Uplook - August 1, 2026
Happy Saturday,
August is here and that means Youth Camp, final vacations/travel before school, and gearing back up for school, along with a number of other activities. I have spent some time this week in between various home/church maintenance issues binge watching Apostolic Faith Camp meeting services. Over the past two weeks there have been services streamed from our camp meetings in Canada, US Midwest, US East/Southern District, and the UK/Western Europe. All the services were streamed so there was no lack of strong spiritual meat along with lots of encouragement. We were thrilled to watch the installation of two new District Superintendents (Canada and UK/Western Europe) and have been thrilled with what our ears have heard and our eyes have seen.
The beauty of these streamed services is that although it may feel a bit like a huge buffet dinner with no possible way to consume it all, you can keep coming back and learning and being blessed. And as you open your heart, God's word and the encouragement of the songs and testimonies can continue to bring growth and maturity in your walk with the Lord. You can use this as extra spiritual food during the next month until we begin mid-week Bible Studies again in Seattle in September.
As I close, I am reminded of the familiar scripture in James. We often quote it when praying for the sick but it is useful far beyond just that. It reminds us to pray in affliction, to sing in joyful times, to call for the elders to anoint and pray in sickness. It reminds us that when we pray, we must also have faith and both healing and forgiveness are available. It reminds us that we should humbly confess our faults to each other, praying for one another to remove any hindrances. It then finishes with an example of Elijah who prayed and God answered... even though he was just a human being subject to the same weaknesses, faults, and challenges as us.
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:13–18
May we embrace the reality that God hears our prayers and will answer. So, we must pray in the good and bad times, when we feel like it or not, and when the answers are slow in coming because God is faithful.
God bless,
BB
Rev. William E. McKibben
Senior Pastor
August is here and that means Youth Camp, final vacations/travel before school, and gearing back up for school, along with a number of other activities. I have spent some time this week in between various home/church maintenance issues binge watching Apostolic Faith Camp meeting services. Over the past two weeks there have been services streamed from our camp meetings in Canada, US Midwest, US East/Southern District, and the UK/Western Europe. All the services were streamed so there was no lack of strong spiritual meat along with lots of encouragement. We were thrilled to watch the installation of two new District Superintendents (Canada and UK/Western Europe) and have been thrilled with what our ears have heard and our eyes have seen.
The beauty of these streamed services is that although it may feel a bit like a huge buffet dinner with no possible way to consume it all, you can keep coming back and learning and being blessed. And as you open your heart, God's word and the encouragement of the songs and testimonies can continue to bring growth and maturity in your walk with the Lord. You can use this as extra spiritual food during the next month until we begin mid-week Bible Studies again in Seattle in September.
As I close, I am reminded of the familiar scripture in James. We often quote it when praying for the sick but it is useful far beyond just that. It reminds us to pray in affliction, to sing in joyful times, to call for the elders to anoint and pray in sickness. It reminds us that when we pray, we must also have faith and both healing and forgiveness are available. It reminds us that we should humbly confess our faults to each other, praying for one another to remove any hindrances. It then finishes with an example of Elijah who prayed and God answered... even though he was just a human being subject to the same weaknesses, faults, and challenges as us.
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:13–18
May we embrace the reality that God hears our prayers and will answer. So, we must pray in the good and bad times, when we feel like it or not, and when the answers are slow in coming because God is faithful.
God bless,
BB
Rev. William E. McKibben
Senior Pastor
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