Pray For Berlin: Recent Episodes
PrayForBerlin
We always tell people we disciple to “pay attention to desires that stick around.” Often people are taught to not trust their feelings and desires not realizing (or believing) that when a person is converted and filled with the Holy Spirit they are given the mind of Christ. Yet flesh can still be involved and we have to use Holy Spirit discernment. So we usually counsel people to pay attention to the desires that you have and pray about for a long period of time. You can only sustain things in the flesh for a short time. If the desire and prayer sticks around then it is likely from the Lord (assuming it does not violate scripture).
Years ago the Lord began to speak to us about Church Planting Movements (CPM). Where churches plant churches that plant churches. This flowed also with Disciple Making Movements (DMM) where disciples make disciples that make disciples. We read many books and tried tons of stuff. Lot’s of training courses. Some successful and some not.
One thing we have not been able to shake is Acts 2! Sure people use verses 42-47 to talk about church planting and community formation but that is not what we are talking about. Sure people use pentecost as a talking point to discuss Holy Spirit coming down but that is also not what we are talking about. We are talking about a large gathering that sees Holy Spirit sweep the crowd in a powerful way that naturally flows into communities meeting daily to break bread together, devote themselves to the teachings of the Apostles and see many mighty miracles all over the city. We have not been able to shake this desire and it has grown into a full scale conviction! In our heart we see it sweeping America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa! We know! Missiologists and theologians tell us all day long that this can’t happen and shouldn’t happen - but the bible says differently! People from so many different cultures and backgrounds encountered Holy Spirit OUTSIDE (not church bound, not organizationally bound, not denominationally bound) and it flowed to the nations!! O Dear Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us and grant this again before our time on earth is done!!
October 20 we are hosting a teaching and training and bringing in people walking in this stuff to lead it. We are convinced that the time is now. The time is here!! The church has left the building!
So here is what happened in Kerrville, TX yesterday!! Revival is coming!! Revival is here!! More Lord!! More!!!
Today is Thursday and we still have a lot of the week left but it has been a wonderful week so we thought we would give you a taste:
Sunday: we went to Mauer Park with about 40,000 other people to pray for the sick and proclaim Jesus as Lord. We saw many people healed. One young couple in particular experienced Jesus setting her free from tormenting spirits. It is great that we will get to continue to meet with them!
Tuesday: A Turkish man gave his life to Jesus and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the process his neck was totally healed (didn’t even pray for that!). A young German agnostic man confessed struggling with depression and was touched by Jesus so much that he said he still doesn’t believe but cannot deny that he feels better.
Wednesay: We spent most of the day learning from Adam Narciso regarding spiritual warfare and deliverance. During the break we shared Jesus with a man from Iraq who is super eager to continue learning about Jesus. Also a lovely Afghani couple heard the gospel and want to have us over for dinner to hear more.
Today: Keri is working in the Alabaster Jar Cafe and I was sharing Jesus on the streets. One Syrian man had his back healed and he and his friend want to continue to meet and talk more about jesus.
Friday: Tomorrow we go to local Mosques and make friends and share Jesus. It will be a wonderful time!
Weekend: This weekend we are praying for 50 unbroken hours for the Muslim world. Join us in praying for breakthrough and peace in the Muslim world!
The number of groups of people who want to meet and learn more about Jesus is growing! Please pray for workers to continue to share the good news and disciple people!
We love you all!
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This morning I was talking with a friend of mine originally from Iraq. He was talking to me about how his foot was in extreme pain due to a soccer injury yesterday. I think, based on the way he was speaking to me, that he wanted me to pray for him.
Sounds like a good idea, huh? He’s in pain, I should be able to pray for him right? But is that the best course of action? Is that in his best interest?
I told him instead, “place your hands on your foot and say ‘in the name of Jesus be healed!’” He tried it and nothing happened. So I said, “now I want you to bind the spirits of pain and sickness and then say ‘in the name of Jesus be healed!’” Suddenly he was instantly healed! He was overwhelmed with love for Jesus.
Sometimes when we are evangelizing we can get caught up in wanting to be the one through whom Jesus brings the miracle. Why? Often it is because we are not fully rooted in our own identity. When we are rooted in our identity we can help others walk in to their identity. This man is a dearly loved child of God, but he didn’t know of His standing with the Father. He thought he needed a “Holy person” to pray for him. Instead what he needed was a reminder that He can go directly to God.
Next time when you are asked to pray for the sick. See if you can use it as an opportunity to coach another into walking in their true identity as a son or daughter of the King.
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Many times throughout the week, I get messages from women and men in the United States. Quite often these messages are from people who strongly desire the abundant life I speak of, the JoY that I have found, the ability to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and a life that exemplifies true freedom.
Fear is the most common obstacle in the way of life that represents Kingdom culture. Fear of a lot of things.
Mostly, the fear of being imperfect.
I must say publicly what I say to those I have coffee with or that walk life with me: I am not perfect.
I don't come from a perfect family.
I have not always made perfect choices.
Many people who I am friends with on Facebook knew me when I said I was following Jesus with my mouth, but making choices that did not agree with that statement. I did things and desired things that make my heart sink today. I wish I could sit with old friends and apologize. I wish I could take back so much...
I have lost friendship over my choices and because sin is ugly and wretched, I long for those friendships to be made right....but sometimes the consequence is just a big fat "no" to continued relationship. I can't control other people and I can live at peace as far as it depends on me. I feel confident that I have done that. Sadly, the outcome just isn't what I wish it was.
I have come to a place where I know my own perfection is a smokescreen and that His perfection is the real deal, authentic and forever kind of Perfection.
There is just nothing wretched about Jesus.
Nothing dirty about Jesus.
There is nothing unkind, nothing unloving, no brokenness, no jealousy, and no impure motives.
Ever.
He is perfect and His perfection is actually available to me.
To you.
If we would just sit in that, with hands open for the receiving, we can really have it.
Sure, when I do things in my own strength, like I did years ago, I mess up. Looking imperfect while longing for Perfection.
Perfection is Jesus and I long for Him.
When I surrender my own ways, my own thoughts and words, I become empty for Him to fill me. And what He has to say, think about and do is Perfect.
So, please, consider that I have a past. I have made big mistakes. I am in no way different than you. I need Perfection. Which means I need Jesus in order to stand before my Holy God clean and pure.
And I have Him.
So I have Perfection. And I am clean and pure because of Him.
Tomorrow, our family will have been home one full week from a one month visit to Texas.
We are all that you think Texans should be. We love the people of Texas. We love the food in Texas. We love the manners in Texas. We love the land of Texas. We love horses and their smell. We love boots. We love jeans. We love Dublin Dr. Pepper. We love the Gaines Fam. We love salsa. We love the history of Texas. We love Texas sports teams. We love the people in Texas.
We just love Texas.
As a missionary wife and mom, I was scared to take our family back to the land that we love so dearly. We had not been in three whole years and my heart was so conflicted.
"Would our children resent us for taking them out of this amazing place?"
"Would our family seem like strangers?"
"Would all the comforts of 'home' overwhelm us?"
"Would our friends understand how much we love and miss them on a daily basis?"
"Would we be able to spend as much time as we wanted with each friend and family member?"
So many thoughts flooded my mind, and if I am honest, I think they did so because I read so many missionary blog posts from folks who had been home on furlough.
These blog posts did not fill me with hope or encouragement.
Instead they filled me we fear and discouragement.
One of my gifts is that of encouragement. If you know about giftings from the LORD, you know the enemy does what he can to present the opposite of your gifts in causing strife and turmoil.
I knew I wanted to come away from our time in Texas with a full heart and a word of encouragement. I think I have that. I pray the LORD speaks through me as I sit here and type out my heart to you.
We had not been home in three years.
I know we have said that before, but let that sink in. So much can happen in three years. Babies were born and by the time we arrived on scene they were out of their toddler phase and full kids. Friends were married. Family and loved ones moved into new homes. Some moved church homes. Many changed jobs and some changed their family dynamics....either by adding or subtracting in numbers.
When I think of "Three Years" I always think of Moses.
So much can happen in three years.
I love that a momma took her forbidden child in, as an offering unto the princess of the nation, to feed and nurture him into the man of God he was destined to be. And she did so in about three years.
Without getting sidetracked, can you catch my point here? So many things changed in that time and I was just dang scared that I wouldn't be who my friends and family knew me to be. That my kids wouldn't be who they remembered them to be. That THEY wouldn't be who I remembered them to be. That they wouldn't like me or us.
Wow. That thought-caster of an enemy is one heck of a devil.
Y'all.
We arrived on July 1st to a sea of friends and family. They were at the airport, ready to greet us with signs and love and Sonic Dr. Pepper!
My heart was overwhelmed from the moment we landed until the moment we came back to Berlin.
Overwhelmed with goodness.
When I read the blogposts from other missionaries, I was left with a feeling of hopelessness and despair. I was crying in my spirit for a different story and man....the LORD gave me a different story!
You guys, our King is amazing and so glorious! He is Provider of all good thing and we need not worry about tomorrow! He is so very into all the details and He knows us and our children better than we can ever hope to know ourselves or our kids!
We were FILLED UP during our time in Texas! A while back the LORD have me a download of how our time should go and I knew in that moment that all would be okay if we just stuck with His plan.
Sure, there were times when temptations came to go off the track the Lord had for us. But we remembered His word to us and tried our best to hold fast to His plan.
He is so worth it y'all!
So, we were fed. We were housed. We had vehicles everyday. We ministered. We prayed healing. We prayed deliverance. We rested. We slept. We sat under the teaching of our friend and pastor. We had a ton of fun. We met incredible people. We were prayed over. Others ministered deliverance to us. We were given prophetic words. We went deep with our people. We were encouraged. We were filled with joy. I got my hair highlighted. The kids spent the night with friends. We had late dinners and late mornings. We prayed so, so much with friends and family. We ate so much Tex-Mex and we are still floating on the high of that. We celebrated many birthdays. We celebrated Thanksgiving. We celebrated Christmas. We celebrated Easter. We celebrated Valentine's Day. We were in OUR country on the 4th of July and worshipped with brothers and sisters as we tried our best to give thanks to the King of kings for the true Freedom that He gave us. We had friends from Kona who have lived with us in Germany stay with us.,,,thus we got to share our Texas lives with friends who didn't meet us there. We proclaimed His goodness. We vacationed. We proclaimed His faithfulness. We played. We were given many suitcases to fill with our not-so healthy-treats from home. You filled these suitcases with the not-so-healthy-treats withOUT judgement. We swam. We had deep conversations. We reconciled misunderstandings. We sat in air conditioned homes with blankets in our sweatshirts, and it was glorious.
Y'all, are amazingly amazing.
We have truly had the summer of a lifetime and I have no words to describe it.
Really.
I have tried and come away sad that it just isn't enough.
But my prayer, is that the Holy Spirit will talk to each one of you today, tonight. That the Spirit will remind you of our times together. That you will be filled and encouraged. That you will know the Maker of the universe a bit more...not because of me or us...but all because of Him.
He is so good.
I love the LORD so much more today than I did yesterday.
I love Him so much more today than I did before our trip home.
When we landed we felt ready to go forth in expectation of all that the Father has for us and we have! Already lives have changed and we haven't been here a full week...praise be to God!
I pray you hear in these words that our trip home was full of delight and joy! I pray you hear that we love y'all more than words can say! I pray that if you were scared to say the wrong thing to us or scared that your words might hurt us, that you hear that we loved your words. We loved our time with you. We loved your words of life and we are encouraged in spirit by them.
We treasure our time in Texas.
It had been a long time and we pray it is not three more years until we can return.
But even if it is, Jesus it worth it.
He just is.
And we will walk forward in the ministry He has called us to completely confident and full of encouragement from the land that we love so very much.
Thank you.
From the bottom of our hearts,
Thank you.
Parenting three children can sometimes present unique ministry opportunities. I say this with a smirk on my face and hope in my heart.
As a parent, one of our main goals is to raise children who become teenagers who become adults completely capable of interacting with others in the world. By "in the world", I truly mean that we hope our children grow into their love for the nations and become well accustomed to the ways and cultures of many cultures. That communication flows smoothly for them and adapting to community is not a challenge.
We have many young people come through our home. We have been given the sweet honor of hosting teams of 8-12 young adults typically ranging from 18-25 years old for two months at a time.
A little secret I want to share with you; WE LOVE IT!! We do! As much as it is a laying down of our own personal rights, it is as much an overflow of God's sweet grace and JoY upon our family. It is wonderful!
That said, there is a stigma about this age that I am hesitant to grasp hold of. I have heard it said that this generation is the most entitled generation of all time.
I do not want to say those words, and if I have...I want to publicly confess and repent.
Instead of cursing this group, I want to bless them. I also want to take a moment as a parent and talk about one of the ways we can disciple our own kiddos so that older generations cannot say this about them.
Having three kids of my own, I can tell you that we do the very best that we can to raise these loves to develop a genuine love for God and His people. We do not want these three entrusted to us to just be followers of man, but leaders of men. Thinking with the end in mind each day can be difficult and can take up some major time. But I do believe it is worth it, and I believe it can shape the way they think when they themselves are in the 18-25 age group encountering new things in life for the first time.
With three kids, it is quite often that two are engaged in some sort of activity that a third one is not. Moreover, it is common for the one not involved to come up with an activity of his/her own wanting all three to take part.
Now, this can go many ways. But for this blog purpose I am going with the not-so-pleasant route of "They won't play with me." Or, "They don't want to do what I want to do."
What may look like a hands off approach, we do not get heavily involved or pay super close attention to these situations and I want to explain the "why" behind that.
Exclusion is one thing and I am not speaking of that. When others say with their mouths, "You cannot play with us" or "Get away" or "You have to be 11 years old to play this game" or, you fill in your own blanks.... we don't play that game and will for sure get involved. Why? Because we feel like that is an opportunity to shepherd and lead into Kingdom communication. Kingdom conversations do not include those words, so they shouldn't be spoken in our home.
Here is a common scenario: Emma and Jacob are playing and Ben approaches them to go outside to ride bikes. Emma and Jacob are involved in a game of Checkers and do not want to stop to go ride bikes. They express this to Ben as an 11 and 13 year old would, and Ben gets his feelings hurt. I did not say that Emma and Jacob were unkind to him. I did say that they have expressed this in such a way that maybe an 11 and 13 year old can grow in, but their intent was never to hurt Ben.
Ben then runs to us crying, and out of hurt expresses that Emma and Jacob are "being mean".
Hmmmm.....
We can go in different directions here and we have. Knowing the heart expressed at the beginning of this article, I will share with you what works for us and why we are discipling in this way.
If we go to Emma and Jacob and tell them to stop playing their game and turn their attention to Ben, this has increased potential to imply that Ben is the most important person in this home. He is not. Our home does not revolve around Ben or any other individual in it. This can also whisper something into Ben's soul that everyone should stop what they are doing and do what HE wants to do.
This is not what we want to teach our kids and this is not how we want them shaped leading into teenage and adult years.
We can go to our kids and have a pow wow to discuss what was really said or what the tone of the conversation looked like. Remember that I mentioned that Emma and Jacob express things like the 11 and 13 year olds that they are. We cannot expect that they will always communicate like we do, but we can expect that they will communicate as 11 and 13 year olds do. So, even in this, a gentle and non accusative approach is taken. OUR tone is not one that is accusing them of being unkind. Our communication to them in this situation is that they are loved and important. That what they said and what they meant may not always jive, come on parents...you know you can struggle here too! We must approach each of the kids in this situation without favoring one.
Let me tell you, with three kids we would be having this discussion A LOT in our home if this became our only approach each time!
In addition, we can shepherd the one that came to us. He came to us for a reason right? I mean, we usually come to God with a reason. He is safe. He is trustworthy. He leads us to the way of Life and He does so from a true heart of understanding and compassion.
We can use this moment as an opportunity to grow this child in such a direction that does not create a bent for entitlement.
We can say to this Leader in training, "I am sorry that things did no go the way you planned for them to go. So many times in my own life this happens. BUT, did you know that God is always with you and He desires to be with you even now? He is growing a leadership skill that He placed in you and He is giving you THIS chance to stretch and build that muscle up! Go ride your bike if you want to ride your bike! And ride knowing that these moments are times when God is preparing you for HUGE adventures and times of great JoY!!!"
We do not expect our kids to always do what others want them to do. We want our children to grow to be confident leaders and visionaries. We want their creative minds to soar with or withOUT others around them! We want their confidence in who they are in Christ to outweigh their fleshly desires. It is OKAY for our kids to feel that Ugh moment of " no one wants to do what I want to do..." Friends, in ministry this happens ALL THE TIME! If we just sat and sulked in the misery of it, then we would not be about our Father's business!!
In talking with the young people who come in our home, we learn from their parents who went before us. We learn what they think worked and what really didn't. And, we get an up close and personal view of the fruit of their parents' leading!
So, if you wonder about raising kids in a world that says they are the most entitled generation of all time, don't worry. Seriously, don't let it get to you. You have such a big part in shaping and building the character that God desires for them to have. And, when we fail....when, not if....God is there pouring out grace upon grace.
If you think your child might be heading in the direction of entitlement, pray and seek the LORD on how to shepherd him or her in His ways. He is faithful and has entrusted your children to YOU. The above approaches work for our crew, but may be disastrous for some other family.
Pray with your kids in the mornings and evenings and let them hear you crying out to God for direction in how to lead them well. Let them know that your desire is for them to succeed! Your desire is for them to know and feel the immeasurable love you have for them! God does not always remove us from each and every situation we are in, but He always delivers the perfect amount of grace to suffice and quite often in this encounter our faith in Him grows by leaps and bounds! Oh, sweet King, may we NOT get in the way of Your work in and through our kids!!
Be blessed as you raise your kids unto the King! Be full of JoY as you raise them in His presence! Be hopeful in the One that never leaves YOU and guides you daily even in parenting. Rest in the beautiful hope that our LORD gives us....yes, even in the raising of our dear children!!
You are so loved.
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If you caught some of our latest newsletters you understand that we are making some fundamental shifts in the way that we do ministry. The reason for this is to make space for more discipleship as well as continued evangelism. Discipleship is why we were called to Berlin, not to make converts. This means that teaching and preparing our teams is of highest priority. We are now in the first weeks of this and we could not be more pleased with the progress! We are still seeing the miraculous things Jesus is doing among those we are called to reach, but now we are getting to sit and help these awesome people begin growing in their new faith! In addition it is allowing us to take more care and time in developing our long-term team. We believe that this shift will keep our Long-Term team from burning out and be much healthier in the long run. Thank you so much for your prayers! Please keep it up!!
As part of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), we are part of a global family that is committed to working with each other and others in the Body of Christ - globally. We relate to one another through Circles of Accountability, Relationship, and Eldership and not merely in a hierarchical approach. As a mission, we believe this allows us to honor the biblical way of relating to one another (globally, regionally, locally) without destroying the pioneering spirit that has allowed us to be in so many countries and affecting so many spheres of society. That being said, it is rarely, if ever, going to be mandated that we raise a certain amount of money for certain projects and gatherings. Instead it is left to the individual circles and the accountability of supporters and sending churches. This allow us to stay in closer relationship to you!
*So we wanted to make you aware of some upcoming projects and the reasons behind them so that you can prayerfully consider helping us in these endeavors.*****
Leader Training School EuropeAs this work has grown we have become aware of areas in which our leadership needs growth and mentoring. We never thought we had all the answers, but as this work grows we are seeing things on the horizon that we never knew were a possibility. It is very exciting, but we know we must steward these things well. YWAM has put together a Leader Training School that starts in November that will be lead by many of the elders and the leaders who have pioneered some amazing works in the world throughout many years. It is a 10-month program of which 5 separate weeks will be at various locations throughout Europe. The rest of the time will be on-assignment training and mentoring. The cost of the school is $2,400USD which will include housing, travel, meals, and learning materials for the 10 months - everything.
Would you prayerfully consider helping us with this project as this would be a great blessing for the ministry that God has called us to. If you have further questions, please let us know.
Apostello Gathering ThailandAs you may be aware, we have been working very closely with a group out of Kona, Hawaii. YWAM has partnered and caught the vision that the LORD gave us, and is faithfully committed to sending teams to work with us. We have become very close with one particular school and we are so thankful for the relationships that God has given us! Every two years the Global leaders of this group gather the people working across the globe for encouragement, relationship, mentoring, and vision casting. In January 2017, this group will gather in Thailand (a neutral location for the workers to gather). The cost is currently about $3500USD based on current prices of airfare for our family of 5. It is important to have our whole family present because so much of what we do is in the context of family and not merely work. It is important for those we serve alongside to know our entire family, and we love that they have invited all five of us to participate!
This is a very important gathering for us as our hearts long for the encouragement, relationship and mentoring that will occur during this time.
We would be honored if you could help us in any way possible!
HomeWe have loved seeing what God is doing here! We have loved being a part of it! It has been such an honor and blessing to our hearts.
However, after 3 years we need to come back to the States and give in person updates and reconnect with friends and family. We will only have about 1 month to do this next year because of school schedules, but we feel it is super important. Would you prayerfully consider helping us buy plane tickets and make arrangements to come home summer of 2017? Those dates are quite a ways out so we do not have firm airfare costs. We trust that if you ask the Lord for an amount, our costs will be covered!
We never want to be the missionaries out there only asking for money or delivering "how hard this is" blog posts! That is not what we see in the Scriptures and that is never our goal! We praise the LORD for His generous provision and we praise Him that He is a personal God! He delights in relationship and we see that so beautifully in the relationship we get to have with our supporters! You do not merely put a check in an envelope with the name of an organization on it...you get to KNOW us and see what is happening here! You text us and Facebook message us throughout the weeks and the ongoing communication means the world to us! We love the friendships that we didn't see coming in the way of our supporters, and we would love to build that base even more! We LOVE people and pray that those who give financially to God's work here feel that Love!!
Be blessed this day as you serve our King! Live from a heart that knows you are truly Loved! You ARE truly loved and truly of so much worth to the LORD!!
We thank you all for your love and support! It is such an honor to be in this with you all!
THINGS CHANGING FOR US IN BERLIN
When I (David) began my sales career MANY, MANY, MANY years ago in the Telecom industry, the man who hired me gave me a very timely piece of advice. He said, "Campbell, go make a mess and we will clean it up and you will learn in the process." That advice has served me well for all of these years.
When God called us to Berlin, we understood that our job was to make disciples and form them into discipleship groups/house churches. We understood that we were to go according to how Jesus commanded - with the full conviction that the harvest was huge and the workers were not enough. It did not matter if we saw it or not, the Bible said it, so we must believe it. As a result our constant prayer was that God would send more people. Boy, did He send the people! We expected Him to send people, but what we did not expect was for Him to send them to US! Every day we get at least one email asking if someone can come and minister with us. Every. Single. Day. Many days we are left scratching our heads and asking, "Ok, what are you doing God? You are obviously sending these people to work with us."
At the time of this writing we have had 92 different people stay in our house since January. We have a team from our church coming this week and then a YWAM team from Kona at the end of September. When the Kona team arrives we will officially go over the 100th person to stay with us for the year! If you know us, then you know there will have to be some sort of celebration!!
It is extremely expensive and time consuming to have teams come and yet what was evident was that God was sending them to us. Every time we get a request, we pray and ask the Lord if we should take them. With few exceptions, God has said "Yes."
So, we trust Him. We trust Him with our money. We trust Him with our time. We trust Him with our Home. We trust Him with the relationships/friendships that He has developed with the precious refugees. We trust Him with each day.
There seemed to be more though. He was, He is calling us to something more.
This year we found ourselves in Berlin with tons of people coming to work and tons of people coming to Christ. This year has been incredible! It seems that everything that we tried, we saw people come to Christ. No matter how strange or ridiculous our effort, Jesus was calling people to Himself. Praise Him!
But what do you do with the new believers? What do you do with the teams? More evangelism? How were we going to get to true discipleship? There are so many new believers and not enough of "us". We began meeting with other churches and other ministries about enlisting their help to care for and shepherd the new believers. 100% of the leaders we met with were more than willing to help in any way possible! We were so excited about this unity!!
But it seems that the relationship founded on Jesus (evangelism) was not able to broken and farmed out. It's like God was giving them to US! YIKES!
So our time was dominated by trying to primarily guide teams and disciple new believers in our "spare time." This just did not feel right. It is not right. Many of you have asked about CrossFit. Crossfit is still a major tool for us and we are in the process of that growing as we follow the LORD's lead in it. We are excited about what will come of it! We are working with the German system on making it "official" in a way that protects our teams and the ones who come to Crossfit. But as it was, we were just completely out of time. Hard workouts most every day and some days TWICE a day...and people attending and then wanting to learn more about Jesus! Men and women attending our classes were learning about Jesus and asking to meet with us to learn more. Because of the schedule, a meeting for discipleship would have to wait for two to three weeks. This just can not be. It is wonderful and amazing, we just need to be wise with our time and our efforts. Jesus literally allowed us to come to our complete end so that we would look to Him. He would show us the answer, just as He always does. We had to go through this process of a bit of chaos or we would not understand the unique-to-Berlin needs of these new believers. This was a big learning experience for us. It is hard to learn in this way. It is exhausting and if care is not taken, depression and other issues can slide in. Praise God for our team and that we are completely united under Christ! Together, we were able to work through the schemes of the enemy to get us down and stop the movement of Kingdom expansion in Berlin. The enemy is tricky, y'all...and he hates us and he hates our team. He definitely hates the work that we are doing and he will stop at nothing, no thing, to get us down! We praise Jesus that we are firm in our friendships and commitment to our family/team members and community here. It truly has been such a gift!
Recognizing the efforts of the enemy, we pressed forward and asked the LORD for a plan. For His clear direction.
So after much work and much work to come, we are retooling the way that we do ministry here in Berlin. The teams that we receive will learn to evangelize AND disciple AND be able to do what we do.
Let us clarify, discipleship is absolutely a life long process. But discipleship initiation and "pouring a foundation" can be a quicker process. This we can do. We can totally build a foundation in Christ, rooted and grounded in the Word of God that sets new believers up for success. We can totally form them into new groups and connect the groups to our wider community. We can MODEL what the Christian life is SUPPOSED to look like in a short time. We can demonstrate how meeting together, praying for one another's need, studying the Bible, listening to the Lord, worship, outreach, and fellowship are done. We can model it, assist them with it, watch them do it, and then let the teams do the same. We can identify emerging leaders and provide them with more pastoral oversight and train them in deeper ways.
BUT first we must get our process into such a simple and easily explainable format that virtually anyone can do it.
We must be able to cast the vision well.
The team that comes at the end of September will help us go through this process and begin working out the kinks. Please pray for them and us in the process. It is a small team and we think it will be ideal for us to start field testing with them. We are already praising God for the work that He will do through this group. We feel a connection and know that the LORD has prepared them for such a time as this and we are beyond thankful to God for them.
So then, by the grace of God, we are going to pray for MORE teams!
Yes, you read that correctly.
We are going to work and we are going to see God literally change the whole landscape of society in Germany because God is pouring out His grace! We are going to train every single person who will let us. We want every single person coming to work with us in Berlin to be equipped to serve here, and in whatever place God plants them long term.
So what can you pray for?More workers for the harvest.
Better communication skills for all of us.
More focus.
More money/provision to sustain us. Both for our family and our ministry. Our ministry has grown a lot since we arrived here and our monthly support has remained the same. It would be beyond helpful for others to join in committing to monthly support.
We need someone who is able to lead the Functional Fitness (i.e. CrossFit) efforts here. Please ask the Lord to send us someone who will take that as their primary ministry.
We need more housing. We cannot take everyone in our home, and it breaks our hearts to turn teams and individuals away because of the lack of space.
We are asking the Lord to help us start an Emerging Leaders School at the end of next year. With others from the States coming to join our team, this goal and vision will come to fruition and we are excited to share more with you as time allows!
Ask the Lord for Business as Missions people who are willing to come and help people form businesses and take the skills that these people are bringing to Germany and put them to use being a blessing.
We are learning, and we do not think we must "have it all figured out" before we step out. We will make a mess and the Lord will help us clean it up and we will learn in the process. We know we can make a mess, we have several times! And we know His faithfulness to help us clean it up, He has countless times!! Praise His name!
We are so honored and grateful to be in this with you. Following the Lord is not a burden, it is a tremendous BLESSING and we are grateful to get to learn as we go!
Sometimes things happen so fast that sitting down to write an update means that the information is outdated by the time we actually sit down to write. Here is an update on what is happening and how you can be praying!
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As we continue to build out our team, we are experimenting with how we can continue to encourage those who are associated with us but maybe geographically disbursed. It is not always feasible to take a train ride and meet up. This is mainly pointed for those who serve with us in the city but if this is encouragement to others, then praise God!
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From the vantage point that we have it appears as though things in the USA are in turmoil. Likely that is not reality. However, through the media outlets that we have access to, it seems like this is the case. We want you to know that our hearts and prayers are with you all. Part of what God called us to do here was to inspire and encourage our brothers and sisters at home toward what is possible with God. We live in a post-Christian, first-world, country filled with people from every nation, ethnic group, and religion on the planet. What happens here can happen anywhere. What happens with our family can happen anywhere. We believe that one of the greatest gifts that God has given us is our normalcy. He sent us as regular people to be a testimony to other people who feel less than prepared for what God has called them to.
Our goal is to ask Jesus, each day, what we should do.
This past Sunday we were praying early in the morning, asking Jesus what He wanted us to do on this day. He showed us a picture of a small table set up at Mauerpark ministering to spiritually hungry people. So our job is child like simple obedience. We borrowed a small table, made a paper sign, grabbed a role of tape, filled our water bottles and headed out the door.
It turned out to be an absolutely amazing time. At least two people we witnessed gave their lives to Jesus. Several people were healed. Many people heard Jesus speak to them for the first time ever! We watched Jesus break into these people's live and meet them exactly where they were. Some needed healing, some needed a miracle, some needed to mend broken relationship, some needed encouragement, but all needed Jesus. We dropped our overtly religious language and just let Jesus use us to meet these people. It was an amazing and fun time.
The following day we headed to a different part of Berlin, got off the train and began winding our way, on foot, through Berlin. We had amazing encounters sharing Jesus, making new friends, and getting to speak to people from Germany, Poland, Cameroon, Senegal, and another West African country I have never heard of before :).
The next day we met up with some friends. It is hard to call them refugees because we do not see them as refugees. These guys are friends. They are fun to spend time with. And they are just funny! We went to the Turkish Market and hung out by the canal. I do not know the extent to which these men got to hang out with Jesus followers in Syria and Iraq. On this day Jesus directed us that the best thing we could do was to just be with these guys.
Wednesday, we needed to take care of some administrative items and then meet up in the evening with three men the middle east/central Asia area who wanted to know more about Jesus. These men gave their lives to Jesus and expressed a desire to be baptized. (In the event that you are bothered about how fast we baptize people here, please keep in mind that biblically the longest period between belief and baptism in the bible is 3 days. This was the apostle Paul and he fasted during those days. Every other account was immediate. Again our goal is simple child-like obedience to Jesus.)
