Leaving on a Jet Plane

All my bags are packed but a few errands left to run this morning. I'm headed this afternoon to washington dc and then on to johannesburg, south africa. I'm very excited to be heading back to africa and be back in the villages sharing the love of God. Please be praying for safe travels, no lost luggage, and a smooth pick up for my new vehicle that I will be picking up in south africa and then a fellow staff member and I will drive it up to the base in zambia. I will update as soon as I can with photos and testimonies of the journey. Thank you all for your love, prayers, and support.

God's Timing Is Perfect

Today I got a glimpse at why God has set my depature date for Africa in April. As some one you might know, Zambia's rainy season is usually from the end of November through the beginning of April. Now every year seems to be different and this year is not exempt. It is now mid march and the heaviest part of the rainy season seems to just have started. It's late for the season and making it impossible for our staff that are on the ground to make it from the base to town (only 20 km away) much less to the villages. I was planning on being back in Zambia next week but if I was, I'd be on the base unable to plan out the ministry for the upcoming expeditions. God's will is always good and perfect! So instead I'm in sunny Florida, continuing to support raise and work on manual and procedure updates for the department. The photo here is of the road to our base so you can get an idea of how difficult travel is during rainy season.

What Are You Willing to Give?

I had a strange dream a few nights ago. I was back in Zambia but things there had changed. The country was now persecuting Christians and there was a warrant out for my arrest. I knew it but I was also supposed to be preaching in a village that day. I felt the turmoil and I tried to make my decision. The dream grew stranger as my mom showed up and had a way to smuggle me out of the country without getting caught so I wouldn't be killed. There it was. I was faced with a life or death situation. I could feel myself agonize over the decision. Did I want to die? No. Would I sacrifice God's calling? Thankfully not. I made the decision to go preach despite knowing that it would be the last time I would see friends and family. I woke up and all I could do was lay there and reflect on what had happened. If it wasn't a dream, would I have made the same decision? I pray that I would and if ever the time ever comes, then I pray that I will. It is my heart's desire to see the lost reach. I'm thankful for the dream because it gave me a look into my heart that I am indeed willing to sacrifice my own life for the love of God. Are you?

Living on Support

I'm in Chicago at the moment working on finishing up support raising. That's right. I said finishing up. I'm 35% away and God is doing awesome things. In this lifelong journey called support raising, I've decided one time. I think that every believer needs to live off of support for at least 6 months of their lives. I'm not saying this to prove how "hard" living on support it because it's not hard. What it is is faith building. At first, it's scary. Not Freddy Kruger in your dreams scary but it's definately "stomach in knots", "life is out of control" scary. Once you get past the fear though, you then have people speaking unbelief in your life and you HAVE TO stand against it. Once you get past these, you then get to see God do amazing things in your life. The big thing is how much your faith grows. You suddenly start finding yourself believing for the "impossible" and seeing God do the "impossible". I've been told more then once that "it's a shame that your organization or church can't just cover all of your finances." I've disagreed then and completely disagree now. Raising up my support team has been once of the most amazing and life changing experiences of my life. I couldn't ask for a better team to come around me and above all I now know that God truly does provide for every need in our lives despite whatever outside circumstances we come up against. Just believe and trust in Him!

Don't Be Wise, Be Fools!

I don't want to be wise. You may think that's a ridiculous statement but it's true. I don't want to be logical, smart, sensible, or rational. If I were these things, I'd be home in the States, not beleiving God to be fully funded during an "economic crisis," not living in a tent in Zambia driving 12 hours into the middle of nowhere to people I don't even know or are even the same culture. There's too much risk. If I was wise, I'd know that I could get hurt, sick, go bankrupt, or even worse. However, I'm not wise. I'm a fool. A big fool at that. I'm a fool for Christ and each day I want to become more and more of a fool. I am raising my full support in an "economic crisis" and I love my tent in the villages. I dream of the villages and search Google Earth to find the footpaths that will take my truck to them. Stick that in your logical pipe and smoke it! In 1 Corinthians 4:10-13 Paul talks about the foolish things the apostles do in view of the world. They don't make sense. Why, when you seemingly have nothing, would you give it away? Why, when someone is threatening to kill you for preaching, would you proclaim the Gospel from every corner of every nation? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!! Thus, it's foolishness. I want to be foolish with every breath, word, action, decision of my life. Foolish for Christ is a million times greater then wise in the world.

Life's Detours

As I was falling alseep last night, I was contemplating the changes in my life. What brought this on? Well, I'm selling my bass clarinet and last night I was cleaning it to get it ready for ebay. As I was holding the instrument, I kinda got sentimental. It felt like yesterday that I was putting together the instrument to go practice my scales and music for college. In fact, it's been almost 4 years of which my bass clarinet has been in a closet. The whole thing got me to think about this journey called life that I've been on. God's plan for my life has always been for me to preach the Gospel in the remote areas of Africa. Did His plan include a bachelors degree in music education? Maybe not. perhaps it was one of those detours we take without sometimes realizing it. You know those. The ones where we make decisions without consulting God. The cool thing to know is that in the end we still get to our destination. Perhaps we took the longer route. Sometimes a detour can actually be a harder drive then the original. Maybe there ends up being more traffic, or the road itself is full of pot holes. Lots of things can happen. But you can trust that in the end, you are where God has planned, as long as you keep your eyes on Him, trusting with all your heart and walk in faith.

Happy Thanksgiving

I know it's been awhile since I've updated but I wanted to take some time this evening to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I pray that each of you were able to celebrate with family and friends and take time to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for. I am thankful for so much, the list is endless. For God, family, friends, co-workers, and especially my amazing support team. I'm also thankful for this specific thanksgiving as my younger brother has flown down to florida to join my sister and me for the holiday. It's been a great holiday and I look forward to continue the holiday weekend with wonderful sibling time. Blessings to each of you. I'll be updating more often from now on.