A modern day Athens?

This morning I was watching some of the things going on outside. In addition to the many people coming and going, the various men yelling up to the people living in the apartments what they are selling, I noticed a woman walking through this lumber yard. As you can see, there are some cows tied up in the yard, as there are every day. She was nicely dressed, and carrying something to give to the cows to eat. I noticed her giving some sort of sign after giving the cows what she was carrying and it occurred to me that she was worshipping the cows at that very moment. As I was astonished, I began to feel very sad at what she was doing. I realized again, through all that we have been doing so far to get set up here in our city, that people are so very lost.

The people of South Asia are a very spiritual people, as I notice by all the idols, false gods and temples that are everywhere we look. It makes me think of Paul in Acts 17, and how he was greatly distressed to see that Athens was full of idols and he even saw that the people were very religious. It is distressing and sad that 99% of these religious people we walk past every day here do not know the One True God, and are going down a road that is leading them to eternal separation from Jesus.

However, as my partner here pointed out that as bad as the idol worship was in Athens, those false gods and idols are nothing but myths and legends today. God has defeated and crushed the beliefs in those false gods, and we may be privileged to witness and be a part of the beginnings of another revolution that will take down the false gods and idols we are seeing worshipped right here.

Please continue to pray for the people of South Asia, that God will bring these people to know Him personally. Pray for the nationals who come to accept Jesus to be sowers of the Word, to grow His fame among these people, and for the people to be receptive to what the truth is. It is not anyone's power or might that can do this, but it is God alone who can accomplish His task through faithful and obedient followers.

Many Thanks on this day of Thanksgiving

“First of all, I ask you to pray for everyone. Ask God to help and bless them all, and tell God how thankful you are for each of them.” 1 Timothy 2:1

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. While we are living in a temporary apartment here in our city until our new flat is finished, there are some thanks I would like to share during this time of Thanksgiving.

We are thankful for God’s provision while we are here to have found an apartment so quickly, and a new one at that! Even though we are waiting for it to be complete, it is a blessing, and we are thankful.

We are thankful for our health while here. The “crud” has gone once through the family, but it seems to have gone away and it was nothing major. Nothing a little antibiotics couldn’t cure.

We are thankful for our team members here in our city, the newest members of our family, who we are able to spend time getting to know and who we will be spending much time together for the next few years. They have been a huge help and blessing to us as we have been getting set up here and we look forward to the growing relationship and fellowship our families will have in the future working together for the One True God.

We are thankful for our family members who have sacrificed a normal relationship with us and our children to encourage us to follow God’s purpose in our lives, and seek Him.

We are thankful for our friends and our church family back home, who have also sacrificed close relationships with us to encourage us to do God’s work on the other side of the world. Your support and prayers are much appreciated.

We are thankful for our prayer partners back home as well as overseas, who lift us up to the Father often. Even through the busy-ness of life, I know that they have committed to partnering with us in prayer while we are here. Not only lifting us up, but also the people we are engaging here in South Asia to come to know Jesus as we do.

We are thankful for the IMB who has allowed us the privilege to be vessels to be used by God.

Most of all, we are thankful for a Heavenly Father whose love for His children is larger than we can even imagine. He took the time to create us, put us together as a family, and ready us for service in a far away place. He has brought us out of many pits, some so deep that we could have easily given up. But through faith in Him we persevered, and became stronger from those times. The times may not be easy here, but we know that God will provide for our every little need. We will cling to Him and rely on Him for everything. We will consider it joy to do what we must to make His name famous in this place.

Culture Shock or, Culture Integration?

Alright, call me a sports nut. I love football, basketball, baseball, hockey, any kind of sport I can watch. And, I can understand all these sports. These are the things I grew up watching and cheering. And now what sport is popular in South Asia? Cricket. It might as well be chess for all I understand it!

We have been at another IMB couple's house in another city in South Asia for a language workshop, and of course, the huge match between India and Pakistan is taking precedence over many other things. So, with a day to do nothing but relax after our train trip, myself and another co-worker sat and watched, for about 5 hours the first in a series of matches between the rival India and Pakistan. And, amazingly, I found myself beginning to understand the scoring, and the whole game! It was pretty exciting, actually. I have a desire to watch another game and even seek out the highlights. So, I'm either really hurting for some of my beloved sports back home, or maybe, just maybe I am beginning to integrate this culture into some of my own. Don't worry, there is still room for following some football on ESPN, only Monday night football comes on during the morning. Hey, maybe that means I'll be able to watch a full game and not fall asleep!

Anyways, we are all fine and will begin language learning with a helper as soon as we return to our city. In about a week or two, our apartment will be ready to move into, and then starts the task of filling it with furniture and making it a home away from home. Then we will be settled and concentrate more on our tasks.

Finally!

Well after some travel delays, cancellations and lost baggage (which was retrieved finally!), we are here in our home city! God has been good to us through all of it, and now it is time to go to work!

We are staying at another GCC’s house temporarily while they are stateside, though they are with a different company. It is fully furnished, but we are still living out of suitcases for now. However, we have located and seen some apartments here with the help of our team members, who have been an incredible blessing to us regarding us getting set up to survive life here early. I knew that God had a place to stay for us long before we even chose to follow His plan to come here, and in a matter of days we have signed a contract on a brand new apartment. It will be ready in 2-4 weeks for us to move in because the electricity, cabinets and cleaning needs to be finished. God is showing us His provision right at the start.

The kids have been doing fine, no bad signs of culture shock, other than jet-lag waking them up at 3AM for about a week, but we are pretty much over that now. The other part of culture shock is the fact that they cannot just go outside to play, or play with the national kids. These kids are not around much because they are in school 6 days a week and when they get home from school they are doing homework for the afternoon. Our team members have 2 kids, and my daughter and their daughter, only 2 years apart, have become very quick friends. My 4 year old son just likes to play video games or eat, which is a close match to their 15 year old son, the only difference is age!

We will be traveling as a family for some intensive language training in another city next week. It ought to be fun, because we’ll be traveling by train. We then come back and find someone for our one on one language teaching, which is called “barefoot learning”. That means that there is no formal classroom, but we are to use our language teacher for a couple hours per day and then we are on our own to practice what we learn. That is our primary task now for the next 4 months, as the company will pay for our teacher for that long. We are on our own to learn what we can from there. I realize that it is very important to know the language to be affective, because we have been very dependent on our team members to help us get things done. Hopefully we will be able to learn enough to survive on our own soon enough.

I hope that I have not bored anyone, but this is definitely a process more than we had ever expected, and sometimes seems very overwhelming. However, we know that God is with us, and He has been working here long before we arrived, and just as Joseph told Pharoah that he could not do it himself, but God could. We know that we must rely on God for all of our needs. Pray that we can incorporate ourselves into the culture and the community to show Christ to those who have never heard of Him.

Arrival!!

And we have arrived!! Through many cancellations, delays and 3 different airlines (our arrival came from a different airline and a different location than first booked) we are in the country that God has planned for us to be in, to begin the work that He has chosen for us to do, even before we were born. We are happy to be here, and are waiting on 8 of our 12 bags that did not arrive with us! Big surprise, as many others here are waiting on their luggage also. Through this, we have learned not to take for granted even the simplest of things. Air travel was rough, and now we have little clothes, but I know that we are to trust and rely on God and not the things of this world. So we are praying that our bags will come to us before heading to our final destination city on Tuesday. Our team members are waiting for us there with temporary housing while we will look for a place to stay. Thank you for all your prayers during travel. God must be planning to use us for some great things, or our enemy would not have been trying to hinder us at the last minute from coming, and discouraging us by our bags not being here. Pray that we stay focused now more than ever on His word and rely on Him alone.

