Last night the Wednesday evening message was on Jeremiah 33:3 along with some verses in chapter 32. The Pastor talked about really calling out to God. Mostly God uses us to answer prayer requests, but sometimes God uses an extraordinary outside means. I thought about our big prayer request right now. First of all, have I really cried out to God to answer it? Not really. I am depending more on myself for the answer. I need to cry out to God for Him to answer.

Missions support-raising conversation

On Tuesday the 20th of December I had lunch with Roy Seals and Jeremy Wallace. They walked into the BX where my in-laws run a restaurant and I immediately told them that I wanted to be a part of their conversation. Roy Seals is a mission agency director and Jeremy Wallace is a Pastor. Recently Jeremy wrote a blog post about the structure of missions. All three of us agree that the system independent Baptist churches use to support missionaries is not the ideal. Actually it is far from ideal that missionaries must call so many churches and travel so many miles. Not that they do not learn much from the process, but the difficulties of doing this are unnecessary. So what is the answer to this? How do we change the face of independent Baptist missions? Most people would agree that if churches would support less missionaries for more money per month, we would save much money (millions of dollars per year). But how do we get to that point? It appears to me that some churches are willing to move to a system like that, but are completely unsure of what the transition would look like resulting in no change whatsoever. I understand. Especially as a Baptist, any change is difficult. But if we do not act now, we will continue needlessly spending money on gas and hotels when we could spend it on more missionary time on the field. What are some steps an individual or a church can take? 1. Educate yourself or those around you on the process of support raising in missions. 2. Be an agent of change yourself. 3. Churches can stop taking on new missionaries and support other missionaries for more. (I am a missionary needing more support and would tell any church; if you are doing this and it negatively affects me, but helps the overall cause of missions, go ahead, God will provide for me). 4. Do not have missionaries travel half way across the country for a meeting if you have no intention of supporting them. (Or drive anywhere, screen them beforehand). 5. Get involved in the lives of the missionaries, especially those sent out by your home church. 6. Talk to those around you about this. If you are a Pastor; express to others a willingness to approach this white elephant in the room. Do not ignore it. 7. Respond to this post with more suggestions on what we can do. I do not have all the answers. Actually, I am no where close. 8. If you love Jesus and missions, post this blog post everywhere; on your Facebook page, bottom of your emails, memos to co-workers, your bulletin, make the link a bumper sticker, and consider getting it tattooed on your forehead (a non-permanent tattoo of course). (that whole number 8 is sarcastic).

Time to Change

I woke up with a thought about change this morning inspired by an email a couple of days ago. Why wait until January 1st to make changes. A wise person with integrity will make a change when he realizes it needs to be made. Once you see sin in your life, you have several options. The best option is to repent or change. Our actions are determined by decisions we have made. Too often we just do not have a strong enough resolution to get over problems. So we need to use our stubbornness, which I know most of us have as a strong natural characteristic, and say "I will make this change." Our resolutions usually fail because we really do not want to change that bad. We hold on to that which is comfortable or what we are used to.

Reverse Culture Shock

So I really didn't think that I would experience reverse culture shock upon returning to the US. But I was wrong. I guess it was not too drastic, but there are definitely some changes to be noted and it has led to some sort of embarrassment on my part. My brother Phil was talking to me in preparation for his wedding and he said some words where I just had no idea what they meant. I really did not want to admit that I did not know what he was talking about. This also happened in several other circumstances in talking about technology. I did not know what an iphone looked like and would have no clue what is on the market right now.
Sarah told me that she was nervous about coming back to the US due to her wardrobe possibly being out of style. Of course, we all know, at least I do, that fashion follows her. Sarah was clueless after her sister told her that she had bought a certain style of clothing for Evelyn. Anna replied that she would know soon enough cause "everyone had them."
I also found out that everything is not cool anymore. It is chill. And if you are really chill, you are mega chill. Well, I have had 4 weeks here so far and am trying to adjust. But the truth is that I probably won't fit in for a while. Basically that means that we will not fit in either place, which is kind of a weird feeling. I guess that is just part of life now. So for now I am just working on reaching the chill stage. I am not there yet, but maybe soon.

Aprenpleship

Well, the name might not work, but I am once again writing about a crazy idea I have had. It is for Christians who are serious about making disciples and it is for Christians in the workplace. Maybe not whichever workplace will do, but most could. Through college and a little afterwards I was a painter. I enjoy painting, but sure am glad that I am not doing it for a living. But my old boss/crime partner in painting had started this idea at one point.
The idea has to do with combining discipleship and apprenticeship. During work, Ben would take a few minutes out of lunch break talking to a couple of his workers about God. They actually started going through "The Story of Hope" book, which is a chronological overview of God's Redemptive plan in the Bible. You can use it for both evangelism and discipleship.
Owners of small businesses could provide jobs as well as discipleship to a young person in the church, construction workers, painters, plumbers, electricians, etc... could have a youth work under you and have plenty of time for informal discipleship talk on the job, and most people could find some time in their busy schedules to work God's Great Commission.
What do you think? What would work for you and your job or how would you like someone to disciple you as you work?

A bit on Romans

I do miss writing a bit. I get a chance to write some, but not near as much since having a daughter. I never realized how much work kids are. So while the little Evelynator is napping, I decided to write some. I started writing on the book of Romans a while ago and hope that in the future I can continue my study of it. No other book of the Bible has as much doctrine nor the depth of doctrine as Romans does. I can't think of any book that convicts me as much as Romans does either. But it also gives so much hope. The verse that sums up Romans in my opinion is Philippians 1:6- "Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in me will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ." God calls us from our dirty, rotten sinful background into an abundant life in which He completely sanctifies us in the end. We have our battles that we fight and we choose between God and sin so often, but ultimately, it is God who pulls us through them. Romans explains that process and encourages us to choose to follow Christ every time.

What I have been doing instead of blogging

God is so good to us. You know we don't really deserve much in life. Right now we are in Manaus, Amazonas, the capital city of the Amazon. We have been in the interior for about 3 months now. There have been a couple times during this trip where I have said, "I deserve this cause..." and that really is the wrong attitude to have. What we all deserve is hell. I preach that all the time, but forget it often when I am not preaching.
Doing things in the Amazon is not like the rest of the world. It can be tiring and frustrating. Fortunately the last couple of days in Manaus have gone great! We came to get both an American and a Brazilian passport for Evelyn and we have already applied for both of them and the process has gone well. We are so excited!
Communication has been harder in the Amazon. We don't have internet at our house and so I have not been able to do any blogging the last few months. I do miss it somewhat. Today I am just happy to be able to get online on my own computer. life is all about perspective sometimes. We can learn how to be grateful and not take things for granted by reading and experiences of others, or often God can take you through circumstances that will lead to those feelings later on. I hope that you learn to learn from reading!