To God Be The Glory!

Wednesday. The middle of the week. The day that creates the hump you have to get over to get to the weekend. The perfect day to update you on some amazing things God has been doing.

We mentioned in the first couple of blogs some prayer requests and have not been very faithful in keeping you, our readers, updated on their progress. Well there is no time like the present to do so:) You have been praying for God's leading and guiding, as have we, and He continues to guide and pave the way to Mozambique. Our finances our currently sitting at around $11,500--Praise the Lord! We, as some of you may know, have rented our house out for the time that we are gone to someone that we trust very much and we are able to leave our belongings here....so no packing! And just today the Lord sold our car! We have been praying and were completely aware that the sale of our car would be nothing that we could do. It took a stray cow and a fence to help....no one was hurt thank the Lord, but as a result someone was in need of a car. The amazing thing to me is that God knew all along how the car was going to sell and to whom. A good lesson for me that worrying will help in no way, trusting is really all you can do..something I will need to remember time and time again I am sure. So today we are giving God the glory for all He has accomplished for our trip up to this point, and what we know He will do in the future, and we will keep trusting in the 33 days ahead here in Canada and the 184 we will have in Mozambique. Please continue to pray for the people of Mozambique and the missionaries that we will be working with as they prepare for our arrival. As well there are still some last minute decisions the board and our field directors need to make in the next couple of days, for our trip, so please pray for wisdom for them and that the decisions made would be to the glory of God. Thanks again for praying with us and for us. Your prayer support, and financial support, have been greatly appreciated!

Lists....Christmas and Otherwise

We can hardly believe that Christmas is only two weeks away!  Time has really been flying by and usually this time of year we are busy decorating our house and baking up a storm.  However, this year we had decided with heading to Mozambique after Christmas and having to travel a lot over the holidays, to say good-bye to friends and family we won't see for awhile, we would keep it really simple.  This is probably the best thing we could of done as we have seen our stress levels take a dive and have time to really focus on what Christmas is really all about and the true reason we are following God's leading to the mission field.  When all the distractions are removed all you see is a innocent child coming into the world with the purpose to save mankind. Don't get me wrong I love all the decorations, baking, Christmas carols and of course the anticipation of gift exchanges, but many times those holiday extras distract us from the real reason for the Season.

Speaking of distractions we have had a few over the last month which is why we have not posted in a while.  It seems that the closer it gets to our departure date the more things that begin to cloud our vision.  It was about two weeks ago that I sat in our bedroom and stared out the window and thought are we really doing this?  I mean can we get this all ready in time?  I started to feel discouragement seep in and thought why did we decide to do this so quickly no one would have blamed us for taking our time.  Perhaps we should have left in the spring or next summer.  Now  I would love to tell you that I had one of those amazing spiritual moments where God spoke to me and right there and then I knew that everything was fine, but in reality I just got up and got to list of things waiting for me.  Sometimes there is no audible voice to help you wade through your doubts and unbelief....sometimes there is just a list to help you peer past your distractions and continue to walk in faith. (as a side note, as I look back over the last couple of months of preparation I cannot hold on to one single doubt that God is leading this voyage.  He has provided time and time again...sometimes just in the nick of time...but without a doubt He cares for us and I know He will prepare us in His time for what He has for us)

So if I may challenge you to something it would be to peer past the distractions of the season to Christ the Saviour who came to save you and me.  Make this Christmas and the rest of the year a true celebration of His birth and His life.

While the wife's away...

So Colleen is working this weekend so I figured I had better update our blog.  Just to warn you, I am not as eloquent of speech as Colleen nor can I keep an audience hanging at the edge of thier seat as she explaines something with so much depth it makes me feel like I'm right there part of her story.

This week I've felt quite inadequate.  In my new job where I'm working, I got to use a jackhammer for the first time in my life.  You may say "Blake, I thought you were a journeyman carpenter and you don't know how to use a jackhammer?"   Well, I do now.  My experience has been mostly working with wood, both rough carpentry and finish carpentry, I've done a litte drywall, I can do siding on a house like nobody's business, but concrete/masonry work is something that has eluded me.  But I got to tear out concrete and replace it with new stuff.

You may ask why I am telling you this.  Well, I was reading Dwight Lagore's blog this week (http://www.dwightlagore.blogspot.com/) and he was explaining work to be done on the Pastoral training centre in Mozambique.  As I saw the first picture it was a wood roof and I was all excited because this is something I know and something I will be useful to do.  Then the next 10 or so pictures were of brick, mortar and concrete.  All things that I practically know nothing about.  Sure I took the theory of how to build with brick when I went to Carpentry School.  But I also learned how to disect a person in biology and I don't think anyone wants to hire me as their surgeon to remove their tonsils anytime soon.

As I looked at my inadequesies, I started thinking about how I think I am a poor evangelist.  Of all the mission trips I have been on, and all the youth and children's clubs I've helped with, I have led a total of 1 person to Christ.  It happened 10 years ago in the little town of Caronport, before I had traveled the world to proclaim the Gospel, or worked at camp, it was a simple program at the Caronport Elementary School.

In my personal devotions, I am reading through Acts.  One person really stands out to me, Barnabas.  He is an encourager.  When Paul was converted and the church was afraid to take him in, Barnabas went to Antioch and enabled the church to accept Paul.

At camp in 2009, I was a senior councellor at Big River Bible Camp, and I didn't get to lead any of my kids to Christ, but I believe (and hope) that through a little of my encouragement and example, my junior councellor led 3 kids into the Kingdom.

I may not be called to be the one to harvest the fields, but I know God has a place for me in His work.  I may not know how to build with bricks, but I believe I can be an encouragement and someone eager to learn about those things.  I may not lead another person to Christ, but my prayer is that those who see me and know me will see Christ in me and desire to have that relationship with Him as well.
On an encouraging note for us, our tickets are bought.  We are officially going to Mozambique!  We leave Calgary on January 17 and return home July 19.  Many thanks to the churches of Bow Island E. Free and Vegreville Alliance who let us share with them the vision we have to share Christ's love to Mozambique.

I'd like to end my post with an apology to my wife, I'm sorry honey if this is not what you had in mind for a blog.  Also an apology to you, the reader, for having to endure my lack of tact.  But I hope you were encouraged by my stories of  how God sometimes uses people to encourage others and that encouragement is an important gift to the Body.
Until Next Week, (I pray God sustains you till then)

Blake

Superman or the Kid Next Door?

  As trick or treaters embark on a candy adventure one can't help but see a crazy parallel between them and real life.  Each halloweener wears a crazy get-up or disguise as they seek to hunt down every last drop of candy a town has to offer.  But underneath those crazy costumes are the same little kids that bike past our house on their way to school or who we see shopping with their parents in the store.  The same seems true for us. As a child growing up in the church I used to look at missionaries that were visiting and think wow those people must be really holy to be a missionary or their walk with God must be better than most for God to call them overseas.  It always seemed that missionaries were a notch above the rest of us normal people as they served God wherever He called them.  Only special people got to go reach the lost, you have to be a person who has their life completely in order.  You cannot doubt your faith or struggle with any sin.  These were prerequisites to what I thought was standard missionary protocol.  Now that it is a reality for us we truly have realized that God uses imperfect, ordinary people to do His will.  We at times struggle with faith and obedience in our walk with the Lord and we still disagree and sometime argue in our marriage.  Yet, we have this amazing God who has out of His great mercy has chosen to use us as He works in Mozambique.  What a privilege and blessing!  That to us is amazing grace. 

As we have started to prepare for this upcoming journey we have been praying that God would use us to bless people as we share the vision of Mozambique.  What an irony that as we seek to bless others, we are much more abundantly blessed in return.  God has used our home church to bless us through the people there, especially the number of people who have told us they will be committed to pray for us over the next several months.  God truly is at work in His people in our home town and across the seas in Mozambique.  We are so blessed to be able to join  His work there and to have numerous ordinary, yet God empowered people standing with us as we follow His call for our lives. 

So even though we must now don the uniform/costume of a missionary we really are just ordinary people, who we pray, because of Christ, will be used to extraordinary things for Him.

Finishing Well....

"I am so glad we will have a dirt floor in Africa, no vacuuming there, which means less housework!"  This comment from Blake struck home with me as I began to really dig deep in my heart and think how many things am I started to sluff off on because our time here is getting shorter or because I think I don't have to deal with this I am not here much longer anyway?

I am the type of person who often finds herself living in the future and has the ability to forget the present.  God has us living here for the next 3 months and has many things He wants to accomplish in and through us before we go and we need to be open and available for whatever that may be.  It's especially hard as we spend a lot of our time corresponding with the field directors there and are setting plans in place for our departure in the New Year.  However, despite this Blake and I have been praying not only for the people of Mozambique but for God to do His work in and through us here in Bow Island.  We know there are relationships that need to be built on and even in our jobs we can be a testimony for Him.  This time we have before we leave is not merely a coasting time, but we need to remain active and vigilant in His service where He has placed us.  For if we do not finish well here how can we expect to finish well there.  I believe the way you run the race God lays out for you says a lot about your character and we both want to finish here well....that doesn't mean we aren't coming back, but it will definitely leave an impression in the hearts and minds of people here.

We wanted to say a BIG THANK-YOU to all those who have supported our upcoming missions trip, especially our Bow Island Church through Mission's Conference.  We are truly blessed to have such a loving and supportive home church here in Bow Island.  We are enjoying our time at Mission's Conference and have been blessed through the testimonies of those who have already gone and come back.  Another reminder that God truly is faithful to His people and that He will take care of us no matter where He chooses to lead us.

Thanks as well to all of you who are already praying for us, we certainly can use the prayers.  We have felt God's peace a lot lately another confirmation of His leading in our lives.  We pray that God would bless you for your involvement on our lives and in this journey He is leading us on.  We have a few new prayer requests and some that were from last week they are:

• That we would finish our time here well:)
• Guidance as we participate in Mission's Conference
• Health for Blake and Colleen
• Safety as we have some travelling this next week to speak at Blake's parents' Church
• Sale of our car
• Financial and prayer support
• Missionaries and people of Mozambique

Some praise items are:

• God's overwhelming peace
• The rental of our house while we are away
• Finances that have already come in...we are so blessed
• Family support as we begin this journey

Blake and Colleen

A Push in the Right Direction

It seems that often when we are pushed in a direction that we don't want to go we dig our heels in and moving in that direction becomes painful and a lot more work.  I can honestly say that I have dug my proverbial heels in a lot in previous years.  I always loved the idea of going to the mission field, but when it came right down to it I was comfortable here in Canada.  Canada the country where bugs, rodents, etc are outside and if they come in there are thousands of 1-800 numbers you can call to have them eradicated.  Canada the land of the free and the home of security and safety...well so far.  Canada where we have nice homes, the convenience of shopping only blocks from home, and hot running water.  Why would I want to give all of that up to go where civil unrest prevails from time to time, bugs and rodents wander in and out at will, my safety and security may be tested, my home will be a tent and shopping will be confusing (and who knows what I will come home with), and finally hot water is provided once you start a fire to heat it?  The answer is an easy one...for the sake of Christ I endure all these things.  When I think about the situation in reverse I must admit the idea of it is really a no "brainer."  I mean think of it, God is asking us to leave the comforts and security of Canada to go across the seas to the people of Mozambique to share His light and love.  If I were a person living in Mozambique, or anywhere where the Gospel needs to be brought, would I not want the same in return?  Would I not want the comfortable person in Canada to follow the call of God on their life and bring His love to me?  Or would I really be understanding that their fear of bugs, snakes, rodents, and the unknown outweighs my need for the Gospel?  I believe my answer would be...I would want someone to do it for me.  So if God is calling us, Blake and I, to Africa then I know, despite my utter disgust for specific crawling creatures and discomfort with the idea of leaving all this behind, God will walk beside me.  He knows my fears and He knows what I can handle...He won't ask for more.  So I can answer His push with the lifting of each of my feet as I begin the journey down the road He has marked out for us.  For I know one thing I want to run this race well and He has fit me for the journey:)


If you have any questions regarding the mission organization we are going with please check out www.samministries.org and keep reading our blog as we will try to update it weekly.  This will be our way of keeping you up to date before we leave and our communication while we are away. 
Some things we would love to have you pray with us about are:

1. Continued guidance in this process
2. The people of Mozambique
3. The missionaries currently in Mozambique
4. That our hearts would be in tune with God's
5. Love for the people of Mozambique
6. Finances, rental of our house, and sale of our Mazda

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers and we truly are looking forward to the journey ahead.






Blake and Colleen