It Just Takes A Spark...

I was thinking about what to title this blog... fanning the flame or something like that... I went with it just takes a spark partially because of the record label I work with called Spark Recordings. The idea is that I can hopefully be a spark that will ignite others to passionately follow after God whether it be through music, friendship, teaching, serving... or through sharing how God has used me in specific times... I had the opportunity to share in chapel during missions week at Chapel Christian School recently. I was asked to share about my missions trip to Greece with these elementary school kids. It was kind of fun, kind of weird. About 20 years ago, I was sitting right there in those very seats listening to someone else speak in chapel. Ahh... nostalgia... Anyways, it was exciting to be able to share about what God was doing and how I was able to be a part of it and that they could too. Several of the teachers commented on how excited the kids were that I was coming. I was the only male speaker that week and relatively younger as well. I hope and pray that I was able to be a real encouragement to these kids. Even at this young age, may they grow inflamed in a passion for God and serving him. One is never too young to be used by God and to know his love...
Here is a letter that was given to me not too long after the chapel:

A letter from a student at Chapel Christian School


It made me smile... God is probably smiling too...

It's Still February...

One last entry before the month disappears...
Let's be honest. Money (or the lack there of) is a source of much pain, hardship, uncertainty, anxiety, and joy. Joy? Yes. While money can buy us some things to bring us pleasure, that is not what I am referring to (for many reasons but I won't go into those here). But we will address the issues of money and joy later. First let's look at all the other "no fun" or "no good" issues associated with money.
Alright, still being honest here. While I have personally experienced and know God's hand of provision and meeting my needs quite well over the last half of my life (well, all of it but the last half was in the midst of not having money), the idea of raising support for missions has loomed in front of me. I'm not sure why really. I have lived on very little. I have had very little money coming in and witnessed time and again God provide for my specific needs. God has shaped me through these life experiences and circumstances. I am grateful. I have learned to trust in God in very real ways. I have grown to have a real confidence and peace (most of the time) in God's goodness and providence. Yet still, the idea of raising support somehow shakes that peace. As I began typing this, the thought occurred to me that I was still working. I had a hand in helping to meet my needs still knowing that God would take care of me. Maybe there is an element of a control issue here. Raising support as a missionary, you are pretty much altogether removed from having any control on the money coming in. I must be supported by others, by the body of Christ. Here's a sad testament. That doesn't give me much confidence. Maybe that's what is shaking my peace. While I have seen numbers give to help others less fortunate, I have also witnessed far more spend extravagantly on frivolous things while others in need may simply get a nod from them. Maybe part of what God is trying to do in me is to learn to not only trust him but to trust his body. I tend to be a pretty trusting guy but I guess I've seen much seeming neglect in this area.
(I am just being honest)
To add to the matters, the support level I have been quoted was much more than I had anticipated. While I knew it wasn't going to be cheap because the living expenses in Europe are much greater (not to mention the increasing rise of the value of the euro), I wasn't expecting it to be that expensive. Then what happens if/when one day I get married (Lord willing!) and the support level jumps... and then kids! We won't go there. :o) Add all this up... keep adding... :o) What do you get? An opportunity for God to work in me and around me to reveal his glory!
The idea of raising all that money still seems a bit ominous (especially since it is more than what I live on now). Yet, I am continually drawn back to the God I know and love that does care for me. So I can cast all my anxiety on him, trust him and experience his peace, goodness, and provision. Anxiety may try creeping up (Satan can be persistent too) but we/I can just cast it on my God again. He is good! Now, it doesn't stop there. I did mention joy earlier. Let's look at that again. There's a common phrase floating around that has a good source. ;o) It is more blessed to give than to receive. It's kind of ironic that in my concern about being provided for, God has been challenging me in my giving. Have I been one to give to the church and to others? Yes. But I have felt like I should give more at times but haven't because I didn't have much myself... wasn't sure that I would be able to even meet my bills and such... I am excited now about the opportunities to give to the church and to others. There are many challenging passages about giving in the Bible. There's the widow that Jesus praises for giving just a couple of coins in the offering in contrast to the wealthy who give more than her. They give some out of their abundance; she gives ALL out of her POVERTY! Then there are the Macedonians who also give out of their poverty... "even more than they are able!" They first give to God (tithe) then they give to another church in need on top of that... and eagerly and cheerfully. Paul discusses the idea of giving out of what we have not out of what we don't have. God has blessed us so that we can give. This is clearly stated in 1 Cor. 9 when they are challenged to give cheerfully. God will not only meet your needs but he will give you enough so that you can give back to him and to others. We will be blessed SO THAT we can be a blessing to others.
I actually taught on this in our College & Career meeting this past week. I'm hoping to get the basic thoughts of the talk online at our College & Career site soon. I'll let you know...
I am excited to be able to give... I am excited to be able to give out of what I have been blessed with... I am excited to be able to experience God's goodness and provision so that I can share it with others to His glory...
May we as a body... may I as his wealthy son who shares in his inheritance learn to grow in the grace of giving... in the grace of trusting...

