Beyond the Campus

In our work with students, our ultimate goal is to go beyond the campus.  A student will only spend a few years at university, after that, it is our hope that the Gospel seed that is planted in their lives will sprout and create new life in the families that they lead, on the jobs that they take, and in the communities where they live.  We've just heard from some friends in Belgium about how this is happening in Arlon, a small city on the border with Luxembourg.  Three married couples who were once student leaders in the group at Liege found work in Luxembourg and moved to Arlon.  They noticed that there was no church in their area, in fact there are very few Gospel churches in this entire Ardennes region of Belgium.  So they began to pray about what God would have them do in this dry place.  As they have prayed, the Holy Spirit has watered their desires, and they have formed a leadership team in order to plant a new church.  The Word of Hope Church will have its first service on June 19th at 10 a.m!  Would you be praying for this new branch of the church of Jesus Christ, that those in Arlon who are seeking spiritual food and shade would find their way to Word of Hope?

Visa Update:  Whoever said "no news is good news" was obviously not waiting for their visa to come.  We spoke in our last church service at our home church, Crossroads Church, in Lafayette, on May 15th.  Since then we have packed up and moved from Louisiana to North Carolina to allow Aidan to spend a little time with his grandparents while we wait for our visas.  We were sad to leave all of our friends in La, but we are excited about the next phase of our ministry in Belgium.  Our bags are packed and we are ready to go; we just need the Belgian government's permission.  Please join us in praying for a response to come soon from Brussels. 

Bound for Brussels

Today I found myself clicking for Belgian news online, and Amanda put on some French music while she cleaned. We are getting antsy, because the time of our departure for Belgium is drawing closer. This past Monday, we applied for our visas to enter the country. At the same time, we are working on getting Aidan's passport. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork...We will hopefully be granted our documents in the next couple of weeks, and can be on our way to Belgium by the end of the month.

Where are we heading? To a house in downtown Brussels . This house has been the headquarters of Students for Christ Brussels for the last 10 years, and it will be our home for the next year. We are excited about this opportunity because it is right around the corner from the Free University of Brussels, which has 29,000 students, and is in close proximity to 4 other colleges. We can't wait to get on campus to share the Gospel with students, and host them in our home!

One other task we need to finish is the completion of our budget. So many of you have been so generous to give, and we are so close to leaving because of you. As of today, we are lacking only $304/month in monthly pledges to reach the end of our budget. We don't like to use this space to talk finances, we prefer to just tell what God is doing, but since we're so close we thought we'd ask if you'd consider making a faith promise if you haven't already. You can do so by using the link on the right under "Online Commitments and Contributions".

In other news, we just received a video from the group in Liege. We were glad to hear that the group is going strong 2 years after I left! This documentary was done by a student in a film class who chose to focus on SFC for a class project. It will give you a glimpse of the university, and of the group as they worship and pray. So, if you want to practice your French, check it out below!

Aidan has Arrived

Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words, this post already has 15,000 of them. The photos above were done by our friend Ana Treuil, (http://anacphotos.blogspot.com/) Aidan Isaiah was born on Jan. 24 at Lafayette General. He weighed 9 lbs, 9 oz. at birth, and was 22 in. long.

Those are the facts of Aidan’s birth. Here’s the story: He was two weeks overdue, and so the doctor suggested we induce. Going into the last months, we had hoped, prayed, and prepared for a natural birth, so we were a little disappointed in this, but went ahead with plans. On the day of the delivery, Amanda labored hard for 12 painful hours, but the little fellow just wasn’t moving. Finally, the doctor came in and said that the intense contractions were starting to put him at risk, and that we needed to do a C-section right away. This was obviously not at all what we hoped for, but the surgery was smooth, and an hour later we were holding our beautiful, healthy son!

One thing we have learned about babies is that, early in life, they lack an ability called “object permanence”. That is, they think that objects cease to exist when they are no longer in their field of vision. Through Aidan’s birth, our “spiritual” object permanence was expanded. We had prayed and expected God to respond with one result: a natural, easy delivery. Although we didn’t receive what we asked for, there was still evidence of God’s grace. His grace was there in the form of the doctor’s skill, as she intervened at the right time. It was also there in the numerous believing friends who prayed for us during that long day, and have brought us food and gifts since then. And it was there in the support of our families. If you were one of these people, thank you for being an expression of God’s grace to us. You helped us see that he was there even when our field of vision was too small to grasp what he was doing.

Have Yourself a Killer Christmas!

One of the best things about Christmas is the music.  Recently, we came across a unique Christmas song by The Killers and Elton John, called "Joseph, Better You Than Me". Unique in that there aren't many songs about Joseph.

Although I'm not sure they got it all right, the song made me think about Joseph and what he faced in a new way.   I'm probably also relating to him in a new way because I'm an expectant father now, and,  every now and then, I find myself thinking, "Man, what have I gotten myself into?"  I bet Joseph was really thinking this when his supposedly pure fiancé showed up pregnant and claimed the Holy Spirit did it.  Not many guys would sign up to marry a girl who's immoral AND crazy!  As The Killers put it, "Would his faith stand still, or would he run away?"
   
