New to blogging

I've heard about blogging for a long time. I had looked at a few blogs in various areas but hadn't thought about creating one until recently. While speaking with a friend about doing some extra teaching, he mentioned I could do some on a blog. I don't know if I'll do that but I think I'll try to use this for keeping folk up to date on what's happening with our ministry as we go to Kazakhstan this summer. I think that I'll also use it to just share thoughts about ministry in general.

Throughout my time working in churches - over 30 years - most of the emphasis and involvement has been in the local church. We've always had an interest in international missions and thought at one time that God might be calling us to serve overseas. More recently, the last three years, Suzanne and I have had the privilege of visiting a number of countries: Brazil, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and other parts of East Asia. We've mostly visited friends who are serving in those countries, but we've also had the chance to do some teaching and prayer ministry. We trust that the little we've done has had some positive impact for God's purposes. We've certainly been blessed by the workers and the national brothers and sisters. What a privilge - honor - to get to know them. They have been such a blessing! While we've traveled we've done some of the "touristy" stuff and taken a lot of pictures. The things that we'll remember most is the people we've met and the blessing they've been.

Last May, while I was with a prayer team in Asia, we were asked to share what God was saying to us. That's never a "safe" question and it deserved a thoughtful answer. As I pondered the question I was impressed with one word/thought over and over - change/transition. I was tempted to follow that thought to see where it would take me. I also thought that, knowing me, I could force a number of possibilities into that word. So, I decided to be patient (big struggle) and let the Lord reveal what he wanted at his own pace.

I hadn't been home for more than a few weeks when another "word" came. It's not easy to describe or explain, but an opportunity came that had a certain feel about it that it was something special. I was asked to mentor to some nationals involved in church planting.

In July I had been asked to preach during our Conference's annual meetings. I was asked to speak about discipleship, specifically "A Disciple's Test". The challenge at the end of the message was with the song Today and to follow Christ where he leads. We had a 20 minute prayer time following the message and were to spend it in silence listening for what God might say to us. I did that in good faith. Listening is not easy for me. Too many extraneous thoughts run through my mind. I spent the first 19 minutes trying to listen to God's voice and ignoring my own thoughts. In the last minute God spoke - "Follow Me". "Ok, Lord. Where? How?" Those questions went unanswered.

In August we had our church campout with a guest speaker. One night he spoke about following Christ and we had a great time of prayer and commitment. Several asked for prayer and we spent a good amount of time around the campfire lifting both prayers and praises. During the night I was awakened with a strong impression on the word "connections". As I walked and talked with Suzanne the next day it was clear that "connections" had something to do with "change", mentoring and "follow me".

Within the invitation to mentor was an opportunity to join a team going to Asia in November to visit the countries where mentoring would take place and to investigate other future ministry opportunities. We didn't have the resources for me to make the trip. I had vacation time from the church I could use, but we didn't have the funds. As time went on I needed to make a decision about going. I really struggled with this. The trip made sense and I felt it would be a great initiation into the area and the ministries. I couldn't say I felt that God didn't want me to go, but I didn't feel free to say "yes" without funding in hand. The impression that was so pronounced over the month of September was the tension between feeling I should go but not being able to say yes.

In October I was asked if I could go if the resources were provided. Yes, I could do that. The money was made available and we began to make plans for the trip. But there was something else that jumped into the picture. I was asked, out of the blue seemingly, to pray about going to Aisaf or a year. First of all, the person who asked me to pray was my Superintendent. We had just come off of a very successful centennial celebration at church which the Supt. had participated in. I thought his request was funny. I couldn't imagine myself going to Asia or serving as "President" of a seminary. Well, their seminary is equivalent to our Bible school and a president is more of a ministry head than president.

November involved the trip to Asia with the team. The leader of the team - Dave - was the one who asked the Supt. to pray about someone for the seminary. We spent a great deal of time discussing the role and how I might fit into that position. I also spoke with Folmer, a friend with us, a great deal. It was clear to me that God had something in store for me but I wasn't clear about what that would be. I returned from the trip pretty convinced that Asia wasn't in our future but a greater involvement in international missions was.

December came and what I thought was a closed door for Asia opened when I spoke with the Supt. He indicated that the closed door wasn't closed - in fact it was wide open. I also discovered as I thought about it that I was looking for reasons to say "no" to the opportunity. Suzanne had been ready from day one to go. The "brake" on this was me. Was I resisting what God wanted to do? I realized that I would have to do more investigation and scheduled a meeting with the Supt. and with Dave together.

To make the story move ahead, Suzanne and I spent three more weeks talking, praying and struggling with the question. Should we go? What about Colbert? We decided that we had to step out and go and trust that God already had an answer for the church.

So, here we are. We're preparing to go to Asia for a year and work in the seminary. We don't know what the church will choose. Will they feel as I do that it's time for a change of pastors at Colbert? Will they want Suzanne and me back for future ministry after a sabbatical? We will know more tomorrow.

In the meantime we wonder what it will be like. I come back to God's promise in Jeremiah 29:11. God has plans for us that will be good for us - and good for the church.