On the Diving Board

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ro 8:38-39 AV)

We are approaching our full time deputation rapidly. The church has called a man to candidate. If he becomes the new pastor the date we start full time deputation will be set and we will be ready to leap into that great adventure, virtually without economic support.

I have likened it to the common illustration of jumping into the deep end, sink or swim. Recently however, I have realized that my real fear is not deep water. My real fear is that there will not be enough water to swim in! I now realize we are walking down a diving board preparing for a beautiful swan dive, head first into a pool of unmarked depth. A deep pool with lots of opportunities that I must only follow the Lord's leading to organize effectively is no threat. A shallow pool without enough opportunities to keep us busy is my nightmare.

We appreciate all those who pray for us, and those who have made financial contributions. We look at these as the Lord's earnest of His opportunities for us. We are walking down the diving board and soon will commit ourself to the tender mercies of Christ, whatever the depth of the water.

Things I Appreciate about IPM

We have just returned from almost a week of meetings in Pennsylvania at the IPM headquarters. During that time, we had two department meetings, two days of symposium, and one meeting of a more personal nature. I came away very glad to be a part of IPM and wanted to share with you some of the reasons why I feel that way.

Partnership: I love the fact that IPM’s middle name is partnership. As I have come to know some of the national missionaries with whom IPM works around the world, I have been impressed with the quality and godliness of these men and women. I am happy to partner with them and happy too, to work under them. I welcome their leadership and admire what God is doing in and through them.

Prayer: Whenever we gather, there is an emphasis on prayer and the realization that nothing we do will matter unless God works. As we embark on this new adventure, I am so glad to be part of a group that loves to pray.

Optimism: There are always negative things going on in our world, but the atmosphere at IPM is usually optimistic because we serve a powerful God. There is never any doubt that God is still is control and that He is very good.

Camaraderie: I do not feel the division that I feel in some organizations. The office staff, the national missionaries, the US missionaries, the representatives, and the board are all working together. We have our individual roles, but we are all part of the team. I love being part of this team.

Willingness to change: It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and to do things because we’ve always done them a certain way. How thankful I am that IPM is willing to respond when God leads in a new direction.

There are other things, but these are the main ones. So thank you, Lord, for IPM.

Packing for the Exodus

"And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders." (Ex 12:33-34 AV)

When they departed for the Exodus and their extended sojourn in the desert the people of Israel were in a hurry and had little time or room to pack the material goods of their lives in Egypt. While we have had lots of time, we will have little room for the material things of the next phase of our sojourn. I realize one Subaru Outback wagon load would have been a vast treasure to an Isrealite household, but by the standards of America in the 21^st century it is small indeed.

The process of our packing started with a yard sale. Last summer we sold much of what we felt we would not need. Then, when our home sold in the winter, we sold or disposed of everything we did not have immediate use for or did not want to store. We now have 300 square feet of rented storage space, and that is with the vast majority of our furniture, almost all our tools and many of my "man toys" sold!

Now the truly hard part comes: What do we pack for deputation? For six months we have been thinking of what clothes to pack, what will our display be like, what storage items will we need for brochures and prayer cards. We have a basic policy - any new purchase must be accompanied by giving something away, unless it is a necessary addition to the deputation kit.

The Lord has allowed us the opportunity to do some part time deputation meetings so we will be able to trial run our presentation and display materials. That will be a great blessing. The day will soon come when we will move from our 400 square foot studio apartment into the Subaru. The few items we removed from storage will go back. The clothes we do not need will be added to the storage locker and we will drive off into our desert wandering.

We have the blessing of a fixed goal for our journey, full time ministry with IPM, which in itself will be a series of sojourns although with the luxury of a home base. We also have the blessing of the same God Israel had in the desert. This is the God who provided manna, the God who prevented their shoes or clothes from wearing out. This is the God who protected them from Pharaoh and his army. While I do not expect Him to feed us with manna or prevent our car from running out of gas or our tires from wearing out, I do expect Him to provide for our needs because He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and Joshua, and through the Exodus journey He demonstrated Himself to be the God that provides.

