Do You Marvel?

Published December 19, 2011 | By Matt

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,091simeon
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. (Luke 2:29-33 ESV)

Mary and Joseph marveled at what was said about Jesus. The words that caused this marvel were spoken by a priest named Simeon, whom the Scriptures describe as righteous and devout. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, who had told Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. He says that this baby is God’s salvation, a salvation for all groups of people, not just Jews. Salvation. God prepared this salvation, and Simeon knew that he could now die. And Mary and Joseph marveled. But why?

Mary and Joseph had each been visited by an angel who explained to them that they would have a baby though Mary was still a virgin. Mary had been told that this baby would be “the Son of the Most High” and “the Son of God” and that “the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David” and “of his kingdom there will be no end.” Joseph had been told by an angel that “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” and “he will save his people from their sins.” This wasn’t news to them. What was it at which they marveled?

The answer is that we don’t know for sure why they marveled. Perhaps it was because God was also speaking to others about this great plan, and it was confirmation through Simeon that this indeed was happening. Perhaps enough time had passed (almost a year since Mary became pregnant) that their encounters with the angels weren’t fresh in their minds and this was a reminder of what was happening. What we do know is that they had a lot more concrete physical evidence of God’s working than we do, and they knew of this baby that had born to a virgin, and yet they still marveled.

Do you marvel at the salvation that has come in the form of Jesus? Does the reality ever hit you that you needed to be saved, and that out of his great love, God sent Jesus to save you? Do you ever stop and marvel at what Jesus has done in your life? Has He done anything in your life?

When I take the time, I do marvel that He would love me, despite all that I do to offend Him, to reject Him, to do things my own way, to completely disregard the commands He has given us on how to live. When I dwell on all that He has done for me, it does create in me wonder, awe, marvel, and ultimately deeper love for Him.

I would encourage you to take some time this week to think about what Christ did for you in coming from heaven to earth to dwell with us, to live a perfect life, to die a sinner’s death, to atone completely for the sins of all who would believe and put their trust in Him, and to rise from death on the third day. God knew all the ways you would sin against Him before you were ever born, yet Jesus came. God knew how he would be mocked and how Christ would suffer, yet He came. God knew everything about you. Everything, yet He came. Just as it did for Simeon, Mary and Joseph, this should produce in us marvel.

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Why Don’t We Tell Others About Jesus?

Published November 22, 2011 | By Matt

I started asking myself this question, and truly searching my heart for the answers, it was a painful discovery. When I was totally honest with myself, there was only one of two reasons:

  1. The gospel really isn’t as important to me as I think it is, or as it should be.
  2. I don’t care about other people as much as I think I do, or as much as I should.

There’s really no other reason. We can say that we don’t know how to do it, but that’s really not the truth is it? How many of you non-techies bought an iPhone, loved it, and told all your friends about how awesome it was? And I’ve met enough Mac users <cough>pastors<cough> to know that while they can’t talk enough about how great Apple products are, they really don’t know how they work. You don’t know how it works, you just know its changed your life.

Shouldn’t the gospel be the same for us? If Christ has truly transformed our lives, we don’t have to understand it, and we don’t have to be able to explain it. But if we’re willing to post on Facebook how we don’t know how we ever lived without our new gadget, surely we can tell someone that there’s a person named Jesus who has changed our lives.

So, lets stop lying to ourselves and saying that we’re just not comfortable talking about our faith, or we don’t want to offend someone, or we’re afraid we won’t know all the answers. If the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the most important thing in our lives, its more important than your discomfort talking about Jesus to an unbeliever. If the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the most important thing in your life, its more important than you feeling stupid if you are asked questions to which you don’t know the answer.

The alternative, if Christ truly is your greatest treasure and joy, is that you don’t care about other people. Because if you have found ultimate joy in a relationship with the one who saved you, and you don’t want to share that with others, you can’t possibly say that you love them. And even as I write this, I’m not sure this is even possible. The book of 1 John, in many different ways, says that if we are in Christ we will love others, and conversely, if we don’t love others, the love of Christ is not in us.

You’re probably not supposed to change your mind in the middle of a blog, but I’m going to leave it in the interest of displaying my mind working this out even as I write it. I think the only true reason that we have for not sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with those in our lives is that its not our greatest treasure. We are not like the man in Matthew 13 who found a treasure in a field and sold everything that he had to buy the field.