Yesterday, we met with a friend who is pastoring a church here in Berlin while the rest of our team baptized the three men. They had a wonderful time of communion, foot-washing, worship, baptism, and ministering the Word. In the afternoon, we decided to go across Berlin to the Gelato festival. This is obviously where Jesus would go, right? As we got on the train we met an older lady whom we ministered to in prayer. What was more beautiful was that it seemed her smile and joy ministered more to us!. We rode on the train and noticed a young man with a T-shirt that said, "Jesus Revolution" so we struck up conversation. It turns out this group of young people had recently come to Christ and had been meeting in their homes for worship, bible study, and prayer. We are now connected to them and have the opportunity to bless what they are doing. At the next train stop, we met a young man from Pakistan and had a brief encounter and we were able to pray for his family in Pakistan. As we finish praying, we met a young man from Syria. Some people you meet, you instantly know you will be connected to them forever. We are so excited to continue this friendship with this man. We will be getting together for coffee in the next couple of days. Last night, Keri was able to express her mother's heart to a young 16 year old boy from Palestine. It was his birthday, and he was a long way from "home". He was sick and had never had a birthday party in his life. This young man is separated from his family and living in what many would refer to as an orphanage. Some times ministry is being a mother or father or brother or sister to those who are in need. Expressing love and prayers over SMS and asking the LORD what He would have you to say to someone.
So what is happening today? That remains to be seen. One of the Heims that we do fitness classes in, has invited us to a party. We know Jesus likes to go to parties! So this is where we believe Jesus will be. We expectantly look forward to seeing Jesus minister at this party! Would you join us in praying?
Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of "building a ministry" it is easy to momentarily loose sight of the fact that God has called us to live our lives out loud. Our goal is to hear Jesus and do what He says. Then we aim to help others hear Him as well and do what He says. The Lord is establishing something amazing here in Berlin, but we believe that the best way to reach that is for us to take simple child-like steps of obedient faith.
Today, ask Jesus what He wants you to do. Where does He want you to go? We are confident that what happens here can happen in Texas or any other place in this beautiful world! Surrender your life again to Jesus today. Sit and wait with open hands and few words from your lips as the LORD reveals what HE has for you today.... It would bless us and many others if you would comment here what happens....how the LORD shows up and what took place! It will be an encouragement to all who reads and faith will be made stronger!!!
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Praise God that we are learning all the time. There are so many things to learn. Things that cannot be learned in a class room. Things that must be learned as we are going about doing what God has called us to.
We are being stretched in so many ways. Wonderful ways. Ways that we did not know was possible. Let me tell you about one.....
There is a man that we met the first day we started doing the functional fitness classes. He gave his life to Jesus and met Jesus in a very radical and real way. When I say he met Jesus, I mean he met Jesus. As we prayed for him, he began seeing a vision of Jesus walking in to his room and tell him that he would now follow Him. This man gave up everything, immediately. This has nothing to do with ANYTHING we said or did, we only prayed for him.
Last week he went to for an official interview with those who are overseeing his asylum case. He told them he wants to change his religion and his name. Understandably, they asked him, "why do you want to change your religion? Why do you want to become Christian." Here was his answer, "Because I saw Jesus." End of sentence. End of discussion. Mic drop.....silence.
Before we ever gave this man a bible he was witnessing and leading his friends to Christ telling biblically accurate stories. Several times we would pull him aside and ask, "have you read the bible before?" His answer was always, "No, Jesus comes to me at night and teaches me." What do you do with this???? We have no category to put him in!! What do you do with a man who is being discipled personally by Jesus?!?!
As a man coming from his cultural he understands the concept of a Holy Book. Mostly those from his cultural do not read their Holy Book for content but rather for spiritual blessing. As in earning favor with God. I would have rejected this before but something interesting occurred to me yesterday.
I sent my friend a text asking him how he was doing. He responded that he has been spending his day sitting by the river reading his bible. This made my heart swell with joy! Yet something bigger was happening. Something I was learning. The bible is inspired by God in it's content. All that it says is true. But this man was seeing something that I had never seen before. This man has been tortured, beaten, thrown around, pushed out of his country, and forced to live in horrible conditions. Two months ago he was on intense medication for anxiety and depression. Today he is free, totally. Here is what he is seeing, when he reads the bible he feels the peace of God come into his heart. Literally he is learning to run to the word of God as his comfort in the time of storm.
I do not believe that reading the bible earns any favor with God. I believe Jesus earned our favor with God for us. Yet I am seeing that there is tremendous blessing - even apart from the content - from reading the bible. Just to sit and listen to the voice of your Father speaking over you, regardless of what He says, is a wonderful blessing from God.
The sound of our Father's voice is a tremendous comfort to us. Let us give Him all of our attention!
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If you have been following our Facebook feeds you will know that the Lord has opened up some major doors to us recently at several refugee Heims here in Berlin. However, it is very difficult to know the back story simply by seeing the Facebook posts. In just a few weeks, so much has happened that this blog post is going to have to read more like bullet points. To catch you up quickly, the Lord has provided us with access to CrossFit Level 1 Certified trainers and allowed us to begin constantly varied, super-intense, functional fitness classes inside several of the Heims and camps.
How beautiful are the feet of those that bring the good news of Jesus Christ!
This is actually not a new idea to us. This was something the Lord spoke to us YEARS ago; however, at the time we were unable to see the connection between discipleship and Functional Fitness/Discipleship. Because of this we viewed it as more of a distraction and not something that we would use in our work in Berlin. Yet recently, the Lord has been gently bringing it back up. Even so we were unable to see the connection between Functional Fitness and discipleship. Sure it would be fun, sure it would be healthy for refugees, but how did it connect with discipleship?
On the first day and the first class we announced on the microphone that this workout would be very intense. We announced, "if you have any pain or sickness in your body right now please come forward and we will pray for you so that you can do this class." What happened next blew us away! So many people were healed, at least 15 people that we could count! The managers, security guards, and refugees all encountered the risen Christ! As the class began several of the ladies from our team were pulled inside the camp to continue to pray for others who were in their rooms (our classes are usually done outside). By the end of a class, a man from Syria told Keri, "for five months I just eat and sleep and eat and sleep and eat and sleep. Thank you, thank you for coming today!" At this camp the Lord has continued to further His Kingdom with a very influential member of a security company. Several people have not only begun their journey to better health, but have begun a significant journey to the One who can heal their soul, Jesus Christ!
A few days later. we stumbled across a Heim not too far from our home. We met the management asking permission and quickly we were granted access. After the first class a man from Libya approached us telling us of intense torture he had experienced at the hands of ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood. He told us he has "many evil spirits" and was wondering if we could help. We said, "we cannot help but Jesus can, we will pray for you." He took us to his room and he received SIGNIFICANT deliverance. After this prayer, he saw a vision of Jesus walking into his room carrying a cross with the words saying "Son of God" written in Hebrew. He told us that Jesus told him that he would be a follower of Jesus. There was no invitation to accept Jesus into his heart, no sinners prayer, simply Jesus told him he would be a follower of Jesus. This man tells us, "I have no choice I must obey Jesus." Keep in mind we are just sort of watching this all unfold! We had only prayed for him!
After one of the next classes, this man we prayed for led his friend to the Lord. We prayed a lot of deliverance for him as well. These men heard from the Lord that they should change their names, so they did! Their new names? Solomon and Mark. Solomon (the first guy we prayed for) has become such a powerful witness in his Heim. He is explaining to other refugees how Jesus is the Son of God! This man has never been taught this!! The Lord Himself is teaching him. Solomon is learning and growing in tremendous ways and we are just dumbfounded as to what is happening. He is telling us that Jesus is manifesting Himself to him each night!
Yesterday we started in a new Heim. The first class went really well so after the class we went to the manager to say, "Thank you." As we walked in to her office we asked if we could pray for her and her job. As we began to pray, you could tangibly feel the presence of the Lord fill that room! She began to weep uncontrollably joining us in crying out to God for herself and blessing for this facility! She was German and not a refugee!
What the Lord is currently doing is so amazing and wonderful that it blows our mind! Even writing about it seems so strange because it feels like we are simply being swept along. There is nothing to take credit for. There is nothing even that we can "teach" to others. The best we can say is, "listen to Jesus and do what He tells you." The Lord is showing us that He will be expanding this. There are so many needs. There are so many opportunities. We are so far out of our comfort zone, and yet we would not want to be anywhere else but here.
Our current prayer needs:
- We are asking the Lord to provide for us a facility so that we can expand our reach. Currently we are working in three heims and this is tapping out our whole time! We run two classes per week at each Heim, so we are busy 6 days per week. If we had a facility, then we could do outreach in the Heims and have them come to the facility for training and discipleship. We are asking for a location and funds for this.
- We are needing to become CrossFit Level 1 certified. We are enrolled in the June class that will be held in Berlin in June. We ask for prayer for these funds.
- Pray that Jesus will continue to manifest awakening and revival in these Heims.
- We will be launching a new website soon. Our current will stay active in terms of keeping people up to date with our family, but the new one will be more public facing and a way to communicate with the people we work with on a day to day basis.
- As most of our classes are done outdoors, weather is a MAJOR factor. Please pray for great weather! (another reason a facility is a prayer request)
- Community: one of the reason the Lord spoke this method of Functional Fitness to us is because of the way that it fosters so much community. Pray for deeper community to grow in these people! It has already begin and even our children are asking to ride their bikes to the Heim directly after school!
- For legal purposes we can say that we utilize CrossFit certified trainers, but until we are officially affiliated we will have to refer to what we do as "Functional Fitness" instead of "CrossFit." Please pray that we can proceed quickly with affiliation.
- There is also a lot of prayer needed and wisdom needed to know how best to structure what we do. The name will be "FIT3" but this could change our status in Germany. This is not a bad thing, we just want to set it up correctly. We are in talks with a lot of people who are a LOT wiser than we are. So please pray for wisdom!
"How may I serve you?"
When you hear these words, what comes to mind? I was laughing at the thought of it being an employee at a fast food restaurant! (Mostly because drive thru's are not really a thing here in Berlin and I may or may not be dreaming of Chikfila...I digress.)
Since the week of Christmas we have had an amazing team of ten beautiful people living with us. In addition to the team, our crazy awesome friend, David Watson, has returned to live with us for a while. This team is with YWAM and has completed their three months of lecture phase in Kona, Hawaii. They spent the past two months living in our home. Discipling and being discipled, ministering, praying with us and over us, cooking, loving our family like crazy, crying, laughing, being silent. These lovely people have become our family and I just would not have it any other way. I feel as though the Father has given me such a huge gift in these beautiful people.
Something happens in the dying of self phase that I love. When someone is consistently putting others ahead of himself or herself, the Holy Spirit is free to love and comfort and minister in really amazing ways! And when we allow the Spirit to do that, we get energized and spurred on in really amazing ways as well!
One of the most common phrases I have heard in our home in the last two months is "How may I serve you?" This has blessed our home and our hearts more than I can say. As someone who loves to serve, I feel my cup has been filled to overflowing and I cannot wait until the next team arrives in April!
May I challenge you today to ask the question? Maybe the challenge would be serving one person for you...maybe three. But as you get ready for your day, ask the LORD who He has in mind for you to serve. Then ask Him if you could be His hands, feet, and words to this person or people.
What a gift it is to serve. Remembering that our Savior did not come to this earth to be served, but to serve reminds us that His example in serving others is surely an important one to follow!
Be blessed this day as you think of others before yourself. Be blessed this day as you serve in unique and brilliant ways! The LORD knows our hearts and knows exactly what will speak to us. Ask Him how you can personally extend His love and kindness to someone in your life. God is such a creative King and He delights in watching you love and care for His people!
Mark 10:45 "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Hello, my name is Keri and I am full of JoY!
Have you ever considered those meetings where you go and proclaim that you are something that isn't true about you in eternity? Don't get me wrong, I know much healing takes place and I am ever grateful for that. BUT, I am a true believer in the tongue having the power of both life and death...and the word "power" means, power.
Right now I am in my kitchen. My kitchen is in Germany. When I was a kid, I highly doubt I would have believed you if you told me that I would grow up, get married, and raise my children on another continent.
We partner-lead and host House Church in our home. A few weeks ago, a visitor came up to me and asked me how I could possibly live with so much joy. She was sincere and told me she "really needed to know."
I began from the beginning. Can I be bold here and say that I believe that when the LORD placed His banner of Love over me, He also placed His banner of JoY over me as well?
He did.
I want to share with you that those beautiful and unseen parts of you that the LORD knit together are a huge threat to the enemy. Huge. This enemy is only out to steal, kill, and destroy.
What do you think he is trying to steal?
One of the things that he desires, is that special banner. Is it JoY? Is it Encouragement? Is it Teaching? Is it Evangelism? Is it Tenderness? Is it Hospitality? Is it Motherhood? Is it Fatherhood? Is it a Desire for the Nations?
Whatever IT is, the enemy wants to steal IT from you and he has been out to get IT since he saw the potential in you when you were born.
My special banners are JoY and Encouragement. In this post, we will talk about Joy.
I have not had the easiest life. I have not had the hardest, but I will say that often when I share my life story people are shocked and often taken aback.
Being cautious and gracious of those who may read this, I will not share all the details here on the WWW. I can share that I come from a broken home where I was not taught to love Jesus with my heart, soul, strength and mind. I do not remember learning of Jesus in my home as a child.
The LORD saved me at the age of 12. By HIS grace and all HIS doing. He chose me before He laid the foundations of the earth and He chose to adopt me into His family and awaken my eyes and ears to His truth the summer between my 6th and 7th grade years.
The life events that happened between that day and now remind me that I have an enemy. His desire is to steal from me and to kill and destroy me.
Shattered relationships, deaths, fear, anxiety, loss, instability,extremely poor body image, fear of man, loss of hope, uncertainty...these are just a few of the things that I experienced that are pretty much the opposite of JoY. Looking back, it is easy for me to see that the enemy was tugging at that banner and catching hold of much more than I ever realized.
But I could not and would not let him have it.
Sharing my story with professionals, they have wondered how I made it though those years without ever seeing a counselor. How did I get through? How did I manage without literally losing my mind and zeal?
The LORD.
Truly, I can sit here and say that the words written in Isaiah 9:6 describing Jesus as the "Wonderful Counselor" are absolute and unbreakable. He.Is.My.Counselor. He hears my cries. He answers and I mean HE ANSWERS. The LORD still speaks, despite those who say He doesn't. I never knew there were a group of Christ followers who believed that the LORD stopped speaking until very recently. My life did NOT reflect that as true because the LORD very clearly, lovingly, and tenderly spoke to me. Biblical Counselors are a sweet grace from the LORD and very much needed in certain situations. But for me and the plan God had for me, He would be the one to counsel and teach me of His ways. For me and my own faith to grow, He and He alone had to be the One to get me through.
Fast forward a few years and I find myself married to a dream. I mean really. David Campbell and his love for Jesus is just about the most attractive thing on this planet! :) Uncomfortable? Haha! Seriously, this man of God entered my life and I have never been the same. He has shown me what it means to be pursued, loved, fun, adventurous, humble, genuine, funny, outside-the-box, loved with a Father's heart (toward our children), and so much more. My life changed by the overflow of Jesus that I saw in David Campbell.
We married and had three children. There were heartaches and tribulations in that "had three children.". We easily got pregnant with the first two and actually had the nerve to say "We are done!". As if God's good gifts and blessings were just too much to bear? One day upon conviction of the Holy Spirit, on the very same day at the very same hour, David and I knew we were not "done". I was hesitant to share it with him and he was hesitant to share with me, but we both confessed that the LORD had told each one of us individually that we will have another child. Benjamin Thomas Campbell, right? Eventually, but before him were two others. Twins. We lost two little loves through a strange and uneventful miscarriage at around 11 1/2 weeks. It was heartbreaking. It was loss. It was not what I would have chosen, especially after hearing clearly from the LORD that we WOULD have another baby.
What was going on here?
I would love to say that I "choose" JoY in certain circumstances, but the truth is that most often it's just the outworking of the Holy Spirit in my life. I was having to go into the doctor every other day for bloodwork and sonograms and I was growing weary. I knew in my heart that these babies would not be held in my earthly arms, and I was just kinda ready to move on in a way. But God had a lady and a nurse and a doctor and several other individuals in this that would be ministered to if I would be willing. And, I was. I remember sitting on my floor in my bedroom journaling my thoughts for the day when the sonographer's words struck my heart again. "How can you have so much JoY in this? I know it must be so difficult for you to be here every other day knowing what the outcome will be." In that moment, I think I had the right to weep. I think I had earned the right to agree with her and say that it just wasn't fair. But the Spirit through me explained to her that although babies are AMAZING and true blessings from the LORD, my JoY is found in Christ alone...not a baby. That sounds a bit tender, I know. But it was the Spirit speaking though me when the true cry of my heart wanted to have a healthy pregnancy and hold two little (read BIG!) babies in my arms. The Spirit had a word for this lady and the lady at the desk when I checked in for my outpatient D&C and my doctor. I HAD to tug back hard at that JoY banner and I was NOT willing to let the enemy steal the good and perfect word that the LORD spoke to me about having another baby. His word is true. I HAD to count this trial as JoY. I had to because I believe the Bible to be the living and active Word of God and it told me to.
So, as the Bible tells us will happen when we count it all JoY when we experience trials of every kind, my faith grew. And because of increase in faith, I trusted God and we proceeded with JoYfully trying for another baby. Benjamin Thomas Campbell was born at 37 weeks, just over one year after my D&C, weighing in at 9 pounds and 4 ounces. He is a JoY!
In parenting, there are many days when JoY is the last word on your lips. Can I get an Amen? I mean, with all of these little people following you around all day, pooping in their clothes, spitting up, writing on things that are NOT paper, shoving non dissolvable stuff in the toilet, bickering, climbing on household appliances, changing clothes 15 billion times, destroying $30 dollar lipsticks, tipping their "spill proof" cup of milk over in the car, it is HARD to speak of JoY sometimes! But, it was there. It's my Banner, remember? The funny thing about a banner is that sometimes you can't see it when you are standing right under it. Like, your friends can. They can look over and see you drowning in the mess of spit up and baby cereal that dries on countertops like cement and say, "Yep, she has definitely got the JoY!" But standing under that banner, we often need to be reminded! Sidenote: Remind your sister today that she is _______. Whatever that banner is that YOU see waving valiantly in the wind above her weary head, call it out! Remind her that she is Tender, Encouraging, JoYful, Gracious, Hospitable, etc. I promise you it will go a looooooong way!
Sometime around 2011 or 2012 we felt a call to move internationally. Like, to another continent. It wasn't because we had Wander Lust or that we wanted to be European. We are a family of five and not extremely wealthy. It was the Spirit whispering to our spirits that He wanted us to come along and join Him in the work He was doing across the globe.
This sounds scary. It was scary. I did not always want to go. I must confess that I grew up in the HEB area and never moved out of it. Never lived in another state besides the country of Texas, USA. ;) The thought of moving across the WORLD did not bring my heart much JoY.
After some years, prayer, classes, books, pushing...we came to Berlin, Germany on a "vision trip". Y'all, it was 2013 and Berlin was experiencing the longest and coldest winter in a long, long time. I was not happy. I was not sweet. I was not JoyFilled. I was wanting to go back to Texas and sit in the sun on my back porch while my kids jumped on their trampoline and sip the gloriousness of Dr. Pepper from my large Sonic cup.
So we returned from this trip of vision and we knew the LORD was calling us to Germany. One beautiful sunny Texas day, while sitting on my back porch, watching my kids jump on their trampoline and while sipping the gloriousness of Dr. Pepper from my large Sonic cup, the LORD promised me that I didn't miss it when I thought He placed His banner of JoY over me. He sweetly told me that He would fill me with JoY... if I would trust Him and focus on Him alone.
See, when we start to look around at the created instead of the Creator, our trust in Him begins to weaken.
When our trust in the LORD begins to weaken, our JoY can start to fade and the opposite can rise up within our hearts.
Fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, anger, loss of hope...all of these things can creep in like little sports fan pennants. Waving in the wind that you are NOT enough, NOT qualified, NOT loved, NOT faithful, NOT equipped...
But, His gifts and His callings are IRREVOCABLE. Do you know this word? It means "not able to be changed. Not able to be reversed. Final." And His banner of JoY over me is a gift AND calling.
It is irrevocable.
Thus, our family went through a Discipleship Training School with YWAM and learned even more how to hear the voice of God, His Father heart for us, our identity as sons and daughters of the Most High and so, so much more. Specifically, I learned to lay down some rights that I had picked up that were not heavenly rights at all. It's crazy how you can pick up a worldly "right" and claim it so boldly and proudly when in fact it is actually eating away at your true character and identity in Christ without ever even knowing it. I needed someone to point some things out in me, and I was ready to hear the bad, and the ugly. Guess what? I didn't hear the bad or ugly...because those words don't describe the King of the Universe and I was learning about HIM. Praise His name that this was not a place for me to learn about me and me and me and me and me and me... :) I was healed of some life wounds during this time. I was healed of some heartaches during this time. I severed some ungodly soul ties during this time. I rid my life of fear and severe poor body image during this time.
Letting go of weighty chains and busting them up with the LOVE, JOY and the PROMISES of God allowed me to lift my no longer weary head and revel in the Glory Banner of JoY that was brilliant and vast and waving strongly over me.
I didn't want to come to Berlin. I had many reasons why we shouldn't. None of them paralleled God's word or plan for me. When I let go of my little fan pennants of my own rights, my own plans, my own desires, my own knowledge, my own feelings...the distraction I was to myself waving those silly little imitation flags allowed the banner of the KING to be seen by my own eyes as well as by the eyes of those around me.
I have JoY. Not on my own, it is a fruit of the Spirit. It is a sweet gift the LORD has chosen to give to me and I believe He has it for you as well. I can walk into any situation and claim the truths of the LORD my God. I can silence the enemy and speak out the callings and promises of God. I can walk in truth, in any country and in any circumstance believing in the One Who has truly set me free. Where the Spirit of the LORD is, there surely is FREEDOM!
When you see the posts that I create about JoY, I pray you see a God-given Banner waving boldly. I pray that, knowing a bit of my story, you too can claim that which the enemy is trying to steal from you. Maybe you will sit in a moment with the LORD and ask Him what it is that the enemy might be trying to steal from you, and how you can capture it back once more. That you will grab it back completely and speak out the promises of God TO the enemy...'cause there are those promises to remember and proclaim too!
My first prayer is that you know the Banner that is over you. If you don't, ask the LORD. My second prayer is that you would drop all the tiny, imitation flags that you are waving on your own and rejoice in your true identity given to you by the One Who created you and loves you best and most.
His banner is always Love. Walk in His love and discover all of the Banners above you that He has declared! You are wonderfully, fearfully made! God delights in YOU and sings over YOU!! Rejoice! The King of the Universe is FOR you and not against YOU!!
Peace and Love and Blessings of JoY be ever upon you!
We are so amazingly thankful for you guys and we are so excited about all that is happening here in Berlin. This is going to be quite the packed update so perhaps you should hold on with both hands for this one!
Refugee (Opportunity) Crisis in Germany
While the world calls this a crisis we see this as an amazing Gospel opportunity. How so? When Jesus is revealed in these camps and we begin to see whole camps transformed by the power of Jesus this will be a testimony to the camps, to Germany, to Europe, and the world.
This week the Lord has opened the door to a camp close to our house. This camp is part of a network of 6 other homes and represents over 1000 people Refugees living in Berlin. This is a tremendous opportunity - provided it is handled correctly. As we have gotten our feet wet in the refugee situation, we have learned many things to not do. For those providing help on the Refugee Highway or when people arrive on the boat, the needs and ways to help are pretty straight forward. However, here in Berlin it is not so easy to insert yourself into the situation and begin to help. You can make a mess really quickly if you are not careful.
So what is the plan? Quite simply - total community transformation. Including playgrounds, external facade of the building, programs for the kids and families, and even loving service to the staff that work there day and night.
But we need more to do that. Right now we can address, in a major way, this one camp for about $5,000 USD. Can you help us get the word out and begin praying with us? We want to begin with (hopefully) weekly visual updates as to what is happening in the camp so that you can see what is being done (both physically and spiritually). This project is being done as a partnership with our house church and our YWAM Berlin team. Here is the link if you would like to help us get the word out.
Discipleship Training School Berlin
This week David will begin 1.5 weeks of teaching the students at the YWAM DTS here in Berlin. The students have been in lecture for nearly 3 months and this is the last push before they are launched into the two months of outreach in South Africa. These are amazing students who are reaching for more and more of Jesus. Pray that David will be clear in his teaching and that the Lord would give him the words to speak and power behind the words that He gives him. The Holy Spirit does amazing things in these times and we enjoy getting to see what He is doing.
Thanksgiving Dinner
We will be hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for quite a few American workers in the city. We are looking forward to providing a time of refreshment and restoration and a time of community thankfulness for all that God has done in and through this group of people.
Fire and Fragrance Team
On December 22 we will receive a wild-eyed team of revivalists from Kona, Hawaii doing a Fire and Fragrance DTS. This team of 11 people will live with us for 2.5 months and will be serving with us in our work in the city and house church ministry.This will be an amazing time for us, for them, and for all those whom they minister to. You all have been a part of getting our home ready to receive them. You are part of what God is doing with this amazing group!!
There is so much that is going on that it has been difficult to sit and write about it. It seems that by the time a post/update is written and edited it is then obsolete and more needs to be written.
Last week we met with leaders from across Germany to discuss how the different leaders are working with refugees and gain encouragement about what comes next for this work. We believe that God is calling us to take much bolder steps than ever before but we want to make sure that we do not take any steps that He is not directing.
Yesterday we went to a place where thousands of refugees come into Berlin seeking Asylum. One of our co-laborers and partners in the gospel, Tim Ashworth, brought items to make balloon animals. (click on the link and like their Facebook Page - they are awesome) There was nothing complex about what was happening, our goal was just help people to smile and restore human dignity to people.
A man suddenly approaches me speaking remarkable English. He is an Architect from Iraq and he said, "I want to tell you guys thank you for just bringing smiles to these people. You are doing a good thing." I went on to tell him that the reason we do this is because of what Jesus has done in my life. As I share my story he is saying, "Yes yes it sounds like you were given a new heart!" This man began to understand the transformative power of the Gospel! He gave us his contact information and wants us to come and visit him in the camp that he lives in......and now God has given us an opening in a new camp.
Then a man from New Hampshire interrupts and says, "I have been listening to what you were saying to this man. I believe this! This is great what you are doing. I came down here just to see what was going on here but I am glad I got to hear."
Then two other men approach asking about what we are doing. One of the men says, "this is amazing can we interview you for TV?" Uhhhhhhh, sure......I guess. So they pull out their camera equipment and begin to interview Tim (if you know Tim, and you should, he has an awesome radio voice).
Daily we come away from these times amazed that we get to be a part of this. We follow God and He does amazing things and we get to be along for the ride.
Truly He is a good good Father!!
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I remember reading "The Heavenly Man" by Brother Yun and thinking to myself - "Wow! This sounds like the book of Acts!"
About 7 years ago, I started a bible reading plan that had me reading through the bible roughly 3.5 times in a year. In this bible reading plan it required that I read one chapter of the books of Acts each day. So every 28 days I was restarted the book of Acts. During this time, there grew hunger in me to have my experience match what I read in the bible. Not that I make the bible fit my experience, but instead taking my experience and if it did not match what I read in the bible... then I would keep seeking the Lord until my experience matched the bible. The Lord is giving us tiny little tastes of that now! Not the full meal, but tiny little appetizers that teach us that there is so much more of God than we have ever imagined (or heard)!
This week started normal enough. We met with a small group of people on Tuesday in our home for prayer. Something happened in that prayer meeting in which a deep conviction of urgency and excitement just seemed to fill the room and our hearts.
Wednesday we began seeing refugees coming to us expressing a desire to give their lives to Jesus. Men coming and desiring whatever it takes to associate somehow with Jesus. Men coming to us saying "We think Jesus is right and we want to follow Him, how do we do that?" At the same time we began seeing significant resistance to our work (we will just leave that where it is - but needless to say we need prayer for open doors and wisdom for how to handle things boldly and safely but not foolishly.).
Thursday we saw yet more people baptized and making bold declarations of a desire for a clean conscience and new life in Christ.
Friday we saw eyes opened, physically, causing eyes to be opened spiritually. One man said, "I saw the miracle! I have had doubts about my religion while living in Iraq and I had no one to ask. What I have seen today will change the world. We do not need food, or clothing, or housing, Jesus is what we need!"
Saturday is the day we come together as a house church fellowship. We are so blessed to be pushing one another towards greater effectiveness and holiness in Christ. We may be a small group, but I can promise you if you are going to storm the gates of hell, then this is the crew that you want with you!
Today Jacob and I went to a Döner/Kebap place. He ate french fries and I read the Gospel of Matthew out loud to him. We noticed three men listening to us so we invited them to talk. One was from Iran, one from Pakistan, and one from Turkey. The older man from Turkey had been stabbed in the shoulder three years ago and had significant pain. He was healed by Jesus instantly after we prayed! One of the other man tried to argue that this did not happen and that Jesus did not do it, but he was largely unsuccessful convincing his friend that it had not happened! So good!
Every day we are coming to see that we are living in a different time than we used to. It seems things are happening much faster than they used to. There is a growing hunger for (and a virulent opposition to) Jesus. We are seeing, each day, that the day of preparation is long past. It is no longer time to prepare the harvest but that the harvest is here and we are to be about our Father's business. We cannot spend our time preparing for a day that God has never promised us. He has given us today, we must be faithful with today.
Do not loose sight that you are in this with us. The love, encouragement, support, and just being cheerleaders for us and for Jesus is such a blessing! Words cannot express how thankful we are for each one of you.
If you are wondering how you can be involved we would love to talk to you more. We believe that what is happening here can happen anywhere. It's just a matter of being willing to take a step of faith. John Wimber used to say that the "correct way to spell faith is R-I-S-K". Take a risk, you will see that Jesus is super capable of holding you up!
Bless you all! Bis dann, Tschüs!
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What a gloriously amazing and interesting week this has been! This week a wonderful family from Norway came to visit us and two of the daughters will remain living with us ministering among the refugees. We are so excited for them and their ministry. (Please remember Hannah and Linn in your prayers. Tomorrow Hannah will be meeting again with a person originally from Turkey. She has been sharing Jesus with him this week and will be continuing the discipleship and Jesus conversation tomorrow.)
This week Keri had an amazing time of coffee, tea, and friendship with a young lady from Afghanistan. This is a wonderful family we have gotten to know and we would ask for you to be praying for the whole family but especially this young mother of three.
