Submitted by Jason
So, here we are. A little over two months have passed since we've entered this new territory called the mission field. We've quickly discovered that when you completely entrust your life into the hands of the one true living God, giving Him full permission to use your life in any way that He sees fit to further His kingdom, things will rarely go as planned. That's the reality of missions.
In our prayer time leading up to our departure, the Lord has shown me, what I believe to be, specific vision and callings for our ministry. However, the time frame of this vision remains undefined and I've concluded that I prefer it to be that way.
The Lord could have easily given us specific instructions of how to accomplish all of the things that He'd like to use us for. All of the details of where, when, who, what, how, why, etc. could have been made known to us before we ever stepped foot on the Carnival cruisliner in Galveston, Tx in September, but they were not. Only bits and pieces of information were made available to us. Apparently, just enough information for us to know that He was leading and that we were to obey.
If the Lord had given us such specific details of how to go about our days in Belize, our lives would be more about following a schedule instead of pursuing Him daily. While I believe that He is able to show the exact way to go, I believe that He is as much interested in our pursuance of Him as we are in finding intimacy with Him through relying on His presence to guide us.
I believe that the free will that God has given to man has the ability to either accelerate or decelerate the time frame of His vision and purpose in our lives. I believe that He so wants to use us to further His kingdom that He patiently guides us through our weaknesses empowering us to carry the weight of His work into the darkest of places.
In the past few days, Francie and I have had a couple of extremely tough days relationally. While I'm tempted to believe that the enemy is looking for a weakness to expose in us, I'm crediting the Lord for using situations and circumstances to force me to focus my attention on the weaknesses in our marriage pertaining to communication, honor, responsibility and respect, to name a few. It's as if He's showing me that we've come this far without me placing a priority on strengthening our marriage, but it's necessary for me to do so before He can take us to another level in ministry.
Please join with us in prayer as we take the month of December to focus on strengthening our marriage. We will continue to do the work that He's set before us with a renewed commitment to walk in unity before Him believing for an acceleration of His purposes in our lives.
As always, special thanks to those who continue to stand with us, both in prayer and financially.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
A Key Ingredient
Submitted by Jason
It's been a few weeks since we've posted. A lot has happened in that time. No day seems to play out exactly as we draw it up and we find that time seems to be something that is just a little more difficult to manage here in Belize than we anticipated.
Up until Sept 13th, I was working for USFoods in Charlotte, NC as a delivery driver. For many years, everything that I did revolved around time. I had a very strict schedule. Being on time for my deliveries was an important part of my job. I had an unusual schedule even on my off days. I would generally go to bed around 5pm and awake for work before 1am. The only day that I was permitted to not live by the clock was Saturday, even then, my internal clock would often tell me it was time for bed well before what would be considered normal.
As far back as I can remember, I've always placed a high priority on being on time. To me, being late showed others that whatever you were attending was not important enough for you to be punctual. This has been something in my life that has often times created more tension in my family than fruit. I knew that the Lord wanted to do something about it. At times I would place unrealistic expectations on loved ones that were divisive.
Time here, in Belize, is just a little different. I can't quite put my finger on it, it just is. There's a saying here, "You're on Belize time.". This seems to be the general response from most when you're late for an appointment and apologetic for it. It's usually accompanied by a smile, a shrugging of the shoulders and a throwing up of the hands as if to say, "Don't worry about it, we understand.".
There's a small-town feel to the Spanish Lookout community that we've been living in and around for the last 7 weeks. The pace of life here is refreshingly slower than that of the American lifestyle, or at least the schedule that I kept there. Here, it's not unusual to go into a store and spend more time visiting with friends than shopping. You may go into a store and figure that you should be out of there in ten minutes and find yourself engaged in several conversations before you leave the store an hour later. People just seem to find it more acceptable here to stop and talk. I'm finding myself a little more accepting of this change with each passing week.
About 10 days ago, we received news from our friends from the US, who were originally committed to joining us in Belize as missionaries, but could not at the time that we left. The news was that they had successfully freed themselves of the final obligation that was delaying their departure from the US. These friends are a family of 7. We are a family of 12. We quickly did the math and the equation looked something like this; 12 people + 7 people + 1 house = STRESS.
We quickly realized that we would need to find a place for our friends to rent. We made the need known in the church that we've been attending and almost immediately we had a friend showing us a place in Spanish Lookout that was available for rent. After a few discussions, we were packing our stuff up and moving across town about 4 miles to this new rental. We decided to allow our friends to rent the house that we were originally in. It seemed to be a better fit for both families.
On Saturday Nov 10, I picked up our friends at the Belize City bus terminal, thus beginning their new journey here in Belize. It appears that they arrived at a significant time.
The Lord has been stirring His people here. The hearts of believers here are being awakened. He's awakening gifts and talents in people here that have been lying dormant for a season, or seasons, depending on the individual. In just the past few weeks, I could feel a move of the Spirit building at Fountain Of Life church. I could hear it in the voices of the people attending the weekly home group that Francie & I have been hosting. I can see it in the eyes of the leadership when I've shared our vision with them. It's been a hunger that's been gaining momentum for some time now and I feel fortunate to find myself in the midst of it.
On Sunday, Nov 11, Pastor David Moore followed the worship set by challenging people that were hungry for "something new" to come to the front. As the church responded to this challenge, he released everyone to minister to each other as they feel led. Prayer for healing, prophesy and encouragement began to flow through the body as the worship team continued to minister for almost 2 hours. The presence of the Lord was thick. There was laughter and smiling, tears of rejoicing and chains being broken all simultaneously. That's the Kingdom. When He comes around everything else fades into the background.
The Lord was speaking to me about humility during this time. I was reminded of 2 Chron 7:14 "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn form their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land." (NLT). This verse was on my mind throughout part of the service.
