Over Exposed

I was talking to a wonderful and precious friend from my past this week and the subject of blogging came up.  I mentioned that it was so hard to be a continuous blogger because you were never sure if your blog should be an "informative" tool or a diary.  If you have read mine you can see that it has been both.  I was thinking this week and writing in my diary (to masculinize it, Logbook) and I thought that I would share this thought and prayer request with you because I know that each of you has been faithful in praying for us and continually shows your faith in us by supporting us.

I have truly enjoyed the class and sermon series at church the last couple weeks.  The series on the parables of Jesus has continued to remind me of what Jesus was and is saying to us today.  

This weeks lesson was on Luke 16:19 and following.  The Rich Man and Lazarus.  

I love the book of Luke.  Besides the fact that it was written by a gentile, and a doctor at that, I love that Luke's focus is the gospel to the poor, the women and the gentiles.  All of which were despicable to the Jews.  I can almost see Luke sitting at his desk writing to this "Theophilus", also a gentile, almost saying to himself, "I cannot believe these Jews did not see this coming".  I cannot believe that they have turned their head in denial of not only Jesus the person but his teaching.  "My research is so conclusive, how can they not see it"?  (That's the doctor in him).

In Luke 16, after Lazarus and the rich man die the rich man is being tormented and asks "I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house... Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment."  This rich man knew Lazarus' name!  He was not a stranger.  The rich man walked by him every day and did not see him.  The poor were everywhere and I'm sure it made Jesus overwhelmed with frustration and sadness that the "Godly" people of that day did not even see them.

We have been having our Sunday night ministry at the Benevolence for over two years now and I confess that before we started this study the people who walked up and down the street with their old bike, shopping carts and 3 layers of clothes in the summer time (so no one will steal them) had no names to me and were invisible.  Now, I see them all.  I see them hiding in their little corners at the stores, malls, and the wooded clearings around town.  I praise God for opening my eyes.  I realize that I was not tuned in to God's view of the world.  Now I know their names.  (It is almost strange to hear your 5 year old, from the back seat of the van, say as we pass the corner at Brookshires, "Hey there's Mary".)  She's the one who hold the sign, will work for food.

My fear, and my point, is that I have been praying that God would not allow my eyes to be covered and my feelings to be callused when we move to Rwanda.  The fear of overexposure because of the mass of people in need is so great that I am afraid of becoming blind to God's plan for me and forgetting to see the forest because of the trees.

Please pray that not only me but Kristin and our children will see God's world through the eyes of Jesus and seek out every chance to serve.  I know it can and will be overwhelming at times but with the compassion and love of Christ we will prevail.  

Lord do not let any of your workers be blinded to the works you have prepared for us.

I want each of you to know that I lift up all those who pray for us and ask great blessings and peace on you.

10...

As a father of two little boys (who are awesome) it is common around our house to hear the Rocket Countdown.  You know, 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...BLASTOFF!!!  With a 3 year old it is more like 10...9...8...2...1...BWAST OFF!!!

Well this is were we are at on our journey to Rwanda.  We are now at 10 months and counting down. As you can imagine this means many more long nights and unfortunately a few stress "discussions" between me and my dearest wife.  Yes, we are human and we admit it.

The past month has been so amazing.  God has been so faithful to us and repeatedly shown us his great commitment to answering our prayers.

At the beginning of this month I was becoming a little stressed about our fund raising when an amazing thing happened.  A great man came to me and actually said, "I want to be in charge of your fund raising".  Now, I polled numerous missionaries and none of them have ever had such a thing happen.  God is amazing.  This has given me more peace than I could have imagined at this point in our journey.

After this the missions chair at Glenwood called and said that the missions team and mission elders had agreed that Glenwood would be our sponsoring church.  Within a month we had our entire mission salary committed by the mission committee, Elders and church body.

The same month we had our dear family from Hershey, PA call and invite us to give our mission presentation to the church body.  After 3 days there we felt like we had never left.  The church just took us in and loved us.  They have committed to helping us and we are now awaiting the decision from their budget team about that commitment.

It is not their faithful commitment to the Lord that impresses me because I see that all the time in them but it is the faith that these two bodies have placed in me that not only impresses me but humbles me.  

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

After all this, I was actually able to sit down at a table in Lindale with Marty Koonce and have breakfast.  It was unfortunate that he was here because he had to rush back for the funeral of a close family member.  In spite of this I was so blessed and my heart was filled up with joy and I had the joy of reliving the excitement that we experienced the day we sat in our home with the Koonces and made that monumental and faithful decision to move to Africa.  Praise God and God bless the Koonces, His great tool in this amazing and intricate plan.

Our prayer requests for this month are:

1. our children.  they seem to be adjusting but we are just getting into a busy part of this journey and they do drop hints (likely unintentional) of their thoughts on Rwanda.  They go back and forth between being excited and being sad.  

2.  We continue to seek support for our start up funds and future work funds.  please pray for the churches that are still "pondering" our request for funds.  Rt. 230 Church of Christ, Park Plaza Church of Christ, New Hope Church of Christ, Cinco Ranch Church of Christ and Preston Road Church of Christ.

3.  We want to lift up thanks and praise to God for Glenwood Church of Christ and Rt. 230 Church of Christ for their faith in us.

4.  Peace in our home while we begin to pack and plan for packing our container.

Thank you all so much for your love and faith.  Thank you and bless you.

Brian and Kristin