Accident

After dropping off the boys to school, I had forgot my cell phone and was returning home to pick it up before going to the office to give out finals. While coming up to an intersection, I noticed a young lady pulling up and stopping at a stop sign adjacent to me and then proceeding on. Since I did not have stop sign, I ascertained an immediate collision was about to take place, swerved, going up onto the curb, blowing out my tire, busting the wheel, hubcap, and bumper, losing control hitting a supporting cable to a telephone pole and up into a yard. However, the collision with her car was avoided. Thankfully, she stopped, called 911 and an officer came to discover she did not have her license nor proof of insurance with her. However, she was extremely honest and and admitted fault and was ticketed. Since then, we have discovered that her economic resources are bleak even though she does have insurance, yet she would like to pay for the damages directly. We are trying to work something out between her and our insurance company, a company that doesn't understand why we wouldn't allow them to pursue reimbursement. Will you help us by praying for this lady? She has just moved to town and asked about a church to go to. It is obvious she is not living a Christian lifestyle yet this appears that it might be a "divine appointment". We'll keep you posted... and hopefully, we'll get the car back in working condition soon!

BAM!

A couple of the exciting things about going to the NMC are the many exhibits of over 500 missionaries and mission organizations and the wide variety of workshops that are available throughout the day for everyone of all ages. Thursday morning I attended one specifically designed for Mission Professors and they discussed the latest trends in the world of mission. Specifically, BAM, or Business As Mission. The main thrust was that the only way we are going to reach the masses in today's world is through the world's marketplace. We need Christians in business, being Christian Missionaries. One of the quotes mentioned was "you can't make a missionary a businessman without a lot of effort, but you can make a businessman a missionary". So... what are some of you doing out there that someone else can't do? Willing to take your skills and expertise to a people who have no opportunity to hear the Gospel??

Workshops, Reunion & Evangelization Association

Wow... what a month! Besides being the sponsor for almost 200 students at the NMC, I also had 3 workshops to present. One was on "Where In The World Does God Want Me?", another was a different kind of workshop for me on "Pornography On The Mission Field" and it dealt with how no one, not even missionaries are exempt from sexual temptation and what one can do to protect oneself from this enslaving epidemic among our workers on and off the field. And the last workshop was a simulation game oriented event to show the basics of going cross-cultural as well as to describe the need of why we desperately have to have more Christians willing to 'go'.

Shown here is an activity that Steve Saint described in his book, "The Great Omission". A 300' red tape is stretched out and it is described as every inch represents 833,000 of those in the world who have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel of Christ in today's world. Almost a million per inch! Then, another green tape is unwound to only 5 feet. It represents all those who are being reached by missionaries today. Again, every inch is 833,000 people who are being reached by current missionaries assuming every one of our 100,000 evangelical missionaries are able to reach around 500 people each. Well, you can vividly see the discrepancy... the short green tape and the unending red tape. Are you praying for more laborers into the Harvest field?

I used this illustration three other times this month. First during chapel at CCCB. Then, at my home church, Forum Boulevard Christian Church in Columbia, MO, that had a missionary reunion where they invited as many missionaries they support that could come for a 3-day weekend reunion. We each were given about 10 minutes to share how our ministries were doing and I chose to show why we do what we do by using this example. There was also a Central Missouri Christian Evangelizer's meeting at the Blue Ridge Christian Church, also in Columbia and again, with an emphasis on why we should be planting new churches here as well as abroad, it made a potent example of the need for us all to get out of the church building, and back into the world... making disciples.

While at the CMCE business meeting, we were greatly encouraged to see Mark Butrum, a CCCB alumni, leading out in a new church plant in Hallsville, MO and Russ Cobb, also an alumni and long time friend and supporter of our work taking a leadership role in this endeavor. Like an apple tree's ultimate purpose being to make other apple trees, churches need to be planting other churches... here and all over the world.