A Whirlwind of Events

February is almost over and I have a concession to make. Yes, a concession... I concede that I have writer's block. So many thought swirls through my head but how do you construct any sensible words to share with the world?
The best thought at the moment is to share with you how we have experienced God's presence in the last two months on the road.

• We left home to begin full-time partnership development December 27th, 2014. Today is February 27th, 2015. God has provided 48.72% of our support already. We are eager to see how quickly he will bring us to full support and send us to Ohio!
• Allison's dad wondered how we managed to begin our travels right at the time that gas prices dropped the lowest they have been in years. We thank God for reasoning with the oil merchants on our behalf. :o)
• We also noticed that God has arranged the weather to allow sunny days and clear roads for each of our major travel days! Touring the MidWest in January and February may seem a little crazy but we have experienced God's favor each step of the way. Last Friday, we left Bloomington while snow was flying, but it stopped before we had been on the road 5 minutes.
• We are constantly encouraged when we meet face to face with other believers and share the work God is doing in the world to bring the gospel to people who need Jesus. We love sharing our story of God's grace and his transformation in our lives. We are even more blessed to hear your stories of God's grace! My favorite moments are sitting around someone's kitchen table or living room and praying for one another. It is truly a blessing to communicate with God and intercede for each other.
• New Mexico highlights: Being in Albuquerque for a cousin's wedding, showing up at church on the same Sunday as a high school friend when he gave an update about ministry in Turkey, staying with hosts who have become like family, sharing the Lord's Supper with church family in Los Alamos (potluck style!)
• Calvary Bible College and Missions Emphasis Week: We loved the fellowship with all generations: missionary representatives (from all corners of the world and stages of life), college students, faculty and staff (preparing students to serve in their community and the world). It was a privilege to be counted among those who have given the majority of their lives to advance the gospel. It was an honor to challenge students to see every activity and every major decision as an opportunity for God to use their lives to advance the gospel.
• Missouri highlights: staying with my college mentor and fellow missionary representative, reconnecting with friends from Calvary, attending ODBC (Allison's MO home church), catching up with a young woman Allison mentored four years ago
• We have been so blessed to stay with family and friends across the country. We have had 7 families host us in the last two months. 
• Illinois highlights: watching toddlers learn to walk, "speaking" a tonal language with a 2 year old, helping my dad out on the family farm, 40 minutes of sharing our story and praying for God's work among the nations at a church in Bloomington, drinking hot chocolate and eating pizza without cow's milk!
• We recently learned about a non-profit, Corporate Angel Network, that organizes transportation for cancer patients so they can receive the best care possible.  Their motto: "Cancer patients fly free in empty seats on corporate jets."  Later that week, we were at a church where someone mentioned a coworker whose young son has cancer. What a blessing to share this information with a family who would greatly benefit from this service.  

We head out from Illinois next week to meet God on the third leg of our journey: Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee and beyond!

Daring to Fail

I wrote the following note during the summer of 2012. Care to take a trip down memory lane with me?

[“God wants to send us to dangerous places to do difficult things.” Mark Batterson  Wild Goose Chase

At the beginning of the year, Jeannie Roth (a Cadence missionary and old friend), gave me the book, Wild Goose Chase, by Mark Batterson.  At the time, I was struggling with making a decision about the direction of my future. Mark Batterson’s book dealt with understanding and following the Holy Spirit’s guidance to obey God’s will.  I felt trapped between trying to obey God and having the faith to dare to obey what he actually wanted me to do. Neither my friend nor I understood at the time how this book would travel with me through the adventure that, so far, has been the greatest of my lifetime.

To start the year, I had been facing constant struggle and grief in my heart about whether to continue working a secular job or to pursue full-time ministry. It has been my heart’s desire for several years to be in youth ministry. I became a volunteer youth leader at my home church shortly after graduating Bible college 6 years ago. However, the division of my time and attention between work and ministry was a constant source of frustration.  As the demands to develop a career and gain further training at work built, I became faced with this problem: my growth as an employee required training that was completely opposite the strengths God had given me to develop. There was no option available within the workplace to grow as I felt God desired.