My heart sinks...

Technology can be great... but it can also rip your heart out and make you want to cry... Why? Well, I just spent about an hour working on typing up a blog here and editing some things. When I went to publish it, an error page pops up and all is lost!
Which means, I must retype all (or more than likely part) of it again. :o(
Maybe you weren't supposed to know what I wrote before... or maybe it's an attempt to discourage me...
Well...
I will try again...
Here I am again. It's still February (barely). I had hoped and planned to have several entries this month but alas it did not happen. Time has a "funny" way of slipping away from you. Life keeps us busy, continually rearranging our schedules and priorities. Things also seem to often take longer to do than originally anticipated (ie. right now!). At any rate, February has been full... full of both ups and downs i guess you could say...
My mom almost died this month. Her appendix ruptured. Silly woman thought she just had the flu. After some research, my dad took her to the hospital. After surgery, the doctor told her that if she had waited any longer she would have been "headed south." After a number of complications, she is home slowly recovering and doing pretty well. Praise God! She would appreciate your prayers as she is still recovering.
I had been having some really intense pains in my head, mouth, ear, neck, & back off and on over the last several months. The pain would come and go (with much drugs and pain meds which barely touched the pain). Finally, I decided to have a wisdom tooth removed that had broken. The pain has not returned since the oral surgery. I am still recovering from the surgery though.
On a brighter note, the Lord has really been challenging, encouraging, and using me in many ways lately. The College & Career group has been going through a 4 week series that has been challenging all. The lessons were titled: "God's Mission, Our Mission," "Apostolic Passion," "Wartime Lifestyle-Living Simply," and this week's is "Wartime Lifestyle-Are You Fighting?" Please pray as I finish preparing for this week's lesson wrapping up this series.
The College & Career group is working on putting together some evangelistic outreach opportunities. We are planning a couple of events for April including a Coffeehouse and an "Open to Talk" Discussion Forum. These are some new strategic efforts and avenues for our group in partnering with God's Kindgom building evangelistic mission. I am excited about this and sense this is only just the beginning!
We are also trying to put together a team with our College & Career group to participate in the "Serve the City" summer missions program in Brussels. Our first official meeting will be this Friday. Please pray for "harvesters" to step up to be a part of this work. There are obviously other prayer requests and they will follow. This is the first step though so please pray that God will call and people will respond.
I've had some great times building relationships with people. I've really enjoyed living life as it should be: with others and God focused. I am excited at the work God is doing in me and through me. I am excited to be part of God's work both here locally and globally. I am excited to share in his ministry of refining and growing his children and bringing others into his fold. I am excited to have brothers and sisters in God's family. I am excited to be His!
God is at work. Let's join him in his Kingdom building evangelistic mission through prayer and actively loving others...

