Finally Here

“If it seems we are crazy; it is to bring glory to God”, 2 Corinthians 5:3 (NLT). We have arrived. The chapter has turned in this 5 year journey of molding. I think back on everything that has occurred so far on this journey and I can only stand in awe of the work of the Lord. I was 19 years old. I remember waking up every morning telling myself, “You are the Trumpoverthrow”. It seems stupid now, but I couldn’t help but dream of becoming this highly influential entrepreneur. The dream was to build two towers on both sides of the Trump Towers with a bridge that went across Donald’s sky rise office. I laughed at the thought of walking across that bridge with a gas mask on “flicking off” “the Trump”. It was incredible to me that a man so cocky could get so far. The simple fact that anyone with hair like that could be trusted was so far beyond my thought process, I just knew I could trump that.  Then it dawned on me, a thought and a feeling that will never leave my memory – I woke up every morning for ME. What I could accomplish, what I could put in the bank, what I could do. All the while, people all around me were on their one way street to Hell. It hit me like a ton of bricks falling from the top floor of one of my “Dream Towers”. I realized that I too, despite my “Christian” lifestyle, was on a self-carved path to Hell. Yeah sure, I accepted Christ when I was 8 and was baptized and went to church and sang the songs and read the Bible and prayed. Shame on me! Not that there is anything wrong with any of those things, but I sure wasn’t involved for God’s glory. Actually, it was a great networking venue and a way to get the “good girls”. That morning things changed.

I got involved. I started asking questions. I began, for the first time in my life, seeking after Truth. It was truly a strange concept to me – not living for Logan. I stood in the room of a double wide trailer in Gray Court South Carolina and took off the gloves. Not because I wanted to fight, but because I found myself already in the fight. I had been getting beat up this whole time, and never knew it. “Here I am, send me”. A few weeks later I decided to Google what God wanted me to do. I mean, they are supposed to be the fasted search engine on earth and I couldn’t figure out why it was taking God so long to tell me what to do. P-E-O-P-L-E_W-H-O_N-E-E-D_J-E-S-U-S. Click. I stumbled upon a website called the Joshua Project. The website listed thousands and thousands of people groups all over the world who have never heard the name Jesus. As I scrolled down the page thinking about how my life all the sudden just didn’t matter, I ran across a group of people and just flat out lost it.

Then it happened. The edges of my life began to cry out in pain. I found myself on a path of sharpening. God had just given me the name of the people group I was to minister to. I was ready to GO. I pulled out my old business skills and solicited a guy to sail me to the mouth of The River and made sure he could tow my canoe behind the boat. I was ready to sell everything I owned and GO. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. I thought if I heard that from God one more time I was going to through in the towel and tell Him I would be there when He teleported me there. That is where St. George found me. St. George is a church in Orangeburg, SC. At that time I was serving as the OCBA summer missionary. I went to the church to share the stories of some pretty cool things God was doing out at the Santee State Park. I told them about my first sermon ever at 2 am in a Waffle House where 4 people accepted Christ, and about these two guys Vince and Dante who God showed His incredible Glory to. I went over what had to be 20 minutes past the end of “church time”. They cut me a check and it was like giving a stray dog food – I hung around. Little did I know, the OCBA would be the foundation God would choose to get me ready for the “Field”. I was ordained. I found my soul mate. I learned the importance of a true, real, faithful walk with the great I Am.

Now we are here. In a place where your worst nightmare sleeps next to you, where cockroaches are the size of your hand and turn around to fight you with their huge pincers, where tarantulas the size of dinner plates guard your door at night, where the fish can consume a full grown cow in less than 3 minutes, and mosquitoes have more thrust in their wings than the high setting of your fan. Where A/C is a thing of the future (at least hopefully in our apartment), and moving furniture becomes the work of a master craftsman to get it into your dwelling. Schedules are no longer valid, and planning gives you only something to change. Where time forgets to show up and rain reminds the earth it isn’t the sun. It is by far the most beautiful, amazing, and incredible place on earth to be where God has called you. 

Liz and I are settled in now. We have our little apartment nestled away behind bars and concrete and shards of metal in a city of 1.3 million people. Liz cooked her first Brazilian meal tonight. We just got in bed after one of the most educational weeks of our lives. At least at this point, we know exactly what our jobs are here. Liz is teaching 5^th and 6^th grade at The School. She has a pretty good schedule and will have the opportunity to spend some time getting familiar with the culture and language. I will be Campus Chaplain, which entails all ministerial aspects of an international Christian school/ English church, chapel services for The School and the EFL service for The Church (after the services get going, I will share how the Lord is using them for His Kingdom growth). Since my “committed” days were only Friday and Sunday, I was recruited to teach a HS Physical Science class and a 5^th and 6^th grade Bible class. Liz and I have been invited to go “explore the city” by some of our students in the EFL program. The Lord is certainly opening doors for us to get acclimated with the culture. The EFL program is going really well. The Lord has even sent us a new missionary from Manaus, some of you may have heard me talk about him, Wilson. Wilson came in early this morning and Dr. Underwood and I were there to pick him up. After he arrived, he told us he felt a calling from God to stay here and become a part of the work here. Wilson and I are traveling to get his things on the 19^th. It is a two hour plane flight there and a 3 day trip by boat back. Pray that everything goes smoothly and for traveling mercies so we can get another warrior in the fight. The Lord has provided us with all of the resources now to begin working on the new ESL material from a Christian Perspective.  Pray that the Lord provides us with the wisdom to compose the material in a way that will lead people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The tides have already turned and the Holy Spirit has placed His Seal on this place. God will be revealed! When we arrived, Dr. Underwood told us that something incredible had happened after we left to come back to the States. He told us in the 5-7 years he has been here; very few people have gotten saved. For some reason though, he said, people have been getting saved by the droves lately! It doesn’t make any sense! I just calmly said that Liz and I went back home and began sharing the needs of the ministry to our friends and family. I told him I didn’t think there were any coincidences there J! Your prayers for this ministry HAVE been heard and your diligence to support it have already begun reaping a harvest. Please continue to be prayerful about supporting this ministry. Your support and prayers have already opened the doors for opportunities for people to come to the saving knowledge of Christ, but the work is not finished – actually, it has only just begun! We miss everybody and can’t wait to hear what the Lord is doing back home. Please stay in contact with us and God as we strive daily to serve Him!