Hello Kansas City Tres Dias Community!
My name is Merv Chapman. I attended KCTD #5 and sat at the table of Matthew. I attend Journey Church with my wife Tiffany and I get to be the Rector for KCTD #14 Men’s weekend!!
Tiffany and I have three children; Megann (28), AJ (27) and Sam (24) and have been married for 30 years. We love God and enjoy being used by Him and seeing lives transformed in Tres Dias.
After I attended KCTD #5, I realized a deeper level in my relationship with God that I had no idea existed. Between that and seeing God move so mightily on the lives of the candidates and team, I had to get involved at a deeper level. Since Tiffany had already been serving on the Board of KCTD we were invited to serve as the Fourth Day Couple. After a couple years I was elected to and currently have the honor to serve as the VP on the KCTD Board.
The Lord has made me fight for a theme, verse, and song for our fall weekend! These three items impact the lives of so many on a Tres Dias weekend, I think God was making me wait until I understood that before giving it to me.
Theme: RISK IT
Verse: John14:12-14
Song: The River
I would like to explain our Theme “RISK IT”. I have had a personal relationship with God since I was about 13, stronger at times than others. I have read the bible through a couple times and listened to it many more. One thing I have noticed, in our relationship with God we keep asking Him to do things for us. We ask Him to take the pain away from our kid’s booboos; heal a loved one’s cancer; get us out of jams we created ourselves; bring people to us so we can tell them about Jesus and eternal life; give us boldness to proclaim His will etc. This is all good, but we don’t often step out and act on the authority He has already given us. His word says “anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing…” My guess is that most of us are afraid of something, failure, rejection and more which keeps us from stepping out in the authority we already have. We don’t have to keep asking Him to meet us to do the miracles, we just need to have the faith that His word is good and that He will move when we speak His will. The big trick is to know what His will is. We learn that by studying His word and from practicing what we learn from it. It’s a lot like riding a bike, you will fall some before you are able to ride really good.
I want KCTD #14 to encourage each of us to step out in our faith and RISK IT! To be Doersof the word and not hearers only. I am praying that once the weekend is over, Satan will lose ground not just here in KC but everywhere our candidates and team go. I pray that each of us will be bolder to speak God’s word, that miracles would be more abundant and more people would be drawn to God as a result!
De Colores!!
RISK IT
Merv
Merv,
Awesome letter and testimony to who you are and to how you arrived at the weekend theme. I’m excited to be a part of it and I am certainly compelled to Risk It btly stepping out and sharing God’s word with other.
Love you brother. See you next Saturday.
Mark
Praying that the Lord will go before you and make the crooked places straight. Bless y’all
Praise God!! I love your theme. I will see if I have room in my schedule. I started serving Vida Nueva and am on the first teams for Spirit Lake in Iowa. I , WE, will be praying for y’all! In JESUS name.