Day 2 - Santa Alicia

So much fun being able to reconnect with the people of Santa Alicia today.

We spent our morning shoveling and carrying concrete, and crushing rocks at the new church building that the people of Santa Alicia are building. The work was really hard, hot work but it brings me so much joy working along side my Haitian friends.

It's truly exciting to think about the impact this new building can have. We were able to pray over the space asking God to make it a place of hope for the people of Santa Alicia and the surrounding area.

We "tamped" down the rock floor and finished up the concrete work on the pulpit/stage area of the church this morning. We will return early tomorrow to do the floor in the sanctuary. It has also been a real joy working with the group from the Branch Community Church. Great folks with BIG hearts for the Gospel.

I ask that you would join us in praying for the church in  Santa Alicia that Christ would use it and Pastor Bona and Pastor Bernardo in incredible ways.

Blessings!
ZS

Day 1 - Away we go...well kinda

Really excited about getting to travel back to the DR and serving alongside my brother and some very kind folks from his church. 

First lesson: traveling internationally...especially with a group...especially when you're flying American Airlines...will be a problem. 

When we boarded our plane in Dallas there was a constant, high pitched, ringing. As we sat there for TWO HOURS (yes with the constant, high pitched ringing the entire time) it became clear that we would not make our connection in Miami. We anticipated the possibility of a delayed flight but we were thinking it may have something to do with "Bill"...not a faulty PA system. 

So here we sit in Miami. Hoping to catch a standby on the 6:56 flight but booked on the 9:40. 

The best part has been the incredible positive attitudes of the people I'm traveling with. Not one person has complained even one time. Positive, upbeat, adventurous people. 

It's going to be a great week. 

Stay tuned. 

ZS

#DR2015

This is the view from my favorite hammock in the DR.

Dear Friends and Family,

In Matthew 28, Jesus commands us to “GO and make disciples of all nations.” The Lord has given my family and I many opportunities to be obedient to this call. In June, I have the honor and privilege to return to the Dominican Republic, along with a team of 12 others.  We will be partnering again with my friends Julio and Mercy (local missionaries), who serve the poorest of the poor in and near Santo Domingo. They are school teachers who have surrendered to the call of gospel-centered living.  Most of their work is with the Haitian immigrants who live on small sugar cane farms, called batays. Most of them struggle daily for clean water and their next meal.  

Our team will be flying from Dallas to Santo Domingo, DR on June 17th and returning June 23rd. This will allow us a week to serve the local church in Santo Domingo. During the week, we anticipate serving in several ways.  We will be caring for special needs children at orphanages and helping equip local churches to share the gospel. We will stay in the home of Julio and Mercy and get firsthand experience of the culture. I’m humbled to get this opportunity to share in Christ’s work in the Dominican Republic.

I am inviting you to partner in this journey. How can you partner?

• 

  One of the sweet kiddos in Santa Alicia.

  Partner through prayer. Commit to pray while we serve in the Dominican Republic. You can subscribe to and follow this blog for daily updates on our experiences throughout the trip.   
• Partner through financial support. The estimated cost for the trip is about $1460, which is due in two parts ($700 due by May 1st, $760 due by May 17th). Your donation can be made tax deductible by sending it to The Branch Community Church, P.O. Box 307 Bullard TX, 75757. Please designate the gift: Snow DR Mission Fund

I would love to sit down and talk with you more about what the Lord is doing in our family and this trip. So, if you have any questions, please call or email me. Thank you for taking the time to read about the opportunity I have coming soon and for prayerfully considering your involvement in my support team.

Charis Dia Pistis,

@ZachSnow

903-258-1130

jzacharysnow@gmail.com

Royse City's Best Kept Secret

I love Royse City, TX. I really do. There's just something about this place. Incredible people and incredible sunsets. The picture to the left is one of many sunsets that I have captured since I've been living here.

I moved my family to here about 7 years ago from a small town in east Texas. A place very similar to Royse City.

When we first moved here, we connected with a group of people who were getting ready to plant a church. I joined the staff of Gateway Fellowship shortly after and served in capacity of Executive and Teaching Pastor as well as Elder. My family spent about 7 years serving with this church. A time of great growth for us all.

We decided it was time for us to do something different back in August and I stepped down as an Elder of Gateway Fellowship Church in Royse City, TX. This was a difficult time for our family. Change and transition is always difficult and searching for a new church is stressful. There is a fine line between trying to find a church that is "right" for your family and "church shopping". I believe, when seeking a new church, that you should take time, pray, consider your families needs, pray some more, and follow the direction of the Spirit.

