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Cornerstone Communications
Crimea
October 24, 2008

Newsletter Contents

1. Greetings
2. VIDEO
3. Teaching for October…. It's All about ME
4. Text from the Video (for those who would rather read it)
5. Closing

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Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Armyansk, Crimea! I have been here for one week, and we're right in the middle of a glorious fall here. We had a wonderful time in Dallas, Texas, USA, and a short chance to see as many people as possible, attend 4 very important meetings, have 2 parties, and do one very complicated show, all in 2 weeks! Watch the short video report.

VIDEO MESSAGE

OCTOBER TEACHING

It’s All About ME

Recently, I was talking to a friend and I said, “Enough about Missions, let’s talk about ME!” As self-indulgent as that sounds, let’s talk about ME. The “Me” in all of us. We need to do a self analysis of our spiritual life. I Corinthians 11: 28 says, “But let a man examine himself…” The Lord has shown me what I’m capable of achieving when I submit ME to Him. Souls are saved by the thousands annually. As amazing as that is, the new level is even more amazing! It’s about ME! But for now, let's talk about the ME in you. Who is currently ruling over YOU? Is it the Lord, or is it “ME”? It's subtle, but the ME in all of us can slowly take over, and just when you think you're submitted to God, you realize that the ME is back in control.

Let me explain. In the last few years, He has allowed some of the worst situations to occur in my life: arrest in Moldova, near arrest in Kazakhstan, misunderstandings between ministry leadership and my ministry, being robbed, churches “milking” me financially, and many other situations. I was spiritually exhausted from being hurt and taken advantage of. I had let the “ME” in me take over, as a natural response of self-preservation. You'd think that naturally I would've pressed closer to the Lord. Instead, I selfishly thought, “If I don't take care of ME, then who will?” I had forgotten that I no longer live in the flesh, but I live by faith in Jesus Christ. “ME” had taken over. And yet, the Lord kept asking me, “Son, what’s YOUR response?” I childishly cried out, “Why is it always about ME? Why do I have to be the one who responds in a godly way, or has to forgive when someone does something against me? Why can they take the low road, but I must take the high road?” Okay, I am ashamed to admit that I thought that way. Still, He wanted to see what I was made of. Was I really a Christian walking in love and being a servant, or was I full of myself and thinking that I should be served? He has been steadily putting more and more pressure on me to (ouch) mature me.

These last few months were like lifting weights. The weights are heavy, but the last few reps with any weight are so impossibly hard to lift that they make your body shake from trying to lift the weight “just one more time”. It can even make you nauseous. Why? Because you’re tearing the muscle, but from which growth will occur. That last weight can make you feel that you’re weaker than ever, and makes you fear that it may fall on you and crush you. II Timothy 2:1 says, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” And vs 3, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” The truth is that the Lord is “spotting” you and won’t let that weight crush you. He will never give us a “weight” that we can’t lift.

Do you feel that you are carrying weights that seem impossible to lift and that might even crush you? Do you feel that God has abandoned you? He hasn’t! He’s the ultimate “weight trainer”, wanting to make you stronger than ever! He helps you with the weights, but ultimately, wants YOU to grow, so He allows you to lift them yourself. You have a choice: you can groan under the weight and finish your exercise which will help you grow, or you can drop the weight and allow it to hurt you. Some people give up on God, accusing Him of not helping them during their toughest moments. Friend, that’s not it at all! I can’t say to a weight trainer, “If you love me, you’ll carry the weights for me”. His job is to make me sweat, to groan, to push beyond the limits I’ve set for myself. Yet, I will see incredible growth if I will trust the trainer. God wants that for you! So don’t accuse God of not wanting to help you, He is! Finish the exercises He has assigned to help make you stronger, and you’ll see that the “ME” in you can accomplish so much more in life, if you’ll just trust Him!

VIDEO TEXT

After a successful production in Croatia, I took a whirlwind tour in Poland to meet pastors.I arrived in the U.S. for what would be a very short but busy 2 weeks. I couldn't help myself. I had to stop and grab something at McDonalds! However, I did make up for it by visiting my local gym for a quick workout. I don't usually get to workout while overseas, so this was a blessing.

I had a chance to see friends I haven't seen in some time, and to catch up with all that's going on in their lives. My birthday was October 2, and friends were wonderful to remember and get together to celebrate. The next day there was another “part” birthday party/”part” cast party for my cast from Korea. We had a wonderful time in fellowship and food!

The same weekend was also our Covenant Church's mission's conference called “WorldFest” hosted by missons pastors Ralph and Donna Holland, and international pastors and missionaries from around the world all converged on Dallas. It was great to see so many pastors from other countries, seen here are pastors from Croatia, Mexico, Nicaragua and other countries.

I was also able to meet with friends Mac and Caroline Leaf, from South Africa, an up and coming speaker that you'll soon be hearing about. Also I was able to have a board meeting with the Cornerstone Board, made up of Tim Lambert, Dr. Paul Grayburn, Bryan Adams, Paul and Brenda Platt and Patrick Mitchella.

All along, I had also been preparing for the reason I was in town, for the World Ventures production at the Garland Events Center. I had a great group of workers: Chris from Texas, Rafy from Zimbabwe, and Oleg from Ukraine. We loaded in our sets, and spent the first day organizing. The sets and the scenes are varied, from a day at the beach to a snowy ski resort in the Rocky Mountains.

In the middle of the production, dear friends, David and Gretle from Korea flew into town to visit. It was good to see them, but I had almost no time to spend with them! Sorry David and Gretle!

We had some final meetings before the show, and we after prayer, we opened the show. It was a gala affair with around 2, 500 people in attendance. The crowd was enthusiastic, and ready to hear everything we had prepared. Praise the Lord. One after another, the characters continued to surprise the audience, with powerful messages about learning leadership, servanthood, and family. Seen here is the character, Alexander the Great.

One of the last characters was Batman, and as dark a character as he is, the message was about learning to protect your own city, your family, your home. The audience loved the message. After the show, the crew and the one actor, Marc Accetta pose for the camera. It is a small, but professional group of workers. After the three day show, I left the next day for Frankfurt, Germany. I was so exhausted after getting no sleep in Dallas, that I slept the whole way to Germany. I then transferred and flew on to Kiev, Ukraine, and finally Armyansk, Crimea.

Armyansk is a world apart from Dallas, Texas, with many World War II memorials. It's a simple, sleepy little town, whose pace is one hundred times slower than in in Dallas! The Orthodox church is active here, and isn't fond of the Protestant church, so we're in prayer believing for a beautiful show and a powerful outreach to reach many with the message of Jesus.

Bytye Blagoslavenie!

That is Crimean for God Bless You! It was just wonderful to be back in Dallas, albeit for work, but to see a few friends in the short amount of time I was there. To everyone else, please forgive me! Time just didn't allow me to see everyone! I'll be back at Christmas and hope to see you then! Next up? Croatia... again... for a big beautiful Christmas show. God bless you, and I'll talk to you again next month!

For the Kingdom,
Richard Montez