Also, this week we met with a couple from Serbia with whom we had been sharing Jesus. We had originally met the man when we prayed for his friend with the tumor (see earlier Facebook post). In previous discussions he had spent much time justifying himself to us, and talking about how good of a person he was. We listened and prayed for him. This time he comes and says he has a problem. He says he is ready to follow Jesus and wants to be baptized, but that the women with whom he lives is not his wife. He asks what he should do. The best answer I had was, "I am certain that the Holy Spirit will tell us."
His girl friend was extremely eager to be baptized and follow Jesus. She spoke absolutely no English at all! Through translation we explained baptism and she eagerly jumps up and grabs a bowl of water and brings it to the room. This, obviously, was not big enough to baptize so we brought them to our house.
Upon confessing Jesus as Lord they also confessed that they wanted their addictions to smoking to die with their old selves. They were baptized and after baptism they said, "we would like to make a commitment before God to be husband and wife, will you marry us today?" So we had a wedding ceremony in our house right away! Then we shared communion and prayed and just reveled in the goodness of our God to do such amazing things! The following day, the couple whom we will call John and Nina (not their real names), were in line at the immigration office. They had taken the only bible they had (working on getting a copy of the bible in Serbian). Nina - who speaks no English - picked up the bible I had given them and began to read and understand it! In English!! Praise be to Jesus that no language will ever be a barrier for Him!
The following day we noticed something change virtually immediately. Every refugee camp we came into we began to get shut out of. Even ones that we had relationships established. We were told that we were not allowed to be there and that we must leave the property immediately. So we moved just off the property and allowed people to come out to us. We do not believe for a second that this will hinder the work of the Lord at all. Jesus is far to great to let something like this slow Him down! Please continue to pray for open doors. In fact, we ask that you would pray that we could move freely about with no obstruction from any officials.
What is happening is that there is a tremendous effort underway to segregate the refugees according to religion and country and keep them isolated from too much interaction with volunteers that are serving for normal physical needs. The goal is a noble one in that it is intended to keep wars started in another country from coming to Germany. The effort is to allow interaction with refugees to be only at the social worker level. But we believe we can help foster peace and integration through being friends. We believe that our efforts can significantly increase the chance for peace both in Germany and around the world. If you are isolated from anyone different than you, then you will learn to distrust and fear all those who are different.
Here is an article written in German (use google translate)
This week we intend, by the grace of God, to go about work as usual trusting that Jesus will allow us to move about freely. The men at the refugee camp seem to be encouraged that we intend to come back and we are not going to let the events of this week discourage or stop us.
Thank you for your prayers! It is a joy to be in this with you.
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The Gospel of John repeatedly refers to a particular disciple as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Reading all the way through the Gospel we learn that this specific disciple is also the writer of the book. It used to bother me that Jesus would pick one particular person to shower more attention and love on than the others (yeah that says a lot about my heart). But then one day I was reading and it suddenly struck me.....John was writing from His perspective while inspired by the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? It means that John lived his life with the constant awareness of how much God loved him. Personally, specifically, acutely loving him with all of his flaws and short comings.
Sharing Jesus with Muslims is a joy. These are some of the most wonderful, gentle, kind, and loving people you can hope to meet. Yet there seems to be a common road block. Most Muslims I speak with readily agree that God loves everyone. But the challenge comes in the fact that God loves them, specifically and personally. You may be used to speaking only with Americans and driving home the point that "it is not all about you" becomes necessary. Yet when you begin to share with people from other cultures, what seems so easy for one to grasp is difficult for others.
I must say that we are in a season in which we feel especially loved by God. We have felt that we are following God's plans throughout this whole journey, yet recently we have been overwhelmed by the wisdom and grace He has shown us. He knew what was coming to this land and He dropped us here just ahead of it. He knew we (and others) would need a place to launch out of and He provided this house.
This past week we saw God do amazing things in drawing people to Himself. Tuesday of this past week I got a message from the man I had met on Friday of the previous week. He told me to please pray for his daughter as she was being transported to the hospital. Several hours later he let me know the diagnosis. Staph Infection.
We felt utterly helpless because we were not able to physically get to where she was to actually pray with her and for her. Yet we prayed where we were and she was discharged the next day. Yesterday we got the privilege of going to this family's home and bringing some fun items for the kids and sharing tea with the parents. We hope it was a blessing to the family because it was a HUGE blessing for us. We continue to pray for this family as we continue to share Jesus both in word and deed.
On Wednesday, in our bible study at the refugee center, we saw God doing really awesome things among a Syrian man (posted some of the details earlier on Facebook) but we have continued to pray and seek the Lord that these men will catch the vision that THEY can be the agents of peace in this world. One of the men brought up questions that he had from the book of Daniel. The Lord used this story to allow us to share with him how Daniel -- a man who ended up in a foreign country because of war -- could be a major source of blessing for the country because of an "excellent spirit" the Lord had placed in him.
This is the vision we feel that the Lord has given, that these refugees will be able to be a MAJOR source of blessing for Germany and the World, fueled by the Holy Spirit and driven by the love of Christ.
Many of you have expressed a desire to help the beautiful souls here. Thank you! Thank you for your prayers, they mean the world to us! Thank you for your beautiful messages of encouragement!
We have big dreams that the Father has recently given us. Dreams of reconciliation with the LORD God and with the people from all the nations here. If you would like to make a one time financial donation directly to these efforts, please click the "Support Us". We cannot wait to see these dreams become reality!
Be blessed, dear friends!
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This week has been an amazing whirlwind of a week. Here are just the highlights.....
Most of our encounters at the Refugee Homes seems to somehow get to the point of someone asking us for a bible. So in our last update I just asked for prayer on us getting arabic bibles. Even as I was writing the thought occurred to me, "It is time to get serious about prayer for these bibles." Then, one of our friends and supporters launches a Go Fund Me campaign and in a few short days we have the money to FILL OUR GARAGE with bibles for distribution! What an amazing group of people you are! What an amazing God we serve!
We have talked with several groups who are mobilizing teams to send our way to help with bible distribution and other needs, such as discipleship. Please be in prayer as most of the teams will stay with us in our home. Logistically, this can be a challenge, but we know that the Lord will bring us through. Now we are seeing the reason that God provided a home big enough to host teams! He is not a random God, but when He says to do something you better do it, even if you do not quite see how it all fits together. In essence our home has become and is becoming a place to launch from.
This week we spent our time at one of the homes further discipling men and getting to know them. These are some precious people and we are amazed that we get to be with them. Keri made cookies and we distributed cookies, shared Jesus, and did a bible study. The nature of these homes is that they are normally not visible to the uninformed eye. So one of the best ways to find them is to talk to the people and get to know them. They told me about other homes that are very close. Walking distance or a short bike ride from our house.
Friday, I went to see two other homes I had heard about. I arrived at the first one and the first man I met was an Afghan man who was an English Translator for the US/Allied Special Forces in Afghanistan. Needless to say, his English was amazing. I became quickly aware of the fact that he was definitely a person a peace as described in Luke 10. As we sat and talked he showed me how so often people bring all manner of food or clothing, but rarely take time to interact with the people in the home. I told him we are here to change that as God has sent us here to share the good news of peace with God and man through Jesus Christ and to demonstrate that through praying for the sick and hurting. He says, "Oh we have many people who need prayer here. Thank you for coming."
As I left that home, just so overwhelmed by the goodness of God to open up a work, I arrive by bicycle to the next home. I see a group of people standing around smoking. Normally I never go to the main management office, because normally they will tell me that unless I have relationships with the people I cannot come in. So I went up to this group staring at me suspiciously and told them why I was there. One man stands up and pulls up his shirt to show me something obviously distorted with his belly. He tells me he has a tumor and asks if I will pray. I prayed and whatever this was began to move all around! He and his wife were overjoyed and the man who was doing the bulk of the translating says, "is there a church we can go to?" I responded with, "why don't you let me show you how to meet together here in this home and I can show you how to get to know Jesus and you can pray for one another?" The man says, "This is a great idea! We can meet in my apartment and I will invite my friends. They will come!"
As with most of this path God has put us on, He has challenged us to see this whole refugee crisis in a different way. He is challenging us to not look at the people as a crisis or problem, but to see them through His eyes. To see them with the value and dignity that comes from Him. To see that this is the greatest missionary force the world has ever known and yet they do not know it yet. These people can be BOTH a huge blessing to this country AND the answer to peace in their own countries. We are working to see the power of God so transform these homes that the neighbors will want them there because of the tremendous blessing that comes from their presence!
There are literally hundreds of state churches and organizations doing their best to meet the physical needs of the refugees. THIS has blessed us as we are free to minister to them spiritually! What a gift!
language has not been a problem as many of these individuals never knew they would end up in Germany. English has been the bridge language, and ANY time language could have been a barrier, the LORD has been faithful to provide a person of peace; someone in the group who speaks English and translates to his family/friends. He is faithful!
Terror groups and criminal activity function well in these environments because they tend to be the groups who are giving the people purpose and reasons to belong. We have to be able to extend to them the dignity and value that is given them by God and cast vision for who they were created to be. This is not an easy task as hope has not been a concept in many of them for a long time.
We came to Berlin, Germany to make disciples of many nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded us.
Behold, He has been with us always.
Thank you for your prayers. We are grateful for every one of you!
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Unless you are simply not paying attention, Germany is making international news with the welcoming of refugees from all over the world. While there are some that oppose refugees coming to Germany, overall, the sentiment seems to be extremely welcoming to those who have been displaced.
This past week, we continued to do our open-air bible studies at the refugee facilities. We do this open-air because we are wanting to model that having honest, sometimes hard, dialogue is good and helpful. This past week we saw a man who had fallen from his bike have Jesus heal his wrist. A man who watched this happen suddenly approaches informing us he had just gotten his "yellow letter" notifying him that he was to be deported back to his home country. He asked for prayer and by the end of the day the decision had been reversed and he can now stay! Praise Jesus!!
The group that is gathering has grown over the past two weeks and we have had more people tell us they want to come out this week. Please continue to pray!
How to pray?
Pray for our translators - this is extremely hard work. We had an amazing young man from Syria step in to translate. It was amazing watching what God was doing in his heart.
That these people would not be viewed as charity cases but rather that they would be seen for the value and dignity that they have. These people are the most amazing missionary force the world has ever known, but they do not know it yet!!
Pray for revival and awakening with the fullness of all that that entails!
Pray for boldness
Pray for MORE bibles - oh how we need so many more!
We love you guys and are so thankful to be in this with you all!!
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Y'all, I am not Ann Voskamp. Wait, did that surprise you? Hahaha. What I mean is that I am not an eloquent writer and when the LORD gives me a picture of something beautiful, sometimes it does not come out quite as beautiful through my typed words to you. But, my goodness, Ann has a gift doesn't she?? I digress...
The LORD gave me some beautiful pictures, and I want so badly to make them into beautiful words for you. I pray I can glorify Him well in this post.
Through His amazing ways, the LORD our God gifted us with a new home. Our apartment was perfectly fine, but around November of last year, both David and I felt the urge to pray about moving. I will write a separate blog post on ALL that He did during that time.
We have some dear friends in Norway and had the sweet joy of visiting them. When we returned home, we took one look at the back yard and wished we had asked someone to water it while we were away. When we moved in, it was a mess. Before we moved in, an elderly German lady told me that I "have MUCH work to do in the garten." Boy was she right! Blessed friends came the week we moved in and they worked the ground with their hands and their hearts. It began to come alive! The potential came bursting forth in bright oranges, pure whites, vivid pinks and yellows! We were finding out that many of the trees in our yard were not just there for shade and beauty, but that they were fruit bearing trees! What a gift!
But when we returned from Norway, after just seven days of neglect, the yard was sad and dying. The temps had reached 100*F while we were gone. It didn't rain much. Nurturing this new life had come to a halt for one week and it could surely be seen.
So, one hot morning, I grabbed some clippers and a rake and I went to the backyard. I prayed as I went out and I asked the LORD if we could spend some time together. He's such a good, good Father...He never says "no" to that request, or "not right now, I am busy."
I put my gloves on and got into that dirt. Into the thorns. Into the branches and the flowers and weeds and overgrown grass.
I know that pruning is necessary. I know that it is good. One of the truths that the LORD spoke to me is, "Pruning is for the living, not the dead." I was pruning the bushes, flowers, and trees because I know they are alive! I know their potential! I have seen but a glimpse of it and it is beautiful! If they were dead, I would just pull them completely up and discard them.
"Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." John 15:2
Did you catch that in Jesus' words? That which bears fruit, is pruned so that it can bear more fruit. I love this truth!
Our backyard has a short wire fence around it. We have already met all of our surrounding neighbors and shared with them the reason we moved from Texas, seriously they can't understand WHY we would do such a thing, to Berlin. We are praying for BiG things for this neighborhood and the amazing people in it. They have all welcomed us with warm, open arms and have made this move even more evident that the LORD is up to something.
The neighbors directly behind us are especially inviting. We have grown to love them. As I was cutting back many of the bushes along the fence we share, it became a reality that we would not be "hidden" by the bushes anymore. Pruning exposes us in ways that can be seen by those around us. There are times when I don't want to be seen. I don't want others to see the faults I have or the places I fall short. But pulling out the shearers, cutting away the things that need to be cut away, exposes more of who I am. Who I really am. And, who I really am is chosen, redeemed, pure, loved, and so much more! That is who YOU are as well! Which is good news for my neighbors, because due to my excessive pruning....we will be seeing a LOT more of each other!
There are many kinds of berries in our yard. I have no idea what kind they are, but I know they must not be poisonous because our boys have eaten their weight in them! Working among them, I quickly learned how very painful the thorns of berry vines can be! Ouch. Pruning can be painful, but you must keep on working. My arms looked like I had been in a fight with a young kitten. Even though I had gloves on, the long, sharp thorns pierced through the gloves and into my fingertips. It hurt. BUT, I knew that I had to keep going, through the pain. I could not just give up, despite the slashing. This can go two ways in the spiritual world. Oftentimes, the LORD uses His people to prune those He loves. Often, we are the tools in His pruning hands. If we just stop when it hurts, the potential beauty that is literally dying to bust though, is yet again left to be smothered by the thorns and thistles of life. You must keep going, past the hurt. Past the disappointment. Freedom actually does come at some cost. I have tasted and seen that the LORD is good...and spiritual freedom is worth the pain it takes to obtain it!
When I was close to being finished with my work for the day, David came out to join me. I was a little anxious at what he might say. Friends, the pile that was growing from all that I had cut down was growing very, very high. My man grabbed a rake and joined in the work. Sometimes the ministry of presence is a sweet gift during the process of pruning the soul. I assumed David would ask me why on earth I was cutting so much away. He didn't. He just worked right alongside me. I was nervous to tell him that the Lord had been speaking to me during this time. But I had to. With each cut of those sharp blades, the Spirit was reaching to my soul with truths of His good and perfect ways. So, I opened my mouth and began to proclaim the lessons God was sharing with me in His grace. David is gentle and wise and loving. He listened and affirmed that these were from the LORD. He encouraged me to share them with you. You see, as I was pruning, I was being pruned. And it was good for me to have someone along with me.
As he raked the remnants of what I had cut, David exclaimed, "Wow, look at all the room back here! I had no clue we had this much room! There is enough room for you to plant something really beautiful." And immediately my heart took hold of those words. Pruning makes room for more beauty to grow. With all that was there, we really had no grasp of the space that it was taking up. Cutting it back showed us that there was MUCH room and good soil in which to plant whatever we wanted...and we want to plant more! Things beautiful and vivid and life-giving!
Then their was the pile. The large pile. Pruning leaves behind that which was pruned. What you do with it can make all the difference in the world. Just like the pruning of the soul, we could have been completely embarrassed by the enormous pile of branches and weeds and shrub that we had cut back. But, we were so free that embarrassment wasn't even in our minds! David agreed that we would deal with it, we would move forward, but that we wouldn't look at the mountain behind us and be overwhelmed. Nope. We also wouldn't let the large pile that was cause us to NOT prune in the future. See, when we cut back that which we know needs cutting, the work isn't over. We must do something with that which we have torn down. This is good to think about with our souls too. We must hand that which has been pruned back over to Jesus. Release it from our hands. He is able to take care of it and He has taken care of it with His sufficient work on the cross. Believe it and rejoice, friends!
I pray these lessons will reach into your hearts and souls. I am not sure they convey that which the King of Kings whispered to me on that day. I pray that in some way, He uses that which He taught me to remind you that you are dearly loved and treasured. You might be in a season of the pruning of your soul...and I pray you see that as life-giving and valuable! I pray that you would be encouraged and spurred on to finish the cutting back until the end. I pray that after the work is complete for this season, you will know the Lord your God more fully and praise Him for the love and grace He has lavishly poured out upon you!
Blessings from Berlin! You each have our hearts and we love you so much!
It was a hot morning in Berlin this morning. Very hot. Hot enough to cause people with no A/C to go outside.
I see two men sitting in the shade who are seeking refuge in Germany but coming from Albania. They told me about their plight and their needs. I asked if I could pray for them. They both agreed.
After a general prayer of blessing and help in their job search one of the men explained that he had a back injury. I prayed and the pain immediately left. The other man pulled up his shirt to reveal a stab wound from a knife in his back. He also asked for prayer. His pain remained after the first prayer, diminished significantly on the second and was completely gone on the third.
Both men were extremely thankful and asked what just happened. I explained that it was God responding to prayers in Jesus' name. We talked about Jesus/Isa's righteous perfect life. They asked what religion Isa is and I explained how religion is about trying to please God instead of trusting in Jesus' goodness.
Next I explained how they can approach Jesus with their needs and even begin praying for people they know who are sick or in need. They were eager to get started!
Next week we will go back to help them continue. But this could be the beginning of a new faith community in this place. Pray for this group of people as they have many many needs and have just been introduced to the One who can do what no other person can!
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It appears on the horizon and it is still a long ways off but I think I see it….
This last week was a significant week for me, personally. When we started this journey of what the Lord had called us to in Berlin, we felt like we were moving forward on the word of the Lord.
Sometimes when the Lord directs you toward something you totally understand what He wants to do and you run forward full steam ahead. But I have to admit that since the time that we felt like we received what He wanted to do in Berlin, I cannot say I have totally understood. I have been willing to proclaim it and speak it out but in my mind I was having a hard time seeing it.
Let me explain. The idea and desire and vision has always been self-reproducing discipleship groups planted in this city and flowing out to the world. That has never changed. We know that this has happened in China and India to a large degree but it is very very very rare in the west. The explanation has been that “things are different in the United States and Europe.” This cannot be true. It absolutely cannot be true. In order for this to be true that would mean that either A) there is a worldview stronger than God or that B) that God is willing that Europe perish and not come to knowledge of the truth. These things just cannot be.
I have been involved in evangelism for a very long time. I am engaged in a lot of evangelism now. We have seen people come to Christ. We have seen decisions for Christ. We have seen disciples being made. We have even seen new believers spring into being radical evangelists leading many people to Christ in closed countries. Already we have seen this in this city….in one year. Sound great, huh? Sure, and we want to celebrate every single victory, but the truth is this is not the goal.
Self reproducing discipleship groups that completely change the fabric of society. That is the goal. Disciples of Jesus. In essence, wholesale revolution and revival.
But I have not been able to see it. I did not have eyes to see it at the time. But I THINK the light is coming on. I want you to see that this is very much a work in process. This is not the writing of someone who has it figured out. I am following my Lord on the word of what He wants to do here in this city.
Then this past week we spent time in a park with drug dealers, drug abusers, and prostitutes. We saw the presence of the Lord change the entire atmosphere. We saw people watch our example and begin to pray, in Jesus’ name, over their friends. We saw it, we saw the place come to life. And yet I do not think I fully saw it until we left!! Starting a bible study in that place, teaching them to pray for one another’s needs, teaching them simple bible stories, would have been the most natural thing possible, but I did not see it then. I think I do now.
I have felt the desire to have more and more and more teams but now I see why. Now I see what is to happen. We need more and more and more people doing what we did last week! This is no longer about us "sowing" good seed as is often done in evangelism, this is about us being harvesters! The Lord is saying that He has sent us to harvest that for which we did not sow! (John 4:38)
This is happening all at the same time the Lord has provided us a house closer to the kids school that will free up perhaps another 20 hours per week because of transporting kids. 20 extra hours of harvesting? Yes, please. But also there is something else that is amazing, for almost the same monthly rent we are getting nearly 2.5 times the space. We can host the teams in our home! More time for harvesting and a place to put more harvesters.
This will free up even more of our time and allow us to serve as overflow for teams coming into the city. It allows us to share the vision with more and more and more people. These people are coming from all over the world and so this already is serving to impact the nations by us being obedient right where we are.
This week we will begin moving into the new place. The Lord has opened doors for us to move already BUT we still have some critical needs. We have a deposit that is needed equal to 3 times the monthly rent. We also need to fill the heating oil tank and at the same time take care of our annual health insurance payment. So far, through your generous support we have seen the Lord provide$3,100 bringing our needed total down to about $8,000 left. We know that the Lord will provide and we ask that you would join us in praying that this amount is released.
But more importantly we ask that you would join us in further understanding what God is really doing in this city and that we would be able to see it more clearly and realize what He has called us to.
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We believe that the Lord does everything for His own glory. When He acts, He intends for His deeds and magnificence to be made known.
Today we took the team out to a place that is known for open drug abuse. We went with virtually no agenda other than to seek the Lord in the darkest of places.
When we arrived to area where many of the nefarious activities occur, we found it to be more crowded than normal. We sat down and simply began to worship the Lord in song and wait on Him.
The bible says, "None who wait on the Lord will be put to shame." As He promised in His word, He showed up in such wonderful ways.
There were a few people we began to speak with who allowed us to minister to them. One man named Michael, saw his knee healed and even though he professed faith in God he was genuinely surprised that his knee was significantly better. Then a lady named Danielle approached and received prayer and ministry from some of the young ladies on the team.
After a while, there was a Palestinian man who had a tumor on his knee who asked for prayer. Before we could finish, one of the guys (Mustafa, also Palestinian) who was doing a lot of the dealing, jumped in and asked for prayer to set him free from Heroin. Some of the people standing around tried to say that Jesus does not care about Muslims, but we were able to both explain and demonstrate that, in fact, Jesus love Muslims as well.
Soon one of the young men who had fled to Germany from Syria saw what was happening and began to join us in praying for his friends in Jesus' name!! It was a wonderful site!
The rest of the afternoon was really just amazing. The entire mood changed and Mustafa was dancing with the music (the man in the Star Wars shirt). Danielle commented that she had been going to this place for well over 4 years and she had never seen people play Ping Pong on the table that was there.
It was an amazing time and we are looking forward to spending more time with these people teaching them what it looks like to follow Jesus. He is worthy!
As I sit here in our home in Berlin, I am somewhat overwhelmed with the task at hand. The task of sharing with you all that the LORD is doing, has done, and what we believe will do. Part of me wonders if you want to know. If you want to hear. Part of me wonders how clearly I can articulate through written/typed words all that the Lord is doing. Then I brush those thoughts aside and remember that I am told to proclaim the goodness of the Lord, and so I will do so as often as I can...dismissing the silly thoughts that you might not want to hear of His ways.
We moved here just under one year ago. The thought of that really takes my breath away and causes my brain to swirl in the whirlwind that has been this past year. The past three years, really. When we moved here, we were like horses at the starting gate. Ready, eager, prepared, skilled to bust out and "run" the race set before us. And, for the most part, we did. The race is exhilarating when you are a Thoroughbred. Ridiculous if you are a an Arabian horse. In this area, we felt well equipped, vastly trained, and just ready. We are so very thankful for the plan the Lord had for our family to get us here. We do believe it made all the difference for a smooth transition to a new land, a new language, a new people. Never executing the run perfectly, but trusting in our identity being in Jesus alone. Not doing this singlehandedly, but with the Lord guiding us each step, each day, sometimes through each breath...
Another area of growth in our family has been that of hearing the voice of God. Tuning in to what the Spirit has for us each day and acting upon what we hear. This is an area that seemed grey before, but now is becoming clearer and clearer to each one in our family.
Our housing situation can be described as "only of the Lord". He led us to the home we currently live in. We got to meet and become friends with the previous family that lived in this home. We feel blessed beyond measure at the provision He has constantly set before us.
About mid fall of this past year (2014) as a family we began praying for a place closer to the school. Without going into much detail, transportation/travel time is an issue for us. It just is. Our ministry is all over this grand city/state and it can be quite the challenge to arrange meetings and such throughout the city during the week. Without boring you with details of our schedule, it's just plain crazy at times! And super draining. For example; Emma, Jacob, and Ben all three get out of school at different times. Yea.
If you follow us on social media, you know that we have had friends and family come and visit. These dear ones have entered into our lives here and have walked where we walk, and seen the way we live. Upon seeing, they have all agreed to a need and desire, of our hearts. And that is to be closer to the kids' school....for SO many different reasons. My sister in law even expressed after leaving that she and my brother in law were so "burdened" for us due to the travel schedule. This was needed confirmation in our hearts to press in to the Lord and see if He would move us.
There is a website here much like realtor.com in the States. We used it before we made the move, and have occasionally glanced at it afterward for fun. After praying, we proceeded to view two ideal homes that were near the school. Things are WAY different here in Berlin, and I don't know how to fully explain the difference except to say that they are not afraid to discriminate. There may be laws against it, but from what we have seen there are not. Anyway, suffice it to say, we did not get "chosen" for these homes. We shared this information with our friends and family that had been praying alongside us, and we pressed on.
One day I received an email from a realtor that I had never contacted. She used my name and knew my "profile". I am guessing when I first started using the site, I entered in some information about what we were looking for. She gave me the address of a house and thought our family should go look at it. When I looked up the address, I found that it was very near the school. Being trigger-shy, (is that a Texas saying?? Would people here understand the opposite of "trigger-happy"?? I digress...) because of the not being chosen for the others homes, I was hesitant to mention it to David. So I prayed. I felt an urgency in my heart to tell David and ask if he wanted to see the home before we picked the kids up from school. He said, "Of course!". Looking at Google Maps the home was a 7 minute drive and a 10 minute bike ride to the kids' school. THIS is HUGE for our family! Really, that distance seemed too good to be true.
We drove out and our first impression was, "Whoa." You need some vision when you look at this place. But, guess what? One of my FAVORITE shows happens to be "Fixer Upper", so I knew what vision looked like! Yay, HGTV and Chip and Joanna Gaines!
Peeking into the windows of this vacant home, our talk began to get a little hushed and excited as we thought this might actually be a good place for us. Then we heard a voice behind us boom something in German...and I will admit, I felt like a child caught INSIDE an abandoned home trespassing...people, it scared me! But, the man switched to English when we replied in English and all was well. He proceeded to tell us that this home belongs to his sister and that his bother is taking care of the rental issues. "Do you want to go in?", he asked. We did, but we were so cautious because it looked big and we really knew nothing about the rent or anything else for that matter.
We looked around inside, and the "vision" needed when looking at a fixer-upper began in both my mind and in David's. It is the perfect home for what we are here for. We asked some questions and after finding out that it is 500 Euros more a month than what we are currently paying, told the landlord that we couldn't afford it. "Oh, we can negotiate that price." Hmmm, 500 euros less a month? We would have to pray and find out.
We brought the kids out later that day to pray over the house and see if they had any impressions from the Lord. They loved it and we got a unanimous "YES!" from all three. As luck would have it, wait...do we believe in luck?? As the Lord saw fit, the lady across the street saw us and asked if we were the new tenants. We told her we were looking into it, but didn't know yet. She was so very pleasant and told us that we should go and visit with the family that lived there before. They bought a house down the street and would "love to meet you and talk with you."
Y'all, there are times I feel like I am on Candid Camera or something. This was one of those times! This WHOLE experience is so surreal to us!
So our little American family of five walked down the dirt sidewalk to the home of the family who previously lived in the house that we were interested in.
Can I just say that God is amazing in the way that He lays out each stepping stone if we will just get up and walk?
We turn the corner, and find the home of the family. They are the sweetest German couple and invite us into their garten right away. (Backyards are called "gartens" here.) We asked questions about the home and they were so very awesome to teach us some things that we just would never know otherwise not being from this country. They also told us that if we moved in, that we could come to them at any time with questions and such. They also proceeded to tell us that they paid 500 Euros less a month than what the landlord was asking.
Wait, what?
So, David asked if we should try to negotiate that monthly rental price. They both said, "Absolutely."
One other thing to note is that in Europe it is very common to move into a home/apartment that has a completely empty kitchen. Like, just walls and tile. I think they are required to have a stove and a sink, but other than that...empty.
We purchased our fitted kitchen from the family that lived here before us. We have also been blessed with a large-for-Europe kitchen. This presented some concern when thinking about the house. The house has a very tiny kitchen. For comparison, the closet in our master bedroom in Texas is bigger than the kitchen in this home.
We sat with the landlord, and. boldly asked him to come down on the monthly rent. Here's the deal, if this was from the Lord, there was nothing that could thwart His plans. We decided to takes steps of faith and really walk in what we knew the Lord was placing before us. The man agreed to lowering the rent. Which is a HUGE praise! We have talked with many other people who have lived here for years and they were astonished that; number one, we asked. And number two, he agreed. The Lord is so good!
Back to the kitchen situation.
There is a small room that shares a wall with the kitchen. The room is kind of misplaced, as it isn't quite a bedroom and not quite big enough for a dining room.
Remember I love the show "Fixer-Upper"? Can you see where I am going with this? I told David we need to ask this guy to bust out that wall. I seriously think David must have thought I was INSANE at this moment! We "talked" for a bit about it. Brought our friend, Rob, into the discussion. Which was definitely in my favor since Rob is an architectural major. We all went out to show Rob the kitchen and the walls and all, and he agreed it made sense if the wall I was wanting removed wasn't a load bearing wall.
So, my brave husband asked the landlord if he would actually consider taking out a wall and enlarging the kitchen...and he said, ever so nonchalantly, "That sounds like a great idea. I will see if we can get a contractor out there to see if it can be done."
Another stepping stone that we gladly placed our feet upon.
The landlord also agreed to pay to have our current kitchen moved from our apartment and installed into this home.
Friends, we can't make this stuff up! The Lord is always Provider! Always!
Some heavy things have been happening in our local body in Texas. Aware of that, but also aware of our desire to sit under the great leadership of The Village Church, we presented this opportunity to our elders and pastors. We asked for them to pray with us and over us and to share anything that they got from the Lord. We always want to live openly, and always want to be ready for feedback even if it is not exactly what we want to hear. We trust our pastors and elders and safely sit under their leadership in this part of our lives. Their response to us was to "Go for it!" which was an affirming delight to hear.
Which leads me to the whole reason I am sharing this with you. We do not bring every need public. We first take it to the Lord. Most of the time, He provides without us ever having to open our mouths to friends and family in an effort to share a need.
We have been living for almost one year on $800 LESS a MONTH than what we were advised to live on. God has proven Faithful Provider every single day and we have grown in our trust in this characteristic of His.
