A town called Smith

When I was at Bible School 10 years ago now, we had a chapel and the President of PRBI spoke.  He always had great stories as well as a different sense of humor.  He began this chapel by telling us of his family.  His father was a teacher at PRBI and they had no children when they came up north here and while they were here they had like 10 kids.  "Before my parents came up here, the town was just called Smith."

Grace Bible Fellowship has been our home church while we are living up here and it feels like home.  This is the church we were fortunate to share with this week.  I was telling Colleen earlier this week that I prayed hard that God would keep us here in Sexsmith, I even applied for a job teaching shop at the high school, but they had just hired a new shop teacher when I applied.  We are thankful each day that God has us here as it is our first home as a married couple and Sexsmith will always have a dear spot in our heart.

God really challenged me this week about His plan and His work in the world.  If you read previous posts from 2011 you will read that we were planning on going to Mozambique but we did not go, however, we raised a lot of money, and the same people that gave are giving again for us to go.

I asked God, "Why are the same people giving who gave before?  They should not be giving because they have already gave and it is counterproductive to give again."

God the asked me, "Who are they giving to?"

"Me and Colleen, of course, who else would they be giving to?"

God replied, "How about me?"

Then it clicked.  I was convicted.  The focus was on me.  People are not giving their prayers and finances for our sake, but for God's sake.  People are giving to God and therefore, it makes sense to give again because God is their focus.  So, in a few short words, you, reading this letter have been an encouragement and a rebuke to me.  You are not reading this letter because I am such an eloquent writer or explaining God's truth in an amazing way, You are reading because of God's work in your life.  You are excited by God, not me.  Thank you for all of your support and being a great example to me!

Little Ukraine

So this past weekend we were blessed to share at the Vegreville Alliance Church.  I really enjoy preaching and was given the opportunity on Sunday, but what happened afterwards really hit me.

First, on a lighter note, as my title mentions, Vegreville is like litte Ukraine.  We love Ukrainian Sausage from Stawnichy's and you really haven't eaten real Ukrainian food unless you have had their kubasa!  Well, my parents had a big barbeque afterwards and, because we are in Vegreville, we ate kubbie burgers as well.  My cousin David, who is not from Vegreville, asked what a kubbie burger is.

"It is like a Ukrainian sausage that has been made into a burger patty!"  I exclaimed.

He then shook his head, ate the kubbie burger and we laughed at the ridiculousness of the kubbie burger, yet, it is Vegreville, so the kubbie burger makes sense, only in Vegreville!

I am sure as we go to Ukraine, there will be many things that don't make sense, but they will only because we are there and it wouldn't work anywhere else!

Onto the afterwards stuff - We were visiting our good friends the Proberts on Sunday night and we got talking about how they came to Vegreville.  It is quite an amazing story, but to make a long story short, they tried for 2 years to move on their own and it didn't work, the trusted God completely and it ended with a miraculous yet random phone call on the side of a busy highway in Washington.

They said "We have no idea why God moved us to Vegreville, but we knew God was moving us to the area."

After our visit, I turned to Colleen and said "I know why God moved them here, It was for me!"

I worked for them the summer I graduated and looking back, I was probably not a great worker, yet they kept feeding me and letting me work.  At the beginning, I was eating lunch at their house, by the end, it was breakfast, lunch, supper and probably bedtime snack.  I will never forget that summer.  We did not necessarily speak of spiritual things but we talked about life and they shared their home and food and time.  And for that, I am eternally grateful.  I don't know where I would be without them in my life.

For a teenager, having someone take them under their wing has eternal value.  It wasn't about them needing to share their wisdom or immense spiritualism with me but to share life.  You can do that too, just be yourself.  You don't need to know what you are doing or how to mentor someone, just be real.  It will make a world of difference to someone who is trying to find out who they are in this world.

Hebrews 11:41

I was talking with my wife today about her women's Bible study at GBF church in Sexsmith.  They are doing a video series from Beth Moore and today they were discussing faith.  If you look at your Bibles, you will find there is no Hebrews 11:41.  Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, states many heros of the faith who are an example for us to follow (chapter 12 speaks of this).

Beth stated that Hebrews 11:41 should read "By faith      your name here    did    accomplishment of faith.  Wow, I thought, the very same God who was with Abraham, Moses, David, etc. is with us.  God expects us to accomplish great (even seemingly impossible) things by faith in Him.

I have to admit, at times my faith is so small, smaller than a mustard seed.

To be honest, I have a hard time believing we will be going to Ukraine.  I don't have a problem knowing our financial support will come in, but the actual going I doubt more than our favorite doubter Thomas.  "Until I set foot in Ukraine, God, I will not believe you want us there."

A month ago I was talking with Waldie (president of PRBI) about faith and he said that experience plays a role in our ease of believing.  He asked me "When you go on missions, is it easy to believe the money will come in?"

I answered "Yes!"

"Why?" he asked

"Because He has provided in the past"

"Exactly, you have experienced it"

Experience plays a huge role in our belief, however I also would argue that we grow in Christ as we are stretched to limits we have not been.  So, having faith in something I have not experienced is more difficult yet more rewarding because it stretches my faith and makes me jump into the unknown.

 It is kind of weird knowing we are going to Ukraine yet struggling to actually know it.  Like when we were expecting our first child, Ellianna.  Knowing I was a dad when my wife was pregnant but not really as it didn't    quite hit until she was born.

In conclusion

Now Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for. (Hebrews 11:1-2)

I hope you have been encouraged and challenged as we all strive to grow closer to Him!

Bean There...

For those of you not familiar with Pinto McBean of Bow Island, Pinto waves to all passing through Bow Island on Highway 3.  This was our first experience sharing our story and journey formally to the Bow Island Evangelical Free Church in both Sunday School and the morning service.  I am not exactly sure what I was expecting, maybe that all 100 prayer letters given out would return back on the same day they were given out and our trip would be paid for after one Sunday of raising funds.  Or that with May coming upon us, if 4 people sign up a day to give $25 a month, our trip would be covered.

Lately God has been reminding me that His blessings for me (us) are not what we choose, they are much greater.  If I had chosen my blessings, I would be in Mozambique as a full time missionary but with no children; God chose to not let us go but we are blessed with 2 beautiful bundles of joy.

Again this happened in Bow Island.  We had 9 people sign up to join with us in daily prayer for our ministry. Back to my month of May example, we are required to get 15 people praying daily and that amounts to 1 person every 2 days to sign up.  And 9 signed up in one day!!!!  More than that, one of the people to sign up  was the pastor's daughter who is in grade 5.  Grade 5 and already a heart for missions, and when we talked to her about our trip, she was genuinely interested, really grasping the vision of raising up youth by teaching them the truths of the Bible.  Thank you God that I don't get to choose my blessings because I would have missed the genuine heart of a girl in grade 5.

Also, Thank you Bow Island for everything you have given, time, prayers, finances, encouragement, my wife! etc.  You are truly a blessing around the world

Sushi Surprise!

So, we were out eating divine food for supper and as we were about 3/4 finished our meal, the waiter came over and told us our bill was paid.  Paid and on the bill was a note that said "Thanks for saying Grace."  Huh,   our meal was paid because we prayed?  Colleen reflected afterwards "Praying is something I don't even think about before a meal, and sometimes I don't think about what I say and my heart isn't even in it."

Wow!

How humbling that as we live our lives as Christians, the world is watching.  We don't know if whoever paid for our meal was a Christian, but we know that by living a life as a Christian, even if our heart is not in it, blesses the World.  Is that not more reason to be intentional and to not go through the motions but to act our our Love Song to our Saviour?

Facing the Cliffs

So this week one of my favorite movies was on the television.  Princess Bride!  A story of Wesley, a peasant  who is in love with a rich family's daughter, and the feeling is mutual.  As the story progresses, Buttercup (the daughter) is kidnapped and Wesley goes in pursuit.

Buttercup's captors carry her up an enormous cliff, and what does Wesley do?  He goes right after her.

Why do I tell you this story?  The other day, Thursday to be exact, Colleen and I were in Grande Prairie getting things together for our trip to Ukraine and she asked a simple question ,"What do we do if our house doesn't sell?"  Do we go?  Do we stay?

My simple answer was, "I don't know!  God has called us to faith and to trust in the impossible, yet He has created us with a head on our shoulder to make common sense decisions as well.  It was a simple question with infinite possibilities, well, actually only two.  Go or don't go.

With all of this stewing in my head, little did I know the answer to our question arrived in a sermon preached by a fellow student in my preaching class.  The sermon was on the book of Joshua.  Three points made were God gives us His Presence, His Protection and His Promise!

Joshua 1, Moses has since died and Joshua is now in charge.  God tells him,

"Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."  (Joshua 1:9)

The spies when they surveyed Jericho had to rely on God for protection as they hid in the house of Rahab the prostitute.  Imagine you are in downtown Calgary and a prostitute invites you her house.  Okay, now everyone who would go stay at her house, raise your hand.  Not a lot of hands went up, including mine.  God shows us that impossible circumstances show Him.  In our weakness He is shown because we are not able to do anything but look only to Him!

Thirdly, His Promise!  Here where the question was answered!  God is with us, God protects us, and He has given us His Promise with these things, it is not a whimsical thing, but a Promise from God the Almighty Creator of the World!

There are numerous stories about impossible circumstances in Joshua.  Marching around the walls and having them fall, crossing the Jordan, and then circumcising the whole nation to sit and wait and trust in the Lord for His protection.

But the story that struck me was the priests carrying the ark into the raging Jordan river.

Looking at the picture of the rapids, I would never in a million years step into the river, yet this is what the priests did.  They trusted God amidst turmoil, amidst not knowing what would happen to them, but they knew God told them to go and that is what they did.

So, with much trepidation, I came home and told Colleen the answer, "We will go!"

If the house doesn't sell, We will go!  It is difficult to know I am not in control and we are trusting in Him.

We will climb the cliffs knowing God gives us His Presence, Protection and Promise!

What a Week! (And it's only Tuesday)

As I stated in the title, it's only Tuesday! Monday started off with a bang as I finished up one of my last papers in the morning, went to class and heard a sermon on Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, and then called about my distance education course and found out I do not have the proper percent to pass and I may not be graduating. I misunderstood one assignment and through many phone calls, meetings and emails I found out I can rewrite the assignment this week. Then Tuesday happened. We woke up at 2:30 am because we had to go to Edmonton for passport duties, drove to Grande Prairie and picked up Ellianna, and then disaster. Jolen was crying in the backseat and we came up to a green light, Colleen said "Thank you Lord for the green light!" as Jolen loves driving and doesn't like stopping, roughly one minute later a deer ran in front of our Jeep and we hit it. Colleen was quite aware of her surroundings as we hit the deer, Ellianna, who was sleeping in the backseat, did not wake up and the airbags did not go off, it was like we simply glided to a stop without even feeling a bump when we hit the deer.

 Everyone is safe, except the deer and vehicle, but one thing Colleen said struck me, "I wish we wouldn't have had a green light." Isn't that interesting? Do we wish God hadn't allowed things we are thankful for to happen? What was a blessing one minute felt like a curse the next. My mind went back to the sermon I heard earlier in the week. Are we resting in Him? The Lord is the one who guides us!

 Also, I was convicted about my checklist for God. Am I saying, "here God take these prayer requests and I can handle the rest," instead of "it is all yours God!" So, the prayer requests are there, but the checklist is gone; it is all in His hands! Well, there is still 45 minutes left in the day, let's see what adventure God has in store for the rest of the day and week. And may we continually rest and find peace in Him!