WhosKnocking - Hillview Community Church

"Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.

Rev. 3:20 NLT

Who's Knocking ?

After the recent death of my mother I was helping my father sort through some old books. We spent quite some time that day just reminiscing about the past, mostly of his youth and his time in the war and the CCC Camps. We were looking through old books and piles of old photos when we came across a bible. This was the bible that I remember my father using as we went to church in my youth. The pages are now brittle and brown and the binding is gone but I still quickly leafed through the first pages to make sure that the picture was still there. It is about the only thing that I can still remember about those days in church when I was young. I remember sitting, half asleep, next to my father with my head resting on his arm and staring at that picture of Jesus knocking on the door. I felt so safe and secure there with my father next to me while sitting in the Lord's house. I would wonder "Who's door is this?", "Why did He pick this door?" and "How long will He continue knocking if they don't open the door?".

Isn't it a wonderful thing that Jesus is persistent and He will keep on knocking at our door even though we pretend not to hear Him? Shortly into my teen years I left the church because it wasn't the "cool" thing to do and besides it just wasn't very macho. In the years that followed as I was maturing and raising a family I pretended not to hear those knocks. I ignored those knocks for at least 20 years and then one day I decided to open that door and there he was - Jesus was waiting for me. He wasn't angry that I waited so long to answer His knock, in fact He was delighted that I answered it and that is when He asked me to join Him as friends. Now that I have grown to be close to my friend, Jesus, I can tell you that I am sad about all those years that I made Him wait for me to answer those knocks. It really would have been "cool" to walk with Jesus for all those years.

If you have not answered Jesus' knock - What are you waiting for? You are missing out on meeting the dearest friend that you have ever known. And don't worry if He has been knocking for many years - He still wants to walk with you.

When you hear the knock - Answer the door !!

JAF

Think Big

by John Place

    It was a cold winter morning when the men met for breakfast at Tom Fredette's home on Van Buren Road. The project for the day was to travel to Speculator, NY to obtain pews from a closed Baptist church, return them to Hillview and install them in the white building for church the next morning.
    After breakfast, John Edwards, Tom Fredette and John Place took off for the church in Speculator. Brad Benton and Dick Pilbeam went to Hertz Truck Rental to get the truck. When they got to the rental place, there was no 12 foot rental truck available as they had requested. No problem, they would take the 14 foot truck that was available.
    Late, they started off in the truck for Speculator, but did not count on this truck breaking down on the thruway outside of Syracuse. They called for help and the rental company sent a tow truck to return them to Syracuse to pick up another truck. This time there was only a 16 foot truck available.
    Meanwhile, Tom, John and John shoveled their way into the church and unbolted all the pews. After a two hour delay, the truck arrived. The pews were all loaded to the limit of the 16 foot truck. All the pews would not have fit in the 12 or 14 foot truck.

We must think big enough and trust God enough to fill our lives with more than we expect for ourselves.

An end to "this" Africa story

I have returned from Africa (Swaziland) and am completely sold on the idea that we as a nation must become more involved with missionary work in Africa, in general and Swaziland in particular. As you have read prior to this epilogue, I was called by God Himself (it had to be Him as I certainly wouldn't have gotten out of my comfort zone without His impetus) to go and find out for myself what I had only heard about from others. I met some of the most beautiful people in Swaziland. They were warm and extremely hospitable. For 4 days our team (Team 37) were involved in planting gardens of spinach, beet root, onions, and cabbage. The total number of gardens planted by the 350+ of us that went over for the 10 days exceeded 65000. We worshipped with our Pastor's church on Sunday and were treated to a production of dances performed by the people with whom we worked to plant their gardens. We saw the devastation perpetrated on families by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This scourge has killed off many of the adults (mothers and fathers)of tens of thousands of children in Swaziland alone. It is estimated that by 2010 more than 12 percent of the total population ( currently 1,000,000 persons) of Swaziland will be infected with HIV. continued below:

What have I learned? I have learned that we have a continent of people that need resources that will bring potable water to their villages. I have also learned that we, that have so much, are content to ignore the plight of millions of people who wish to be employed and have jobs commensurate with their skills. I have also learned that Africa has an untapped labor market that can be trained to be as productive as any here in the U.S. Finally, I have learned that the people in Swaziland are no different than those of us in the US. We have been extremely fortunate to have been born in a country of plenty. We have also had the opportunity to be educated in schools that we take for granted so that we can go as far as we have the initiative to take us. The Swazis also are ambitious, but they are hindered with a lack of education and training. They cry out for the world's help but very little is being done. I encourage all of you who read this to take the opportunity to go to one of the countries in Africa and then I challenge you not to be changed by the experience. May God work His magic and bless some of you to go and do His work. Brad

At times in our lives, much like Peter, we are called by the Lord to step out of the boat.

Brad's Mission

by Bradley Benton

One Sunday in the end of April I was hit when I was watching The Crystal Cathedral on television. Bruce Wilkinson was speaking about his faith based humanitarian organization, Dream for Africa.. He was speaking of the fact that Swaziland in South Africa has the highest rates of HIV in the continent. Unfortunately, he continued, the peoples immune systems were so compromised that even medicine that has a high rate of arresting the advance of the disease can kill them. Bruce then said that he spoke with the World Health Organization and our own Center for Desease Control who told him that the only way to help wqas to help the people to build up their immune systems. This could be done by planting vegetables like cabbage and spinach. Thus Bruce's organization was born and his passion instilled in me a disire to help however I could. Never let it be said that an evangelist would ever let this opportunity go and he stated that his goal was to build 10,000 gardens and to realize this he needed help. The Lord had just taken a giant step in converting a person who, in the past, had stated that ..."mission begins at home." So, to make a very long and emotional story short, I applied to become part of a group to go to Swaziland in August of this year. I am currently in the process of getting all of the mundane things in order to make sure that I will be there in August. May God continue to bless me in this endeavor.