There are times when we hear Him saying to us, "Invite others in." THIS is an area where we are still growing. That can be so hard. So humbling. So, scary. But, we trust Him and trust His leading well over our own.
So, we are inviting y'all in. It will take some financial efforts to get us from this apartment to the new home. Humbly, we admit that we don't have that. There is also a deposit to pay, and set up fees for internet/electricity/water/oil, etc. This ALSO falls upon our one year renewal time for health insurance.
It would be best for our family and the teams visiting this summer for us to get everything moved and settled by the end of June/beginning of July.
All that to say, we are humbly inviting our friends and family along on the journey that the LORD is laying before us. He has been with us every single step of the way. You all have played such an enormous part in being His hands and feet in providing for our family. Our request is that you ask of Him, "Lord, would you have me/us be a part of this adventure You have the Campbells on? And if so, what would You have me to do?" We are so very eager to have y'all along! Our God has done some spectacular things when we have all joined together! All over the GLOBE! We really do sit in anticipation as we wonder, "God, what will You do in this time?? And, don't let us miss one single bit of it!"
We love you guys. We bless you, in Jesus' name. We are indescribably thankful for all that you have already sacrificed for the Lord's work here. We sit in eager anticipation as we wait upon the Lord in this. If you have ANY questions at all, we totally want you to contact us. There is always an open door with us. If you would like to make a financial contribution to this effort, simply click this link.
Be blessed as you seek Him.
“ Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “ O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “ Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “ Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘ Move from here to there, ’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:15-20
I am not sure if you are like me or not, but there are times when I pray for something and NOTHING seems to happen. It is frustrating and discouraging many times. Our family has seen amazing answers to prayer. So many, in fact, that when we sit and think about it - being tempted to disbelieve that God is going to come through for us is a bit irrational.
And yet, sometimes we pray and nothing seems to happen.
The Lord has taken me (David) on quite the journey in the past few years. I used to think that praying for anyone or anything and seeing something happen right away was not the norm. The Lord has graciously changed that level of thinking. So much in fact, that when I do pray for someone or about something and nothing happens, it drives me to the Lord for instruction, encouragement, or whatever else I need. I am fully convinced that expecting answers to our prayers should be the norm.
As believers we love to share the great things that God does. This is part of giving God glory. When He does something awesome, then the world needs to hear about it! To not tell others of His amazing deeds is to steal His glory from Him. In like wise manner, we feel that constantly beating the drum of the darkness and wickedness all around us, constantly proclaiming what the enemy is doing, is giving glory to the Evil One, of which he deserves no glory at all. He is a thief and a liar. A thief of glory and forever lying about it.
However, the honest truth is that some things we pray for appear to see no answer.
About a month ago, dear friends from Canada had come to visit and we were discussing the topic of believers praying and seemingly nothing happening. It was then that they began to explain to me the statement that Jesus made in Matthew 17. Let me try to lay it out:
Jesus had sent his disciples out to preach, heal, and deliver those who were oppressed. Yet in their exploits they came across a young man on whom their prayers had little effect. Jesus said it was because of their "little faith" and then told them that if they had the faith of a mustard seed they would be able to say to this mountain be moved from here to there and nothing will be impossible to them.
I had always heard this as a rebuke from Jesus about the amount of their faith. Yet our friends explained to us that in this region of the world it was known that Mustard seeds could be planted virtually anywhere. These seeds were tiny and yet given enough time they would always grow -- even through a mountain. Given enough time this little, tiny seed would persevere even through the face of solid rock. This life would "find a way."
Suddenly the light came on! You know, as in when the Lord speaks a truth or revelation to your heart and you feel the literal life come into your body?
What if the Lord was telling me....you haven't failed in prayer, you merely gave up too soon?
Today, Lord, I will not despise the day of small things (Zech 4:10) and I ask you to release in me an overcoming spirit that I might, in all things, endure through to victory.**
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We are excited to have a team from Brisbane, Australia coming to Berlin. We are grateful that we get, for a time, more workers for the work here in Berlin. However, we are also praying that this time will be one of significant growth and blessing for the team. Our prayer is that when their time is done in Berlin they will collectively say, "surely God was in this place!"
Here are a few additional prayer requests:
Our time continues to be a significant challenge due to the school schedules of our kids. Juggling the logistics of making sure our kids are taken care of with ministry demands is an area that we could use a lot of prayer.
We are continuing to do what God has called us to do in this city while trying to build bridges between various churches and ministries. We have seen the Lord do a lot in the area of churches and ministries working together, but we believe that the Lord is wanting to see much more in terms of unified efforts.
For me, personally (David), I am sensing the Lord prompting me to take even bigger steps of faith and boldness in what we do. Specifically in the areas of Evangelism and Discipleship. The last few weeks have been pretty stretching for me as I have come to realize that settling into routine and comfort is not where He has called me. (I did not know I could fall into a routine with evangelism and discipleship, but there it was!)
I know we say it every time, but there is so much to do in this city that we really must be consistently praying for more workers for the harvest. It is a command of Jesus and it is a desperate need for all involved. We are asking for men, women, and families who are so hungry to see the Kingdom of God come and to see the fires of revival spread through out the city and the whole world. Will you join us in diligently asking for God to set people on fire and send them to us or raise up people here who are set on fire by God?
Please pray for us as we have many other exciting things on the horizon that God is doing. We are excited to share soon!
We love you guys and thank you so much for your continued support of us and this ministry.
We had a wonderful week working with a team from London. This was just a wonderful group of Godly brothers and sisters and it was such a pleasure to get to serve alongside them. The goal was to teach in the mornings the practical aspects of evangelism and discipleship and really being a doer of the word and just a hearer.
In Luke 10 we see that Jesus commands both the proclamation of the gospel but also that we should heal the sick. We do not get to play fast and loose with the text, if He says do it then that is what we have to do. We cannot pick and choose what we obey.....even if it seems impossible. I want to get to a child like faith where I obey simply because He says it and not because I understand it. So here are some of the accounts from the week.
On one day, a man was prayed for and as he cried out that "the Devil was leaving him!" The man sitting next to him either began to manifest or else panicked at what he could not explain. Needless to say it was a very tense 20-30 minute time period. It did not go like I had thought or hoped. I think sometimes it will happen that things get a little dicey in ministry. I think this one was due to several mistakes on my part.
We saw a man from Turkey who had been subjected to a lot of trauma and stress tell us that since his trauma he has experience a lot of voices and noise in his head. Beforehand he has believed that Jesus was a great man and a revered prophet. Yet suddenly he saw Jesus as an ever present help in the time of need. Jesus made the voice be silent.
We saw another man from Turkey want to spend time arguing about which prophet is greater. our goal was not to slander or speak evil of anyone, we simply believe that Jesus is alive and active and cares about his needs. He was having tooth pain and the pain went away. I cannot say that he is now an active follower of Jesus but he no longer felt inclined to argue about anything. He was really a very very kind man and we enjoyed speaking with him a lot.
Perhaps the highlight of the week was a group of high school kids who felt the need to mock and make fun of a group of believers doing an evangelistic street drama. They did not believe that Jesus was alive or relevant for today. I asked if it would be ok if I demonstrated His presence. I shared with them my personal testimony and then told them that if they were willing Jesus would heal anyone here with pain or sickness. A young man said, "if he can do it I have had pain in my knees for a long long time." I told them I wanted to show them that it was not me or anyone special but that it was Jesus who heals. I asked if anyone in the crowd believed that Jesus was not real. One boy raised his hand quickly. I told him, "You will pray for your friend and then you will need to deal with who Jesus is." He made a pretty good joke of it until Jesus used him to heal his friend's knees (we walked him through how to pray in Jesus' name). (If this seems strange Jesus said in Matthew 7:22 that you do not even need to be a believer to perform miracles in Jesus' name, also miracles are absolutely no indication of anything of your standing with God) The boy formerly with knee pain said he had no more pain. One of the girls spoke up and said it was only because he was not moving around. We asked him to move around and he began walking and saying there is no pain. It was at this point the group decided to leave. However, three young men came back and we had wonderful conversations about Jesus. My friend, Brian prayed with one of the boys to receive Jesus. Another of the young men seemed to be genuinely interested and is seeming to be on a new journey.
Thank you all for the love and support . There is certainly something happening here in Berlin. If you are inclined to come and be a part of it, please come. The harvest is truly plentiful but the laborers are few.
This week I met with a man who takes supplies and aid into a very difficult country (not Germany). The underground church in this country is thriving, yet completely isolated from the rest of the world. His heart has always been to communicate somehow with these believers that they are not forgotten, but rather they are loved and prayed for.
So when they go in to the country they wear a cross on a necklace around their neck.
One day, one of the aid workers was getting into an elevator and just before the door closed an old lady jumps through the door, grabs the cross on his neck, brings it to her lips, and kisses the cross. The elevator then arrived at the floor, the lady got off, and was gone.
No other words, no other interaction.
I have reflected a lot on this story this week. I have often wondered why the underground church in that country thrives so much. I believe the difference, perhaps, was prophetically proclaimed to us through the action of this old lady. They willingly and joyfully kiss the cross.
The cross was a torture and death instrument. It was not originally a thing of jewelry. To kiss the cross means that we embrace death and torture and do not try to get around it.
But we do not kiss the cross because we think that there is somehow a twisted joy in pain and suffering and death. That is perverted. We kiss the cross because know that on the other side there is a joy and peace and blessing that far exceeds any suffering and death that this life has to offer. It is a different suffering than just going through the struggles of every day life. I have heard many equate the difficulties of life with "carrying our cross." Being sick is not carrying our cross, that is a result of living in a broken fallen world. Being sick and with every breath pointing others to the Savior, is definitely suffering for HIm. Having malaria because you take the gospel into places where it does not exist, is kissing the cross. Someone being rude to you at work is not suffering for your faith. Someone doing evil to you BECAUSE of your witness for Jesus is. Are you seeing the difference? Just embracing bad stuff that happens to us is not good theology of suffering. Embracing suffering because of our witness is. Taking the trials that you have been given and using them as an opportunity to speak of Jesus is suffering for the sake of the gospel.
The people in the country previously referred to could see much of their suffering go away - if they gave up their stance on Jesus. But He is too precious to them.
We have, as our example and our leader, the One who perfectly modeled Kissing The Cross - today I resolve to fix my eyes firmly on Him - Jesus.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Hebrews 12:1-4
Facebook.
Twitter.
Instagram.
Chances are, when you read those words, a thought popped into your mind. Was it a good thought? Was it a frustrated thought?
I was asked to write a bit about how social media can be a tool of the enemy, or a tool used for God's glory.
I am not a professional writer, and I do not have a degree in social media. I do have my own experience and the experiences that others so graciously shared with me. I will attempt to help you understand if you might be using Facebook, or the like, to foster sin, or to bring glory to the LORD.
Our family is in a unique situation. We are currently living in Germany and have been here for going on eight months. Back in Texas we were very involved in The Village Church and most of our family members lived in the same area that we did. Now, we are missionaries living on 100% support from family and friends back home. That said, social media has been a huge blessing to our family. It has kept us in almost daily contact with family, supporters, and friends in Texas as well as all over the world.
The LORD has entrusted the gift of encouragement to me. I love this gift and really want to treat it well. I feel revived and joy-filled when I am allowing the Spirit to encourage others through me. I will admit that before we moved, I really wondered how I would be able to continue using this gift while being so far away from those who actually know me and have done life with me for many years. I will also admit that before we left I believed lies from the enemy that my time for encouragement was over and that gift was being taken away from me... along with all the other "material" possessions I had. You know, when you are moving to a new country, particularly for Kingdom work, the enemy will try everything he can to get you down. To steal your joy and replace it with discouragement.
Thankfully, I have been trained in recognizing the voice of the enemy versus the voice of the LORD. I don't always "get it right". But since being trained, the Lord has been gracious to allow me to continue growing in this area. Part of the fruit of the growth is a fierce response to the enemy's lies. What does that mean? It means when the thought-caster (that is satan) sends something my way for the purpose of stealing, killing, or destroying something in me, I must and will take action.
This is what I did with social media, specifically Facebook.
I do not believe the Lord had plans to take the gift of encouragement from me when He called us to Berlin. No. In fact, I believe His plans were to grow this gift in me and I am so thankful for the opportunities He has given.
One of the things I love about Facebook is that it is a place for me to daily keep in touch with people I ALREADY had a relationship/friendship with. One of the ways that I am made in God's image is that I am relational. I love people. This was also one of the things I feared when we planned to move here. I was afraid that I would be alone and I couldn't grasp not having my friends here. I couldn't think of not being in daily/weekly contact with family members. In His grace and provision, I have dear friends here and I am able to have real conversations with friends and family members through social media. These are not "fake" relationships, but relationships that were deep before we left, and ones that are full of intention and commitment.
Another way that Facebook has been a blessing is meeting people I didn't know. Before our class began training in Kona, classmates from all over the world introduced themselves in a private group on Facebook. We were able to pray for each other and encourage each other in a scary and unknown time before we had actually met in person. All of us were leaving our homes, family, friends, careers, and more in search of that "something more" that God might have for us. We had a lot in common and were able to empathize with each other before we met. There have been countless times here in Berlin when I have "met" someone on Facebook before actually having the pleasure of meeting them face to face. And I think that is key here;
My goal was, and never has been, to hide behind a screen.
It is a tool that can be used for Kingdom purposes and...I believe that any tool that can be used in this way threatens the enemy. He will try whatever he can to steal, kill, and destroy...
I recently asked via Facebook for some experiences or stories of ways that FB has been used as a tool by the enemy.
Sadly, I heard some devastating stories. I heard of marriages ending. Of friendships being destroyed. Anger and resentment taking over homes. Bitterness and jealousy sweeping through friendships. Disdain for family members and friends.
I heard friends confess that they "purposefully do not 'like'" a post made by someone who is "bothering" them. Others confessed that they "roll their eyes" when they see a post by a certain friend. I heard of friends posting things will the full intent of being passive aggressive toward someone else.
It is a common thing to "take a break" from Facebook when you feel that it is overtaking your mind in a negative way.
"I hate facebook."
"Facebook ends marriages."
"Everyone on FB is fake."
"There is no way that person is who he/she says they are on FB."
"So and so only posts the good things going on in their life like there is nothing bad or horrible that ever happens."
The list goes on, my friends.
Can I say something? Is social media really the problem? I mean, I know you know it isn't...but if it isn't, then why are so many still stuck in the muck and the mire?
What is it in you that causes you to roll your eyes when you see a post by someone? What is it in you that gets a bit of power and delight by liking all comments except the one made by that person? What is it that makes you think, "What can I post on FB to 'get' to so and so without them really knowing what I am doing?" What is it that causes anger and resentment and bitterness to take root when you are sitting at your computer supposedly catching up with everyone?
Could it be that FB really isn't from the devil, but that there is some sin in your life that God is graciously revealing to you through Facebook?
Let's get real for a moment and let that question sink in a bit.
The Father disciplines those whom He loves. When sin is brought to light, it is a good thing. When it is defeated, it is an awesome thing! Taking a break from FB or other social media outlets is a good and right thing if it is causing you to sin. BUT, it is important to not sin further and blame Facebook or those on FB for your "issues". Is that making sense?
Are y'all still my friend? :)
Maybe it is a good time to repent of the way that we think of social media. Repent here being defined as "completely changing the way that we think". Will others still use it as a tool of the enemy? Yep. Should followers of Jesus? I just don't think so. I think if followers of Jesus all over the world would put to death sin that He could be revealing to us through social media ...we would actually be freed up to use this tool for expansive Kingdom work! Can you catch a bit of that vision??
In parenting and giving examples of choices my kiddos could make, we didn't give the positive first...we left the "good choice" for last. :) Same here. Along with the negative and heartbreaking stories that were sent in regarding social media, I got some pretty amazing ones as well. I would love to share them with you!
*An amazing friend had t-shirts made to sell as a way to financially support our family. Through these shirts being pictured on fb, a pastor's wife in the US contacted me about a young man here in Berlin who had heard of Jesus and wanted more information. What?!?! Awesome. This story is still unfolding...;
*Another gifted friend started hand lettering Scripture and is selling them to financially support our family. Through finding these prints on social media, a couple who needed community joined their homegroup!
*One precious friend had taken a break from FB and upon coming back found out that a friend had cancer and that a family member had been in a horrible accident. This friend saw a renewed vision of how to lift up brothers and sisters in prayer through FB.
*Many friends mentioned being able to keep up with friends living all over the world.
*Raising money and awareness to support families in need.
*Many told stories of encouragement when they were going through a hard time.
*One friend spoke of the blessing to far away family members. Through FB she is able to post photos of her children so that grandparents and other family living in other states can see what is going on and feel connected.
*A friend shared about a tragic event that happened in her home and she needed to be with her mother in the hospital. They had just moved and had not joined a new Homegroup yet. This mom posted her needs on FB and church body quickly volunteered to help her out and make sure her young children were well cared for as she was able to tend to her mother in the hospital.
*Countless thousands of dollars raised for adoptions, medical bills, missions, ministries, etc.
*Support groups for so very many precious people; adoption/foster families, YoungLife teen pregnancy families, Homeschool communities, Clean Eating communities, Bible study communities, etc.
A few personal experiences:
*Facebook is the way that our family learned of the Adams family when they went into labor with their twins at 19weeks. Not just reading this information, we left our home and went up to the hospital to pray over this family. When words were hard to come by, we could only offer the ministry of presence.
*Through our experience with the Adams family, we started ministering in this way. When we would see on FB that someone had been in an accident, that a child or family member was being taken to the hospital...we packed our kids up and headed to the hospital. I know some might frown upon this, but the LORD blessed every single one of these situations. Every one of them. No one turned us away and afterward all of them thanked us. Did we know all of these people? No. Was it uncomfortable at times? Yes. Was God glorified? I believe He was!
*Every Thursday I would post a photo of our family serving the homeless ministry in Fort Worth. One week I asked via FB if anyone would like to join our family for an outreach night. Y'all, over 150 people responded! About 50 couldn't make it last minute, but we had 100 eager volunteers out on the streets of Fort Worth praying for and feeding the homeless. It.Was.Awesome.
I think you can easily conclude that social media can be a tool used by the enemy or a tool used for God's glory. Is it okay to get off Facebook if it is a means for sin to rise up and become a stronghold? Yes! But, I encourage you to not stop there. If you get off FB or any other social media for this purpose, take the steps needed to find true freedom from that which caused the frustration, anger, pride, bitterness, jealousy, disdain, etc. Don't allow the enemy to continue to be sneaky in what he makes you think is the problem. "If I just get off facebook I won't have to deal with feelings of ________." Deal with those feelings at their core. Then, with an unoffendable heart, you will be able to step into situations with new eyes.
I hope that this post is read in the love that it is written in. I have prayed over these words. Asked the LORD to silence those which do not bring Him glory and to highlight those which do. He is all. He truly is. His view of you, His love for you, His delight in you, His saving you, His healing you, His plan of hope for you, His great desire for your good...He loves you so, so much.
My heart is to encourage. One of my greatest joys comes from people realizing who they really are in Christ. I have a confidence that these words are for some of you that long to be freed from a stronghold. These ideas are meant for someone who is holding on to a false belief and because of this grasp, unable to live out their God-given purpose. That God can and will use this means of social media to bless His children and bring glory to His name!
Peace and Joy to each one of you.
----Keri Campbell
*I am fully aware that social media can be very dangerous. I want to express condolences and love toward those who have been deeply hurt by others using social media incorrectly. Highlighting, once again, that it is sin and not the means that is the problem.
I am not a writer by nature. Like, sitting down to write is not really a way for me to "express myself". That is actually the reason why I do it.
See, writing is for me what speaking to Pharaoh was to Moses. Well, okay maybe not exactly like that. I don't really think the ruler of any nation sits and reads my blog posts. In fact, the thought of that actually makes me laugh.
But, it is a chance for me to sit back and let God say what He wants. I love Him and love to be used by Him.
So, I am sitting at my desk in Berlin, Germany at 9:30 pm on a Thursday night. Our children have been sick all week and to be honest, I have felt blah all week too. I have felt blah for about two weeks.
I shared with David the other day that the LORD had revealed to me that there was some sort of curse spoken over me. Now, before we lose you as a reader or you think I am weird or voodoo-ish, please let me explain.
Our words are not neutral. They are not. They are either words of life or words of death. They are words that speak blessing over people or words that speak death over people.
When I was sitting in my journaling time with the Lord, I was sad and down. I couldn't put my finger on why and I needed a word from Him. I needed some encouragement from the Encourager. I needed some comfort from the Comforter. I trust Him and I am thankful that He longs to teach me.
I felt Him gently say that someone had spoken words of death over me to someone else. That can seem like a scary statement, but knowing it really set me free. Like, really set me free. Jesus has taught me how to break these things and how to find freedom from them. I was able to bless the one who spoke these things, although it was not revealed to me who said them. I was able to speak life over them and I trust that the Holy Spirit honored my request of blessing as He really longs to bless.
Then it got me to thinking. How often is it that we just flippantly say something about someone else? Knowing that our words are not neutral, how often during the day are we speaking words of death over people and not even realizing it? Maybe not physical death, but chipping away at someone's character by slipping in a few digs here and there. Planting seeds in other people's minds concerning the intent of others. How often do we first go to a friend, acquaintance, family member who has kinda hurt us to seek reconciliation...I say "first" because it seems the more common thing is to go to another friend or family member and "get it off your chest" that way.
Friends, our words are powerful. Believer, this world we are living in is truly a spiritual battlefield. There is nothing the enemy wants more than to steal from me, kill me and destroy me. Words have a lot of power in that area. Our Savior had many names and the Word was one of them. i think that is significant! How are we fighting the spiritual realm with our words? Do we speak words of life over each other? Do we speak words of life about our friends and family members in our homes, behind closed doors with our spouses? I know the enemy wants me to believe that this is silly and childish. I know he wants us to believe that our words really are not that powerful. I know that because he is the author of lies and he goes against what the bible says. The bible says that our words have power. The power of life and of death.
I think this is an important topic to bring up. Not because I am an expert in writing on important topics, but because I sat down to write with nothing on my mind...and this is what the Lord directed me to say. I believe it is important to Him and to His heart.
I want my mouth to speak nothing but words of life and blessing to all who hear. I want to constantly be aware of the state of my heart knowing out of the overflow of my heart my mouth will speak. I want my children to hear me speaking words of life and blessing over each of them. Setting this standard in our home, we do not want our children to get comfortable speaking words of death over each other...we don't want them to have to "unlearn" this later in life. May it always be what they know to do. That they know to speak blessing and life over those around them, and that they recognize when curses or death have been spoken over them or around them. Then, that they fight with sweet words of love and blessing.
How hard it is to learn that art of blessing those who wound us with our words. But, how very much like Jesus it is to do so.
Jesus is our example. His heart was always pure and therefore, so were His words. We can ask Him for the ability to speak the way He spoke. We can trust that if the word of God tells us that we have the power of life and death in our tongue, that when we ask for wisdom in taming that tongue He will bless us with the power of the Spirit to do so. This life, this vapor of life that we have here on earth, is much too fleeting to waste on useless, hurtful, curses of words. Free your heart up to bless those around you. Forgive...with your mouth, those who have hurt you. Speaking forgiveness over and to someone is one of the most life-giving things! Allow the Spirit to use you in ways today that you never even imagined you could be used. Open your mouth with blessing and honor, Praise the LORD with that mouth and breath He gave you! Proclaim His glory in the street, at Target, on the playground, at Starbucks. Tell someone today about how you used to be stuck in chains of fear but Jesus in His goodness set you free! TELL your story of how you were before you met Jesus and then how He changed your life forever. Use your words today to speak life. Speak love. Speak forgiveness. Speak peace. Speak joy. Speak of the One who is all of these things and more.
We love you all so much. We are thankful for each one of you. Seriously, each one of you. You are all significant and dear. You are all important in our lives and in this journey He has us on. Thank you for your willing hearts to love us forward. To help encourage us to keep on keeping on. It is of value and a true desire of our hearts. Thank you.
May His blessing of life abound...
Moving to a different continent with three children can have a lot of challenges. For the most part, the challenges have been fun as they push us to trust our Lord more and trust ourselves less. And, yes, it has taken a bit of a journey for me to consider the more of Him and less of me to be "fun".
But, "trust Him more and trust ourselves less"...Yea, that's not too popular in today's society.
I have come to the point in my walk with Jesus where I know that He is always right. His ways are always best. He is always faithful. He is provider. He is good. He knows what I am going through. He hears my prayers. He answers my prayers. He loves me. He cares about even the little things that are bothering me. He is my true comfort. He will never leave me. He does have a plan for me and it is a good, prosperous plan.
Do I ALWAYS remember these truths? Nope. I am prone to wander. I tend to fall. I often accidentally take the wrong path in the following Him. Usually, it is because I am not following but leading...and, good night, hopefully one day I will learn that I was not meant to lead my Savior!
BUT, the Lord in His sweet grace has taught me the above truths in one way or another.
In our challenges we coukd cry out, "God, what are you doing??!!" But the truth is, whatever He is doing in my life is so that His works, the works of God, might be displayed in me.
If my focus is inward, I will be discouraged and frustrated. If my focus is on my Savior, I can release whatever fears, anxieties, anger, bitterness, resentment, etc knowing that I will not be glorified in this situation...and reader, that is OKAY. God is the One who gets the glory and I am, and need to be, okay with that.
I have spent far too many minutes being a glory-thief.
See, too often I look at a challenging situation and wonder what others might think of me. Sometimes it isn't as clearly thought out as that, but my thoughts and actions prove that I am concerned with how others might view my reactions, success, and even my failures.
But, the truth is, I am where I am so that I may seek God. Paul tells me this in Acts 17. I am where I am so that I may seek God.
If a challenging situation comes my way, do I seek God? Or do I question Him and whine about how unfair it is that this was my chosen lot in life? See, I don't want to make this life about me. It's not why I was created. I want, in every situation, to make it about HIM. THAT is why I was created.
I have three children and there was a time in parenting where I constantly felt like the "No-Mom". I mean constantly! You know that stage between maybe age one year and 12 years where the child seems to just not know what is best for them? (Yes, I stretched that out to 12 years because I just realized it does in fact still happen!) They pick up tools that are not toys and play with them, not knowing the harm this can cause them. Sometimes, when they were really little, they didn't even play with the item...they simply picked it up and held it. As a good mom, knowing what is best for my children, I would take this item away from them.
What have you "picked up" that maybe you shouldn't? And, has God taken something from your hands or asked you to hand it over knowing it is best for you? Does your response to His request or His taking leave you more like the 15month old child or the 12 year old pre-teen? Or does your response to your loving and all-knowing Father resemble that of Jesus, "...not my will, but Yours be done."
I titled this post "You Were Made to Thrive" and you were. Do you believe it? Do you believe that you are thriving in this life? Maybe the word "thrive" is not in your everyday language and you miss the point of the question. So, I will word it like this; Do you feel like you are growing vigorously? Do you feel like you are advancing? Do you feel like you are succeeding? Do you feel like you are flourishing?
Or do you feel like you are just trying to survive?
Jesus said He came so that we may have life and have it abundantly. He added the abundantly part and I am thankful for that! He could have left it off, but He didn't. Because we were not just made to survive. We were made to thrive! (Thank you, Casting Crowns, for this amazing song!)
I propose that if we are just surviving, there are some things that we might have picked up that we need to give back to the Lord or just simply put down. Because He knows what is best in order for us to actually live. For us to not get hurt or hurt someone else. What might they be? Oh, I don't know what your "things" might be, but here are some commons things: fear, control, comfort, divorce, death, bitterness, offenses, your house, your job, security, that boyfriend that didn't choose you, anything that you "need" everyday, the size that you wish you were, you get my point.
Perhaps today is the day that you put some stuff down. That you lay aside offenses because, gosh darn it, they just don't push you toward the abundant life that Jesus purchased for you on the cross. If you don't know what you are holding that you shouldn't, ask. Ask Him, and I am sure you will hear what they are.
Be blessed, dear friends. Be encouraged. You are such a delight to our Father! You are so very loved and He wants the absolute best for you!!
Please enjoy this great song:
Guess what??!! The Campbell Family has made it here in Berlin, Germany for SIX MONTHS!! Woohoo!!! At times, it seems that we have only been here about two months or so. Then we start to think of all the loved ones that we miss and it seems like an eternity!!
We want to give a 6month update, but only to the glory of God. We do not want to sing our praises or dwell on things that do not point to Him. So that being said, here we goooooo!
During the past six months the LORD has allowed our family to trust Him in so many new ways! He is so good and so faithful!! He has trusted us in situations and with people that He loves so very much. We have died a little more to self everyday and in that, He has poured out His great love on the people of this city and started a great work in many lives!! Praise His name!!
We have settled into our home, by the grace of God! We have all that we need and much that we don't need. In His great provisions for our family, He has overwhelmed us and grown our faith in the truth that He IS Provider!! We are so very thankful to all of you who have heard His invitation to be the vessel in which He provides much of our family's needs!! What a blessing you are to us! We pray His rich nearness over you and your loved ones daily!!
During our time here we are reminded over and over again that we have GREAT reason to rejoice!! We have HOPE! We have a SAVIOR!! We have LOVE! We have JOY! We have PEACE! We have a true IDENTITY! We have ALL that we need in Jesus!! He is so kind to remind us of this through the precious souls here who have yet to trust Him as Lord. It is our daily prayer that thousands in this city will come to know that Jesus is Lord and share in the same promises that we have!! We came to Berlin with a limited people group in mind for ministry. However, the Lord has opened up many opportunities for us here among a variety of people groups, including the Germans and Americans living here. What joy it is to follow HIS lead and not our own!!
God has been gracious in placing persons of peace in our paths that know English. This is another beautiful example of His invitation to our family to join in the work that HE is doing! While we have not felt the language here to be a barrier, it HAS been super fun learning the language! We don't really take ourselves too seriously, and honestly the language presents a TON of hilarious moments!! David and I take almost private lessons with our friends, Heather and Rob. It is a crazy time that we get to have at least twice a week and we are incredibly thankful for it. Our teacher is a German woman who loves the Lord and is amazingly gracious to us in teaching her language for FREE!
At this time of the year, we are also celebrating our 1 year anniversary of starting with YWAM. In our five month Discipleship Training School we met many folks who love Jesus and His ways. These friendships have been priceless to our crew. We love these saints and trust that our work together for the LORD has just begun. God has benevolently allowed these sweet friendships to continue and graced us with visits from these friends. Our prayer is that they would be encouraged in the work that He is doing here and that His great name would be made known. We look forward to, Lord willing, many more visits from our DTS family this year!
God, in His grace, made us missionaries on a different continent from which we were born during a time when technology is zooming. We are thankful for that!! He has provided a way for our family to stay in touch, face to face and the ability to HEAR dear voices through FaceTime and Skype. We praise the LORD for these things!! At a time when many abuse social media or look negatively at it, we praise Jesus for it and rejoice that it EXISTS so that we can keep up with our family and friends all over the world. God is so good!!
