Passports!!

By the end of the month, we will have everyone's passports for the journey!! Quite incredible! We actually didn't have the money to get everyone's passports all at once, but an incredible donation from some very dear friends made it possible. Without going back and reading (I can't remember if I mentioned this), we haven't even begun to seek out funds. We actually plan on NEVER asking for money because we believe that God will provide for every step. Once again, He proves his promises will be kept. A dear friend stopped by yesterday and handed Heather a check that will cover the kids' passports and our visas! I'm completely speechless (not literally).
The hard part about the next few months will be the waiting. I am so excited about the future and so ready to leave everything I've known behind. It's a strange thing to say and an even stranger thing to feel. I'm ready to go. Every day that passes, I am less attached to everything around me.
On a completely different note, tonight is the last night of Chanukah. One last candle until next year. I am blown away by the blessings this year has seen and so expectant of what is to come. Just as Chanukah celebrates liberation and restoration of the temple and the miracle of more than enough oil, we celebrate the fact that Father has given us more than enough oil in a vessel that looks too small.
Isn't that what Jesus is really all about? Taking people who haven't got enough and making them into more? Most of the time, I feel like I have nothing to offer, then He steps in and gives me something for someone else. Just enough oil!
I'm a terribly sporadic blogger, so if this is the last one for a while, Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.

The Mystery Solved

As promised, here is the story of how Heather and I realized where we were called to go. Now, if you pay careful attention, you will figure out where it is. I know this is a little vague, but it has to be out of necessity. How wonderful it is to have a dream and watch it come true. Can you imagine seeing the Lord work right before your eyes?
Heather and I have a real interest in all things Jewish. We pray for Jerusalem and for peace in the region. We have celebrated Passover the past two years. Last year, we celebrated Hanukkah instead of Christmas. So, naturally, when we began to realize we were going into missions, we assumed it would be in Israel. We started looking into Rosetta Stone Hebrew lessons and making all kinds of grand plans. Then, God stepped in.
I began seeing snapshots of certain Asian landmarks in my mind. I didn't think anything about it until Heather had a dream. She told me her dream in which she was in an Asian country and Asian soldiers put her under house arrest and told her, "You thought you were prepared for us. But really, we were prepared for you." It was the same Asian country that I had been seeing in my mind. I told her about the visions. Let me break to say that she had told a few people about her dream before she told me and they all said, "You are going to this Asian country." So when Heather and I talked, it became obvious where we were meant to go.
We then told our pastor and elders what the Lord has shown us. We have placed our dream in the hands of our church so that when it seems good to us and them for us to go, the church will send us out.
The amazing thing is that we haven't told a lot of people, but many of our friends are coming up to us saying, "We have a feeling you're going to be leaving. What's going on?" We haven't even begun to plan or figure out funding, yet people are asking us how they can contribute financially! God is really putting all of this into place right before our eyes!
Having said all of this, we are planning a month long trip to a certain Asian country in the spring to meet the people and work with them, see the sights and get a feel for the country. After that...well, we don't know yet. We expect that God will go before us and make straight the path that we are to take. Please join us in praying for those that we encounter in that region and that the Lord's favor will be on us.
As for where we are going-if you haven't figured it out yet, pm me on Facebook and I will give more details.

Happy Thanksgiving...EveryDay

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I have never been a fan of Thanksgiving. I just never really got into it. This year, however, I am inexplicably excited. I want to encourage everyone to think beyond what you are thankful for in the present and be grateful for what the Father is going to do in the future. When it comes to thankfulness, we always look to the past and present, but how often do we look to the future? God is always looking to the future! In the womb, we were fearfully and wonderfully made for his purpose-created for an eternal future. But we were also created to bring the Kingdom to this earth.
He has plans to prosper us! Of course He has blessed us in the past and He blesses us at this moment. But I believe that there is a stirring among his children and we must look for it.
Father, I am thankful Your life-giving love. Expand your Kingdom through your believers! I am thankful for what you are about to do among your people! Open eyes and ears and rend hearts. You are the God of healing and peace. Thank you that we have hope for the future!!

History-Part 1

My sweet wife says I actually should start from the beginning rather than start from the present. With that in mind, I will try to lay a little background as to how this journey began.
I grew up in church. I remember missionaries coming on occasional Sunday nights to give "reports from the field". I was never interested in them-not even the slideshows. I was too self-absorbed to care. Although I was saved at the age of 11, I didn't begin to have a true relationship with Father until a few years ago. Wow! Over 20 years as a Christian before I really began to know the person in whom I professed my faith.
My wife grew up in the mission field. She has some incredible memories of the Philippines. A few months ago, the Lord began showing me snapshots of me being a missionary. It was a shock and I didn't understand it. I didn't even know if I wanted what I thought he was showing me. I told my wife that the Lord had showed me something (but not what) and I wanted her to ask Him to show her too. Well, He did! She came to me a few days later and said that He told her we were going into the mission field. It was confirmation of the most solid kind.
And so, the ongoing discussion began: "Will we? Can we? When? Where? How? REALLY?" We had no information-just a dream. And we didn't tell anyone except each other. A few weeks ago, a man named Norman Barnes from the UK came to our church. Norman has lived an amazing life in missions and preaching the gospel. I had never met Norman personally until he asked Heather and me to stand before the church as he often does. He gave us this word (paraphrased): "The Lord says,'Yes, but not yet. You have much to learn and you need all the training and covering you can get from your church family. Then, when it is right with the leaders and you, this group will send you'."
Seriously? This guy just opened up our mailbox and read our mail! What a sweet and definite confirmation from the Father! As if that weren't enough, He woke me up at 6:08 yesterday morning. I often find that He will wake me up at a certain time and that time relates to a passage of scripture-usually in Isaiah. Isaiah 6:8: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" Crazy? You just can't make this stuff up!!
So, there's some history. Wait until you hear how he showed us where we are going.
But, that will have to wait. I am tired and must get some sleep.
Thank you, Father, for speaking to us even when we don't think we hear you. Thank you for pursuing us with your desire to heal us and prosper us. To you all glory flows and from you all love and peace flows. You are GOOD!! Remind your people of your mighty ways and remind your beloved of their value and worth in your kingdom!

GO!

My first ever blog post. This should be a lot of fun. In the months to come, I hope to relate what's going on in my journey with the Father and how he keeps his promises. He has been doing some truly incredible things in the last few weeks and I would love to share all of it, but it would simply take too long. I will probably incorporate some of those things in future posts as they will have an impact on my family's future.
This blog is meant to praise my Holy Father, call attention to His will in your life (as well as mine), to proclaim His providence and glory, and hopefully, encourage and spur others on to draw closer to Him.
I would ask that you would pray with me for the believers in a certain Asian country that we won't name. My hope is that through this post, a worldwide group will begin praying for God's kingdom to spread in this region.
That's enough for now. Blessings on you and your families and praise be to the Father, Lion of Judah! Roar, Daddy, roar!!