from the Editor, Proclaimer ~ Brandon Pickett
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That’s the greeting you hear everywhere in Guam. It’s one I’ve heard repeatedly over the past couple of years when I’ve been there with SBC of Virginia mission teams. Håfa Adai is just a casual Chamorro “hello” that doesn’t really have an exact English translation. It basically means, “What’s up?” or “What’s going on?”
I saw that greeting on a coffee mug while in Guam and bought it for my wife, Wendy. The orange and black colors aren’t really her favorites but, despite my bad gift-buying decision, the mug has become one of her favorites because of how she interprets it. She likes to say, “Håfa Adai,” as a morning encouragement to “Have a Day!”—to take this new day (the new, clean cup) and ask God to fill it with whatever He wants for her that day. She then accepts and embraces the filling of that cup from the Lord for a new day!
Isn’t that a great way to start a new day—or a new year? It brings to mind a passage that I’ve been meditating on—Isaiah 43:18–19 (HCSB): “Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”
This edition of the Proclaimer highlights one of the core objectives of the SBC of Virginia: Revitalization. When we think of revitalization, that is a great promise to claim! We need to heed the call of Isaiah to stop looking behind but to anticipate a new thing from the Lord—a way in the wilderness and a river in the desert. The NLT says, “But forget all that [the past]—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.” What an amazing truth! No matter whether your past is something you’d rather forget or something you celebrate, it can’t compare to what God is going to do now and in the future!
We have already seen this come true in multiple churches this past year, and we anticipate God’s revitalizing work in more churches in 2019. Churches that had declined in attendance, baptisms, and offerings (among other benchmarks) are now growing and thriving. What was once a desert is now a river!
Please join us in prayer for this new ministry of revitalization. As we pray together, we will start looking for God to do something brand new in many churches. Then we can truly say every day, “Håfa Adai!”