NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDGRASS VALLEY, CA

PERMIT NO. 60

Christian Encounter MinistriesPO Box 1022Grass Valley, CA 95945CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Tending Lives…Training Leaders

Christian Encounter MinistriesJanuary 2013

Since 1970

Contact us at:www.ChristianEncounter.orgcem@ChristianEncounter.org

530-268-0877

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Christian Encounter Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational, residential program helping 16- to 25-year-olds by providing love, spiritual guidance, high school education, counseling, and 24-hour supervision. Internships are offered to qualifying upper level college students and graduates.

This February, get ready for some body pumping action! We’ve packed more fun into less time, and, like the previous “You Spin—They Win,” fabulous door prizes will be given! For a donation of $15 for one session or $25 for multiple sessions, choose be-tween one-hour workouts of spin, body pump, body combat, and step aerobics, or do them all! All activities will be led by professional instructors.

WHAT:

WHEN:

WHERE:

WHY:

FITNESS CHALLENGE

SAT. FEB. 9, 20131:00 PM to 5:00 PM

GRASS VALLEY’S SOUTH YUBA CLUB 722 FREEMAN LANE

TO BENEFIT CEM

A BRAND-NEW EVENT!

“ D I S T R E S S I N G D I S G U I S E S ”By Mark Andrews

Mother Theresa was once asked by a reporter, “How can you do this type of work, day in and day out?” (taking care of the impoverished, sick and dying). Her response was simple, yet profound. She replied, “I seek to minister to Christ in whatever distressing disguise He presents Himself.”

Have you ever recognized someone as Christ in a “distressing disguise”? Unlike those Mother Theresa cared for, that doesn’t necessarily mean someone who has leprosy or is dying. It can be someone who is lonely, frightened, angry, or even one who is a perpetual thorn in your side! Is it possible for you to see Christ in the faces of folks like these?

Here at the ranch we often see Jesus in “distressing disguise” in our students. They come to us broken and hurting, with faces of fear, anxiety, depression, and anger, and exhibiting the symptoms of many forms of abuse. However, as they gradually and courageously allow us to peer inside their pain, we see the face of Christ, and we hear Him say, “In the same manner that you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me.” And in time, as our students feel safe enough to drop their disguises, we see the light of Christ shine through them in amazing ways.

Jesus is calling each of us to look for him in “distressing disguise.” You don’t have to be at Christian Encounter Ministries to see Him this way. He is all around you—in your neighbors, your co-workers, your church, your school, and even in your family. The disguise is never pretty—in fact it can be quite troubling. Mother Theresa stated that, while working with the poor and ill, “...feelings of repugnance are human; but if I see the face of Jesus in His distressing disguise, I will be holy.”

The challenge for us here at CEM is to look beyond the brokenness in our students—to look intensely enough to see that beyond the disguises, we find Christ calling us to help restore them to wholeness. And the challenge is the same for every believer—to open our eyes to those individuals, sometimes hidden but all around us, who live broken lives in a distressing disguise. In this New Year, may our corporate prayer as believers be that God will grant us the strength and insight to look behind the distressing disguises of our neighbors, to take the faithful step of seeing Christ in those individuals!

“What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us.” II Corinthians 1:3-4 (Living Bible)

Josiah “bears the burdens” for another hiker, thus carrying out Paul’s admonition: “Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself…” Galations 6:2-3 (New Living Translation)

“Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit…Be persistent in your prayers for all Christian everywhere.” Ephesians 6:18