New Beginnings

There is something about the first day of school that feels so good. Getting back into our routines and schedules, picking up and writing in new workbooks, beginning a new subject of study in history, signing up for music lessons...it just feels refreshing to be back to school. This morning I sent one to the public high school special ed program in 12th grade, another to a large K-9 Christian school in 8th grade and yet another in 2nd grade at a small K-6 Christian school while two, a 3rd grader and a 5th grader, stayed home with me. I miss the ones that are gone but am enjoying the quieter times with the other two as well. I've always wanted to homeschool all of my children but we take it a year at a time, choosing the environment each fall that we feel will be the best for each child. The two homeschooled children have an exciting new development. Instead of continuing piano lessons they will be learing something new. One will be playing the flute and the other will learn the saxophone.

On another note, Shannon and Collin are nearly ready to leave. It is only 6 days away. We have begun gathering the things they will need to take which has included the purchase of a few more pairs of nice slacks and button shirts. We tend to be a jeans and t-shirt type of family so only had enough of the nicer stuff for church once per week. We have been praying for the people in Tanzania to be receptive to what they have to share. We are also praying for God to provide the land that he wants the ministry to be located on. We are praying for the location He wants at a great price and support of the government for all that we do.

Please pray for us as we finalize the preparations for their trip and also for the people of Tanzania.

Overcoming Your Fear of Missing God's Will

I'm sorry I haven't posted for several days. I guess we haven't had anything really big to post. I can share though that in our quiet times, Shannon and I are still feeling very strongly that we are currently on the path we should be on so we will continue full steam ahead, feeling confident about our goal.

I want to share something that Shannon shared with me today. He is on a prophetic email list and this came through there. I hope you enjoy this word as we did. I have permission to post it as follows:
Permission is granted (and you are also encouraged) to reprint these articles in hard copy form, as well as sending them to your own email lists and posting them on your own websites. We ask only that you keep Elijah List website, email contact info, and author contact information intact.

John Paul Jackson: "OVERCOMING YOUR FEAR OF MISSING GOD'S WILL"

"The LORD will perfect that which concerns me...." Psalms 138:8

Life Is A Story

People often say that life is "like" a story. But that isn't true. Life "is" a story. Unfortunately, you just can't treat it like one--meaning, you can't flip to the end to see how it all turns out. Wouldn't trusting God be easier if He showed you just one more teeny, tiny glimpse of your destiny?

But, just as it is with a well-written story, you never really know what is going to happen next. You wake up in the morning and assume you're going to go to work. But you don't really know what is going to happen. You might lose your job today. Your car might get wrecked. It might hail today; it might rain. You might see a friend you haven't seen for years. Your parents might call you out of the blue.

Life unfolds daily. Curtains fall, and old eras end. But then new eras begin, and the curtains rise again. None of it makes sense unless you can start to understand the story--the purpose behind it all.

Many of you feel like you are 15 minutes too late for the train of life. You have missed where you are supposed to go. You have settled for God's second best. Because of past mistakes, you feel like you can achieve only the "good will" of God, not His "perfect will." And you feel you should be thrilled about that, but deep inside, you aren't. In fact, you are disenchanted. Some of you even feel hopeless.

But--life is a story. What makes a good story great? Depth. Adventure. Excitement. Not knowing. Huge odds. Great darkness defeated by great heroism. And because this is so, in the midst of every evil and dark thing you're feeling, your life story is being played out. Whether you feel like this is true or not, you are living the story God birthed you for. You are here for such a time as this.

This is the Best Time for You to be Born

He put you here on this planet, in this country, in the town you live in, in the home you live in. He placed you here for a specific purpose, and you are fulfilling that purpose even if you don't know it. God is a lot bigger than you expect Him to be; you might even be surprised. I know I am, whenever He reminds me of how deeply involved He is in the miniscule, forgotten-about, never-minded details of my life.

He is not giving up on you because you might have made some mistakes. He is still saying to you, "Follow Me! I created you for this time, for this very situation. I knew exactly what was going to be happening in your family, in your city, in your region, in your world, and I knew the impact you were going to have, and I said, 'This is the best time for you to be born!'"

It is never too late to accomplish the purpose for which God created you. Just because you are alive proves that purpose still exists for you.

Many of you need to defeat the battle of not trying. I believe it is time for many of you to try again.