PS: There are no pictures in this entry (nor probably in the next). My apologies to those who prefer to read picture books. Thanks for bearing through. :o)
PPS: I was going to write two entries tonight but due to the technological difficulties, I will just write the one. Maybe (hopefully) I can get to another one tomorrow. We will see...
PPS: This entry wasn't quite as cleverly written as the first... such ashame... oh well... Let's just laugh about it anyways... :o) lol

Greece Revisited...

So I skipped a month in posting here. I think I may hit this a couple of times in the next couple of weeks. I wanted to share a bit more about the trip to Greece before I moved on to inform you about the future happenings towards Brussels.
While we were in Greece, not only did we have the opportunity to serve and to share the gospel in many ways, but we also were able to experience much in the way of Biblical culture.



While in Athens we were able to visit many of the historic ruins. There were many many temples and sacred places for the Greek gods. (Read Acts 17: 16-34 for context) We were camped about a 5-10 minute walk from the Acropylis. Right near the Acropylis is the infamous Mars Hill (Ares Hill). We trod upon the very place that Paul defended the one true God in a land of many gods to a people in fear of these gods. Oh, may we be so inflamed as Paul was here. (Did you read Acts 17 yet? If not, what are you waiting for?)


Recognize this stone artifact on the left? Well it wasn't this one exactly but there was one like it in a famous blockbuster movie... One day we had the opportunity to go to Corinth and take a tour of the ruins there. We had the priviedge of having a Christian archeoligist for a guide. He provided great Biblical insight and referenced the scriptures often as we toured bringing new perspectives to these scriptures. Ok. So I'll address this picture above now. You may have seen this in "The Passion of the Christ" movie. Remember when Jesus was flogged? He was bound to a stone like this. However, the movie had it wrong. It was placed in a courtyard that was somewhat isolated. It was much more likely that this stone would have been in the public marketplace where such judgements would have taken place. As we stood in the middle of the market, we saw this stone. It was very public. Now remember what you saw in the movie but place that in the middle of a crowd of onlookers... Thank you Jesus!
There were many other very interesting things we saw that day. Many things giving added insight. We were shown something by our guide that was outside the protected area in the ruins. It is very significant for Christians but disregarded by others. We saw a road that had the name of Epaphras etched on it as the one who paid for the road to be made. Without going into the details, this one discovery is one of the strongest proofs of the accuracy of the Bible. Epaphras was argued to be the weakest link until this discovery and then the issue was just dropped. It was pretty cool to see this evidence first hand. One last thing I'll mention is the common passage in 1 Corinthians 13:12. We saw an artifact of a mirror. It is much different than our mirrors we have today. Read this verse. Now imagine looking into polished brass as oppose to the clear mirrors we have today. Doesn't this verse make even more sense now. It also makes the contrast between looking at a mirror and seeing face to face greater. Oh, to see our loving and merciful Savior face to face!
Thanks again for your prayers and support. May we be blessed as we stand in God's grace... for His glory!


The bathroom is on the right. Public restrooms were very public!
PS: Don't shake their left hand! ;o)

Summer Recap Part 2: Greece (Olympics)

