Alright, who's been praying?

Alright, who's been praying? Come on. Fess up. Because surely someone has! Missionaries don't have 23% jumps in their monthly supporters in one month. This just doesn't happen! And yet it has. God has been knocking my socks off with people who are interested in joining the Benya team and being a part of the work in Kenya. For example, last week I had 9 appointments. Out of those, 7 of them wanted to join the team. Out of those, four of them already have turned in the paperwork and are already starting to give! Unbelievable! But shouldn't it be believable oh me of little faith?

Things are getting quite busy as everything I am doing this semester is hitting at once: Spring Break Mission trip to Memphis with College Life (March 15-21), teaching 3 sessions of OT Survey (starting 3/23), teaching 6 sessions of Church History (starting 3/23), along with continued support meetings. I'm starting to wonder if God is going to bring in my support early just so I can rest for a while before leaving!

Will you leave as soon as your support is raised?
On this side of August, no. I'm still planning on being in Denton early June for the Denton Bible Missions Conference and going to Dearborn, Michigan in July for 3 1/2 weeks of training on how to share Christ with Muslims. I am becoming more and more convinced of the necessity of this training in Michigan so that in my ministry with Word of Life Fellowship Church and in pastoral training I can encourage them to local outreach and evangelism of the Muslim people in the South Coast of Kenya.

Please pray:
- For more people to join my support team and for my one time support to be raised.
- Pray for my teaching this next month - Old Testament Survey / Church History
- Pray for the Spring Break trip to Memphis - for hearts to be conformed to Christ.

Immediate Fruit?

The hardest part about support raising in my opinion is the waiting. We are typically not very patient people, humans that is but especially Americans. But a lot of support raising is simply waiting on God to move in the hearts of the people you meet with to sit down, pray, look at the budgets, decide whether or not they can support you, and then fill the forms out. It takes a long time to get all that done when life is hectic and kids get sick and jobs get demanding. I think God really uses this whole process to develop missionaries before he sends them out to the field.

How would missionaries react if 100% of their support came in the first month they started support raising? I'd probably be pretty overwhelmed and simply not ready to leave yet! Also I might go to the field expecting the same kind of immediate fruit in the ministry. "Immediate Fruit" - well there is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. There is absolutely nothing immediate about fruit if we are involved in the planting, watering, cultivating, and waiting process. It's the same with ministry, and the same with support raising.

Praise God, I have been making significant progress and it has been very encouraging. I was at 40% in December and now I have 55% of my monthly support covered. Praise God for His provision!

Please pray:
1) For my patience and faithfulness in the support raising process.
2) For God's provision in God's timing.
3) For the many other things I am attempting to juggle at the same time: Class on Islam, Discipleship, teaching a Church History class and 3 weeks of OT Survey in MTI after Spring Break, Personal Reading, etc.
4) Most importantly pray for my own faithfulness in prayer. "Lord place in Ben and place in me daily a stronger heart of prayer and desire to pray which is our great and wonderful privilege as redeemed children of God."

FUN-draising...

That's what my Spring semester will be full of: FUN-draising. What is 'draising'? Don't you worry about that...because it is FUN.

The chart above describes my financial needs for moving to Mombasa, Kenya by August. The pictures are of pastors that I met in Kenya and signify how many givers I need at varying amounts per month.

If it comes to mind, please pray that God would provide and allow me to discover who He has given to be a part of the Benya team!

Graduated but not Graduated

Well,
15 books,
576 hrs. of class,
30 projects, papers, & presentations,
1 year of internship with practical ministry training at Denton Community Church,
2 months of teaching, preaching, and observing in Kenya,
and 3 semesters later,

I have finished Denton Bible Church's Missions Training Institute. There will be a graduation ceremony in May along with several people from Denton Bible's BTCP/BTCL classes.

It's been a challenging journey but extremely rewarding. Not only have I been blessed with an incredible education, but I feel like I truly have been trained and prepared for ministry on the mission field. And the coolest thing about all this is that my teachers have now become my bosses. I now know these men both personally and professionally and they know me. I have seen first-hand their character, their family life, and their spiritual life. This will allow me to submit to their leadership in a trusting manner and follow their decisions without reservation yet still feel comfortable enough to give my own input and opinions. I will be sent out from Denton Bible Church as a Denton Bible commissioned missionary through SERVE, the missions agency of DBC. My own church has trained me, prepared me for ministry, and is now sending me out to continue to work under their authority and leadership in Mombasa, Kenya.

I cannot imagine better circumstances and a better situation to serve God in missions. What a blessing it has been to be equipped in this way and to continue the journey with such great and humble men of God. I am honored to be in this place. I thank you all so much for your prayers during this time, your financial support to allow me to intern at Denton Community Church for the past year, and for joining with me as a part of gospel ministry both in your own areas and with me through your support.

Please pray for the other graduates as they continue their own journeys to the mission field: Tania Woodruff (France), Ray Franks (France), Chancey Graves (France), & Clay Cooper (my roommate looking towards the unreached).

P.S. For those of you interested in pursuing missions, I HIGHLY recommend this training program. So sign up for a Missions Stint and get started down the road as ministers of the gospel to the nations. It's worth the sacrifice. God is worth the sacrifice. Is He not?

Thanksgiving Challenge

I recently preached a sermon at Denton Community Church on Ps. 107, and I'd like to recommend a devotional activity. Read through the Psalm thanking God for his great redemption and steadfast love (I recommend ESV, because it uses steadfast love [loyal love, covenantal love]). Notice the 4 examples of those who were in a place of humility, lowliness, need, and even on the brink of fainting, death, and insanity. Notice the structure of each of the 4 examples.

Then, take some time and write your own story of His redemption of you through salvation. Here's the structure:
1) A description of who you are, where you are, and the problem you have
2) A cry out to God for deliverance - Then they cried out the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
3) God delivers you and meets your specific need
4) A challenge to thank God for his steadfast love and wondrous works - Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
5) A further explanation of God's specific redemption of you and / or a further challenge to praise God with sacrifices of thanksgiving, songs of joy, and public praise of His glorious name and steadfast love.

Here is what I came up with for my own redemption story. Enjoy:

Some were following a form of godliness
Yet denying it’s divine power.
For they had established a law for themselves,
Attainable by their own will
A false hope in their “holy ways”
Unknowingly rejecting God’s necessary enablement
So by the sin of their hearts, He convicted them
By the blood on their hands, He rebuked them
They beat their chests for mercy knowing their enemy lay beneath
Of which the skin, muscle, and bone could not hide
A heart of stone beating tainted blood
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And he delivered them from their distress.
He transformed hearts, stone to flesh,
And purified their blood in the Sacrificed Lamb
A covenant of Grace and a life of the Spirit
A new law, a new godliness, a new walk
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
For his wondrous works to the children of man!
Let them praise His holy name among all people,
Let them shout with songs of joy to all the earth.