Christmas time is approaching and we have made our plans.

Rice-A-Thon has grown from just a name casually tossed around in a fund raising campaign to an annual event at La Cima World Missions. In the past, the primary goal was to raise money to purchase rice, medicine, and basic necessities for those affected by the conflict on the Thai/Burma border. This year’s effort will have a bit of a twist. We will be raising money once again, with your help of course, for two purposes. First, we will continue the effort to donate to the Displaced Persons Response Network and the Karen Department of Health and Welfare in support of their efforts. Second, we will be sending a small medical and dental team to provide services in two orphanages on the border, the Safe Haven Orphanage and Mae Ka Hta Orphanage. Not exactly a Christmas gift most kids would ask for but a visit to the dentist and doctor is something they all very much need.

These orphanages are filled with children left with no options due to the war in Burma. The resources available meet many of the children’s basic needs but, with groups of kids this large, there is always more need than there are resources to meet them. Part of the fund raising effort with this Rice-A-Thon will be to cover expenses incurred with sending this medical/dental team and purchasing supplies, equipment, and medications that will be used during the mission. Excess material will be left in-country to be utilized by local medics and health care providers.

Our team will be spending Christmas in Thailand working with the orphanages and we would be thrilled beyond measure if you were willing to participate financially with us in this endeavor. We have had a very generous contribution by Live Oak Bank as they have become our first Corporate Sponsor in covering airfare for the team.  All monies collected by La Cima World Missions Between October 1 and December 16, 2011 will be used to fund this project. Funding above the minimum expenses will be used to purchase more food, medicine and basic necessities.

833 US dollars buys a complete medicine package that can be used to treat hundreds of patients.

1400 US dollars will cover expenses for dental supplies and instruments that will begin the process of equipping a future dental clinic

600 US dollars buys a ton of rice

Everyone who contributes to this year’s Rice-A-Thon will receive periodic updates from the Displaced Persons Response Network as to the conditions on the border region. There is much need and many people suffering, DPRN will bring you the information you may not see on the evening news.

How To Donate:
Tax deductible* donations can be made to La Cima World Missions through PayPal by going to our “Donations” page — http://www.lacimaworldmissions.org/donations/

*Donations are not tax deductible for donors outside the United States, La Cima World Missions is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.

A direct donation through PayPal can be made by sending funds to the email address — lacima.missions@gmail.com

Snail Mail donations can be made by sending checks to:
La Cima World Missions
PO Box 54322
Lexington, KY 40555-4322

This is your chance to help us live up to our motto:

“We Didn’t Come To Watch!”
James 2:26 – Faith Without Works is Dead

Links of interest

Live Oak Bank:  www.liveoakbank.com

Displaced Persons Response Network:  www.dprn.org

Karen Department of Health and Welfare:  www.kdhw.org

Safe Haven Orphanage:  www.safehavenorphanage.org

La Cima’s website was recently hacked.  We apologize for any inconvenience and want you to know we are still here and the mission continues.

A storm is brewing on the Thai/Burma border in Southeast Asia. Hostilities in Karen State, Burma are causing many people to be displaced from their homes/villages as they attempt to flee the fighting to protect their families. This is resulting in refugees moving into, or toward, Thailand with no food, no shelter, no clothing, no nothing. We are partnering with The Displaced Persons Response Network and the Karen Department of Health and Welfare to raise money for the purchase of rice, salt, supplies for construction of shelters, medicine, clothing, and other basic survival necessities. We would like to invite you to participate with us in this endeavor.

This fund-raising project is part of a broad effort to save lives and improve quality of life for many people in great need. The people who will benefit from this project literally only have the clothes on their back and they have no other options.

A running total will be kept on this facebook page so that you can see what impact you are having.

For a little less than $600.00 enough rice can be bought (about one ton) and it will feed 60 people for one month. That is not a lot of money for a major impact.

100% of all donations received between December 17, 2010 and January 31, 2011 will be sent to the field. No special indication/designation need be made to ensure funds make it to Thailand, it’s all going.

Thank you in advance for being a part of something bigger than all of us.

How To Donate:
Tax deductible* donations can be made to La Cima World Missions through PayPal by going to our “Donations” page — http://www.lacimaworldmissions.org/donations/

*Donations are not tax deductible for donors outside the United States, La Cima World Missions is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.

