What is a mission?

We made home made pizza last night with Bob, Caroline, and their son Oden.

As the evening got late, Aurora disappeared and we found her asleep in our bed with her sceptre.

The boys enjoyed a litlle airsoft gun battle in the yard.

If anyone doubted that Phillip and Claire are adolescents then these pictures of Claire may make it clear.

The Andertons below with their adopted daughter Cheyenne. They rescued her from neglect and foster care. The above picture hangs in their house and is one they took in India where they have spent some months on a couple of mission trips. They are originally from Great Britain and also feel like God brought them here.

What is a missionary? by Oswald Chambers

"A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . ." ( Matthew 28:19 )"

The above is a daily on line devotional from My Utmost For His Highest. I had checked the blog this morning and seen no comments on my last entry about the kids. I seem to always want to just write about the kids. It takes less time than some of the deeper things God is teaching and showing me. I always seem to think of topics I want to write about but can't seem to take or find the time to put to words. It is safe to write about the kids because I know the grandparents really miss them and love the pics. There are lots of other people that we are getting to know and share our lives with but it hasn't seemed right to put their intimate life details on the world wide web. Some of them read it! Can you imagine seeing some detail you have told me about yourself posted here. I have already angered one person by mentioning details better left private. I was thinking that some may feel the "mission" lacking and then I pulled up my morning devotional. The above was a God sent reminder that the great controlling factor for us being here is the command of Jesus, the inspiration he gave us to come, to be true to him and to carry out his plans. The needs of people anywhere in the world can be overwhelming with poverty, health issues, and broken relationships. Here it is a culture that struggles with racial issues, land rights, European colonization, family breakdown, unemployment, gangs, drugs, and "free medical care" that falls short of actually taking care of sickness. Lynn and I have jokingly said that the system looks at the patient and says, " You are too sick too treat or you are not sick enough." Many treatments such as antibiotics, chemotherapy, modern pacemakers, portable oxygen, allergy shots, etc just are not offered anywhere. What they do have is rationed to the point that the waits are so long that the patient ends up often past the point of being helped by it. We have tons of examples of people waiting months for surgery and then being past surgical cure by the time their turn comes around. My next door neighbor has a brain tumor that causes seizures and now is causing eyesight problems and nerve damage. She has waited at least the 6 months we have been here and now is scheduled to possibly have the surgery in February 2009! That is just so hard for us to support if "free" means limited therapy and year long waits in misery. Anyway, we just keep doing what we can in the system we are in. I will be lecturing at a national pathology meeting next weekend. Prayers for that would be appreciated. I have always felt teaching was part of my God given wiring so I pray that the information is communicated clearly and understood in a helpful way without me throwing up on stage. As far as spiritual needs, they are all around us as each person we know has a step to take towards God with obstacles they face. For some the first step is believing that God exists in a post modern mindset with the obstacle of seeing Christianity and church as judgemental and uncaring. I love these people and we have great conversations. What people think about God and what The Bible actually says about him has always fascinated me. Aren't we all working out our understanding? I am enjoying reading Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancey. If you don't know what you think about God you might find this book thought provoking and spiritually insightful. Anyway, I also am very thankful for the friends here who share our faith in Christ and whose next step is with us as we all grow a little fuller in our faith by walking through the obstacles of life. Parenting is a huge area of common ground and like mindedness especially with the Abascal and the Anderton families. There are a ton of other families from school that we have a great time just having fun with as our kids play together. The "kitchen conversations" are great and the people we meet are fascinating. For example about every 10th person has lived months to years on sailboats sailing the world. My pilates teacher and her urologist husband are an example ( 7 years with 2 kids sailing from England to the Eastern US coast, panama canal, pacific islands). The navy seal we had dinner with last night retired at 37 and lived in Mexico, Tonga, etc. Our landlord house owners Mike and Min are fascinating as they biked Asia and Europe for a few years. They responded to the 2 basement floods this week by fixing the drain, doing 3 loads of wet towels including folding, and leaving chocolate and champaigne. We have invited them this afternoon to share the champaigne on their deck as we ask them what it was like to raise four teenagers in this house. He is a psychologist so the answer should be good!

We are exploring different options for reaching out to people with the message of Christ around Christmas time so please pray for revelation and send us any ideas you may have.