I got the itch in 2005 while working for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, that God had something different planned for me. Since then I've been all over the place, 3 trips to Brazil, a year in Iowa, a year in Spokane, and a few years in Oregon, am I missing a stop? All this time I've had my eyes on the end goal of being a full-time missionary with Evangelical Church Missions (E.C.M.).
I've lived through the cold Iowa winter and the hot Iowa summer working at The Latin Bistro, Izabel and I spent 2 years with the great people at Park Place Evangelical Church. I've delivered furniture at Walker's furniture, and I've had 3 stints working at Costco. I knew that all of these were leading me to where God was calling me, but I just wanted to be there already. I want us to be in Brazil already helping with E.C.M. Brazil, but that is still a little ways away. Now, however, we have been told that I can stop working at Costco and that is a major step foward for us.
The exciting news though now is that Izabel and I have been approved to be full-time missionaries with E.C.M. allowing us to spend more time in Partnership Development. This will aid in getting us to Brazil much sooner. It is something that we knew was going to happen sometime soon but I now have an end date for my employment at Costco, Jan. 3.
There are plenty of things that we have been doing to prepare us for our future in Brazil. I've been studying with Rosetta Stone, we have reading to do that deals with Cross cultural ministry, we have a partnership base to maintain contact with. The difficulty is finding energy to do these things after working an 8 hour shift. Come January we will be able to dedicate all of our energy towards Partnership Development.
We have exciting things to share and we are looking for people to share them with. We will drive to Spokane for the first week of January and then be in Seattle on the first weekend. We would love to share our stories and are looking for friends to share them with. Please pray for us as we need to make phone calls to schedule ministry opportunities with our friends.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
"Our Friendly Church"
"Our church is such a friendly place; It's where I love to be. I smile at all the friends I meet...and they smile back at me."
I'm back after a not so brief intermission. It's been a long time since I've written, about as long as Izabel and I have been going to different churches during out partnership development stage. We're beginning our 5th month of going to new churches every Sunday. Here are some things that I have learned during this time...
-There are a lot of churches that we feel like we would love to attend regularly if the job description did not require visiting so many churches. The benefit to being part of a denomination is that when you walk in the doors of an Evangelical church you know that you are in agreement with the teachings of that church. In every church that we have ministered in, 16 if you care to know, we have left encouraged because of how welcoming the people inside that church have been.
-I really like stability. Having just said that we've enjoyed our time ministering at various churches, it's great being able to spend a Sunday evening service at Park Place where we spent the last two years, they are a great family that we have come to love over the last couple years.
-It's fun seeing the churches that I've been hearing about for years. I was excited to head to Swisshome because of all the good things Pastor Bryan Moore had to say about the church, I had the privilege that same day of preaching from the pulpit of Mapleton where my grandpa preached before I was born. I enjoyed Lincoln City knowing that God is breaking down barriers through the hard work of the Hall family, speaking of Pastor Marty Hall, we had the opportunity to travel to Sturgis, MI where he attended so many years ago. It's a small world inside The Evangelical Church.
Here's a picture of Samantha's first plane trip as we traveled to Michigan.
-I guess another thing I learned is that I wish I would take a picture of every church we visit, it would be nice to have a record like that. Here's one that I almost forgot that I took.
I'm back after a not so brief intermission. It's been a long time since I've written, about as long as Izabel and I have been going to different churches during out partnership development stage. We're beginning our 5th month of going to new churches every Sunday. Here are some things that I have learned during this time...
-There are a lot of churches that we feel like we would love to attend regularly if the job description did not require visiting so many churches. The benefit to being part of a denomination is that when you walk in the doors of an Evangelical church you know that you are in agreement with the teachings of that church. In every church that we have ministered in, 16 if you care to know, we have left encouraged because of how welcoming the people inside that church have been.
-I really like stability. Having just said that we've enjoyed our time ministering at various churches, it's great being able to spend a Sunday evening service at Park Place where we spent the last two years, they are a great family that we have come to love over the last couple years.
-It's fun seeing the churches that I've been hearing about for years. I was excited to head to Swisshome because of all the good things Pastor Bryan Moore had to say about the church, I had the privilege that same day of preaching from the pulpit of Mapleton where my grandpa preached before I was born. I enjoyed Lincoln City knowing that God is breaking down barriers through the hard work of the Hall family, speaking of Pastor Marty Hall, we had the opportunity to travel to Sturgis, MI where he attended so many years ago. It's a small world inside The Evangelical Church.
Here's a picture of Samantha's first plane trip as we traveled to Michigan.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Follow, I will follow Thee.
"Jesus calls me; I must follow, Follow Him today, When His tender voice is pleading, how can I delay."
This morning is our third Sunday since our time at Park Place E.C. has ended. The first week we went to Sweet Home with Dave & Carol Kochendorfer who had been missionaries in Brazil but are now going to New Mexico. Last week we went to Eugene First E.C. where we learned to be flexible when we couldn't get the pictures to show during Sunday school so we had to give our evening presentation in the morning and we showed pictures in the evening.
We have an official goal for support and that is 295 monthly shares of $25. Right now that seems like a lot and if God wasn't leading us I doubt we would ever get there. God has already blessed us with about 50 of those 300 shares. If this rate keeps up we will be in Brazil before Thanksgiving.