Final Goodbyes

The countdown has begun. The excitement is building. After two years of God leading me and my family to serve Him internationally, selling a house, several volunteer trips to South Asia, 8 weeks of orientation, it has come down to just days away from leaving the U.S.

And the excitement is filled with mixed emotions. I knew that saying goodbye to family would be tough, and it has been. This last week my dad, the one who my son is named after, came to visit me and the kids. It was good to see him and talk with him in person. Also, my uncle came up to visit us this past weekend from Alabama and attend church with me Sunday. It was a great time and so good to see and be with familiar faces. Likewise, my wife has been visiting her family in Montana this past week. She will be saying her final goodbyes today as she comes back to do final packing. It has been harder the closer we get to leaving to say goodbye.

Yesterday at our church, I was worshipping during service, and it started to hit me that this is the last corporate worship I will be in with my church family for years. I found it hard to keep my emotions in while singing in worship. What a great church family and staff God has blessed us to be among. They are so loving and so supportive. Our close friends that we have been around this last 2 weeks are the ones we have been doing life with for the past several years, and it will be hard to say goodbye to them. We have been so blessed to have such great friends who would drop anything at anytime for us, and sometimes they have. They live out their faith by being obedient to laying down their lives for their friends. Greater love is not found anywhere, and we love you all for the sacrifices you have made for us all over the years!!

We then ready ourselves for a long journey, about 24 hours of travel, and obvious culture shock upon arrival for the kids. Our team members, who are the only IMB personnel in the city we are going, and quite possibly the only non-south asians, are quite alone. It will be good to see them and minister and fellowship with them when we get there. They are going to be a huge help to us as we move in. Then we begin to put all the learning we've had into practice. I know that we have a specific job with the IMB for a specific people group in South Asia, but our main job is to be Jesus to the people we come in contact with, to share God's word with those who have never heard of Him. To spread the fame of His name in a place where the enemy has had reign for thousands of years. We will be attacked spiritually more than we have ever been attacked, in ways that we haven't even thought of, but we know that just as God was with Joseph and Job, He is always with us. We can trust in this promise: "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8

We're Home!!!

Wow, did 8 weeks go by fast or what? We are back home after finishing strong at FPO. What a rich time it was, and what a great time we had at the very end.

To sum up our 8 weeks, we were filled with all kinds of teaching, our time was filled almost every minute, our worship time each Sunday morning was a small group worship, and we also had cultural worship every Sunday night with the entire community. Our cultural worship was very good, and showed us how different countries worship God. There was Korean, Chinese, African, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American. All great moving times of corporate worship. Our last Sunday together was a time of our own worship, one we are so blessed to be able to celebrate. I thought I was the only one who was weeping by worshipping for the first time in familiarity, but as I looked around most everyone was emotionally moved by this worship of Jesus that we all had missed so much.

We finished on Tuesday morning with the commissioning of the entire group who are being sent out to our regions in the next two weeks. Jerry Rankin spoke and Clyde Meador prayed over us, as the rest of the 400 visitors to see their family members commissioned held their hands over us and prayed for us. My wife and I were priviledged to have 3 pastors from our church attend the service, and what a blessing that was to us! Not just familiar faces after 8 weeks, but special ones in our lives. Our Associate Pastor, who is the one who encouraged me to walk in obedience to God calling me to go on my first mission trip to South Asia and has continued to pour into our lives the encouragement we have needed during this time. To our marriage and family pastor who believed in us and encouraged us not to give up on ourselves when we were almost down and out years ago, and helped us to let God do a healing in us. To the missions pastor who was with the IMB for 15 years before taking his current position, who has helped to guide us and encourage us throught this whole process. It meant so much for you to be there and I can't describe how we felt with you present at that moment.

We flew home Wednesday, and since have been going through all of our stuff and trying not to be overwhelmed with the decision about what to pack for the next 3 years! We'll make it through. We are so excited to be home, but also very excited to be close to flying to where God is going to use us.

Ready for Departure

As much fun and information gathering as we have had while here at FPO, we are so ready to get going on our journey. We appreciate all the things we have learned, and now are ready to apply all of that knowledge that we have been shoving into our brains (there is no more room!).

We are spending our final full week of orientation with our regional office people this week. We took a tour of the IMB offices and went out to a local South Asian restaurant, food very similar to what we will eat where we are going.

So much information, and not enough time to share it all. The commissioning of this FPO community is next Tuesday. Thank you for your prayers, and I will probably post one last time after this week is over from here at ILC. We head home before that to prepare and pack for our flight overseas. We are still very excited, and can hardly contain ourselves!

FPO- Weeks 5&6

And yes, I thought the same thing- where has the time gone? Seems like we just got here, and now we are staring at the last two weeks of FPO! Also, we are only 1 month from loading all we can onto an airplane and heading out to South Asia for the next 3 years. It seemed like so long ago, but now it's right around the corner. I know that I echo many people's thoughts here when I say that we are ready to be there now! The excitement is building, but let us also be focused on the One who is sending us, Jesus.

Week 5 was our security contingency training, which all I can say about it- intense, but very necessary! Thank you to those that came in for 6 days and put us through a lot of needed information for those who travel overseas. I wish that some of our short term mission volunteers could go through this training as well.

Week 6 involved learning about bible storying. It was a full two day session that taught us how to put the bible into understandable stories for those who are oral cultures, or non-literates. We have been practicing this technique all last week and will continue in our small groups to practice storying more this week. We also learned T4T (Training for Trainers). This is a method that I have seen in practice in South Asia, and it works very well with CPM. It is a training method where you train trainers to be trainers of trainers. (Say that three times fast, and then do your best train whistle imitation!) It is an exponential method of training where you start with one group of 4, then each of the 4 goes out and shares with 4 more people, then each of those shares with 4. Each of the origional 4 is still being trained, but they are taught to train those they have shared with what they have just learned, and so on. If you draw this out on a piece of paper, you very quickly will have many trainees training other trainees. These obviously are all small groups, and what they are being trained in is the gospel and how to share it, your testimony and how to train others. It was very interesting, and I am anxious to get started in my own T4t.

We wrapped up the week with a field trip to Washington D.C. A two hour bus ride, followed by a trek through the city to witness to the many different people groups there. With all that there was, we ran out of time to do all that we could, but we made it to several different sites, all the while riding the subway to and fro, eating at a South Asian restaurant, and engaging in conversation with and praying over a couple of people, one a homeless man, the other a lady who was born in Trinidad waiting for her bus. With the short time we were there, we felt we didn't have much time to do everything we wanted.

That is pretty much it for now. Pray that we stay focused on the Lord, and not just on the end of our orientation, which is 16 days away, but who's counting?

A large THANK YOU

I want to take some time from blogging what's been happening here for a minute, to say thank you. Thank you to all of the Southern Baptist Churches who give to the Cooperative Program. Many people do not know what this is, but don't worry, neither did I until I began the process to do what we're doing.

Every Southern Baptist Church takes an offering from their members. In turn, SBC's turn around and designate a percentage of that offering they receive for the Cooperative Program (CP). This money goes to the IMB, for which we now work. It pays for missionary salaries, and executives salaries (who were all at one time on the field with the IMB before taking a stateside position). It also pays for housing on the field, and very importantly for the International Learning Center (ILC) where we are going through orientation to get ready for our field assignment. It also pays for travel into and from the field for missionaries, literature for learning and teaching. Everything that the IMB is gets paid for through the CP. The CP allows for people who are called to be "sent out ones" to follow God's call and purpose in their lives.

Many people know or have heard of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. This offering is taken every year, and this past year, over $150 million dollars was given. This usually buys things like vehicles for missionaries to use on the field, appliances and other things used by missionaries on the field.

Let me just say thank you to all Southern Baptist Churches for tithing, and giving over and above what God is asking of you. As I stated before, you allow many of us to follow the call to make the name of Jesus famous among all the peoples of all the nations. Thank you, from our hearts and the hearts of those whose hearts are being prepared by the Holy Spirit to hear God's word for the first time, and have the opportunity to accept the One True God of the universe.

