morning service each week.
Considerations in choosing a location (in no particular order):
1) City-Center: We want it to be a place that puts us in the closest proximity to as many neighborhoods as possible.
2) Accessibility: Is it a place that people will be able to drive to easily (and find parking) or use public transportation to get to? Also a consideration is accessibility in winter months.
3) Cost – approximately $25,000 per year is what we have budgeted for 2008.
4) Logistics and labor: We recognize the work load involved in setting up and tearing down each week. Our hope is that God will lead us to a place that will minimize this (e.g., storage space on the premises, an auditorium that is already equipped with seating and sound system, classrooms that are easily converted to SS rooms and nursery, etc.).

City-center vs. Neighborhood: Our prayer is that God will allow us to impact the many neighborhoods and peoples of Pittsburgh. To do this, we want to establish small groups in the various neighborhoods of the city, and meet corporately on Sunday mornings in downtown. Thus, it is a two-fold vision: meeting throughout the city in small groups, meeting corporately in city-center.

We need more leaders and volunteers: We will need more leaders and volunteers to accomplish something like this. There are many new faces at Grace Church, and new members. Moving forward with this vision will require the involvement and commitment of these new individuals and families.