We justify it to ourselves in a number of ways, but I think we have to examine our hearts and truly discover that the answer is there, like it or not. And if we want to be people that make disciples in whatever nation God has us, we need Him to be our number 1.

Run to Him. Pursue Him. Love Him. He is the answer.

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This News Should Change Your Life

Published August 1, 2011 | By Matt

Lecrae

I’ve been listening to a lot of hip-hop music lately. I’ve discovered that there is Christ-exalting hip-hop music out there, that’s actually really good. My favorites are: Lecrae, Tedashii, and Swoope. (On a side note, if you like hip-hop, you must get Lecrae’s grammy-nominated album Rehab. Must.) One of Lecrae’s most popular songs (#1 according to iTunes rankings) is a song called “Don’t Waste Your Life” inspired by the John Piper book of the same name. DWYL is actually not on the Rehab album, but on a previous album entitled Rebel. There is a section of the song that I can’t seem to get out of my head:

If he’s truly raised to life
Then this news should change your life.

Now, there’s nothing revolutionary in this lyric, but for some reason every time I hear it, it just echoes in my soul. See, whether you believe in God or not, and whether you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to die on a cross to pay the penalty for the sins of all who believe or not, this lyric is true. I don’t think anyone will debate the Jesus of Nazareth lived. This historical fact is not generally debated, and most would say that they believe that he died. Where the disagreement comes is whether or not he was raised from the dead. My goal here isn’t to discuss that. There people much smarter than me that have done that.

What I keep dwelling on is that IF its true that he was raised to life, what does that mean? I think that the vast majority of Christians would say that they believe that he was raised to life from death. We celebrate this every year at Easter. So, if so many people would affirm that the first part of Lecrae’s lyric is true, why does it seem to have so little impact on people’s lives?

I think Lecrae is 100% on the money here. If Jesus Christ truly lived, died, and was raised again to life, this should absolutely change your life. If Jesus truly has power over death, then he is different than all other people that have ever lived. CS Lewis famously said we all have to do something with Jesus Christ. He’s either a liar, lunatic, or lord, and I think he’s right. You cannot argue that no man has had a bigger influence on human history than Jesus. It is 2011 right now because he lived. Had he not lived, who knows what year it would be. I can go on about Jesus’ influence, but that’s not my point.

So, if you’re not a believer in Christ, what is your answer to Lewis’ question? Which one of those is he? He has to be one of them… Who is Jesus Christ?

If you are a believer in Christ, has the fact that he had to die for you, he wanted to die for you, then he was resurrected conquering death so you can have life forever with him and true, free, abundant life on earth changed you? Is your life really different because of this reality? I’m not talking about what you do on Sunday morning. I’m talking about your entire life. Is it different?

If not, are you sure you’re a believer? That’s for another post…

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A New Normal

Published June 15, 2011 | By Matt

Something we’ve been talking about in our time here in Southern Sudan is our “new normal.” Its always amazed me how quickly we can adapt to new circumstances and situations. Our entire team has adjusted fully to the “new normal” of no air conditioning, electricity only for a portion of the day, no paved roads, no TV, and limited Internet access. What we’ve discovered is that we can actually survive without those things. Who’da thought? The reality is that all of those things are absolute luxuries that we in America just think of as normal, but for most of the world they aren’t.

We’ve met such beautiful people in our time here in Southern Sudan, from those here at the EPC/CWEP compound in Yei to those from the Charismatic Church in Morobo, to the ECS Lanya Diocese, to finally the group at EPC Bulamuke on Monday and Tuesday. We’ve seen the Lord move in truly unbelievable ways. We’ve seen his love through the hospitality of our hosts here in Yei. Tonight, they made a birthday cake for Audrey since she will spend her entire birthday (tomorrow) travelling, and then they joined us to enjoy it as a group.

EPC Pastors Jackson and John came to have some cake and soda too, and we were talking with them about the war that had spanned a majority of their lives. As they described what life was like during the war, I couldn’t help but realize that we in America really have no clue what normal life is like in Southern Sudan. Bishop Taban was born on the day when the first shot was fired in 1954, so there has been war for his entire life in Southern Sudan. Not somewhere else where they go off to fight. Right here. When they pray to God its with a faith that I’ve never known. When they speak of trusting God, they’re speaking another language than I am.