Sunday afternoon, following the service, we had lunch with our friends from the US at our house. After lunch we invited a family to join us for fellowship. As they did, two other families coincidentally stopped by and before we knew it, we had a full Sunday afternoon fellowship with 5 families represented. It was beautiful. It wasn't before long that the topic of humility was brought up by one of the men. He confessed that the Lord has been challenging him to do some things that would appear to be very humbling to him.
Monday evening, at our house, we held our weekly home group. This particular evening consisted of 10 adults and approximately 25 children. We had a powerful time of fellowship. I shared with the group that the Lord had put humility on my heart during the Sunday service and the conversation centered around humility for a good portion of our discussion.
Yesterday, a Romanian friend of ours from North Carolina posted 2 Chron 7:14 as her Facebook status.
It's quite obvious to me that there's a key ingredient to a new move of God's Spirit amongst His people...humility.
As always, thanks to all of you who support us with prayer and finances. There are many prayer needs as well as financial needs. Your support is greatly appreciated.
It's been a few weeks since we've posted. A lot has happened in that time. No day seems to play out exactly as we draw it up and we find that time seems to be something that is just a little more difficult to manage here in Belize than we anticipated.
Up until Sept 13th, I was working for USFoods in Charlotte, NC as a delivery driver. For many years, everything that I did revolved around time. I had a very strict schedule. Being on time for my deliveries was an important part of my job. I had an unusual schedule even on my off days. I would generally go to bed around 5pm and awake for work before 1am. The only day that I was permitted to not live by the clock was Saturday, even then, my internal clock would often tell me it was time for bed well before what would be considered normal.
As far back as I can remember, I've always placed a high priority on being on time. To me, being late showed others that whatever you were attending was not important enough for you to be punctual. This has been something in my life that has often times created more tension in my family than fruit. I knew that the Lord wanted to do something about it. At times I would place unrealistic expectations on loved ones that were divisive.
Time here, in Belize, is just a little different. I can't quite put my finger on it, it just is. There's a saying here, "You're on Belize time.". This seems to be the general response from most when you're late for an appointment and apologetic for it. It's usually accompanied by a smile, a shrugging of the shoulders and a throwing up of the hands as if to say, "Don't worry about it, we understand.".
There's a small-town feel to the Spanish Lookout community that we've been living in and around for the last 7 weeks. The pace of life here is refreshingly slower than that of the American lifestyle, or at least the schedule that I kept there. Here, it's not unusual to go into a store and spend more time visiting with friends than shopping. You may go into a store and figure that you should be out of there in ten minutes and find yourself engaged in several conversations before you leave the store an hour later. People just seem to find it more acceptable here to stop and talk. I'm finding myself a little more accepting of this change with each passing week.
About 10 days ago, we received news from our friends from the US, who were originally committed to joining us in Belize as missionaries, but could not at the time that we left. The news was that they had successfully freed themselves of the final obligation that was delaying their departure from the US. These friends are a family of 7. We are a family of 12. We quickly did the math and the equation looked something like this; 12 people + 7 people + 1 house = STRESS.
We quickly realized that we would need to find a place for our friends to rent. We made the need known in the church that we've been attending and almost immediately we had a friend showing us a place in Spanish Lookout that was available for rent. After a few discussions, we were packing our stuff up and moving across town about 4 miles to this new rental. We decided to allow our friends to rent the house that we were originally in. It seemed to be a better fit for both families.
On Saturday Nov 10, I picked up our friends at the Belize City bus terminal, thus beginning their new journey here in Belize. It appears that they arrived at a significant time.
The Lord has been stirring His people here. The hearts of believers here are being awakened. He's awakening gifts and talents in people here that have been lying dormant for a season, or seasons, depending on the individual. In just the past few weeks, I could feel a move of the Spirit building at Fountain Of Life church. I could hear it in the voices of the people attending the weekly home group that Francie & I have been hosting. I can see it in the eyes of the leadership when I've shared our vision with them. It's been a hunger that's been gaining momentum for some time now and I feel fortunate to find myself in the midst of it.
On Sunday, Nov 11, Pastor David Moore followed the worship set by challenging people that were hungry for "something new" to come to the front. As the church responded to this challenge, he released everyone to minister to each other as they feel led. Prayer for healing, prophesy and encouragement began to flow through the body as the worship team continued to minister for almost 2 hours. The presence of the Lord was thick. There was laughter and smiling, tears of rejoicing and chains being broken all simultaneously. That's the Kingdom. When He comes around everything else fades into the background.
The Lord was speaking to me about humility during this time. I was reminded of 2 Chron 7:14 "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn form their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land." (NLT). This verse was on my mind throughout part of the service.
Sunday afternoon, following the service, we had lunch with our friends from the US at our house. After lunch we invited a family to join us for fellowship. As they did, two other families coincidentally stopped by and before we knew it, we had a full Sunday afternoon fellowship with 5 families represented. It was beautiful. It wasn't before long that the topic of humility was brought up by one of the men. He confessed that the Lord has been challenging him to do some things that would appear to be very humbling to him.
Monday evening, at our house, we held our weekly home group. This particular evening consisted of 10 adults and approximately 25 children. We had a powerful time of fellowship. I shared with the group that the Lord had put humility on my heart during the Sunday service and the conversation centered around humility for a good portion of our discussion.
Yesterday, a Romanian friend of ours from North Carolina posted 2 Chron 7:14 as her Facebook status.
It's quite obvious to me that there's a key ingredient to a new move of God's Spirit amongst His people...humility.
As always, thanks to all of you who support us with prayer and finances. There are many prayer needs as well as financial needs. Your support is greatly appreciated.
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