Thank you!

The Harvest is Plentiful, but...

One of the major things that hit me this week is some staggering numbers about M's and the SBC. Let me just say that Jesus is right in saying that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There are approximately 16 million Southern Baptists in America, of which about 8 million are active members. If I were to ask what percentage of SBC members was a respectable percentage of M's that Southern Baptist Churches have sent out to the field through the IMB, would a 10% tithe be too much? What about 1%? Well, if you're already doing the math, you know that 1% would mean that we would have 80,000 M's in the field sharing the good news of Jesus. As of right now, the IMB is the largest sending organization in the world, supported by the SBC, and has 5,000 M's in the field. While many churches say that they are missions minded, how many people are our churches encouraging to be "sent out ones"? The workers are definitely few. I cannot preach too much about this, because I have been a follower of Christ for 15+ years, and only in the last couple of years have I realized the Lord's leading and calling to share His word with those who have never heard. What was I waiting for? One thing I have come to realize, is that it is a willing heart that God uses. If we are willing, He is able to do mighty things with us, even though we feel inadequate or unqualified. I have no seminary training, no church leadership experience. I am merely following a call on my life that I cannot call my own choice, and one that I cannot ignore. As Luke 9:23 says, "Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'" I must deny myself to have a willingness to follow a call from the One who saved me, and has given me a purpose. My goal is not only to glorify God in in my life and in places He is given no glory, but to encourage others who have the privilege of being a follower of Jesus to share the good news to people who have never heard His name. Whether that is half way around the world or across town or right next door. What is God asking of your life? Are you available and willing to answer a call from Him? What are you willing to deny yourself of? Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into His harvest field. One of those workers may just be you.

FPO- Weeks 3 & 4

Wow, I had no idea that I hadn't posted in so long. Where has the time gone? I promised myself I wouldn't get so busy that I neglected to write down what's happening here, but here I am posting once every week and a half. I must try to be more diligent!

Week 3 wound up Friday. Of course, we had our first round of shots, followed by a second round yesterday. My wife, daughter and me got 3 shots each, while my 4 year old boy got 4. Here is an amusing story about his experience. We pumped him up so much about getting his shots, he walked in and told the nurses, "I want 5 shots!" The first look at the needle, and he then said "I don't want any shots now," as he tried to scoot off the stool! The nurses were ready and quickly gave him his shots, to which he shed not one tear! What a brave little guy! He emerged to applause outside the office, and the nurses told him that he got the award for best kid of the day! WooHoo! Way to go K!

During our class time, we learned about doctrine. (Yawn) O.K., it sounds like a yawner, but actually the presenter was very thorough and kept me interested in what I really needed to learn. He spoke, with scriptural backing about baptism, what the church is, the Lord's supper and who should partake, and much more. It was very enlightening and I learned a lot. We finished the week with learning cultural anthropology. Again, I had taken anthropology in college, but didn't learn enough to remember anything other than it was the study of people. We were taught by a professor of anthropology form Mid America Seminary, who also is a former M with the IMB. He taught us that we are to adapt as much as possible to the culture we are going to be in. He also said to learn the language, not out of a sense that we have to, but to honor the people we will be reaching, and to gain influence with them that we took time to learn their language and share the great message of Jesus. He really put things in perspective. We have been blessed to hear some people speak and teach us with passionate hearts to help us bring the Gospel to those who have never heard it.

Week 4 began with learning more about Hinduism, which we will be encountering in South Asia. I have seen and read much on Hinduism, and we learned a couple of new things and also were able to share more about what I have witnessed of it through my visits there this past year. We were also able to hear about some real church plants from field personnel here with us for now. God is doing some incredible things among the lost people of the earth. But then again, He is a big God!

We have also been looking at Church Planting Movements in the book of Acts. It has been such great learning to know that CPM's are not just something that was thought up by someone one day. The book of acts models this for us. CPM's are scriptural. We have been blessed to learn about them from the perspective of God's word this past week. It's amazing the more you get into the Word, the more God reveals to you about His purpose and plan. I have heard from so many that getting into the word is a necessity, but how many times can we neglect that simple bit of advice and not get into the Word? It is one of the things that we will need to lean on while on the field more than ever, and the more we practice it now and learn to draw out of God's word what He has to tell us, the more effective we can be as "sent out ones" for Him.

We have been sponges trying to take in everything we can, learn everything the speakers are teaching us. Please pray that we retain this knowledge so that when we get to the field, our foundations will be on Jesus and not ourselves or our own power.

Next week, we go through three days of security contingency training. Though I do not know exactly what is planned for us, I have heard (from other FPO attendees) that it is very intense, but some of the best training we may get while here. Pray that we survive!(Just kidding)

FPO Week 2- Complete

Well, we've finished week 2 here at FPO. Mentally, it has been tiring. We feel as if we're in school again. We listened to Jerry Rankin for 3 days abouth spiritual warfare, which was really enlightening. We also learned about how churches in the SBC are defined and what the scriptural background is for that, and along the same lines the guidelines for how the IMB defines churches, also with scriptural backing. This was very needed for me, since I felt very uneducated to this subject. Very good information for us this first week. We were also introduced to some TCK's (Third Culture Kids) who are going back into the field as Journeymen or ISC couples like us. It was very interesting to hear and again very educational to us, as we are carrying 2 kids to the field with us. So far, everything we have been exposed to here has been of valued learning to us. We are processing all the information, and I guess that is what is making it mentally tiring to us.

We had our first meeting with our South Asia Regional office personnel this past Thursday. This is where we turned in all of our paperwork, if it was finished. Most of ours was, except for a couple things we will turn in next Tuesday at the next meeting. On top of all the exercise, meetings, small group times, meals, and sessions, oh and finding time to sleep and have quiet time, we have been given a list of books to read that is specific to the religion of the people group we will work with. Our people group practices Hindu, which has over 3 million different gods and idols, everything from actual human form gods, like Vishnu, Krishna, Ganesha, but also they worship rocks, plants, cows, a fork, anything that they think will bring them good luck. One of the books we have on our list is called "Death of a Guru", by Rabindranath Maharaj. I have heard of this book from many people, but I am not much of a book reader, unless I have time and am somewhat forced to read. I have to say that I have found this book to be very fascinating. It gives much insight into the Hindu religion and all the superstitions that they practice. I'm still reading, so please don't give away the end!

I volunteered to lead the Prayerwalking team while here at FPO. This team of 20 is responsible for prayerwaliking the campus every day for the next 8 weeks. The only thing I do is lead the meetings, make sure everyone is doing their part and that's about all. I do have a helper, I asked one of the team members if she wouldn't mind co-leading with me, since I am not much of an organizer. I can step into a leadership position, but organization in our family is left to my wife. I am happy to deligate that job! So,besides act like the team leader, I prayer walk with one of the men in my Quad M-W-F mornings. It is very uplifting to lift others up in prayer through prayer walking.

We are having a quiet, catch-up weekend so far, cleaning, doing laundry, catching up on our reading. Our Quad mates/small group have been a blessing to us. There are 2 other families, both with kids our age going to South Asia, and 2 Journeygirls who are going to South Asia. We have all had a good time and have bonded together as families already.

As I said, we have been loaded with a lot of stuff. Pray that we continue to seek God in the midst of our busy-ness and retain all the knowledge we get and take it to the field.