Today was the first day back to school for the three kiddos. We are thrilled to say that Ben is doing well and walked in on his own today withOUT tears!! You may have to ask David what his manly bribe was for Ben this morning...but regardless, Ben went in and did not cry!! This is HUGE for a mommy~heart!! Praise Jesus with me!!
David and I both have felt that the Lord is doing a work in our lives, a work of building our faith and growing us more into His likeness. In the growing, an insatiable hunger is felt and a true knowledge of Jesus' words "my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work." Oh, sweet King, please don't let this fade away!!
Thank you!! Thank you for encouraging us! Thank you for praying for us! Thank you for supporting us financially!! We are so very thankful that Jesus had our lives intertwined so that we could all be a part of His work in Germany together. If you are reading this, consider yourself a missionary in Berlin, Germany!! In one way or another you are on our team and we are humbled to have you!!
Happy SIX MONTH ANNIVERSARY, Team!!
Grace upon grace to you and yours.
The Campbell Five
David, Keri, Emma, Jacob, and Ben
Community.
Most would say this is something that they want. Among friends and church goers, it is often voiced as a top priority in the realm of desires.
For the past year, our family of five has been living in community. We have learned much about the LORD and about ourselves in this style of living. It is good. It is challenging. It is sanctifying. It makes me love Jesus so much more.
When we stepped onto the ground in Kona, Hawaii almost one year ago, this life of living in true community truly began. We got a small taste of it months before while living with my sweet Grandmother. But I will say that true community, "a group of people living in the same place", started on the campus of The University of the Nations.
At first, it was a bit of a challenge. I learned fairly quickly that I am prone to discipline my children out of fear. My own, and fear that I try to impart to them. The room that we were living in did not have windows that could be closed. So, everyone could hear everything that was going on in our room. EVERYthing. In turn, we could hear everything that was going on outside our room.
Beautifully, the LORD had us in a school that would teach us how to get rid of strongholds. How to recognize them and then make sure that they no longer existed. Blocking all obstacles that get in the way of our relationship with Jesus. I was surprised to find so many obstacles blocking the path of my gaze toward my Savior!
I learned that I had obstacles like fear, pride, anger, and worthlessness that were getting in the way of me truly seeing Jesus clearly. I had to deal with those feelings/wounds before I could clearly focus on my Lord.
You might be asking yourself, "Why on earth is she talking about this in relation to community??" I will attempt to tell you!
Holding onto strongholds can keep people from living in full community. It is an action from the enemy that keeps sin in the dark and believers from living a life truly known.
There are times when people think it would be fun or adventurous to have someone live with them. ESPECIALLY, if it happened to be a young single girl and you happen to have three young children. (smile) BUT, often the fear of being truly known overshadows that desire and it is never brought to fruition.
Do you understand what I am saying?
I have had conversations like this, "How can you have someone living with you? I mean, can you and David have a real argument while someone is living with you?" "What if this person sees what you do all day? What if they think that you are too busy or too lazy?" "What if this person sees the sin in your life?" "What if this person takes advantage of your family?"
I will say that a few years back, I would have had these same questions. Then Jesus freed me from those thoughts. I will also be honest and say that living in community has strengthened my marriage. See, I have a tendency to hurt my husband with my words and tone. Having someone live within our home has sanctified a bit more of that area of my heart. I know that if I have self control when someone is around, and I am talking 5 months to a year or longer, then I can have self control with the way I speak to the man I love for the rest my days. I can. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I will.
The Lord has also used this time in my parenting. Real people see how I mother these three children. Discipline is real in our home. It isn't always fun, but it is there and it is real. I am inconsistent at times. Sometimes I call out the wrong kid and blame him/her for something that someone else (often that someone is ME) did. I have to apologize to my children many times. I get lazy with them. I am not a perfect mother.
Truth be told, I don't know a perfect mother and it is time we all stop trying to be her.
Seriously, stop looking for her.
See, when we get over ourselves, we are free to live for Jesus and Him alone. If I look to Him for my worth, I am free to have anyone come into my home and I am freed up to be hospitable as Jesus was hospitable. I no longer fear that I will be found in sin, in fact I would desire that the sin that is seen in me be brought to light because I know what that freedom is like. And I want more of it.
One of our family's dearest friends has been staying with us since the first week of October. We met David Watson on January 1st of this year. He was in our class during training for three months, and was on the same team with us in Israel. In Hawaii, he and his roommates lived in the room below our family. David W worked alongside my David and basically spent over 8 hours a day together. We really got to know each other.
We have had the joy and privilege of having David in our home for the past two months. We have lived life together. We have worshiped, prayed, shared many meals, cleaned, chased children, laughed, shared Jesus with others, and walked about a thousand miles together. He is forever a part of our family and we are so thankful for him.
We could have missed this opportunity though. If we had not cleared all of those obstacles out of the way, the abundant life that Jesus promised me in His word would not have seemed so abundant with another person living in our home. Another person stepping in to see who we really are, and what we are really like.
Why do I say these things? Well, I think because I just truly love Jesus and I truly love His people. I long to see others freed up from the junk the enemy has built up around their heart. I long to see others experience true community. The kind that goes beyond church on the weekends or maybe the casual sprinkling of homegroup/Sunday school too.
There is so much to offer when we get over ourselves!! Are you single? Ask a married couple that you know, trust and respect if you might come and live in their home for a while. Are you married? Consider inviting a single person to come in and see how you do life. If this seems frightening to you, I would encourage you to write down five words that express WHY this is intimidating. Ask the Lord for wisdom, and seek counsel to get rid of those strongholds.
We were recently asked if having someone in our home, living in community for the past year has been draining or life giving. I can honestly say, the night before our friend David leaves to go home to the US, that it has been life giving. Jesus has been glorified in this time. We have seen a glimpse of Him in David that we would have missed out on if we didn't take the opportunity to invite him in. It has been a joy, and David's presence in our home will surely be missed.
Community. It is a good thing. It is challenging thing. It is a sanctifying thing. If you allow it, it can grow your love for Jesus so much.
When God began to stir our hearts for the people living in Berlin we began to read and do as much research as we could on this place. Every person we spoke to told us of the spiritual darkness here. It is a place of significant occultic activity. It has been called the Atheist capital of the world. We have been told that the people are cold and difficult to get to know. We have been told that it takes a long time to get to know a person. We were warned that it could take a very long time of 'plowing' before you see any sort of fruit at all.
When we arrived we spent the first little while getting settled and getting our bearings. Then we began the work for which God has sent us. At first we saw exactly what had been told to us. Significant occultic activity, lot's of people who have no concept of God, difficult to engage people in conversation. Speaking candidly, this was frustration and a little disheartening. But then there is Jesus..........
Once Jesus was with 5000 men and maybe three times that amount of women and children. He told his disciples to give them some food. His disciples explained that the amount of food they had would only feed maybe one small person. Jesus took it and gave thanks and it was enough for everyone. Jesus and the disciples saw the EXACT same thing. Yet Jesus saw what He had not what He lacked.
We began to look at the city through the lens of what Jesus is already doing. He is the one who said that the HARVEST is plentiful and that we need more workers for the HARVEST. If we see our job as sowers we never look for the HARVEST. If we see our job as HARVESTERS then we see the HARVEST. As we began to see the city from the perspective of Jesus absolutely everything changed.
We, literally, are working with so many people right now we are running out of time in the day. And it is not just immigrants.....we are seeing a significant spiritual hunger in Germans too. The harvest is truly plentiful!
I was having a conversation with a man who works here in Berlin and he was noticing that there is a 'revival' (of sorts) in virtually every area of the city. Architecture, arts, government, population, culture, ethnic groups, food, business, and yes even spiritually. You cannot help but notice the massive amounts of Christian mission workers moving into this city.
This week we saw a very influential man who is very devoted to his religion take some major steps toward Jesus. This week we have seen a young girl tell our daughter and her friend she wants to follow Jesus. This week we have seen a husband and wife from a very difficult country catch a vision for reaching their people in this city and in their home country. This week we have seen German pastors catch a renewed vision and hope for the work that they are doing. We got to see it. We did not do it. It was Jesus at work, we just got front row seats.
We would like to challenge everyone who reads this blog to see your city or your context through the eyes of Jesus. What is He doing? Do you see the darkness? That is good! Because the light (Jesus) shines brightly in the darkness. When you see darkness you will see Jesus shining. We also want to challenge the way you pray for your city. Instead of asking God to 'do something in your city' instead ask Him for eyes to see what He is already doing. Look at the people God has placed all around you? Are they believers or unbelievers? If they are believers then encourage them and pray for them. If they are unbelievers then tell them your personal faith story, share Jesus with them, and pray for them.
Jesus is the one moving. Jesus is the one working. We are just want to follow after Him.
I was having a discussion with a close friend and mentor of mine this weekend. We were discussing the nature and activity of disciple making and church planting. He told me a story that happened to him many many years ago in India.
He and his team had heard of this old Indian man who had planted over 60+ churches in a span of a few months. It became known throughout the region and mission workers so they made a time to go and meet with this man.
After some pleasantries they got down to the business at hand - what was this man doing that was yielding so much fruit? The man said that he did not focus on church planting or even try to plant churches but rather only focused on disciple making. Making disciples was the activity and church planting was the result. This response was not necessarily strange. There is no command in the bible to plant churches but there is a clear command to make disciples. Yet this statement leads to an obvious follow up question - "How do you make disciples?"
The man responded by asking a question of his own. He said, "Sir do you know the purpose of a tree?" My friend responded, "I suppose it is to clean the air and provide oxygen. Perhaps to provide shade and refuge for certain types of wildlife. Also the roots prevent landslides and mud slides. The trunk can provide wood, etc." The older man responded, "these are benefits of a tree, but do you know the purpose of a tree. Do you know what a tree's primary task is?" My friend, knowing that this story was going in a direction he had not previously consider, said that he did not know the purpose of a tree.
The old man said, "The purpose and primary task of a tree is to reproduce. To make other trees. When you have more and more trees all of the benefits you have mentioned are suddenly possible. The purpose and primary task of a disciple is to make other disciples. From this the whole world receives benefit and the glory of God is spread to the ends of the earth."
I have been pondering this story all weekend and thinking through it's implications. It seems like in modern western style discipleship we emphasize doctrine or teaching but seldom obedience. If we do emphasize obedience we focus on doing good works and other noble activities. Yet perhaps this is like trying to teach a tree to clean the air, hold the soil together, etc. Simply benefits the world gets from having disciples in it. Jesus said to follow Him and He would make us fishers of men.
This has been our conviction from since before we got to Berlin yet this story crystallized it in a way that I had not seen before. We make disciples by teaching people how to teach people how to make disciples. In short we teach them to reproduce. We teach them to share their story and Jesus' story and we teach them how to follow Jesus by listening to what He is telling them in the bible and to faithfully obey what they hear and read. If they are in the hands of the savior they are in great hands.
How many people will hear of Jesus today because of your story? If you would like practical help in being able to tell your story and Jesus' story let us know, we are always glad to help.
In our family devotions we historically have done catechism questions. We use a modified version of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Last week we began to review questions we have done in the past. One that we spent the bulk of the week on was:
50. What is meant by justification*? A.* It is God's forgiving sinners and treating them as if they had never sinned.
I find that whenever there is a truth that I am tending to emphasize more forcefully than other truths it is usually something that the Lord is wanting to drive home in me. I should have paid attention a little more closely earlier this week.
This morning I was reading in Jeremiah 31:4 as God is speaking to His people and restoring them after a time of judgment. Did you catch that? He is restoring them after a time of judgment. If you read in Jeremiah 2 and in other places God has called His people a whore for their spiritual wanderings, but in Jeremiah 31:4 He calls them a virgin. Pure. Undefiled. Untouched. Unknown by another. Virtuous. Clean. Not just cleaned up. Not just forgiven. But restored all the way back to the like new state. God was 'treating them as if they had never sinned.'
When Israel was crossing the Jordan to come into the promised land, God gave them a specific place and time of the year they were to cross. The time of the year was when the flood waters were the greatest. He could have taken them to a low spot in the river but God was painting a picture. They passed at the highest point and God stopped the river 30 miles away! Where did He stop it? At a town called ADAM!! (Joshua 3:16 look it up people!) God deals with our sin so finally, so conclusively that He rolls it all the way back to Adam!
Rest easy today friends. God has dealt with your sins and He has made you pure. Walk in your new life....the old one is gone, finished, vorbei. In Christ you are justified!
We live in a city that is exciting and fun, but truthfully it is a city that will suck the life right out of you. Especially if you are attempting to live for the glory of Jesus. There is certainly a LOT of blatant, in-your-face, darkness and demonic activity in this city. We have been far closer to this than we would care to ever do again. But the darkness in this city is normally something different. It is a weight and heaviness that just pulls the life out of you. It is like a large Anaconda wrapped around you just steadily squeezing, waiting for you to let your breath out so that it can squeeze you a little more.
The result of this tends to be that we run into a lot of people who are discouraged and struggling. Especially those who are here as part of a ministry. What makes it worse is that we feel it too. We feel the discouragement and difficulty as well and find ourselves crying out for the Lord to fill us again. We are like everyone else in that sometimes we just want to sit and let others pour into us.
Yet the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, is teaching us one of the ways that He keeps us continually filled. He started showing us this from the life of Elijah and the widow from Zarephath in 1 Kings chapter 17. This widow was struggling through a difficult time. She had a son to feed, no means, and only enough food left to feed herself and her son and then she would die. All hope of sustenance would be lost at that point.
At this point, God sent Elijah to solicit the widow for the remaining provision that she had. What a crazy bold request! Elijah had been fed by God. He had seen God come through and yet he was asking this woman to give the last she had. For the woman, she had just enough faith to see that she could give this away and either God would come through or she would die just slightly ahead of her time table. So despite what she herself needed.....she poured out. The more she poured the more God filled. She always had enough. The pouring out was actually physically and spiritually fulfilling.
Currently here in Berlin, we are taking a cue from this courageous widow... allowing the Lord to instruct us through her actions. When we are in need and someone comes to us...we pour out. And the Lord is sustaining us! We see encouragement grow in us. We see hope grow in us. We see joy return. And we get to keep going and do not grow weary!
In your life you may be bombarded with demand after demand after demand. You may get discouraged and burned out from time to time. Others may come to you for encouragement or refreshment when you have nothing left to give. We encourage you to pour out. To do so tells your own heart that your Father loves you. The reason you can give away what little you have is because you trust Him to provide for you, just like He is providing for those in need through you.
We love you all and are just so thankful for each one of you. We hope that we can always be an encouragement to you, sharing what we are learning from our good and perfect Father!
Well a lot is happening in Berlin these days. It is always a struggle to find time to sit and write about what's going on as things seem to happen so fast. For me (David) it takes a while to pray about things and process them just to have something to post.
To say that God is on the move here is an understatement. We are seeing continuing evidence of God moving in great power. It is amazing the level of spiritual hunger in this place and at the same time so much darkness. These "random" meetings of people are beginning to move into us being invited into homes. We are greatful for The Lord, but sometimes we get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task and the need for more workers. Oh, please pray for these wonderful awesome people The Lord is bringing to us! I had tried to video some of the amazing things The Lord is doing only to have my camera fail. It is pretty awkward to ask to video things like this, so perhaps it is for the best.
A little over a month ago we began meeting for church as a team and The Lord has been so gracious to begin to bring other liked minded and like hearted people to join us. It has been a truly wonderful blessing for us and so encouraging.
This month we have several friends from our DTS in Kona staying with us and spending some time getting their hands dirty with our team. It has been a joy to see the bonding of teammates and friends together as we all walk through engaging this city together. It is a sweet joy to introduce friend to friends!
One of the things we are working on is helping start a new DTS (Discipleship Training School) that will be held here in Berlin this next spring. We are so excited about how this is coming together and want to encourage you to think about spending 5 months doing your DTS with YWAM Berlin. We believe this will be a life changing experience as you learn how to Know God and Make Him Known! If you and/or your family is interested in knowing more about this please let us know!
As some of you know and have been praying, Ben has been having challenges with anxiety at school. Keri has been so patient and wonderful helping him slowly transition during this time. She sits in on his kindergarten class all day with a couple of fifteen minute breaks. I am so honored and grateful to be married to such a wonderful woman of God!
Our second visa appointment is coming up on the 23rd of this month. Please be in prayer with us that we have all they want and that we get these visas!
We just wanted to give you a quick update and wish you all could be here with us!
Two weeks ago we met Michael. He claimed that he did not believe in God and called himself an atheist. He grew up in the former East Germany. He said he really liked Keri and I and called us 'really positive people.' I am not sure if that is a compliment or not but I took it as one.
When he said he did not believe in God I told him, 'that is ok because God believes in you.' This caught him off guard and caused him to laugh a little sheepishly. Suddenly he began speaking of different things calling attention to times when he has taken the moral high ground on various matters.
A week later (last week) we met again. He asked me, "David are you sure you want to stay in the S**t country? The only thing we have going for us is our healthcare system." I said, "Michael, there are roughly 80 million people in this country who either do not believe God loves them of think He has forgotten about them. Yet that is not true because Jesus has sent us here to communicate this message to them. In fact God sent His Son, Jesus, to convey this very message many years ago. Because God loves these people so do I. God has given me a job to do and I must do it."
He laughs a little at me and says again that he does not believe in God. I told him again that God believes in him. He sees how He created Michael to be. God looks at the original design and says it is good. What we see is the part that is damaged and broken by sin and pain and suffering and stuff. My purpose in being in that chair having that conversation was to communicate that God has determined that He is aiming to reconcile Michael fully back to Himself and what He was originally intended to be.
Michael leans back in the chair and after a long pause says, "I do believe there is a God but I don't know what it is." I told him, "Michael if you really want to know then the bible says 'you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." If you want to know you must come to God on His terms and ask Him if what I am telling you is for real. He said, "I want to do that." Michael and I prayed and I left Michael with him telling me he wants to pray for me every day.
Next week we start to explore more of who Jesus is and start helping Michael walk out his faith. Please be praying for this man. We are eager to see what Jesus has in store for this man.
How's it going? I have been away from writing on this blog for a while, but don't let it fool you. I have had much to say. I think the gracious LORD we serve has held my tongue for a bit so that I might not cause any of my sweet brothers and sisters to stumble.
And I pray this post does not make any stumble.
If you saw my Facebook post, I mentioned that I needed to pray and repent and pray some more before writing this. I have done that and I think I am ready.
Last November our family moved from our home in Keller into my Granny's home. It was a step in this journey that the LORD has us on, and although the miles were short between the two homes, the gap that was felt was much grander. Because it was a step that symbolized a much larger step going on in our hearts.
I am going to focus on my mommy heart and Ben. Ben was four years old when we took that step as a family. Constantly questioning, "Oh, now do we live at Granny's forever?" and craving the stability that most four year olds crave, he was working through what we were doing and called to as well as any child his age could.
He's doing a pretty good job if you ask me.
January 1, 2014 our family moved on to Kona, Hawaii for our training. Sounds magical and like paradise, right? Well, not so much for our newly turned five year old. He had not read all the travel brochures equating Hawaii with Heaven and didn't know that many people like to go there to get away.
All this child wanted to do was get away to his "home" in Texas.
But he worked through some things, by the help of the Helper and grew to make some friends and settle in.
Then we moved on to Israel. It was dark. It was tough. It was definitely a challenge. Ben wanted to go "home" just about everyday, and let's be honest, I did too.
But we were being trained, prepared, disciplined. And all of those things are good. I have to believe it for myself and for my children.
Then we moved back to Texas for a month. Back to "home" according to this, our youngest child.
I think he thought our "journey" was over. That we had reached our destination.
Just when he got settled, we hopped on a plane for Germany. The place we would stay for quite a while.
At first it seemed like a vacation. Really, the first two weeks in a new place can feel like that. A gracious family allowed our family to live in their home while they were in the States. We lived there for about a month while things got situated with the home that we are now in.
Here we are. Home. A settling started to take place. Ben got his own bedroom, for the first time in almost 10 months. He picked out his own bedding and began to understand that this is home.
This past Monday school started. Our three children were accepted to an American School here in Berlin. It is a tuition free opportunity for our family, and the blessing is not lost on us. We are so thankful to be there.
But, I may be speaking too quickly for Ben. He has not been to American kindergarten, and cannot begin in the Entrance class here in Berlin as he turns six years old before the year is over. (December 17th, he barely makes it!) So this means he jumps right in to 1st grade.
Somehow, the Lord saw fit to gift our family with an amazing teacher who knows Him and loves Him.
The LORD loves Ben more than I could ever dream of loving him.
And I love him a lot.
Ben has cried and thrown a fit every single morning as I drop him off. A full on crying fit where he is so distraught that he cannot even make sense as he is so lost in his situation. See, he is required to walk into the school building (a HUGE school building!) without a parent and find his way to his classroom and get all set up for the day by himself.
All five years of him.
It was overwhelming and I walked him in on those mornings this first week, despite the desire of the other teachers in the hall. (On a side note, watch your facial expressions, friends. They are soooo telling of what you are thinking!) But, Ben's teacher never shamed me for walking him in and reassured me that we will "get this".
I called out for prayer on Facebook after day three. I need you all. I needed you to breathe for me as it was so hard to take breath in and exhale it out. This task seemed too much, and my instinct was to catch the first train to the airport and fly "home" to Texas.
Which brings me to the train situation. We don't have a vehicle here, so we take public transportation. This has been a source of frustration for the past two months for our family. Much of our time is wasted on just getting to a place. Ministry, school, language class, church, you name it. As our ministry is actually all over this city, just getting there is a huge challenge and can be extremely frustrating if we miss our train, subway, bus, or metro.
We began praying for a vehicle and were not quite ready to make that prayer request known. We don't want to look extravagant in our life here. We are able to do what we do because others have sacrificed and given to the God they love and serve. It is such a gift for our family to be supported by so many that love us and support us, but we know that the love and support is first and foremost to our King. We always want to be cautious and responsible with how we live including what we purchase.
Back to day four. The day after many of you spent our sleeping hours, your daylight hours, praying for our family. Praying specifically for our Ben and a good start to his day.
He started off strong. I was confident that this would be the day he successfully entered the school without tears!
The train can sometimes be very crowded. Especially in the mornings as folks are heading to work and school at the same time.
As we were on the train, Ben was in one seat and I was behind him. He turned around upon my request so that I could document this successful day with my phone. He smiled big! He was so excited!
In his excitement, his little foot brushed the man in front of him twice.
This man took it upon himself to spank my son on the thigh.
I am just going to pause and let you take that in. A stranger who does not love my child, spanked him. Loud enough for me to hear and turn in disbelief. Hard enough to get a reaction from all in our train car.
A pop that would have landed this man in jail in the US.
I wanted to slap him. I wanted to speak words of death over him. I wanted to kick him. I wanted to curse at him and tell him what a worthless piece of...
But God would not have me to do this. Instead, I took my crying, shocked son into my crying, shocked arms and tried to hug away that pain. David was in the same train car as me, but did not see what happened. He saw me crying and came over. I told him what happened and he said, "Who did that?!?!" I nodded with my head to the man. The man was nonchalantly playing on his phone with earbuds in. The man looked up at David and was kind of like, "What? You want a piece of me?" (He didn't say that with his mouth, just his body language.) Then German words came out of his mouth that I don't understand, but can only imagine to be "His foot touched MY knee TWICE!" When this man spoke those words, about seven Germans on the train went at him. Yelling at him, explaining that you cannot do that to a child. That Ben is JUST A CHILD. I am not sure what else they were saying, but I knew they were on my side. On Ben's side. It was loud. We had no place to go. We were on a moving train. When it stopped, the others were still going after this man and one followed him off the train and I am not sure what happened after that...but I know what I was hoping would happen.
I cried. I was angry. I was in shock. I couldn't stop crying. I needed the nearness of God, and thankfully I felt Him and asked for His nearness to surround Ben. To wipe from his memory what just happened, because I believe He can and I believe it's okay to ask that. This man had no clue if Ben had been abused before, or if his legs were healthy, or that he was on his way to his big first grade class where he was going to be brave and try for the first time to enter a giant building all on his own away from his mommy and daddy. This man knew nothing about my son, but still hit him in frustration of Ben's little foot touching his knee twice.
This event proved pretty traumatic not just for a mom and her little son, but also for Emma and Jacob. It was hard to shake, ya know? We had never encountered something like this, and never thought we would.
We all got along with our day. I walked Ben into his classroom and cried to his compassionate teacher whom I just adore. She was gentle, loving and encouraging.
I know this is just how it is. I know that this behavior is not "typical" or really okay. I know all of this. I know this man probably does not know Jesus as Savior and will more than likely spend an eternity of being frustrated and hurt. I know this. I care about this. It is not lost on my heart to pray for this man. Not anymore at least. I had to work to get here. I had to pray. I had to ask the LORD for His eyes. I had to repent. I thought some really nasty things about this man and what I hoped would happen to him.
This is why we packed our family up and moved here.
There are so many people here who have never in their whole life heard of a Savior. They have no clue who Jesus is and what He did for them. No clue.
So, I forgive. Because that is what my God does when I lash out at Him for brushing against me, twice...sometimes even once.
He showed me a picture that day of His great love for me. For you. He loves us so much that He left His perfect home. That He dwelt among sinners that had no clue who He was even though He told them constantly. He loved them and they spat in His face. He fed them, gave them drink, and they called him names, beat him. hung Him on a cross to die a gruesome death.
When we punch God in the face, figuratively speaking of course, when He brushes against us...He loves us. He is unshakable. Our little fit doesn't phase Him and I can only imagine He is pained to see us in such pain.
This man on the train has to be in pain to hit a five year old for touching his knee. He has to. So, confessing with my mouth, I want to speak blessing over this man. That when he saw tears from my mother's eyes, me comforting my son with an embrace and love, and NOT lashing out at him, he saw a glimpse at our Savior. I was paralyzed in that moment, and I think the Lord was doing a work. I think He held my tongue because it is not fitting for His daughter to physically abuse one who uses physical actions in anger. Does that make sense? The Lord could save this man. I pray He does. I ask for the Holy Spirit to bless him. For him to walk in peace and love and joy. For his hands to prosper. For his family to flourish and grow. For his needs to be met and even some of his desires. Lord, bless him for Your great glory!
So, here is how you can pray with us; Will you join us in praying for a vehicle? Now, not only for the timely arrival to our ministry destinations and school, but also truly for the protection of our children. I do not think it is an extravagant thing anymore. And I am ready to share this prayer of my heart with you all now.
In His timing, we learned of a vehicle in Hamburg for sale that seats five. I learned of it last night from a friend. We are not sure it is the answer to our prayer, but we are sure willing to ask the Father. It costs 6,000 Euros ($7,900 USD) and we don't have that available right now. But, I know my God will supply our every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He hears our prayers and He responds. This is not a desire for a more comfortable life. It is a mom's plea to her King for a tool to serve Him better and in turn, to serve and protect her children better. He knows that. He's got this.
This was a long post, and I am sorry for all the words. Thank you for reading through it and thank you for praying as the LORD leads. I am truly excited to see what He does. To give Him glory in all circumstances!
By the way, Ben walked into the school building on his own today. Not crying, not worrying, but chatting with his friend. Never looking back.
My God is Redeemer, Healer, Almighty, Provider!
Currently we are working through the details of acquiring Turkish/German Parallel New Testaments. This project is in the works and details are being worked out.
How you can pray:
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Funding for the project. It should (comparatively) small but please pray for more provision.
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Pray for a massive hunger among our people groups that they would crave the Word of God.
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Pray for the smooth and effective distribution of these New Testaments and those who will receive them.
Thank You For Your Many Prayers
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My friend, Doug, used to have a common phrase that he would use on me all the time; "don't miss the lesson." The Lord is teaching me through this time and it is my prayer that I do not miss this lesson.
This week we were in a different city and doing a lot of walking. The children were getting restless so we all decided to find a specific park and let the children play for a while. We rode the tram-line (think light rail) in the direction of the park but the tram-line abruptly ended forcing us all to get off. As we got off, the sign notified us that we must wait for 12 minutes before the next bus that would take us to our final destination.
As we settled into wait we could hear a voice being raised over a loud speaker. I looked around to find where it was coming from and noticed a Muslim man speaking into a bull-horn while a man stood behind him filming him with a camera. This appeared to be a GREAT opportunity to speak to this man and his colleagues about Jesus. So my friend and I headed over choosing to take a different route to the park when we were finished.
To make a long story short we had a pretty significant discussion about the glories of Jesus with one of the most radical men (and his crew) in all of Europe. In the end we prayed over him asking Holy Spirit to reveal truth and wished him well.
As a westerner, it is easy to look at people like this through the eyes of fear or hate as we see people as part of larger groupings. We can make all of the political statements and threats we want but it does no good. In the interaction with this man I began to get a glimpse of a man who is desperately trying to please God and making a mess at the same time, even at the cost of human life. This has been the story of my life to some degree. I want to please God but in my efforts to win His (already given) favor I make a mess and hurt people.
This week I began to get a first hand glimpse that perfect love truly does cast out all fear. I know this man's name and he is now the subject of many of my prayers. I want to see God touch him. I do not want to see him harmed but I want him to know the true peace that is only found in Jesus.
I found myself telling this young man that it is not enough to know that God loves people in general we must know that He loves each of us, in specific. Yet I had been so guilty of isolating myself from individuals and lumping people together as 'blocs' or 'groupings of people.' The same thing I said he was guilty of was exactly what I was putting on him. I, personally, did not see him as a person but as a part of a radical group with beliefs different from my own.
May the Lord Jesus grow me in the discipline of loving people specifically and not falling into the trap of generalization.
One of my favorites quotes is from Rees Howells:
"If you can love one, then you can love many, if you can love many, then you can love all."
We would love to ask you to be in prayer for a YWAM team coming to Berlin on August 12. This will be a Photogenx team and will be assisting us in our research and foundation building for this ministry.
While we are grateful for their willingness to come and assist with this work we want to remember that these are people made in the image of God. We want to be a blessing to this team and lift them up in prayer and encouragement.
We are almost done with our first month in Berlin. It has been a great time and really hard all at the same time. We hope in this blog post is to give you a recap of what has happened this month and then we would like to follow up with a few future blog posts showing what the Lord has taught us in this time. We hope that it is an encouragement to you.
First we learned that finding an apartment is not as easy as you may think. Ability to pay and desire to rent have very little to do with actually finding a place. You can be turned down because you have kids or because you have no kids. You can be turned down because you have a pet or because you have no pet. You can be turned down for any and every reason and it really depends on the owner of the building and/or landlord to determine what sort of community he/she wants to create in the property.
But we have landed on the place that we originally thought would be ours! It turns out seeing the place in person was much better than pictures showed. That made it much harder when it was all in jeopardy for a while.
We have gotten bank accounts set up and temporary cell phones. We will likely change phone numbers soon because having a contract in place can be a lot more cost effective. You trade flexibility for spendable cash.
