Crazy

That's what my wife thought when I felt something about going on my first mission trip half way around the world to South Asia. I had never been on a mission trip and for some reason God wanted me to go on my first one ever so far away and to a culture completely opposite of mine. I was asked to get out of my comfort zone, no matter how scared or afraid or unqualified I felt. I had a choice to make- stay in my comfort zone and ignore God's call or submit and go. Little did I know, that trip would change my life forever. I felt that God was calling me to greater things- to move my family overseas and be completely submitted, for the first time, to God's will, not mine.
It made no sense whatsoever to move my family from our comfortable home, schools, friends, jobs into the very heart of darkness and lostness of the world. It made no sense because of thinking from a worldly point of view.
God's word is full of things that make no sense from our point of view. It made no sense for Noah to build a boat for a flood when no rain had fallen on the earth yet. It made no sense for Abraham to pick up and move to a land that he had not seen yet. It was crazy for Gideon, the least of his tribe who was the least of all tribes to take just 300 men to deliver Israel from the oppression of Midian- who had over 100,000 men in their army. How could God choose David, the smallest of all his brothers to be king of Israel? God used Paul, someone who murdered Christians to be one of the models for church planting today. There are so many other examples of
The reason for all this? Did the people get glory for this? No, but for their faith in what God was going to do through them, they receive honor, and we can learn from their example. But God did it so that they could not boast in themselves, but give the glory for the outcome to Him.
So, what about us? We should be open to what God has in store for us, and trust that He will bring us through, no matter how scared or unqualified we think we are. Since 2005, when I heard the call to come to this place, I have had my hands open to God has for us- I can't possibly close them now.
So we keep our hands open to what God has for us. In the mean time, we continue on here with one more year of ministry to go.

Decisions

We have been in the middle of major elections during the last half of April and the first couple weeks of May, which has limited our travel for field time with our 14. Elections here is a very tense time. At some polling places, violence can break out. Most places, on the day of election, people of 3 or more who gather together on the street are dispersed by the authorities for fear that they may be starting a rally and planning to steal ballots or force people to vote for a particular party. In some other places, vehicles are commandeered for election purposes- and this is legal. Most times, if you get the vehicle back, it is stripped of all valuable parts. So, we have been staying safely in homes for the past 4 weeks. Now the elections are over, though the counting of the ballots is going on now.
We are in the middle of transition for us. 2 months left until we head to Thailand for our visa run/vacation/seminary class. We will be gone for almost 4 weeks, and when we come back our team members who have been here with us since we arrived will be going state-side, which will leave us here for the last year of our term by ourselves. Our team members have been such a huge help while we have been here, and have provided so much valuable experience for us here in our first term. The upcoming year will be difficult, but we know God's grace if sufficient for us. Our supervisor has mentored and modeled for me how to do things for an upcoming final year of ministry. I will take on another group of church planters from another ministry and do the same thing with them as we have done the past year. I am excited and nervous for this, but again, God will give me wisdom, as he has during this past year of ministry. I will also continue to take courses through Southern Seminary to gain enough education for career service with the IMB, and also for any other ministry that comes up that the Lord calls us for.
We are open to what God has in store for us, wherever that may be. So this upcoming year is a decision making year also. In August of 2010, we will go state-side and we will have successfully completed a 3 year ISC term with the IMB. We will have the opportunity to apply for career service, given that I have enough seminary hours to to be considered. With the economy, however, we have heard that the IMB may be cutting down on hiring for now. It has not been officially stated, but it makes sense, so we must weigh that into our decisions for the future. We know that God has called us and prepared us for this time, and He wants nothing but our best to finish what He started here. God has all things worked out, so we should not worry or be anxious. It is a great thing to be surrendered to His will, but He gave us a mind to prepare and work within His will, not be robots.
So I say this to just ask you who still read this to pray for our upcoming year of ministry. For us to stay within God's will for our lives- not our will but His be done. Pray for peace for the decisions we will be thinking of in even the next 6 months while still finishing our work strong. I promise to keep you posted.

Still Here

I am still here, but have had some major writers block, internet access block, all kinds of things keeping me from fulfilling my promise to keep posting regularly. Stay tuned, I will be back!!

Holi, Holi....HOLY!!!

We were again blessed to have a team from our home church visit us here. This is the 3rd visit since we have been here, and some have been several times before. Normally, however, we try to discourage teams from coming during major festivals, simply because it is difficult to travel, and find people who are open to hearing the Gospel in the middle of all the visiting and cooking food, etc. Our church had two college students who wanted to come, but they could only come during their spring break, which just happened to fall on the festival of Holi.

Holi, in South Asia is the festival of colors, to celebrate the coming of the warm weather. Everyone travels back to their home place celebrate with their relatives, so much is closed down during this time. The first day, people celebrate on the eve of Holi by burning giant fires around the city. Many people get drunk and sometimes it is a dangerous time to be out and about. The next day, people celebrate in the morning by putting colored dye into water and have giant water fights with each other.

All the members of the team played, and got colored nicely by the neighborhood kids- which made us all feel like kids again!

Run Away!!

They waited for us to come out, then shot. We were sitting ducks!

Defend ourselves we tried, but there were just too many of them, and they were determined!

After the color ran out, we headed for safe ground inside the house of our host.

We watched as the boys downstairs threw each other into the mud puddles, threw mud on each other as well as passers-by, then progressed to throwing dirt and ash on each other.