Week 2- Spiritual Warfare

We are full into orientation and settling into our schedule. This week, the president of IMB Jerry Rankin is speaking to us about spiritual warfare. We've heard some on this, and I believe in it, but being exposed to how we actually are attacked by the enemy has opened my eyes to why Satan does what he does, and how he does it. Satan attacks us in very subtle ways, ways that we think are our own sinful nature. He does it not to rob us of our salvation, because he cannot do that. We cannot be snatched out of the hand of our Heavenly Father, ever. But I learned that he also does not do the things he does because he wants us to suffer. Satan attacks us because he does not want us to glorify God. He wants to glorify himself and rob God of His due glory. So when we as believers choose to sin, or not do quiet time, do things that ruin our witness as Christ Followers, this robs God of His glory, and the enemy delights in this.

We are to understand that Satan is merely a fallen angel, and an angel is a messenger. He is not on par with the Holy Spirit. He speaks to our minds and lies to us. The lie that tells us to stay in bed another 30 minutes rather than get up and talk to God and have quiet time on a regular basis. The enemy tells us that it's OK to laugh at the jokes of our co-workers, or tell a little lie, or just take little supplies from the office. We need to be alert and conscious of Satan's schemes, and realize that he is a defeated foe! Jesus has won the victory already!

Now on the other hand, we can be completely obsessed with Satan and how he is working to try to defeat God through us, and that is unhealthy. God's word does tell us to be vigilant and alert:

Ephesians 6:10-12 says be strong and put on the full armor of God.
1 Peter 5:8-9 says be firm against the prowling lion.
Ephesians 6:16 says take up the shield of faith against the flaming arrows of the evil one.
James 4:7 says resist the devil and submit to God.
(the above are not direct quotes but my quick interpretations)

It seems pretty obvious that we are to pay attention and be alert to what the evil one is doing, and he does it in quiet ways to destroy our witness and keep us from bringing God glory. Satan cannot take us away if we are already saved, but he surely can ruin our witness and keep us from bringing more lost souls into the kingdom through his lies and deceit.

In a few months, I will be taking my family into a dark and lost land. The devil has made South Asia one of his many homes on earth where Jesus is not known, and Satan has control of over a billion people. Please pray for us that we stay strong in the Lord, and rely on His word to bring glory to Him where we are going. Pray for protection from the evil one, for hearts to turn to the Father and away from the evil that has been lying to generations of families for thousands of years.

Connecting with the Father

What an incredible time I had today. So far, we have been just getting to know things around the campus and adhering to a schedule (we tried hard to not have a schedule during vacation!) here at ILC since Tuesday.


Today we were directed to have 3 hours of personal quiet time however we wanted, wherever we wanted. I decided to take mine near the small lake/large pond off to the side of the campus, accessible by anyone on campus by a short walk. I took a spot on the rocks at one end. On the walk there, I was reflecting on my quiet time these last few weeks, months, and realized that my quiet time stunk! I was giving God snippets of my time here and there when I could, but never enough to satisfy my thirst or God's expectations. I asked Jesus to meet me where I was going, and as I sat down I was just still for a few moments and basked among God's glorious creation: the trees, the water, the rocks, the butterflies, the dragonflies, and just praised Him for all that I was seeing. I saw how the butterfly showed God's glory exactly how God created him to show it- with his beautiful wings. I felt very convicted that I was not showing God's glory the way that I should be. I did not feel any breeze and it has been extremely hot and humid here. Just as I thought about a breeze, a nice cool one embraced me, and I realized that God was there with me, embracing me with the breeze, and I gave thanks and praise to my heavenly Father.

I then opened God's word and began to experience it like I hadn't in a long time. The words of the Lord came to life and practically jumped off the page to me!

Isaiah 6:8-9a says: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!' He said, 'Go..'" We have been given the green light to go and make disciples now, not when things are just perfect. I have been waiting, maybe saving my witnessing for when I get to the field, waiting for my "GO" signal, when it has already been given.

Matthew 28:19-20 says: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Jesus is telling us that we need not be afraid to GO and make disciples, because He is with us for all time!

Acts 1:8 says: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Jesus doesn't say we may be His witnesses, we WILL be His witnesses.

The word missionary was described to me yesterday as "sent out one". Jesus has sent us out, called us to be His vessel to spread His good news. We are not taking God to South Asia with us. He is already there, preparing work for us, work that He has prepared long before we were born.

I expect to be challenged more as we are here, and the rewards for meeting those challenges will be overwhelming to me. I was also deeply moved as a Japanese lady who is going to be a missionary to China sang a praise song for the whole group of over 300 people in Japanese. It moved me to sobbing, as well as a lot of others. It just makes my heart leap with joy to hear praise songs to Jesus in other languages. I did not know the words she was singing, but it was beautiful, and I know that Jesus was being glorified right in front of us.

This is just the first week. Whatever else is in store, I can't wait, and I can't wait to tell!

Farewell to a Childhood Vacation Home

Our vacation has come to an end. We have had a blast as a family. Most of our goodbyes are done, except for the final ones before we go to South Asia for our assignment. God truly blessed us with this time, as well as a loving and supportive family.

I would like to share about a summer home that has been in my family long before I was born. 15 years ago, just a few days after my wife and I were married, my grandfather on my mom's side died suddenly from a lung embolism on the airplane home from our wedding. This was a sudden loss of a dearly loved and respected father, grandfather, husband and businessman of his community. Last September 3, my grandmother, his wife passed away at the age of 81. We were able to come together as a family from all parts of the U.S. to say our goodbyes in the hospital before she passed. After a simple and tearful family memorial at the lake, we all agreed to come together at the lake home we all grew up loving to visit and play at this time for a family reunion. This house was bought as a summer cottage by my grandparents in the 1950's and my mom and each of her siblings grew up as part of the lake, boating and waterskiing until all grew and left, still visiting and vacationing there, however. I was the first grandchild of the family, and I have nothing but great memories of the lake as do my cousins and aunts and uncles. This is a family heirloom of sorts. Unfortunately, since the passing of my Grama P., and all the siblings and cousins living on the other side of the country, it was decided this past week during the reunion that the house would be put on the market. It was a tough decision, but a decision by my mom and her sisters and brother to move on with their lives.

So I left yesterday saying goodbye not only to my family, whom I dearly love and respect; not only to the grandparents who God blessed me with and I will always remember the love and fun times I spent with; but also to a dearly cherished family vacation home, that always brought out the BEST times together as family, including the last two times there which were filled with fun memories and tears, lots of tears. So I left with no regrets, only great memories and maybe... a few more tears.

Goodbye to the lake, where I learned to fish, waterski, drive a floatboat on my grampa's lap, dive off the dock, swim to the point, canoe over to the canal to see "THE CANAL PEOPLE" (inside joke for my family), and learn to have fun and love those people called aunts and uncles, though I never considered you that, but more like older siblings because you treated me like a little brother. I enjoyed seeing my own children swim in the same lake off the same area of dock where I, my mom and grandparents swam. Such great memories, not one of them sad. However, when I think of it now, I tend to "fold" a little. (Another family joke)

Thank you God for my family, and all the great times we have had together at the lake. Thank you for this time we spent together to say goodbye to the lake and to grama and grampa one last time. Thank you for the blessings in my life and memories that I will never forget.

Vacation

Sorry its been so long since posting. Not much going on except for family vacation before going to FPO. We leave for Richmond on August 7 and that's where I'll pick up posting again as the start of our adventure begins. We are all having a great time with family and saying our final goodbyes. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers still and I look forward to sharing our orientation experience with you starting next week.

In Christ,

SAM

House Finalized, Packed and Ready!

I must apologize for the ME centered posts these last few weeks, and that my posting has been few and far between. Of course, we have been busy with finishing packing, as I said, for the next two and a half months. I've never had to pack for that length of time. I guess this just gets us ready for packing for 3 years! Up really late last night getting all the bags the right weight, which means we needed to unload some things.

The house was finalized yesterday, and we handed over the keys to the new owners. We also finished our wills and signing over power of attorney to close friends that will take care of things while we are over seas.