One of the great challenges of finding that perfect church home (and btw, there is no perfect church) is that we live in the "buckle of the Bible belt". I have good friends who are on staff at mega churches. We visited a few of them, oh and by the way, really enjoyed them. As we visited new churches, we would always debrief afterwards. That typically went like this: "Boys, how was kids church? Did you enjoy it?" "Well, what did you think about the worship (this usually means "was the lead guy/girl vocally talented)?" "What did you think about the teaching this morning (this was typically Susan asking me if I thought the pastor said anything heretical or just didn't preach contextual or tie it back to the Gospel...which ever sermon should)?" And this is what I mean by there being a fine line between finding a church that is right for you and church shopping. Specifically we visited two great churches that we all really like (Watermark Church in Dallas and Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall). I have friends who are on staff at both places. It would have been relatively easy to assimilate into either church and plug right in and serve. There was one major shortcoming of both places...and it honestly had nothing to do with size (these are both HUGE churches). The thing that we realized that, turns out was a really big deal for us, was (like real estate) "location, location, location".

You see, I have another conviction that I simply could not silence. For me and my family, it is really important that we attend church in the community in which we live. I have always kind of felt like if I attend church somewhere other than where I live, it's like I am separating my faith from every other part of my life. I want to be very clear here: I do not and will not ever push this conviction on another person. This is what I feel is important for my family. As I said, I've lived in Royse City for about 7 years, I work for Royse City ISD, Eli plays baseball in Royse City, my in-laws live in Royse City, and my favorite restaurant is in Royse City (Los Pinos). We really wanted to worship with and be a part of Biblical community in Royse City.

As we prayed and asked God to simply plug us in where He wanted us to be, I remembered that my friend, Matt Henry (who is brilliant, check out some of his work on at this site), and his dad, Paul, started a church in Royse City several years back called Four Winds Church. We decided to go check them out one morning and to be quite honest found exactly what we both [Suz and I] were looking for.

So let me introduce you to the "perfect church" for The Snow Family:

• Real People: People who are kind and warm. People who are honest and open. People who aren't afraid to stop what they're doing to pray for/with you. People who do not get upset if you unknowingly (or knowingly...'cause that's kinda how I am) sit in "their place" (just kidding, I have not seen anyone who seems particular about where they sit...we are all creatures of habit to a certain extent and I don't judge on this front at all). 
• Missional Focus: The first morning we visited, we did not hear from Pastor Paul at all...we heard from the mission team reporting on their most recent trip to Honduras. They talked about a church they were partnering with to meet the needs of underprivileged children. They talked about the life changing experience of being in a foreign field and seeing the impact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is having their. We also heard, that same morning, of a young lady (probably middle school age) in the church who started making and selling these hats in order to raise enough money to build a fresh water well in an area in which fresh water is not currently available. To this day, each week we hear of hurting people all over our community and surrounding areas that, as a church, we just want to be reaching out to...to make Jesus more famous, not our church. That's refreshing.
• Vibrant, Engaging, Unapologetic, Active Worship: Four Winds Church in Royse City, TX has, by far, been the best worship environment I've had the opportunity to be a part of. And please don't hear me wrong, because Matt is talented and his band is really (really) good, but the WORSHIP has little to do with them. It goes back to the people (see the first bullet). I guess, I just haven't been a part of a group of people who respond like this to Christ, week in and week out. It's not flashy...there are no smoke machines...there are no moving graphics on the screen, only words (white lettering on a black background) to help those along who are unfamiliar with the lyrics of the song. There really seems to be no agenda apart from unapologetic surrender to our great God. I often leave exhausted. That's how you know it's good.
• Verse by Verse, Exegetical Preaching: Again, this is likely a personal preference and not something you and I can't be friends over...but, I prefer a verse by verse, exegetical approach to preaching. I like that Pastor Paul starts in verse 1 and preaches that particular book until he reaches the last verse of that book. He then turns the page and starts the next book. I like this approach to preaching because I feel like it causes us to talk about things that we would not normally "choose" to talk about. When you only preach topically, it's simple enough to just pick another topic when it comes to that really hard text in the Holy Scripture (and please believe me, there are some REALLY hard text in there). The purpose behind every sermon I've heard preached at Four Winds, thus far, is to direct people to the Gospel of Christ because in it we find our hope. 
• My Kids Love It: I really do not have to expound on this. They are learning about who they are in Christ and they love their teachers. 

So, I just wanted to ask you, did you know that Four Winds Church was here in our town? Are you needing a place to connect? Are you church discouraged? Are you looking for hope beyond your current circumstances? Come be my guest. I usually sit in a good seat (within spitting distance) but I'm willing to give it up for you. 

Grateful,

ZS

Cease...Ceasing...

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the mindset that I feel has invaded a lot of what we consider "Christian Culture".

Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God."

I believe in this text whole heartedly and know there have been times that this was like a warm blanket of grace to me. However, I do not feel this is the end all and be all of an individual's faith journey. I believe in this, as a moment of worship. I see this as a moment that should make you feel alive and loved and safe and cherished and never forsaken.