Well, he didn't run away, and thank God he didn't, because Mary would have had a hard time without him.  He stood, even though it meant he  had to endure a lot of whispers, gossip, and questions about this son who probably didn't look like him. It also meant being hunted, and fleeing as a refugee to a country where he didn't have a job, a family, or know the language.    And God never told him the whole plan; he gave him just enough guidance, with each angelic dream, to get him to the next step.  Joseph just had faith enough to take those steps and, step by step, he protected his child and made a home for the Hope of the World.  Although Mary gets all the publicity, I'd have to say that Joseph was pretty heroic in his own right.  Merry Christmas!

Baby News, New Life at Nicholls, and the Finish Line

Although this is the time of year when we are reminded to be thankful, we feel like this entire support raising process has produced thankfulness in us. We are so thankful for our new friends and partners that have joined our support team in the last year. We are deeply grateful to those of you have been part of the team for several years and continue to give so faithful. Thanks be to our Heavenly Father who has called us and so faithfully provides for us. Our needs have always been met! (at right, speaking at New Life Church in Abbeville, LA)

We are looking forward to arrival of the new addition to our family. Baby Aidan Isaiah should be making his way into the world mid-January. We are so excited to meet him, and we are grateful for this gift God has given us!

Getting Back to our Roots

Although we have thoroughly enjoyed speaking in churches this past year, our passion is to minister to college students and youth. God opened several doors in this past month to share with this age group, as I preached at the Chi Alpha groups at Nicholls St, McNeese St, and South Alabama. I also shared with the youth at Journey Ninth Ward, and a college and career group in Baton Rouge. At Nicholls St. XA, a girl, who I'll call Josie, was just passing by the meeting room in the student union., when some XA friends invited her to the meeting. She came in, and responded to the altar call to give her life to Christ! She even signed up to leave the next day for a retreat with the group!

The Finish Line

We have not reached the finish line of our term of raising support, but we are starting to see it! By God’s grace and your generosity, we have reached 80 percent of our budget. These funds are to cover our living and work expenses for the next 3 years in Belgium. In dollars and cents, this means that we have just $1,400/month to raise before we will be cleared by Asemblies of God World Missions to go to the field. Broken down, this means if we had 10 people who would promise $50/mo, 8 who would promise $75, and 3 who would promise $100, we would reach our goal. If you have not considered making a faith promise, please pray about being one of these final building blocks of our team.

They're Gonna Put Me In The Movies!

Here we were on the set, in our 70's costumes.

This old Buck Owens song could be the theme song for our last week.  Last year at this time, we had the chance to be extras in a Disney movie, Secretariat, which was being shot here in Lafayette.  The movie just came out Friday, and if you go see it, you can see Amanda in her cinematic debut.  (My scene didn't survive the director's cut; I guess they didn't want me to overshadow the other actors  ;-) 

We've also made a short video, with the help of the talented media guy, Rich Gaspard, at our home church, Crossroads Church.  The video tells a bit about our calling and introduces our work in Belgium.  We hope you'll like it.

Stories from the Road

We've driven approximately 4,000 miles in the last month, and met some great folks! Along the way, we've heard some remarkable stories. We thought we'd pass along two of them to you.

A few weeks ago, we were guests of Ray and Betty Janway, and Ray told us about his father, Henry. Growing up in Southern Arkansas, Ray's mother Cary was a believer and a churchgoer, along with most of the kids, but Henry didn't participate. A skilled hunter and fisher, he spent his weekend outdoors, and when asked about it, he said he didn't want to know too much about religion, because then he'd be responsible for what he knew. One Saturday, the whole family was fishing, and no one caught a thing. This was unusual, because Henry was an excellent fisherman; but they fished for an hour and a half, catching nothing. Seeing an opportunity, Cary asked, "Henry, if we start catching fish, will you go to church with us tomorrow?" Willing to try anything, Henry agreed that he would. Not 20 seconds after he promised, a foot-long catfish struck Cary's line! For the rest of the afternoon, the whole family was pulling in fish almost as fast as they could throw their lines in the water. True to his word, Henry went to church the next day, and he never missed again to go hunting or fishing. Three months later, he asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins, and was given a new life! All of Henry's children are Christ-followers, and two of them went on to be ministers.

Last week, we met Pastor Robert Burnside, who is leading The Journey-9th Ward Church in New Orleans. Last March, 2 or 3 murders occurred in their neighborhood, the upper 5th District of the 9th Ward. In response, Pastor Robert and his church members started walking and praying through the streets of their neighborhood every morning at 7 a.m. Since they began doing this, there has not been a single murder in their neighborhood. How do they know? They recently had a meeting with a major on the New Orleans police force in which the officer reported that not only were there no murders, but also that violent crime, and crime in general, had all decreased since March! The officer asked them to please continue prayerwalking at least until the end of the year!

Again Jesus said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."