Hudson Taylor, 1832-1905, China
First of all, thank you all for holding the rope for us, you know who you are. Thank you for your sacrifice so we can give our lives for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ in Peru. As we spend our last few weeks in the United States we realize how fast things are coming, how much we will miss our family and friends and yet we are so excited to move to Costa Rica for language school. We want to thank all of you that God has raised up for His glory to supply our needs physically and prayerfully.
We started this month by getting our house reserved in Costa Rica that we will rent while at school. It is a simple house and will be very good for our family, at least we think from the pictures. It is very blue and we should be able to see it from at least a mile away. This will help the kids from getting lost.
I'm loving that my job in the world is done, although I loved it, because working full time for God in the ministry is an undeserved blessing that I have received. I spend my days during the week at the church studying the Scriptures, reading, learning Spanish, praying, visiting people in the community, preparing for sermons, sharing the gospel and keeping up on correspondence. What a privilege to spend my day serving my Master.
We took a bunch of kids up in the wilderness to teach them about Christ during our annual wilderness trip for our church. I started this ministry in 2007 and have loved every trip. I look forward to doing something similar in Peru if possible.
I preached on July 10th in Shelby, MT at pastor Paul Lackey's church. We drove up on Saturday and had some great fellowship with Paul's family. It is so great that God has put such great men of God and churches in our path to support, pray for, and encourage us.
We thank God for our Health. Kim had been sick for over a month and when she finally went to the doctor we found out that she needed her gal bladder removed. We thank God that He revealed this before we left the country. She had here gal bladder removed on July 13th with no problems. This was an answer to prayer because we needed to get it done while we still had insurance, before we left the country, and laproscopically so she could recover quick. God answered all our prayers specifically and all the glory goes to Him. God has confirmed our calling to Peru in so many ways, from removing insurmountable obstacles like they were nothing to opening so many doors that we could not have imagined, to providing for all of our spiritual, physical and financial needs. Our God is so mighty and Sovereign and He still answers prayers. Step out in faith and trust Him for everything and He will show you His glory!
On July 17th, we traveled to Big Timber, MT to preach at John Wallace's church/coffee shop. It was such a joy to preach to a great flock. I spent the next day with John and we had great conversations, drank too much coffee, were able to share the gospel with different people, even a guy from Ecuador, and were able to encourage others that God put in our path.
I drove to Sidney, MT on the 19th to meet up with Jordan Hall and his outstanding church. It was such a pleasure to be around so many that actually get it and are living for Christ. God is working in so many amazing ways here that it is almost unheard of. God is building His church in Sidney. God is using Fellowship Baptist church to minister to the people in Sidney, plant new churches in North Dakota, and support missionaries like us and others to the ends of the earth. The more this church selflessly pursues Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom, the more God blesses them almost to the point where Jordan is fearful.
In the week that I was in Sidney, I saw God work in such a powerful way. You could say that a literal revival is being poured out by God. The lives of several people were radically changed as they burned all of their worldly pursuits and turned to pursue Christ and His Kingdom with everything they have. I saw a biblical church be brought together and built by God, apart from means, in one week. God brought several families from all parts of the country to an oil field in North Dakota who are already reformed, discipled and mature believers that have sound doctrine for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of Christ. I saw a young man and woman change all of their plans and make arrangements to move to Costa Rica to go to language school in January for the purpose of learning Spanish to come back to their church in Sidney to start a Spanish ministry to the many Spanish people arriving to the oil field. I saw a man trust in God and give his entire business to Him. God pressed it upon him to use all the money from his company to send missionaries into the field and advance the Kingdom of Christ. He turned in radical obedience and has never had more joy in his life. I saw many Mexican workers being broken and convicted over sin and develop a thirst for knowing who God is. These events were things that I have only read about. I sit in amazement.
I preached on July 24th in Circle, MT at Mike Bartelson's church. It went very well and I met a great group of people there. I also saw God raise up one man to supply almost all of my friend and partner, Tim Killillay. God is so glorious in provision and does it in a way that He alone can get glory.
We are ready to leave now and we don't have any material things left besides the stuff we are taking with us. We mailed some of the kid's school books to a guy in Costa Rica. It cost a lot just to send three small boxes. They got held in customs and they wouldn't let them out until we paid a large fee.
The month of August starts language school and a new routine. While at Costa Rica I'm resolved to:
- Resolved to learn the language
- Resolved to do street evangelism
- Resolved to interact with the culture daily
- Resolved to work with churches in the ministry, teaching, preaching or evangelism
- Resolved to work with a church that is 45 minutes from the school who print and distribute reformed literature in Spanish throughout Latin America
- Resolved to write and translate our church documents.
- Resolved to translate a catechism that we will use in our Peruvian churches
- Resolved not to get caught up in recreation or tourist activities, but to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel.
- Resolved to be alone with God.
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