Can’t believe the summer is over and classes have started at Frontier School of the Bible. This semester I am teaching Old Testament Survey. I am thankful for years of sitting under Dr. Royce Short’s teaching! This morning we went through Old Testament history (with actions!)
I remember when each of the kids were young, barely able to speak. When we would be out at night Connie would point to the moon and ask the kids, “Who made the moon?” I can still hear each of them reply in their own unique, little voices, “God made the moon!”
Yesterday we had a chance to see an incredible display of God’s creativity. Since LaGrange was (just barely) outside the line of totality we ventured about 20 minutes north to a rural church in Nebraska where we got to see the complete eclipse.
The last few months have been incredibly busy! On Tuesday we got back from speaking at Bethany Church Camp in Kansas. Tomorrow we leave for Colorado where I will be speaking for two weeks at Twin Peaks Bible Camp.
Our time in Kansas was a great blessing. Getting there was part of the adventure. Camp started Tuesday afternoon so we set out on Monday with a camper in tow. About an hour from LaGrange a tire on the camper blew and took much of the underside of the camper. We limped back to LaGrange. Arrangements were made for us to stay in rooms at the camp. Early the next morning we left for Kansas in our Suburban. About an hour away the transmission went out. We drove back to LaGrange in 2nd gear!
At this point we weren’t sure how we would make it to Kansas. Many were praying and FSB offered for us to take one of the schools vans. We set out again from LaGrange and made it to the camp in Kansas with a few minutes to get ready for the first chapel message.
Through it all, it was a wonderful blessing to see God provide for us. He is always faithful.
We will post more about our time at Bethany Church Camp soon. It was a privilege to serve alongside some wonderful people.
Pray for us as we travel to Colorado. We are praying that this trip would be much more uneventful than the last. Pray also for us as we minister to the 7th and 8th graders this week and high schoolers the next.
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By the way, you may be wondering where we are at with our home. Remodeling our new house has taken a lot of our attention. We hope to be completely finished with our home before FSB starts in August. We will share an update on that soon.
Here we go! We have started remodeling work on our new home. We will live in this mobile home for a year or two until we are able to construct a new home on the property. Already we have seen God provide. We wanted to share some of the praises along the way.
Pray with us (for strength and wisdom)! We will have weekly updates and videos for this next adventure as we get closer to home.
A while ago Connie helped me put my Acts Chronology in the form of a well-known song.
To the tune of Gilligan’s Island theme song
Sit right back and hear a tale, a tale of from the Book of Acts
Of how the Holy Spirit worked — lots of exciting facts
Ascension of Jesus
The work in Jerusalem
Judea and Samaria
To the ends of the earth
To the ends of the earth
What happened in Jerusalem
Pentecost and Stephen stoned
Then persecution scattered them
oh now, where would they go
now where would they go
Judea and Samaria, we’ll see what happened there
Phillip preaches
Saul converts
Peter’s vision
Gentiles saved
Church at Antioch
James killed, Peter’s arrest, Peter freed from prison
Ends of the earth and now we see
Missionary journeys of Paul
Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus
Three of them in all
First missionary journey
Council of Jerusalem
Second journey and the third
Return to Jerusalem
Paul put in prison
Paul taken to Rome
We wanted to share with you one of our (many) family traditions.
Today is Motate Monday. Every month we make the first Monday a day where we work hard and try to be as productive as possible. Even Elijah and Diya have started making ToDo lists. It has become a great way for us to get “motated” and start the month well.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.
Colossians 3:23
Let me lay to rest your nagging curiosity about why the company is named “Motate Media.” The word “motate” was something I heard often growing up. My mom would often tell us to “get motated,” meaning “get moving.” It was somehow related to the word “motivation” with the -ate suffix to emphasize action.
Later I found that others had adopted this word as well. An online dictionary defines motate as a verb that means to “move quickly with style.” I thought that this would be an appropriate name for a design agency, but mostly it is to honor my mom and her lifelong goal to get me to “motate.”
Often I have the student members of the worship team choose songs. In the beginning it surprised me that most of their song choices are hymns. Last night, three of the songs they chose were: “Standing on the Promises, “I’ll Fly Away,” and “When We All Get to Heaven.”
I’ve often considered some of the ways that newer worship songs differ from the hymns. Many of the differences are tied to culture and history, but I’ve also noticed that contemporary worship music doesn’t often include a longing for heaven as many, if not most, of the hymns do.
There could be many reasons for this lesser or lighter focus on heaven, but I am afraid it’s because we have become comfortable. Our grandparents and great grandparents lived much more challenging lives under much more challenging circumstances. Few of us in the younger generations have struggled with basic necessities of life. In our excess we have forgotten that we are not citizens of earth. Our home is in heaven.
Let us then be true and faithful,
trusting, serving every day;
just one glimpse of Him in glory
will the toils of life repay.
One of the most recent projects I have been working on is trainingchurchplanters.com. As we begin the rather large task of Servants Bible Institute, we wanted to create a way to share the concept and vision with others. This website is an effort to provide news, information, and updates about Tentmakers training resources.
If you haven’t visited the site, please take some time to look around.
We’ve also created a facebook page as well. Show your support and keep in touch with this aspect of our ministry by liking our Facebook page.
We are regularly writing new content for trainingchurchplanters.com. Some posts are specifically related to the training resources. Others are more generally about missions, culture and missiological education.