Porch de Salomon

Good Samaritan is proud to support Porch De Salomon Ministries.

Porch de Salomon is a response to God calling a family into a life of love and service in Panajachel, Guatemala. They hope to bring the passion of the first century church to those who live in a 21st century world. In Acts 5, Solomon's Porch is described as a place for the believers to meet and carry out their healing ministries and a sending point for them to take Christ's message into the world.

Please visit their website at www.porchdesalomon.org.

Building A Playground (January 20, 2008)

On January 28, 2007 Good Samaritan United Methodist Church held its first worship service.  It took place in the Florida High School Cafeteria. We began meeting monthly. Then, in September, started a weekly worship service.

Over the past year we have developed a closeness to Florida High School as we continued to use its facilities, transforming the cafeteria into a church on Sunday mornings.

Today, (January 20, 2008) eight days short of having met at the school for a full year it was appropriate as GSUMC continued to build on its own property on Capital Circle that the congregation become a part of the school's building process.  The church members showed up for the morning worship service wearing jeans, sweaters, jackets, boots and other assorted workclothes.  Then after the church service we departed to help build a new playground for the school.

It was a cold day which began with temperatures in the low 30's.  But, the church soon warmed to the work lending its expertise to the construction of various playground structures.  Everyone enjoyed serving together and being a part of something that will be enjoyed for many years in the future.

Pictures of this event may be viewed by clicking on the Online Photo Album.

Preview Worship Service-May 20, 2007

God touched the hearts of the Good Samaritan UMC congregation in a unique way in our May 20^th worship service when he sent His servant from India to visit us.

John Peter Kirubagaran, while working for a paint company had a serious accident. He prayed for the Lord to spare him and promised that he would dedicate his life to the Lord if He did. The result of God's answer to that prayer is having an impact throughout India and was certainly felt strongly in our preview worship service.

John Peter started the United Evangelical Mission of India (UEMI), which is now working in seven states of India and has targeted 21 North Indian states for the future. Their goal is to win India for Jesus, soul by soul, one district at a time. Pastor Betsy Ouellette led a local group on a missionary trip to India in 2006. She and assistant Pastor Erick, a friend of John Peter's for several years, have decided with the backing of Good Samaritan UMC, to include UEMI as one of our approved missions.

In his message John Peter related the dramatic, touching, and heart-warming stories of his experiences in a land that literally worships millions of different gods. Particularly inspiring was his story of the fire god. John Peter had been warned about, and then taken prisoner for preaching the Gospel message. He was tied up and they were about to break his legs when he shouted: "My God will send fire to destroy you!" What he said next was really neat. "They were in trouble, not me!"

So what happened? When his captors heard the words "fire god" they fell to ground, trembling, and begging his forgiveness. A great demonstration of how our mighty God can even use a pseudo-god to achieve his purposes.

The Good Samaritan church members were given an opportunity to sponsor Indian children to insure their well-being and the quality of their up-bringing. Many took the challenge and responded in love to help further God's work in India. Currently we have only 4 children who are awaiting to be sponsored. Thanks be to God!

Special Guest Speaker on Missions

On Sunday, May 20th Good Samaritan UMC will be hosting our friend and ministry partner from India, John Peter Kirubagaran. John Peter is the founder and director of United Evangelical Mission International (UEMI). He will be here this weekend to share his calling to ministry and the work that is being done in India by God through UEMI and its partners.

Good Samaritan UMC has committed to sponsor 70 children in the village of Ambur to help provide them with preschool and before & after school care while their parents are working. Please prayerfully consider sponsoring one or more of these children. A table will be available with more information at the worship service on Sunday.

To learn more about United Evangelical Mission International, visit their website at www.uemi.org.

Brian's Brigade (December 7, 2006)

Have you ever had your hands in 6 lbs of ground beef? Well, we got our chance on Thursday, December 7th as we served 60 residents at the Hope Community off of Pensacola Street. Ardell McGavin and Nancy Stoutamire led the team with menu preparation and supply shopping. Georgia Jordan, Pastor Betsy and Pastor Erick helped with the cooking and we were joined by Matt & Priscilla Brown, Joan Stallings, Tracie Ashley, and Michele Butler who were our servers for the evening. What a great day of serving together!

Brian's Brigade is a ministry of our mother church, Killearn UMC which was started in honor of Brian Tindale. Brian spent his life going the extra mile, caring for those who our society had crossed to the other side of the road and did not help.

To find out more about Brian's Brigade click here.

