Time to Pray

I remember a cousin of mine who is a missionary to Africa, Steve Mills, talking about the need to pray for missions just as an army needs to call in air support in war. This seems like a good time to pray for God to be preparing hearts and contacts for this ministry to work.

check out the website for a good description. critical time

Peru Mission Parish Woodshop Project

Recently, I saw an article about a completely un-contacted tribe on the border of Peru and Brazil. I started thinking about them and wondering what it would be like to have the privilege of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. I thought, “I used to want to do that,” that is, to bring the gospel to un-reached people in the world. I had to stop and ask myself, “What happened?” “Why am I no longer pursuing that?” Or “Why am I not there?” I have to answer partly because of sin. I have lost sight, forgotten, and allowed myself to get into sinful habits that turned me away from being of service to Christ. On the other hand, I must answer by saying God is preparing me to be of better service for His purposes. I am amazed at the sovereignty of our God and His graciousness in using such sinful people and even, dare I say, our sinful actions to bring about his glory. This brings even more confirmation and sears the gospel in my heart, compelling me to go out and share this wonderful news of our savior. While we are sinful, being clothed in Christ, God sees us as Christ and is pleased with us because of Christ. Though we often feel He is displeased with us, He is not because as one of my elders said, “He doesn’t see me, He sees Jesus in me.” What an amazing joy that all the world needs to hear.
The main reason I am not in the jungle right now is, I had this crazy idea when I graduated from college: I wanted to serve as a missionary but also wanted to learn a trade before going. Now it seems that without my realizing it, God has been preparing me for a particular ministry in Peru for the past ten years: The Woodshop Project with Peru Mission (http://www.perumission.org/content/posts/business-that-builds-community98.php). Over the years, He has given me a desire to learn the skill of woodworking and the privilege to work with men whose hearts were for Jesus and discipleship. He gave me a good taste of experience with ministry in rural Peru. He has blessed me with a wonderful wife, Megumi, and now our first daughter. He managed to get me through seminary with a Masters of Divinity and is even now allowing me to hone the woodworking and discipleship skills before we go to Peru.
My greatest desire is to be used by God to point the men I work with to Christ. I cannot change them but I have seen God change people through his Word. One of the most effective ways I have seen Him use me is in friendships working alongside and applying the Word to life. I may not always be the most faithful example but God is always faithful to make his Word real in our lives. The best way to put it is what my dear friend, Mike Boyett, has said, “While we shape wood, God is shaping us.” This can actually apply to any field of work. Can you imagine what the Church would look like if all Christians lived this way? Wouldn’t it be amazing if every believer went to work with Christ as their center and sought to bear witness to the people they work with. I know there are many faithful believers in churches who live this way, but I must confess there are far too few. Let us pray as our Lord commanded in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” It seems the Lord is raising me up to be a laborer for His harvest. I want to ask you to consider these things:

1. Please pray for my family as we prepare to serve Christ in Peru.
2. Please consider your own work and apply the life of Christ through it.
3. Please consider supporting us financially as all of the profits of this woodshop will return to the mission and to the community in Peru.
4. Pass this on to anyone you know might be interested in this ministry.

Still working!

The new post is getting closer to coming, though it has taken longer than I expected.

I also started a new job with another woodworker. This will be good experience to prepare for the work in Peru.

Our baby has been a blast! She might be part of the reason why we have not gotten this new post ready. She is also the reason why I have been posting so little lately. I have been too busy to get online.

New Activity to come!

There will be a new post in the near future about our joining Peru Mission!

Trip to Toronto

one of the benefits of having a wife in grad school. We got to go to Toronto and see Niagara for very cheap since her school covered her expenses for a conference.

Summer mission trip & Future calling

We are planning to go on a mission trip to St. Vincent. The coolest thing is that we are considering whether this is where the Lord is calling us to start as missionaries. It seems like a great ministry to learn from. They have three main focuses that I am interested working with. Theological training, Church growth, and a ministry called Project Ebeneezer. It would be very exciting to participate in serving Christ's church in any of these capacities.
Our latest vision is to serve with MIA (www.mia.org) for a few years to get experience in ministry, then move to perumission (perumission.org) to learn more about a mission strategy. They have a very interesting economic development plan that I have been asked to be a part of with my carpentry/discipleship interests. All of this with the goal of preparing to bring our experience in ministry to join forces in bringing the light of the gospel to Japan.
This is what we see right now, but we trust the Lord will lay out more clearly His plans for us as the time is right.

New Orleans

I have been spending quite a bit of time working in New Orleans lately. Last week Meg came down and we stayed for the weekend we visited a church plant in the city. It seems very neat what God is doing there. They have an awesome CD. It has a real New Orleans flavor to great worship songs.

I can't wait to be done with this job so I can stop traveling. It is miserable to be away from my esposita so much. However, I am beginning to feel the Lord is giving us a heart for the people of New Orleans. I could actually see us moving down there in a couple of years and getting involved with rebuilding in ministry. We will pray and see what the Lord does with us.

This past week a crazy thing happened to me and the crew I am working with. We were held captive at the church where we were working. It is a catholic church in the ghetto of New Orleans. Across the street a couple of squatters started yelling and cursing at each other when one brought out a shotgun and then a knife. Before we got out of there, someone called the police and they came with the whole New Orleans squad and SWAT team with rolling armor and snipers all surrounding the whole block. The police wouldn't let us leave the church because they feared we would be in the line of fire. The crazy thing is that the drunk squatter they were looking for had already slipped away before the SWAT team arrived. Can you believe I still feel drawn to this crazy city?

New Place

After all the trauma of coming back from mexico to find a wet apartment we are much enjoying getting settled into our new apartment. woohoo!

Chitzen Itza

What an amazing structure. It actually is a giant calendar. They even made it so that a snake will come down the steps on each solstice. The people thought their god came to visit them twice a year.
I have recently been pondering at what a great thing it is that Yahweh not only comes down more than twice a year but he is personal and has given us his Spirit to dwell in our hearts eternally.

water!

We thought we had enought water on our trip to the beach. I thought our vacation would end when we got back from mexico but it has only begun. It turns out a hot water pipe busted in the empty apartment above ours while we were gone. We came home to sloshing carpet. It might seem like a neat idea to help cool things off, but it does not smell like one. what a mess. Praise the Lord the maintenance crew got in while we were gone and picked up our irreplacable musical instruments and a computer so they would not be sitting in water. Instead of going straight back to work I got to stay at home with my wife for the day. It looks like we might be moving a little early. Hopefully the new apartment will be ready this saturday.

Long time away

Sorry to be so long in posting. It is strange that since I am no longer in seminary and have ¨free time¨again, i have less time for the computer. Or maybe the real reason is that I am working away from the computer and can´t take e-mail breaks.

today I woke up in beautiful Playa del Carmen. It is very relaxing. So now i finally feel like writting something. Mi esposita and her sister and yo are on a little vacation to use the flight vouchers we received last time we went to japan and got bumped off the flight.

You know getting bumped is not as bad as it sounds, it is very rewarding. they will give you a free hotel room, upgrade your seating to business class on a ticket for the next day and to top it all off they give you a voucher for a nother ticket within one year. Hence, the writting from Mexico today. It was good that we left from such a small airport as Jackson so as not to have trouble from the bomb scare on the airports.

Tis only the first day so maybe there will be more to say later.

Dios te bendiga