Travels

The first half of March has been a busy but blessed time for us.  We left the cabin for an appointment in Trenton, Missouri, stopping for the night in Nashville, where we enjoyed our Grandson Caleb - it is going to be extremely hard to leave the States with this precious little guy being here.

Watching the incredible changes from birth to now, we know what we will miss over the next few years.  Plus, his parents are pretty special also!

From Nashville, we traveled to Trenton Missouri where we had the privilege to speak and worship at the First Baptist Church.  The Pastor of this church had visited us in Mozambique with a team and we had stayed in touch with him after the visit.  We stayed at Pastor Chestnut's house and had a wonderful time of catching up.  The only clitch was that my power point presentation didn't work for some reason - something to do with switching from their system to my computer - it worked in 'practice' before the service but wouldn't cooperate at the time.  But, in all the times we've spoken, this was the first 'glitch' and it really didn't affect much of anything!  We were cared for very well and enjoyed an incredible lunch after the service.  We gave a mini-talk to the kitchen staff who worked hard to prepare the church-wide lunch but missed the service!  We are putting on weight because we are fed so well everywhere we go!

The drive through Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri was relaxing; beautiful farms.  We know that if God ever allows us to retire, it will be in a small town somewhere in a rural setting. That is where we are the most comfortable.  Beautiful states.

On Sunday, we did a 'two-fer', being in Trenton, Mo, which is in the northwest corner of the state, high-tailing it to Belleville, Illinois for an evening service with Men for Missions International (MFMI) Director Warren Hardig.  As you know, our first trips to Mozambique were through MFMI and we initiated the MFMI world-wide prayer ministry for Mozambique, now so wonderfully administered by our dear friend Karlene.

Ann working at Our Lady of the Snows

Our time at Saint Matthews United Methodist Church was wonderful, meeting up with Warren and his wife Velma, and speaking to one of the several services Sunday night.  This church is a very mission oriented church and we had many wonderful conversations with people after the service.  We also ran in to some people we had met at Avon Park, Florida, once again demonstrating how small this world of ours really is!  The church put us up at a nearby Catholic retreat center (Our Lady of the Snows Shrine) which was beautiful and peaceful.  Monday, we just stayed there most of the day doing office work and reports and taking advantage of their fast Internet and the beautiful surroundings.  That night, we went to a supporter's house in St. Louis, Missouri, some friends from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who relocated to St. Louis many years ago.  Again, a wonderful time to reconnect and catch up.

From there, we traveled to Evansville, Indiana where we reconnected with David and Faith Clark.  David is a childhood friend of mine (we played Cowboys and Indians when we lived in Idaho at the age of 5 or 6) who God brought back together in our early 20's in Idaho through a church.  David introduced us to OMS when he went to Haiti for a year to work on the radio station.  That is when we began supporting OMS missionaries all those years ago.  Again, a wonderful time to reconnect.

Next, back to OMS headquarters for meetings and an inexpensive place to stay before going back to Olney, Illinois, where we participated in a MFMI weekend at Grace Evangelical Church.  Olney is know as the home of the white squirrel.  We heard people talking about it, but then discovered that in-deed, the sign says and people talked about the white (albino) squirrels that are seen throughout the city!

The Olney white squirrel!

We spoke Saturday night at the MFMI banquet (lots of amazing food!) and I preached at the Sunday service.  This church is solidly behind OMS missionaries and it was a privilege to be there.   We were hosted so very well by Pastor Boostrom's parents and through their little duplex house was exactly the floor-plan we'd like to retire to some day, God willing.  After church, we went to an incredible local restaurant with an incredible buffet with lots of my favorite - fried okra!

A highlight of this trip was meeting Millie.  When I put a picture of Juka on the wall in the banquet, I could see that she was visibly moved by the photograph, with tears running down her face.  Afterwards, she talked with me and explained how she had been a part of the Prayer Initiative for Mozambique for many years and had been praying daily for Juka and his family for many years but she had never seen his face.  She asked many questions, clearly involved through prayer and totally knowledgeable of all the work that is going on in Mozambique.  A real prayer warrior, making a difference in Mozambique, living in the central US with a heart for a precious family on the other side of the world.  Only God can do this!

Ann with Millie

So, we find ourselves back at OMS before heading back to the Pittsburgh area for this coming weekend. This weekend, we will be at a church near Grove City - one of the first ones we ever visited and one we have always felt especially connected to.  When there last time, we stayed with our friends the Townsends, who are now in Japan with OMS.  That's another story for another blog....

Today they are running tornado drills all around the area and we have this constant sound of emergency vehicle sirens and tornado sirens.  With the world events today, one can understand the value of emergency drills.

Tomorrow we are headed back to the Pittsburgh area.  We should receive approval from OMS within the next couple of days to purchase our return tickets to Mozambique.  We have delayed our return to represent the field at Headquarters for the June meetings that happen every year.  Pray for us as we make our plans for return to Mozambique.

Sorry for the long post - my intention is more frequent smaller posts but this month got away from us!

30,000 miles by auto and continuing!

Dave & Ann


"...each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.  This is the rule I lay down in all the churches...."  1 Corinthians 7:17

A Good Meeting

We passed back by the cabin near Boone for a few days to do our wash, work on taxes, and prepare for the next travel tour.  The weather was beautiful and the flowers are starting to pop up here and there around the cabin.  But a highlight of this time was meeting with former missionary Nathan Glancy in Boone.  Nathan is returning to Mozambique to be the country director for Samaritans Purse and was in Boone for training (where their headquarters is located).  You might remember that Nathan left the field with his family due to health issues right after we first arrived in 2007.  He has fully recovered, praise God, has completed advanced education, and is a perfect fit for this job in Mozambique although it is sad that OMS has lost him.  He already knows the culture, the language, and the lay-out of the land so to speak.  We sat in a small diner in Boone for dinner and talked and talked, closing down the place as we caught up on what God has been doing.  It was a special time that passed way too quickly.  We had the privilege of carrying on the work that Nathan had started in Mozambique, benefiting from his hard work and dedication.  I don't know how to explain it, we could just sit down and speak the same language.  I think the waiter got a little frustrated because we were too busy talking to look at the menu.

God always has a plan and can be trusted.

Dave & Ann

"Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…" – Isaiah 43:1-3

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