Sunday

Today I am writing from Destin, Florida, where we are staying with a dear couple that we count as good friends.  Berry had visited us in Mozambique and we drug him and a team around northern Mozambique and this team actually started a church along the side of a road that is still meeting - I wrote about that some time ago.   But I digress yet again...

They invited us to their church where we had the privilege to speak this morning in their Sunday School class.  We were so blessed to be with this group of people - And then the service - it reminded us so much of our dear home church in Pittsburgh that we miss so much - from the music to the preaching style to the facility and we found ourselves singing with tears streaming down our face as God's spirit moved through the song, the scripture, and the message.  It never ceases to amaze me how God can reach down from eternity into time and reach you right where you are at the time.  We serve an amazing God.

This afternoon, we were able to hook up with another couple who also visited us in Mozambique with a team and have started a ministry of missionary care; reaching out to missionaries serving overseas.  (They are counselors by profession).  They had some scary statistics:  47% of missionaries don't survive their first term (either leave before that term is over or don't return for a second term) and that over 70% leave for reasons that could have been prevented through good missionary care, including counseling.   It was good to see them again and to hear the amazing stories of what God has been doing in their lives since we last saw them.  More of seeing how God 'connects the dots' as he moves His work forward.

Berry and Lois have many years of experience working overseas - in fact Lois returned today from a 10-day trip to Guatemala.   They have links to Mozambique going back into the 1990s and listening to their stories today helped us fill some gaps in our understanding of the history of our mission's work in Mozambique.  They are a great inspiration and encouragement to us along with being wonderful hosts for the past couple of days!

Blessings this day.  May the God of peace fill you with His presence!

Dave & Ann

Radical Thinking

Two things I’ve been pondering the last few weeks.  First, while we were at Avon Park, I heard a story about a new missionary couple who had spent the time and expense to visit 20 churches in the Eastern US to explain their call to missionary service and invite the churches and people to partner with them.  They spent the time and expenses in these 20 churches and no one responded, no one...  This just grieved my Spirit so deeply and I have 10’s of questions I wish I could ask; but I find it simply incredible that this could happen.  There is a tendency to want to blame the missionary for not doing something right, but on the other hand, if you speak with conviction about the love God has placed in your heart for that field He has called you to, how can this be even possible?  My heart just grieves for we know the needs overseas are so great and the workers so very few and the urgency so.....well.....URGENT.  Eternity hangs in the balance.  So I just ponder this and give such incredible thanksgiving for all the dear people who make it possible for us to serve Christ in Mozambique.  It is humbling.

This then brings me to the next thing as we get so incredibly distracted in our hedonistic society.  While we were in Avon Park, we heard about a book called “Radical” by a fellow named David Platt.  It was one of those books that was guaranteed to ‘rock our world’.  I downloaded it on my Kindel and have almost finished it; and indeed it is one of those books that has the potential to ‘rock your world’.  

It is written by a Pastor of a church in Birmingham who pretty much ‘calls it like it is’.  He is strong on the mission of the church as assigned by Jesus in Matthew 28:  Go and make disciples.   If we really are transformed by the power of Christ and really believe, then why don’t our lives reflect it?  The author challenges us to do the following things for one year, guaranteeing it will change your life.  Those things are:

1. Pray - truly, diligently, faithfully
2. Read through the Bible in one year (we’ve been be proponents of this for years!)
3. Commit your life to a specific community of believers (i.e. a local church)
4. Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose 
5. Spend your time in another context

You will have to read the book to get the details and although the first item is not specifically called out, it is included and I believe it has to start there.  We should certainly be more about doing and a lot less about the talking....

But, then again, the most radical book that I know will rock your world, is to read God’s word from cover to cover (we recommend reading it chronologically over the course of a year), allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you fill your life with the wisdom and beauty of the Bible; by far the truly radical book that so many know about, but don’t really know...It will change you - guaranteed.

And then tonight, in the house where we are staying, they have this small little book called “The Greatest Thing in the Whole World” by Henry Drummond.  There is no copy right but this little pocket book is clearly worn, tattered, and very old yet so profound.  I would like to memorize this little book and its wisdom.  The greatest thing is Love - but the explanation is so wonderful.  Jesus said he would show us a simpler way, that if we do one thing (love), then we will fulfill the law without even thinking.  For example, if you take any of the 10 commandments, at its base is Love.  For example, the commandment “thou shalt have no other gods before me”....if we truly love God, we wouldn’t even consider such a thing.  Or, if we truly loved our neighbor, why would we covet whatever he might have, and so on.  

Then it takes the gifts of the spirit (Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, etc.) and compares them to what the Bible says about love (love suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not) using those beautiful words from Corinthians so often read at weddings.  It calls these spiritual gifts the “Spectrum of Love”.  So beautiful.....Every couple should read this little book together!

As we watch the hate playing across the world’s stages today - why are we surprised?  It is what we get when there is not love.  

And then the little book, ends with:  “And who are Christ’s?  Everyone that loveth is born of God.”

