Paul had a vision: a man of Macedonia pleading, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

The biblical Book of Proverbs is a great source of wisdom and timeless advice. Proverbs 29:18 was a favorite of my preaching professor: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Dr. Hoefler felt that a major task in preaching was raising up the vision of what the Children of God in a particular time and place ought to be doing to be faithful to the Risen Christ. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Or as Eugene Peterson translates, "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves!"

Amanda had a vision. Amanda is one of the young people in our congregation and about three years ago she heard about the Play Pump concept of bringing water to villages in Africa, where access to water was a stream or river, or perhaps a well central to several villages. Who fetched the water for the villagers? Who traveled several miles each week to provide for the family? Of course, the mothers of the village. The mothers of the village, going way back to biblical days, often holding the hand of one child, with another child perched on her hip, it was the mothers who would bring empty containers to the source of the water, and balance those containers on their heads for the return journey to the village. Happy Mother's Day to those who bring the water. Happy Mother's Day to all of you who have brought the Living Water, Jesus Christ, into the lives of your families!

Back to Amanda and her vision. I'm not quite sure of all the particulars, but Amanda got the children of the Sunday School enthused by her vision of clean close water and Amanda got the Social Ministry Committee involved. The Sunday School hosted a talent show two years ago and charged admission - with the money going toward a play pump. A play pump is a children's carousal, the kind that children push and ride upon. The youth held a car wash - and with the water is near as a spigot raised funds to make water available in a far off village. You have to love the theme, Turning Water into Child's Play.

Each pump cost $7,000. A lot of money you say? Well, for people in the South African village of Maswazini, the results would be priceless. Moms could focus more on raising their children than making the frequent trek to the source of the water. The upshot is that along with a local Rotary Club, $14,000 was raised for the pump and its installation. A really happy Mother's Day Moms of Maswazini!

Three weeks ago we heard that there was going to be an update on the Play Pumps of South Africa, and we called Amanda to make sure she'd be in church as we thanked her for her vision. We wanted to encourage members and friends of Grace to tune in. And this is where the plot thickens. Last Wednesday, one of the members of the Social Ministry Committee watched an ad for the PBS special. The narrator said in part, "It was supposed to harness the energy of children to bring fresh water to their villages." Oh, oh. And he continued, "What went wrong with the Play Pump?" Evidently the vision isn't matching the reality.

Our worship bulletins had already been printed - and there was a quick flurry of e-mails addressing the issue. Do we throw out the bulletins and print new ones? Do we suggest that on Tuesday evening at 9:00pm everyone tune into a re-run of Seinfeld? Do we just hope that no one reads the bulletin or if they do, no one chooses to watch the Play Pump special? After all, we encouraged contributions to a reality that maybe has not lived up to the vision.

But one of the suggestions was this: "Let's take a deep breath. There's nothing to be embarrassed about here, or apologetic. If we only support outreach programs we know are going to pan out successfully, chances are we'll be skittish about supporting any new ministries. In fact, if any of the scripture readings Sunday are appropriate, let's encourage Pastor Kennedy to make this Play Pump saga a central part of the sermon." And so, here we are. Taking about vision. Talking about ministry.

The vision of Amanda to her church, knowing the generosity of the members, got us caught up in a project beyond ourselves. When Jesus encouraged his followers to "go into all the world," who knew that meant for you and me traveling with our offerings to Maswazini to support the vision of a promising ministry. I'm convinced such a vision led St. Paul from the mountains of central Turkey to the mission fields of northern Greece. A vision. And so the travelogue I call a sermon now takes us from Maswazini to Macedonia.

"During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'" It is fifteen years or so after the Resurrection, and St. Paul has been traveling throughout Galatia, modern day Turkey, preaching and baptizing and bringing people to faith in Christ. Sometimes Paul preaches to a receptive audience; other times he gets stoned (and not in the sense of the sixties). Not every venture of Paul leads to success. Then again, sometimes you plant a seed and it might take years or more to bear fruit. That's Paul in Turkey.

Then these words in a vision, "Come to Macedonia and help us." Immediately Paul responds. Sure, the distance to Macedonia is a couple hundred miles or so. And travel in ancient times is difficult. None of that matters, though. What matters is Macedonians need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and in the vision Paul feels it is the very GPS of God urging him to take that journey.

From the get go, Paul's ministry meets with success. A wealthy lady, Lydia, is converted to faith in Jesus and is baptized ... she and her entire household. We're not told if Lydia has a husband. We're not told of Lydia is a Mom ... but given that the entire household is Baptized, it's reasonable to assume a husband and some kids. "Happy Mother's Day, Lydia." You brought your family to faith in the same way so many of us were brought to faith - by protective and proactive mothers! And there is this added benefit to the conversion of Lydia and her household: given that Lydia is a woman of wealth, she is surely influential in the leading city of Macedonia, the Roman colony of Philippi.

Paul plants the seeds of the church in Philippi, but does not stick around to see it grow. Paul has places to go, people to see, churches to plant. He racks up countless frequent hiking miles. The GPS of God led Paul to all sorts of dots on the Mediterranean map. The dots are like bookmarks in our New Testament as Paul visits the Corinthians, the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Thessalonians, and he finally concludes his travels in Rome. The Bible celebrates his successes. Those times he failed, he merely picks himself up, dusts himself off, and starts all over again.

I've been fortunate that God's GPS has been stuck at the corner of Curry and Gomer. The GPS coordinates have remained the same for these many years: 41 degrees latitude; 73 degrees longitude. I didn't plant this church, but I've been blessed to see it grow. Grace is a community of people who have been gifted with a collective vision to do grand things. "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves!" There might have been a few missteps in our history - but definitely, the people of Grace are not stumbling! God has granted me the joy of seeing the vision of our leaders filter into the hearts and the minds of our youngsters. Even if we have not, our money has gone into all the world.

This morning, I invite you to thank our God for the visionaries in this congregation, such as Amanda and the members of our Social Ministry committee. With that in mind, join me in tuning in to PBS this Tuesday as we see what the Play Pump problem seems to be. Once we know the problem, who knows? Maybe one of us can envision a solution! As God promises us in the words of Jeremiah 29:11, so God promises the villagers of Maswazini: "For surely I know the plans I have for you ... to give you a future with hope."