We have said our goodbyes this weekend here in our home state. Everyone has been very generous towards us as far as prayer support and some monetary gifts. We cannot believe the generosity of our church family, as well as the church families that have committed to praying for us that have given us love offerings to cover upcoming expenses. God has truly blessed us with an incredible community of prayer partners. We thank each and every Sunday school class, small group and church family members and staff who have blessed us and lifted us up to Jesus these past few weeks. We'll need your prayers now more than ever as we head toward the journey that was planned before we were formed in the womb.

We will be on vacation in another state visiting family and saying our goodbyes here before flying to Richmond on August 7 to start 2 month orientation. I hope to be able to blog more from there as we should be settled when we get there. Thank you to all who read this and continue to pray for our travel and continued preparation to go to South Asia. Once we get out of all this ME stuff, things will get much more interesting to read!

God bless,
SAM

Packing, Moving, Closing, Collapsing

What a crazy, tiring couple of days it has been. The date we have been looking towards for the last year- closing sale of the house- was preceded by moving all our remaining furniture and contents of the house to prepare for the transfer. You never know how much JUNK you have until you move. We gave much stuff to Goodwill and threw away much that we could not give away. We filled our 10x15 storage almost to capacity. We have enough room in the front to store a little more just in case. We have also packed for our trip to FPO and have had a tough time deciding what to bring, so we have packed all of our clothes in the suitcases. We will consolidate the things we will take to the field when FPO is over and we have about a week at home before heading to the field.

Our minds and bodies were already reeling and exhausted from yesterday and today moving, and then the closing, which was scheduled for 4PM, hit a snag. Our end went fine, all the papers were signed and the buyers were supposed to close on their end at another location. But their paperwork was not correct. Closing may not happen and we would not get our money until Tuesday or possibly closing may not take place for a week or two. My wife and I sat in the car outside the title company and prayed that all would go smoothly. We will still get our money that is leftover from the payout wired to us on Tuesday morning, but all this was quite the crisis for a couple of hours.

Needless to say, we are out of the house, staying with church family members until we fly out of town to visit family for a week and a half next Wednesday. We have some last minute legal things to do before, as well as spend time with my wife's parents who are visiting from Arizona and who helped us immensely while being here (thanks Ma & Pops!) They will fly back home Monday.

We also may have a buyer for our van, which will give us some more emergency fund money. We'll really be dependent without a vehicle!

It's time to collapse. I'll post some pictures of packing to get an idea of our last couple of days. Hopefully now we can relax some! Anyone who thinks their move will go smoothly, talk to me! I'll prepare you for the bumps with our story!

Things starting to set in..

..as in, things are happening now. Last Friday, my wife finished employment where she worked for the last 9 years. She has been home this week getting some stuff finished and packed. Today is my last day at my job. Next Friday, July 20, we will be jobless and homeless as our house is sold. Sounds pretty crazy, doesn't it? But things are starting to set in for us that this whole adventure we have been talking about for the last 8 months is upon us! My daughter said it very well a couple of weeks ago: "All this time it has been a year or 8 months or 4 months away, and now its here." She is excited to go, but is starting to get sad that she will miss her friends and that they will forget her. My 4 year old son, on the other hand, thinks that every time we get into the car, we are going to the country we will be living in. That country could be down the street for all he knows! He'll know he's there when we get there! Last night, my wife and I spent a dinner together thanks to our best friends watching my son for a while. It was nice to sit together and talk without being interrupted. We talked about what we need to pack, what will be stored, what will be given away. Its really hitting finality for us, but we are so ready and willing to start now. We praise God for His timing, and bringing us through all He has brought us through these last few months. Now starts the painful part of our journey. The goodbyes. I'm sure there will be some tissues used the next couple weeks. My advice, buy some stock in Kleenex!

True Hero

Check out this touching video from CBS News of a true hero. (Haven't figured out yet how to put the video directly onto a posting.)
Warning: Contains some disturbing footage.

This story makes me think of how our Heavenly Father loves us, unconditionally, even with all of our faults and sins. As bad as we look to Him and as helpless as we are, He accepts us even though it cost Him everything. Jesus left a comfortable place in heaven, experienced all the things we experience here on earth, and suffered a horrible death that He did not deserve. Why? Love for His Heavenly Father, and love for His children. You. Me. Us.

Scott Southworth is a true hero here on earth. What a witness to the world! May we all be heartbroken to love the unlovable.

Faith

This past Sunday, my wife and I spoke at a church to raise prayer support. The associate pastor, Eddie, took us up on stage during the service and interviewed us about our decision and what to expect. He asked us an interesting question:

"How has your faith been/being stretched as you follow where God is leading you?"

Any of you who know us or have been reading my postings for the last few months know exactly what our response was. THE HOUSE!!!

However, further thinking about this question, I realized that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our faith has been stretched during the crazy house selling process, but we haven't even gone anywhere yet! We know that we are going to be tested and stretched and challlenged in the next years to come, so we haven't even started yet. We think we have had it hard, but we know that things will get harder. We have a large mountain to climb ahead of us, but God knows what we are ready for and how much we can handle. God let Job suffer, but He knew how much Job was able to handle and still be faithful.

How is your faith being stretched? Are you prepared for it to be stretched to its limits?

More updates

Updates to prayer requests- thank you for lifting them up with us.

I put my notice in yesterday and told the owner and my manager that spreading God's Word among people who have never heard of Him is what I was created for, and that July 13 would be my last day. Surprisingly, they were very happy that I was making this sacrifice in my life, felt sorry to lose me and would have trouble replacing me. They also asked me lots of questions about where I was going, how long I would be there, what are we doing with the kids, etc. I was able to let them know that this is what God created me to do, and that I was following His call.

Yesterday also, we had the inspection on our house for the sale. As we thought, there are a few repairs to make that were mentioned, but nothing huge. We have not seen the report or the list of the things that the new buyers will want us to repair, but praise the Lord that the house appraised for much more that we are selling it for, and that the repairs are either going to be made or we will subtract some money off the price for them to get the repairs done.

Again, thank you for all your prayers and I will keep updating as we continue to go throught the process.

Also, the next two Sundays, we will be speaking at two different churches to raise prayer support. Pray for us that we are able to speak clearly and get as many committed to pray for us as we begin God's work among the people of South Asia.

Prayer Requests

A couple of quick prayer requests for my prayer warriors this week!

1. While we give all glory to God for our recent and long awaited contract on the house, we have an inspection this Thursday for the new buyers. This is an FHA loan they are getting, so home inspections with FHA's are much more picky than regular home inspections. Since our house is 13 years old, we know that there will be some things to repair and fix-up. Pray that this fix-up list is not overwhelming for us, and anything that is found can be fixed and will not hold things up in the closing process. I have heard a couple of bad stories regarding FHA inspections. Pray that God keeps things moving in the right direction, which I know He has in His hands already.. but it doesn't hurt to ask!

2. I will be giving my notice for my final 2 weeks of work someday this week, maybe Friday. Though it will be a little tough on them, but not devastating, pray for them to understand the situation and that a suitable replacement can be hired and trained. They know that my heart lies with sharing Jesus in South Asia, but they may simply let me go before the two weeks notice is up. Pray that I can explain to them in a way that will glorify Jesus.

That's it for now!

Still leaning on Him,

SAM

So, now what?

Alright, further blogging about what is going on in our lives. While we wait for inspections and things we need to repair to make the deal for the house go through, what other things are going on with us? Here is our itinerary for the upcoming few months.

I will terminate my employment 2nd or 3rd week of July. My wife will end her employment June 29, but may remain an extra week to help out if no replacement for her is found.

