Sacrifice

About 3 weeks ago I had a string of bad personal time with God and I distanced myself from Him. Whenever that happens you know that things will start to go poorly. All the thoughts of what I am missing in America start to come out and dwell. I never got to the point that I wanted to get on a plane and go home, but if at that moment the IMB decided to send me home than that would have been okay with me. Of course I miss my family and my cousins, but I also miss parts of the American Dream that I had wanted for nearly all my life. Having a nice car and motorcycle along with a home in the Rocky Mountains so I could go rock climbing, backpacking, fly-fishing, and picture taking whenever I wanted. I also would have the money that comes from being an engineer to spend on the toys needed to do those things and keep me “happy” (and of course it would be near a big city so Mandy could shop J). It is one thing to sit in America surrounded by everything and realize that you will be leaving it, but it is a completely different thing to actually get over here and to have left it behind you. The pull of the world is very strong and it would be so easy to compromise.
When you start entertaining the thoughts of going back, you start to justify things and compromise your relationship with God, the truths of the Bible that you know are there, and the things which God has shown you/convicted you with the Holy Spirit. You meditate on the things that you want for yourself (the flesh) and find out how far you can follow God before it interferes too much with the those things. When you find the point where those meet, then most people will settle there. As for us, we could go back to America and get the job and toys that we want along with a house in the Rocky Mountains. Realizing that there is a need for missions and giving everyone an opportunity to hear about the sacrifice of Christ, we could make our ministry the local people around us, the friends that we make along the way, and truly be the best witnesses we could be while we pursue what we want in life. In that week, about 3 weeks ago, I had it all figured out: how I could do everything I wanted and try to do some of what God wanted.

But that wasn’t going to work…

After spending extended time with God over the weekend to correct myself, the truth that I already knew grew bold in me again. That when this life is over, it isn’t going to matter what job we had, how much money we made, or if we did everything that we wanted in this life. These things aren’t necessarily bad, but rather gifts from God. But when we die, we will be judged on our relationship with God. The first thing will be if you have one: if you have believed in the truth of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and placed your faith in that work to restore your relationship with God. If you do have a relationship with God, the second thing you will be judged for is how you have lived your life for God and your stewardship of what he has given you.

“For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work, which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” - 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 (NKJV)

The believer’s life will be tested for the good work of the faith. The house, the car, the money, and everything material in this world does nothing. Advancing the gospel, being and ambassador for Christ, being the fragrance of life unto life … everything that God asks of us and asked specifically to each one of us is what will be judged. If I went back to America I would be walking away from what God specifically asked me to do and at the end of this life I would have a map full of places that I have been, but it would all get burned away when standing before God. And the truth is that although my flesh would be happy, I would be miserable because I know that I was compromising in the only area where I can find contentment and in the only area that truly matters in life. Now the path of a missionary is not everyone’s calling, but it was mine and that is what I must follow. Three verses came to my mind at the end of that week about 3 weeks ago. The first:

“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Timothy 6:9-10 (NKJV)

Inspiration from Paul just before his death:

“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” - 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NKJV)

So ultimately I realized that I am either going to live my life for God or live it for myself. Those are the only two possible roads. Although I would very much like to live it for myself, I know that true contentment is in following God. My sacrifice to God for the salvation He gave is to live my life for Him and not the one of the flesh.

And I close with this:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” - Romans 12:1-2

There is A LOT more to this than what I shaved off to put in a post. If you want to know more about what I have said, just send me an email.

We Finish Today!!!

Well, today is Lesson 36 in our White Macedonian Book. This is the last lesson of the book, but we are not done. We will spend a week reviewing vocabulary and the lessons to make sure we have them down. After that we will work in the Red Macedonian Book which is an intermediate book which will help us refine our grammar as well as help us learn how Macedonians compose sentences. Above is a picture of our Tutors. Maria is on the left and Pavlina is on the right.

My Hike through the Mountains

There is a chain of mountains that runs right next to the city and the part the runs next to the city is apart of a National Park. Every time I walk around town you can see the mountain chain and in particular one fairly tall part of it that is about 5 minutes from our apartment. I decided that my mission is to find a direct path from the city to the top. My landlord was the director of the National Park for 30 years and his son is now the director. I called the son and asked him about any dangers I might face trying to get to the top and other than snakes there were no serious threats. He also told me that a group was going to the top last Saturday and I was invited. Thinking that it was a group of park rangers, I got very excited because I could scour the mountains with experienced people. I called him Friday night just to make sure that I had everything I needed and I learned that 160 High School students were going as well and that a bus was leaving at 8:00 in the morning out in front of our apartment. Really confused I got up at 8:00, caught the bus and on the bus I met Al Yates with the Peace Corp who just came to the city as well. Al told me that the mayor was opening a new trail and they wanted as many people to be there as they could to celebrate.