I found a book at the library yesterday that talks about the history of Brazil and where the country is going with their economy, which is growing right now. I don't know when I'll find time to read it as I have two required books by E.C. Missions and was given a book on prayer from a man at my home church, but what I've read so far is interesting to me and I think it will only help me when I am presenting about Brazil. Probably more importantly though, the more I know about Brazil the better I will be able to minister to the Brazilians.
As I wrote that last sentence I realized that is what each of us need to do regarding Christ. The more we know Christ, the better we will be able to minister to the people that we come into contact with.
"And He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Immediately they left their nets and followed Him." Matthew 4:19,20
This morning is our third Sunday since our time at Park Place E.C. has ended. The first week we went to Sweet Home with Dave & Carol Kochendorfer who had been missionaries in Brazil but are now going to New Mexico. Last week we went to Eugene First E.C. where we learned to be flexible when we couldn't get the pictures to show during Sunday school so we had to give our evening presentation in the morning and we showed pictures in the evening.
We have an official goal for support and that is 295 monthly shares of $25. Right now that seems like a lot and if God wasn't leading us I doubt we would ever get there. God has already blessed us with about 50 of those 300 shares. If this rate keeps up we will be in Brazil before Thanksgiving.
I found a book at the library yesterday that talks about the history of Brazil and where the country is going with their economy, which is growing right now. I don't know when I'll find time to read it as I have two required books by E.C. Missions and was given a book on prayer from a man at my home church, but what I've read so far is interesting to me and I think it will only help me when I am presenting about Brazil. Probably more importantly though, the more I know about Brazil the better I will be able to minister to the Brazilians.
As I wrote that last sentence I realized that is what each of us need to do regarding Christ. The more we know Christ, the better we will be able to minister to the people that we come into contact with.
"And He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Immediately they left their nets and followed Him." Matthew 4:19,20
Friday, June 3, 2011
And so it begins...
No we're not full time missionaries yet, that will still be a long time but we're beginning orientation tomorrow with Jeremy Kochendorfer. I believe this is all new not only for us but a new process for Evangelical Church Missions also, which means that I don't know what to expect to come from all of this. We have questions about how it will work while we are raising support which I assume will be answered over the weekend; but we will also receive many answers to questions that we don't even yet have. If you have questions for us about our career you can ask as a comment or send us an email.
I was excited last weekend as Izabel and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary, it has all gone by very fast which must mean that I am having fun doing this marriage thing. I also offer congrats to my parents who celebrated an anniversary yesterday and to my boss/mentor Carl Duhrkoop and Nancy who will celebrate their anniversary in a couple days.
I was excited last weekend as Izabel and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary, it has all gone by very fast which must mean that I am having fun doing this marriage thing. I also offer congrats to my parents who celebrated an anniversary yesterday and to my boss/mentor Carl Duhrkoop and Nancy who will celebrate their anniversary in a couple days.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Long time reader, first time blogger...
We're coming up to a few transitions in our life in the next few months. The most important is that in August Izabel and I will be having a baby girl, as most of you already know. We're very apprehensive about bringing a baby into this world as there are seemingly so many potential dangers that we now need to worry about for the next 18+ years. All that we can do is put the hopes and worries into the hands of the Father and trust that he will take care of our family.
God has put a desire in my life from a young age to do something with my life that will make a difference for generations to come. Through this desire I have felt God leading me into a career with Evangelical Church Missions. In about 1 month our time of service at Park Place Evangelical Church will be at an end too and we will transition into roles with Evangelical Church Missions. In the past year we have been approved to be 'Missionary Candidates' and then later classified as 'Career Missionaries' appointed to the work of Evangelical Missions in Brazil. Our first task is to raise prayer and financial support from friends and churches that have been part of our lives up to this point.
I was able to take this first step towards missions in 2007 when I lived in Brazil for 6 months to assist with the missionaries that were there. Since then the look of the Brazil mission field has changed dramatically as 4 of the 7 missionaries have taken different roles with Evangelical Church Missions, but God has been preparing us to help fill part of this void. As I mentioned already, we need a great support team around us to fill God's ears with prayer for our work in Brazil. Through this I ask that if you are willing to officially join our prayer team please get in touch with Izabel or myself and we will be able to share more with you about God's work in our lives.
God has put a desire in my life from a young age to do something with my life that will make a difference for generations to come. Through this desire I have felt God leading me into a career with Evangelical Church Missions. In about 1 month our time of service at Park Place Evangelical Church will be at an end too and we will transition into roles with Evangelical Church Missions. In the past year we have been approved to be 'Missionary Candidates' and then later classified as 'Career Missionaries' appointed to the work of Evangelical Missions in Brazil. Our first task is to raise prayer and financial support from friends and churches that have been part of our lives up to this point.
I was able to take this first step towards missions in 2007 when I lived in Brazil for 6 months to assist with the missionaries that were there. Since then the look of the Brazil mission field has changed dramatically as 4 of the 7 missionaries have taken different roles with Evangelical Church Missions, but God has been preparing us to help fill part of this void. As I mentioned already, we need a great support team around us to fill God's ears with prayer for our work in Brazil. Through this I ask that if you are willing to officially join our prayer team please get in touch with Izabel or myself and we will be able to share more with you about God's work in our lives.
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