Pastor's Page

Almost every week, Pastor Garrett writes an article for our church bulletin.  Here are the last four articles, reprinted for you to read. 

(If you would like to discuss these issues with him, please drop an email, or give him a call.  He would be glad to interact with you more personally.)

You probably know that this has been a challenging week for me. Although I was not expecting it, when I saw my retinal doctor on Monday, he recommended surgery for my left eye to repair a retinal tear that has been developing over the last few weeks. All along it seemed that it could be controlled by indirect laser treatment, he finally decided that there was too much bleeding in the eye and there were too many places that he could not see. Thus we needed to remove the fluid and contaminates in the eye and allow for a direct laser repair on the retina. The surgery was done last Wednesday and I have been recovering at home since then. 

Since eyes don’t have a lot of pain sensors, my main struggle has been to lay in the right position for the detachment to help properly. I have to sit in a reclining position 45 minutes out of every hour. I also have to keep up on medicine applied to my eye 3 times a day. It is really not very hard, except that I cannot drive, lift, shovel, or do other kinds of strenuous activities. It is very hard for me to lay in the recliner and watch Karon and Michel do the work around the house – especially snow shoveling.

Thanks so much for your prayers for me. I am hoping that at the next doctor’s appointment (Thursday) I will be released to do more of those things – maybe even driving. The real goal however, is to recover my vision in the left eye. If that means I need to curtail my activities more, then I need to sacrifice those short term activities for the long term goal.

That is the spiritual lesson I have been thinking about. Short term sacrifices to achieve long term goals. The new year is a good time to think about long term goals, especially spiritual ones. For example, would you be willing to sacrifice Monday nights for 15 weeks to get a deep and thorough understanding of the Old Testament? An understanding that would help you for the rest of your life? If so, then sign up for the DBSTL class, OT Survey to begin Jan 18. 

Maybe you need to fast one meal a week (or that specialize coffee you enjoy) giving time for prayer or money for missions. Long term prayer and giving will accomplish a lot more than the meal you miss.

Take a lesson from my surgery recovery. Make some sacrifices for your spiritual health that will pay long term benefits. Want to talk more about this, give me a call. I can visit with you on the phone while I obey doctors orders to stay on my back so my eye can heal. I would be thrilled to talk with you more about your spiritual growth!

Your Pastor,

Dude Garrett

Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them. 

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It’s so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we’re going and where we should be going. 

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

In addition to these ten questions, here are twenty-one more to help you “Consider your ways.” Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month. 

11. What’s the most important decision you need to make this year?

12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way you could simplify in that area?

13. What’s the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?

14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?

15. Who is the person you most want to encourage this year?

16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?

17. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?

18. What’s one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?

19. What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?

20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?

21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?

22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year? 

23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?

24. What’s the most important trip you want to take this year?

25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?

26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?

27. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?

28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?

29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?

30. What’s the most important new item you want to buy this year?

31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn’t considered the question.

If you’ve found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace—in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc.—where you can review them more frequently than once a year. 

So let’s evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage” (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let’s also remember our dependence on our King who said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Copyright © 2003 Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved.

For more short, reproducible pieces like this, see www.BiblicalSpirituality.org

There are several things going on that you might want updated…let me try to answer your questions…

#1 – Pastor Lon and Kheng arrived safely in Wichita this week as Hiep, Eng and Nick helped them move. Here is a quick report from Pastor Lon:

Thursday Kheng and I were doing laundry.  I asked the owner where he was from.  He said from Vietnam.  I then told him Kheng was from Cambodia.  I left Kheng to work on the house. The man introduced himself to Kheng in Khmer.  He said he is Khmer Krom.  When I returned we talked at length about things.  He also said Khmer of Cambodia and Vietnam do laundry there on the weekends.  So we will get to meet more.  His wife is Vietnamese.

As you can see, God has already put Lon and Kheng in contact with new 3K people there. We need to pray that those contacts will bare eternal fruit and that lives will be drawn to Jesus.

#2 – Many have asked how my eye is doing. This past month I have had 2 retinal tears in my left eye. As a result I have had 3 laser treatments by the retinal doctor. I am very thankful that the appointment last Monday did not result in more extensive surgery. So far, the tears seem to have responded to the laser treatment properly. I go back for a check tomorrow and I hope the doctor will not discover any further need for treatment. Thanks so much for praying. Although somewhat blurry, I anticipate that my vision will eventually clear and be close to normal. 