We have all gotten bicycles, which is a marvelous way to get around the city. Ben still needs to learn to ride his but we met a family selling an almost new second hand bike and we jumped on the deal. The challenge is that there are virtually no training wheels in this land so Ben is still limited because of his lack of wanting to learn to ride. We expect that will come soon and we can be even more mobile.
We move into our new place on August 1 and then what presented itself was the challenge of turning on utilities. So I was planning on taking a lot of time to go and physically show up to these places hoping someone could help me with the language. Then I would need to shop for the best prices and make the decisions. BUT the family moving out of the apartment we are moving into was so kind as to spend several hours with us on the internet helping us get everything set up. It may seem like such a trivial thing but that literally saved us about a weeks worth of non stop work! We am so grateful to them.
So then it remains that we needed furnishings. The Lord orchestrated our steps to various people moving and needing to liquidate items. This has saved us so much money and we are so thankful! Tomorrow we will have it all picked up and delivered to the new place.
We also have been set up to begin language classes in August. This arrangement is such a blessing and I am still in awe of how it works but let's just say that this is a major blessing.
While this blog post can come across as though we have been sitting by watching the Lord take care of everything, that was not the case. What really happened was that the Lord orchestrated everything and we fretted and stressed and prayed. You would think that eventually we would default to trusting Him. We are still growing in that area.
You are all wonderful and we are so thankful for you all!
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Lots of things do not come easy for me. Like even that sentence. Should I have used the word "easily" or is "easy" the correct word?? Hmmm, I digress...
One thing that does come easy for me is comparing and contrasting. In the area of sitting and comparing my life to others around me, I am pretty much a pro. Too bad I don't get paid for that work because I might just be a millionaire. As mentioned, contrasting is also part of my game. See contrasting is much like comparing...but it involves comparing the things/ways that are unlike each other, the differences. Yep, I am pretty darn good at that!
For some reason, I like to sit and look at successful writers, speakers, singer/songwriters, neighbors, moms, bible teachers, friends, and contrast their lives with mine. By definition, that means that I sit and compare the unlikeness of their life to mine.
May I give you some examples? Will you promise to still be my friend?
"Wow, I have no idea how she looks that great after having so many kids. Why do I look the way I do and I only have three?"
"Her house is much bigger than mine and our husbands must make the same amount of money. Why do I live in this small home and she lives in that spacious one?"
"She sings with ease and joy. I sing with joy, but there are time when it seems like work. Why did You not give me the same quality of ability as her, God?"
"She has it all together. If I just had a housekeeper and a little more monthly income, I would have it all together too. Why do I have to spend my days raising these three kids AND cooking AND cleaning?"
"She buys her clothes from boutiques and she always looks great. All my clothes come from Target and can only endure one season if that."
"She is filled with words of wisdom and truth. Why do I not have inspiring words to say and encouragement to offer to my friends?"
"She teaches in a way that is led by the Spirit, but when I teach I seem nervous and confused."
"Everyone wants to be around her and others just tolerate being around me."
"Everyone wants to hear what she has to say and my opinions or words really don't matter."
"When I meet someone new, they really only pretend to want get to know me because they want to get to __________." (insert other woman's name in the blank)
I could go on...but I am beginning to laugh and see the ridiculousness...
I want a new job.
So today, I am going to resign. I am resigning from the position of looking at others and believing that when I was created I somehow slipped through the "a plan and a purpose" section of the assembly line. . Have you ever thought that? Have you ever thought, "Wow, that person really KNOWS who they are and WHAT they were created for!" Only to follow that up with, "I wish I KNEW who I was and WHAT I was created for..." Doing this, and I am the first to admit that I do, gives the enemy a foothold. Allows lies to creep in our mind, in our heart, that we really do not matter or have any chance at all to glorify the LORD with our lives because we really don't have anything to offer.
Believer, that is a lie.
YOU were created with a plan and a purpose. A good plan and a good purpose. Plans for success and a prosperous future.
Here's the deal. God is perfect. He doesn't forget stuff. He surely doesn't leave things out that will bring Him glory, remember? He is jealous for His glory. Jealous because it is His.
So when God tells me in His word through the writer after His own heart that I am fearfully and wonderfully made; I have no other choice but to believe Him. When He tells me through His word that He has plans for me and that He knows what they are...that they are plans of hope and a future...Who am I to sit and think that the God of the universe, the One in charge of everything, forgot to put that in me when He created me?
When I quit my job of assisting a retinal surgeon and serving those in need in a way that truly satisfied something in me, I had to get used to my new job. A job of being a mommy to a precious baby girl. It took some getting used to. It was a change in identity of sorts, but I grew to love it.
That is what I plan to do with this new phase of life. Grow to love it. I am sure there will be days, hours, when I will slip back into the role of comparing and contrasting. But, with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, I agree to stop the minute I recognize that I am comparing myself with the created and not the Creator. I resolve to believe that He created me with a plan and a purpose, and it is one that the created being that I am comparing myself with...just can't do. A plan and a purpose unique to me. Yours, unique to you.
I know there are blogs and articles written about women comparing themselves with others. Women looking to Facebook and other social media outlets only to contrast that which seems perfect with that which is imperfect in their own lives.
I believe the enemy delights and throws a big fat party when he accomplishes this task.
So, let's stomp on his head with our strong and stable feet! No longer looking to others for our own life plan or God-given purpose. Looking only to our Father, and asking Him daily, "LORD, what can I do today to fulfill the purpose you created within me?" And then...walk that out.
Friend, when you were being knit together the LORD placed within you something that no other person has. No other person ever will. There is a brilliance in a certain area of you that is unique and life giving. You were created for greatness and hope and success. Do not allow the evil one to steal that from you! And if you have let him take it, it is time to get back that which belongs to you....
So, who is with me on this resignation? Anyone else willing to give up a life of comparing and contrasting and start walking forward in the true identity of one created by the King of kings with a unique plan and purpose to glorify Him and Him alone?!?
Blessings to you!
Keri
Two nights ago we had dinner with some new friends and while we were talking it came out that there was a housing project not too far away that housed refugees. Our friends drove us by the complex as they were taking us home. We drove into the parking lot but it looked completely deserted.
This complex stood out in my mind all night long and into the next morning. As I prayed and sought the Lord He asked me if I was ready to take risks for Him. As much as I could discern I told Him I was ready to be made ready. So all day long I waited and watched for the adventure the Lord may be taking me on. But it was a pretty low key day. We ran some errands, picked up forms, got a fan (it gets hot in Berlin believe it or not), and ate dinner as a family.
One of the great things about this part of the world at this time of the year is that it is light outside late into the evening. Being that it was only 6:45pm and still light I decided I would ride my bike to this apartment complex, pray over it, and see what the Lord may want to show me about this complex. The complex is only about a 15 minute bike ride from where we are staying. Technically it is not in the city of Berlin but in the former GDR in the state of Brandenburg (which surrounds Berlin).
I crossed over the canal and left the city and got lost. I mean lost. I kept thinking I would pass by the complex and see it. It was fairly large and certainly in the style of the nondescript East German architecture so I should have been able to find it. But one hour passed by and nothing.
I rode forever and saw nothing but I had the abiding sense that the Lord brought me here for a purpose. So I told the Lord that I cannot return home until I see what you brought me to see. And I kept riding.
As I rode I asked the Lord what I was supposed to be looking for. He told me I was seeing with my physical eyes and that I was not looking through spiritual lenses. He then asked me, "David, what do you see?" I answered, "Nothing. I see nothing. There are houses and streets, but that is it. There are no people. This place could be deserted for all I know. There are no cars. Nothing. Nothing at all."
Nearly two hours had gone by of solid riding and I could see nothing. I just could not understand what was going on. As I rode I prayed and just sensed an overwhelming sense of isolation. As I felt this a phrase pops into my mind, 'spirit of isolation.' I did not know really what that was but I began to ride and aggressively pray against a 'spirit of isolation.'
Suddenly out of no where it seemed I was about 1 block from the complex! I saw two immigrant men sitting on a bench and I began to deliberate whether I should stop for conversation with them or ride into the complex. I decided I would ride past, turn around and then perhaps make conversation. But in riding past them I also passed another man (perhaps early 50's or late 40's in age). I said hello to him in German and he responded to me in English. I threw on my brakes and said, "do you speak English?" He said, "yes of course! Do you live here?" I said, "yes my family and I just moved to Berlin about two weeks ago." He said, "Thank you for coming."
He told me he was from Pakistan and had been in Germany for 1 year and 9 months. I asked him if he was Muslim and he said yes. I told him I follow Jesus and he responded with "you are welcome here, would you like to come to my house?"
I followed him to his apartment in this complex but as we walked up the stairs a very large German man stepped out and tells me very harshly that visiting hours are over and I must leave. My new friend pleaded my case and asked for 15 minutes, I was granted 10 minutes. We continued to his apartment and the smells of middle eastern and Asian foods were simply over powering.
As we walked along I sent a quick text to Keri because I was acutely aware of the foolishness of coming here alone - or at least with no one knowing my location. We stepped into his apartment and he locked the door and my heart sank just a bit. The enemy used this situation to explain all the reasons I should fear. But soon the Lord showed me that this was what He was wanting me to see.
I sat down at his table and we began to speak. He told me about being beaten severely in the head with an automatic weapon by the Taliban. He told me about his health issues related to the beating. He is having trouble with his vision and he has constant headaches. It was then that my time was up and I had to leave.
But I had seen a man who had his physical needs pretty well cared for. He had an apartment, food, clothing, and medical care. Yet he was isolated and alone. His family had either been killed or fled to other countries with no way to communicate. Could it be that a friendship is what the Lord wanted me to give this man? I do not yet have clarity on why the Lord wanted me to see and meet this man yet I am certain there is a reason.
As I left the complex I got lost on my bike AGAIN and turned a 15 minute return trip into another solid hour of riding. Today I am exhausted and grateful. His mercies are new every morning.
This fall our kids will attend the John F. Kennedy school in Berlin. This is an American funded public school teaching German and English. It is a very good school and we are excited to be able to participate.
We want to ask all of our prayer partners to join us in praying for a few matters:
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We are asking The Lord for at least 3 Godly best friends for each of our kids (and us too).
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We are praying against any sort of transition anxiety in our kids.
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We are especially being diligent to pray blessings on the students, parents, and teachers.
Our temporary housing in located just around the corner so it was a good time today praying over the school on site.
Thank you for your prayers. They are a truly appreciated!
David & Keri
As we arrive at the airport we meet a short term team from Valley Creek in Flower Mound heading to......Berlin!
One of the most common things that I have heard in the past two years is, "I really wish I/we could do what you and your family are doing." There is so much to this statement and so much that hearing this statement stirs up in my heart. I want to process a little bit of it here, for you. You know, in the event you have ever said those words to me or to someone else.
I do not come from a home that was centered around the gospel. I did not hear of the gospel in my home. My parents are divorced and my brother spent 10 years in prison.
The reason for me sharing this information with you is completely purposeful. When people find these things out about me they are often shocked. Usually there is a conversation that follows about how the listener thought that I must have had a "perfect life".
The reality is, none of us have a perfect life. That is waiting for us...but it's not yet here.
Somehow, there is this thing that happens in the believers mind when they see someone taking "bold" steps to follow Jesus. It's a thought that is cast into the mind of the observer that says, "That person is better than you. Further along in their walk than you. They have more faith than you."
Um, those things are not true. Do not believe those lies.
I know that the LORD has placed you right where you are, so that YOU will seek God and feel your way toward Him and find Him. I know this because this is what Paul says, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 17 verse 27.
So, as part of a body that is made up of different and unique purposes and skills, the LORD has a purpose and a plan just for you. One that, if YOU don't do it, nobody else will. YOU were created for excellence and a grand purpose...You were created to bring God glory!
Friends have told us that they do not feel called to get up and go to another continent. I do not think this is light-hearted statement. I agree that the LORD does not call every single believer to get up and move to another continent. But I do believe He has you right where you are so that you will seek Him more. So that you will bring Him glory right where you are.
If you wake in the morning, half asleep make your cup of coffee, get showered and dressed, mindlessly drive to work, have one of the three options you always eat for lunch everyday, complete your daily to-do list, drive the opposite direction you drove 8hrs before, arrive home, eat dinner and get ready for bed...this post might be for you.
I am a mom, so this one's for the moms too. If you are awakened by a hungry, bouncing child. If you feed said child and begin to clean up mess, upon messs, upon mess that this child and others make. If your days are full of phrases like, "What do you say?" "What is that smell?" "Try again." "No, THANK YOU." "Stay in your bed." "Please speak kindly to your sibling." "Wipe your feet, please." "Put your pants back on!" and many more! If you feel like a milk factory, a teacher, a person assistant, a chauffeur, a laundromat, a maid, a personal chef, a biblical counselor...but do not get paid like one. If you wonder if you were really created to sit and meal plan for the next 7 days.This post might be for you.
I have worked outside of my home. I have worked within my home. In both places, I can honestly say that it was often that I wondered if THIS was all that I was created for. ?.?.?
Do not get me wrong. These are VERY important roles and responsibilities. The issue with me and my heart is that I was not doing these things as unto the LORD. I was stuck in the day to day. It was a routine I could do and not really think about it. Not really finding purpose or even thinking there WAS purpose to my day. My actions. My words.
Does that even make sense?
Then one day the LORD clearly called my family to move to Europe and make disciples and plant churches there. So that is what we are doing. Not because we have a grandiose plan to change the world. Not because Keri and David Campbell came to a place in their faith where they had finally "arrived" to missionary status. Not because we are qualified. Not because we have the finacial means to do so. Only because Jesus is already there, the only qualified One, and already completing a great work that He has started and He has invited us along.
What my heart is yearning to share with you today is that you can be a part of this work, not our work but His, right where you are. In your work place. In your home. To the man who faithfully gets up each morning and serves his God and his family by going to work, I say, "Thank you!" We could not do what we are doing if you did not faithfully serve our Lord through your work! You are doing a great and mighty thing for the spreading of the gospel to the ends of the earth! Thank you! To the mom who sits quitely sharing Bible verses and singing songs of Jesus' love to her little one, "Thank you!" Teaching these babes about a God who came to save sinners and redeem that which was broken is HUGE! Teaching them about God's love for the nations, for ALL men is world changing and a dynamic way to serve those who have moved to a different continent to share that same message! Teaching your children the ways of The Lord is teaching obediently, and I trust that it pleases the King greatly.
The verse in Colossians chapter three verses 23-24 reminds me that the work we are doing, is not for men. It is only for the LORD. The work YOU are doing, it's not for men/people. Do you hear that gentle message? It's not for you. It's not for your family. It's not for the missionary. It's not for the poor. It's for God.
All of it.
Heartachingly, friends have told us that they want to support us financially. The struggle comes when they don't know how much to give to our family.
Please, if this has ever been a struggle for you when considering joining our family in this journey or any other family, I would love to remind you of that Colossians verse.
The profit that you make when you work, in the home or outside of the home, should be for the LORD, not for men. While this is easy to say with our mouths, it is not quite as easy to put into action. And what does that even look like?
Last week I spent some time in the chair of an endodontist. In that hour, The Lord spoke to me and gave me a picture.
So, here is the challenge that I present to you if you are up for it;
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Consider what you make in one hour of work. For those who are stay at home moms or who do not work for money, this is for you too, it just doesn't involve a dollar amount.
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Pray about devoting one hour of work every month unto the LORD. Practically speaking, if you are a surgeon, business man, sales person, nanny, assistant, dentist, pastor, speaker, mom, etc. look at your calendar and pick a day.
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On this chosen day, say out loud to the LORD that this day is for HIM and Him alone. Ask Him what He would have you do for Him on this day. Thank Him for providing this time and job for you. Thank Him for allowing you to serve Him. Read Colossians 3: 23-24 out loud.
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Give away what you make in ONE HOUR to a work that is being done through and for Him. Outside of the work that we are doing for Him in Germany, there are many other amazing ministries that God has His hand on in this world. Pick one. Devote one hour of each month to serving Him, right where you are.
This sounds simple. It is! This sounds like it may not even make a dent in the needs of today. I trust that it will. Remember that time when Jesus was teaching for hours and His disciples realized that the crowds were probably hungry, over 5,000 of them? And our miracle-working God multiplied five loaves and two fish and fed them to satisfaction...with 12 baskets of food left over.
You were created for a plan and a purpose. God has you right where you are in order that you will seek Him and find Him. There is a role for you in sharing His message of salvation. Do not believe the lie that you are not valuable. Do not believe the lie that your contribution doesn't matter. Do not believe the lie that your faith is too small to do anything big for the Kingdom. Then get up and walk in the freedom and provision that the LORD has given you! Marvel in the Kingdom work that He is allowing you to participate in right where you are! Thank Him for letting you play a part...and tell others of what He shows you as you learn more about Who He is in this journey!
Blessings,
Keri
While we lived in Nazareth, I had the awesome privilege of having long discussions with my good Norwegian friend, Tor Ehrling Fagermoen. I learned a lot from this man, but there is one thing that has stuck out and stuck with me beyond the others.
You see while we were having our discussions (which we called speculations) inevitably our youngest, Ben, would interrupt asking me to do something. Normally it revolved around accessing the internet which I had zero control over. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it would not but I had no control over that. I am not sure the router was even located in our flat. Yet he would ask and if it was something I had no control over, I would tell him, "I am sorry buddy, but I can't help you right how because the internet is not working." Yet Ben would not accept this and would respond with, "please, Dad please!" We would go through this over and over and over. Some times it would end with Ben crying or me wanting to. Most of the times (I am sad to say) it would end with me getting visibly irritated.
One day after one of these times Tor said something really profound. He said about Ben with a big smile, "his faith in you is so strong and so solid that when you tell him you can't do something he doesn't believe you."
This hit me so hard that I have been reeling from it ever since. It has changed the way I respond to Ben (or at least the way I WANT to respond to Ben). I actually now want to foster that trust. I want to encourage it. I want to be that person for him.
Now I see why it is so important for us to have that child like faith in God. It's not that He wants, like me, to have that honor as his child but rather He knows that only He can affect the change that we desire. He wants us to come to him like Ben, so convinced that He can "fix it" that not even His "no" will deter the request.
May The Lord grow my faith in Him more and more and more. Thank you Tor, and Ben, for this valuable lesson.
Finishing our Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM left me with a pretty intense spiritual high. We had just come back from seeing (up close and personal) God do amazing things. We saw miracles, healings, experienced deliverances and saw people come to know Jesus as savior. I got to experience God in a way that I never had, but always knew was possible. Most importantly, there was a tangible presence of God I had never known before. His nearness was amazing, exhilarating, frightening, and fascinating. I had found the "place" I wanted to live the rest of my life. Not a physical location, but to live permanently in the presence of the Creator of the universe.
Yet arriving home was not at all what I expected. I got to see people I loved. I got go places I loved. I got to eat food I loved. Yet I felt like I was gasping for air. Reading my bible went from a joy filled delight to a struggle literally over night. Prayer was labored at best.
I knew that God did not spare His own Son to bring me near to Him. He was not the problem. It was not like He was hiding from me. He promised to never leave me or forsake me. He does not and cannot lie.
I desperately wanted to be near to Him. I have spent every single morning since returning crying out to Him to fix whatever was broken. I have asked Him to search me and see if there was any unclean thing in me. I heard nothing.
My desire was not the problem.
That really only left one culprit. Satan. A spiritual attack featuring fogginess, confusion, and a sense of hopelessness. I know many can be uncomfortable with such language, but that uncomfort does not lead you to freedom. I was not content to wait another second under this oppression. I had to fight and fight hard. I have been learning that the victory does not go to the talented or deserving. For the believer in Jesus, victory is secured... but only if we stay in the fight.
This morning at 4:16am my eyes snapped open and I knew the battle had been won. Morning and evening battling in prayer paid off. Whatever was on me or bothering me was broken and once again I felt His nearness.
I want to encourage you in the fight. Pray through until you get breakthrough. You cannot lose unless you give up.
He is certainly worth fighting for.
This is the time to fight and win. It is not ok for days to go by. It is not ok to call this a "season." Get up and start taking some spiritual swings. Don't stop until you know you have the victory.
The victory is yours....but only if you are still in the battle when the battle is finished.
This is the first post in a long awaited and hopefully streamlined attempt at communicating with everyone. The communication has been challenging at best. Thanks to Lore Ferguson and Sayable Design for helping us! We also want to thank Jonathon Allen for his technical expertise to get everything put together well! You guys are awesome.
The month of June has us meeting with people and preparing to board our plane for Berlin on 30 June. Currently we are still packing up and determining logistics of shipping. We still have a ways to go with support raising but The Lord is certainly providing. If The Lord places on your heart to partner with us in either our launch costs or monthly support we would be so appreciative! Simply click on the link on the home screen that says "Support Us."
You all have been so encouraging to us and we hope we are and can be an encouragement to you. We will have more posts coming shortly but for now we want to welcome you to the site.
We love you all,
The Campbells
Laying Down More Rights (Part II)Our Plans For This Summer
In one week we will be wrapping up our time of training. During this past season we have seen God do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think. It has been an amazing time. We have seen Jesus going from a much discussed theological reality to becoming a very present, very alive, and so very powerful God to be worshiped and enjoyed. The stories of God’s miraculous and amazing intervention and provision have been steadily building up over these past five months.
But as this time begins to come to a close our thoughts have begun to turn to “what’s next.” Obviously being in training and living in various time zones with spotty internet access (to say the least) we have essentially not been able to do any support raising at all for the past five months. Even before our training began we planned to spend the month of June meeting with people and finishing our support raising before heading to Berlin. But that was our plan. That was what we thought was needed. I mean let’s face it, we still do not have what we need. It’s a great cause right? It is needed, right? This is a worthwhile plan, right? But we are learning that that is not necessarily God’s plan.
One common theme that we have been convicted of is that it is not about us. I know we have all heard that and it sounds good but when push comes to shove it is much harder to live than we ever thought. Many of us are familiar with popular Christian books that start out that way and then spend the entire rest of the book stating the opposite. If we are not careful support raising can become a case of “think about these other people in this terrible condition and give to us so we can go do something about it.” That just seems to be a clever way of saying it is about us.
Through this training we have encountered a God who is far more intimate, far more personal, far more super natural than we ever imagined. We have encountered a God who deeply loves us and meets us in the middle of our hurts and struggles. We have encountered a God who has given us authority, in His name, to help people find meaningful healing to physical wounds, emotional wounds, and even soul wounds. We have encountered a God who has exposed and removed lies that the enemy has whispered in our ears for decades. We encountered a God who said “I will lead you and guide you with my hand upon you” and did it! We encountered a God who said “call to me and I will answer you and show you great and unsearchable things that you do not know” and then did it! We encountered a God who is still speaking and began learning to recognize His voice in the midst absolute chaos. We encountered a God who answers us when we ask Him and does not rely on us making our best guess. This is the God we encountered and this was the God we brought to the people we ministered to during our outreach phase of training.
But we also encountered the enemy of our souls. We encountered the one whom Jesus defeated on the Cross. We encountered the one who seeks to keep people in darkness. The one who speaks lies because he speaks from his character of lies. And we saw the power of Jesus overcome him again and again.
We know that many of you need a renewed revelation of an ever present Jesus. We know that many of you need to be encouraged in your faith. We know that many of you are in the battle of your lives and need someone to pray for you and with you….not from across the Ocean but across the table.
So we still want to meet with as many of you as possible, but we purpose in the Holy Spirit to meet with you for the purpose of ministering by the power of Jesus with you and not soliciting you. We lay that right down and we entrust it to the One who has been so amazingly faithful to us. In essence we want to continue doing what we have been doing for the past two months and what we will continue to be doing in Berlin….praying for and seeing the Kingdom of God come into the world that you live in.
We would love to speak with you about how God is giving us freedom from fear and anxiety. How God is dealing with us in the area of taking responsibility for your family and still fulfill all that God has called you to do. Basically we would like to take what God has done for us and offer it to you and see if perhaps that is something that God would use to bless you.
You will also have a change to see us in the following venues:
June 1rst – Elder Led Prayer; the Village Church Flower Mound Campus June 7th & 8th – Celebration Weekend Lobby; the Village Church Flower Mound Campus June 8th – The Brookside Convention Center Hurst, TX 1244 Brookside Hurst, TX 76053. The festivities start at 6pm we would love to see any who can come out!
So tomorrow evening we board a plane for phase two of this learning opportunity. There are so many things to say and words seem useless to convey all that is going on in our hearts. I thought I would try to put down a few observations with the hopes of expounding on these when we get to meet with you all in June. caveatThese are just random thoughts and do not necessarily relate to one another. *Complaining and thankfulness are choices that we make. I can choose to see the positive side of a situation and I can choose to see the negative. Every situation has both.
*Words have tremendous power to shape where our hearts go. Just like with complaining vs. thankfulness if I speak the complaint out there is something that takes root. Conversely the more I speak of my gratitude (even if I may not feel like it) there is also something that takes root. I used to violently object to this line of thinking but I have seen it proven true too many times now to think it is not valid.
*Living and working so closely to people from every part of the world, language and every socioeconomic background is just awesome. Cross-cultural living can be studied but it can also be lived out while being shepherded through the process. I highly recommend it.
*God is so much bigger than I ever, ever, ever thought. The amazing thing is that He really likes me (and you). He is not angry at me but if far more committed to my growth than I am.
*Pray is both absolutely necessary for survival and such a delight.
*If you dread going to prayer meeting, then you have never been to a real prayer meeting. Prayer is anything but boring.
*Long Rice soaked in Chicken Broth does not "look" appetizing.
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Finally, one of the most encouraging stories I have ever heard was this past week when a young man told us his story about how God took him to Ashkabad, Turkmenistan. He did not know how he would get there and it was closed to him. But God took him through a series of seemingly unrelated events and directions, through many countries, meeting many different people only to get him exactly where he was supposed to go.... 9 years later. The results were far more phenomenal than if he would have tried to force the issue, or worse, assume that he had misunderstood the call because it seemed to be closed off to him. In short he learned the principle of living by dying, winning by losing, gaining the promise by letting go. You can read his story in the book, "Imprisoned in Iran" by Dan Baumann
Here I am in the stillness of the early morning. The sun has yet to rise, but I see it. I know it's there. I saw it at 3:00am and I still see it at 5:49am.
Before you think I am delusional, let me explain.
Right now I can see the sun when I look at the beauty of the moon. The moon is large right now. The moon cannot go unnoticed right now. The moon is beautiful at this moment. The moon is so bright this early morning in March.
In gazing up at the moon in the wee hours of this morning, the Lord spoke to me.
"Did you know that you are like the phases of the moon?"
Wait, what??
"Yes! You are a reflection. You are an image bearer. You are a light, because of Me the Light, to the whole world."
And I sit.
Because it's a holy moment.
What phase do others see when the look at me?
If I am a Light bearer, am I noticed as a Light bearer? Or am I like the moonless night where there is no reflection of light at all? Utter darkness where a path cannot be seen. Hopeless. Oppressed. Confused. Disoriented. Have you ever looked up the word "new moon" in the bible and noticed the things that happened on that day? I have not studied it in depth, but there is no denying that this is significant in biblical history.
Am I like the sliver of light that people see in the young moon? A haze of light that is slightly seen in the shape of a curve. Not fully exposing all that is there, not even allowing the true shape of that which it is reflecting to be known. Kind of shy-like in the demonstration of that which true. Not bold at all, holding back in hesitancy of that made to shine ever so brightly.
Hmmm, or do I reflect the Light in the way of a crescent or half moon? Am I a faithfully reflecting the One true Light in certain situations, but have areas of darkness looming in my life? Do others see the Light at times, but see more of an umbra at others? Am I lukewarm? Do I obey in certain areas fully, but lack in knowledge and maturity in others?
Am I growing in maturity in areas where I feel confident to reflect this brilliant Light such that others see me in the phase of a gibbous moon? Have I died enough to flesh that what others see in me is the brilliance of Jesus, or is there just a bit of flesh still left that doesn't allow for His fullness to shine forth from my life?
My prayer is to be like the full moon that is in the sky right now. A full reflection of the absolute brilliant, stunning Light that is my Savior. Nothing in the way, no shadows over my life. But pure radiance of the Light of the world glowing ablaze for all the world to see. A faithful witness of what I know to be truth and steadfast love.
May it be.
"Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies."Psalm 89:37
This week we had a man from the German parliament speak to our class. He is a wonderful man of God and a powerful preacher. This man is a GREAT GREAT blessing for Germany.
Please lift up all members of the German Parliament. They are under tremendous pressure and they have a most difficult job.
Our God is a good God Who loves us soooooo much! When I sit around and think of His great love for me, I am dumbfounded. Completely astonished that He would love someone like me the way that He does!
We are currently raising support for our upcoming outreach. We have a goal of 500 people giving $14 dollars by Valentine's Day, February 14th! Here is an opportunity for you to jump in to this CrAzY love!! I was recently reminded by a dear friend that giving a financial blessing isn't always "Fun" as I often put in my "FUNdraiser" posts. On the flip side, raising support isn't always fun either...
Want to know when it IS fun? When someone comes to us and says that they see what we are doing and they see the Lord's hand in it and they want in on what GOD is doing. That is FUN for us! Because it is fun for them, the joy in the giving blesses soooooo many people!!
We invite you in to this great work that the Lord is already doing. He has invited us, and we invite you. For two months, our family will move to one of the least reached countries inside the 10/40 window. We count this as joy and an honor! We are excited and eager to get there and learn of His great love for US through these people! Come along!!
This love that we have from the Father, the love that Jesus demonstrated by His sacrificial life, the love that says, "I know everything that you have thought, said, done, and I still love you! I died for YOU! I want to be with YOU forever!" He is so, so good to us!! We want to share His great Love with everyone that we meet!! It is what He made us to do!!
If you want in on sharing this amazing Love with the lost across the world, here is an opportunity for you to give to our outreach fees which are due this month!
Let's see how many people we can get to give $14 by the 14th! Share this post, share our story! Share HIS story and let's sit back and see what He does!
Have fun with this! Teach your children about what it means to live your life sharing this amazing Love with those who have never heard of it! When you go out on a date with the one you love, talk about this great Love and how your relationship mirrors His love! Thank the Father for His outpouring of Love in Jesus Christ!
To give, just click here and follow the instructions. Blessings on you and those you love! We are CrAzY thankful to have you along on this amazing journey!!
Friends!! How are you?? You know we really want to know the answer to that! If you get a moment, shoot us a text or email...it truly makes our day! I am posting to make you guys aware of a need that our family has. As part of our amazing training, our family of five will be living in a different country for two months beginning at the end of March. We are absolutely thrilled about this and trust the LORD to do mighty things in hearts of the people we will be ministering to, as well as our own!
Okay, here is the need of the moment: We need money.
