Hymn Melody in Afrikaans

One of the things that I am doing now is studying Afrikaans on-line. In my lesson tonight for pronunciation I had to listen to some songs. Well one of the songs that I listened to sounded very familiar, well the tune did.

Take a listen to this great melody of hymns in the language we will need to learn while in Namibia. It is really great! I had to listen to a few times myself.

Hymn Link

Slashed My Finger!

Today I slashed my finger and ended up getting 6 stitches in my hand. While laying in the hospital applying pressure to my hand to keep it from bleeding, I wondered what the scene would have been like in in Namibia.

Well, I know that God is good and that He will take care of us. Even today I sat in the hospital triage area for an hour trying to stop the bleeding while I waited on a doctor to finally look at my open wound.

I am doing better, but will take a week or so to get complete use back with my finger.

I must say that I have never seen all five members of my family get into the car and out the driveway as fast as we did this morning. So no more excuses on Sunday mornings!

October Newsletter

God Is Faithful!

Our God is faithful, and this month He has answered our prayers! Our permits in Namibia have been approved! Please join us in praising God for this answered prayer. We can not thank you all enough for praying along side of us for so many months for this to finally happen. We are hoping to arrive in Namibia sometime this coming January.


“What I am doing now you do not understand;”

Over two years ago, God began to call our family into full time missionary service internationally. When you answer the call to go into full time ministry, you might think that since God is calling you that He will make the path easy. One thing that we have learned in the past two years is how strongly Satan is against anyone trying to advance the gospel. Here is a small list of how Satan has tried to divert our going into the mission field:


• Our house being on the market for two years and still not closed.
• Being laid off from work.
• When re-hired the new job paid much less and longer hours and less time with family.
• Having to move away from close friends to live in missions house.
• Running out of money due to permit not being approved.
• Kristen finding out she had breast cancer.
• Having to work long hard hours on a farm to barely make ends meet.
• Kristen getting an infection after first surgery only to have another surgery.

This is only a small list of some of the things that Satan has used to try and distract us, frustrate us and even try to draw us away from what God is calling us to do. Our God is much bigger and victorious over the powers of Satan, and anything that Satan tries to use to prevent us from spreading the gospel.

We know that God could have prevented all of these bumps in the road, but we also know that God allowed all these bumps to strengthen our faith and trust in Him. These trials, we know, were meant for our good in order to prepare us for the trials that we will face in Namibia. But we also know that our lives are not our own, that we were bought for a price and that was the death of Jesus Christ.

Therefore we are humbled and are thankful for God allowing us this growth. Take a moment and read John 13:1-11 where Jesus is washing the feet of the disciples and His conversation with Peter. The feet back in Peter’s time were considered dishonorable members of the body. So dishonorable that the Law considered them unclean, and outside of the immediate family, the only ones to clean the feet were slaves and/or non-Jews. But here Jesus is cleaning each and every foot of the disciples. Peter argues with Jesus at first and does not wish for Jesus to touch his feet. Jesus says to Peter, “What I am doing now you do not understand, but afterward you will understand.”

This has been true for us. Over the course of the last two years we have not understood the road God had us travel. The lesson in this scripture for us is that the Christian life will mostly be spent trusting Jesus now and understanding Him later. God does not generally find it necessary to explain in the beginning why He is doing something the way He is doing it. Like Peter, when it looks wrong or confusing to us, we are inclined to object to the Lord’s will.

God understands our confusion and our wrestling with grief and is patient with us in this. Yet He still wants us to trust Him, and to not grumble. God’s ways are not our ways. His will for bringing, or not bringing, things to pass usually extends way beyond us, and maybe even generations beyond us.

So, like we have had to do over the past two years, I encourage my friends to remember the words Jesus spoke to Peter, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Some things we now understand about the wait and God’s timing, other things we still question, but in our questioning, we also trust. Our trust is in the great God of the universe, the Great I Am, and if we can not trust Him, then I dare ask in whom could we ever trust.


Prayer Requests For….

•our families as we say good bye for three years.
•continued health for Kristen and our family.
•all the busy work we have to do before we leave.
•the stability of our monthly support for our first term.
•the hearts of the people we will minister to in Namibia.
•the closing of our house in Winston-Salem, NC.
•God to be made much of in the land to which He sends us to.


Family Updates

Kristen

Kristen had to have another surgery in September due to an infection that she got in the surgery site. Since then she has been doing much better, the infection has healed and she says that she is now feeling like her normal self again. We praise God for her healing and strength through this entire ordeal.

She is going to have a minor surgery November 5th to have some of the skin repaired from previous surgeries. We thank you for all of your financial support, and prayers for us during this time of dealing with Kristen’s cancer.

Kristen is also homeschooling the kids, taking good care of the house, and good care of herself.


Brian

Brian has continued to work many odd jobs to keep our cash flow at a point where we can pay for food, gas, and utilities. God has been so faithful to us in supplying him with jobs. The strawberry farmer has continued to allow him to work weekend markets in Durham through November. He has been working on a pumpkin farm on weekdays during October parking cars, picking pumpkins and taking kids on hay rides. He has also had some painting jobs at a local church as well.

He also got a chance to go with a pastor friend to Haiti for a week. This was a humbling experience for him. The place where they stayed had no running water, very limited electricity and the weather was hot and humid. He came home overwhelmed with many emotions for the people living in Haiti and the church they served while there.