This afternoon, a couple of us got to talk to Julius, one of the cooks here at the compound. Julius was the one that went with us each day to the villages and cooked us lunch. He is from Uganda, where he learned to cook what they call African/Western food, and truly its excellent. Kudos also to John in the kitchen, and Betty, Cecilia, Peace, and Jasmine who served us sooo well for our meals at the compound. As we talked to Julius, he talked about the fact that he’s not married yet because he’s working here to make some extra money to help his brothers in Uganda who are going to school. He doesn’t think it would be good to get married right now because then he wouldn’t have enough money to send back to his family. It really epitomizes Paul’s description in Ephesians 4 of why we should be working: to help those in need. In reality, I work for many other reasons: comfort and luxury. Do I work extra so I have extra money to give to those in need? I don’t even want to type my answer to that.

Now in fairness, I didn’t choose to be born in America. Acts 17 tells me that God did, and he did so that men should seek him. God was good to me today in letting me talk with these men, because not a single one of them felt sorry for themselves. They all have smiles on their faces literally every time we have seen them. John and Jackson are wonderful men of God who love and serve their people well, and Julius is a fun-loving guy who loves his work and loves to make people happy with his food. One of the things I have taken away from this week is that faith and trust in God is so much more than I thought before I came here. I love these men and will think of and pray for them for the rest of my days… I hope that I get to see them again here on eart

Our team has talked often about the differences between Southern Sudan and America. They are many. And none of them are our faults as individuals, but I praise God that he has brought me here to Southern Sudan so that I can see more of him. I understand faith different now. I understand prayer more now. I understand persecution better now. I understand What is enough? better now. I understand spiritual warfare better now. I understand the power of the gospel for salvation (Romans 1:16) better now. I pray this is my new normal…

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Display of God’s power over all things

Published June 11, 2011 | By Matt

Well, Day 2 of our time in Morobo was pretty unreal. I prayed that morning for God to do something to display his power in a way that I had never seen before. I was thinking of his power to save. I was thinking that I might see someone come to know the Lord in a really cool way. Our trip leader, Jim, had told us some stories of meeting people when he did evangelism in Russia, and I was longing to experience something like that. I did, but God wanted to show us even more…

We had breakfast in our hut again (these huts are really awesome, I hope to talk to someone that builds them to see how they do it) when we arrived in Morobo before our day began. We got into our teams and prayed together before we set out. My team of 8 people set out for the surrounding villages hoping to see God move in people’s lives. At the first house we came to, we found some family members around doing various household chores. They were very welcoming and brought out chairs for us to sit in. They let me share the gospel first and Pastor Jackson interpreted for me. The woman said that she was already a believer, which reminded me that I probably should have asked that question first. I was a bit nervous… She did have a young child that was sick, and so we prayed for him and moved on. The goal of this 2-day event was for the Sudanese people to do the work, and my group was great and very eager to share. After that first time, they did all of the sharing of the gospel, and one young man, Levi, shared his powerful testimony of God saving him from a life of alcohol, partying and fighting (not all that different from an American teenager’s life). We had one man give his life to Christ, but he was too sick to leave his house. We prayed for God to heal him.

Walking through the villages of Morobo County, Sudan felt like what we read of Jesus’ ministry in the gospels. We came across people with all sorts of sickness and disease. There were people with malaria, people who couldn’t walk, but didn’t know what was wrong, people with skin diseases, and mental disorders. All of them wanted prayers, even those that didn’t really want to respond to the gospel. Unlike our experience in America, people in Africa are so aware that they are dependent on something beyond themselves. While we pray for the sick, we’re usually praying for the doctors who are performing surgeries, or praying that the test results will come back favorable, or praying that treatments will work. Praying for sick in Africa calls for a different prayer. Often, there aren’t doctors, surgeries or treatments available. We have nothing to pray for but God to heal. Its a sobering, but sweet reminder that we worship the God that holds all things together, and has dominion over all things including sickness and disease. I found myself really believing that  God could and would heal the people for whom we were praying. Usually, I pray for people and just hope that the doctors will do their jobs well. God has strengthened my faith in his ability to heal that far surpasses what any doctor could ever do. Thank you Lord!!!