That evening, after washing as much of the color off as we could, we went to visit some neighbors, and low and behold, we were greated with more colors- dry this time though. We had some appointments to see some specific people and perhaps share the Gospel, but we got re-directed to a large gathering of men from the community who were meeting and they asked us to come over and visit. As we sat, the men came with hands full of colored powder which they proceeded to smear on our faces and hair.

This was a fun time, and though we weren't able to share the Gospel exactly like we expected to, we were able to pray for a household that day, and the team came away from this trip with a different perspective on life in South Asia.

We were, however, able to spend time in a house near-by that was really friendly- a perfect house of peace situation, which is what we teach our 14 (Luke 10:1-11). We sat, ate and drank what was put in front of us, which was ALOT! They were very friendly and open. The daughter of the house did mehindi on all the ladies hands.

After all the relational time we spent, we were totally comfortable sharing the Gospel. They were completely receptive, and when we asked if they wanted to accept the salvation of Jesus, they said yes. Praise the Lord! Husband, wife and son all prayed for forgiveness and accepted that Jesus died to take the punishment for their sins, and they committed to follow Jesus only. A house of peace that God can use to grow His kingdom on earth in that village. Pray for this family, as the local church planters continue to follow up with them in discipleship in order to harvest the local area and form into a healthy church. If the team just came out to share with that one family and give them the chance to accept salvation, the trip was a success.

In South Asia, we need to be careful not to knowingly participate in the worship of any other gods. A scripture that came to my mind was when Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews, I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do this all for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in its blessings." The "throwing of colors" is not a type of worship for the locals so the team that came had a great opportunity to be part of the local celebration, and be one of the locals and do what they do for the sake of Christ.

It wasn't a typical trip, but we may never know how many lives were affected for the sake of the Gospel- but God knows. He was glorified, and during Holi, the team was able to put a little Holy into it!

Notes From the Field

So thank you to those who gave suggestions about the blog. I will be tweaking some things here and there, so stay tuned... Oh yeah, and no more double posts- sorry, not so used to moble-blogging yet!
In February, we had a team from one of our prayer partner churches come and visit, a second visit actually, this time with almost all who had not been out of the country even. They stepped out of their comfort zone and came half-way around the world to know how better to partner with what God is doing in this place. We visited a few of the nationals we are working with, and were able to pray for and encourage them together. We also went to some village areas to share the gospel. In this place, when there are white faces, especially from America, quite the crowd gathers around as we walk. It can be likened to Jesus having a large crowd follow Him when He was on earth. We then are able to easily share some cultural things with them, and in turn share Christ openly. We have found that relational time always opens the door to sharing spiritual things. The team was also able to share stories of Jesus with school children, and lead them in singing worship songs. One lady, who leads worship time for young children in their church, had the kids doing "air guitar" during one of the songs, and even the translator was doing it. It was really a lot of fun, and this team brought more joy to these kids over an hour than they probably have ever felt in their lives. The smiles on their faces could probably be seen from space! The team was moved emotionally and spiritually, and went back home with a changed world view. One of the couples had felt called by God to just come on this trip. They couldn't explain it, but they have been feeling that things in their life have not been right, and that God was calling them to greater things. My wife and I were thrilled to be able to encourage them during the trip, and answer many questions about our call and life on the mission field. They are in the process of surrendering to God's will and have started an application with the IMB. I would tell them to maybe slow down a little bit, but the look in both of their eyes confirmed to me that they are willing to do what God is calling them to do. The process had been ongoing for some time, and the trip here confirmed it for them.

This week, I was out in the east part of our state, a trip that takes a 10 hour overnight train, to visit some of our 14 Church Planters. These guys are doing such great work, and I am so proud to be part of what God is doing in this place. One of the guys, Nathan*, is a former Buddhist who now follows Christ in spite of being cut off completely from his family because of his faith. His mother and father have wanted no contact with their oldest son. Nathan has gone to visit them, but he has heard his own mother say "I have no son." That is heart breaking to hear. Recently, however, his mother had an accident in which she broke her leg. He went home to help and support during that time, to which his mother welcomed him, finally after about 4 years. We had been praying that God would soften his family's heart to at least let him back into contact with them. Also, recently, an uncle of his family died, and his father asked Nathan to come and participate in the worship during the 39 days of mourning. During this time, Buddhists shave their body hair, and do many other things to offer sacrifice and offerings on behalf of the deceased relative. Nathan responded to his father "I cannot do this. Jesus is my Lord, and I cannot participate in this worship." Yesterday, I read Psalm 15, and the last part of verse 4 speaks of Nathan's faith- "(He who) keeps his oath even when it hurts," This is one of God's answer to David's question of who may dwell in the Lord's sanctuary and live on God's holy hill. Many followers of Christ right here are making decisions every day that go against their parents, friends, colleagues, neighbors and even society. Can we as Americans even compare with this type of faith? We shy away from sharing our faith because we might be laughed at or mocked or cast out of the "in" crowd. I'm definitely not pointing fingers- that plank is in my eye as well. I'm so encouraged by the strength and faith of the people here- those that have counted the cost of being a disciple- and it's a huge cost, Much bigger than I could ever have imagined and they still choose to follow. It is inspiring, and it keeps me going in the committment to further God's work in this place. God is getting glory here, but that glory will be shown much bigger one day. This is only the beginning.