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Why Romania? [Alternate Title: Mutiny on the Podcast]

Romanian Pastor Marius Apopi (left) translates for Bible teacher Jim Kerwin

This episode’s rearranged cast:

• Host: Jim Kerwin
• Co-Host: Denise Kerwin
• Guest Co-Host: Al Strickland (remember him from last episode, 50 Years? What’s Your Secret?)
• Guest: Jim Kerwin (who wants to know: Is this a demotion or a promotion? And is he still re­spon­sible for audio editing and writing the show­notes, or does Denise have to do it?)

Al’s Short Report on His Guatemala Recent Trip

Lord willing, the second-story construction on the Coatepeque church (the one pastored by Fermin and Lilian Chávez) can commence in March 2014.

Guatemalan Pastor Fermin Chávez tightens the knots of friendship.

• For background, please listen to The Coatepeque Kitchen Interview (KernelsOfWheat.com/b3) with Fermin and Lilian, and The Lake Atitlán Interview (KernelsOfWheat.com/b5) with Atilio and Gladys Chávez.
• The initial construction team on this multi-month project will consist mainly of members from Trinity Worship Center in Burlington, North Carolina, working in conjunction with LendAHand Mission Teams. For more on LendAHand, listen to our interview with LAH founder Bobby Hoyle in We Lend a Hand with LendAHand (KernelsOfWheat.com/k22).
• The completion of the project will afford the Coatepeque church Sunday school and youth space, training space for regional pastors and leaders, and more living space for the Coatepeque pastors and their family. You can donate towards this project.
• And then there’s the part about the friend-to-friend clothesline upgrade…

Jim Kerwin Responds to the Question “Why Romania?” [continue reading…]

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Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast Episode #19:
Good Servants and Unprofitable Servants

Parable of the Talents
(Anonymous)

Scripture Reading:

Matthew 25:14-30

Summary:

From the parables of Jesus, the Good Servants and the Unprofitable Servants are delineated with their ultimate rewards. But there are not just two divisions on earth — the saved and the unsaved. There is a division in the ranks of the saved: there are servants and servant-sons. Servants may believe they are sons because they have been taught so. But sons have an inner witness to sonship, given by [continue reading…]

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A Fiftieth-Wedding-Anniversary Interview
with Al and Sue Strickland

Al & Sue Strickland

Not What I Was Expecting…

I fully expected this episode to be a praise and victory report about the recent missions trip to Romania. But on the flight home from Munich, Germany, to Charlotte, North Carolina, I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit that the “top priority” was to interview Fellowship members Al and Sue Strickland at this milestone in their marriage — their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

…But You Can Expect a Blessing!

Al and Sue are Fellowship members, part of its heartbeat, and definitely part of its life’s blood when it comes to our work in missions overseas.  (Al has been on more missions trips than I have, I think!)  But to everyone who knows them, “Papa Al” and “Momma Sue” have a blessed and enviable marriage. Listen, learn, and be inspired to love in ways that are deeper and very practical as they answer the question Denise and I put to them: “Fifty years? What’s your secret?!” Click here for two more photos and a few links…

300,000!

How the counter at FinestOfTheWheat.org looked this morning.

With thankfulness to the Lord Jesus (along with a certain amount of wonder and a feeling of “How did that happen?”), we note that this week on our main website, FinestOfTheWheat.org, the number on our all-time page-hit counter clicked past 300,000. This is in partial fulfillment of a promise made to us years ago: “You will write, they will read, and I will speak.”  May it please the One Whom we serve to grant us even more readers in the future.