I don't know how else to say it, so I will just lay it out there! Ha! Y'all have been an amazing support for each one of us and have encouraged me to make all of our needs known, so here I am! :)
As most of you know, David quit his job in December and we have been living off of support since December 15, 2013. To be honest, I dreaded this time. But may I confess that the Lord has been faithful to provide and that His steadfast love for me and my family is known to me in new and beautiful ways?!
Because of the location and people that we will be ministering to we cannot speak of those things online for safety reasons. If you do not know where we are going or have questions about this time, please do not hesitate to give us a call!! If you don't have our numbers, leave a comment and we will be glad to give them to you.
Our plans are to return to Texas for a very short while after this training ends and then head out to the location and people whom the LORD has called us to for the next three years...while this is exciting and we are ready to just get there, this time of rest and soaking in of Jesus has been so very good for our souls. Thank you, each one of you, for helping us get to this point. Your financial and prayer blessings have meant the world to us and we are so very grateful!
If you would like to make a tax deductible financial blessing toward the work we will be doing WITH Jesus for two months, just head on over to this website and follow the instructions.
We humbly thank you for joining us in this great work!
Blessings,
The Campbell Crew
So this past week was definitely challenging. In a good, stretching kind of way. We were taught, through the example of Loren and Darlene Cunningham, some practical ways to follow Jesus. Some of them stung.
Like, really stung.
One quote that Mrs. Cunningham said really hit home. This is what she said,
"There is no place, in the woman of God, for self pity. Allowing self pity is a sure way to allow your zeal for God to be demolished."
Then, as if that wasn't enough, she gave some examples of self pity. I am thinking of sparing you those examples...
Naw, I'll share them with you and add some of my own.
*Ever make a special dinner for your family only to have your husband come home too late to enjoy it while it is hot?
*Ever throw a party for your child, only to have them say they wish it were maybe a different theme?
*Ever order something online and have it arrive the wrong size or color...or late?
*Wish you had different flooring?
*The money for the new flooring?
*Ever wish you were born into a different family?
*Have you dreamed and prayed for a man who loves Jesus, only to not have that prayer seemingly answered?
*Have you ever wished that Jesus didn't call you to the place He has you?
*Did you pray for children, receive them, and now it's the hardest thing you have ever encountered and overwhelms you daily?
I'll stop here. There are so many more ways to feel self pity, but I think you get the idea.
Satan loves to whisper thoughts in your ear that make you think you deserve more, that you don't deserve what you have (if it is hard or challenging), and that you are justified in plopping your self down in a big ol' comfy chair and having a little pity party about it.
Yes, and when you do that, in your mind or by physically throwing a little fit...you are allowing your zeal for God to slip away.
Your mind, your heart, is set on yourself. Not the Kingdom of God.
It's a hard truth, but I am here to confess that I do this.
And I also want to confess, I want to stop.
I have sat around thinking about all of the things that I deserve. I have wished that my life was different, that my family situations were different. I have known that I know what is best for my life and I have been disappointed that it didn't turn out that way. I have wanted to stay home and build a "Keri Campbell" kingdom instead of following Jesus around the world to build His. I have wanted my comfort over the comfort of others. My example of loving comfort has spilled over into my children, and although I see that, I have still continued in that comfort quest. Where we currently are, I have complained that things are not the way that I want them. I don't get to eat the way I like, which is healthy, organic, and whole...and I sit in self pity. I don't get to feed my kids the way I want, and I sit in self pity. I am hot, and the enemy whispers I should feel the comfort of an AC when I want it. I am awakened in the mornings because I am cold and that snake tells me that I deserve a blanket and a heater if my body is uncomfortable due to cold. Although we have a ceiling fan, it squeaks like a those little Squeaker shoes that toddlers wear times 100. I have complained in my self pity that I should be able to stop that noise. I have wondered why my children can't obey 100% of the time and been beyond frustrated when disciplining them interrupts my own desires. Let's stop this madness because we all can see that my self pity list is too long to type.
And honestly, it's a bit embarrassing.
When I dwell on these things, guess what I am NOT dwelling on?
The goodness of God. The faithfulness of my Lord. The steadfast love of my Savior. The joy of my salvation. Delighting in His law. His perfect plans for me to prosper. His promises. Things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, things worthy of praise. This list ALSO could go on and on.
The second challenging topic of teaching this week is that of laying down our rights to follow Jesus completely.
Yep.
Lay them down.
Because when we are carrying around our rights, we surely have a hard time carrying our own cross and being a true disciple. Remember when you were baptized and what that symbolized in your life?
A death to self and a raising up to walk in newness of life.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
I am so thankful for the sweet grace my Jesus offers!
Thankful that His mercy is new every single morning. 'Cause if I remember correctly, I have heard these things before. But something awakened in me this week that has been asleep for a while.
Or maybe I was focusing too much on self-pity and my zeal was demolished.
This week's teaching was a reminder to my heart that I am a new creation. A reminder to daily die to myself and fix my eyes on Jesus. A beautiful reminder that He is for me and not against me. That His plans for my life are good and perfect and full of true life and love.
I lay down my right to a home that looks the way I think it should look. I lay down the right to a comfortable income. I lay down the right to comfort. I lay down the right to think I know what is best for me and my family. I lay down the right to seek after my own good. I lay down the right to live this life the way that I want to live it. I lay down my right to be thought of as the perfect wife. I lay down my right for the praise of man. I lay down my right to get angry. I lay down my right to a flawless family heritage. I lay down my right to having to pick up after others in my home.
I lay down whatever rights I am holding onto that I am currently blind to.
So, I press on. Dying just a little more to self, Keri Campbell, to look a little more like Jesus every day. Focusing my attention on His kingdom and not my own. Loving my neighbor as myself and not myself alone. Singing of His praises not only with my mouth, but in my heart as well. Cleansing my mind of all unrighteous things and filling it back up with His goodness and truth. No longer kicking and screaming at the call placed on my life, but grabbing hold of the Hand that leads me and walking right by His side in peace and joy.
My invitation to you is to call me out when I get off track. When I start to complain, remind me of His goodness and provision. When I start to veer offtrack, will you gently be the body and bring me back in?
I long to follow Him with my whole heart and I long to put my own desires and dreams aside.
I know that He has more for me than I could ever offer myself.
I want to trust Him more than I trust myself. I want to love Him more than I love myself .I want to serve Him more than I serve myself. I want to honor Him more than I want to be honored. I want to seek His kingdom first before ever considering the thought of my own. I want to praise His name instead of longing for the praise of man.
By His strength alone I can do this.
By the power of His Spirit,
I will.
(These are just two of the topics the LORD placed upon my heart this week. What is He showing YOU about Himself? I would love to know!)
This is my desire, to honour You Lord with all my heart I worship You all I have within me I give You praise all that I adore is in You
Chorus:
Lord I give You my heart I give You my soul I live for You alone Every breath that I take Every moment I'm awake Lord have Your way in me
This is my desire, to honour You Lord with all my heart I worship You all I have within me I give You praise all that I adore is in You
We are part of a tribe who values the word of God. Last night you may have been able to tune into the Thursday Night Gathering in Ohana Court. Bruce Kuhn, an accomplished Broadway Actor did an awesome job of telling the story of Paul by quoting/re-enacting LARGE portions of the book of Acts, Galatians, Philippians, and the last chapter of Romans. It was so awesome! What was strange was the before story. On Wednesday we did local outreach. We had two encounters with two different couples. One from South Dakota and the other was a Buddhist couple from Tokyo, Japan. The encounters were friendly, lively, and engaging but just did not appear to yield any fruit. It has been my habit of taking my gospel encounters back to the Lord for constructive feedback. He promised that if I would follow Him He would make me a fisher of men. So I asked Him, "Lord what did you think about these? What did I do right? What did I do wrong?" He gently said, "stick with telling my stories, you will be ok." There is something that rises within you when you know you have heard from the Lord.
The next lady (at work in a local market) we spoke to quickly began to tell me of her niece who lives in Frisco, TX and hates it. She told me the stories of how judgmental and fake the people in Frisco are (we know we have readers in Frisco -- I am just retelling the story). I asked if there was anything I could do or if there was any way I could help. She seemed to be moved that I would even offer, but feeling as though these are my people, I felt I should offer. I then said I would be happy to pray for her. This unleashed a flurry of stories about how church leaders in the Dallas area have brought severe judgement to this young lady.
So I said, "can I tell you a story about another young woman whose activities ran her afoul of the religious leaders of her day?" She said YES!. So I told her the story from John 8. She was incredibly engaged in the story and was so eager to find out what Jesus did to this person. We did not get to really adequately finish the story but the lesson was well learned for me, stick with the stories of Jesus. Learn the art of story telling.
So I asked the Lord if He would teach me to tell stories like He did. Then, as you may have seen, on Thursday Bruce Kuhn presented to our assembly speaking of the need to 'stick to the stories.' So I asked the Lord again if He would teach me and I sent off an email asking for more information about the Word by Heart school here in Kona. THEN, we walk the kids to their class and run into Bruce. He invited us to his class this morning where we got to sit and watch 5 or 6 people retell a large portion of the Gospel of Luke in both English and German! It was an incredible experience and extremely powerful.
One thing I noticed is that even though I do not speak German very well, a good story teller, helps bridge the language gap. I knew pretty close what these ladies were saying in German!
It is fun to walk through this time. Walking with our Lord is an adventure unlike anything we can dream up on our own.
As I sit and typing this post, there are many precious children here in our home. When I consider the verse, “Children are a blessing from the LORD “, I am almost in tears as I soak up this very present truth.
The children in my home are from across the globe. That I know of, they are from the States, Australia, Norway and Korea.
They laugh. They cry. They get angry when they don’t get their way. They get hungry. They like sugar. They love to play. They are very silly.
They are all a bit sad to not be home.
A handful of them are NOT going back to the home they left. They are heading out to the place the LORD has called them.
All of these children love.
And, may I add, they love well.
There is a bond with these children that has so easily formed. With some of them the language barrier is thick and often funny. It amazes me the amount of time they can play together without fully understanding each other!
All of these kiddos have sat in “family meetings” and heard the phrase, “God is calling our family to (you fill in the blank)”. They have prayed with their families. They have dreamed with their families. They have stepped out in faith with their families.
They have left the comfort of their home. As an adult, can I confess…that’s a hard one?.?. ;)
And let’s face it, with about one month under their belts, it has hit home with a lot of them.
They miss their homes.
But God, He’s rich in mercy and rich in love.
Here these kids have found other blessings from the LORD. Oh how thankful I am for all the little blessings running around this place!
Tonight it hit me that the blessings, the gifts described in this passage, they are not just for parents.
From the text, I gather that they are not to be dismissed by them either, but rather to be used.
As I read on in the verse, the writer goes on to say, “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are the children of one’s youth.”
He likens children to arrows in the hand of a warrior.
Google tells me that a “warrior” is “a brave or experienced soldier or fighter.”
Huh.
It’s so interesting that God’s inspired word likens children to arrows to be used by a warrior.
Let’s think for a minute about what an arrow is used for.
They are used in battle or as a weapon in defense.
In my previous post I shared some of our current opportunities to lean in closer to the LORD. Right now we are very aware of the spiritual battle that is always going on. There seem to be times and seasons when we are more aware of this battle, but if I am honest, a lot of times we kinda forget .
Reading this scripture tonight, with a room full of arrows from all over the world, I am reminded to use them. To bring them into the fight. Not to dismiss them or act as if we do not have some sort of defense. Because the bible tells me that the man that fills his quiver with them is blessed. That he shall not be put to shame when he speaks with or other translations say “subdue” his enemies in the gate.
I am not sure how many arrows a quiver can hold, but reading on I see that it’s the MAN that fills his quiver with them.
Wait, what?
Did you catch that children are a blessing from the LORD, meaning the filling the womb is from the LORD. But in verse 5 there is some sort of change that authorizes MAN to fill his quiver with them? (ESV)
“Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.”
I’ve never seen that shift until tonight.
I may be some sort of chicken, but my confession to you is that if I am going into battle I want to have as many weapons as I can get…
I am in a battle.
So are you.
Here’s the deal; I don’t have a quiver.
The good thing is, I don’t think I physically need one.
God’s word tells me later on in the book of Ephesians that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
If that is the kind of battle we are in, and children are like arrows in a warriors hand…
I’m gonna make sure I fill our home with them.
Our downtime with them.
Our dinnertime with them.
Our life with them.
Y’all, children are a blessing from the LORD! A blessing in this great and mighty battle that we are ALL in!
When I picture a warrior with his pouch full of arrows strapped securely upon his body, I imagine the arrows to be packed in tightly together. Don’t you?
Which brings me to current revelation…all of the children packed tightly in this small home tonight are somehow in different ways heading out to battle.
Although it is noisy, there is peace. There is joy that is filling this place from floor to ceiling. Stresses are gone. Cares are forgotten. Life is full and it is good. The anxiety, the sadness, the worried hearts and cares that filled this room just a couple days before are gone. It honestly feels like a fight has been won. Victory has been had here and in the hearts of my children.
“In His presence there is fullness of joy.”
I want to fill our every place, our every “quiver”, with children because I know that the LORD sees fit to use them in this battle that is constantly going on around us. We fully include our own children as part of our missions team and know the LORD will use them as He sees fit. If they are our own children, great! If they are children with from other parents, great! I trust my God when He says that they are a blessing. I trust Him in this truth as I have felt it myself tonight!
By the way, do you realize how far an arrow can go?
Thank you, LORD, for children. For my own and for the ones that are in this battle all over the world. You are a good and perfect God and you give good and perfect gifts. May we constantly be reminded of these gifts and include them in the battle…not just push them to the wayside while we attempt to war without the weapons you have placed within our hands.
home hōm/ noun the place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of a family or household.
It's been 25 days. Twenty five days ago we left Texas. A couple of months before that, we left our cute,comfy home in Keller, Texas to live with my dear grandmother. A little change is fun once in a while. All five of us love my Granny so much, and living with her for about two months was really loads of fun. Especially since we were there around the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Her home is familiar to us all. In fact, it is the only home in our family now that I have known all of my life, and the same with our children. When the LORD called us to follow Him across the globe, He called us to follow Him across the globe. Funny how I kinda thought that we would just show up and start life like we had left it. Change is sometimes sudden and abrupt. Most mission organizations require or highly recommend cross cultural training before individuals or families head out into their new life. I often sit and wonder what Sarai thought when Abram told her they were packing up and heading out. Like, what she really thought. We applied to the University of the Nations at Kona, Hawaii and were graciously accepted. This particular school was a desire for us because they provide outstanding training for our children as well. Our children have also been called to go to the Nations with us. So, we packed up and headed out. David, sick with the flu. Our children, mostly clueless as to the depth of what was happening. Me, trapped in a surreal feeling that I just couldn't shake. Were we really doing this? It didn't seem real. Did we really have all that we needed for five months (honestly, from here on out.) in our four suitcases and five carry-ons? My husband quit his job. Would we be provided for? And I mean provided for in all ways. Change can be really scary sometimes. When we got off the bus from the airport, Emma immediately threw up. Aloha. When I touched her head, I found she was hot with fever. It seemed to hit her suddenly and I was shocked. Ben had been struggling with a cough and fever, but had seemed better...now HE was also having a hard time. We unloaded our family, met some people, then headed to the clinic on campus. Emma was on the exam table, dressed for January in Oregon and now in Hawaii. Fever of 104 and achy all over. She was crying because of the way she felt, and apologizing that she was keeping us from getting settled into our new place. She is generous and thoughtful like that. With my oldest crying and my youngest sobbing in my arms, I did what any calm, in control mom would do. I broke down and cried too. And the doctor just held my hand and right away prayed aloud for me. Sometimes we just need someone to hold our hand and right away pray aloud for us. This doctor said that both children needed an antibiotic for the junk taking over their lungs. She handed us some papers and we walked out. And I began to wonder, "How do we get to the pharmacy? Where IS the pharmacy?" We don't have a vehicle. A sweet new friend took David to the nearest Walmart. I took the kids in our room, our new home. In this new room, Emma threw up from heat and fever. I had no towels. I had no cleaning supplies. So I did what any calm, in control mom would do. I sat and held my daughter while she was crying and I cried too.
Change can bring some unexpected twists and turns.
As my new friend, Marcia, would say, it was time to "suck it up princess!" (She spoke this of herself while giving a testimony in class one day.)
Towels and cleanser were delivered to my door and I began cleaning up the sickness. Sad that things weren't going the way I planned them, but not out of selfishness...I was sad for my girl. For my boys, who were just sitting on the plastic chairs in our new home. Ben, who couldn't stop coughing to catch a breath, and Jacob who was wondering if this was really our new home. Sad and scared because I want my children to get a good taste of following Jesus. Not a taste of bitterness and difficulty. Confession: I wanted that for myself too. Doesn't sound too much like dying to self, does it?
That day grew more intense as Emma began hallucinating in the night and Ben could not breathe without having horrible coughing spasms. For a moment in the night I began to panic. I had no clue where the hospital was or even how to get an ambulance if we needed one.
Change can seem overwhelming as time reveals more of what has really changed.
That next day we needed to go to the ER or urgent care for Ben. He wasn't better and his cough was getting worse. How would we get there? This school has shuttles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for two hours from 6PM-8PM. Those shuttles would not start until the next week of school as they are driven by student volunteers. Oh, and they only go to two locations...the hospital not being one of them. A dear new friend offered to take us. This sweet soul spent the whole day with us and our sick Ben. So the children slowly got better and we began to settle in. We homeschooled our children in Texas. Ben just turned five in December and technically would not start kindergarten until this coming Fall. Things are different here. The children go to school from 8:00am until about 2:45pm almost everyday of the week. Thankfully, Emma and Jacob are in the same class. Ben is in a different class. It is really hard on him. This life change is hard on him. It is a lot for a newly turned five-year-old to take in. His heart is crying out for stability and security. My momma heart is screaming that I am here for him, that he is safe and secure in our love and arms. He wants to be near us more during the day, and that is breaking my heart.
Change can be hard and make you question if you are doing the right thing.
There is a "friend" in class with the older two who is angry that his family is here. He is verbally and physically taking his anger out on my first son. Jacob's tender heart just wants acceptance from this child. It was revealed to us why the kid is acting this way, and thus we were given an opportunity to pray for him. To pray for Jacob in a new way. To teach Jacob how to pray for this boy who is hurting him. It's hard.
Despite our address, we are not on vacation. This is our new life.
I have heard the verses talking about dying to self and taking up my cross to follow Jesus. But they didn't really seem to come alive like they do today. I can't hop in my car and go where I want to go today. We don't have the income we had two months ago. We have to be cautious and thoughtful about spending. Walking a fine line between fear and trust.
I know God's word to be true. Like, I know it deep in my soul. His word says that in His presence there is fullness of joy. I am constantly reminded that if I am not experiencing "fullness of joy" I should consider if I am in His presence.
And in this new way of dying to self, there really is fullness of joy. It doesn't look like I thought it would. But does death ever look like we thought it would?
Taking up my cross...somehow those words never struck me like they have now. Like, I think I thought I was actually doing that already. Confession; I wasn't. So here, I don't get to choose what I eat or what my family eats. I don't get to adjust the AC or Heat. We don't have that. Ants are everywhere in our home, so are spiders and geckos. If we want to go out to eat, it is a challenge and not a spontaneous type thing like we are used to. Outside the campus is a highway that does not have a sidewalk. Many have been killed or seriously injured walking on the side of that road. Drunk drivers and drug use is prevalent here.We share two washers and dryers with 20+ people and I have to sign up to use them. Sometimes I forget and lose my chance. David and I don't have a bedroom with four walls and a door that we can close. Neither do the children. All windows are open and that means we can hear all the things that go on outside, from goats and wild pigs to basketball games. This also means that everyone outside can hear all that is going on in our home. (Like Ben crying because he can't have his way.)
Last night it hit my girl that this way of life isn't ending soon. She came to my bed crying hysterically, "Mom, I miss home so much that I don't know what to do!"
So I did what any calm and in control mom would do...Yep, you guessed it. ;)
This world is not our home and we know that well. But this new home, this new life, makes us yearn for our eternal home much more. I tried to convey that to the one the LORD has entrusted to me and to David. Thinking, "Maybe saying it out loud will give life to the words that my own soul needs so badly to hear." There is a soul satisfaction that only eternity with Jesus can and will bring. I am praying that our children get that. That somehow in this time, the Spirit speaks to the deepest parts of their souls that He is enough. That things and circumstances may physically and emotionally satisfy for a moment, but that He is the only steadfast, unending soul satisfaction. I want them to know this. I want to know this. When our time here in Kona ends, we are not returning to our cute and comfy home in Keller, Texas. This training is like a bridge to the journey He has for us in Berlin, Germany. It feels much like we are training for a marathon...and if you know me, you know that running does not come easy for me. Especially, long distance. I am more of a sprinter. But God is a marathoner, in it for the long haul...and I am created in His image...so that long distance running, that race, is within my ability, but only by His strength and power.
So, I'll lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and I'll run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of my faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. There are many other areas of opportunities which challenge us to press into the LORD more and trust in His faithfulness and goodness. Areas like the support from our home church, financial provision for our outreach, physical and emotional care for our children, preparation for our life in Germany. When we take our eyes off of Jesus, we begin to feel a sinking feeling. Fear and anxiety attempt to take over and steal the joy the LORD has for us in His presence. So we strive to remain in His presence. Because we truly love joy. True joy, that comes only from our Jesus. Change can be a good thing when it strips away all that you think you need and places you in the safe embrace and care of the Savior.
This blog post has been long overdue. Life here in Kona has been hectic and extremely restorative. It has been a great time to refocus as a family and find a rhythm of worship, life, and seeking The Lord. We want to be careful to paint an accurate picture of life here in Kona - because we encourage you to come do a Discipleship Training School, BUT also we want you to be prepared for what you will encounter.
We are learning numerous things.
1. Opportunities Versus Problems - there are different ways and grids through which we view the world. We can see things are problems or opportunities. Let's face it, we are on a large base with a LOT of people from all over the world who have to be fed on very little money. You can interpret that as indicative of terrible food, or an opportunity to learn to praise Jesus for provision of what we have. We choose the latter and are blessed to be surrounded by others from around the world who are reminding us of the same. We live in quite close quarters with lots of native wild life. You can look at this as quite inconvenient, or you can see this as quite the God honoring ecosystem going on in our apartment. We choose the latter.
2. Learning Different Cultures - We might have thought, previously, that we were more in tune with what God was doing globally. Prepping to be a missionary tends to focus your attention on books and speakers who speak often of our global God. We might have been able to go to a class and learn how to adapt to different cultures, but The Lord chose to allow us to live among other cultures for an extended period of time as a way to experience and get to know other them better. European, SE Asian, NE Asian, Central Asian, Australian, Indian, South American, and North American. All living and worshipping together...bonding for life. We have been blessed with some wonderful Norwegian friends who have shown us that God is doing amazing things in Norway. A country that was previously not on our radar before! This past week during our intercession training we were blessed by a young Korean husband and wife who were praying over Keri and me. The young man started in English and prayed for a short time, then stopped and said, "now I pray in my mother tongue." I have no idea what he was saying but the power of God was so thick in that place that we could do nothing but sit there and cry. It was loud and intense and one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.
3. Learning To Hear Gods Voice - The bible says that all those led by the Spirit belong to God. Jesus said "my sheep hear my voice and they follow me." Obviously the pharisees knew scripture but were not led by the Spirit. We all know people who know LOTs of scripture but exhibit precious little love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (fruit of the Spirit). I used to think that God only spoke through the logos word but faith comes from hearing and hearing from the rhema word of God. The statement for us was "we will follow you anywhere God, as long as we know it is you leading us. We just finished this topic as the first week of lecture and it was an extremely powerful time. We are thankful The Lord intimately guides and directs His people and we are not left to read the bible and come up with our best guess as to direction.
4. Local Outreach - This is where we learn to be sensitive to the Spirit directing us as we engage people with the Gospel. We will put this into practice locally in preparation for our bigger outreach.
- Outreach - This will be a time, at the end of lecture phase, in which we go out as teams to put into practice all that God has taught us. As of this writing this will be a two month outreach in either India or Isreal. Do we know where we are going yet? No. Do we know what we will be doing yet? No. Do we trust that The Lord will tell us and direct us if we will A) ask Him and B) wait for His answer? Absolutely! We are still in need of raising the necessary funds for the outreach but we trust that The Lord will provide.
6. Finances - This has been one of the most joyful things that we have been learning. We are so blessed to be part of an organization that believes in the living by the faith that they encourage us to have. It obviously takes money to run this place. When we first inquired about applying we told them that we did not have the money. We were told, "just get here, we are confident that if you are supposed to be here The Lord will provide." Somehow.....The Lord provided the lecture fees just before we left Texas. Then He replaced them just as we arrived. What an awesome God! We are still trusting Him for the fees for our outreach and do not know where they will come from, but we will move forward knowing He will provide. Do not think for a minute that this is not part of training! It is IMPERATIVE that we learn to trust God and move forward even when the provision does not look probable. So many agencies want to know you are fully funded before releasing you to the field. In the bible there seems to be very few time God directs His people to move only AFTER they know where there provision comes from. This is a discipline and a lesson for us and we are thankful. We get to know the heart of our Father and understand His ways and know were we are to look for provision. God certainly does a lot through other agencies who take different approaches, but this is the path God has chosen for us and we are grateful to walk it.
This is likely quite disjointed, but we wanted to get a little more thoughts down in writing. We are thankful for you all! You have all played such a wonderful part in our lives. If any of you are considering missions and feel like your faith is just too small to venture out...we encourage you to come here! If you are simply at a crossroads (side note, "Crossroads" is the name of our school!) in your life and want to see if God has more for you, then this is certainly the place for you! We have met many who do not know if they are called to international missions they are simply here to see how God may direct them.
We are praying for you all and so thankful for our team miles away! It is a blessing to us to have you all cheering us on!
While we were preparing to come to Hawaii for our training we would share with people what the upcoming five months would possibly look like for us. A common refrain that we heard from a lot of people was something to the effect, "I wish I could go to Hawaii in January for missions." I am not going to lie, I hated hearing that. It seemed liked an insinuation that we are going to play while the rest of the world has real jobs. Unfortunately, what I heard and what was being said where two different things. But I did not know that until yesterday on our final descent into KOA airport. The Lord brought this statement that has bothered me back to mind but this time He let me hear what was really being said.
What He showed me was being said was, "I wish I knew my Father loved me enough to do something like that for me." This has suddenly brought into clear focus the hundreds of people that we have talked to who tell us that The Lord has put something on their heart but life just happens to be in the way. They cannot see how they will pay for it or any number of other concerns.
This morning a dear friend texted me just as The Lord was speaking to my heart about these matters:
"The difficulty with today is that everybody is sure of everything. The proud man cannot worship God any more than the proud devil can worship God. Without mystery there can be no worship. If I can understand God then I cannot worship God. I will never get on my knees and say, "Holy, Holy, Holy" to that which I can figure out. But the more I know God the less I understand Him." A.W. Tozer
You see, what The Lord is calling us into can only be sustained through a deep knowledge of how much The Lord loves us. If we are shaky on that we will be shaky on everything. How can we tell people of a God who loves them enough to die for them if we are unsure if He loves us enough to get us through the day? We may not understand what He is going to do or how He will do it but we must be secure in His love for us.
So here is what God did. Before our first flight took off I had to make an enormous payment to come to this training that took nearly everything we had. Walking into the unknown. By the time we landed the plane, The Lord had replaced it all. Walking on water.
"Don't ever doubt the love I have for you, David"
Last night our family met a wonderful Armenian (I am not trying to say Arminian) man working to make ends meet by crafting aluminum Christmas ornaments. He served in the Russian army for a number of years and was wounded and lost the use of his legs. He has been in a wheel chair since he was 19 years old.
His name is Gagik and we told us how his pension from the Russian army is the equivalent of $70 per month and explained some of the atrocities that his people have been enduring at the hands of neighboring countries. He admitted that both he and his people live with a lot of bitterness and feel abandoned by those who should care.
Gagik made small heart-shaped ornaments for the kids and I asked his how I could pray for him. He was not opposed to me praying but was pretty convinced that there was nothing that would happen. I grabbed his hand and began to pray. There was an immediate war going on inside me to both pray for the healing of his legs and to not. I could hear loudly and clearly that I should not pray for his legs because if God did not come through on this that Gagik would be left thinking that God does not care. I was just getting blasted with the thoughts that I was going to do more damage by risking praying for his legs.
But one thing that The Lord has been teaching me is that I am NEVER EVER to allow fear to be a motivation for doing or not doing anything. Fear is not from God! So I rejected the fear and prayed for his legs and the full restoration of his legs. When I was done I asked if he would attempt to move them.
Nothing.
I shared with Gagik why I pray for people and what God has done in my life and that God loves him. I told him about the restoration of all things in Jesus, but I saw nothing change.
Yet I am convinced that God has not changed. I am convinced God does heal. I am convinced that sometimes He heals in natural ways (healing) and I am also convinced that He acts outside of the normal natural laws (miracles). I am ABSOLUTELY convinced that Jesus loves this man! My goal is not to fix my attention on what I see but to keep my attention on Jesus.
In Luke 10:9 Jesus was sending 70ish of his guys out and told them to 'heal the sick and to preach.' This was part of the command. He never took it back. These were not his Apostles, these were nameless, faceless guys that Jesus sent out. We do not get the option of picking and choosing what parts we will obey.
I have had the joy praying for people and seeing God heal them but this was a lot bigger than anything I have prayed for in the past. At least in my mind. But I will not stop. It was part of what we are told to do an we wish to be obedient. I believe Jesus wants to save and I believe that He is also in the business of healing and restoring people this side of heaven as well.
I want to encourage you, as you seek opportunities to share the gospel, to not get hung up on thinking you need to protect God. He really is quite good at protecting Himself. Who knows what God might do?
**The Lord has called us to raise 100% of our prayer and financial support. We still have a long way to go and would ask that you would ask The Lord how He would have you partner with us in this endeavor. Please Click Here To Join Our Monthly Support Team.
Yesterday we went to a service to honor the passing of the mother of a great friend of ours into the presence of our Lord Jesus. As we were getting ready, Keri's grandmother offered to buy take out, so that we would not be delayed and could still eat lunch together. When I was ordering the food at the take out counter I asked the young lady if there was a way that I could pray for her. She just looked at me in stunned silence for what seemed like an eternity. I am learning to not get antsy during these times but allow God to do whatever it is that God is doing. She finally said, "I just learned my whole family is moving out of state and I am in school and I having to stay here by myself and I am scared and stressed. Will you pray for me?" So I began praying over her there at the counter. It was not a long prayer but as I prayed I seemed to be carried along in terms of what to say and how to pray for her encouragement. When I was finished praying she thanked me quite profusely through tears. I have found that it is times like this I get to explain why I am eager to pray for people because of what God has done in my life through Jesus and what Jesus has done on their behalf.
Because we live currently live in the Bible Belt every person believes they know God. Every person considers themselves Christian. You will run into exceptions but not that often. So what do you do in a situation like this?
