miracle #1

There have been three miracles I have been hoping and praying for over the past year. I call them miracles, because by definition they are something that requires an act of God, and cannot be done by human effort alone. These three miracles are:

#1 - That God would lead someone to TNL as the Teaching Pastor who would actually overlap on staff with me.
#2 - That we would be able to financially survive after I leave my job at TNL and before we head to the field.
#3 - That we would be able to leave this fall.

So miracle #1 has come to fruition. TNL has hired a new Teaching Core Pastor. I would love to give all the details here, but I will let the elders and other pastors have the fun of introducing him. But Amy and I couldn't be more excited. He and his family are a perfect fit for TNL.

A friend of mine met him at the National Pastors Convention a couple of weeks ago, then wrote to me: He's got the TNL vibe!

I totally agree. So in case you haven't heard, God is up to something amazing at TNL.

missionary in-laws

So I have been trying to frame the relationship that we have with WorldVenture and I realize now they are like in-laws.

Let me explain: As I prepare to leave TNL, it is becoming more and more a reality that TNL isn't going to be my home and primary family anymore. My team in Mozambique will serve in that role. So in a way, we are leaving our primary family at TNL and marrying into WorldVenture in Mozambique.

So this begs the question of what sort of in-laws the rest of WorldVenture will be. And we can honestly say, so far so good. We just spent a week with the WorldVenture family for their annual Renewal Conference and we are amazed at these people of God. The first two days of the conference are just spent praying. All day. With coffee breaks and a lunch break. But other than that, just praying.

But beyond the prayer time, we got to hang out with missionaries from around the world (some of whom have been on the field for decades) and just talk. Wow. There really aren't words to use to fully convey the impressive demeanor of these super-humans. Every day they deal with poverty, disease and spiritual darkness, and yet they just keep on going. Meeting some of them feels like meeting some of the early Christians who were reaching those who had never had the opportunity to hear the gospel. Amazing stuff.

But in-laws can be a little quirky as well. It will be weird working for an organization led by baby-boomers. It will be hard to lose the leaness and edge that comes with working at TNL. I will have a hard time when ministry isn't set up by Jared, supported by John, and followed up by Brian. But we will survive nevertheless.

If you would like to learn more about our quirky new in-laws, check them out at www.WorldVenture.com

database disaster

We have had some computer problems which has slowed us down on contacting people. However, we seem to have sorted the problem out now. If you have yet to hear from us, we hope to be able to call in the next couple of weeks. Sorry for the delay.

How God Ruined My Life

This is a talk that I gave at Greenwood Community Church last month. It is the audio from the talk. Fortunately, you don't have to look at me while you listen. Again, thanks to Greenwood for allowing me to share.

If you are a part of a church that might be interested in having me come to speak, let me know. I would love to share our story with as many people as possible.

Thank You Greenwood

There are moments in life when you have to step back and shake your head and say "only God...". Only God could have orchestrated the day that we had yesterday with our friends at Greenwood Community Church. It was amazing.

Guest teaching is always a challenge because I am unknown to the community. But both times I have taught at Greenwood I felt like I was at home. God just speaks at Greenwood and it is amazing to be a part of that.

Dozens of people expressed interest in financially partnering with us (and if you are one of those people, my email address is in my profile on the right side of this page). But beyond the new friendships and relationships, it was so great to see all of the elders and staff members who we have talked to over the last year and a half, who took the time out of their Sunday schedule to come over and encourage us as well.

It is clear to me that besides TNL, Amy and I have no greater friends in a church than Greenwood Community Church.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone at Greenwood for the opportunity to share. It was an enormous blessing and encouragement to be a part of your community. We look forward to seeing what God does through our partnership along the way.

Calling

"All of ministry is calling.  It is either discovering your calling or living into your calling."

~Dave Terpstra to Jared Mackey in India (I was jet-lagged at the time, but it still sounds right on this side of the pond).

Sometimes God calls us specifically.  He wants us to go somewhere specific (like Mozambique) or do something specific (like be a counselor or pastor or teacher or computer programmer).

Sometimes God calls us collectively.  He wants a whole church or home group to pay attention to something.

Sometimes God calls us lovingly.  He wants us to spend more time with Him.

But sometimes God calls us generically.  He simply wants us to respond.  To begin to serve.  To learn to listen.  To discover what is next.

That is how God began to call Amy and me to Africa.  Sure, looking back I can connect the dots.  But at the time, they just looked like dots.  Generic dots.

I'm speaking at Greenwood Community Church on the 16th on the subject of calling, and as I am putting together my story, I am realizing how obvious it seems on the back end that God was calling us to Africa.  But at the time, it was just about sponsoring a kid through Compassion International, joining the One Campaign, and supporting friends who were missionaries.

I guess the lesson I am learning is to follow God's generic calls, not just his specific ones.  You never know where something "generic" might lead...

Cost-to-Benefit Ratio

Decision making often requires discovering the cost-to-benefit ratio of different variables. Many times in life there is no perfect choice. Right now, we are weighing the costs and the benefits of where to do our langauge study of Portuguese. Mozambique offers the benefit of learning to speak the language with the right dialect and only having to move once. Brazil offers better language schools and being able to focus our time on our study and on our family.

Right now we are leaning towards Brazil because of the quality of the school we can attend and the ability to focus on fluency, not just survival in a foreign country. However, we can't afford to send our kids to international schools in Brazil. Which means we are considering putting our first grader, kindergartener, and preschooler in an all-Portuguese class where no English is spoken for a whole year.

So how crazy do you have to be for something this crazy to no longer seem crazy?