Flying South

From March 10 - March 19 2007, The Rock church is sending a team to Lima Peru, I am blessed to be a part of that team. I mentioned "promptings" in my last post, this is a big one for me. Every year when the Mission trips are announced at The Rock, I have felt the pull to go, but have opted out. This year I am going! I am excited to trust God to bless our trip and also bless our support raising. This is a new realm for me.

In a nutshell, we are taking a team of 15 people to Lima, the capital of Peru. over the span of about 9 days we will do a variety of tasks, primarily we will be working with a local church made up of several deaf people. We will also be spending much time working with a large population of abandoned street children in the city. We are going to observe the needs that come up and do our best to meet them. I know we will be hanging out with the kids and coordinating sports activities (Soccer I am sure). But above all else, we will go with a servants attitude and make ourselves available.

We are the 1st group in our entire association (Great Commission Association of Churches) to send a team to Peru, it is basically an exploratory trip, which may set the stage for future trips. It is very exciting to be involved in something so new!

If you would be interested in supporting me, you can do so in 2 ways:
1) Pray for me and my team! Pray for our travels, our health and safely and above all that God would use us in the lives of others.

2) Financial support. I need to raise over $1600 to go (it was increased from the original amount due to the airline tickets). I need the 1st half of the money by 2/5/07 and the rest by 3/2/07. Our international missions are organized through Great Commission Latin America association.
*If you are interested in supporting me in one or both ways, please email me and let me know. I can provide you with more information.

Please check back, especially after March 19th, I plan on posting pictures and updates from our trip!

Promptings

Kita & I have claimed this verse for the year; 2 Thessalonians 1: 11-12 - So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. 12 Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

We returned from Faithwalkers, our big annual church conference this year with a freshness for our faith. Everytime I go to a church conference I always try to ask God to show me something new. He definitely did at Faithwalkers! The Lord used the teachings and the fellowship to remind me that my life is not my own, I am not on this earth to be a sponge and take take take hoping for a comfortable life. This I already knew, but it is easy to lose sight of in this country. So we drove home from Missouri on New Years eve in a bad snow/ice storm, so we had plenty of time to think. Kita & I declared that 2007 will be the year we stretch our faith.

I got home and on January 1st I cracked my Bible and came to 2 Thessalonians. The verse leaped out at me! I love how it says "May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do". I was thinking about that, our Body was designed by God to prompt us of its basic needs. My body let's me know when I am hungry, when I must sleep, when I have to sneeze, go to the bathroom, etc. I can ignore those promptings because I don't "feel" like doing them, but there will be a consequence. When I accepted Jesus as my Lord, I received the Holy Spirit, a free gift. Since that day in 2000, I have received several promptings. Most of which I ignored, out of fear, laziness, disbelief or selfishness. There has been a consequence. There are rewards and blessings from everything we do for our God, our King. I will never know what they were, but I can con focus on the days ahead. The beauty behind that verse is that it makes it clear we need God's power to accomplish the good things our faith prompts us to do. Thank God for that!

More soon.

Blessings!

BIG UPDATE!

WOW!! It has been a LONG time since my last post! I was all fired up about having a blog, but that faded quickly! I'll try to get into this more this year. This is a LONG post... so feel free to take frequent breaks!

My wife (Kita) and I reflected on 2006 and what lessons we could pull out. We agreed it was a year of great loss with greater gain. Those two things only seem to flow together within the Christian Faith. Over the year of 2006 my wife & I rode around on a roller coaster for while.
With Health, Finances, Business, Decisions, Relationships, Work etc. I look back at it and strongly believe that God was pruning us for a fruitful year this year.

Kita's Health
Last year Kita's health was up & down.. but mostly up. Which is a miracle! She was diagnosed a couple years back with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. We have been forced down a path we didn't expect and we have had to adjust our lifestyles and recognize our limitations. Not an easy thing, especially when you are young! Kita has tried many different medications, most of which offered little benefit, rather great side effects. This last year she finally found a med that is working, the downside of any Arthritis drug is that it is extremely harmful to the body over time. But our goal as we work with our doctor is for Kita to work on her core health. With the help of a better healthier diet and natural supplements, she has been given the OK to work out! So now her body is stabilizing. As her body begins to get healthier and stronger, she can slowly reduce her meds, and eventually, with the help of our Great God and the approval of our Doctor, she can one day be MED FREE! So for now, it is one day at a time with a focus on consistency.

