One Year Ago Today.

First of all, congrats once again to Shannon and Jon on your beautiful new baby girl, and to Jen and Jordan for six months of being a married couple!!

Praise the Lord!!

Secondly, I am sure many of you know, (not including the New York and Vancouver Island teams…no, this does not go back to how you claimed Team India was exclusive in all our workouts and such) a bunch of us were either on a plane, in an airport, or somewhere on the ground in Japan one year ago to this day…I will give you a moment for feelings of nostalgia…and come back to the page now…

Do you remember what you were feeling like, INCLUDING the other mission teams, when you stepped out the door of the PWL for the last time before embarking on the adventures of a year ago? Do you recall being nervous? Excited? Or else just going with the flow…after all, for the most part, there was at least a day of traveling to do before the real excitement began…

Do you recall all the preconceived notions you had about wherever it was you were going? The reasons you had for being on the team you were on? (Those same reasons which eventually were thrown right out the window upon realizing God had you there for completely different purposes)

Perhaps over the next two weeks we should go back, not in body but in prayer and in thought, to those places we visited really not all that long ago. Call to mind again the faces you saw, the lessons you learned and the prayers you prayed for the needs of the people of the world. On this anniversary of a major time in so many of our lives lets once again raise up the names and the places to God in fervent prayer. Remember the needs. Remember the voices. And when you pray, remember the POWER that goes with each sincere word lifted up to God in accordance with His will. No prayer goes unheard. No prayer goes unanswered.

I call each of us to step outside our cozy little lives once again and acknowledge that the world is bigger than ourselves, that our lives are about more than ourselves, and that there is a world out there to which we have each been commissioned. No matter where you are in the next few days, whether its at work on a busy day, at home lazing on a sofa with a book in hand, or frantically trying to finish that last bit of cramming or paper writing, I pray the Lord would press it on each of our hearts to remember what he brought us into. I pray that each of us would be drawn to pray for the people God placed in our lives, for by doing so He placed on each of us the responsibility to lift them up in prayer regularly. And I pray for each of you no matter what your circumstances, that you would be strengthened, and renewed in spirit and in mind by the Holy Spirit whom Christ sent after his death and RESURRECTION on the cross. God has won the victory, and we are His instruments to establish the Kingdom in the world.

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

I love and miss each one of you and pray for you often.

God Bless!!

“Be Joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18