The Last Post from MLC :(

A little bittersweet though it may be, this is our last post from MLC. We have made some amazing, lifelong friends who have encouraged us in our walk and spurred us on to be more like Christ. They have also been quite the competitors in Ulitmate Spoons, spades, basketball, Cranium, and Phase 10 (yes Ashley, I finally figured out how to play it). I am so grateful for these precious people who allowed us to lean on them through the stresses of MLC and laughed with us through the joys. God is so good in continuing to give us relationships with people so that we can learn more about Himself. Praise be to God for friends, laughter, love and tears.

The last week consisted of language learning techniques. Brian taught French, and I learned a little bit of Arabic. That won't really help in Macedonia, but thats ok. :) It was fun, and we learned a lot of techniques in learning a language.

This week has been wonderful! We have seen God answer an abundance of prayers, and we can see how He is still working. This week has been too short as now we are having to say goodbye to our friends and colleagues who God is sending out all over the world. We are so excited to see what God is going to do through them all. Pray for them as they say goodbyes to families and to American soil. Pray that the Lord will grant them peace and strength. Pray especially for the many kids who are leaving with their families. Pray that they will transition to their new country well and that God will give them new friends and relationships.

Thank you so much for praying us through this orientation program. We have learned so much, and God is continuing to teach us. We thank God for you, and we love you all so much!!! Our hope and desire is that you will know the love of God like we do, and that He will grow you in the knowledge of Himself for His glory!!

• Pray for those who are going out to the nations: that God would be honored in their obedience.
• Praise God for bringing our dear friend through surgery, and while the results are still uncertain, God has remained faithful in glorifying Himself through it all.
• Pray for safe travel on Monday.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. We praise God for you!!!

Happy Birthday to Brian!!!!

Let him know how much you love him!!!

Visas

• Praise the Lord!!! We just received word this morning that our visa has been approved. We still have a little more red-tape to go through, but we are so excited that it went through so quickly! Thank you so much for praying!!!
• Please continue to pray for our friend who just went in this morning for his lung biopsy. It will be at least a week before they get the results. Pray that they will have peace and that God will be glorified.

Thank you so much!!!

MLC: Week 6

Well, one more week left. I can't hardly believe it. God has taught us so much while we have been here, and we have been challenged in so many ways. Thank you again for praying us through MLC. There have been some very stressful times, but we made it!!!

This week we have been able to meet with our regional leader to get some more specific questions answered about our area of service. It was very informative and actually really fun. We have a great group of people going to CEE, and we were able to spend the majority of the week with them. We ended up the week with a speaker who is serving in India. He was great. We laughed a lot, and we cried a little as he told us stories of the amazing things God is doing in India and throughout all the world. People are turnng in mass numbers from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam to the one true God who loves unconditionally. Its awesome!!! Saturday, he did a overview of world history that covered the history of religions and how they spread throughout the earth. Very interesting. This is different than what you may have been taught in school or from other books that you may have read. So, I am going to try to get all of my notes typed up and post them here in the next few days. I am so excited to share it with you!

That's our week in a nutshell. Brian and I would love to get feeback on what you think we could do to make this a better site. We want to keep you as informed as possible, so let us know what you think, and be honest because this site is for you.

Prayer and Praises:

• We want you to know that we thank God for you. All of you have been such an encouragement to us, and we are so excited to partner with you in this journey. We prasie God for you.
• We have a dear friend who is having a lung biopsy Wednesday. He will have to remain in the hospital for a few days for drainage. Pray that the Lord will comfort him and his family as they deal with the stress of not only the surgery but also waiting for results. Pray that the Lord will heal him, and that this will be used, no matter what the outcome, for the glory of God.
• We are going into Washington D.C. tomorrow. Pray that God will be glorified in that trip, and that many will have an opportunity to hear the Gospel.

"Trust in Him at all times you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." Psalm 62:8

We Love Ya'll!!! :)

Just a little reminder:

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2:5-11

MLC: Week 5

You could call this week Bibly Storying and Chronological Bible Storying. This week we learned some interesting information. Over 70% of the world is an oral culture. Although this is attributed to illiteracy, there are some literate cultures who still prefer to hear a story rather than read about a story. Here is a poll:

• Would you rather read a newspaper or watch the news?

Even though we are not an oral culture, most people in America prefer some form of oral communication. How about:

• Would you rather have someone tell you a story or would you rather them give you a book?

Even in America we can see the importance of stories. It is also interesting how much of the Bible we don’t know because we know we can go to the Bible to get it. How many of you can give a Biblical story that would apply to a friend going to a tough situation? Better yet, how many of you can tell any Biblical story and remain true to the text and without leaving anything out? These are some eye opening things that hit us this week and we have seen the importance of transferring the Bible from the pages to our head. This does not neglect the importance of the written word, but rather shows the importance of writing it in your hearts. How many more people could understand God and the Bible if we could accurately give them a story that would impact their lives.

Even though this was directed at people going to places in Africa and South America, its application applies even in the most booming metropolis.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that we will continue to learn and grow in the Lord.
• Pray that He will reveal His vision for our work with the people in Macedonia. We want to follow His direction and only His direction.
• Pray that our visa will come through quickly.
• Please, don't ever fail to pray for the Macedonian people. Pray that they will be open and receptive to the truth of the love of Christ, and that many will be saved.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or would like to talk further.

MLC: Week 4

Thank you so much for the amazing outpouring of love on my birthday. I counted and got some 35-40 emails, e-cards, and blog posts combined. Amazing!!! I can't even begin to tell you how much that meant to me. Thanks! I did have a great birthday. Brian threw me a wonderful surprise party with all of our friends here at MLC.

Last week was great. Our time here has been so beneficial, and I can't believe we are more than half way through. Your prayers for us have been felt these past few weeks, and we are so grateful for them. Last week we learned about the church planting movement and how to implement them into our people group. We were also able to attend a conference on health concerns overseas which was very helpful. We learned a lot, but we have much more to learn!:)

Answered Prayers:

• My knee has been doing much better in the past few weeks. Thank you so much for your prayers.
• We finally got all of our information for our visa filled out last night and were able to fax it all in to the embassy this morning. YEA!
• God is continuing to teach us incredible things about Himself. What a joy to be His child!
  Thank you so much for your prayers and support. We love you and appreciate you all!
  

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?"
Psalm 27:1

M.A.W.L.

One of the main things we covered was more in depth examples of Church Planting Movements (CPMs) and using the MAWL approach. The MAWL approach breaks down like this:

M-Model. We are to disciple and model a biblical lifestyle and biblical church for new believers. This will focus on studying and reading the Bible , prayer, and applying it to our lives. We will also show them how church is to function according to the Bible. This week was a great way to expose areas that some churches have moved away from following the Bible and started following traditions. It happens in every church, but we learned how to prepare people to keep it from happening.

A- Assist. Once a new believer from our church has grown with a good biblical foundation and sees the need to plant a church somewhere where one doesn't exist. Assist them in discipling others as well as assist in having them start their own church.

W- Watch. Following one of the disciples of the person you trained, watch and make sure that everything they learned is being applied and they are continuing to follow the principles of the Bible.

L- Leave. After you watch, let it go!!! We cannot make it dependant on us, the nationals have to take over sometime and it is definitely by this point.

We covered this material in many areas of the world where this is taking place. It was good to see how the IMB sticks to the Bible and see how it is rewarded in their efforts. This is just a blurb so please feel free to contact us if you want us to elaborate.