Church in the bush?

[Freeholdfarm]

I was just wondering, for the Christians on here, how you have church in the bush? When we lived in Alaska, we were always near a small town, and on the road system, so were able to attend regularly. I've been half contemplating maybe getting one of the remote parcels to go to when my grandmother no longer needs me to help her, but it would be hard to be where I couldn't attend church at least fairly often. I don't care about shopping, or entertainment, but church is important to me!

Kathleen

[Jenny]

Although we're now in a community with several churches, the one we attend here is a house church where the pastor and his wife live. The church is supported by a sponsor church where they used to attend, as well as by the few members here (maybe a dozen or so).

Back at our homestead, we reserved a time on Sundays to listen to tapes. Some missionaries we know sent us a box of taped sermons from a large church in TX. We listened to those several times. Once I e-mailed a friend in Georgia on a Saturday, asking if the sermons at her church were recorded. If so, I wanted her to see if there was a way for us to borrow some. She e-mailed me that Sunday afternoon saying that as she was walking to the pastor's office to ask him about it, she found a box in the hall loaded with old sermon tapes with a large note saying that anybody who wanted them could take them.

Now that we have the three boys, they just love music. We sing and play "instruments" all the time. Our 2 yr. old has a little guitar and a harmonica, so he really livens up our tunes even though he can't really play them yet. We also play the coffee can, rolled paper kazoo, the Lego's, and whatever else he finds. He always finds something for each of us to play while we sing, even our 7 month old ;D When we get back home, I'm sure our family church services will be a lot like our nightly "jam sessions"/devotions. Definitely not a traditional church, but still I think Jesus is pleased.

Jenny
Alaska HOMESTEADING Journal

[JohnPorter]

Amen......
Sounds like Jesus will be very pleased..
John

[moosehead]

Very interesting topic... =)

There are a number of ways to study the Bible, and worship the Lord... church is just one of them.

There are many websites out there that offer all kinds of services for Christians. Alot of denominational groups have websites that sell their tapes, videos, and books... That also includes revivalists who travel the country. The tapes, videos, and books are usually reasonably priced. Some sites also give away their products! You can even view video's from some sites.

My favorite site is www.shepherdschapel.com/

Pastor Arnold Murray offers great services! He even has a 24 hours live satalite feed you can view from his site for free!

Check the site out I really feel you'll be glad you did. =)

[marcie]

In Alaska we had a wonderful church very near us, and we really miss the fellowship and comfort a good church family can bring. While we're not near enough to a church to attend, and we're not really in the bush - just very "rural" is perhaps more appropriate, we can't attend church right now.

We've actually not been able to attend church for several years due to immune system problems I have, so we have bible study lessons at home. We are blessed because Jim has a good background in the church, he was trained to teach a long time ago, and has a wealth of reference books and studies he's done in the past to call upon, as well as past lesson notes.

This summer we had a tremendous amount of company since we live in a vacation destination, and often they, and others in the area, would attend the lessons and that makes it more interesting, but even when we're alone, I get a great deal from the lessons. While he has been a Christian many years, I have not, so I have much to learn still, and these lessons help with that.

In my particular case I stay very close to the Lord whether I have church or not, but then I am ill, and that probably has something to do with it. He is an integral part of everything I do and I talk with Him often as I move through my days.

For resources, you can check church (whatever denomination you are) websites, as I've found that some have sermons, lessons, etc., on their websites that you could use for home services if needed.

I think you can find long lists of churches in certain denominations on the internet, although I really haven't looked for any other than our church (Independent Baptist), when I was asked to put up a website for them.

Hope this helps,

Marcie

[jimalaska]

I was just taking a break from preparing this Sunday's bible lesson and reading posts on the forum when I came upon this one by my wife, Marcie.

In reading hers and others posts, I thought that there might be someone on the forum that does not have access to church. perhaps because they live in the bush, or perhaps like my wife, cannot attend because of health issues.

I prepare lessons each week for Marcie and I and also send them to 12 other people who have visited us at home and liked the lessons as well. When they returned home they asked to be included by email.

We are now studying in the book of Acts and are in chapter 14. If anyone would like to be included in these lessons, I can send all of them starting with chapter one, so there will be continuity and will be less confusing than coming in at the middle of a structured study.

I am a lay preacher, adult Sunday School teacher and have helped train missionaries that started successful mission works in Far East Russia.

As long as I am preparing these lessons, it takes no more work to send them to one or twenty, so if anyone here would like to study with us, just drop me an email, so I will have your email address: [e-mail]