You won't get there overnight.

Tomorrow morning, you won't wake up with it.

But tomorrow morning, you will be closer than you were today.

I believe it's time for many of you to walk into the purpose for which you were created.

(For more information on this topic, view below to order Regaining What You've Lost by John Paul Jackson.)


John Paul Jackson
Streams Ministries International
www.streamsministries.com

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Elijah List Ministries
Email: elministries@elijahlist.net
Phone: 1-866-967-3665 or (541) 967-3665

An encouraging conversation

Today I very hesitantly called our son's private school to talk with the principal there about our son's trip and how that will affect his school attendance. I was concerned that they would be very disappointed that he would miss three weeks of school right away at the beginning of the year. The principal, Mr. Brouwer, was very encouraging and told me I should talk with each of the teachers about how our son can best stay on track by either working ahead or doing extra projects. He then spent several minutes on the phone with my son. According to my son he told him that he thinks this is a wonderful opportunity and that he knows our son can keep up but that he will have to work hard and apply himself fully to be on track in October. Mr. Brouwer then transferred my call to Mr. Greene's room.
Mr. Greene will be our son's science and bible teacher this next year. He also taught those same subjects to our son last year. Mr. Greene was a teacher in international schools for about 12 years in Brazil and Japan. He raised his children internationally and has worked with many missionary children, otherwise known as "third culture kids" in the schools he taught in. He was very excited that our son would have this opportunity to see his future home country before the move and even more excited to hear about our upcoming move. He shared about how his children have grown up to be internationally minded and one is currently looking at missions. The other is currently doing well in college. We also spoke of the many Christian colleges that have great "re-entry" programs for third culture kids. TCK's often grow up between two worlds, thus creating a third culture. They often do not feel at home in their "home" culture but also are diferent within thier host culture. However these children usually grow up to be well adjusted, world minded adults that have a great concern and love for others. Our conversation was so encouraging to me as he expressed that he feels international travel is one of the best things to offer a child to help them learn to apreciate being an American and realizing how blessed they are as well as turn them into responsible adults.

A Timely Message

Last evening, Shannon and I attended a house meeting at Wayne and Rev. Debra's home where we had the privilege, along with around 30 others, to hear Pastor Richard speak one last time before he leaves for his home in Tanzania next week. He delivered a message about discovering and following your destiny. Shannon and I were surprised when he had us turn in our bibles to 2Kings Chapter 2 to the passage about the calling of Elisha by Elijah. This being the same passage Shannon and I had been talking about between ourselves earlier in the week and that I had written about in my most recent post.
God has a a plan, or a destiny, for each of us. In fact, according to Psalms, He knew us before we were even formed in our mothers' wombs. We discover that plan by spending time with God in prayer and He will reveal it to us. It is then our responsibility, as Christians, to pursue it. The enemy will place obstacles in the path toward that plan in an effort to keep us from it. Often those obstacles will be from negative spirits attached to those that are close to us. In Matthew 16:21-23, the apostle Peter told Jesus that he would not fulfill his destiny. Jesus rebuked him saying, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
Shannon and I have experienced mainly positive and supportive comments from those we have shared our plans with. There have been a few though, that have had negative thoughts to share with us. As we have talked about each of these comments in our time together, we have discovered one thing that runs throughout those negative words. The words seem to come from thinking of the things of man, rather than God. Concerns about our safety, illnesses, about how this will affect our children and leaving our extended family members behind, of finances, selling our home and possessions-these are all valid concerns through man's eyes but are invalid concerns when looked at through heavenly eyes.
Shannon and I are excited to be in pursuit of what we believe to be God's destiny for us. We know it will come at great cost. We also know that with the pursuit, will come great blessings.