--posted by Charlie

Junction Ahead

This summer I have taken several long trips. On those road trips, it is obvious that if you pay attention to all the signs, things go more smoothly. If a junction is coming up, will it be a right-hand or left-hand exit? Which road is best? Sometimes there are multiple roads that could get us to our next stop, and things like traffic jams, accidents, and road construction can make a difference as to which road we choose.

For Christians, our final destination is heaven, but God leads us along through a series of stops along the way. For the past nine years, the West Hampden Baptist Church has been our stopping point. Now God is taking us to the next one. We are back on the road in our lives, making our way to the next stop.

The signs on the road point to missions as our next stop. For several months now, we have been following God’s directions toward that destination. In February, we took a missions trip to the Dominican Republic where Charlie taught a week of modular classes. When we got to the end of the week, he said, “That is what I’ve always wanted to do.” So we asked IPM (International Partnership Ministries) if it would be possible for us to join them and do that. They eventually sent us an application. Last week we took a week to go through their pre-field training, and on Friday their board officially accepted us as missionaries.

So now we are close enough to begin looking for landmarks to pass by on our way. First, our church needs to find a new pastor and we need to sell our house. Then, we will start the process of raising friends who will support us with their prayers and finances. When that is finally complete, we will begin our ministry as itinerant teachers for IPM, going wherever they need us in their multiple Bible College and pastoral training facilities around the world.

Our next stop on this journey through life is IPM. How long it takes us to get there will depend on many things. But one thing is sure: We follow a Master Guide who has gotten all his travelers safely to their final destination.

Peace Under Pressure

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

On Thursday morning, I looked at my calendar for the rest of the week. That day I planned to spend the day watching three little children. On Friday, I would spend most of the day decorating for our Mother-Daughter banquet. On Saturday I was speaking at another church’s Mother’s Day Luncheon. In the afternoon two sets of guests were arriving – one couple and one family of five. In the evening, we had our own Mother-Daughter banquet. I also needed to put together the worship bulletin for Sunday morning and figure out what to do about meals on Sunday. I didn’t have enough food in the house to feed dinner to seven additional people, so I needed to make a grocery store run too.

I looked around the house at the cleaning that still needed to be done so that the guests would have clean rooms and bathrooms. I looked again at my calendar and said to the Lord, “Lord, you see my calendar. I don’t see how I can possibly get it all done. But you said that your yolk is easy and your burden is light. So I give to you my schedule and ask you to compress the responsibilities into the hours I have. And I give you any expectations that are not Yours, but my own pride.”

I got up from my prayer time confident that God would work things out. I went to school to meet the mother of the three children and pick up her preschoolers. She told me that her schedule had changed and she would meet me at lunch to pick up her children. Suddenly I had an afternoon free. God was already answering my prayers.

On Friday I went to church to decorate. A friend and her children met me there. As we were decorating, she asked me if she could bring lunch to church on Sunday to feed my houseful of guests. Once again, I saw God step in to answer my prayers.

That evening at 6:00, I looked at the few things that still needed to be done at church and called my husband. “I still have one errand to run, more napkins to fold, an arch to finish, and I haven’t done anything about supper.”

He responded, “Would you like me to come and help?”

"I would love it!" I exclaimed. Once again, I saw God’s answer to my prayer. Charlie came and we finished.

The next morning, I had enough time to finish cleaning and get ready for the rest of my day. I still needed to stop at the grocery store to make sure I had enough food for breakfast. I also still needed to finish a game I was creating and set out the place cards. I trusted that there would be time enough in the afternoon to get all of that done.

When I returned from my speaking engagement, a box of bagels sat on the table. My husband had attended a breakfast meeting that morning. When the host church heard about our guests, they gave him the leftover bagels. That supplemented my breakfast food enough that I would not have to go to the grocery store that day.

This morning I read Isaiah 26:3. I marveled at the peace I experienced over the past four days. While my schedule was non-stop from morning to late night every day, I did not feel overwhelmed. God had truly given me His peace. He had also gone beyond what I could have dreamed when I prayed that simple prayer on Thursday morning by taking care of so many details in my life.

So today I give Him praise for His wise management of my schedule and for giving me the grace to trust Him so that I could be at peace during all the busy-ness.