We finished our time of evangelism with some preaching in the market. There were about 100 people or so in the market, and Pastor Jackson gave a great presentation of the gospel and called all in the market to repent. What was most shocking to me is that nearly every person in the market stopped and listened to what he was saying. No one mocked him, and no one just walked by and blew him off. Everyone listened, even if they didn’t agree, they were respectful. More that we Americans can learn from the Sudanese… Three men decided to accept Christ as their personal savior during that time, and Pastor Joseph asked me to pray over them as they accepted Christ. I can’t put into words how thankful I was that God gave me that opportunity. I really can’t…To be on the other side of the world, and praying for 3 brothers whose eternal destiny has just been changed is something I wish every believer could do. One young man of 16 came forward while sitting among 5 of his friends. He was very broken and said that he had not been following God’s way at all, and wanted to repent and turn his life around. I want you all to know that Jesus is saving in Southern Sudan!!

We invited all those that accepted Jesus back to the church for a celebration service. All 3 of the men that we met in the market came back with us and came forward to share their decision with the church, to be prayed for, and so that the local pastors could meet them and follow up with them to continue the disciple-making process that we had taught them the previous day. This celebration was filled with more singing and dancing (a theme that has run through all of our time in Southern Sudan), and preaching and praying. It was really magnificent. We were all joined together as brothers and sisters in Christ celebrating that there were 8 new names in the Book of Life.

We were winding down the service and they were going to pray for our team and our remaining two conferences, our families, and our church when a young woman walked up onto the stage. She was saying that she was a Christian, and was born again, but she had some problems that she didn’t understand. She said some other things that I couldn’t make out, but Bishop Thom and Bishop Elias looked at each other, and Bishop Elias told us that this woman was possessed with demons and we needed to pray for her. For about the next 45-60 minutes we proceeded to, along with the the bishops and some other pastors, through the power of God cast out the demons from this young woman. It was something that I’ve heard about, and read about in Scripture, but certainly never seen in person. It was truly an amazing display of the power of demons, and the greater power of our God. There are too many details to tell here, but suffice to say that the woman was delivered and we were left to worship a God who had once again showed us more of himself than we could have even imagined to ask for. When I asked God to show me something, I thought he already had, but he had so much more to show us.

Bishop Thom and Bishop Elias told us much more about what had happened, and some other similar stories, and it became a real learning experience for us as well. As you all know, reading about something in the Bible is one thing, but when God lets you experience it, it  changes everything. He was good and gracious to us in showing us even more of himself…

So, to recap our day, God is sovereign over the souls of men, God is sovereign over sickness and disease, and God is sovereign over demons. We got to see that on glorious display Thursday!

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Teaching in Africa

Published June 11, 2011 | By Matt

Well, we are now through our first four days of teaching and evangelism in Sudan. I’m really not even sure where to begin. To view our official team blog at The Village Church’s website, click here. I haven’t posted there, but other team members have so you can read their thoughts and stories.

Our plans changed somewhat from the initial plans due to security concerns in the north part of Southern Sudan. As the day of independence approaches (July 9) when the Republic of Southern Sudan becomes its own nation, there is some violence and threats of violence. Recently, troops from the north have taken the Southern Sudan city of Abyei. Thousands have fled Abyei, and over 1000 have settled in Kwajok, where we were going to be conducting pastoral training. The EPC decided instead that we should focus on teaching disciple-making and evangelism to 3 churches in the area. So, we are conducting three 2-day conferences which consist of one day of teaching and one day of evangelism with the people of the church.

We began in Morobo County on Wednesday. We drove for about an hour and 15 minutes on an all dirt road, and as we pulled into town we were escorted by about 6 men on motorcycles, including their local pastor, Papa Moses. When we arrived at the church’s compound, we were met by about 150 people singing and dancing and welcoming us. Their bishop, Bishop Thom was there and they made us feel “most welcome.” We were escorted by all of us singing and dancing to a hut that seemed to be an honorary hut, and were served our second breakfast of the day. The people of Morobo were unbelievably welcoming and generous to us. Americans have much to learn from our African friends on how to welcome visitors.