A direct donation through PayPal can be made by sending funds to the email address — lacima.missions@gmail.com

Or by clicking the button below:

Snail Mail donations can be made by sending checks to:
La Cima World Missions
PO Box 54322
Lexington, KY 40555-4322

This is your chance to help us live up to our motto: “We Didn’t Come To Watch!”
James 2:26 – Faith Without Works is Dead

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The toolbar also has a search box and each time you search the Internet, about a penny is donated to La Cima World Missions. http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/la-cima-world-missions

And please pass this along to all of your friends. The two minutes it takes to add this toolbar to your browser can make a lifetime of difference!

Get the toolbar NOW! http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/la-cima-world-missions

The movie Braveheart is one of my all-time favorites.  It is the story of William Wallace who was a Scotsman that led a crusade to free Scotland from the grasp of English rule.  William Wallace was portrayed by Mel Gibson as a fearless combatant in some of the most brutal warfare ever to occur in history.

The weapon of choice of William Wallace was the Scottish Claymore.  It was the massive sword used to cut down the English with deadly effectiveness.  The Claymore was a fine weapon, and though it appeared ominous and intimidating on the field of battle, it was not always that way.

The Claymore began its life as a hunk of iron ore.  It was mined from the depths of the earth by a hard working dirt covered miner. The ore was washed of dirt and debris then smelted in a furnace to bring forth pure iron.  This iron was then cast into a rough form which was given to a skilled blacksmith to begin the forging process.

At first the blacksmith prepared his furnace and increased the temperature with the use of a bellows and hot coals. The iron was placed into the fire and heated to a malleable, red-hot state.  Then the blacksmith began to pound the metal with a heavy hammer, laying the block of iron over an anvil and using the hammer to carefully mold it.

This process was repeated numerous times, placed in the fire and heated to a moldable form, then carefully, yet slowly formed into the shape of a perfect sword.  In the hands of this artisan, the sword finally took its shape and appeared to be ready for battle.  The blacksmith, however, had not finished.

Even though the sword looked like it should, from all outward appearance, it had yet to be honed and sharpened to a razor edge.  The soldier that would carry this sword would need the strongest, sharpest, most efficient weapon he could find to give him the best odds of success on the battlefield.  The blacksmith then began honing the blade, first on a stone wheel to form an edge, then on to a leather strap to polish off the burs and bring it to a shaving sharp blade.

All the while, the blacksmith was responsible for looking for impurities and imperfections in the metal.  Any weak spot would undoubtedly become a breaking point in the heat of battle for the soldier that carried it.  The forces generated by the blows inflicted on the battlefield tested these weapons to their limits as it was.  An impurity would most certainly result in failure at the moment of greatest need.

If the blacksmith found an irregularity, impurity, or flaw in the metal, he began the process again by heating it, pounding it, forming it into perfection.  When finally the blacksmith was satisfied that he had provided the best, he presented the weapon to the knight that would carry it.  On the day that he was called to fight, the warrior took up his sword and walked onto the field and began to fight, a fight to the death, against his enemy.

If all was done properly, the Claymore was prepared and did not fail the one who wielded it.  At the end of the day, however, the blade was badly worn and dulled from the constant barrage against the swords, armor, and shields of the enemy.  The knight then needed to turn his sword over to the blacksmith once again to repair the damage done in combat.  The blacksmith would repeat the process he used to forge the Claymore in the first place to return it to a state of polished hone and razor sharp perfection.  That way, when the knight was called to fight again, his weapon of choice was ready.

God starts his work in us by bringing us from the world and He wants to change us into a weapon with which to fight on the front lines of the war between good and evil.  Jesus Christ dug us from the earth by His sacrifice on the Cross many years ago. He paid the penalty for our sins once and for all, to wash the dirt and debris from our souls, so that we may be purified in the sight of God.  God then sent the Holy Spirit to teach us and mold us into the weapons for that fight.

Like the Claymore, sometimes the Holy Spirit uses the fires of life to put us into a state of moldability.  He may need to pound us into shape and that may not be comfortable, as he changes our form from a sinner or fence rider into a weapon of war for the cause of Christ.  He will push us out of our comfort zones to cause the change that will result in us being a form He can use.

The trials of life will come and the Holy Spirit will use them to continually form us into His workers.  He shows us the impurity and weaknesses in our lives, but He is able to remove them and continue our transformation.

God can call on us any time, during the process of the Holy Spirit’s work, to use us as a weapon in battle.  God knows, however what the battle will be and He will not commit us to a battle that will break us if we trust Him.  He knows our weaknesses and has promised not to put us through more than we can bear.