We will continue to store things that we cannot take with us into the field until the house is empty. Mail will need to be forwarded, the last of the bills will need to be paid off and closed out. We will also need to apply for the kids' Visas, and purchase some necessities for travel, like luggage. Deciding what to take, and what to leave. How do you plan to pack for 2 months? How do you plan to pack for 3 years overseas? As light as possible, I assume! Someone told me to use one of those fish scales to maximize your packing for 50LBS per bag, not to waste any space.

We will then visit and say goodbye to my family, who is out of state starting July 25 until August 5. Fortunately, they are all going to be in one place for a family reunion, or seeing all my family before leaving would not be possible.

August 5, we fly directly to FPO (Field Personnel Orientation) in Richmond, VA. We will spend 8 weeks at ILC (International Learning Center). We leave the ILC on September 29 to come back home (and stay with whoever will house us for a short time, since we will be homeless!), and continue to prepare for travel overseas.

We may visit my wife's family for a week after FPO if possible, and my dad may come to visit us around that time as well.

We have our flight itinerary for travel into the field. October 17, we fly from home and begin our journey into the South Asia region. We will probably get to our final destination city a few days or a week after that, due to some paperwork that may have to be done at the S.A. regional office.

These are the things we have in front of us. I'm sure there are many things to plan for that I haven't thought of, but we'll deal with those when they come up. Off to planning!!

Yes, the house is...

We have been going back and forth on the details of the offer we have received. This couple really wants the house, and all things are working out fine so far. I believe they will be getting their financing together and that may be the only thing that causes any holds on the deal. However, as of this morning we have a signed contract!! We praise You Jesus for the sale, and the closing date. Forgive us for any doubt or anxiety we have had. Thank you to all who have prayed for this situation. Continue to pray that the house passes all inspections, and that the closing date of July 20 will stay the same. May we also continue to pray for this couple who will be moving in that God will bless them in this house as we have been blessed. Maybe soon, I can get back to some good blogging, rather than everything centered around the house! Thanks for sticking with me!

In Christ,

SAM

A Just In Time Offer?

God has many names. I think He has chosen to have us call Him "Justin Time", as we have seen Him be in the recent past.

I say that, to let you know that we have received a full price offer today with a closing date of July 20! Perfect timing, God's timing. We are praying that this family is able to get their financing for the house. I have been praying, as I posted last night, that this family will be as blessed with this house as we have been. We will send the offer back this afternoon and hopefully hear back soon that it has been accepted. I still hope to put a SOLD sign, (over a picture of the house here, Guy!), sometime this week! Pray with us that things go smoothly these next couple of days!

Updates

What a crazy time it has been since I last updated. Here is what's been happening-

Our prayer meeting at the house went very well. It was an incredible time to come together and receive prayer over our house. About 15 people came and we lifted our house to the Lord. One incredible thing happened- we began to pray for the people who would soon be living in our house! I began to realize that we have been limiting our prayer to only ourselves. We prayed not only for the house to sell, but we prayed that the family that would soon occupy this house would be blessed as we have been these last 8 years. I have been praying this, as well as for the people on the street to be blessed by God as well. I have really begun to see that there is a much larger picture and plan that God has in store for the house that belongs to Him anyway. Thank you to all who came that night, and to those who prayed from afar.

We received an offer last weekend from a couple from Las Vegas, who are moving here with new careers. Great news! Only problem was that they were moving here in August and wanted to close August 15. We will leave for FPO in Richmond August 5. They gave a full price offer with us paying 4% closing cost. We agreed to all, and put in the stipulation that they have their financing finalized 15 days after the contract is signed. They agreed to everything except for the financing part. They could not come up with all the financing. The reason we put a financial contingency of 15 days is because we did not want to find out their financing fell through on the day of closing, after having the house off the market. Turns out, their financing would not have been there. Praise the Lord for protecting us there. One door closed, the Lord opens another- possibly. This past Saturday a couple looked and immediately called to say they were interested, and to expect an offer on Tuesday the 19th. We'll wait to see. We know that no matter what happens, we are going to follow the Lord's call and go in service for Him in South Asia. God will provide, somehow.

My wife has put in her notice at work for the first week in July. My last day will be middle July. We have received our flight plans for entrance into the field. We leave for South Asia on October 17. We have the kids' passports and are soon to apply for their Visas. We have rented a storage unit to store stuff we can't sell or don't want to throw away. We have already sold much furniture we do not want to store. We have been preparing our field for rain, and will continue to do so. Our thought was that the house would be sold by now, but God has a greater plan in mind. As a good friend and church staff member looked me in the eyes yesterday and said-"stay faithful, God is going to provide!" Thanks, KG! We are staying faithful with a great church family behind us, and strong influential leaders encouraging us, and many prayers from family and brothers and sisters in Christ. God has placed many blessings around us, and we praise Him for that.

We will give God all the glory for this time in our lives. As a wise leader recently learned, confessed and submitted to- this is not about us, not about the people of South Asia. It is for the Glory of the One True God of the universe! Nothing more. Would I be thinking this had our house sold soon after we put it on the market? Doubtful. God knows our hearts. He is in control. He is teaching us every day to be faithful; to submit to Him in everything. Most likely because we will need to rely on Him completely where He is sending us.

Well, that's it for the ramblings. We are 1-1/2 months from going to Richmond for our orientation and very excited that it will be here soon. Thank you again to all who have been lifting us up in prayer during this time. I hope to soon post a gigantic SOLD across my blog!

Following Him-
SAM

Prayer Gathering

I have tried so many different ways to pray for the sale of our house. Just this week, I decided that after I get up and ready for work, I will prayer-walk around the house 7 times each morning. (The neighbors that are up that early probably wonder what their crazy neighbor is doing!) It has been something that the Lord layed on my hear to do this past weekend, so I've done it every morning this week.

This past weekend, I mentioned to my wife that maybe we could get some friends from church together and pray around our house sometime this week. It is something I want to do, but how do I ask a bunch of people to give up an hour of their evening family time to come and pray for us? Sounded a bit selfish, so I decided to go with the prayer walk around the house thing.

Wednesday, my wife's best friend told her that God laid it on her heart to have a prayer gathering at our house sometime. After my wife told her that I had mentioned the same thing, she felt that was confirmation, and she sent a message to as many people that could gather.

So, tonight from 7:30 to whenever the Holy Spirit leads us, we are going to gather around our house to pray for a sale. You can be involved as well from wherever you are tonight. Gather with us in the Spirit. Pray for a sale!! Lift up this need to God with us! I don't know how many will show up tonight, but where 2 or more are gathered...

How can they?

One of my favorite scripture verses is Romans 10:13-15, and has been a word from God to me that has inspired our decision to go overseas. Here are some facts about South Asia:

1.4 billion people live in South Asia, 99% have never even heard the name of Jesus. How can they believe in the God that we know, if they have never heard of Him?

In the state we will live, 3600 people die every 36 hours- that's 1000 people an hour on average, and 990 will die every hour, and will spend eternity in a real place called hell. They will never know that they can call on the saving power and grace of Jesus. How can they call on the one they have not believed in?

The people group we will focus on when we get on the field number 14 million in the state. Every 10 minutes, 3 of them die never hearing the Gospel. How can they, unless someone is preaching to them?

There are approximately 240 IMB units in South Asia, which breaks down to 1 IMB unit for every 6 million lost persons in South Asia. How can they preach unless they are sent?

I try to quote the verse in Romans 10 every day. It is the one passage of scripture that, like I said, has inspired me to make my decision to follow Jesus into the mission field. Read the passage and meditate on it- committ to partner with a missionary or two in prayer. In this way, you are helping to mobilize those who are called to bring Jesus to those who have never heard, and cannot call on the One True God, the way the truth and the life. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. The task sounds enormous, but God is a big God, capable of much more than we give Him credit. You may not be called to go, but you can partner with those going in prayer and be as much of an impact for the spread of the Word throughout the world. (Thank you to Alyce Faulkner, Debbie Kaufman and Milton and Nannette Lites for thier open support of and prayer for missionaries, and for praying for our family even though they have never met us!)