Then we moved to the programme. Unfortunately, I was up first and had to follow Bishop Elias Taban of the EPC, who is a wonderful man, visionary leader, and tremendous preacher. I’m sure I was a bit of a letdown for the people. Especially since I was teaching, not preaching, which is much less exciting… My topic is What is Disciple-Making? There are several things that are different when speaking in Africa. First off, if you say something that resembles a song they have, someone will just break out into song in the crowd, and next thing you know the whole crowd is singing, dancing, playing music, shaking maracas (I’m not sure what they call them in Africa), and playing African drums… Its really pretty awesome…

Second thing I learned teaching here was how to speak with an interpreter. It was definitely a new experience. This first time in Morobo, I felt fairly distracted, but God was faithful and got me through ok. I felt much better the second time I spoke.

I think all of our teaching went well, and was well received, though reading an African audience is definitely different than reading an American audience. They sit so still and respectful. There were children who sat in there all day quietly listening, or at least pretending to. I can’t even imagine we tried to take my kids to a seminar with teaching on disciple-making for 6 hours… We wrapped up the day by breaking into teams and praying for the next day when we would go out to preach the gospel in the villages of Morobo County…

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Day 1 – Uganda

Published June 6, 2011 | By Matt

Well, we spent today in Entebbe, Uganda resting from our travel and bonding as a team. I’m really glad we had this day for both of those reasons. We needed a day of rest, and its been a great day of hanging out, talking, reviewing our teaching plans and just coming together as a team. We leave for Yei, Sudan in the morning. We will meet with the leaders of the church in the afternoon and our first day of teaching will be Wednesday. Its getting exciting as the time of meeting and starting to work together with our brothers and sisters in Sudan draws nearer.

We met this afternoon to talk about what disciple-making and evangelism might look like in Sudan. There are so many unknowns for us that its equally scary and exciting… We will be relying on the Spirit much more than we might back home, which means that there is a much higher probability of success since we can’t rely on our own wisdom, knowledge and abilities.

I look forward to updating on how God moves in southern Sudan… Please pray that God prepares the hearts and minds of the people of southern Sudan to hear the gospel, and pray that the Holy Spirit opens their eyes to the truth as its shared by both our team and the members of the EPC.

Posted in Africa, Faith | 3 Comments

Departure Day

Published June 4, 2011 | By Matt

Well, its been a while. Believe it or not, I’ve got some posts in draft status that I’ve been working on but never posted. Some blogger I am… Anyway, it is departure day for Africa. We’ll be leaving today to Entebbe, Uganda via Amsterdam where we will be for  a day, then on to Yei, Sudan where we will be conducting some pastoral training and evangelism (to follow our official team blog for the trip, go here). I’m not exactly sure what to expect. I do know that I will be teaching on “What is Disciple-Making?” which is a bit of an unknown. I think I know what it is in American culture, but not as sure how well that translates into Sudanese culture. So, I’m sticking to the basics and looking at who Jesus chose as disciples, and how he discipled them, with a sprinkling of some of Paul’s ideas on making disciples. The good news is that if we stick with the Bible, we’re teaching God’s words, so its harder to go wrong…

I have a mixed bag of emotions and thoughts a few hours from departure (24 hours or so from arrival).

I’m very excited. I’ve always wanted to go to Africa, and really can’t wait to get there. I’m still in shock and amazement that God has chosen to use me in the ways that he has, so the idea that the creator of the universe has chosen me to go and encourage and teach his people on the other side of the world will never make full sense to me. The 5 other people I’m going with (Richard, Jim, Audrey, Tim, and Joe) are also awesome and I can’t wait to do the next 2 weeks of our lives together.

I’m slightly nervous/anxious. I’m not as nervous as some of my family, but the conflicts in Sudan are common knowledge to those that follow global events and there’s always that unknown. In addition, there are the health concerns that are present, evidenced to us by the shots and meds that we are all taking in preparation to go. However, I’m only slightly nervous. The great thing about believing in the absolute sovereignty of God is that whatever lies ahead of us in Africa, he already knows. As our pastor often says, the future isn’t something he knows about, but a place that he is. Nothing that happens will surprise God, and nothing will catch him off-guard. Coupled with the fact that he loves us and has promised to always be with us, there really is nothing to fear. I’m not totally there yet, but praying that God will get me to where the apostle Paul was when he could say that “to live is Christ” and “to die is gain.” I pray regularly for that kind of faith and trust in God…

I’m sad. This will be the longest that I’ve been away from my family, and while I’m the type of person that likes alone time, it will be difficult. Thankfully, technology may allow us to talk, and maybe even see each other while I’m over there.