But...

I think I've seen this used as an excuse to not actively pursue. Not actively serve. Not actively give. Not actively lead. Our faith should be active. There should be a constant longing for your sanctification to be moving more rapidly than it is. And yes, sometimes that means to stop and worship. But sometimes it means to chase harder and more ferocious than ever before. I want to stop being okay with just "being okay". I podcast Matt Chandler (The Village Church in Dallas) every week and I've heard him say many times (and I believe this to be true), "It's okay to not be okay...it's not okay to stay there."

Now, I want to be clear, I think there is a place for both. I think both are even required of us. This is when worship becomes a life style.

I guess I've been praying more about what it is I need to be about. What areas of life do I need to be more actively involving my faith in? Am I leading well, by example, for the sake of the Gospel and to make Christ more famous? I would never want to be known as complacent and uninterested because I "ceased striving" for longer than I should have. I've decided that it's time to cease...ceasing. It's time to be actively involved in the work that Christ is doing all around me and inviting me into.

So, what is it that you feel you're being drawn into? It may be the greatest adventure of your life and you may even be stirred to a greater level of worship than even when you are being still [and knowing that He's God].

Like Peter, being asked by Jesus to push out into deeper waters, I want to be ready for the catch.

Struggling To Be Still,
ZS






Image from: http://www.billmarshjr.com/tag/use-action/

What is the "will of God" for me?

This morning I preached my last sermon as an Elder of Gateway Fellowship Church.

I could probably tell you a lot of different things about why it was time for me to step out of this position.  However, in the end, it was quite simply time.

So I spent my last half hour, of speaking with our people, dealing with a topic that I feel I can speak to more now than I could have 7 years ago or 13 years ago (the two previous times I felt lead to step away from a ministry/leadership position in a church).   I decided to tackle the topic of "Some Things to Remember About God's Will".

I'm not a big "topical preaching" kind of guy, so I did my best.  Here is what I came up with.

Some things to remember about God's will:1.) Just because one work is finished doesn't mean you are finished. 2.) Just because it seems easy doesn't mean God is in it. 3.) Just because it seems hard doesn't mean God is in it. 4.) Seek. Pray. Listen. Follow. Seek. Pray. Listen. Follow. Etc. 5.) Remember that what you do doesn't really matter. How you live does.  "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8 ESV)

God's will is not really tied to what you do vocationally but learning to live life with opened hands.  If there is little that people remember about my time with GFC in Royse City, I hope it's this.

I do not really know what is next for my family and I, but I do know that we will wind up in the place we always have...right in the middle of the will of God.

In the end, I echoed the words of Paul, and pray this is what I'm always known for:
"For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preach by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Galatians 1:11-12

Stay tuned...
ZS

Casa de Luz

We had the great pleasure of visiting an orphanage for children with disabilities today.  The orphanage is called Casa de Luz (Lighthouse), which is so fitting for the experience we had with the people there.  These are children who were abandoned by their families because of the extent of their disabilities, which is heart wrenching to think about but I try to reserve judgement because it's likely they are being cared for more at Casa de Luz than they would've been by their families.

The pastor who runs the orphanage is also the man who started it.  He started this work because he and his wife have a child who was born with a significant and profound disability.  As they begin seeking out help with care for their son, they found there was nothing available.  So, they started rescuing children like their own son.  The pastor now lives on the site where the orphanage is located, but the day to day work with the children is accomplished primarily through volunteers who are nothing short of angels of mercy.

There are many things that I could write to try to explain to you the experience but I will allow some pictures to tell the story.

This is our new friend Ruth.  She welcomed everyone with a huge smile and a hug.  Such a sweet spirit in this little child.  

We were able to help out with lunch.

I love this picture for many reasons but focus on the faces of Ruth, Jacob, and Eli.  Ruth, just so happy to have someone helping and giving her attention.  Eli, watching closely all that we are doing (he was very cautious and watchful for the first 30 mins or so we were there).  Jacob, processing all that he is seeing around him.  I was so proud of my boys today with the way they interacted with the kids at this orphanage.  The kids here have some very profound and severe physical and mental (probably also emotional) disabilities.  I have worked with kids with special needs for years and this scene was still somewhat shocking for me.

But, check this out...

Wheel Chair Races!!!

The kids (both the ones who live there as well as my own) had so much fun racing up and down the hall.  All of a sudden, these were just kids.  Like any other kid in any part of the world.  

I'll leave you with one last image, my favorite from the day.  Jacob and his new BFF Ernesto. 

After lunch, Jacob pushed Ernesto up and down the long hallway for the rest of the time we were there.  They both brought so much joy to the children at Casa de Luz today.  I've said it before and I will continue to say, I believe (because I've prayed for it since before they were born) that my boys are world changers.

Soli Deo Gloria,

ZS