Four of us (Jonathan Owens, Kari Kipp, Heather Crane, & myself) from our College & Career group at VBCC set out in August to go to Greece. We joined others to comprise the Greater Europe Missions Greece Euroteam group. There were 17 of us in all. There are many fun stories that could be told from meeting an actor in the airport from one of the classic movies, "The Princess Bride", to almost missing our flight, to having our luggage lost, to hanging out with the athletes, etc... But to refrain from writing a novel, I can be wordy as it is, I'll leave out many of the details. The first account I had with a Greek was actually on the plane from London to Athens. I was sitting next to a guy who was studying and working as a Psychiatrist in England and was on his way home for holiday (european term for vacation). We were both reading books. He was reading some psych book while I was reading a book on "christianity". We started talking about all kinds of things ranging from politics, culture, & food, to religion. We had some really good discussions. He was really open to Christ in spite of the formality and impersonal religion he grew up in and all that came with that. As we arrived in Athens he gave me a few more suggestions on what to eat, where to shop, etc. and I gave him my book that I had been reading. He was very appreciative. Keep him in your prayers...
Well, we were there in Athens to serve along side the Greek Evangelical Church as they were heading up the ministry during the Olympics. So one of our main focuses was to assist them where they needed us and to be an encouragement to them. This was the first time that the Greek Evangelical Churches had done something like this, especially on such a grand scale. Opposition faces them on many fronts as they are considered a cult by most since they are not Greek Orthodox.
Our team had some specific tasks that we were involved in. The biggest and considered to be one of the more important tasks was the packing and distributing of "literature" packets. These packets contained Olympic themed materials including a tract for kids, a couple of other tracts for adults, the gospel of Luke in modern Greek, and a response card to the church if they were interested in a New Testament in modern Greek or contacting the church for salvation, attendance, etc. While 95% of the Greek claim to be Greek Orthodox less than 5% are practicing. Those that do find themselves in a very legalistic and non-personal religion. So most Greeks have never even read the Bible let alone in a modern Greek text so they can more easily understand it. The response to these packets was great. Many asked for the New Testament, numbers responded with salvation, and numbers risked opposition by seeking to be a part of the Evangelical church. An additional praise report that I learned about after returning from Greece, was that the Greek Orthodox church, probably in direct response to the numbers that were asking the Evangelical church for modern Greek New Testaments, authorized the reading of modern Greek Bible on Sept. 19, 2004. Praise God that his word is being made more accessible to the people so that they can more easily understand his message for them.

While the distribution packets was our major task, our team was also involved with other things as well. We also distributed free bottled water, helped out with street corner ministry at one of the churches, and participated in a service with song and testimonies. There were various other odds and ends things done while we were there as occassion arose. All in all, it was a great time working with them for the building up of the kingdom. They were greatly encouraged. The very same elders that were reluctant to take on this Olympic ministry idea were excited about the idea of possibly doing a Christmas outreach and planning other outreach events.
We also had quite a bit of time to go out on our own and hang out in the city, shopping, eating, meeting people and seeing sites. As we did this we were able to meet many people. Some of those we were able to develop a relationship with. Two families come to mind. One family owned a gift shop where they sold pottery type items, many of which they had made. Before we had left, I had the opportunity to talk with them briefly about christianity and left them with a cdrom with an interactive presentation of the gospel. Another family we met owned a restaraunt that we passed daily. We had some interesting times (the dad was quite a character) and some fun times there. The daughter, Paulina, was in her 20's and enjoyed our visits (as they all did). We had a real breakthrough one night as we were saying goodbye to a friend that we had made on another team that was serving there in Greece too. Our teams went to the restaraunt to eat and one of us offered her a New Testament in modern Greek. I clearly remember her face and expressions as she received it with such cheer and value. It was truly a gift. Throughout the rest of our time there, she would make comments on how she had been reading it every day. Please keep her and her family along with the others that received the message of hope in various forms in your prayers. May God draw them to himself so that he will be glorified and they will be blessed.
It was a good time working with others from all around the world for one cause, serving one King, & sharing one love. We worked more closely with people from Canada, Brazil, South Africa, England, Australia, Nicaragua, and of course Greece and others. It was just a sampling of the beautiful picture of the global kingdom loving one another and serving our global God.

