Anywhere, Anytime

Several decades ago (I know – that makes me sound old, but I’m beginning to face the reality that I am, in fact, aging) I made a promise to God that I would go wherever he called me go to, whenever he called me to go there.

When I was 12 years old and first committed my life to ministry, I had some pretty wild dreams about what that would mean. I was sure that I was going to be joining Brother Andrew smuggling Bibles into Russia, or on some other high-stakes, secret-agent type of missions adventure.

Through a variety of experiences, I felt God calling me into youth ministry, and enjoyed 6 years as youth pastor at Maple Plain Community Church in Maple Plain, MN. God called me from there to Staples Alliance Church, where we’ve been for 7 years.

A couple of years ago we (Elissa and I) felt as if God were asking us if we were still willing to go wherever He called, whenever He called. In particular, we felt that he was asking if we would still be willing to server overseas.

My initial, “Of course!” was tempered slightly by some of the realities that kind of change would mean for us. It would mean leaving family – Elissa’s grandma has Parkinson’s, and our kids really love our parents. It would mean leaving friends. It would mean leaving a ministry I enjoy and am fairly competent in to go thousands of miles away, to a place we don’t speak the language, and where we’d see parents on a very limited basis. We still decided that being submissive and obedient was the best plan of action – so we began the process of exploring options for missions through the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Last month, Elissa and became accredited missions candidates. That means we still have a lot of hurdles in front of us, but it is a step where we are continuing to be obedient to God.

Over the coming 18 months to 2 years, Elissa and I have to take care of some education requirements, and funding would have to be there from the Alliance that would make it possible for us to go. We have no guarantees that we will be going to the mission field, and that’s not even really what we’re looking for. We’re just looking to continuing to want to be submissive to the leading of the Spirit of God to go wherever he calls us.

Does that mean that we don’t enjoy being in Staples? Not at all! In fact, we have enjoyed our ministry here so much that if it were up to us alone, we’d stay here. For a long time. In fact, we’ve made so many close friends here that it could reach the point that God would be leading us away and we’d want to not go. Part of the process for us has simply been, once again, being as submissive to God as possible to go where he calls.

Some of you may have some questions about what all this means! Feel free to ask, and when I have answers, I’ll be glad to give them.

Special Blog UPdate

 

This prayer request came from the C&MA President – please pray!

 

November 4, 2009

 

I received word this morning that Richard Herring (regional director) and Pieter Theron (Mongolian field director) were injured in a bizarre accident on Wednesday afternoon (Thailand time). Participants of the Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Bangkok attended an elephant show as an outing for the team. While the team was taking pictures, an elephant grabbed Pieter and Richard and threw them about 10 feet into the air. Pieter has a fractured skull and is in critical condition; Richard sustained a broken hip and possible other injuries less serious than Pieter’s.

 

Please put out a call to prayer for Pieter and Richard in your circle of influence. Additionally, pray for all the participants at the Regional Conference as they respond to the needs of the families of our injured colleagues. I expect, but am not sure, that the final days of the conference will be cancelled. As we get more information, we will communicate with you.

 

Below is a more detailed account of the accident from Brent and Lisa Liberda, Alliance workers in Mongolia.

 

Praying with you for Pieter and Richard, Gary

 

 

Here is an account from one of the people who was there:

 

Members of the RLT (regional leadership team) were on their one free afternoon outing to an elephant and crocodile zoo near the Rose Gardens. We all went to the crocodile show and later attended the elephant show. Everyone was sitting in the grandstands as the elephants performed in a field in front of us.

 

At the end of the show, the park staff brought out bananas, and about 10 elephants lined up at the fence where people could feed the elephants and take pictures in front of them. After most of the crowd was beginning to leave, some of us from the RLT started to feed the elephants and take pictures. Richard and Pieter were getting their picture taken in front of one of the biggest elephants when suddenly the elephant with his trunk threw them both about 10 feet up into the air. Richard landed on the cement, and Pieter fell on his head. It was very serious. A number of us started administering first aid and praying. There wasn’t even a first aid box in the entire park, so we used our shirts and other cloths we could find for compresses and pillows and kept the two men immobile. Both were conscious. Some Christians from other countries who had been there stayed and prayed at a distance. It took about 30 minutes for the first of two ambulances to come, which seemed like an eternity. Two or three from the RLT group went with the ambulances to the hospital.

 

The two men are currently in a hospital outside the city and will be transferred at 10 p.m. tonight to Vitchayut as the traffic is too bad now. Word from the people at the hospital is that Richard is stable and has a fractured hip. Pieter is in ICU with a fractured skull and is bleeding internally near the brain. He may also have fractured shoulders. The hospital is working on getting a neurosurgeon to the hospital to assess the situation so that Vitchayut will be ready to receive him. The latest news, which is good, is that Pieter’s vital signs are stable and the internal bleeding is minimal.

