Mars Hill Update.

Easter is the season of HOPE. The message of Easter is that the way of being in Jesus, the way of living the new resurrected life is through participation. The original metaphors of the faith found in the New Testament and early church are old metaphors that need to be made new. The Easter Season is the time to recapture some of these old metaphors and make them new and fresh. The primary metaphor for the Easter season is the church as the resurrected people living a resurrected spirituality. Because of Easter we are in union with Christ.

Please mark your calendars and join over 80 churches for Sharefest (www.ShareFestOKC.org) on Saturday, April 19th from 9-3pm. We will have four working teams to engage the neighborhood surrounding KAMP's with kind acts and practical help. We need all kinds of lawn and tree trimming equipment to tackle some of the projects we have planned. Please let me know if you are willing and able to contribute in this way.

I would like to point your attention to a series of five videos that Ryan Marshall has posted on his blog (www.5and2fish.com) from Oklahoman Editor Ed Kelley. I love how Ed Kelley is leveraging his influence and joining the God of the oppressed for the good of others, to be a voice for those who have know voice.

This weekend I had the privilege to meet Miki Farris, founder and executive director of the Infant Crisis Services (www.InfantCrisis.org). Infant Crisis Services believes every baby and toddler deserves life's basic necessities. With the help of the community, Infant Crisis Services supplies life-sustaining formula and food as well as diapers and clothing for babies and toddlers in times of crisis. It is hard to imagine that in the richest nation of the world there are babies and toddlers who go to bed hungry, yet it happens every day right here in Oklahoma. Our state has the 8th highest incidence of childhood poverty in the U.S.Infant Crisis Services serves more than 900 babies and toddlers in central Oklahoma each month.

This Sunday is the Fourth Sunday of Easter: The Good Shepherd . The image of the good shepherd, the shepherd who will give his life for his sheep, is that of servant leadership. Jesus the Good Shepherd has given his life for us, his sheep. And having been raised from death, he now leads us on into green pastures. This is the primary mark of a good shepherd. He is willing to die that the sheep might live. This is what the story of the cross is all about. The fourth Sunday of Easter reminds us that we have a leader, the Good Shepherd whose voice we are to hear, whose life we are to follow (see John 10:1-21).

Please let us know if we can serve you or serve with you in any way this week.

See You Sunday At KAMP's.
Ben