Summer Recap Part 1: East Asia

Allow me to share some about the trips God enabled me to go on this past summer. The first trip kinda fell in my lap. A good friend of mine who had been to East Asia before was planning on going with a team from Tabernacle Church of Norfolk. This team was headed up by Mike and Joy Lane, missionaries to East Asia. Bert Moore from VBCC was also on the team. After my friend felt that he needed to drop out for several reasons (all of them good), he and the Lanes requested that I would take his spot on the team. Right from the beginning, despite coming onto the team late and not being able to make most of the team meetings, it was evident that God was at work here. God met our every need. From raising financial and prayer support, unifying the team, and travel difficulties to effective and well received teaching and presentations and opportunities to share the gospel, we witnessed God's grace.
So what did we do? Well, the focus of our trip was to go into this new area in East Asia where there is no church and establish a good relationship with the government and the community by conducting English camps creating an opporunity for the Lanes to serve there on a long term basis. While we did everything on our part to have an excellent camp, the officials in this city did not. We arrived to a less than what was promised situation. At first appearance, it didn't look great but God had bigger and better things in store than what we had planned. Our team ended up splitting into two groups. One stayed and conducted the camp where we were, the other became a traveling team. Both teams had great success in their own right. This broadened the Lane's influence and networking at a much quicker pace than what they had planned.
I had the great opportunity and privelege of having on of the East Asians (Bill Li) stay with me while I was there. He was my assistant in the camp and became a good friend. We had several times of in depth conversation about Christianity including a chance to have a Bible study together. I left him with a Bible in his language and a great challenge to pursue God as if it was the most important thing he could do (as he had stated and agreed to do). I am happy to report that a couple of weeks after we left, he moved to another city, met some local Christians, and gave his life to Christ. Praise God!


I also was able to give some of my Christian cd's to several students. Many of them have commented on how much they like them. I have even had them ask about the lyrics. Contact with a few of these students are continuing sporadically.
Please pray for Bill Li and the local church there. The church is under scrutiny and has been persecuted by the government a number of times.
Pray for the fire to be enflamed by the Spirit of God.
Pray for their doctrine to be sound.
Pray for the seeds that were planted in the students lives by our love, message, and continual influence with Christian messages through the cd's to take root in fertile soil.
Pray for more workers to go!
PRAY! We are without excuse -- even if you can't go, you can and should pray!
Praise God for his work in this land and among this people for His glory.

I thank God for this opportunity to go and serve in East Asia. Maybe you could ask the Lanes how you could assist them in their service there or even be a part of the work God is doing there by going short or long term. They would love to hear from you.

Spread the good news

Let it begin...

Well, I'm trying to get this page up and running for us but things are taking alot longer than I had hoped. So please bear with me as we try to make things available in a much slower and what has proven to be a painful process. Your prayers are appreciated.
I am in the middle of the application process with Christian Associates International. It's a pretty detailed and thorough process... which is good but it just takes time. I will be officially/publicly introduced as a missionary candidate at Virginia Beach Community Chapel during our missions conference this coming week 10/31/04 - 11/7/04. On Friday night, 11/5/04, 5 other missionaries from our church and I will be sharing about the work the Lord has called us to. Contact the chapel or 757.428.1881 for more info.
This semester I have also been attending the Perspectives class. I have enjoyed going through this class, seeing how God has been moving throughout history from a biblical, historical, and cultural perspective. At the same time, it has been ALOT of work and I am right in the midst of a huge pile of it now. It seems overwhelming when I combine that with all the other tasks to be done but God is faithful and will give me the grace to see this (and all things) through. It has been a great class and I highly recommend you taking it if/when the opportunity presents itself again. Don't worry, you can take it without the heavy workload... you just won't get credit for it. I would love to see VBCC go through this as a church sometime (hint, hint!).
Mark & Sarah Beers are back now from their wonderfully long honeymoon and so have rejoined the ranks of our College & Career group. Things are going pretty well with our group. Please keep us in your prayers. There are many things to pray for. Here are just a few: leadership, community,& outreach. (Check out our site online at www.collegeandcareervbcc.com.
I hope to soon be able to get up some thoughts on what happened this summer with the trips to East Asia & Greece as well as things at home. So stay tuned in...

I also want to extend another big thanks to all who have supported me with your prayers and finances. We aren't individuals called to a task... we are a body called to a mission...