#3 – At our business meeting last Sunday, the church voted to balance our 2009 spending by taking some designated funds from the Audrey Dyer Global Vision fund and transferring it to the General fund. These were funds designated by the church body over the last three years and so our church body can appropriately reallocate that designation. The amount moved was about $2,700. 

We also voted to postpone our budget discussion and adoption until Jan 31. During the month of January, the Finance Committee is asking church members to give concerted prayer to our financial decisions and also to our personal giving. 

#4 – Finally, in thinking about the new year, I discovered a great article by Don Whitney. I have reprinted it for you in the bulletin. May God use it to help us grow spiritually and significantly in 2010. Want to discuss it? Give me a call!

Your Pastor,

Dude Garrett

As most are aware, Pastor Lon and Kheng will be moving to Wichita, KS for a year of outreach and ministry to Khmer people there. This move has come as a direct result of our church commitment to the Khmer Kampuchea Krom people. This unreached people group whose homeland is in southern Vietnam has been the focus of Lon and Kheng’s ministry for the last several years. This move to Wichita is a continued extension of that ministry and our church commitment to the 3K people.

Over the last several years, Lon and Kheng have ministered to Khmer Krom people in many areas. They have traveled to southeast Asia; they have worked with 3K people here in our metro area; they have connected with families in Pelican Rapids, MN; and they have worked with Cambodian and Vietnamese believers in the Twin Cities area. All that opened the door to travel to Wichita, KS and build relationships with Cambodian and Vietnamese families there too. Because of the receptivity and opportunity, Lon and Kheng have felt God's leadership to move to Wichita for a year to continue the outreach and discipleship begun there.

Their actual move is planned for tomorrow, Dec. 28. Hiep and Eng are going with them to help. If all goes as planned, Lon and Kheng will load a few of their things this afternoon and leave tomorrow. Please pray for this move and the safety of all involved.

God has provided Kheng a job in Wichita, working in tailoring as she does here in Fargo. They also have a place to live rent free for at least the first six months. Although they do not have all the details about ministry there, their goal is to reachout to Khmer people, disciple believers, and plant a vision for ministry that reaches around the world. 

Today we have a formal commissioning time for Lon and Kheng. As we commit them to the Lord in the spirit of Acts 13 and Paul’s first missionary journey, we will entrust them to the Lord and send them off. As they are away from us, if you would like to know more about the Wichita ministry, or be involved in any way, please contact Pastor Lon. He continues as the Mission Pastor of our church and as a missionary to the 3K people. Lon and Kheng are us! They need our prayer, our financial support, and our love as they stretch the boundaries of our ministry farther than ever before. 

“So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” (Acts 13:3)

Today is our first snowy weekend of the 2009-2010 winter season. It came right along with record snowfall on Christmas. Each year when bad weather strikes, there is always the question of canceling church services. So, let me address this issue and give you some advice. 

First of all, we are very slow to actually cancel our Sunday Morning Worship. Most of the time, I can make it to the church building, so even if we have only a few, usually we can have some kind of worship/Bible study time. Since we are small, if you have questions about our schedule, you can always call. Call the church phone, or call my cell phone (701-261-0931). Even if every family who attends our church called, it would not be a burden. If in doubt, please call.

However, just because we do not cancel our services, it does not mean that we expect you to come. Our bad weather policy has always been to encourage people to make their own the decision about coming to church services. There can be good reasons for staying home on Sunday during a winter storm or blizzard.

The one big reason is safety. Especially if you have young children who would be at greater risk if your trip to church ended in s snow bank along the road, I would recommend staying home. If, for any reason you feel your personal safety is at risk, I encourage you to stay home. No one here, especially me, will think ill of you, nor will we question your judgment. 

On the other hand, there is something very special about getting together in unique situations. Bad weather or blizzards often change our plans and we can be flexible and do unique things in these special situations. When that happens, it makes for great memories. In fact, this is true even if you stay home. You can make a special memory for your family by having family worship together in a snow storm.

There is one other issue, namely the requests of public safety officials. If community or police officials ask for no travel across our metro area, then I would ask that you respect those requests. 

In the end, it is always important to remember that our Heavenly Father is in charge, even in charge of bad weather. When we stop long enough to remember this truth, it helps us to have a good attitude in every situation. In fact, I am sure there is a BLESSING in every blizzard. Be sure to look for it!

Your Pastor,

Dude Garrett