To find out more about the Hope Community click here.

India 2006 (October 2006)

Getting off the plane at the Frankfurt airport felt like coming home.  In fact, we were only half way home and we were on the continent of Europe, but we were back in the land of "western" toilets and safe water.  After two weeks in India we had learned to do without these luxuries. Before I left home I never dreamed I would put flush toilets in the category of luxury, now I do. Our mission team learned that the things we consider essential are merely superfluous compared to the truly essential.  The one thing that is necessary, indispensable, and essential for life is a relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ.

India is a land of mystery and contradiction.  We visited Bangalore in South India. Bangalore is the Internet Technology center in the country and arguably in the world.  There is extreme wealth juxtaposed with extreme poverty.  There are religious symbols and temples on every corner but only 1% of the 1.2 billion people know the living God. The educational opportunities abound in India producing some of the best engineers, doctors and business professionals in the world.  Yet the majority of the lower caste people have no way out of the poverty that requires them to do break backing labor in the fields, the garbage heaps, and in the factories.  It was primarily to these poorest of the poor that our ministry was directed.  Jesus is still "preaching good news to the poor".

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, that the time of the Lord's favor has come"  Luke 4:18

We worked with young church planters to proclaim the good news.  These young men and women were going into the villages across India and sharing the gospel with God's lost sheep, one family at a time.  Each one is expected to share Christ with 1000 families a year!  It is not unusual for them to begin 12-15 churches in a year.

We had the privilege of visiting some of the village churches.  Over and over again we heard former Hindu people tell of turning to Jesus in time of crisis, in desperation, or simply as an alternative god among many gods, to discover the reality of the Gospel

"Jesus is Lord"!

We conducted free medical clinics and were given the opportunity to pray with those who came. One of the prayer teams was witness to miraculous healings.  As they invited people to call on Jesus and prayed in faith God healed.  A blind woman received her sight, a lame man left dancing.  One woman oppressed by evil spirits was set free and her contorted countenance gave way to the peace of God. She left smiling and rejoicing in the Savior.

Strongholds of structural evil began to crumble. One of the Indian Pastors reported to us in amazement that some of the upper caste people were coming to the medical clinics for the first time. He explained that he himself was an untouchable, from the lower caste.  He pointed saying "when I was a boy that lady would not touch me, today she has come to the clinic and she invited me to her home for lunch." 

India is a long way away.  It took us 36 hours to get home that included the layovers along the way and over 22 hours of flight time.  It is also expensive to get there, and after the first 10 hours the coach seats feel a bit tortuous. So why go to India?  Because the Christians in India need us to come, without exception we were welcomed with overwhelming gratitude.  Thank you for coming, thank you for remembering us. I felt like the Apostle Paul arriving in Philippi.  They need for us to remind them that they are not alone.  They need to take us to their churches so the fledgling congregations will believe that the Body of Christ cares.  These young preachers ride bicycles for hundreds of miles each and every a week to reach people for Christ.  Certainly we can make the effort to visit them. 

It is risky.  I had to get lots of shots Hepatitis A&B, typhoid, and tetanus and polio boosters.  The doctor recommended Malaria pills and everyday we had to spray ourselves with Deet to avoid the mosquitoes carrying Dengue Fever. So why go to India?

Our risk is miniscule in comparison with the risk Indian pastors and evangelists take everyday. Several months before we arrived a young church planter was beheaded in a village as he bowed to pray.  Hindu fundamentalists chopped his head off because he would not stop proclaiming the name of Jesus.  He left a family behind.  Another Indian missionary had recently been kidnapped by angry villagers who opposed the preaching of the Gospel.  He was rescued by a brave brother in Christ who boldly enquired about his whereabouts and with God's help arranged for his escape. 

It takes time; it is too far away to go for just one week.  So schedules must be rearranged and sacrifices made.  There never seems to be a convenient time to do overseas mission. Life as we know it has to be put on hold for several weeks.  After all there are so many worthwhile local missions' projects. So, why go to India? It is simply because God is calling us and God is sending us now.  God is inviting us to make an eternal impact on an entire people group. God wants us to share the one necessary, indispensable, essential thing we possess, our relationship with Jesus.    It is Kairos time.  It is God's time. The Spirit of God is moving among the people of India.  Jesus is doing something in India and you are invited to join Him.  You can join God's ministry to India through prayer, through giving, through sending someone, or by going yourself on the next trip. "Christ in you is the hope of Glory."