Him We Proclaim

We recently went to visit Country Christian EFC in Scotts, Michigan. They warmly welcomed us to present in 2 services and gave us a great opportunity to share during their Sunday School hour a biographical history of missions and the 8 shifts in missions. It was wonderful in every way to see a church that understands their responsibility in missions and is genuinely excited about the ministry we're a part of in Costa Rica. Here is a really cool story from our trip: During our presentation, we showed our short video that defines a Third Culture Kid (TCK): someone who grew up in a country other than their parent's passport country. TCKs fit into a neither/nor culture.... they are neither fully a part of their parent's culture nor the one in which they were raised. We do this so that people can identify with the importance of the youth group as being a place where TCKs feel like they belong. Belonging-- one barrier down, now we can work on the other struggles of teens. A...

Some friends invited us out to ride horses this morning--how could I say no?! We were trail riding in Hueston Woods State Park!  Matt (grey horse) was always ready to go.

It's hot. Just putting that out there. The temp in the car read 103 today. But that's news to nobody. Some of you have been praying that we would make a deadline the beginning of this month of 50% of our monthly support--we were accepted into the October conference with 47.5%, a lot of relief, and a some guilt on my part for worrying about it so much. Overall, I actually was relaxed about the whole thing, but there wasn't a total dependence on God. I prayed that He would hear us. I asked for His favor, I placed everything in His hands--but then I think in some way, I took it back right at the last minute. Some of you will be thinking, 'now, don't be so hard on yourself, we're not all perfect!' Agreed. But we all know that there are different kinds of guilt. This wasn't me being hard on myself; it was one of those conviction-in-the-form-of-guilt moments. I know it was from the Holy Spirit. And I was actually really grateful for it. It was gentle. It ...

Last week we attended a conference in Minneapolis that focused on planting churches cross-culturally. Though this is is not what we'll be doing in Costa Rica, there were still several concepts that are applicable to our ministry to the students. First off, the idea of multiplication. In church planting, there are 3 different kinds of churches. One is where a pastor stays at the church and is eventually replaced when he retires. The second kind is where the church plants another church. The third kind is where the church plants a church, and then the church plants another church that plants another church. See this diagram to get the idea... For the youth group, the idea of multiplication is in discipleship. If we equip the students to disciple others, and then have the discipled student disciple another student and the discipler another; an unstoppable force is created where students are maturing in Christ! The second application from the conference was the "3 Greats...

I recently heard about the discovery of the largest diamond in the world. It was discovered by the inspector towards the front of the mine. The workers had walked past this 3016K diamond everyday! Diamonds are made when pure carbon is put under extreme pressure. Diamonds aren't found in a form that you would want to wear on your finger or propose with. It takes a skilled cutter to get the diamond just right. We'll I'm not here to teach you about diamond, but I am here to tell you about our happenings. We're under a great deal of pressure to have 50% of our monthly funds pledged by the end of the month. Achieving this goal would allow us to be in Costa Rica by the end of the year. Not reaching 50% means we wouldn't be able to be with the students until late next spring. We feel this pressure because we love the students, and we want to be with them ASAP. We also feel the pressure because our lives seem to be on hold as we wait for this next phase. We've s...

Chasing Bubbles First Contact At the end, he kept trying to bath himself with a clean wipe.

On Monday I had the chance to speak at a camp that I first attended 20 summers ago (wow, I feel old)! I started out as a day camper, worked as a counselor, and eventually was over all the program directors. I dedicated every summer either learning the person and character of Jesus Christ or teaching others about Him. It was a blessing to be able to return to a place that holds so many memories. I spoke on John 15:4-8 where Jesus gives the analogy of the vine and branches. I focused on verse 8: " My  Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and  so   prove to be My disciples" (NASB). Three points stick out: we can glorify God; we glorify God by bearing much fruit; our fruit proves that we are His disciples. I was able to give a very clear gospel presentation with 1 John 4:13-14 which  describes  how we know we abide in Christ (what it takes to bear fruit): " By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His...