Camp, travel, and MARRIAGE
“It is funny you should ask because I have had a growing interest in studying Hebrew.”
George Müller said this to a friend of his that had asked him if he would ever consider evangelizing to the Jewish people. What’s interesting about this is that George Müller was not well known for his incredible evangelism among Jews of his day, but for his work in the lives of thousands of orphans in England. George certainly thought that this was the sign of the Lord’s will in his life and moved to pursue a ministry among Jewish people. He had even gained a passion for studying Hebrew but as he studied his training was cut short due to medical issues which eventually redirected him to his incredible ministry of caring for orphans.
I’m sure in hindsight George wondered why the Lord seemed to lead him in this other direction and even given him the skills for it, only to be later brought to another place to fulfill his true calling. I resonate with George on this. As I write this I just finished leading a youth camp of over 500 in recreation games because of God’s gifting in my life in this domain. The Lord has given me a real knack for this stuff so much so that a church decided to FLY ME OUT for this event. I have never felt more like a superstar. I have never been flown out for anything before. And yet this is not even the main ministry that the Lord has me pursuing! Because for some reason he has also gifted me in language and given me a passion for people to get access to God’s word. I don’t know why He has given me these talents and I’m sure George Müller didn’t know why he liked Hebrew and even went to study it but we trust God has a plan in mind.
Gettin’ wild on super spirit day at camp
Before his care for orphans George Müller moved around a lot as he followed the many different things God brought him into and I relate with him on this as well. It’s crazy as I tell people that I am getting married in 2 weeks, doing camp in California, going on my honeymoon, moving to California from Missouri, and then later moving to Papua New Guinea in January! It seems like a lot but God seems to be in the middle of the whirlwind. It reminds me of Acts 8:39-40
“When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”
I feel a little bit like God is just teleporting me to different areas where he could use me like He seemed to do with Philip.
Previous to my brief time in California, Jess and I went to paint my mom’s house in Illinois where I had a great opportunity to share the gospel with my aunt Tina! I don’t know how we got to this part of the conversation, but Tina was talking about her cousin that is a pastor and she said, “He lives knowing he has a place in heaven.” This is a little league coach pitch right here; no way I wasn’t going to swing at this one. So I asked about her place in heaven and got to share the gospel. At the end Tina came to the conclusion that Jesus died on the cross for her sins and I pray that she would come to understand the true gravity of this and base her life around it.
Other than that I AM GETTING MARRIED IN 2 WEEKS AND I’M FREAKING STOKED! CYA ON THE OTHER SIDE OF MATRIMONY!!
Prayer and praise
Please pray that Tina would grow in her relationship with Jesus
Praise the Lord for providing so much for us with 100% of our monthly funding! We still need prayer for our large one time costs especially for building a house in the tribe in Papua New Guinea
We would love prayer for our marriage that we would be able to be founded in Christ so that satan cannot easily attack our marriage while we are overseas and that our marriage would be an example of Christ’s love for the church
We would love prayer for the opportunities to minister to both my family and our church family with Atascadero Bible Church while we are in California until January
We Would also love prayer for the practical things of getting Jess’s name changed and all the necessary paperwork for getting into PNG in January
We would love prayer for our future teammates and the future tribal people we will be ministering to. That we would be humble towards our team and that the Lord would be working already in preparing the hearts of the tribal people