Death with a purpose

Tonight, I attended the calling hours of my uncle Eddie. He passed away last Thursday and is currently talking with my other uncle and my gramma in Heaven.

Funerals are a time for families to get reacquainted. My extended family is horrible about keeping up-to-date, often seeing each other only at funerals. Such is the case with me and my cousins. I saw cousins tonight that I haven't seen since my Gramma's funeral a year and a half ago. I spent most of the night talking with my cousin Shelly.

Shelly told me about what has been going on in her life. About her family. About her work. And about her church. Yes, her church. Shelly accepted Christ as her Savior about a year and a half ago, and she told me about it tonight.

It all started on December 15, 2007. The day my Gramma died. She said when Gramma died, she started thinking about how Gramma was now in Heaven. She didn't understand that and she needed to know more about it. She started seeking and not too long later, she found Jesus.

She found Jesus because of the death of our Gramma. Gramma's death had a purpose. God's timing was perfect and allowed her (Gramma) to continue to impact people, even after her death.

Death is always hard, but knowing that God has purpose for death makes it a little easier. I love that my Gramma helped bring my cousin to Christ and that I will someday be in Heaven with both of them.

Rest in peace Uncle Eddie- and may your death have purpose in the Kingdom of God!

Road Trip

Recently, I took a road trip, driving for 15 hours. I left Ohio and drove southwest... through Indiana, through Illinois, down to Saint Louis, across Missouri, and into Oklahoma, not too far from Tulsa. Why would I drive 15 hours, one-way, to go to Oklahoma?? Well, for one thing, one of my best friends lives there and it was a great chance to visit with her (for the little time I got to spend with her), but besides that, the trip had a few main purposes.

A huge cross on the side of the highway in Illinois.

The Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri.

A large Indian statue just off the highway in Oklahoma.

The main purpose of the trip was to do support raising. I actually was able to speak in 3 different churches, as well as with some other individual people and a women's small group. I was able to tell them all about the wonderful opportunity that God is giving me to serve Him in the Dominican Republic. I was able to make new relationships with people and had a wonderful time making new friends and developing my prayer and financial support teams.


Another purpose for going was that my friend's church, Friendly Foyil Baptist Church, was having their Vacation Bible School. The VBS they were doing is Lifeway's Boomerang Express. This is the same VBS that the mission team going to Venezuela in a month is also doing. I went there to get ideas for the planning and preparation for the mission trip. Since I was a visiting missionary, I was one of the focused missionaries of the week, speaking with the children during their missions class. During the week, the children were bringing in their loose change as their offerings for missions. The church decided to give that money to me to support me in my ministry. :-) After the VBS was over, the church donated many of their decorations, teacher guides, and craft items to our mission team to use in Venezuela. What a blessing they are!!


I was also able to observe this same VBS at another church. The people at this church were very friendly and wanted to help me out in any way they could with materials for the Venezuelan VBS. While I had to leave before the end of the week, they are seeing how they can be used by God to be a blessing for the church in Venezuela.

It is wonderful to see the family of God come together to help each other out when they are in need. Absolutely wonderful.

Deliquency

Yes, I am alive! Although I have been very deliquent on updating my blog. I appologize. There are many things that have been happening. I have been keeping busy with many things. I hope to start updating you on what has been going on.

For now, I continue with the work I have been doing. Support raising, VBS planning, working. Today I took a bit of a rest (although I still worked on some things for the VBS). I am going to try to keep my blog more up-to-date. Drop me a message or two and let me know what has been going on with you out there (as I don't get to see many people very much anymore).

Ok, more updates to come....

Perspectives

Tonight I finished a 16 week course offered at my church called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (http://www.perspectives.org/). This course is designed to give students a different perspective on World Missions and the nature of God. It also gets the students thinking of how God has called them into a part of His ultimate plan in the World.

Matthew 28:18-20- Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world- all the people groups in the world- and makes disciples. This is the Great Commission that Jesus gave to all Christians. We are commanded to tell others of the greatest gift ever given and of the great love that God has for us, that He gave His Son to take our place to pay the price for our sins.

The Bible even gives us a great promise...

Matthew 24:14- And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the
whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Once the Gospel has been preached in the whole world, the end will come. The Bible says that there will be people from every country, every people group, every ethnicity, every language praising Him in their own language and their own culture. How awesome that we have the privilege to be a part of this great plan for the nations.

Decisions

Since returning to Ohio in February, I have been trying to get "settled" back in Ohio life and culture while trying to figure out where God wanted me to go next and when that would be. I have been praying. I have been talking with my missions pastor and mentor and others. I have been searching opportunities that God has brought my way through contacts with people and with The Finishers Project website, as well as others. I had gotten to a point where I had a good feeling about 3 different opportunities which could have taken me to about 7 different countries. This was too broad for me. So, what do you do when you feel God has put this many items before you? You take it to Him and ask Him to narrow it down to the ONE He wants. And that's what I did.

Last week, I decided to devote 2 days of prayer and fasting over this decision and asked God to give me the answer by the end of the 2 days. James 1: 5-6 says "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." I asked God for wisdom to know His will for my life- and I had no doubt that He was going to give it to me. I emailed as many people as I could, asking them to join me in prayer of this decision. By the end of Wednesday, I had my answer.

As hard as it is for me, I feel that, for right now, God does not want me in Venezuela full-time. He is calling me to another place. This does not mean I will never be returning. But for now, I will be going somewhere else.

