Thoughts on discipleship

So Jesus trained twelve apparently uneducated men. Those men turned the world upside down with the gospel. What he didn’t train, however, were lazy, undisciplined, passionless, wimps completely willing to spend their lives on trivial pursuits. We have way too many of those men. Jesus took uneducated men and educated them in the most intense of educations by the best of professors covering areas of philosophy, theology, economy, and most importantly a lesson covered in no school: Real life faith. 

I am currently working with three men of low education. One finished only the 6th grade and the other two barely scraped out a high school diploma. It is quite a feeling of responsibility to know how far they have to go and I am the one God has chosen to get them there at this time. I feel very inadequate so I have to run back to my professor, Jesus, and make sure I am following passionately in his steps. I pray that it will not be in vain but that God would use these men to change this country and shake it’s foundation.

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One Year Anniversary

No, we’ve been married longer than 1 year. So what happened one year ago? 

One year ago today my family and I made an emergency flight home soon to find out that I had a large lung tumor. Thanks to God the healer that I am back here continuing to serve in this place one year later. I am glad to not be in a hospital today. If I learned one lesson in this last year, almost 8 months of which were spent in and out of the hospital and recovering from surgeries, I would say that it is to trust that ALL things are in God’s control and work together for good for me. It’s easy to say but God brings these trials into our lives so that we can say it and live it. 

We are not out of the woods with this problem but are prayerfully optimistic. In celebration of this one year anniversary, I had an old friend come visit with his wife and son. Jordan and Tiffany were good sports to dress up in this traditional outfit.

Patlabor: The Movie

Traditionalists

Traditionalists

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Easter Report

We had a great time on Easter Sunday. The word Easter doesn’t mean much to me so I love calling it “The Celebration of the Resurrection” as it is in Arabic. It was by far our biggest meeting yet. We had a total of 21 people in attendance and the majority were North Africans. For one family, it was their first time in a church service. 

We are currently working on starting three home groups in three different cities that are all in their infancy stages. Why are we doing this? One is the city we have been living in since our arrival two years ago. One is four hours south of us in the main population center where we have the most contacts. The other is 3 hours southeast of us and is being started as a result of a friendship with a national brother who just returned from Seminary overseas and has a desire to start a church. He brought three to the group along with he and his wife and we made up the rest. 

All in all we were together for about 5 hours including a two hour service, lunch, and then the Lord’s supper. Please pray for the two lost people who were present: Fatima (Jamal’s wife) and Karim.

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