This is more of a journal entry to help me remember stuff later.

Saturday, April 17th - Our church is gearing up for next week's missions conference which they are calling Missio Dei. Becca and I have volunteered to be helpers in the Children's wing. This means that we have been going to drama practice for a couple of weeks, and we've bought a few extra decorations for our Buddhist home.


Tonight something interesting happened. Andy was preaching on 'Finishing the Task.' It was a missions message, and for a visual aid, he had seven people come up on stage. They represented the 7 billion people now living on planet earth. One of the folks was a Christian. (I think Andy was being very, very generous here). Three of them wore sunglasses because they lived in the vicinity of the Christians, but were still blind to the Gospel. The fourth guy represented the 1 billion Muslims in the world. The fifth represented the Buddhists, and the sixth was for the Hindus.

At this point, the weird thing happened. Andy took 10 baseball caps, and began throwing them out in the congregation. The caps represented being 'called by God' as a missionary. Those who caught a cap were then invited to come stand by one of the seven already on stage. I knew that I was going to get a cap. Meanwhile, Becca was over in the nursing mothers room with another lady. Becca told her, "My husband's gonna get a cap, and go stand by the Buddhist."

And, of course, I got a cap. And, I walked up and stood by the Buddhist. My life is just like that.

Ugh! I only have to survive one more week of the missions conference without doing something stupid!


Friday, April 23th - Today is the start of our 2-day, intensive missions conference with the kids.

Spent most of the evening being a Buddhist. First, we did the drama around a 'Twister' mat where I was the 'B' in THUMB. T= Tribal, H= Hindu, U= Unreligious, M= Muslim, and B= Buddhist. Great little skit. Then, Becca and I pretended to be the leaders of a Buddhist home. We were given ten kids for our family, and together we acted out what it would be like to have Christian missionaries come to our country. Good stuff.

The next day started early, and went late. Becca had signed me up for the Men's Breakfast where I get to listen to Mike Hack of Operation Mobilization. Great message. Entertaining but not convicting (for me); gotta love it. Then, back to being a Buddhist again. The kids had a great time! Becca led the singing. The whole thing was very nice.

Then came the evening service. Mike Hack spoke again. At the end of the message, I was like, 'Okay, no big deal.' Becca said that she didn't even feel like filling out a STEPS card. I agreed. But then I suggested that we go down to the altar to let God know that we are still alright with being missionaries if he wants us. So that's what we did.

We didn't cry or get all emotional. I just prayed, 'Here we are, Lord. Just letting you know that we are still okay with being missionaries if you'd like to use us.' No big deal.

We started walking back to our pew, and Becca said, "Maybe we should sign up for the Perspectives class?" This is a missionary training class that the church was hosting. I said, "Well, why don't we wait and see what God does over the next couple of days?"

We got to our pew. The service ended. And the guy behind us leans forward, "I don't want to play Junior Holy Spirit, but if you're thinking about being missionaries, you should really take the Perspectives class." HA! I turned to Becca, "There's our confirmation. Looks like we're taking the Perspectives class."

We then walking out of the sanctuary, where we saw Mike Hack. I asked him to pray over us. He did.

Then I went to pick up the boys from their classes. Evan's teacher is Lynn, who is the wife of our missions pastor. I told her about God's very quick guidance to take the Perspectives class. "That's wonderful!"

But God wasn't done yet.

Art walked up and stood waiting for me to finish talking with Lynn. He then said, "One of our team members to Azerbaijan can't make it. I want you to go in his place."

Ya know, when God starts moving, he starts moving! Inside of 15 minutes of praying at the altar, I had been told to take the Perspectives class AND sign up for a missions trip to Azerbaijan!!

I told him that I would check with my employer; I'd have to get the time off right in the middle of busy season. I told God that this was my 'fleece.' It was gonna be huge. I asked some folks to pray about the situation, too. If my boss said, 'Yes' then I was giong to take it from God that I should go.

Then, on Tuesday, after a lot of praying, I asked him. "Of course, you can! Chris, work is not your life. It's a way to support your life. You'll never get different results by doing the same thing, so go for it!"

Okay. That was easy!

So, I filled out the application and sent in my $500. Only problem is, now I didn't have any money for the Perspectives class. For both Becca and I to take the class would be $518. Registration was Monday May 3rd.

I admit, I stressed a little bit, but in the back of my head, I knew one thing - God said to take the class.

Monday the 3rd came and went. For some reason, I couldn't just step out in faith. God was talking to me all day long. He was also talking to Becca.

Then came Tuesday, I was driving home from work; it was almost 5 o'clock. The thought struck me, "You have not, because you ask not." So, I called the church.

"Hi, I know that this is kinda silly, but do you guys have any means of financially helping people who have already spent their missions money on going to Azerbaijan?"

Long story short, they did. We both have been given scholarships to take the class.

God has also supplied a baby sitter, and things are moving right along. Now, I sent out some fund-raising letters, and I'm just sitting here watching to see what God will do.

Isn't the Lord awesome?