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Jim and Denise Kerwin on Pilgrim’s Progress
with Pastor Ray Greenley on WAVA-AM (Washington, DC)

Denise Kerwin,
publications editor for
Finest of the Wheat Teaching Fellowship

Third Quick Update from Jim in Romania

I’m just finishing a third week of ministry here in Romania, with visits to churches small and large, and a second very successful and well-received conference. After a four-hour round-trip on Monday to teach for four hours at a Bible institute, I’ll return to my Romanian home base about 10 PM to finish packing, grab all-too-few hours of sleep, and leave for the airport at what my military friends call “o’dark thirty.”  I’m ready to come home, and if things go as planned, this episode will “go live” to the Internet while I’m westbound over the Atlantic on Tuesday 10/15/13.  Soon I’ll be catching up on my postings to KernelsOfWheat.com/facebook; but the ministry opportunities here have kept me too busy to post for the last ten days or so.

This Podcast’s Background

The topic — conscience — which National Prayer Chapel’s Pastor Ray Greenley began on the 7/23 broadcast of the Pilgrim’s Progress radio program, evolved into our discussion on 7/24 about how the conscience is awakened.  In this episode we conclude this three-parter, looking at how an awakened conscience caused Christian (formerly Graceless) to flee the City of Destruction, and how it should [continue reading…]

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Jim and Denise Kerwin on Pilgrim’s Progress
with Pastor Ray Greenley on WAVA-AM (Washington, DC)

Jim Kerwin, Bible teacher from
Finest of the Wheat Teaching Fellowship

Second Quick Update from Jim in Romania

I’ve just finished a second busy, blessed, and fruitful week here in Romania, and I’ll be returning home in almost exactly a week. I’ll continue to post updates at KernelsOfWheat.com/facebook; and, no, you don’t need to have a Facebook account to read the entries and see the photos I’ve shared.

This Podcast’s Background

The topic which National Prayer Chapel’s Pastor Ray Greenley began on the 7/23 broadcast of the Pilgrim’s Progress radio program — conscience  — evolves into a discussion about the question, “How is the conscience  awakened?”

Scriptures Mentioned Include… [continue reading…]

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Jim and Denise Kerwin on Pilgrim’s Progress
with Pastor Ray Greenley on WAVA-AM (Washington, DC)

Ray Greenley, Pastor of
National Prayer Chapel, Woodbridge, Virginia,
and host of the
“Pilgrim’s Progress” radio program

Quick Update from Jim in Romania

I’m finishing out my first week in Romania, with two more to go.  You can follow along with my near daily reports at KernelsOfWheat.com/facebook; and, no, you don’t need to have a Facebook account to read the entries and see the photos I’ve shared.  The Lord, in His wisdom, didn’t provide for Denise to go; it turns out that she was needed for emergency “grandma duty” and she had to drive to Florida the day after I flew to Eastern Europe.

This Podcast’s Background

We were invited by Pastor Ray Greenley to minister at National Prayer Chapel, which Ray pastors, and to join him as his guests for three days on his live radio program, Pilgrim’s Progress.  We operate “without a net” (that is, without a script), and the subject for the day turned out to be conscience.

Links:

• The National Prayer Chapel website
• The Finest of the Wheat website
• The Finest of the Wheat Faceboook page (mentioned above)

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Credits:

Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com.

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Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast Episode #18:
The Wise But Unfaithful Steward

The Unjust Steward (by Jan Luyken)
Click to see the full image.

Scripture Reading:

Luke 16:1-13

Summary:

God has always put His work out to the care of stewards. In the past, “Sons of God” came to report to Him at intervals (Job 1:6, etc.). Some have been unfaithful. In the present, God has His faithful and unfaithful servants who have the choice of far greater service in the everlasting future. In this parable, the unfaithful but repentant steward was forgiven and restored; the unrepentant steward was punished. In this message, the true meaning of the difficult passage of Scripture concerning making “friends through the mammon of unrighteousness” is made clear.

Other Scriptures [continue reading…]

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The Smokey Row Interview
with Steve, Kelly, and Nick Solheim

Steve & Kelly Solheim
with World Gospel Mission

In this podcast, we interview Steve and Kelly and Nick Solheim of World Gospel Mission.  They’re discovering their support so that they can return to their assignments at Escuela El Sembrador (School of the Sower) in Honduras.