Cameron

Cameron is doing well. He turned five in June. He is doing well in his kindergarten studies with his great teacher (mom). He is learning to read, write, and with his studies he has morning devotionals each day. That is the cool part of homeschooling. Kristen is using Sonlight, a Christian home school curriculum.

He got the opportunity to play on a recreational soccer team this fall. He has enjoyed it a lot, is learning the basics of the game and even scored a goal in one game, which he was very excited about. He continues to love catching bugs, and caring for his pet box turtle who he named “Grassy”. He is excited about getting to Africa soon, riding the airplane and he wants to learn how to play cricket when he gets there.


Hannah

Hannah is quite the princess of the family. She is beginning to do some pre-school lessons with Kristen. She loves to play house and dress up. She also loves Awana and has earned her jacket and three patches so far. She looks forward to going each Sunday.


Corbin (AKA “The Fury”)

Corbin turned two in September and lives up to his nick name. He has no fear of anything, loves to pester his brother and sister, and thinks he can do anything that they can do. He certainly tires out Kristen most days, but he is full of love and we are certainly full of love for him. He is learning a lot listening to Kristen teach the other two kids and can even count to twenty. He will be the one chasing lions and handling black mamba's in Namibia!

Many Thanks to all for your financial support of our family!

Remit Donations to:
SIM USA
PO Box 7900, Charlotte, NC 28241
Or at www.simusa.org/giveUSA
Our account: #024621

Permits APPROVED!!!

Most of you may have heard the great news by now, but we have finally gotten approval for my work permit for Namibia! We are now working on the details of our departure date. As of now it looks like it will be the second week of January.

As for Kristen, she has been doing a lot better and healing from the surgeries that she has undergone to have her cancer removed. We would not be moving forward if she was not feeling ready for the trip as her health comes first. But she assures us that she is ready and excited to get to Namibia.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support of our family over the last couple of years as we have been waiting for this time to come and praise the Lord, He has answered our prayers!

Keep an eye on the the blog as we will be adding much more field material by the end of January.

Many Blessings!

Kristen Having Surgery

Please be in prayer for Kristen. She got a really bad infection in the previous surgery site and is at this time in surgery. The doctor said that the surgery should not be as bad as the last, and that the recovery should be less than a week. But surgery is surgery!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

SIM Mobilize - www.simusa.org

This short video gives a brief history of SIM (our mission agency) and the overall global mission of the agency.

Brian's Job

Well, I can hardly believe that the summer is almost over. Even with that, it is hard to believe that I have been working my farm job for almost 4 months now. God has truly been good to us though. The job was a blessing that was just in time, paid our monthly bills and much more.
We never know why God puts us in the places that He does, but it is always for a great reason that only He understands and has purposed at the right time. I had the great opportunity to work with many college students and high school students on the farm. I love working with young people, and that is why I will be a youth pastor in Namibia once we get there.
One of my gifts from God is understanding and connecting with youth. I can not say that I always understand, but over the past five years God has helped me to be a good listener, to be slow in my frustrations, to always share the gospel in simple ways, and to forgive, forgive again and forgive some more!
When I first started working with youth five years ago I had to learn patience. I got so frustrated with the kids at the beginning, because of their lack of attention during lessons, lack of zeal for the word and disrespect that one night I flew off the handle. But God used one young lady in the youth to share with me that I came across wrong and that not everyone was being the problem. Since that time I had learned and continue to learn how to connect with youth in a way that draws them closer in relationship, rather than push them away.
And that has been the ministering part of working on the farm. All the kids there are from different walks of life. All are having their on struggles, and many are not really sure what God is all about, and what God has to do with them. But they have at least heard about God, the gospel and why we are willing to give up everything here in the US to go to Africa for three years.
The neat thing was that this past Sunday night I had a worship service at Olive Grove Baptist with the help of good friends of mine, and five of the kids from the farm came! There were lots of other things that these kids could have been doing, but they came! Did they walk down an isle? Did they profess then name of Jesus before leaving the church? No, but they heard the word of God in song, from the Word, and from my testimony that night. To me that was the best part of working outside all summer long on the farm. The toil, the sweat, the hot and long 15 hour days was worth seeing these kids come to church. Knowing that all summer long they heard about God, Jesus, His love and what He can and wants to do for them also. Seeds were planted and now we pray that God will allow those seeds to take root and through His mighty power, save them from the bondage of sin and reconcile them to Himself!
Never question why God has you where you are! Just go with it and ask God how to best use you where He has put you.

Update on Kristen

Sorry it has been a few weeks since posting. It has been pretty busy for me since Kristen had surgery three weeks ago. Working three days a week, but 14 hour days. Helping with the kids, trying to get a lot of chores done in three days, and now preparing for a worship service that I am leading this coming Sunday night.

As for Kristen: She is doing a lot better, getting her energy back and the recovery seems to be coming a long a lot better in the past few days.

We did find out that she did have some invasive cancer cells. The good news is that they got it all out and they had not attacked the lymph nodes yet. The bad news is that she may have to take a couple of medications for a couple of years along with the thoughts of Chemo in the very near future.

We will not find out about the chemo for about two weeks when some blood work comes back. So please pray for her, the blood work to come back to where she will not need chemo. Chemo is not good on the body and she really does not want to go through that.

Thanks for the prayers and cards and food! It is all greatly appreciated.

Many Blessings to all!