A Heart for the Orphans, Unique Work in North Florida & What Easter Demonstrates

Pastor Jim Shiner has a heart for orphans – the church kind. He feels for churches that seem forgotten, abandoned, in need of intensive care. Churches withering from neglect, abuse, strife.

“I have a heart for the orphan Christian, the person who’s been hurt,” Shiner said. “My ministry has been to come into a broken situation and get it healthy again.”

Shiner has been helped by Muldoon Road Church in Anchorage, Alaska, when she welcomed a lonely airman into her family when he was stationed for three years at Elmendorf Air Force Base. Shiner soaked up knowledge and spiritual maturity even as he acquired church leadership skills. Before his next duty station, he was ordained into the Gospel ministry.

The other church was Pines Church in Spokane Valley, where he served his second three-year military hitch at Fairchild Air Force Base in eastern Washington. Here again the pastor took a personal interest in him, the people were welcoming and supportive, and he was able to hone his spiritual skills.

Shiner says through those experiences, the Lord has taught him not only the value of the local church but guided him to ministry to those churches. He says at the end of the day, he’s learned that God’s desire is not for any believer to be in their faith journey alone.
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Lydia and Asa Greear are doing a unique work in North Florida. Asa is serving as a chaplain in businesses across the region. He’s found that 90% of the workforce in across North Florida doesn’t have a church home.

Through his work, he looks for ways to share the hope of Jesus with folks, to pray for them and to encourage them in their work.
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Every day, hundreds of thousands of people die without the hope of Jesus. Your faithful prayers will make a difference. That’s why the IMB created a free 18-month calendar, called “Impacting Lostness Through Prayer”. It provides guidance, reminders and encouragement as you pray for individuals and communities who have yet to hear the gospel. Learn more about this free resource at IMB.org/prayercalendar.
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Easter is a demonstration of the power of God over even death. North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear writes that Easter shows:

Guilt doesn’t have the last word in our lives.

Apart from God, we stand condemned. Our guilt before God deserves the wrath that we saw poured out on the cross. But because Christ hung on that cross for us, the full penalty of our sin has been absorbed. So now we can say, with the apostle Paul, “There is no more condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Pain doesn’t have the last word.

Medieval Christian theologians often called this world a “vale (or valley) of tears.” They knew what many of us try to ignore: Everything we love eventually falls apart. Chronic illness racks our bodies. Miscarriages fill us with grief. Diseases like Alzheimer’s make us watch in pain as our loved ones’ minds fade away, even while their bodies remain. As Victor Hugo said, “Those who do not weep, do not see.”

But the resurrection shows us that pain has an expiration date. The empty tomb is a promise that Jesus will bring us to a place where every tear is wiped away and crying is no more.