Reconnection- Part 1- My Call to Christ

This may be a long post, so it is best to put this into a couple different posts. This is a build up to my recent reconnection to family that God has really orchestrated from the beginning. But, in order to get to the point of the story currently, I have to share my journey to how I met Christ and became one of His followers:

I was the first grandchild in my family on both sides, and from many memories and pictures I could tell I was spoiled rotten! My family was all in Michigan, and the first 6 years of my life I grew up as any child did - wearing some very interesting plaid clothing and Oxford saddle shoes. My parents were divorced around the time I was 6, and when that happened, my mom got re-married and moved out to California, where I followed soon after they were settled. The plan was that I would come visit my dad and grandparents for a couple months of every summer. I became a world traveler at a very young age, because they put me on a plane by myself to Michigan, and it became some of the most fun times I remember. I visited my dad for about 3 weeks at a time, however, I never saw him because of his job. He was a high school football coach, teacher, and driver instructor which kept him very busy, and there was only a few times that we really ever spent time together as father and son. He got remarried eventually and had another son, my brother, when I was about 12 years old. I was so happy to have a brother, and when I finally got to see him, we hit it off immediately. I remember having some fun times with him even with the age difference. The last time I really remember him was when he was about 3 years old, but the time we had was really fun- I taught him how to skip rocks in a pond, and we did it for hours and we would laugh. When I went to leave, he said that next time I come we should throw rocks together and laugh. I never saw him again.

My mom and step-dad got a divorce when I was about 13. My step-dad, incredibly, stayed involved in my life, even though we were not blood related, he and his parents and siblings treated me like I was their own. I really felt love, but there was still something missing- I still hadn't had that father-son connection with my biological dad. I really started to feel the hurt through my teenage years, and couldn't understand the lack of affection and attention from my dad.

When I was 16, my real dad was involved in a messy divorce from his current wife. The mess divided our families from each other- my dad's side and his wife and her family's side. Because of the circumstances, my brother's mom was protecting him from us, a fact that I understood from a certain perspective, but it still hurt. I desired a relationship with my brother, but was not able to have one with him due to the things that occurred. I desired a relationship with my real dad, but was unable to. I felt lost. Through my teenage years I began to try to fill my emptiness and hurt with alcohol, pornography and inappropriate relationships that really started to taint and ruin my image of women. I had a great family around me- my mom did an incredible job raising me as a single mom, and my uncles and aunts were always there for me- I felt more like a brother to the family rather than a nephew- rarely, if ever, did I call them "uncle" or "aunt"- I always called them directly by their names. Still, my thoughts were of how I could fill the emptiness in my heart- partying, drug experiments, sports- anything that would gain me acceptance. I needed to feel accepted, the kind of acceptance that a son gets from his father.

Enter the most beautiful woman in the world. Christmas of 1989, I met the woman God chose for me and we fell in love immediately- neither one of us were believers nor had we been brought up in any kind of church. We knew we were for each other, and that we would get married. Then, Jesus showed up! This is where it gets good, and due to the length of this first post, I will end part 1 here. (cliffhangers are cool!)

So Ready!

Have you ever been geared up so much for something, but then it seems to stay so far off you seem to lose some steam? For the last month, I have been sort of going through the motions and waiting on getting to our next place of service. I've been doing other things, but it still feels like a holding pattern, and filler to tide us over until we are placed in Bangkok. It's been a long wait, but lately, God has been faithful to recharge my batteries.

We have been communicating with our teammates in Bangkok, who are preparing for our arrival to plug us into what they have been faithful to do these last 7 months on the field. This has gotten us even more excited to join them. I have also been able to plug in, and talk structure and strategy, with our home church here, and receive more insight on my role and expectations when I hit the ground in just a few weeks.

Last night, I was able to talk to my former team mate in South Asia, who has just returned to the field after a year in the U.S. We talked about some of the things we went through while on the field, but even more than that, he has been able to visit with some of the church planters that we trained together, and follow up with them - the news is really exciting! They have continued to grow and train other church planter networks and have seen growth into the 3rd generation! In addition to that, he told me that last year, while we were gone, the church planters we had trained had recorded almost 3000 baptisms, and that was only half of the number of new believers for the year! The leaders there have really come to own the training we gave them, and have really advanced the Gospel and God's Kingdom like it never has been in this area.

We continue to marvel at the great things God has been doing, and I believe it was our leaving and getting out of the way of the work and the dependency upon us to lead and teach that has really opened up the doors for God to make the growth happen in that place. We can do all the seed sowing and watering, but God gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6).

This has really got me excited for what God is going to do in Bangkok and outward into Thailand. God is good, and he refreshes us as if we are trees planted along the stream. We hope to be used similarly in Thailand as we were in South Asia, and we pray that a solid church planting movement is started and we can just sit back and watch it go, until there is no place left to work! (Romans 15:23)