I took a trip to see family and visit some friends whose counsel I have always known to be godly and wise. It became clear after that journey that I had stayed long enough in my current employment and proved myself faithful. I knew leaving my workplace meant losing consistent, reliable income; I was also leaving an employer who had always cared about my needs. I will never have another opportunity like that again. However, I knew that God was closing the door at my current workplace. It was time to let go of the security and wait for the next opportunity.

I have since been on a roller coaster of ministry development and opportunities to share my faith and my story of God’s faithfulness.  I left my job in May. As I was preparing for unemployment, my home church offered to hire me as a part-time assistant to the pastoral staff. I mainly serve under the associate pastor who is responsible for both the children and youth ministries. My duties vary almost as widely as his areas of administration. I have taken the opportunity of fewer work constraints to travel on two mission trips. My first trip was with a group of youth, college students, and adults from our church. I traveled with 14 team members to San Jose, Costa Rica. We spent 8 days constructing a chicken coop, witnessing, and playing with children from an area daycare. Upon returning, my family traveled to South Dakota to visit my brother and his wife in their new home. The month of July has been full of preparations for Vacation Bible School; I have assisted our associate pastor as director.  The preparations were interrupted only by a week-long youth camp in Durango. I was able to participate as youth leader, chaperone, and family group leader-Bible teacher. VBS began immediately after camp. One week later, I am on a train traveling through the German countryside to Berlin to participate in a conversational English camp that exposes teenagers in Germany to the power and reality of a relationship with Christ.

Each of these opportunities has given me challenges, deepened my faith, and forced me to depend on God’s faithfulness. A couple years ago, I was diagnosed with Celiac’s disease which requires me to completely avoid gluten, primarily found in wheat. Eating on the road, much less in another country, is a daring feat. It is hard to trust the safety of your health, through your stomach, to people who may not understand or even speak the same language. God understands and has guarded me from any severe reactions should I have eaten wheat unknowingly.  God has also blessed my travels with many opportunities to tell of his greatness and his faithful love. I have had deep conversations with teenagers and adults, members of my mission team, complete strangers, and young believers from Deer Park, TX.

If anyone should ask whether I have been following God’s will, I cannot say with certainty that every decision I have made in the last six months followed God’s will. I do not think perfect obedience is what we are to obtain yet. It is obedience that demonstrates we know God. The Bible teaches that we must know God through the ways he has revealed himself, the Bible and his Son, Jesus Christ. Yet, how often do we see in the Bible point blank instructions about what the future holds? No one has read in the pages of Scripture, “thou shalt take this job opportunity” or “thou shalt marry __________.”  I believe it is how we obey the revealed will of God amidst the changing circumstances or decisions which have not been so clearly revealed that demonstrates obedience. In Hebrews 11, the men and women recorded are recognized for their obedience to what they knew God told them to do and their faith in who they knew God to be. It was the faith they had in God’s character, his faithful covenant love, that gave them confidence to risk so much in obedience to his will.

I will not be so bold to say that I have been demonstrating the faith these renowned men and women had. But I will not exclude myself from seeking to obey what I know about God-his character and purpose-in the effort to please him with my obedience.  I have relied on the knowledge that he will give me the strength, health, and courage to do what he commands me to do. I also have taken daring steps forward to advance the glory of his name and his kingdom because I know that is his purpose for the church on earth. How can I refuse to be part of such an adventure?

Mark Batterson writes that “More often than not, the will of God will involve a daring decision that seems unsafe or even insane.” I have wondered if I am insane many times throughout the summer. If this is insanity, you may want to find an institution to commit me to. Until someone comes to take me away, I commit myself to the care of a God who is powerful enough to sustain the earth and everything in it. I pray that this journey grows in me a desire to constantly live on the edge of insanity. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  Paul also writes of himself and his companions in 2 Corinthians 5:13-15 “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.” If God sent his Son to die as a living demonstration of his foolish, extravagant, lavish love for us, why not live a life that mirrors his insanity? I want to show love to those he loved and that might look just as crazy.

One of the adventures God has introduced into my life this summer has been through a man who may someday soon become my husband. God is only beginning to show me the amount of grace and love he is pouring out on me through this relationship. I don’t know if it is God’s will that I marry this man. I know that if I do, the journey of loving and being loved by God is going to become a whole new learning experience. I am thankful for the crowd of witnesses who have walked this road before me. They have a lot of wisdom to share!]