Here's a thought: one day, when we get to heaven, someone will come up to you that you have never met, and tell you "I am here in heaven because you committed to pray for the missionary who brought God's word and helped me and my whole family to believe in Jesus and accept Him in our hearts. Thank you."

How can they? Prayer. Prayer. Prayer.

Celebrate Every Day

There are so many things that get us down. Sometimes we wake up in the morning already overwhelmed with what is to come, and we forget to thank God for what we could be blessed with during the coming day. Other times, we wake up in a great mood, ready for what is in store for us, thinking we have it all figured out. Then, life grabs us, and the things of the world and our busy lives choke the joy from us. We begin to lose sight of what God is doing right in our midst each and every day. We cannot see through all the "stuff" how Jesus is interceding for us, commanding His angels concerning us. We do not see the little joys that happen and pass them over like bumps in the road. Oh, yeah, every once in a while we catch a moment and are able to feel God's blessing on us, but just as quickly as it comes, we allow Satan to steal it away even quicker. So many things hinder us from enjoying life, or should I say we allow these things to hinder us. We put off so many things because of circumstances and troubles and no time. For example, a call to your parents, siblings, your uncles, aunts, cousins. Saying an encouraging word to your children. (The last one I can REALLY step on my own toes for.) We grow up so fast, and our children do as well. One day, they'll be the one's moving away, and we'll think "Wow, where did all that time go? Why didn't I enjoy those times we were together as a family before the kids grew up?" (Again, my toes are hurting!)

I wrote all this, if it makes any sense, to direct you to a post at the blog of a friend of ours I read just today. One that is filled with triumph, and heartache. It is a story with a video that everyone must see, and you will realize that WE must celebrate every day, despite our circumstances, because those circumstances and troubles will be with us until the day the Lord has pre-determined to be our last. Please go here, and remember to wake up tomorrow celebrating what the Lord is going to do with you AND for you that day and every day. (Once again, I'm preaching to myself).

"This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Decisions, decisions

What a wild couple of weeks. Again, we have had many lookers for the house, but no offers yet. Same story. We have been proceeding with plans to be at orientation in August. We have sold many pieces of furniture (to lighten the load of a move) and will store the rest in a storage facility. The kids have their passports so we are ready to go. As I have said, we trust that the Lord's timing in this is perfect, and we do not know how He will work things out when we are at orientation and still have a house payment that we will not be able to make. It has been a roller-coaster of emotion here over this, but we always come back to the realization that it is the enemy who is seeking to steal our joy in this matter. We thank all who are praying for us in this matter. We are so excited and blessed to be going where God is sending us, and we will not let satan take this joy and blessing away! We have decided to lower the price of the house. The amount will still pay off everything we owe everywhere, but not leave us with much to purchase the things we need to travel, such as luggage. We continue to trust that the Lord is in complete control, and will press on to do what we need to prepare and not let this situation be a stumbling block in our preparations. I know it is blocking me from writing anything really interesting here, which is why it has been 2 weeks since my last post. I just have not had the motivation to write lately. Please continue to pray for our family during this time.

Following Jesus,

SAM

Time getting short

Wow, is our faith getting shaken! Two and a half months till FPO. We are so excited to begin the journey God has placed in our path, but time is getting short. As much as we hear, "God is going to provide. Your house may sell tomorrow or 2 months into your service. This is not keeping you from going and doing God's work." It's hard to see all the people coming to look at the house, which we've had a lot lately, but no offers. To see all the houses in our neighborhood for sale, yet more sold signs going up seemingly quicker than they are on the market. July will be 1 year our house has been on the market. As I have said, we trust in the Lord, and there are many more prayer requests more urgent than ours. Sometimes we just wonder, what's the holdup? Why don't things just move more smoothly and easily? Why do we have to sound like my 4 year old asking for something over, and over, and over, and... well, you get the idea.

God's plan is right, perfect, and on time. We are encouraged by all the prayers for our situation, which of course is not life-threatening. We understand that God will bring the people of South Asia to know him without our help. We are going on with our plans, though a little hesitantly. We have sold much furniture and none of us has any dressers, and our dining room table is gone. We will both be done with work by the end of June to give us a month to prepare, which we will be giving our notice no later than the end of this month. Please continue to pray for our house to sell soon and for us to be strengthened through all this waiting (I hate waiting!). Thank you all for your encouragements and prayers so far.

Great time of prayer

Last night, my wife and I attended a WMU meeting we were invited to so that we could raise prayer support for our upcoming trip into the harvest field in South Asia. We spoke for 10 minutes about where we are going and the lostness of where we are being sent, so that we can gather as much prayer support for going as possible. We feel that putting faces to names helps people to pray for us, because we are now actual people instead of just names on a sheet of paper or prayer card. Thank you to all who were there last night and committed to pray for us.

We were also priviledged to listen to a dear friend of ours speak; Tina Hutchison, who is one of the most amazingly Spirit filled ladies we know. She leads her own ministry, Holding Out Hope Ministries, in which she leads a choir of ladies every week at one of the local prisons here and inspires them to rise up and be what God created them to be despite their circumstances. She is so inspiring, and has such a huge heart, she affects so many lives around her. She is incredibly gifted by God with a voice that can draw the Holy Spirit and make the most conservative of church goers stand up and raise their hands to the Lord. Please visit her site and see the great things that God is doing through this lady. We are so blessed to know her and her family. Too bad we can't take her with us into the field!

God has blessed us incredibly with people who have inspired, encouraged and lifted us up during this journey in our lives. Thank you Jesus, for all your blessings upon us.

Observations from recent trip

So much happens on volunteer mission trips, sometimes its hard to put into words right away. Returning from one of these trips, your mind tends to be a little foggy and its hard to process what you've just gone through. One remedy to remember is to journal every day's events in the evening while winding down. I began to write things down, but the trip went by so fast and so many things happened that I did not get a chance to journal. Here are some general observations that came to me today as my mind begins to get clearer and further recovers from jet-lag.

1. Culture shock- This happens in phases. The first phase is the 14 hour plane ride with the nationals to the country to which you are going. Slowly you are initiated into the culture you will experience with the sights, sounds and yes- smells. The second phase is the airport. You quickly realize that personal space is something you have left at home, and standing in lines is a whole different story- because there are none that make any sense! The third and final phase of your culture shock is when you emerge from the airport with your taxi driver that speaks little English if any, and he leads you across the most treacherous and crowded and confusing road you have ever seen. 5 or 6 men come to help you with your bags, and at first you think that they are with your driver. But soon you realize that your car has only six seats, not enough for the team and them. They are just porters that help you in order to make money. I forgot this and had to pay 5 men for helping us. While I paid them, the rest of my team watched, and suddenly I realized I needed to just get in the car. Like a parent coming out of the grocery store with his kids, I told my 3 other team members- "Get in the car!" Not that we were in danger, but we needed to move on.

2. Realization of where you are- When we arrived at a guest house where personnel for the company stay on their way to their final destination on the field, we met a new M family just in from the US ready to head to their city. We were excited to talk with them, and fellowship with them for a while. A family of 5 on an amazing journey and eager to share. I looked at my watch and realized that back home, it was Sunday morning, and our church family was worshipping at this very moment. We all took some time to pray for our church and their worship. It's an incredibly powerful and emotional thing to be able to pray for your church while they are worshipping half-way around the world. I can't do it without tearing up. You then realize where you are, and that God is with you here as well. You begin to realize that God is a lot larger than you ever thought.

3. Mosquito protection- They tell you to protect yourself from mosquitoes with some sort of bug spray. Something with at least 30% deet is sufficient for South Asia. Before my first trip, I went to Wal-Mart, into the camping section and started reading labels of the different sprays. One spray had only 10%, one had 20%, one had 30%. Look further, and there is 45%! But, there was one last one- 100% deet!! Better to have more than enough protection, right? I heard all the objections, even from my wife, that too much of anything is not good. I brought it anyway. One night, while there, we were stuck outside at dusk, and not only did the mosquitoes come out, but every other flying insect seemed to be attracted to us. Out came the 100%. Who else wanted to use it? Everyone! All those who thought it would be too much. Who's got too much of a good thing now? My 100% deet has come back with me the last two times also, and everyone uses it. If I spray it on, however, there is a 5-10 foot deet radius that if we all huddle into, we are safe from all mosquitoes! HA! The 100% deet bubble!

4. The moon- This may sound a little cheesy, but here goes. We fly domestic to our destination city, and when we get off the plane, we walk outside, usually at night, to the terminal. My first trip I looked up to the sky, and noticed the moon. I said to myself, "The moon looks the same here on the other side of the world." And I thanked God for placing me there at that time, and allowing me to be there. My last two trips, I got off the plane looking for the moon, and I point it out to the other team members that it looks the same way over here. Like I said, kind of cheesy, but I try to experience and notice everything I can, and share with those who are seeing it for the first time.

5. Worship- Another moving, powerful and emotionally uplifting experience is worshipping The One True God with local believers in their own language. You really feel the Lord pouring out His Spirit on you and the group you are with. Words cannot describe the feeling, but I get choked up witnessing these Christ Followers sell out for Jesus. They are obeying the greatest commandment- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.

6. Realization of the harvest- It becomes vividly evident that there is a spiritual warfare going on in this place. People on the street, non-believers which 99% of South Asia is, seem very empty. Blank stares with seemingly no hope in their lives. People worshipping idols and gods that they only worship because that is all they know. They are spiritually blind. How can they call on the one they have not believed? How can they believe in the one they have not heard?Seeing the difference of the local Christ Followers and the local non-believers is like looking at night and day. The joy of the Lord is so obvious in their faces. They have found their hope. We need to share this hope with those who do not know that they have the gift of this hope. The harvest is plentiful.

These are just some things that I experience while on a short term volunteer trip. It is emotionally uplifting, and sometimes funny to experience these things. God calls all of us to go when we are ready. All He wants is a willingness to obey and a courage to step out of the boat and go. No matter how unworthy or unqualified you feel. The experience will change your life, guaranteed. Probably not as dramatic as going into full time mission work, but I promise you won't be the same. It's ok to support missions financially and prayerfully, but experience God's work overseas and it will change your perspective on many things. It will strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Team Members Coming Home!

Hallelujah, praise the Lord! Our last two team members from our trip to South Asia are coming home Friday. This is a huge relief. Our worship leader stayed with our sick team member in the hospital over there for this last week, but she has received her clearance to come home. I will feel much better when they are home Friday. Please continue to pray for these two traveling in the next days. Thank you all for your prayers up to now. God has been so good to have this situation in His hands and take care of our brother and sister.

Encouragement needed!

Still processing an incredible trip to South Asia, leaving behind two of the team for medical reasons, and negotiating our house. I need encouragement after yesterday's happenings.

Sister who was possibly to begin the journey home today with our worship leader has not been released medically. She may be released by Thursday, but her husband is going forward to go to her tomorrow. As I said, his company has graciously helped him to get to her side by paying for everything from his travel to all travel documents. Please continue to pray for this situation.

Sunday my wife and I looked through the offer we received and came back with a decent counter. Verbally, we heard that everything was fine, the only thing we changed was the price, by meeting half way between the two. While awaiting for the counter to be signed and sent back, we heard from our agent who said the people wanted to first look at a foreclosure property in our neighborhood before they signed. What???!!!

Quite the emotional roller coaster ride! After wanting to call fire from heaven down like James and John did on the Samaritans :-), I calmed down and asked forgiveness for my anger over the situation. Needless to say, we are disappointed, but have come to the conclusion that God is still in control of the situation, and will work things out in His time. We have prayed and sought His council for our disappointment. We are still proceeding as planned, because we trust that things will work out. We are too far along to stop preparing for our field orientation and trip into the harvest fields. Thank you all for your prayers, and please continue to pray for our spirits to be lifted and for the Lord to lift our heavily burdened hearts in this situation.

In Christ,
SAM

Blessings and troubles on the field

This past trip has shown me that not all that is done for Jesus' fame happens just perfectly. I led a team of 4 to South Asia last week, and boy was I taught some important lessons.

One of our team members was ill with bronchitis before we left, but doctors said she was ok to travel. She really was a trooper, after the long flight we reached our temporary destination before flying out to it the next day. She really struggled with the medication, jet-lag, high temperatures as well as labored breathing. As we flew to our final destination, she became worse. She still wanted to go on, despite our cautions to stay with our partners on the field to rest. She accompanied us to a village, and we preached, prayed and worshiped, as well as accepted the local hospitality of sitting in the main room of a small house and being served whatever food they could scratch up for us. We were all blessed and then made our way back to the city to prepare for our introductions to the training conference that evening.

As we sat to relax and eat lunch, our sick team member took a bad turn, and I told her to lay down in a room with air-conditioning. We then asked our company partners to take her to the local clinic just in case. While we began our training conference, bad news came. Her heart rate was off, her kidneys were in bad shape and her breathing very labored. The doctor at the clinic said that she should be taken to better facilities in a larger city. After cutting our evening session short, we decided to call her husband, and send her and one other team member back with her to a good hospital in the main city. We prayed and sent them off, myself and one other team member to finish our commitment to our partner who had brought about 60 people from as far as 12 hour journey away. This was the best decision, as the person I sent is one of our ministers on staff at church. So our worship pastor went back with her, and more company personnel helped them straight to the airport. She was put into ICU with a possible blood clot and high blood pressure. Her status began to improve immediately. The conference went on as planned, while she was taken care of by the best doctors in the country.

It was a difficult decision as leader of the team to send her off and go on with our commitment. Another difficult decision was to leave them both there to come home. It was decided that the church staff member be the one to stay with her, which is where they still are. She is improving every day, and out of ICU. The rest of the team may be able to come home by Tuesday. I have spoken to her husband, who is doing fine and has spoken to her by phone and has been kept informed about every decision. His company has agreed to pay to get his passport, visa and pay for all travel should she need to stay longer than a few more days. What support. How many companies would do that?

I know that God has had this entire situation in His hands. He is the one glorified in all of this. For what purpose, He only knows and will reveal itself in His time. This was the troubles of our journey. The blessings? We had an incredible time of worship and teaching, which I will post about later. Bittersweet blessings, considering the situation. Oh, and by the way, we received and accepted a good offer for the house to close on June 1. God is in control. Blessings come at the strangest times. I have mixed emotions, but there will be time for celebrating soon enough. Thank you for all your prayers concerning all these matters. Continue to pray for our two remaining team members as they prepare to travel home, hopefully soon.

Back Home!!

Whew! I am back home from an incredible trip to South Asia. Thank you for all your prayers during the trip. I had hoped to blog from there, but was unable to access Internet for enough time to write. This was a quick trip, and as I will write in the next couple of days, a very crazy one. The Lord had us in His hands the whole time. God is doing amazing things among the people of South Asia, and I have had the privilege to see Him work among a very lost people. I return jet-lagged and tired, but my spirit has been renewed again for the task that God has allowed me and my family to be a part of. So, thank you for checking on me here, sorry I was not able to post, but I will gear up and write many stories about our trip from here on. Pray for me and my wife tomorrow, as we will be speaking at an SBC service around our area to gather prayer support by letting them know that God is as good on the other side of the world as He is here. Bless all of you!!

In Christ,

SAM