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Brothers and sisters,

Earlier this summer I had an opportunity to meet with a couple of the leaders over at World Relief Durham (WRD). The reason for the meeting was simple. WRD had a new Development Specialist, Megan Wylie, and she was interested in learning about how our church partners with WRD to help refugees.

We set up a time to meet—myself, Megan, and the director of WRD, Adam Clark—and went to get coffee at Joe Van Gogh. Over the course of an hour, the three of us sat and chatted with each other about all kinds of things. We talked about how Hope House came to be. We talked about Megan’s recent move to NC and about sports. Then we talked about some of the broader things happening at Hope Valley, with our main topic of discussion being Super Saturday Adventures.

Then, she asked, “Is there anything that we can plan to do together—Hope Valley and WRD?” To which I said, “I’d love to get some kind of fellowship event planned with y’all. A night where you all can come to Hope Valley and talk about the work you do with refugees. And, of course, since it’s a Baptist church we’d have something to eat!” Megan and Adam liked the idea and mentioned that one of our former Hope House residents would be in town in August. They asked if he could come and be a part of this event as well. I happily agreed.

Within the last week, those plans have finally come together. On this coming Wednesday night, August 14th, we will be having a fellowship event with World Relief Durham starting at 6:30 pm over in the Fellowship Hall. We will be serving hors d’oeuvres and small desserts and offering a time of fellowship. Then, World Relief Durham will give a presentation on their work and how they help refugees here in the Triangle. We will also hear testimony from John (Odette’s son) whose family stayed with us in Hope House for over a year. Finally, time-permitting, WRD is open to a time of questions and answers, wrapping up around 7:20 pm.

I think this will be a wonderful night of fellowship together as a church, but also a wonderful opportunity for us to meet with one of our strongest community partners. Also, having talked some with John this past Saturday, I think his testimony about how Hope House helped set him up for success will be uplifting for us all. I hope you will make plans to join us on the 14th!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

It is that time of the year again — time to nominate and elect Deacons! You’ll notice that the Deacon nomination form has been included in this week’s Illuminator. I would encourage everyone to take some time to think and pray about who you would like to nominate to serve as a Deacon here at Hope Valley. Consider the people you know at our church and how their gifts line up with the mission of the Deacon Board – to provide pastoral care and leadership to the members of our church.

At its best, church is about all of us coming together to care for one another, walk alongside each other, pray for each other, and build community together. Church is never about any one person doing everything. It has always been and should always be a collaboration among all of us. We see several places throughout the scripture where various leaders of our faith realize they cannot go it alone. Jethro encourages Moses to appoint judges (Exodus 18:13-23). The apostle realize they need help in order to preach the gospel and take care of the people (Acts 6:1-6). In his various letters, Paul makes mention of deacons serving the people of the church faithfully, with perhaps the most famous one being Phoebe in Cenchreae (Romans 16:1-2). These leaders of our faith looked to others as partners as they sought to faithfully follow God’s will.

That is the primary function of the Deacons — to partner with the Pastor and other leaders within the church to care for our congregation and help us faithfully follow God’s will. If you know of someone who you think would do a good job leading and serving in this way, I would encourage you to speak to them, tell them the gifts you see in them, and see if they would be willing to be nominated for a position as a Deacon. Or if you yourself feel God calling you to step into this leadership role, I would encourage you to speak to another church member about that and see if they would be willing to nominate you. As always, I would counsel everyone to listen for God’s voice in this process and seek to follow God’s will.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

That’s not a typo. Have you ever “fallen down a rabbit hole” on the Internet? What I mean by that is, have you ever
been on the Internet—reading an article, a story, or watching a video—and you get really interested in it, so you keep clicking more and more links related to it? Eventually, you look
up and an hour or two has gone by and you think, “How on earth did I get here? And where did the time go?!”

I recently “fell down a rabbit hole” while on Google Maps. The thing that prompted it was a very simple question, “Where do people actually live in Greenland?” A whop-
ping 75% of the country’s land mass is covered by a think sheet of ice. The only habitable places are along the coastlines. Even there, life is harsh for most of the year. Because
of that harsh climate, there aren’t many people living in Greenland. Nuuk, the nation’s capital and most populated city, has only 19,872 people, but that makes up a third of the
entire country’s population. Their most populated city has fewer people than Elizabeth City, NC. Chapel Hill has more people than all of Greenland!

But that’s not what I wanted to write about this week. See, if you take some time to browse the Street View images in some of the little villages on the western coast of Greenland, you will see some stunning images. Greenland is a
harsh climate, yes, but my goodness is it beautiful! You can actually get a “Street View” from a boat that has motored out into the bay near the town of Kangerluk, allowing you to see snowcapped mountains all around. Or, if you go to the town of Qaanaaq, you can plop the little Google Maps guy on the beachfront and look out over a bay of glaciers.

Qaanaaq, by the way, holds the distinction of being the northernmost “major town” in Greenland—a bustling metropolis of 646 people. It is the fifth northernmost “public settlement” in the world. Most of the folks in the
town make their living either through hunting or fishing (narwhals, walruses, seals, etc.), with Qaanaaq being so isolated the people have to use every part of any animal they kill. They also deal with “midnight suns”—that is, twenty-
four hours of sunlight—from the middle of April until the end of August. And their average temperature for the entire year is 16 degrees!

In going down this “rabbit hole,” I kept thinking to myself, “My goodness, this is just a whole other world! It’s beautiful but it seems so unforgiving.” And I sat back and marveled at how different life must be in a place like Qaanaaq. I marveled at the creativity of God, the beauty of everything I saw. But, I felt so disconnected—until…

If you go to Google Maps and you go to Qaanaaq, you’ll see that there’s one supermarket in town. If you click on that supermarket’s name, Google will offer to show you sixteen pictures of the inside of the market. If you do that, you can see what they sell. And would you like to know what hot sauce the Qaanaaq Supermarket sells? The pride of North Carolina—Texas Pete! Y’all, we are far more connected than we could ever imagine. The people of Qaanaaq, Greenland live very different lives from you and me. Yet, the same God created them. The same God loves them. And I hope that the next time you reach for some Texas Pete to spice up your dinner, you’ll remember your brothers and sisters in Qaanaaq and the God that connects us all.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben