Newest Update

We've been off the field and home for over one year, and it has been a challenging and rewarding time for us. During our time home, we have been privileged to have many folks join our team and give to support us financially. God loves to provide, but He also loves to provide through His faithful servants to fulfill His goal and purpose of growing His kingdom on earth. We have been truly blessed by the generosity of people that believe in us and the call that God has placed on our lives. Having said that, we have gained enough financial support to be able to join our team that is already on the ground in Bangkok, Thailand. We have purchased our plane tickets and will be on the ground in Thailand February 28 of this year. Our team, all sent from our home church, has been working hard since July 2010 when they first arrived, and God has really opened up doors and provided many contacts for the team to advance God's kingdom in that place. Team Bangkok has been working closely with a local Thai leader, who has told our leadership that he has been praying 10 years for someone to partner with to expand God's kingdom among the Thai people- his countrymen. After hearing the vision that we have as a team, he has stated that his prayers have been answered. God is blessing our obedience as a team provided the contacts for us to work with among the Thai people to glorify Him.

We have felt unsettled during this year, even though God has provided us time to visit our families and friends before we go overseas again. But, we know that this is not our home- our home is where God has called us, and we are excited to be able to have a date set for our going. So now, we get to pack our things up and get ready to settle again. We count it as all joy, however to be able to be the hands and feet of our Lord and Saviour wherever He calls us.

Stateside Ministry Opportunities

Lately our travel around the country stopped, but the busyness of our lives just keeps going. We are moving along in our progress to join our team, and I have to be honest here- as proud of the team as I am and the things they are doing, we have been feeling left out and a little jealous that we are not there sharing in the sowing and building the relationships. Don't get me wrong, I know that God's timing is perfect, and we will get there in His time, not ours. But, we are feeling the way we are feeling because we are not in Bangkok yet.

However, we have been blessed to re-connect with many of our friends while we have been here in the U.S. We are making so many more connections with friends we just had simple acquaintances with before we left 3 years ago. Some of our friends from those BSA (Before South Asia) days have moved on in their lives. Others have matured in the fact that they understand what we are doing and want to be more involved in what we are doing but do not know how. The main thing is that we pull ourselves off the pedestal that people place us on (and sometimes place ourselves on) for being missionaries overseas and show them that we are normal, real people. We like to have fun and laugh, watch movies and tv shows, be frustrated with our sports teams (Michigan football is in rebuilding process, and I am okay with that), and just hang out with friends and show that it doesn't take perfect people to make an impact for Christ- it is Christ who works His perfection through our weakness to gain glory for Himself, and we rest in that and simply try to be ourselves.

With some frequent flyer miles I was able to fly to Sedona, AZ to visit my dad. It has been a long time since we have been able to just hang out and have father-son time. (I wrote about him in this earlier blogpost- Remembrance.) I was proud to go hiking, talk about and watch sports together and take a golf lesson, to which I completely forgot about when we got to the course!

Another huge re-connection happened with my half-brother. My mother and real father (not the one I visited in AZ) divorced when I was young, and my real father re-married and had a son. When I would visit my dad, I got to know him, but only when he was 3. My father then got divorced, and I lost contact with his ex-wife and my brother. For many years I tried to find him, but never could. Every now and then I would search the internet to find him but ran into dead ends and would not try again for long periods of time, and then would run into more dead ends. Just recently, I found his mom on Facebook, and was able to send her a message, not knowing if I would even get a response. Well, 26 years after I had seen him last, we were able to connect through email, and then by phone. We spent 2 hours talking about our lives up to this point and sharing hardships and similarities we shared. Our lives sort of mirrored each other as far as our relationships. We sent pictures back and forth of each other and were amazed at how much we actually do look related. This is all new territory for us, and we will meet personally soon. We live about 10 hours away, and have agreed to meet half-way somewhere. I really can't wait to meet him finally.

So, God has really held us here for some good connections- I shudder to think that if we had been in Thailand already, I would not have the opportunity to meet personally with my brother. So I am thankful for a God whose timing is perfect in every way.

Recently, I have also begun to teach discipleship to a group of college age students who are living in a low-income housing project that our church has been involved with over the years. There are many internationals living in this housing area, and the students are engaging them through an after-school program with the children and building relationships with the families they are living around. The teaching I am giving them is the same that was taught to me and the same I taught to church planters in South Asia. Their attitude, even though they are busy with college and part-time jobs is amazing. I thought they would be too tired to listen and learn this stuff, but they are so eager and hungry for this that it just blows me away. 3 guys and 3 girls sit and listen to me teach and challenge them to be all they can be for Christ. One of the guys came forward, and though he has been a follower of Christ for some years and it has changed his life, he realized he had not been baptized. He said that if he was going to make disciples and baptize, he ought to be baptized. This came from sound biblical teaching (not from me) but from God's word. Sunday, we went, as the group, to a lake area and he took baptism in front of the body of believers he knows will hold him accountable before God. It was an awesome step of obedience and maturity in this young man, and God was glorified by what he did. I look forward to the things he and the rest of the group will do for God among the people they are trying to reach. It was also an incredible picture of the body being the body outside the walls of the regular local church.

We are busy, and though we want to be where we are supposed to be now, God is showing us that geographic location does not matter- we can make an impact for God's glory where we are.

Listening

I have been kind of bad at listening to God lately. We have been so busy as a family-traveling to visit friends and family, going to missions conferences, speaking at churches. It all seems the right thing to do, but my relationship with the Father has not been a very good connection through all of this. It affects me when I do not connect with Him. I feel a real sense of being lost.

Yesterday, we sat in our home church and took the Lord's Supper together. When it came time to examine myself before taking the bread and drinking the cup, I had an interesting time of listening and hearing a conversation that Jesus had with the Father on the cross. Now, I did not hear this audibly, but in my mind, the words came and comforted me, as the comforter always does.

As Jesus was hanging on cross, here was the conversation:

"Father, here is my child Steve. I'm here representing him today. I know he has done many bad things in his life, and he has even turned away from you to pursue those things. Father I know he deserves punishment for the things he has done. But I am ready to take that punishment for him, so he doesn't have to. I am ready to take your full wrath upon myself for him because I love Steve and I want him to do great things for My Name. One day, even though he doesn't think he is ready or qualified, I will send him to people half way around the world to tell of me and what I have done for him today. I will do a great work through Steve for the sake of My name. So Father, I ask you to accept this sacrifice for Steve's punishment today, that he may be a blessing to people who have never had the chance to hear of me. Thank you for your grace upon Steve, and I promise he will be all that he is created to be, and that is My representative; My ambassador; My witness to the ends of the earth."

Now, I am not saying that is the exact conversation Jesus had with the Father 2000 years ago. I am not the only one who Jesus died for that day. However, any one of us could insert our names into this conversation and it would be essentially true. That is the power of God's grace and the truth of the Gospel. It's not just an escape from the coming judgment of God, but a blessing of new life in order to be a blessing to others.

The Soils

This past Sunday, our executive pastor at LifePoint Church preached a message on Luke 8:1-18. It is the parable of the sower, in which Jesus tells about the seed of the Gospel-

Some seed that falls upon those who first receive it, but it is taken away by Satan.

Some seed is received with joy, but since there is no root because it falls upon the hard hearted, or the rocky soil it withers away.

Another is where the seed of the Gospel falls among the thorns and was choked out- the worries of the world choke God's word out of them and they go back to the way they were.

Then, the Gospel that falls upon the good soil, or the prepared soil that is soft and allows the seed to grow yields a crop. That crop produces 100 times more than what was sown- it produces fruit that lasts and then regenerates more seed for more crop and more harvest.

But this does not just happen automatically- all the soils have trouble with the seed. Even the good soil, as Jesus says in verse 15 "receive the word, retain it and by persevering produce a crop." Even though some are good soil, they still must persevere through trouble- through life in order to produce fruit.

The sower has the responsibility to sow seed broadly. Sowers of the Gospel cannot worry about whether or not the soil is good or bad. It is not up to the sower to make the seed grow. He can water it, fertilize it but it is God that makes the growth happen.

Blessed to Be a Blessing

We have had an incredible transition from Atlanta back to Tennessee. We are blessed to have a house provided by local folks who own a second home specifically to house missionaries on stateside assignment. The ministry they are involved with is Shepherd's Rest Ministries, Inc.

Last week, I was blessed by being ordained by my home church's ordination council. On the heels of 5 months of intensive missionary/dicipleship training in Atlanta through Global Frontier Missions, and the power and wisdom from the Holy Spirit, the answers to tough theological and doctrinal questions seemed to come naturally, even being asked by much of the church staff and older and wiser leaders within the church. I feel really honored to be ordained by my home church.

Sunday, we and the rest of Team Bangkok were commissioned in front of our entire church body, LifePoint Church Smyrna, in all 3 services. Again, we are humbled by being sent out by our body, and the pastor telling the body of Christ that we are their missionaries- we are to be representatives of LifePoint Church to the nations for Christ. We have been set apart, much like Barnabas and Saul in Acts 13, and the Holy Spirit will empower us to do God's will among the nations of those Jesus died and rose again to provide salvation for. Today, our team leaders boarded a plane and headed to Bangkok- the rest of the team will follow in the next month, with us bringing up the rear. It was a treat to be with our team for the last time on American soil together, but we know that our home and our task is elsewhere, and we will come together later this year as a team to carry out that task.

We are extremely blessed to be a blessing to those who need to hear the Gospel. We do not take that lightly- we have a responsibility not to waste the blessing we have been given.

Our team going to Bangkok is 16 physically, but spiritually we are much bigger, and we have a big God on our side. If God is for us, who can stand against us?