It is best to NOT ask a question like "are you a believer" or "do you know Jesus?" At least not in the Bible Belt. It has been most effective, in my opinion, to ask a question of relation. "Do you consider yourself near or far from God?" You will be surprised by the answers because most people, while professing see themselves as far from God. Then you can say something to the effect, "Jesus came to bring those who are far from God near to Him. Let me tell you how He did that for me and how Jesus made this possible."
The Lord has called us to make disciples and be based, for a time, in Berlin, Germany. While He has called us there we hear, often, that people say they are "confident" that God has called them to be "here." My intent is not to debate that confidence but rather to encourage you, if that is you, to be effective where you are. Seek these people out. Jesus said that He is working right now, your job is to find it. Ask Him and see who is open to hearing more. What might happen if every day you shared Jesus this way with at least one person?
If you are interested in supporting us we invite you to be a part. We are currently in need of raising monthly and/or one-time gifts to support this ministry. If The Lord has placed this on your heart you may give your tax-deductible donation here.
Being iced in has given a much needed break from the hustle and bustle that has become our life. For the last 6-8 months we have worked diligently in ministry, raising kids, raising support, working full-time, and trying to keep all of the juggling balls in the air at the same time. Then The Lord graciously allows us a time of rest and relaxation. We cannot go anywhere, we can't meet with anyone, we don't have internet, we are just forced to unwind.
Yet even in this I see the days and hours ticking away. I feel the need to meet with more people because we have not raised our support yet. There is a part where I feel that old familiar anxiety knocking on the door of my heart.
Then this morning the Holy Spirit graciously whispered to us the He is a God of details. It is amazing how this word spoken in my heart caused my faith to grow. Faith truly does come for hearing and hearing from the rhema of God!
Formerly I was under the impression that I must pray and ask God for wisdom and then I could make the choice I wanted or the one that seemed best to me.
It is not in man who walks to direct his steps - so says Jeremiah. I can look to and trust that God will order my every step if I will be careful to stop and listen to Him.
Last night I started watching a show on Netflix called "Russia's Toughest Prisons" in which they detailed a prison near Kazakhstan called "Black Dolphin." I did not watch more than 10 minutes of the documentary but I began to meditate on something that I thought I would share. I began to wonder how I would walk with The Lord in a situation in which I am totally isolated from humanity or in a situation that I did not control. When we lived in our former house, I had a routine in which I would get up early and go into my office and commune deeply with The Lord. These became times that I deeply enjoyed and reveled in. I began to see how you can have hours alone with The Lord and still find yourself wanting more and more. This was a tremendous time of growth for me.
Yet this month has found me in a small house (for which I am incredibly thankful) and no places to withdraw to. Then we have been iced in for a couple of says in which driving to a Starbucks or some other place has been prohibited. So watching this documentary was something The Lord began to reveal to me how much "location" and "structure" has become what I have relied on for my walk with Him.
When I have my location and routine then I see that I have tremendous blessing but when that routine is interrupted I find I am struggling. Yet we see Jesus retiring to the wilderness to be with the Father only to see Peter interrupt him to tell Him people are looking for him. (oh, How He understands me!)
What God has called us to in Berlin and beyond requires that the forms and structures look different from what we are accustomed to. Yet I find that as much as I thought I embraced that concept I am still tied heavily to the old.
For a while now I have felt as though I could hear from The Lord while I am quiet and in prayer but I have struggled when in the hustle and bustle of day to day life. I would see how Jesus was walking with and in the Spirit while there was a TON of stuff going on around Him. This became my prayer that God would teach me this.
Now I see that this is exactly what He is teaching me. May the lesson not be lost on me.
take away the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness. Proverbs 25:5
Our goal is to see the Kingdom of God come in power on the earth, especially in Berlin, Turkey, and Central Asia. What prevents this now? The god of this world (satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. When a person does not respond to God it is because they are listening to the voice of the enemy and not the voice of God.
Pray earnestly today that God would remove any wicked influences that would prevent the Gospel from spreading in Berlin and the United States. Pray that counselors to presidents and kings and chancellors and mayors will walk in righteousness and counsel in righteousness. If they will not walk in righteousness pray that God would physically remove them from the presence of authority. Also pray earnestly against and for the binding of all wicked spiritual influences that prevent the gospel from moving forward.
Sometimes it is necessary to ask God to remove the wicked counselors from the presence of those in authority. Even if we live in a pagan world may God raise up a generation of Daniels or Josephs who will counsel those in power according to righteousness.
I am blown away today by the fact that God listens and responds to my prayers. I am amazed that I can come into His presence! It is amazing that He loves me. May I never take this for granted!
It's Friday, y'all! Word on the street is that it is going to be a COOL Fall weekend! Yippeee! Bring on the Pumpkin Patch weather! (Anyone else take their children to the Pumpkin Patch for some sweet fall photos, only to snap the memories of sweaty, red-faced babes?!?)
Today, I wanted to spotlight another donor family, Kari and Shane Lewis! We met the Lewis family though our church. Below is a little information about who they are and how their family came to be. We LOVE adoption and the picture it paints of what the LORD has done to adopt US into HIS family forever! We are grateful for the Lewis Family, their donation toward our ministry in Germany, and their friendship along the way! We pray blessings over each one of you!
Enjoy as Kari tells about her precious family!
"We have four kids; Avery is 8, Judson and Cade are 6years old (4months apart), and Asher is 6months old. It is fun to tell people the boys are 4 months apart and watch them try to figure out how that is possible. No one would ever guess that Judson was adopted, and might even pick out Cade if they had to guess! We decided to foster when the boys were 3 years old and I have to admit it was nice to get my "twins" after the midnight feedings, diaper changes, and potty training were over! (Fun fact, I am a twin myself! There are FOUR sets of twins in my family. My dad was a twin, and I have two sets of nieces and nephews who are twins! Also, my husband and my twin sister's husband have the same birthday..even the same year!) We have no doubt Judson was made for our family and our family grew by more than one child when we adopted him. Even though it was through CPS, we decided to have an open adoption with Judson's biological family, giving all the kids one more set of grandparents to spoil them! We see Judson's mom, aunt, and grandparents every couple of months.
I am homeschooling the three oldest for the first time this year because we felt called to do it...even though the decision seemed insane right after the birth of #4! Asher was our "surprise baby". We found out we were pregnant shortly after Shane's grandpa died from cancer, my dad died from pulmonary fibrosis, and my brother-in-law died suddenly from a massive heart attack in May and June of last year. We were still grieving and having a hard time accepting the pregnancy...until God gave us his name. He made it clear that we should name him Asher, and that's when we knew we were having a boy...months before the ultrasound confirmed it. His name means "happy, blessed". A great reminder that in the midst of pain and suffering, we are definitely blessed! AND, Asher is the happiest baby I know!"
If you are interested in participating in this Puzzle FUNdraiser, please click here and designate "Puzzle Fundraiser"
Our very first puzzle piece donation was from Amanda Sullivan and her sweet family. We have been blessed to know Mrs. Sullivan through our time at Coram Deo Academy. Amanda taught 2nd grade there before receiving the sweet blessing of her daughter, Hadley! A fun fact about the Sullivan family is that Amanda's husband, James Sullivan, is co-owner of the car that won the Indianapolis 500 this year! Isn't that amazing! Amanda is beautiful on the outside and the inside. Her heart for others is so precious and an inspiration to watch. Even after becoming a stay at home mom, she couldn't resist meeting a group of us at a children's hospital in Fort Worth to pray for one of her former students. This was a blessing to my heart as well as the sweet child's who saw Mrs. Sullivan from her hospital window!
Sullivan Family, we are blessed by you and pray blessings from the LORD over your gorgeous family!
To purchase a Piece of the Puzzle visit us here!
Who in the world doesn't love a good challenge?! Honestly, I think it is the reason why people love to sit and work on a difficult puzzle together. So that in the end, you can exclaim, "WE DID IT!!" Right? Have you been there? Given up on that crazy hard puzzle where every.stinking.piece.looks.the.same, only to come back to it after a family member found a couple more pieces that fit just right?? When it comes to a challenge, sometimes it is just more fun to work as a team!
Okay. Here's where YOU come in to being a PIECE to the PUZZLE that God is putting together in Berlin, Germany. (See what I did there?) Our family purchased a puzzle illustrating all of the key landmarks of Germany. This box'o'challenge will arrive at our doorstep sometime this week. (Thank you, AmazonPrime!!)
YOU are going to join our team, Team Berlin, by helping us put this puzzle together! YOU will become a PIECE of God's mission work in Germany! Are YOU excited?!?!
Here is how it will work:
We will not begin the work of putting the pieces together until they are purchased by donors. SO that means we cannot put the pieces together until two have been donated. :)
YOU will get the opportunity to purchase puzzle pieces at your own monetary discretion. Now, this IS a FUNdraiser, and as my friend Rachel pointed out to me we "are going to Germany not Abilene!" That being said, the smallest donation per piece will be $5...but there is NO cap on the HIGHEST donation. (Did you hear that? NO CAP!)
When you purchase a puzzle piece, I will write your name on the back of the it and our family will pray for you and your family. We will then post it on our blog along with a fun~fact about Germany. We will be putting this puzzle together on a large piece of glass so that we will be able to see the top and the bottom, a beautiful reminder of those who have joined in what the LORD is doing across the world!
How to purchase a puzzle piece:
CLICK HERE
This is the hard part...YOU have to FILL out some information. I am so sorry! I know it's a pain!! But it means the WORLD to us!! And it's fun, remember??!! Okay, fill that stuff out and, this is IMPORTANT...where it says Use My Gift For The Initiative Designated By The Follow Account: In "Further designation details" PLEASE PUT "PUZZLE FUNDRAISER" in that box. That will help us determine who is giving specifically to this FUNdraiser!
Did I mention that your gift is tax deductible? It is!! Yay for YOU!!
We will use the funds received to get to Germany. It costs a LOT of money to move internationally. Like, a LOT! So, with our whole hearts we thank you for being a part of our team in this way! The second you purchase a puzzle piece, you will join a mission team! Our prayer is that this will ignite conversations around the dinner table regarding God's heart for missions...We can also throw out some conversation starters as donations come in. We hope that you are encouraged through this and that your love for Jesus and ALL that He did for you is strengthened! Get your whole families involved! Our children are already sharing this with their friends, and we LOVE that! Make sure they know how to get involved! It is a sweet, sweet thing to watch children desire a love for Jesus through missions. Share this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, whatever social media you use! This is YOUR team, remember?
We are thrilled to see what the LORD does to encourage you all in this journey. Thank you for joining our team!
The Campbells
As we are in the process of mobilizing we either meet or get introduced to a lot of current, former, and future field workers. This is a great thing and has been such a source of encouragement to us. It is something that we really enjoy. There has been something that The Lord has been bringing to my attention in growing frequency. I have learned that when The Lord begins doing something like this I had better pay attention. As my friend Doug once told me...."don't miss the lesson."
Here is how this goes. We introduce ourselves and begin speaking about what God has called us to. Normally we mention Berlin first but then we explain more fully that we have been called to specifically minister to [withheld] people group(s) giving in Berlin with a desire to see Church Planting Movement begin immediately jumping borders. Usually somewhere along these lines we hear something regarding the statement that these people groups normally take 4+ months of friendship before they begin following Jesus. This statement is normally meant (and received) as an encouragement to 'not give up with these people.'
Yet this bothers me. It is not that I am not willing to invest the time. It is not that I think it is wrong to labor diligently and unwaveringly to see a person come to Christ. To these things I say a hearty, "yes and amen!" The issue is, I just have a hard time seeing that it played out like this in scripture.
It is true that Jesus' disciples walked with him for 3 years but then we see Him breathing on them and giving them the Holy Spirit in John 20. After that we just do not see any one laboring anywhere with prolonged periods of few or no one coming to Christ.
Now there are a number of ways to explain or rationalize this but I am not necessarily interested in coming to a resolution....yet. The question that is rolling through my mind is this......"When there is someone who is genuinely open to the message and the messenger but it takes them a long time to come to Christ, how much of that is because of baggage inserted into the process by the messenger?"
Today my prayer is that The Lord would help me to further get out of His way and to stay behind Him following instead of trying to get Him to follow me.
Today I went to get a haircut. If you know me at all you know that sometimes hair cuts go well and sometimes they do not. The reason for this is that I try my best to be a witness for Jesus as I am getting my hair cut. There was that time that I had 1/2 of a hair cut and was ushered to the door. While that is not normal for me it does cause a check in me that makes me wonder how this conversation is going to go.
As a person who is passionate about evangelism I have grown a bit frustrated lately at what I call 'typical evangelism.' This type of evangelism seeks to either convince a person of the existence of God (which is silly to me- because they already know He exists) or convince them of their sinfulness. Ultimately it becomes a sales job. Ask the right questions, lead the conversation properly, press for a decision (to pray a prayer, attend a church, or something). So what is my frustration? Well the easiest way I can explain it is that I have this mental picture of me standing in front of the tomb of Lazarus commanding him to come out. No matter how many times or what manner I command nothing happens -- at all. Then Jesus walks up and simply says, "Lazarus come forth" and the dead man gets up and walks out. Basically nothing I say has any effect on a person. Honestly, if you are passionate about evangelism then why bother if there are going to be no results right? You can tell yourself all day long that it is not about results and you may be able to believe that for a while. But the extent that God has gone to save fallen humanity tells me that He is far more willing to save than I give Him credit for.
So today I sat in the chair and listened to this lady tell me of the fact that her mother was dying and completely afraid of dying. I listened to her tell me of the catholic priests coming in to read her her last rites and pray for her. They lady explained to me that her mother was very religious but that she herself was not so much. She was happy to let people choose which ever way was best for them. Then I explained to her the biblical reasons for why there was sin, suffering, sickness, and death in the world. I explained to her about trusting in the righteousness of the ONe who has been truly righteous. I explained to her about our inability to live up to the standard that God has given us. We talked about belief and what that means. We talked about faith for faith's sake is worthless because faith depends on the object the faith is placed in. We talked about the futility of good works. Nothing I said was anything she disagreed with. Basically it was a replay of the same scene I have seen over and over and over. I am speaking but she is not hearing me. It is just not hitting home. It is like you are trying to convince a person of something, they are telling you they agree, but you can tell they have no idea what you are saying. So frustrating.
So I asked her the strangest question that I think has ever come out of my mouth. I said, "do you want to hear God speak to you right now?" She answered unequivocally "Yes!" So I prayed out loud, "Father this lady wants to hear what you would have to say to her. Show her your love and tell her whatever you want her to hear. In Jesus name, amen." I asked what he said. She said, "Oh my goodness, I have chills all over me! He said for me to be still and know He is God!" She cracked at that moment and the conversation was radically different. She suddenly totally got following the person of Jesus and not following a religion. She began talking about where to take her husband and two boys to church. It was a night and day change.
I talked to this lady for 20 minutes with no visible discernible change. I am 99% sure that what I spoke was extremely doctrinally sound and extremely biblical. Yet my words had no effect. Jesus spoke 7 words to her and it wrecked her.
This is the same person who told the Fisherman to 'follow me' and they left everything immediately and followed Him. This is the same voice that told Lazarus to stop being dead. This is the same voice that told a slew of demons to go and they went. This is the same voice that told lepers to stop being lepers and they were clean.
His words have power, real power. His words bring life, real life.
I know we have all had them. I know you know what I am talking about. The times when you are praying and it seems as though your prayers go no higher than the ceiling. It happens to all of us at various times and in varying degrees. I have often been taught that this is normal and even helpful (ultimately). But now I am not so sure. Not long ago I was going through a time like this and just crying out in prayer, "Lord where are you?!?" In a moment of desperation I hear a faint and gentle whisper, "I am right here, I have always been here. I promised you I would not leave you and I do not lie. The question is where are you?"
This hit me like a ton of bricks. The issue was not that the Lord had left but that I had. He has promised to always be with us, but we cannot make the same promise to Him. My heart was wandering and wrestling and struggling and racing and just restless. I was doing a lot of activity and just felt dry. He stopped me in my activity and called me to just be still and know that He is with me. It was a blessing like no other for me at the time. Perhaps it will be a blessing to you. He has not abandoned you. He is still there. Are you?
Sunday night we were at a great friend's house and he asked my wife and I an interesting question: What things in the bible do you believe to be true but find it difficult to admit that you believe it?
This one question sparked an entire evening of very rich and deep conversation. So how about you? What things in the bible do you believe to be true but find it difficult to admit? Take a chance and ask someone that question and see where the conversation leads. I think you will be surprised.
The more I grow in The Lord and the more I know Jesus, the more I am desperate and longing to see Him return. It has become an all consuming desire to see my Lord physically return to earth as He promised to do. Since it is impossible for Jesus to lie, we know that His return is as certain as it came be. Yet also in this, is the promise that this gospel will be preached as a witness to every ETHNE (people group) on earth and THEN the end will come (Mt 24:14). That means that the Gospel going to every people group is a pre-requisite to the return of The Lord. Could this mean that our lack of praying that The Lord of the harvest would launch out workers is because we really do not want Jesus to return? That may be, but there are also lots of people who are desperate to see the world reached with the gospel IN OUR LIFETIME.
If you follow websites like the Joshua Project you will see that currently there are 7,266 unreached people groups left on earth out of a total known people groups of 16,782. That means that we are roughly 57% complete with our job. Roughly 1,980 years and we have only completed 57%.
Now to be fair it has only been in the last 50-60 years that we have been able to identify who these people are, where they live, and then have travel ability to get to them. So it is not all doom and gloom for sure. Jesus said He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. We are seeing MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR moves of God among some of the largest blocs of unreached peoples...right now! Much of this is happening through God using dreams and visions and other ways of getting the attention of certain people.
I am guessing I have, at the most another 40-50 years of life left (should The Lord allow it) and I am desperate to see this whole world reached in my life time.
But there is the number 7,266. How do we tackle it?
I would say let's look at what is holding up the show. I think there are professing believers who really do not care, but I do not think this is the majority. I think for most believers they see the task at hand and want to be involved, at some level. They want their life to count for Jesus. Yet they also see that of these 7,266 they know almost no one who speaks the language. They cannot even get Rosetta Stone for most them. There is not a bible nor is there a Jesus film in most of these languages. It could take YEARS of painful struggle just to learn the language, so what do they do? They look to send those willing to go, they bury their head in what is going on around them because they have no answer, or they go and spend their days among already reached people groups. Because who among the church is going to argue against telling people about Jesus? It becomes easier to rally around the cry "what about all the people around me?!?!"
But something happened a couple of years ago that really changed my perspective on this. We were doing some homeless ministry in Fort Worth and came across a group of guys who were stoned out of their minds, passed out, and who did not speak English (there was one woman there who told me this). I tried to make small talk and no one understood a word of what I was saying. Then something inside me just welled up and said, "preach the gospel." I did not know what to do so I did. Strangely enough suddenly every single person in that group began to sit up and listen to me. They responded with head nods and a look of surprise that I was communicating with them. I do not speak spanish at all.
This is precisely what happened in Acts 2. People from all over the world were in one place and they all heard the gospel in their language. Nothing complicated, just a straight up miracle. Real tongues that no one argues over!
What if we stopped looking at what we do not have (language, printed bibles, literature, etc) and went with what we do have. Jesus. What if we stepped out in faith and were just silly enough to believe that Jesus will show up and by His Holy Spirit bridge the language gap? What if we were crazy enough to really believe the bible is true and believed that God does not nor has He changed? Presumption is doing something stupid and expecting Jesus to bail you out. Faith is asking The Lord for what you need, believing He has heard you, and then moving forward expecting Him to show up.
disclaimer: I am not knocking language acquisition. I think it is helpful and useful. I am merely saying that we should not let what we do not have stop us from moving forward.
Yesterday I was praying and came under severe conviction of something. To follow Jesus means to obey Him. If we do not obey small commands or seemingly easy commands, what makes us think we can obey bigger commands? As I was praying The Lord directed my thoughts to one of His commands. It is something that every single Christian person can do. It is not difficult. At the outset it will take very little time, yet it has the promise of being absolutely world changing.
Matthew 9:38 "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to The Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
Seems harmless enough right? But earnestly? Is that something we do? Is it urgent and bold that The Lord of the harvest would send out workers?
Then there is the idea of "send out" or "send forth" laborers. This means to eject, cast forth, forcibly move. Are we praying that God would violently uproot people and send them forth? I wasn't.
What are we asking The Lord of the Harvest to do exactly? Well the same word is used in Luke 11:20 "But if by the finger of God I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you."
So in both instances we are asking The Lord Jesus -- who is The Lord of the Harvest -- to forcibly remove and eject demons and forcibly remove and eject missionaries into the harvest. Can you see it? This is a not a passive prayer of "let us all be effective where we are planted."
I am not going to get into some silly debate as to whether everyone should go or not. That is irrelevant to the discussion. Instead I am asking you to join me in being obedient to earnestly pray daily that The Lord would launch out laborers into His harvest. Let Him do what He will do. Let Him send whom He will send. But will you join me in praying earnestly to The Lord of the Harvest that He will eject laborers into His harvest?
I am not asking you to move anywhere. I am not laying any sort of a guilt trip on anyone. I am simply saying that if we are followers of Jesus then let's be obedient to this command. Will you join me today in praying earnestly to The Lord of the harvest to fling forth missionaries and forcibly cast them out into the field and that He would also forcibly cast out demons from people and areas of the world?
Unless I am missing something, it does not appear that He has made this part optional.
"When The Lord of the Harvest speaks demons vacate and missionaries relocate." -quote from unknown origin.
Lately I have been trying to radically alter the way I eat. As I age I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that much of what is commercially available for purchase in the United States is not really food. Sure it pacifies hunger for a bit but I am more and more convinced that there is more damage done than good. When I was a kid 'peanut allergies' were unheard of. I had never heard of Gluten until just a few years ago. Compound that with the onslaught of cancer cases I am hearing about recently and at some point you have to come to grips with the fact that things are different.
When trying to eat healthy you hear all kinds of advice. One of the best I have heard is "never go into the center of a grocery store to buy anything." That is pretty good advice, but there is an issue. That food is crazy expensive.
My wife told me a story about a friend of hers who ran into a lady at Wal-Mart back during Christmas and came to discern that she was tremendously hungry and had no money. The friend took her to the grocery part and began filling a cart for her. In this she was shocked that someone would buy her something like Bananas. Bananas are perishable and they do not store very well. The friend came to realize that this lady's whole grocery world view revolved around buying items that were cheap and did not perish easily. As a result she was hungry and poor yet obese.
When you read the pages of the bible or even study world economies famine is a real legitimate concern. Many times famine was judgment.
Yet I have always held the worldview that God is blessing our country. We are not going hungry. We are the wealthiest nation on earth (even if we are slipping). I have always seen us under blessing. But Proverbs 10:22 says "the blessing of The Lord makes rich and He add no sorrow to it." So it is has become commonplace to say The Lord is blessing us with XYZ medicine or XYZ food or XYZ job all the while suffering tremendous side effects. So the question is, "are they blessings?"
Famine is usually characterized by shortage of food and high prices for the food in demand. If we discount what is not really food as being "something else" and we just consider "real food" then must we not conclude that we are in a famine?
What a tragedy to be in a famine, starving to death, all the while living in complete denial.
What are your thoughts?
There is a strange sort of discipline happening with me having a blog right now. In the past I have wanted to blog and felt like I have nothing to say. Now I feel as though I have a lot to say, but as the Lord grows me in wisdom, I am seeing that now is not the right time. There will be plenty of time to say what needs to be said but now is not the time. I am reminded of a saying that I think I may have heard my dad say a million times, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." I think this is just an East Texan paraphrase of:
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;
when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
I realize that most of the people who read this blog may not be familiar with the inner workings of what I call the "missions world." There is a whole language, thought process, and network that is really amazing. I am done with assuming that I understand what is going on in the world around me. Instead I am learning to take everything that happens and bring it to The Lord and allow Him to tell me what is really happening. It has been an eye opening thing for me.
Among those familiar with the missions world there is the concept of "Goer, Sender, or Mobilizer." It goes like this: "God has called some to go, some to finance those who are called to go, and those whom God has called to help mobilize and prepare those who are called to go." Sounds reasonable right? Sounds logical right?
Well, I am not going to get into the business of right and wrong, but will instead speak to what The Lord has placed on my heart. I had spent a great deal of time wondering which role I am to play, but The Lord began to show me that these are not separate roles but one.
As a goer I am constantly casting vision to the heart of our Father and helping send those people out. That is what we do. The workers for the harvest are currently in the harvest! The workers we are told by Jesus to earnestly pray for are currently not believers right now. They do not yet know who they are in Christ!
Here is the picture The Lord showed me. On one hand you have a healthy plant with healthy fruit and healthy seed. The plant pollenates and the seed is spread by the wind, the rain, birds, insects, etc. And the healthy seed spreads greatly. On the other hand you have unhealthy plants producing very little fruit but a significant labor force trying to get the seed healthy to produce good seed and the seed to spread only to be frustrated. It is kind of like genetically modifying seed to get what appears to be a greater harvest only to see (after years) significant side effects and other issues that have arisen because of this.
Here is what I am saying. If you are called to go -- do not assume that you are not also called to give and mobilize. If you are called to give to those who are going do not assume that you are not also called to go and mobilize. If you are called to mobilize then do not assume then do not assume you are not called to go and not called to give to those going.
One last comment to the mobilizers of the world. What if the greatest resource and place to find those to mobilize is in the place that seems to have the least fruit --right now? What if you went forward as a harvester and then mobilized what you harvested?
Just some thoughts.
Jesus made me a promise. He told me that if I would follow Him He would make me a fisher of men. It is not that I would go seeking the fishing but that I would follow Him and the result would be holiness, righteousness, humility, kindness, and it would result in drawing people to Jesus as a fisherman draws in a net. But some times I am can get over confident and leave my savior. Thankfully this is an indication to run quickly back to Him. Last night I was wearing a shirt that stated things like "God Made Everything." I had made a quick stop by a grocery store to pick up a few items. The store was quite busy and I was in a hurry so I did not anticipate having a discussion with anyone. As I checked out, the cashier(a young Asian man named James) asked: "Sir are you a creationist?" It caught me off guard and I was not sure exactly what he was asking but then the light went on. I said enthusiastically, "why yes I am! Are you?" He hung his head and said, "no I am quite the opposite."
Now this, I have come to recognize, is an invitation to speak of Jesus -- but I failed. Instead of speaking of Jesus I said, "I would be happy to get together and discuss it with you if you would like." His response was telling. He said, "I used to enjoy those discussions but now I do not." I said, I understand and by this time he was already scanning the person behind me's order. I thanked him and wished him a great day and said good bye.
This is a man who has likely been desperately seeking truth and somehow others have made the discussion all about creation instead of Jesus. As a result this man has discussed in the past and found no relief and was no longer interested in the discussion. The point is not creation versus evolution. The point is not science versus faith. The point is Jesus.
The Apostle Paul was a highly intellectual person who thought He had all the answers -- then He met Jesus. This man does not need to be argued in or out. He needs an encounter with Jesus not a pointless argument.
I left the parking lot last night deeply convinced that the Lord had given me that precise encounter to show me that He is sending me out as a sheep in the midst of wolves. Any sheep that leaves His shepherd will be eaten in that environment. Don't leave your Shepherd David, don't leave your Shepherd.
noteit is easy to be ok with the fact that "God is in charge of everything" and that I do not have to worry about this guy. But that is not the heart of my Jesus. He said He was not willing that any should perish, I cannot have a different heart. It is not ok for people to not hear of Jesus.
As I got my haircut today I noticed the accent of the lady cutting my hair and asked where she was from. She said she was from Ukraine so I asked what part. She explained that she was from the south near Moldova. I told her I have always wanted to go to Ukraine and this piqued her interest. She asked, "why, for tourism?" I said, "no to tell the people about Jesus." This is where the conversation got interesting.... She asked what religion I am so I said that I follow Jesus. This became confusing to her and she continued for some time trying to get me to identify myself as protestant, catholic, or something else. It was then that I began to explain that I do not follow a set of rules of "dos and don't" but rather I follow a person. He tells me what to do and I do that. I look at Him and follow Him and as a result I am becoming more and more like Him.
She asked, "in your religion can I drink?" I proceeded to tell her the story about how Jesus spent a lot of time with drunkards and prostitutes. He loved them, provided for them, healed them, and showed them love when the rest of the world despised and rejected them. I told her about how many people had a serious problem understanding and grasping the radical nature of Jesus' love for them. These were some of His first followers. This led to a further discussion about the American legal system and the way that she has been treated in the United States. BY the end of the conversation she thanked me and said that it was very interesting to her to learn about Jesus this way.
Somehow it seems that those outside of the Kingdom have gathered from us that following Jesus is about what we do and don't do versus following a Person. Evangelism has nothing to do with following a prescribed formula or saying the right words. Evangelism is about lifting up Jesus and allowing Jesus to draw people to Himself. I have yet to meet a person who initially came to Jesus with pure motives -- not one. It has been said, "we are all heretics when we come to Jesus." I have heard of evangelism methods that grade the students on what they say and don't say. From my knowledge of that method I am pretty sure Jesus would have been dinged pretty heavily on almost every encounter He had with people.
Jesus said that the result of following Him would be fishing for people. It is not that we go searching for the fishing but rather the natural outworking of following Jesus is that we are fishing for people. This is what Jesus did. This will be the result of the same Spirit living in us that lived in Him -- He does not change.
Speak of Jesus...a lot! And watch Him draw people to Himself.
Last week I had the unique opportunity to go to the county hospital and pray with a young man that I did not previously know. He has been in a bad auto accident and had been taken to the hospital unconscious. Upon entering the man's room I over heard that he was being yelled at over the phone by another person. After he hung up the phone he told me that he has borrowed the car that was totaled and had now lost a friend because he fell asleep and drifted into the street and this was the cause of the accident. After a short conversation the man was very sorry for what had happened to the car he was driving and the wreck that he had caused. He began to tell me that he was hoping to apologize to the person who hit him (not otherwise harmed except auto damage).
It was then that the Lord laid on my heart to share the story of the prodigal son. I told him about the apology speech that the son was rehearsing for his dad and how the dad ran to forgive him before the speech was actually delivered. As the story came out the young had tears streaming down his face and through broken speech said, "that is my Father!"
It was a beautiful scene to see him see himself through the eyes of his heavenly Father and to hear the means through which he can be reconciled to his Father. It may have seemed strange to go and visit a young man that I had no connection to other than knowing, second-hand, of his situation. I am not a professional pastor and I was not trying to recruit him for my church. I was just a dude showing him the tangible love of Christ in the middle of a really bad situation.
As I engage more and more in this sort of activity, I am seeing more and more the radical nature of the love of our God for people. It is truly staggering the depths of the love that He has for people. My prayer is that I would be faithful in what He has given me so that He would entrust more of these opportunities to me.
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. (John 12:26 ESV)
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. I want to be with Him where He is.