The busses took us on a 40 minute trip to the top of the National Park and we were dropped off on a dirt road and then left. This dirt road lead us past the open pasture that you see in the picture and to a mountain house. It is basically a house with no electricity that they keep in the National Parks for events such as this. We were served lunch our first stop would be a 300 yard long cave that they had open to the public. It was big and worthy of the 20 minute hike from the house up an over a small ridge. After Al and I got out of the cave we headed back over the ridge and waited on the other side and take some pictures.

Hiking a little bit faster than everyone else we asked some people where the new trail was located so we could head on over. After 3 people scratched their head we knew were in the wrong place and hiked back over the ridge to the cave. After meeting the director he told us that the trail continued on after the cave and went down to small village where we could catch a bus on its route, but the group had already left. We were able to double time it and catch up to the group. The key point in the trip took place in the picture below.

The trail hit the road after about 2 hours and the road that goes to the left is the one that goes to the village and the one that goes to the right is a 25 kilometer (16 mile) trail all the way back to the town which we left this morning (yes if you squint you can see it right on the lake)! Well that is the way we went. So after many many many hours of unexpected hiking, Al and I finally made it back to town. Although it went not as expected, it was a fun trip full of beautiful pictures and good conversation ;).

Language and Life

“Let us not forget that any relationship whatever between God and man rests today on the fact that God lived the life of a common man—was born in a stable, sweated in a carpenter shop, preached from a little fishing boat, sat down tired beside a well and conversed with a courtesan, ate and drank with ordinary men, and submitted to an ignoble death—in order that we could recognize Him. Nobody called Him a hero or a martyr. He was simply doing what His Father told him to do, and doing it with delight…”

J. Elliott

We hope you are all doing well. Things here in Macedonia are great. It is finally warm and absolutely beautiful. Brian has started exploring the mountains every morning for his exercise. He bikes about five minutes to be at the foot of the mountain, and then he starts his trek up to explore the mountains and village life of our town. He loves it.

We have two more days in our first language book which we will finish Tuesday. We are really excited to be finished with this first book, although there are many days when we feel like our proficiency hasn’t improved since day one. We still have a long way to go! Next week will begin our new schedule where we only be doing three days of language with our tutors and the rest of the days we will be learning and practicing on our own with neighbors and people in the community. We will spend our afternoons prayer walking the city and getting to know it and its people better. We are certainly not finished with language school yet, and so while we do all of these other things, we will still be learning the language. So please pray for patience and remembrance as we continue to shove a mass amount of new words into our head everyday.

We have AGM, Annual General Meeting, for all of our colleagues from Central Eastern Europe in Poland at the end of June. It should be a great time of rejuvenation and fellowship, and we are very excited about it. Please pray for all of us that we will have safe travel.

July 1 will start a huge project by Campus Crusade here. They will be here for the whole month of July and will be doing a done of projects with the tourist, but they will also be reaching locals. Pray that we will see much fruit from our labor as we join in with their work.

Great Time

We had a wonderful and very renewing time at the prayer retreat with our teammates. We were able to prayer walk our city and have a time of Bible study and prayer as a group. It was great!!! We also had a great time hanging out with other English speakers. The girls went shopping and the boys hit the pool hall. From what I understand Brian may have ruled the table. The last night we were all together, we watched this thing called Euro Vision. Its like American Idol except all of the countries of Europe participate. Talk about interesting. We were pretty excited at the finale of the show… Macedonia made it into the finals. Whohoo!!! Go Macedonia!!!

We were so grateful to have everyone here. The fellowship was wonderful and the prayer time was very rejuvenating. Thank you for praying with us for the people of Macedonia.

Happy Mother's Day

We just wanted to send a rousing Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there, but especially to our moms, Kathy and Lee. We love you both, and we thank God for you. Thanks for raising us with so much love and patience. We learned so much from you, and you are still teaching us new things (like how to make a decent Polish Bobka (still working on that one) and how to cope with things 5000 miles away). We Love You!!!

“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also and he praises her: Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all." Proverbs 31:26-29

Prayer Retreat....

Team Macedonia will be going to Ohrid for a prayer retreat next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Pray that the Lord will bind us as a team. Pray that He will teach us how to pray for this lost people around us. Pray that we will be an encouragement to one another. And as we pray and ask God to reveal Himself to the people of Macedonia, we ask that you pray with us. Although you will not be here for the retreat, we ask that you will be praying along side of us. The Lord works mightily through prayer.

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite heart.”

Psalm 34:17-18

Pictures!!!!

I don't know how I missed it, but I finally figured out how to put pictures on the blog!!! Now all I need is a speedy connection so it doesn't take an hour to upload. Expect pictures soon!!