Reason #5 – My kids have grown immeasurably! Both Josh and Andrew were born in Chile and had no memory of the states before coming back on furlough. Katie was 28 days old when we left for the field and has never been back for any length of time. They have thoroughly enjoyed so many things [...]
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Why I no longer hate furlough – part 5
Reason #4 – Furlough has allowed me to reassess every aspect of the ministry and tweak many of them. You’ve heard the saying about missing the forest for the trees? Being away from the daily grind has allowed me to step back and see the forest, the big picture, instead of being distracted by the weekly events or daily [...]
Why I no longer hate furlough – part 4
Reason #3 – The real strength of the ministry in Chile is put to the test. Furlough is like throwing the ministry in the deep-end and standing back to see if it sinks or swims! To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when we left Chile in June 2011. In theory the ministry [...]
Why I no longer hate furlough – part 3
Reason #2 – We get to mobilize others for the mission field. I’ve had dozens of conversations over the past few months with young people who are considering full-time missions service. Well over a hundred times I’ve told others that 95% of the world is located outside of the USA, and there’s about a 95% [...]
Why I no longer hate furlough – part 2
Reason #1 – We get to thank the people who make our ministry possible. Nearly every week I stand behind the pulpit of a church who has partnered with our ministry for nearly a decade. I get to meet families who have given sacrificially to support our family month after month. We hear stories of [...]
Why I no longer hate furlough – part 1
I should start off by explaining why I ever hated furlough. To be honest, hate is probably too strong of a word… Let me explain. When Lori and I left for the field years ago, I knew without a doubt I was doing what God had for our family. As people were saved and lives [...]
Will you care in 2012?
Here’s a note from a great friend of mine, Bro. Aaron, in Northern Africa. The note was read aloud in a session of the Our Generation Summit ’11 earlier this week. We need people urgently to go and reach the Muslim world! Will you care about these people? Today we (Jillian, Said, Marwan, and myself) [...]
Walking away at crunch time – part 2
Are you serious? Could you possibly be inferring that Latin America doesn’t need anymore missionaries? Should we celebrate and retire because our job is done in Latin America? The above picture is actually from the back of a prayer card I picked up from a fellow missionary at a conference a few months ago. Not surprisingly, [...]
both/and not either/or
Some people are single focused missionaries. They think about and promote their field and only their field. After reading Walking Away at Crunch Time and Death by Bullet or Antifreeze, you might think I’m one of those single focused guys, but that could not be further from the truth. Missions is not an either/or proposition. Missions [...]
Death by bullet or antifreeze
A few years back a lady in my home town was convicted of murdering two men. Her weapon of choice was antifreeze. Death by antifreeze is slow and virtually undetectable by the victim. Its sweet taste makes an easy cover to disguise the poison. She slowly added antifreeze to the food of both her victims, until they [...]