I will try to post some pictures and thoughts on here if our Internet connection is sufficient. Please pray for the following:

  • for boldness in teaching and proclaiming the gospel
  • for wisdom as we interact with brothers and sisters in a different culture
  • that our team would bond and come together as one, that we would display unity and love in all our actions
  • for health and safety for our team
  • for Lauren and the kids while I’m gone (good sleep, no worry and good behavior)

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. I’ll see you in a couple weeks…

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Question from Avery…

Published November 30, 2010 | By Matt

While in Terre Haute visiting family last week, Avery and I were driving somewhere, I don’t even remember where we were going. We were talking about her friend Isaac, who had become sick. He had a fever and was vomiting, which we found out later was strep… Avery said something that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since. She was sad about Isaac being sick and was crying a little bit. She finally said in tears,

“I wish Jesus would come back so we could stop being sick.”

We’ve often talked about what it will be like when Jesus returns, and how he will end the pain and suffering that entered our world with sin, so it wasn’t a surprise that she understood this. What was surprising was that she said this without any prompting at all from me. I hadn’t brought up Jesus’ second coming at all. We had prayed for Isaac, but Jesus’ return hadn’t come up. So, what I can’t stop thinking about is:

Why don’t I think like that?

Why isn’t my first reaction to the problems and challenges that come into life on a daily basis to express hope and longing for Jesus to finally come and end this? Why don’t I ache for Him to come back and finally heal this broken world? Why is my first reaction to challenges to figure out a way to solve them, instead of crying out to Jesus for His grace and mercy?

Is this what child-like faith looks like? If so, I’ve got a lot to learn from my six year-old…

Posted in Faith, Family | Tagged | 4 Comments

Adjusting to Texas

Published October 4, 2010 | By Matt

This week is making it much easier to adjust to living in Texas. After over 20 straight days of 100+ degree high temperatures in August, this week’s outlook of sunny skies (I didn’t see a cloud all day today) and highs in the low to mid-70s. Walking across campus today, I remember thinking, “God, I imagine this is how it was in Eden before the Fall.”

Here’s an update on the kids:

Taylor is doing well at Briarhill Middle School. She’s taking Drama, and will be performing in their rendition of Music Man in November. She’s also taking ballet classes two nights a week.

Abby has had a good start to her final year in elementary school at Highland Village Elementary. She is playing soccer, and swimming two nights a week. She has recently started wearing glasses, and is quite excited about that (for now). She is enjoying Mrs. Hackler, and says she is very much like Mrs. Laubert, her 4th grade teacher at Lost Creek.

Avery has started her first year of all-day elementary school (also at HVE). She loves Mrs. Bennett and is enjoying eating lunch at school. She is becoming quite the reader, and an email aficionado.

Mallory is back in school and is doing well with Mrs. Ban. Mrs. Ban is from Romania and the kids “take a trip” with their passports to a new country every week. Last week was “D” week and the kids visited Denmark. She and Jayden eat lunch at school since they are there from 9am-1pm, and I think she really likes eating at school.

Jayden is in his first year of school and is adjusting to some structure from someone other than family. His big smile have redeemed him a few times already we think. He has become very fond of his new cowboy boots and wants to wear them frequently.

Lauren and I are both working, I am still working in IT, and Lauren is working at Lewisville Medical Center in the ICU department. I will post some pictures of the house and kids soon.

We are attending The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX. It is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, but I daresay it is not your typical Southern Baptist Church. We all really like it, and are trying to get more connected. I am working with the Middle Schoolers right now, and Taylor is in a Middle School homegroup that meets on Wednesday nights.

We also just joined a homegroup that meets on Wednesday nights as well, so we are meeting more people every week. There is also a Foster and Adoption Ministry (FAM) that we are going to be part of, which seeks to educate and support those in the church and community that are pursuing adoption and/or foster parenting.

Lauren is also attending a Women’s Bible Study which meets on Wednesday mornings. They are currently working through the book of Hebrews.

We think of our friends and family in Indiana often and pray for you as well. We pray that God is moving among you and that you are all growing closer to Him each day.

We love you all…

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