Blogger disappointment

I've been having troube with blogger crashing on me, so I'm going to start posting on Facebook. Please look for reports on my Facebook page. Www.Facebook.com/klawrence1955

Bused-ed

What do you do in the Lima airport at midnight?

We slept on the plane earlier today, but midnight to 6 am just seems to be the right time to sleep. We are waiting for the gate area in the domestic terminal to open so we can find our gate and go there to wait some more.

The Day has Come!

Ten excited Hickory Grove Peru Mission Team members met at the church early. Dawn Morton was waiting to help us make our connection with the bus. Steve Adams came to help load luggage and see us off because that is just how important missions is to our staff members. It is a blessing and honor to be a member of a church with such a heart for evangelism and missions.

Two things are a mystery in this world: the way of a man with a maid and the way of an airline with an itinerary. We're now sitting in the Newark airport. Yes, sometimes you have to go North before you can go South. Our's not to reason why; our's just to go and serve. Better post, boarding soon.

Commissioning Day

It has been a long time since I posted, sorry. My excuses: work, until the end of the school year; then Robotics camp, VBS, and various preparations, Oh and a Summer to do list that I imposed upon myself.

Sunday was commissioning day. During all of our morning worship services our team, along with one going to Nicaragua, were introduced. Church members were invited to come forward and lay hands on team members they knew. Laying on hands is a way of supporting us, a commitment to pray for us.

Our church does this because we believe in prayer. We believe God listens to us as we ask him for protection, wisdom and results.

In the months since my last post we have seen the Lord unify us into a team That knows and cares for each other. Some have developed skills like puppetry, or singing songs, and presenting the gospel message. One of our members had to cancel. He is a recent college graduate and he got a job. Orientation couldn't wait for him to come back from Peru. We know this was in the Lord's plan, so we thank Him and press on.

In recent weeks Pastor Pablo has requested that our nurses teach classes to nurses in Peru. Planning this met with translation difficulties, and uncertainty about what to teach, but prayers were made and answers came.

There have been signs of resistance from our enemy, the devil, but encouraging signs as well.

Waves of Despair Lead to Obedience

Using Jonah as a theme to promote missions may make you think I am some kind of a weird mission team leader. I hope not. I hope you will see that the Lord has been in the business of restoring lost people to Himself ever since Adam and Eve's first sin. Remember that He went looking for them in the garden.

Probably the most difficult part of Jonah's book is chapter 2. Jonah's prayer contains a lot of imagery about facing death by drowning in the ocean. You can visualize Jonah's despair in verses 2-6, being pounded by billowing waves, covered in seaweed, and sinking into the seemingly bottomless deep.

These verses seem to trough and crest like waves, there are lots of lows but verses 4 and 6 each end in a high point, a little breaker that lifts Jonah's feelings in hope. 'Yet again I shall look upon your holy temple,' and 'yet you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God' express Jonah's sure hope that God had not abandoned him. Even in his helpless place he knew the Lord would rescue him.

Verses 7 and 9 sound like Jonah's repentance to me. At his most desperate point his prayer reached the Lord's temple. 'What I have vowed I will pay' may be his commitment to obey. Being a prophet implies that he may have vowed to serve the Lord and obeying the Lord by delivering the Lord's message would be his payment.

Since Jonah was not an idol worshiper verse 8 may be a reference to the people of Nineveh. God's reason for sending Jonah was to offer them His steadfast love in place of their vain idols. 'Salvation belongs to the Lord' could be Jonah's way of saying that he depended on the Lord to be saved, or that to whom he takes the message of salvation is not his choice, but the Lord's and this time the Lord chose the Ninevehites.

Our inconveniences in Peru in no way compare to Jonah's troubles in the ocean, but hopefully we are not running as he was. Salvation belongs to the Lord still applies to lost people we will meet. Our commitment, a vow of sorts, is that Jesus is our Lord, and our Lord's command is to go and share the gospel.

Join us on the Peru mission trip; application deadline is Thursday, March 31. Pray that the Lord will provide doctors and dentists.  

The Lord is Determined

News of people interested in the Peru mission trip keeps trickling in. Of course, it won't take too much of a trickle to soon fill all of the positions, and that is exciting.

The HGBC missions office is doing their thing with the applications right now, so I don't know who all has applied. So Casey and Dawn, if you're reading, I'd love to hear some names soon.

Team leaders have a meeting with Casey and Dawn on March 19th. Maybe there will be some news by then or before. Waiting is hard, but necessary. Our mission personnel and missions committee have worked out a great process for preparing teams. It will all be worth it when we get together for our first team meeting.

Have you ever considered how determined the Lord was to get His message of repentance to the lost and wicked people of Nineveh? Remember that God told Jonah to leave his job, as prophet in Israel, for a short-term mission trip to share a message of repentance with a people who were notoriously evil. Jonah didn't want to go. Think about everything God did to get Jonah, and God's message to Nineveh:
1) He created a ship shattering storm.
2) He allowed businessmen to lose their profits.
3) He drove the passengers and crew of the ship into a religious panic
4) He manipulated random selection to point out Jonah.
5) He drove the passengers and crew to a decision that bothered their moral consciences - they tossed Jonah overboard.
6) He created a fish large enough to swallow Jonah.
7) He created conditions in the fish that were humanly survivable. 
8) He caused the fish to vomit Jonah up onto dry land at the right spot.
You may be able to think of others - these eight are enough to convince me that the Lord was determined.

If the Lord was that determine to get His message to evil people, how determined do you think He is to get His message to the people of Peru who are just like you and I except for faith in Christ?

You can be part of the Lord's determined plan this summer. He created a fish for Jonah; He could do that for you - a flying fish, since we're so far from the ocean, or maybe a T-rex. Filing out an application to serve would be much easier - on you. Ask the Lord to show you why you shouldn't go.