The story of how they wound up on the mission field will open your eyes and make you look at yourself differently in the mirror.  They went from never having met a missionary of any sort in person, to finding themselves on the mission field in record time; yet they’re the most “normal,” down-to-earth middle-class couple you’ll ever meet.  Denise and I were taken by how “real” they were all week at the Iowa Holiness Association camp meeting in June.  (You’ll find some links to an online picture album of our week at camp at the bottom of this blog post.)  We felt that the Lord wanted us to share their story.

Team Solheim Links

You’ll learn a fair bit about Steve and Kelly and Nick (Team Solheim as they call themselves) in the audio.  But here are [continue reading…]

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2013 Guatemala Report – Part 3

Atilio and Gladys Chávez

[Note: Visit these links for Part 1 and Part 2.]

For this third and final installment of our Guatemala report, we had the privilege of interviewing the country’s dynamic duo, Pastor Atilio Chávez and his wife, Dr. Gladys de Chávez, about their background, ministry, and goals.  Atilio, who has been involved in church-planting in Guatemala for thirty years, pastors a church in Guatemala City; but his greater role is that of a pastor’s pastor as he superintends about forty churches.  Matching her husband’s servant heart, Gladys (a medical doctor in her own right) works side by side with Atilio in many capacities.  She has served many visiting ministers and missions teams over the years as both translator and medical liason.

Album #7: A Quiet Time for Recovery and Reflection

Album #7 with notes

On our next-to-last evening in Guatemala, we overnighted with Atilio and Gladys at Lake Atitlán. It was time much needed by Jim and enjoyed even more by Denise.  Important things can be shared during quiet walks, leisurely meals, and enjoying the peaceful environment.  Special times together like this one make friends close friends.

The picture-link to the right will take you to a Facebook album of photos, with descriptions. (No, you don’t need to be a Facebook member, or even register, to see it. The album is available to the general public.) The video below covers the [continue reading…]

Get Quiet and Listen

There’s a new article on our sister website, FinestOfTheWheat.org, and it’s been a long time coming. The third in­stall­ment in Jim Kerwin’s Hearing God series is avail­able at last.

How can Chris­tians in a noise-addicted society get quiet before God so that they can hear Him speak?  You may come away with a different view of your sonic sur­round­ings and your “quiet time” after you’ve read Get Quiet and Listen.

New to the series? The previous articles are:

• Hearing God: God’s Plan, Our Privilege, and
• Hearing God: Why Many Christians Don’t Hear God.

Credits:

Photo used under license from 123RF Stock Photos

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Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast Episode #17:
The Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Son and His Father (woodcut by Gustav Doré) Click to see the full image.

Scripture Reading:

Luke 15:11-32

Summary:

This message unfolds a fresh look at this story which is so familiar to us that we tend to think we’ll be hearing the “same old, same old.” But this is an entirely different approach, and may leave you amused, instructed, enlightened, stirred, challenged – but definitely not bored! The story of the prodigal son is part of a larger revelation: the heart of the Son searching for His sheep is revealed in the parable of the lost sheep; the Spirit‘s search to complete the bride of Christ is revealed in the parable of the lost coin; and the Father‘s compassionate heart toward lost sinners is revealed in the parable of the lost (prodigal) son.

Other Scriptures Cited:

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Tracy B. for providing the show notes.  And we thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

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Jim & Denise in the Hot Seat

Jim & Denise Kerwin and Ray Greenley in the WAVA-AM studio

We had been on National Prayer Chapel‘s Pilgrim’s Progress radio program for three days (July 23-25, 2013) when on the fourth day the host, Pastor Ray Greenley, decided to shift focus and interview us about our backgrounds, our ministry, our recent Guatemala trip, and our planned trip to Romania.  Then he did something he doesn’t even do for his own broadcast — he asked listeners to call in and pledge funds.  (A few folks did just that.)  That 800-number won’t work for our podcast listeners or website visitors, but the “Donate” button over at the right of the screen will, for those of you who feel led.

Thank you, brother Ray, for the opportunity to share our hearts and for challenging us to share the need! [continue reading…]