Ministry Change - Celebrate Recovery
I also had a big shift in ministry involvement over the last year. For the last 5 years I have been heavily involved in Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered recovery ministry focused on breaking the chains of the things that hold us back (Chemical addiction, codependency and relational issues, and other compulsive habits). my life has been dramatically impacted by the ministry and I have watched hundreds of others also be changed and freed of many struggles. After taking a look at my own life and circumstances, God made it very clear that I was over committed. That my #1 ministry to be involved with is my marriage. God makes it very clear in 1 Timothy 3:5 that if I am not managing my family, I have no business managing a ministry of my church. I knew my wife needed ALL of me. Our marriage is great and always has been, not perfect, but great. But I can't be the husband God called me to be if I am not able to meet my wife's needs. So I made to difficult decision to step down as the ministry leader of Celebrate Recovery. Which I faithfully did this month. And God has blessed me for it already. I have been operating in overdrive for YEARS!! So to have breathing room, is a new thing for me.

Ministry Opportunities - House Church
In addition to that change... last summer I was blessed to become part of a new strategy at my church! Myself and 7 other men have taken a huge step of faith to start House Churches in the metro area. 4 all together, 2 guys leading each one. I am down south in Eagan. This has been challenging and rewarding. The goal is to come together (about 30 adults) for an intimate time of worship and teaching. We meet in a basement on folding chairs and couches... automatic intimacy! We have unplugged worship where we sing to the Lord. Then we break bread and share the Lord's Supper together, followed by a message from myself or my co-leader Jason. We try to always make it very interactive, whether it be open discussions, small group discussions or prayer. It is possibly a small glimpse into the early church as described in the book of Acts. I love it! No fancy building, no elaborate set-up, no fancy speeches, just a group of people who love God and try to love each other.

The Great Reduction
There are benefits to being a home-owner, no doubt about it! Last year Kita & I also came to a very big decision. We are going to sell our home, and actually almost everything in it. We have been in our home for 4 years. We have had many conversations about what to do... R-Fi, get a renter, sell & buy a new home etc. After weighing the options, we found it in our best interest to sell. For 2 big reasons:
1) Kita's health. The house was what we needed 4 years ago... health can change many things. A home suitable for Kita would be a one level home. Ours is 2 levels with a basement. most days that is fine, other days, Kita doesn't do well with stairs. Arthritis is a progressive disease, so we are young enough to where we can plan wisely.
2) Finances. With the high cost of medical along with all the other bills, a mortgage is a burden. It is not fun to live check to check and stress out ways the tax benefits, so we are choosing to get out from under our home before it crushes us.
So we will be selling in very soon, Lord willing, and then we will stay with friends for a few months, after which we may get an apartment for s very short time. But the goal is for use to save as much money as we can so we can get a home that is suitable for our needs.
And we are selling all of our stuff, because it will be easier to start fresh, we are very simple people and we live simple lives. Plus we don't have anything of great value anyway.

Dog Gone
Another HUGE decision we made was to give up our dog. Another long conversation! But we found that with our busyness, Kita's health and our moving situation that our Dog will not do well. So we found a great family with a bunch of kids and a lot of property to adopt her! We were able to bless a little girl with a dog for Christmas! We miss Brita, but we did the right thing, and the right thing is usually the most difficult thing.

Rewards
Lastly... I had been having a difficult time at work. My attitude was poor and Job morale was sunk after a workforce reduction took some close friends. So I had been praying for other opportunities and stressing out about my job. When I finally put my job on the alter of my faith and said "Lord, I work for you, help me be a good employee" I was rewarded! I ended up with a promotion and a new role that I had put my hat in for about 6 months prior! God works in mysterious ways... but reminds me who is in control... not me!

That was a mouthful! But, I am going to try to keep up so my posts are smaller!

May the Lord bless your new year!