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Brothers and sisters,

I’ve already mentioned this, but a few months ago I signed up for a tennis drills class through the Raleigh Parks department. Over the last six or so weeks, I’ve ridden over twice a week to get back into playing tennis. The whole experience has been fun, but the other night we had a lesson that struck a chord with me.

See, most of the class is relatively new to playing tennis, meaning we spend a lot of time on basic stuff. A lot of that is taught through just getting out there and hitting the ball. But tennis can be frustrating because it’s really hard to consistently hit shots. There are a lot of little things that you have to combine into one fluid motion. And sometimes coaches don’t do a good job of explaining all those little things. They use vague “tennis language” instead. Even something as simple as, “Give me a forehand” can be tough.

Let me break down what all goes into hitting a routine forehand. First, you have to see what direction your opponent hit the ball. Then, you have to run to the general vicinity of the ball. Once there, ideally, you split-step, make micro-adjustments to your footwork, and turn your shoulders. Next, your racquet must go back and drop to about waist-height. As the ball gets closer, you then shift your weight forward onto your front foot, twist your torso to create torque, bring your arm forward in a low-to-high motion, make contact with the ball long enough to drive it where you want it to go, flick your wrist to give it a little spin so it stays in play, and follow through to complete that spin and reset your body for the next shot, which will be coming in two to three seconds! If any of that is off, you’ll hit a bad shot and/or a shot you didn’t mean to hit.

Well, the other night, our coach asked everyone to hit three forehands to three different spots on the court. Everyone tried and most struggled, since they are new to the game. But rather than get frustrated with us, coach stopped and broke down each individual part of hitting a forehand—every part. And we practiced each individual part. And then we practiced putting them together. And before long, we were all hitting forehands and directing them where we wanted them to go. And he told us, “See? You should never be intimidated by a forehand, cause you’ve seen that you can hit every single part of the shot correctly. You know you can do it cause you’ve already done it!”

In Christianity, I think we can be very good at speaking our own language, saying things like, “Wait on the Holy Spirit’s guidance” or “Discern God’s call in your life” or even, “Repent of your sins.” We can say these things easily enough, but sometimes it’s hard to get down to the specifics. “Ok. I want to wait for the Spirit’s guidance. But what does that mean? How long should I wait? Can I do other things while I wait?” Instead, we would do well to try and break down these concepts into simpler actions. Instead of just “waiting on the Holy Spirit,” read your Bible. Take some time to pray. Come to church. Do things that bring you joy. Allow yourself time to be quiet and sit with your thoughts. And sure enough, you may hear the Spirit speak. By breaking stuff down like that, we need not ever be intimidated by part of our faith. We can do each individual part and then start putting them together. And, before we know it, we can explore more difficult or subtle parts of our faith—cause we’ve already done each part!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

This week’s Illuminator article is pretty straightforward — thank you! Starting on the last Saturday of June, we hosted our annual Super Saturday Adventures. For three Saturdays this summer, we reached out to kids within our community and within our church to tell them one very important message: God loves them very much. I said this on Sunday, but programs like this do not happen unless a lot of people dedicate a lot of time and effort to them. So, thank you!

As for what the kids learned, we used stories that had animals in them to help teach the children about all the various ways that God reaches out to people and loves them. On the first Saturday, they learned about Creation and how all the different animals show how much God loves us. They also learned how we can show our love for God and for the world by taking care of Creation.

On the second Saturday, they learned about Jonah and the Whale. They heard a story where someone didn’t do what God asked them to, but also a story where God still loves that person. It was a lesson for them that God is with us during tough times and will see us through those tough times. With that, they went over and met our newest family in Hope House and learned a little bit about our ministry to refugees.

And last Saturday, they learned about the birth of Jesus and how he was God in the flesh. They learned that God loves us so much, God decided to become a person and walk around with us, and how all the animals came to witness Jesus’ birth. For their final mission project, they decorated some of the Christmas boxes we will be sending to Scarlette Jasper and Olive Brand Ministries this fall and they learned about caring for other people in other places.

Each time these children came to our church, they were taught about God’s love, shown God’s love through the volunteers who came, and were given a chance to participate in our ministries here at Hope Valley. It was a wonderful opportunity made possible, again, by all of you. No matter what you did — being here the days of, planning, praying, prepping, or donating money — know that your contribution helped do the work of God’s kingdom here in Durham. Thank you!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

It’s been a while since I’ve done a recap article here in the Illuminator. In the past, I’ve waited till the end of the year to write about some of the things we’ve done over the previous twelve months. We’re a little over halfway through the year, so this week, I want to remind you all of some of the things that we’ve done in the last few months.

One of our biggest projects was back in April. We participated once again in Operation Inasmuch, a week of service that seeks to live out Jesus’ observation in Matthew 25:40. We put together care packages for struggling people here in Durham. We made Thinking of You bags for members in our church who can’t come as often as they’d like. We cleaned up around our church, making the space more hospitable to everyone who comes through.
One of the projects for Operation Inasmuch was a planned trip to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC. The original volunteer day had to be rescheduled, but we still had folks go and sort food for the disadvantaged in our area. In fact, that project was so popular we have another group going in just a few days!

In May we hosted Jordan High School students as they took their AP tests, providing them a safe, quiet, consistent space to take these tests. All the teachers involved spoke highly to me about our facilities and about the church members they interacted with. It was a great way to be a good neighbor!

In June, we took a church trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art to take in the gifts and talents given to artists by God and to ask ourselves questions about our faith. And, of course, we also started our Super Saturday Adventures for the summer, providing the children in our community with a place to come and learn and fellowship with other people. They’ve learned about God’s love for them in Creation. They’ve learned about God’s love for them in difficult times. And they will continue to learn about God’s love on the 26th of this month!

We’ve done a lot over the last few months and there is even more to do in the coming months! God makes a lot of promises to us in the scriptures. One of them is that, as servants, we have a lot of work to do! But the other wonderful promise God makes is that work will be good, fulfilling, life-giving work. Let us continue to serve our God, draw closer to each other, and be a light for our neighbors!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben