House Move October 23

Letting agent Jeremy Brown shows Joanie the kitchen in the new house.

The global financial meltdown caught up to the church and to my family. September 12 the church board recommended that we move to save the church money (they help us out with rent). That was Saturday.

The following Tuesday we saw a house. Wednesday we made an offer. Thursday we were accepted. Though our contract said we had to give two months' notice to move, our landlords allowed us to leave one month early. So we moved in on October 23.

We live now in Ashford Common, just a little bit outside the London limits. Hampton, where we lived before, was on the edge of London. We're still about three miles from church, but because the house is just off the A308 dual carriageway, we can drive to church a lot faster than we could before. Yay!

The gentleman we rent from has worked on this house for three years. He and two other men redid the house from top to bottom. It has all new everything. He did it for his wife, so they could move in there and retire. Only she didn't want to move. So he thought of renting it out. He turned down two other applicants before us.

We realized God had been preparing for us years before we knew we needed a new place to live. When we needed it, it was right there, waiting for us.

We thank the Lord for being so good to us. It's scary how good He is.

Missions Conference Austria August 13-22

Pastors and missionaries fellowship on the dock like it was a contact sport

Joanie and I had not been to the conference in four years. It seemed necessary to go this year and plug back in to the fellowship of missionaries. For me the conference was life and death. The messages were speaking to me about my discouragement and the direction of my ministry. I had been considering a change from London. I was also feeling like a failure in the ministry.

The Lord gave me assurance that I was not a failure, and that I was to stay where I was. The most encouraging word is that He is with me. Every day I come back to this most amazing promise and take in more nourishment and strength. I have also been challenged to pray more and seek the Lord.

About three-quarters of the way through I realized I had on me the completed booklet Maintaining The Missionary Lifeline in pdf format. I offered it to the missionaries and about 10 or 15 gave me their email addresses so I could send it to them. If anyone reading this wants a copy, go to the email form on calvarychapeltwickenham.com and request it. I'll be happy to send you one.

Creation Fest August 7-12

Scott Cunningham leads worship in the Main Shed

This year the free concert / teaching festival was expanded from a weekend to a week. Elliot Wilsher and I roomed together for the time I was there (five days - I had to fly to Austria after that). The Fest was greater than before in every way.

The Bible teaching was more central to the event. The bands enhanced the teaching rather than compete with it for dominance. The Royal Cornwall Showground is exactly what we had envisioned building in the field at Woolacombe had we the finances.

Everything about the Fest is poised for huge greatness. We are working and praying for the Lord to bless the next one in 2010.

Universal Royalty Outreach July 24-26

Brother Dave Toro gives his testimony on the pedestrian zone of Hounslow

The band Universal Royalty (hereafter known as UR) and me got to know one another at Creation Fest, and we kept saying we ought to work together. July 24-26 we finally got to do outreach. The great thing about UR is their willingness to serve Jesus. Their first day was traveling five hours to reach us. They arrived just as it started raining hard, thus stalling outdoor playing. When the weather cleared we decided to not risk a PA system with more rain. The guys went out on the pedestrian zone in Kingston with just an acoustic guitar and their voices. They've done it many times before. It led to a couple of good conversations and a lot of invitations given out.

Saturday we were in Hounslow and the guys continued to persevere with gear problems and no drummer (brother Dan couldn't make this tour).

Sunday at church they led worship, played their music, and shared their testimony. I think they're a great group to do outreach with and look forward to doing it again.

A walk along the Thames after being sick for a week

Joanie and Holly got sick on Monday, July 13. By Thursday it was time for us to get out of the house and move our bones. Joanie knew a place near Shepperton with a walk along the Thames River.

We saw large boats moored next to huge mansions. Rustic wood houses sat alongside glass minimalist homes. I saw Katie running along the river in time to photograph her against the summer sky.

When we got back to the car and drove out to go home we realized we had stopped our walk a curve too soon. Around the bend was a bridge over the locks, a refreshment stand, and several nautical shops. Adventure! I guess we save that for exploring next time.

Living What I Teach (or What I Did On My Summer Vacation)

Back in March I got an email from my pastor Wayne Taylor in Seattle. He was going to take a trip to do outreach in Germany and Austria during July. Before he returned to Seattle he wanted to meet with as many Calvary Fellowship missionaries as possible. So he set up a retreat at a YMCA hostel in Southern Germany from 14-16 July. We would fly in to Salzburg, Austria and go to the hostel just across the border in Germany. Later on I was asked to contribute to the teaching. Retreats are times for encouragement and strengthening, so I mulled it over and prepared a message about the encouraging things I have learned while experiencing difficult setbacks and puzzling situations I couldn't do anything about.

The day to fly came. At 2:30 Monday morning we got up to drive to Stansted Airport. Holly threw up in the bathroom. She did not want to go on the trip. Joanie and I now had to decide: was this because Holly's system did not like it at 2:30, or was this more serious? While we waited, I got the car out and stood ready to load the bags. Holly threw up again. We reviewed our options. I could go alone or go with Katie. I had just been to the York Conference alone because the girls had been sick. I didn't want to leave Joanie with the girls for another week. While we waited the time grew near when we would not reach Stansted in time. We decided that we wouldn't go. We went back to sleep at 4 am.

Later that day Joanie came down with the same illness Holly had. It turned out that it had been transmitted at a women's brunch on Saturday. Three other women had also contracted the same illness at the same time.

Since my house had become a disease vector I decided to close down the prayer meeting and the midweek Bible study so nobody else got sick.

That made it a vacation at home. We've always wondered what it would be like to have a vacation at home. You don't travel, so in theory when it's over you aren't tired from driving so far. Well, what was it like? A little boring, when the family is sick.

In the end I did what I have learned the hard way: submit to the will of God. Give thanks for all things always, says Ephesians 5:20. So I gave thanks that Joanie and Holly got sick and that we couldn't go to the retreat and I couldn't teach. That isn't a denial of reality. Giving thanks in a situation like this means that God will work all these things out for good, I just don't know how He will do it yet.

Monday night a woman who lives in my home state of Washington called me. Her 84-year old mother was visiting England with a grandson. Last Thursday (July 9), while in Westminster Abbey, she collapsed and found she could no longer walk. She was sent to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, awaiting treatment. The woman asked me to visit her mother.

When I got there, this lady thought I was an angel sent by God. She has been going nuts, with only herself for company. She couldn't take five days of being cooped up with herself. She wanted to hear me talk, and made me tell all about myself. Because of her hearing aid she made me speak up LOUD. So the whole ward and probably all the nurses on the floor learned that I'm a missionary, how I came to receive Jesus, and how I used to play in a Christian rock band, as well as the rest of my life story. Pretty insane.

If we had gone to Germany that woman would not have reached me, I wouldn't have visited her mother and shared the Lord with her. Joanie would have had to care for Holly while sick herself.

My message at the retreat would have been about the encouraging things I have learned while experiencing difficult setbacks and puzzling situations I couldn't do anything about. More encouraging than having all things work out for me is God making all things work out for good.

The Pen Is the Scalpel of the Mind

In order to study the Bible you need a set of tools to take it apart and analyze it. Here's another great tool: your pen.

A great way to begin observing a text is to write it out. Take a sheet of paper and write the scriptures out on one half of the page. You pick the side depending on if you are right- or left-handed. Since I'm a lefty I use the right side. I write each verse as a paragraph. Then I use the left side of the page to make observations.

Sounds like a lot of work? Maybe so. What I find is that I notice things as I write that I wouldn't if I merely printed out the text.

For example, as I write I'll notice if I write the same word over and over. Repetition is one way to emphasize an idea. You want to notice emphasis because that's what's important to conveying the message. You don't emphasize unimportant things. If a word is repeated seven times in eleven verses, you would be justified in thinking it indicates a major concept. Try writing out Romans 4 and see if you can find which word is repeated most (apart from words like "the", "and", and so on). Do it with Romans 7. Hint: the word emphasized there is a pronoun. Find the emphasized words and you find the major ideas.

Another discovery you will make is unfamiliar words. If you are writing and don't know what a word means, you can mark it to look up later. You now have a list of words to quickly investigate in your dictionary (you did get a dictionary, didn't you?).

Questions will occur to you as you write. Write them down to answer later. Questions are valuable. If you ask the right question, you will get the right answer. Sometimes I get the answer as I write the question. That will spark a line of inquiry that will prove valuable in understanding a scripture.

As you get insights, write them down. You are clarifying your thoughts. You can be objective with them. You can evaluate them. You might have a moving experience as you think, but you might look at those thoughts on paper and think, "That's ridiculous!" Then you can eliminate the flaws and refine your good ideas.

Commit everything to writing. If you get into trouble for time, you can still grab your preparation sheets and use them to teach. It ain't pretty, but it gets the job done.

Run out of space? Get another sheet of paper. Waste a whole forest if that's what it takes. Nine to twelve pages is not unusual for my preparation. I use waste paper from the photocopier so I don't feel bad about using lots of paper. That's why God made trees: so I could study the Bible.

I used to use a mechanical pencil (so I wouldn't have to sharpen it so often) but now I use a pen just because it won't smear, it's more legible, and I can write even longer.

Can you do this with a computer? I study with one, but I wouldn't make observations with it. That's partly the fault of my typing limitations. But I really like making notes in the margins and circling words and generally freely dissecting a text.

Over the years I've read men who suggest there is no substitute for the action of writing with one's own hand. One writer worried that keyboardists are losing touch with the text, that they suffer by not physically grappling with it. I've also beheld the spectacle of men bringing their laptops into the pulpit. I understand the demands of a teaching ministry and certainly have compassion on my brethren, but a laptop in the pulpit generally advertises that something is wrong. Does it help your case to broadcast that you are in trouble? No finger pointing here. I just want everyone to think about their methods and ways.

Charles Spurgeon, in his Lectures To My Students, ch. 10, quotes M. Bautain: "The pen is the scalpel which dissects the thoughts, and never, except when you write down what you behold internally, can you succeed in clearly discerning all that is contained in a conception, or in obtaining its well-marked scope. You then understand yourself, and make others understand you."

To make others understand you, you must think. The hardest thing is to begin thinking. The second hardest is to think clearly. When you write you almost jump-start the process. You do have to keep your eyes open, but it's a great tool to make your brain get involved.

Conquering Typing

In 1989, anticipating buying a computer, I taught myself to type. On a typewriter, even. But the computer didn't happen when I thought it would and I didn't keep the typing up. When I eventually got the computer I was reduced to typing with two fingers and a thumb till this year.

In desperation I bought a dictation program so I could get more done. But the dictating was as much work as learning to type. So now, after twenty years of hunt-and-pecking, I found a website that taught typing, and I made myself do the lessons.

I am not good at this yet. But I am getting work done and I have renewed hope that I'll get better.

And then I got the email for the update to the dictation program. For fifty dollars I can get 99% accuracy right out of the box. Or, for continuing to invest a lot of work I can type on any machine and not be limited to the one I have the dictation program on.

This time I think I'll keep up with the typing.

I can do my weekly prayer requests. I can do this blog and my emails. I can write my next book (Maintaining The Missionary Lifeline).

It's a small victory. It may not mean much to you, but that's where I'm at right now. My pastor says rejoice over everything you can because sometimes that's all you have to rejoice in. He's right.

I trust God to make this an ongoing blog and be a help to those of you who want to keep up with what we are doing.

If you would like our weekly updates, you can register at missioncalvary.com, and they will send you them automatically when I post them.

God bless you this week.