It is a strange experience to look back on the thoughts and questions we had years ago. I am grateful for the faithfulness of God as I look back and see his protection and leading in those years. He is the same God today. Even now, married to "this man" and following God's direction to serve him as a full-time missionary, I am choosing to trust and daring to step out in faith that God remains faithful.

Deck the Halls

December is a crazy busy month, isn't it? I wish I had planned a little farther ahead on what I do NOT need to add to the schedule. It is so easy to lose sight of the real reason we celebrate a day in December called "Christ"mas.
The weekend after Thanksgiving my family gathered at my mom's house to decorate the Christmas tree. This has become a tradition since my parents first separated. It still reminds all of my siblings and I of the ways that we banded together and grew closer after experiencing the loss that divorce brings to a family. Even after my brother and I each married and began our own family traditions, we choose to bring our families together to help my mom decorate as a reminder that she is not alone during the Christmas season.
I wanted to share with you some moments from our decorating festivities this year.
You may all have similar experiences with finding a strand of Christmas lights that really works. I mean, one that does not have large patches of bulbs that refuse to light up. This year we worked hard to resurrect our ancient strands of lights with replacement bulbs, only to string the entire tree and have the wiring give out. Ok, time to unwind that strand from the tree and try again!
While my brother tried to drape another strand of lights on the tree, David gave himself the project of trying to fix the strand that had not worked. He spent a few hours investigating the electrical currents each bulb produced and checking the fuses in the plug. Finally, he pronounced the strand "dead" and proceeded to fashion a light testing device out of the end of this Christmas light strand.
A week later, my mom was trying to decide if she needed to purchase new strands of Christmas lights since she ended up with so few functional strands of lights. David sat down in the kitchen to test light bulbs with the light testing device he had fashioned the previous weekend. From the living room where my sister and I were adding ornaments to the Christmas tree, we heard a loud snap and saw a spark flash from the wires in David's hands. Apparently, the wattage needed to light an entire strand will melt one singular bulb. David was fascinated by the results his experiment produced - the melted glass bulb in his hands. Yes, he unplugged the sparking wires right away. He also had burn marks on the fingers that were grasping the bulb when it melted.
David had a splendid time with this experiment. I was just grateful that he didn't shock himself or cause more bodily harm.  I kept saying, "I'm so glad you didn't kill yourself..." I think I was the one in shock! We had a good laugh about the incident and threw away the remaining tempting wires and dysfunctional Christmas lights.  However, I think this Christmas incident will create another memory and serves as a great reminder of the work to which God has called David.  He is a tinkerer and loves to fix things, create new ways to do things, and just work on solving mechanical problems.  Thank God that his servants who are taking the gospel to new regions need those skills put to use! I am so glad that God allows my husband's skills, interests, and passion for reaching the lost with the gospel to all be melded into one pursuit.
Please join us in seeking God's favor this Christmas season:
Pray with us that God will provide our support in abundance by April of 2015. We want to join the work at MMS Aviation and begin training soon!
Praise God that Cadence International hired a new IT specialist to fill the role David is vacating so we can follow God's call to mission aviation. We are excited that this man accepted the position Friday and was available to start work the following Monday! David is spending this week (his last week at Cadence HQ) training his replacement. Praise God for always being in control of the timing to work these things out.
Pray for David and I in the days following Christmas and into the new year. We are planning several trips to visit churches and share our ministry with potential ministry partners. Our trips begin December 26th and may not end til we reach full support! We are anticipating only 5 days in the Castle Rock area between trips in January.
Pray for rest, time to invest in prayer and our connection with God, and patience with each other during the stress of travel. Pray for wisdom as we deal with travel challenges involving food and other health issues. We need an outpouring of God's grace just to endure these extra challenging days and seasons.
Pray that the message of hope in Jesus Christ will touch lives this Christmas and bring more children into God's kingdom!
Praise God for having sent his Son to be born in human flesh as our Savior, the Light of the World. Praise him for giving us a reason to live telling the rest of the World about Him!
Pentatonix: Mary Did You Know? on You Tube   Everybody's favorite Christmas song....