Standing in the Gap

Talk about standing in the gap. Let me tell you about a little church in the town of Monticello, Utah. Monticello, Utah sits at the intersection of two highways 191 & 491 Until just a couple years ago it sat at the intersection of 191 & 666 someone finally had the foresight to change the name of one of the highways. Obviously the name doesn’t pronounce judgment on anything but in this case I do believe it was incredibly prophetic. Let me tell you a couple other points of interest about this town. Being in Utah it is of no surprise that it is heavily Mormon. However it is a surprise to me at least that the Bishops thought it an important enough stronghold to build a temple. Not only this but the Indian population in the area is very strong as well. With the heavy Indian population you also find quite a bit of witchcraft. Put those two things together and you have a town that is under some pretty heavy oppression. You also have a town that I believe God finds very important and is fighting for. It’s a battle ground for what they call the “Four Corners” the area that 4 different states come together CO, UT, AZ, NM. To show you just how important this little church is it runs the only radio station in town. A few years ago when they had decided to build a Mormon temple in town Pastor John received a phone call from someone simply telling him they needed a radio station and he would file the papers for a permit. Out of 180 some applications for special grant permits that year First Baptist was one of five that received a permit. Next they needed to build a tower. No one knew anything about how to build a tower or had any money to buy the equipment. Suddenly an old radio man appears and donates everything they need for the tower just things he had collected over the years. None of it was built for this purpose but it works. John designed and drew out the plans for the tower pad (Remember he has no experience) He sent them in for approval and they passed the inspector was surprised when he found an engineer didn’t draw them out. Finally 2 years later the station is up and they find the extra strain on their electric bill ($75 a month more) was stretching them too thin out of the blue a radio station a few miles away wants to bounce their signal off of the churches tower and pays them rent of $500 a month. The extra gives them money to buy equipment to do the job right. Out of the blue a man and his brother come for a visit and the brother gets a calling to stay and run the station. Rhett gets it to a professional sound but they have few listeners. Rhett has a passion for football and asks if he can broadcast the high schools games suddenly they have a following. Now the station is central to everything in the town. Pastor John Runs the political debates, they broadcast the city council meetings this station has become central to the community. Oh did I forget to tell you that the Bishop in town has told the members to not listen to the station? Guess what that did… You bet suddenly the listenership increased. What’s funny is they never set out a plan to do this. It’s clear God wanted it and he got it. This community that is against Christianity looks to the church because it’s the best option for them. The airwaves are saturated with God. How awesome is that? Now let me tell you about their newest passion. A group of men has begun taking fatherless boys out into the wild once a month and teaching them wilderness survival skills. Not only do they do this but they parallel the lessons with stories of how they relate to Christ. It’s really cool to hear about. Now they have a dream and an opportunity. There is a wilderness camp that has been offered to them for purchase and it just happens to be beside a members ranch. It is their dream to be able to open this up for boys every week. Partnering with churches that have men standing by to be mentors to these young men. I wish I could describe the program more clearly but can you imagine boys from across the country coming to this camp living the life boys dream of. Learning to rough it, to live off the land having instructors pointing out to them “See this horse and all the power it has. See how it is controlled yet at any moment could break lose. That is what it means to be meek. You have power it’s time to learn to control that power.” (One very tiny example of the types of lessons they teach the boys.) Then sending them home to their mentors that are aware of the lessons they were just taught and pick it up from there. They are at the beginning of this journey and they currently feel overwhelmed diving into a whole realm of issues. That tells me it’s God sized dreaming.

I haven’t given you an assignment this week just a bunch of stories or little lessons God has pointed out to me this past week. So here it is your assignment for the week. I ask you to pray for this church this little sanctuary in the middle of a war zone. Ask that God continue to bless their efforts in the community (Pastor John works in the hospital just so he can form relationships in the community.) That he continue to bless and grow the radio station. That the town begin to open up to hearing about Christ not just using the church. And that God show them the clear next steps to fulfilling this most recent dream. (I know he will as it is clearly him that has placed it on their hearts and already opened small doors. But lets pray for it all the same.)

I hope you’re having a great week Gang and once again Lets live it Upside Down!