February 2019 Update

In San Diego over the holidays - our boys would probably
vote for every family picture being the sill one.

What God’s been teaching me lately

(If this doesn’t interest you, skip down below to the EMI update to hear about some of the cool things we’ve been up to at EMI lately.)

In recent months, it seems that my devotion times and bible reading have centered on the same theme – the renewing of our minds as Christ followers. As a young kid, that usually meant trying not to think about the next toy or ‘thing’ I wanted. As a teenager, it was more about trying to keep my mind pure amidst a backdrop of indecency and promiscuity promoted by Hollywood (if you don’t believe me, go watch any PG movie from the 80’s –shocking!). But as an adult, it’s taken me years, I should say decades, to begin to understand that the battlefront in my mind subtly shifted to the area of self-reliance and the fight for my ‘right’ to myself.

How does this play out? The general pattern is, something comes to mind that I think needs to be sorted out. That quickly slips to worry and fear as I begin to let the thoughts and situations play out in my mind 100’s of times over. I start to think of all the things I need to ‘do’ to ensure my safety and/or proof that I am in the clear. In trying to ‘fix’ what’s worrying me, I do eventually get to the point of remembering to go to God with the situation, but in my mind, that has largely been for God to ‘bless’ my efforts since I ultimately believe it’s my job to get everything figured out.

Obviously, there are many situations and times in our lives when God does want us to act. In fact, many situations eventually do require us to take some kind of action…but actually, many situations never will! In any case, it’s ultimately irrelevant – the point is that ‘doing’ should never be our instinctual first move, or any move along the path. Actually, I think a strong case could be made that in the life of a Christ follower, ‘doing’ should never be the first or next step. Instead, we’re to bring all our thoughts and concerns to God first – tell Him what we need, thank Him for what He’s already done, and then rest in His peace. If there comes a point when He wants us to act, He’ll bring that first or next step to our doorstep, and if we’re living in Him and keeping our minds fixed on Him and focusing on hearing His ‘voice’ around us, the move to make will be as obvious and natural as if He were standing there pointing the way.

I realize there are things some of us must do, and many struggle with getting locked into indecision, inaction, and complacency. That too can be a fear battle to fight. But for me, and I would guess many of us, the opposite is true…and our struggle is often much more difficult to even recognize as a struggle! Many of us don’t even know we’re doing the wrong thing because from the world’s standpoint, it’s the right thing. But our insistence to sort ourselves and our own affairs, and to seize control of any situation we find ourselves in by trying to solve our problems, though responsible and even moral in the world’s eyes, is in the Spiritual realms as evil a scheme as exists! We are in effect, putting ourselves in God’s seat and acting like the god of our own lives.

The antidote to fear is thankfulness. By definition, if you are thankful for something, it’s impossible to fear it. But we only get to a place of thankfulness through the vehicle of trust. And we can only trust when we allow God to renew our minds and change the toxic patterns of thinking away from the negative and onto things that are true, right, and pure. Things that are excellent, and worthy of praise. So if this speaks to you, keep putting into practice all you’ve learned, and the God of peace will be with you.

EMI Update

In 2018, the 11 EMI offices around the world together completed 87 projects in 29 countries. This includes 9 water projects, 15 hospitals, 12 orphan care homes, 16 schools, and 15 ministry centers. We also were involved in construction projects in Myanmar, India, Uganda, Senegal, and Nicaragua. (See the included photos from the newly completed Community Learning Centre for Cherish Uganda that our EMI Uganda office designed and built!)

(Inside view)

Cherish Uganda Community Learning Centre - EMI designed
and built!

But 2018 is done and we’re into a new year of projects. Right now, we have 21 more EMI project teams out or recently returned from 15 countries around the world. As I write this, we have teams in Zambia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Ethiopia, India, Uganda, and Burundi. You can pray for these teams and people – with that many trips and people out things are bound to happen. In the past week alone, our Sierra Leone team had to cut short their trip by 2 days due to strikes at their connecting airport in Europe, our Haiti team had to leave a day early due to an uprising in the country that saw road blocks and unrest develop in a matter of a few hours (and continues to escalate even now), and one of our staff members on location in a Southeast Asian country is evacuated from the country due to a growing conflict in the region.

Thank you again for following along with, praying for, and supporting our family’s ministry work with EMI. We are very excited at what God is doing at EMI, and are so thankful and honored to have so many faithful partners in this work. We strongly believe that from God’s vantage point, each of you play just as significant of a role in the work of EMI as we do.

Each year, EMI publishes its own annual magazine to chronicle some of the recent highlights and work of EMI around the world. If you haven’t received a copy in the mail, please visit the EMI website to view an online version at: https://emiworld.org/inside/inside-emi/2018

The 2018 Inside EMI Magazine -
entirely produced in-house!

My trip to Canada last month was quick but very successful. Amongst other things, I had the privilege of sitting in on the EMI Canada Board meeting, and also to meet with their lawyer to hammer out the final details of our international affiliation agreement. It was actually very encouraging to hear their lawyer and Board Chairman (both Christians) talk about their heart behind getting the agreement right. The laws and government structures of the world are not setup well to interact, so to get the EMI Canada and EMI USA offices to be able to sign the same agreement is no small feat! But the spirit of cooperation and desire to carry out the mission of EMI is strong on both sides of the border, so what could have been (and often is even in the mission world, sadly!) a nasty fight to figure things out, was instead a very unifying process that landed us with a now signed agreement!

Me and some of the EMI Canada team in downtown Calgary.
(No, this isn't the EMI Canada office! They've just completed
a world-class library in Calgary so they took us by to view
the architecture. It reminded me of Noah's Ark.)

My favorite Calgary landmark - the Peace Bridge the spans
over the Bow River into downtown Calgary.

On the home front, I am coaching Brodie’s U18 soccer team in the Colorado competitive league this Spring, and have also been coaching Graysen’s YMCA basketball team. Jonah has been working on some paintings, and is also becoming more serious about rock climbing. Alisha is just as busy as you’d imagine a 1^st grade teacher might be, though the light at the end of the tunnel (i.e. Summer break) is nearing – just 3 months away! Oh, and the most significant family news of 2019 – after years of the boys wearing us down, we finally agreed to adopt two 7-year old Himalayan cats – Gus (nicknamed “Gustopher”) and Sophie (nicknamed “Pope”). They weigh 17 and 15 lbs. respectively, so job one has been to put them on a diet!

(L to R) Sophie and Gus

Jonah turned 16 this month - he's taking his time with his
driver's permit (his choice) but should have it by the end of the year.

Lots of snow in Colorado this year, and snow hiking is one
of Brodie and my favorite things to do here!

We've done more hiking this year than in all the previous
years we've been in Colorado, combined!

Sometimes we invite the others too, but it usually takes too
much convincing.

We celebrated Alisha's parents 50th wedding anniversary in
San Diego with her brother and family over the holidays.
We had a great time, especially stepping out of winter and
into more of a mild fall season.