He never said that it would be easy though, and the battle will almost always leave us scarred and battered.  The Holy Spirit, however is able to continue His work on us and complete our transformation, or return us to a battle ready state, no matter in what condition the fight has left us.

We must allow Him to work in us when He wants and we must use the time between battles to keep ourselves in a state of sharpening, Iron against Iron, Christian brother and sister against Christian brother and sister.  We must constantly be working with each other, under the direction of the Holy Spirit to grow stronger in our faith and closer to God.

As ominous as the well made Claymore appeared on the field of battle, it was nothing if it was not in the hands of the knight that fought with it.  The sword never had to do the fighting, it only had to be in a state of readiness.  Ready to be picked up at a moment’s notice to be used in the hands of a master swordsman.

We do not have to do the fighting.  God will fight all the battles, we only have to be the tools He uses to show how decisive His victory can be.  This takes faith on our part.  We must allow the Master’s hands to guide us through all that happens in our lives.

This can be difficult when we feel we are taking blow after blow from our enemy, but our Master knows our limits.  He will do things with us that we don’t even know can be done, but He will not let us break if we are true to Him.  He will not continually put us through battle, He will give us time to rest and digest all that happened and see the victory He won.  Then He will call on the Holy Spirit to mend us and shape us again.  He will use His Word, the Bible and the Church as tools for honing us and sharpening us to make us ready for the next time.

If the sword was not ready for action, if the blade was broken or rusty, the Blacksmith and the warrior could still use it.  It would be able to prop a door or clean mud from the boots.  This, however, would not be the intent and the weapon would not be a weapon of war able to claim a part of the victory from battle.

Likewise, God will still accomplish what He wants, in spite of those of us who are not living according to His will, but that is not what He wants and that Is not for what we are designed.  He wants us to be constantly honed and polished so that we are ready to be used in His fight.  That way we can experience the glory of victory in His hands.

We are on the front lines of a tremendous war right now.  The forces of Satan are attacking at every angle and they are persistent.  They will use whatever tactics and weapons they have and they will be relentless in their pursuit of defeating the Gospel.  This fight is lost by many, every day, as they allow themselves to drift from faith and into the clutches of evil It is also lost every day because a Christian has not spent the time necessary, with the Holy Spirit as a guide, to be ready to fight for the soul of a brother.

Our lives as Christians will never, ever, under any circumstance, be easy.  Satan will see to it that everyone who is effective is attacked.  We rest in the good news that our God is God and He will be victorious in all things.  We know that our defeat is impossible if we can throw off the distractions of the world, get out from the burden of sin, and ignore the lies of Satan, and follow Christ with all our heart.

We have fallen to a level of fitting our Christian walk in with the rest of our life.  I say it is time to change the order of things.  Our devotion to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to take absolute priority over all other aspects of our lives.  We must allow Him to use us and to see the miraculous and seemingly impossible results He wants to accomplish through each and every one of us.

I ask you to take the fears, impurities, and imperfections in your life (known as sin, doubt, and uncertainty) and give them over to Jesus.  He will put the Holy Spirit to work immediately, if you let Him, and the change can start, or resume.

Don’t believe the lies of Satan that you are unworthy and unusable by God to accomplish His purposes.  Don’t believe it when you hear a voice in your head that tells you that after what you have done, there is no way God wants to use you.  God is able to create something wonderful out of each and every soul that commits to Him.  God is going into the battle and He is going to win.

You have tremendous power right now, you have the power to withdraw from being a part of God’s plan.  You have the power to condemn yourself to a life without faith and without following Jesus Christ.  You have the power to say “It’s not form,” or “it requires too much time,” or “I am not ready yet,” or “it will never work.”  You have the power to miss out on all that God has planned.  You also have the power to say “use me Lord, I am ready to serve you however you wish.”  Thus putting yourself in the Master’s hands and being used in ways you never imagined.

You have the power to make a choice and you do make the choice.  Do you choose to be the sword prepared for battle in which you cannot lose?  Or, do you prefer to rust in the corner as a sword with tremendous potential?  A sword in form, but never ready, and therefore never used as intended, a lost child of God never to hear the words “well done good and faithful servant.”

Make the right choice.  No one can make it for you, the responsibility is yours alone.  I hope to see you on the battlefield in the Master’s hands.

David Sperow