Doulos Discovery School- Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. Doulos is a private, Christian school in the middle of the Dominican Republic. They work to get children out of the horrible public school conditions and into a Christian education where they can be educated in the values of Christianity and go on to lead the country with Christian values and beliefs. It is a private school, so the students have to pay tuition. However, most of the students are on some form of financial aid/tuition assistance. In order to do this, all of the teachers (missionaries) raise their own funds and salaries. Here is a video so you can see a little more about the school.
http://vimeo.com/1896385?pg=embed&sec=

The director of the school told me that they have been praying for a special education teacher and was excited when I told her I wanted to apply for the position. They have never had a special education teacher in the school and have no special education program in place. But they do have 2-3 children per grade with special needs (PreK-12). My job there would be to develop and implement a special education program based on the needs of the children while sharing with them the love of Jesus and His plan for Salvation. Of the 210 children in the school, about 200 of them are Dominican. The future leaders of the Dominican Republic will be sitting in my classroom, hearing how God loves them, and how they can share this with others around them.

I am excited to see how God is going to work through me in this opportunity He has brought my way. Provided I can get my funding by July, I will be in the DR by early August. Please pray with me for the children of Jarabacoa and the teachers at Doulos Discovery School and please pray that if it is God's will, that the finances I need will come in so I may begin this new adventure that God is calling me to.

Patience and guidance

For the past nearly 2 months, I have been trying to get re-acclimated back into life in Ohio while searching for where God will send me next. I have been praying and looking through various ministry opportunites that have come my way. Some would have me out of Ohio by this August. Others would have me in Ohio for probably at least another year or two.

I signed up on a website called Finishers. This is an organization that helps team up missionaries with mission organizations. I put my profile on there and have been having organizations contact me, telling me that they think I would work out well with a need that they have. It has been really strange having organizations contacting me. Its like having several companies call you, all inviting you to work for them.

Right now, I have many different options that I could pursue. However, the thing I am pursuing the most right now is guidance from our Lord, and patience while I wait for His perfect timing.

God is watching over me

I was on a short trip to Oklahoma during this past week to visit with a very good friend of mine, traveling back to Ohio yesterday. Flying does not make me nervous, as I have become a seasoned traveler. (If you haven’t heard about my first flight to Venezuela back in 2003, please ask. You will be amused.) When the plane is about to take off, I ALWAYS pray for God’s protection over the plane, pilots, crew, and passengers. I ask God to make sure that there is nothing wrong with the plane and that God will allow all parts of the plane to function the way they were designed to function. Yesterday, as we are on the runaway and just starting to take off, I was praying that prayer- that God will allow no problems with the plane. As I am praying this, I felt the plane accelerate for takeoff and then a few seconds later, the brakes were hit and the plane slowed down in the middle of the runway. The plane then taxied off the runway. The pilot came on and told us that as he was taking off, an engine warning light came on, causing him to abort take off. We returned to the gate and got off the plane. They then took the plane for maintenance and returned about 2 hours later, semi-confident that the plane would work.

I know that God was watching over me and had instantaneously answered my prayer. He allowed for the problem to be detected in His perfect timing.

God wants to be a part of our daily lives. We need to trust the everyday details of our life to Him, and He will take care of them in His perfect timing.

Blog Block

I am sorry that it has been so long since I have written. I have things to update in my blog, and have wanted to update it. However, right now, I am having blog block. I cannot think of how I want to write up the updates. Hopefully, I will have an update soon. Keep checking back. God bless you!

15 years later

On Saturday, I went to Panera to meet up with a group of people who I met online. This group of people meet once a week with the sole purpose of practicing Spanish. A group of 10-20 people of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of Spanish- from native speakers to beginners- meet every week to sit in Panera and chitchat in Spanish. It is a great time of practice for me. However this week (only my second week with this group) I didn't get much practice time.

Not 2 minutes after I arrived, I had someone tap me on my shoulder. When I turned around, there were 2 women standing there that I recognized (surprisingly) immediately- 2 girls from my graduating class in high school.

I haven't seen them since high school graduation 15 years ago (boy that makes me feel old!). I sat with them and we talked about what has gone on over the past several years. While we were not close friends in high school, it was nice to talk with them and see where God has taken them over the last 15 years.

God has different plans for each of us- nobody's plan is the same. He knows where we are going and how we are going to get there. He knew 15 years ago that I would be where I am now and He knows where I will be 15 years from now. I am glad He has the plan all figured out. As I try to discern where He wants me to go, I take comfort in knowing that He already has it all worked out for me. All I have to do is trust Him that He will take me down the path that He has already planned out.

Back in the USA

This past Saturday, after many heartfelt goodbyes, I returned to the United States. Before leaving, many of my friends gave me a goodbye party. It was great to be able to spend time with the people who really helped me to survive and thrive in Maracaibo, and it was sad to say goodbye.

After traveling all day, I arrived in chilly Ohio. For the people in Ohio, it feels like a heat wave. For me, accustomed to the heat of Maracaibo, it feels frigid.

I spent a few days getting settled back in and seeing my family. It is strange being back in Ohio- back to the way of life I thought was "normal" for the first 30 years of my life.

What's next? Well, now I seek God's Will for my life in this next stage of life. I know He has the plan all figured out. I just have to wait until He let's me see the outline.