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.

Plans from the Field

Pastor Pablo, our contact in Peru, just sent a Facebook message saying that he heard from a brother with Arequipa Municipality. There is a possibility that we could schedule up to three medical clinics. What an opportunity to support our Peruvian co-workers in Christ! Good will from this kind of ministry opens doors for Christian nationals. It also prepares hearts to hear the gospel from the team.

Let's pray for the Lord to set up the trip schedule and pray that He will move some doctors, and dentists to join the nurses and CNA who have already shown an interest in serving. We hope that Pastor Pablo will enlist the help of Peruvian medical personnel through Lucas, a Peruvian Christian medical volunteer organization. Our teams have worked along side Lucas' volunteers for the past three mission trips. The camaraderie  between healthcare workers of similar training is a blessing to see. And these men and women have burdened hearts for their lost countrymen.

Of course, this in not just a medical trip. We need those of us who are not medical in training to be available to share Christ through our puppets, skits, testimonies, song, and direct witnessing. 

The Lord has already commanded us to go, ask Him to show you why you should not. If He doesn't, fill out your application!

Be Like the Lord

Jonah was God's reluctant Old Testament missionary. We know that God told him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to the people, but we don't know for sure why he didn't want to go except in one sense. Jonah actually told us in Jonah 4:2. He said to the Lord, 'I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster.' 

The character of God made Jonah run the other way. Even before leaving Israel he knew God would forgive if the Ninevehites repented, and he didn't want them to repent.

Be like the Lord. Be merciful, share His mercy for sinners; be compassionate, hope to see them free from their sin; be slow to become angry at their indifference; be rich in faithful love, persist in sharing what you know they need - Jesus; take the message they need to avoid disaster.

You can share the Lord's character with people in Peru. Join us as we go this summer.

Don't be like Jonah - 2!

Exciting news! One of the church members who talked to Judy and I at the Main Campus Mission trips informational meetings told me Sunday that she plans to put in her application. The Lord is growing our team. I can't wait to see who He brings on next.

As I said before, don't ask whether you should go, ask why you shouldn't. The Lord already told us all to go in general, don't let worry about going the right place hinder your obedience. Jesus said go into all the world--(He wasn't specific about where to go)--and preach the gospel--(He was specific about what to share). Let me tell you a secret: the right place to go is where ever you go and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So it's not so much about the where of obedience, as it is about the message shared as you are obedient. You are going to share God's heart, and that can be done anywhere.

So what is God's heart? We can learn that from a guy who lived hundreds of years before Jesus commanded us to go. Jonah was an Old Testament missionary. God told him to go to Nineveh, and we all remember his reaction: he tried to run from the presence of our omnipresent God. He didn't want to go to Nineveh.

Now I've heard many preachers and teachers try to explain why Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. Reasons range from he was afraid of the barbaric Assyrians to he hated them because they were Israel's enemies to they were so evil they were un-redeemable. But Jonah told us why he didn't want to go in Jonah 4:2 (ESV): 'And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster."' Jonah knew the Lord and He knew that if he preached the Lord would find some way to be gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and would relent from disaster. He didn't want to see the Ninevehites forgiven for whatever reason, and he knew the Lord would let them off.

Don't be like Jonah. I know you won't. Embrace the Lord's grace and mercy. Wouldn't it be great to bring the Lord's grace, mercy, slowness to anger, and abundance of steadfast love to the people of Peru? Wouldn't it be exciting to be part of the Lord's relenting from the disaster of spiritual lostness for people you don't yet know? Jonah didn't want to be the Lord's conduit for blessings on his enemies; I'm sure you want to be the Lord's conduit for blessings on the new friends you will meet in Peru.

Don't Be Like Jonah!

Our Sunday School class just finished a study of Jonah. You know he was an Old Testament missionary. God sent him to a different culture, one he hated, one that was full of people who hated his people, and were known to be wicked and cruel.

But the story is not about Jonah, it's about God. It reveals God's reasons for sending out missionaries. We saw five points about why God sends out missionaries. I'll just give you one so this will be a blog and not a book.

Jonah 1:2 tells us that God told Jonah, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me." The phrase 'their evil has come up before Me' is interesting. Hadn't our omniscient (all-knowing) God noticed their evil before. Certainly Jonah had; he ran in the other direction. Since God is all-knowing this phrase can't mean He had just now seen their evil. So why did it come to His attention now? Maybe their pile of evil got so big that He just got tired of it. That doesn't sound much like God either.

Try adding to that statement the fact that God knew how the people of Nineveh would respond to Jonah's message. He knew they would repent. So maybe 'their evil has come up before Me' meant that He knew the time was right for them to hear and repent. He knew they were ready, so He sent in His Old Testament missionary, His reluctant, run away missionary.

God's timing is impeccable; He knows just when to set things in motion; He knows just the words that need to be said, by just the person, at just the time. He knew it in Jonah's day, and He knows it today. You could be just the person for someone in Peru, and maybe for many someones. There's only one way to be sure: go, take God's message of salvation with you.

Check back soon!

Ask the Lord, Apply to Serve

Last two Sundays we had short-term missions trips information meetings. Six church members showed interest in serving with us in Peru. Praise the Lord these are members who have never been with us before. Now is the time for prayer and applications. Ask the Lord if you should join our team, or better yet ask Him why you shouldn't.

In Acts 16:6-8, Paul and his mission team tried going one direction, but the Lord stopped them. They tried another direction, but again the Lord stopped them. They were heading a third direction when the Lord gave Paul a vision of a Macedonia guy saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

When Paul didn't have a specific direction he didn't stay, he asked the Lord's direction and started moving. He knew the Lord would get him where he needed to be. His default mode was going, not staying.

Jesus has already said go (see Matthew 28:18-20). If you're wondering about your involvement maybe you should assume He wants you to go, and only decide not to go if He makes it clear you shouldn't. Our usual practice, our default mode, our everyday task should be going.

Oh, and if you can think of someone else who should think about going with us send them the link to this blog. Maybe you could be the Macedonian guy in their vision from the Lord.

Ask the Lord, apply to serve.

Let the Lord Build Our Team

Yesterday we started the 2016 mission year at HGBC with an interest meeting at North Campus. Representatives from several mission teams came to describe their planned trips and talk to church members interested in participating.

We on the Peru Team were excited to see four people step up to show their interest.

Two more interest meetings will be held at Main Campus, one after each of the worship services, next Sunday, February 7th. We are praying to fill the positions and begin training/preparation meetings soon.

Pray that the Lord will build our team with believers who are committed to Him, and willing to serve in any capacity.