 

Please pray for God’s healing touch in the lives of these two men. Pray especially for Pieter, that God would stop the internal bleeding and that he would be able to receive the help he needs in the shortest amount of time. Pray for his wife, Haniki, as she is at the hospital with him and several others. Dr. Benedict in Colorado has been notified of the situation.

 

Many thanks for your prayers,

David Strong

 

Thank you for praying for this situation with us!

Brent and Lisa

 

P.S.

This just in! As we were preparing to send this e-mail we received the following news. Peter does not need brain surgery. He has some blood on the brain but not enough to require surgery. He has a fractured skull, both shoulders seem to be fractured, and a broken wrist. He is in ICU and will be closely monitored. His internal organs appear to be good and his vital signs appear to be good.

 

He is in the care of good doctors and in one of the nation’s best hospitals.

 

Praise be to God. Please thank all who have prayed and are praying.

What I think everyone should know about government, pt 2.

1. Money doesn’t REALLY work differently on the national level. First off, I am far from an economist. I don’t always get how things work, but at one time in my life my family was really, really far in debt compared to our income level, and here’s what we learned. First of all, you can live beyond your means – just not for long. There’s enough credit available, even to people who don’t have money, to give us the opportunity to live beyond our means. If we can’t afford something, we can delay payment by putting it on credit. It works! You can even, manage to amass debt that goes beyond your annual income. Sometimes, for us, the debt that we amassed was because of we bought things that we really didn’t need. Other times, we ended up with emergencies that caused us to have to put necessities, things like groceries and gas on the credit card. Either way, our debt continued to grow until we had reached a debt level that was simply unmanageable.

   A couple of things eventually got us. The first was that our income didn’t increase enough to keep up with our growing debt. This wasn’t anyone’s fault. We really weren’t even expecting higher income to pay off the debts, but quite simply, we needed to make more money to keep paying off our increasing debt, and we didn’t. Secondly was interest. As both our debts increased and our interest rates increased we couldn’t pay down principal. At one time, I mismanaged things so badly that I went over the limit on a credit card. That generated a fee. That month, I couldn’t afford to make the minimum payment, which meant I was also, technically, “late” on a payment. Between those two fees (late payment and overlimit) and the interest, I couldn’t afford enough to bring the credit card under the maximum, which kept adding fees, month after month. That was the breaking point for us. We had to talk to a credit management company and negotiate for lower interest rates, and work hard for years living below our means to put all we could to debt. We’re still not debt free – but what we have is manageable, and there’s an end in sight.

   So how does it work on a national level? The government has income, not money that they make, but money that they collect from taxes. The money they collect goes to a wide variety of things, and I won’t get into debating what’s worth spending on and what isn’t worth spending on, that gets all sorts of ideological debates happening, and that’s not the point here. The point is that in 2008, the government collected 2.52 trillion. They spent 2.98 trillion, meaning that we added 455 billion dollars to the national debt. That national debt, like personal debt, has a level of interest connected to it. In 2008, interest payments were the fourth highest expenditure in the budget. (Following medicare and Medicaid, social security, and defense). In 2008, 15 cents of every dollar collected in taxes went to pay just the interest of the national debt.

   Over the last 40 years, we have run deficits – spending more than we collect – in all but 4 years. Our national debt is over 11 TRILLION dollars right now (compare that with income of 2.52 trillion, and our debt is over 4 times our income). On the path we are on now, the national debt will increase by over 1 trillion dollars each year for the coming 10 years. By 2015, our debt will be 100% of our GDP (market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year). That means that if every dollar from all the goods and services were collected from every American citizen for an entire year, it would “just” pay for our debt.

   The difficult part now is that as people lose jobs, the government’s tax base decreases. In the face of decreasing tax base, the government is spending more. Spending is not bad, it’s necessary. The problem always becomes (just like it is for people personally) can we spend less than or the same amount as we collect.

   The breaking point for us will come when we can no longer afford to pay the interest on our debts. Historically, nations have printed more money to make the payments (Germany, pre WWII). When that happens, the money is actually worth less (inflation), so nations increase interest rates on the debt to get the same value.

   What’s the solution? The same as it is for people personally! We can hope for the US to grow out of the problem. If there’s a sudden reversal in the economy, jobs come back, and income levels skyrocket, tax income may increase enough to no longer have a deficit. Even if that’s not the case, we must spend less than we collect and pay down our debt. The only way this will happen is if we change our expectations for government and make fiscal responsibility a high value. Unfortunately, that’s not valued. Our expectation for government often becomes a desire for them to provide for us – without understanding that the money comes from somewhere.

   Will we ever get it? Apparently not, because we keep electing people who think spending more than we collect is the best answer…