Iron Man 2009 Missions

Greetings from Lake Placid, NY! As I write this, over 2000 Iron Man athletes have already begun their day-long race consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run. Jackie and I have been working with North Country Ministries this week to serve, pray for, and witness to the athletes through the many venues their mission team has planned. It's been a great week so far with lots going on, including a lot of service evangelism opportunities. I don't have time to cover everything right now, but I wanted to share a few thoughts and encouragements that have struck me this week as we have served here...
This week has been an example to me of the importance of being intentional in our evangelism. North Country Ministries (NCM) operates in this Iron Man venue as a small group of volunteers among thousands of other volunteers. This isn't what some might think of as a typical mission trip where you have planned outings, the sole purpose of which is to go witness to people. Instead, NCM has found their specific place in this annual event and they are very much appreciated by believers and non-believers alike for the services they offer (often times something as basic volunteering at athlete registration or giving out free snowcones at the family venues). It is through this intentional servant-hood attitude that they have created opportunites to share the gospel, encouraging and teaching all of their volunteers to make connections and share Christ whenever possible. It's simple and it's exciting to see it at work. The most encouraging thing, however, is that this type of evangelism is available to all of us; we just have to look and pray for opportunities to serve others and ask God to help us make connections and share the gospel with them.
Well, time flies. I must go for now as I'm leading worship at Lake Placid Baptist Church this morning so that their music minister can go participate on the race course. Before I go however, let me encourage you...be aware of the opportunities that you have individually and that we have as a church body to practice servant-hood evangelism. The Christian life is all about worshiping God and making disciples of Christ. Let's be intentional in both of these areas.

Anthony