May it be so.  May we reflect the love of our Creator to the world around us.   May we examine our lives daily to see if we are loving as we should if we truly believe what we say we believe.... Our love most flow outwardly as it is received inwardly from on high!

As a prayer request this night; we have learned that our Mozambican friends Carlos Jango and his wife Tina, have lost their first baby.  We counseled this couple before they got married and they actually spent their wedding night in our house in Mozambique.  The baby apparently had jaundice from what we understand and this is something that pulls hard at Ann,...had we just been there....  She worked in labor and delivery for many years.   They are a dear couple and we love them dearly - May God give them peace in this time of tragedy.  Infant mortality is so high in Mozambique and this makes our hearts so heavy.  But we can trust God with everything, the good and the terribly bad.  He will sustain us.  Sustain Carlos and Tina dear Lord.  (Photo is from their wedding).

Dave and Ann

“On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand, 

All other ground is sinking sand....”

“And in the end, the love we take [receive] is equal to the love we make [give to others].”  Beatles song

Avon Park Camp

For the last week, we have been at the Avon Park Holiness camp in Avon Park, Florida.   Our colleagues in Mozambique had attended here a couple of years ago and said it was the highlight of their furlough and had encouraged us to go if we had the opportunity.  Now I understand why and we are so thankful to have been invited to attend.

The camp has many houses that people own and numerous trailer sites for RVs and the like.  They also have a wonderful dining facility and multiple dormitories and apartments.  Most of the people we talked to are retired folks from northern states who winter here and they run numerous camp programs, this missionary emphasis week being their largest.  Ann and I are some of the youngest folks here and it has been an amazing time for us.  We have had the opportunity to speak numerous times and have received so much good teaching.  We have made so many new friends.

There are three amazing, or what I would call “world class” evangelists/teachers speaking at the services and a in-depth Bible study each morning by a Bible teacher (Dr. Ron Smith) we know through our OMS channels, and lots of wonderful music.  But what is the best part of all are the wonderful and gentle people who live here and are sold out for Jesus.  Many of the people here are retired missionaries and pastors.  As we talked, there were all sorts of links within this community to the work we do or people whose paths we have crossed the last few years.  The world is a small place.

One of the highlights of the week was “Missionary Day” when all four missionary couples presented their work covering Ecuador, Uganda, Honduras, and Mozambique.  It started with a beautiful flag ceremony, which Ann lead (after the American Flag) with the Mozambique flag as the ‘flags of the nations’ were presented.

During this day, everyone who had served as a missionary came forward and was introduced and they gave their name, their years of service, and their fields of service.  Our four years seemed so small compared to numbers like 50 plus years.  After all the introductions, one of the camp leaders gave us the total and it was nearly 2000 years of missionary service coming out of this small community in Avon Park.  Our 4 years seemed so small in comparison and it made me wonder, what could I tell these 800 people assembled for this special day?  But, it was our joy, to share the good news of what God has done and is doing in the country where we serve.

Each day goes something like this:

1. 0700 - Prayer service and devotional time in the Tabernacle (church building).
2. 0800 - Breakfast, where we sit with different people each day
3. 0915 - Bible study by Dr. Ron Smith
4. 1030 - Morning service and teaching
5. 1200 - Lunch
6. 1300 - Special presentations (Seminaries, Christian Colleges, etc.)
7. 1430 - Afternoon service and teaching 
8. 1700 - Dinner
9. 1830 - Missionary presentations
10. 1930 - Evening Service followed by fellowship times in various people’s homes, usually including food.

We know we have put on weight this week!

Of note are the lovely murals painted for this day.  The artist, Myrna Wright, is show with us in front of the Mozambique mural.  

The Evangelists / teachers are outstanding and we’ve crossed paths with some of them over the years.  We have had outstanding discussions with new friends, enjoyed hearing the other missionaries and what God is doing in their countries, and have been challenged deeply.  We are getting tired because the days are so filled and long; we can’t keep up with these retired Florida people and are wondering if there is a fountain of youth here they aren’t telling us about.  Plus, there is so much experience here and we have enjoyed the stories of those who have served so faithfully.

This precious group is taking up a missionary offering all this week.  To date, they have raised over $60,000 dollars to be split among the missionaries.  We expect to see many monthly faith-promise pledges which will go along ways to helping us be ready to return to the field this June.  It is humbling and precious; they are serious here about taking the Good News to all the nations; the commitment is certain, serious, and done with great joy.  They understand without explanation what faith-promising giving is and what it takes to get a missionary to the field.

We shared the week with some amazing missionary folks:  (left to right) Doug and Cindy Tankersley (Ecuador with OMS); Bill and Beth Ryan (Honduras with WGM); us; Jon and Lisa Mayo (Uganda with WGM).  They all had amazing things to report of what God is doing in their fields and we learned much from each of them.  Wonderful and dedicated people.....

What a privilege to have been here.  You can’t imagine the peaceful presence of God that we feel in this place.  I can see why people would choose to retire in such a wonderful setting.

If you want to check it out:  http://www.avonparkcamp.org/

(and there is no snow here!!!)

Much love.

Dave & Ann

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  Matthew 5:6