Philippi

Well, Paul is off on another trip.  But this trip has more terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days then terrific, wonderful, very good days!  Before the trip even began, Paul and Barnabas had a HUGE argument.  Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them.  But Paul said John Mark lost his chance when he deserted them on the last missions trip.  So Barnabas took John Mark and sailed for the island of Cyprus.  Now Paul needed to find a new partner.  He chose a man named Silas.

Paul wanted to visit the new Christians in the cities he had previously visited, so they set off for Derbe and Lystra.  When they got to Lystra, Paul met a young man named Timothy who was a believer.  Paul was so impressed with this young man, he asked him to join them on their trip.  Timothy agreed.

After encouraging the Christians in Iconomia and Pisidian Antioch, Paul decided to go to the region of Asia.  But God, the Holy Spirit, told Paul, "NO!"  Next Paul tried to go north.  Again the Holy Spirit told Paul, "NO!"  By this time they had run out of land.  But at night, Paul had a dream of a man begging them to come to Macedonia.  When Paul shared his dream with Silas and Timothy, they all agreed that God wanted them in Macedonia.  So they boarded a boat.

Once they arrived in Macedonia, they traveled to Philippi, the leading city in the area.  Here they found NO synagogue.  (This meant there were very few Jews living in this city.)  But they did hear that people would gather at the river to pray.  So on the Sabbath, they went to the river and found . . . only some women.  Although Paul must have been disappointed, he shared the Gospel (good news of Jesus) with them.  Lydia, a business women, believed their message and put her trust in Jesus.  She then invited them to stay at her home while they were in Philippi.

So far, Philippi had been a disappointment.  Yet, Paul and Silas continued to share the Gospel with whoever would listen.  Soon, wherever they would go a slave girl would follow them.  This slave girl was controlled by a demon (a follower of Satan, God's enemy).  This demon allowed the slave girl to tell people their fortune.  She earned A LOT of money for her masters in this way.  Anyway,  she began to follow Paul and Silas.  As she followed she would yell, "THESE MEN FOLLOW THE MOST HIGH GOD.  THEY CAN TELL YOU HOW TO BE SAVED."

After days of this, Paul got annoyed and commanded the evil spirit to leave the girl in Jesus' name.  Immediately the spirit left.  But the day just got worst for Paul and Silas.  When the slave girls masters discovered she could no longer tell people their fortune.  They grabbed Paul and Silas and accused them of teaching against the Roman law.  Soon a mob joined them.

The town officials decided to beat Paul and Silas and cast them into jail.    The jailer put them into the center most cell and put their hands and feet into chains.  Paul and Silas was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!

Yet Paul and Silas remembered all that God had done for them.  He directed them to Philippi.  He loved them so much that He sent Jesus to die for their sins.  He was even with them in that cell.  So Paul and Silas spent the evening and night praying and singing praised to God.  They were so loud in their praises that all the other prisoners could hear them.

Suddenly at midnight, there was an earthquake.  The prison's doors flew open and everyone's chains fell off.  Yet, no one ran to freedom.  The jailer seeing the prison's doors open assumed everyone had fled.  He know he would be killed for letting the prisoners escape.  So he decided to kill himself.   Paul and Silas stop him and inform him that everyone is still there.  When the jailer sees that all the prisoners are accounted for, he asked them, "What must I do to be saved?"

"Believe on the Lord Jesus."  they answered.  Immediately, the Jailer (and his family) believed.  Paul and Silas baptized them.  Then the jailer took care of Paul and Silas' wounds and fed them.

Later that morning, the town officials sent a message telling the jailer to release Paul and Silas.  They realized that they had not broken any Roman law.  Before Paul, Silas and Timothy left Philippi, they went to Lydia's house and encouraged them to live for Jesus.

If you have believed in Jesus as your Savior, you too can rejoice in your terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days AND on your wonderful, magnificent, very good days!  Just remember who God is and what He has done for you in the past.  Then rejoice!

The pictures of Week 3 are few.  My photographer (Joy) is on a mission's trip in Mexico.  But here is what I have!

 This week for crafts, we made Paul's traveling Buddies out of bead, straws and pipe cleaners.  They could choose to make either a Mohawk Boy and a Colorful Haired Girl. 

One girl came into my Newmanstown group excited to make a Traveling Buddy.  Apparently, she was meet with a friend who comes to my Campbelltown group.  She saw what we made in Campbelltown and couldn't wait to make one herself! 





















We learned a new song this week.

We played more gaga ball.  I am so sore from playing this game.  This game was definately NOT made for adults.  It was so hot on Wednesday evenings that at one point only us four adults were playing.  All the kids were laying on the grass under the shade. 

We also played Octopus Tag and Tail Tag.  Since ii rained AGAIN on Thursday evening, we played Mennonite Madness and Tenzie instead of a tag game.