Behold, I'm About To Do Something New

WHERE I'M GOING

This week I will be hitting to road to go to Springfield, MO for Pre-Field Orientation (PFO).

PFO is where all the Missionary Associates and Candidates for all the regions come together for a time of training and equipping for the field. I'm looking forward to getting to meet my fellow workers and hear their stories. It's encouraging to know that there are others who are being obedient to the call of God.

To cut costs, that would otherwise come out of the budget I'm raising, I'm staying with some friends of my cousin's. They live in the area and agreed to let me stay with them while I attend PFO. I love staying with people because that is an opportunity to minister to one another. The body of Christ is a body. We are suppose to be connected together wherever we go.

WHAT I'M LEARNING

Currently, I'm reading a book called "Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture" by Michael Frost.

He talks about a young man named Eric Blair who was in the military for five years. He didn't know what to do with his life so he thought he'd do what his dad did and enlisted.

Listless, unambitious, disheveled, and possibly depressed, he returned to a bedroom in his family's home. He lived there in obscurity for a year before he emerged in 1928, declared that he intended to become a writer, and headed off to Paris. Today we know him as George Orwell.

During this time he was reading books by Charles Dickens and it began to stir in him a passion for the less fortunate.

Immersed in these stories, Orwell developed the passionate zeal of a crusader for the poor and disenfranchised. These stories changed him and changed the course of his life...If reading Dickens can do that for a person, what can reading Jesus do?

I feel similar to what Orwell felt in his bedroom. I'm feeling restless and ready to be out there on the field, I'm living in obscurity, reading a lot of books, and wondering if this is what I should be doing?

This simple passage encourages me because even though this season seems kind of dull, the Lord is sharpening me with his Word. It also challenges me to be careful what I read because it influences me, for better or for worse, in powerful and/or subtle ways.

WHERE I'M AT

Currently, I'm currently at 12% of my monthly commitments! Praise God! And thank you to all who have decided to partner with me. If you would like to partner with me, whether a lump sum or a monthly commitment, you can do so here. Your funds help me pay for my training, transportation costs, and living expenses on the field where I get to focus on serving the Lord full time. In order to go to Germany, I need to be 100% fully funded/committed. Would you prayerfully consider joining me?

PRAYER REQUESTS

• I'm sharing about the mission at a church this week. Pray for it to go well!

• Pray for my 20 year old car as it takes me everywhere I need to go. (Her name is Clark and she's a faithful beaut.)

• Pray for my mom as she prepares to have surgery on her knee. That everything during the surgery and during recovery would go smoothly.