The life of Jonah versus Elisha

According to the bible, a man named Jonah was called by God to travel to the evil city of Ninevah to tell people the word of God. Jonah did not want to go so he tried to run away, boarding a boat headed in a diferent direction. Most of you know the rest of the story-a fierce storm came up and Jonah knew it was because of God's anger, so he jumped overboard knowing that it would save the others on the boat. He thought he would die by doing this but God, in His mercy, sent a large fish to swallow him and spew him out on dry land, saving his life. Jonah then followed God's original call on his life to go and tell the people of Ninevah about God.
There was another man in the bible by the name of Elisha. He was very wealthy and happy with his life when a prophet named Elijah walked by him, and thew down his cloak, showing him that he was being called by God into following Elijah's ministry. Elijah put out the call, turned his back and continued on. He did not beg or plead with Elisha to follow him as he knew it would come at great cost-family, home, wealth-he just continued on with his own ministry hoping Elisha would come. Elisha did follow him, giving up all he had. He followed under Elijah's ministry for a full twenty years before coming into his place but stayed true through all those years. Then he received a "double portion" of God's annointing according to 2Kings.
Shannon and I have been discussing how we can express to those around us how it feels to "be called" into the ministry we are headed towards. God did not literally wake either one of us up in the night with a clear and loud voice telling us exactly what we are to do. On the other hand he has made it clear to us through our hearts that He wants us to do this. The call we are feeling is so strong that neither of us will be at peace until we have answered it. It is all-consuming and literally in our thoughts anytime we are awake. How can we ignore it? We can't! Would it be easier to try? Sure, it might seem that way. But of the two examples above, we know which one we wish to try to emulate and was easier in the end. We also know which brought many blessings.
Shannon has a sentence he uses a lot and it is quite meaningful in these circumstances. "We will be safer in Africa, within God's will, then we will be anywhere else, out of His will."

How many jars?

In our efforts to prepare for our move into full-time ministry Shannon and I have been taking bible classes through End Time Glory Ministries bible school. Tonight, as we are in the midst of studying History of Israel and the diferent kings of the divided monarchy, we are also learning about Elisha's propethic ministry. One story we discussed this evening was the increase of the widow's oil. She and her sons were told to go out and gather as many pots and jars as they could from friends and neighbors and to begin pouring the bit of oil from thier jar into them. Every single jar they had collected was filled by the multiplied oil and I believe if they had collected more jars those too would have been filled. The number of jars that she and her sons collected was representive of the amount of faith they had. Another example of big faith occurs in the book I've talked about earlier, Always Enough. Rolland and Heidi Bakker have not once, ever turned an orphan away from thier doors and God has always provided for all of them. We so much want to have a tremendous faith that always knows and trusts for God's provision like that. We can't help but wonder how many jars we would have collected. We hate the thought that we might be minimizing God's miracles through our little faith.

Joseph is home!

Just an update on Joseph to let you know that he was released from the burn unit today. According to his mom, he needs to clean his burns three times daily which includes cleaning the pus and dead skin away from the wounds. He is on pain meds on demand and he is only needing them when his mom helps him clean. When he did it himself he did not need the medication. He will be treated as an out patient through the burn unit while they wait to see if he will need some skin grafting on his chest. He is confined to the house for two weeks to prevent any infection and has to shower even if he spends some time out on the porch.
Please continue to pray for healing with minimal scarring and for no skin grafts to be needed, as well as no infection. Also, pray that he be content with being home and not get cabin fever too badly.

Praise reports!!

First, an update on Joseph. He is being treated at a burn center. His burns are all second degree. The praise is that there are no third degree burns. This means healing and scarring will be much less. His parents report that they have seen God's hand throughout. Joseph was wearing a hat and his glasses at the time of the explosion so his eyes and above were protected. Gasoline burns are known to sometimes worsen anytime in the first 24 hours so there was concern these could become third degree. They did not. It looks like he may be able to be home sometime this weekend.

Second, and seemingly much less important when put in perspective, Collin's passport arrived today. We were surprised it was here already but glad. Now Collin's visa application can be sent along with the entire teams which will save us money and concern about time limits.

Please pray

Although this is unrelated to Africa, it is an important part of our lives and we want to get people praying in force. Tonight while working at VBS with my girlfriend at church she received a call to get to the ER. Her 17 year old son had been burned severely while trying to start a truck by adding gas to the carbeurator. Joseph has what looks to me to be second degree burns on his chest, neck, face and arms. He has several very large blisters and alot of peeling and loose skin. He is being transferred to a local burn unit where they will get him treated. It sounded like he may be able to be treated as an out patient. Please pray for Joseph and his parents as well as his siblings as they go through this trial together.

Miracles in Africa

As we discussed yet another magazine article about an African country last evening, Shannon and I discussed the fact that miracles are common occurances in third world countries. Last evening's article was from the August issue of Charisma magazine. It told the story of a young toddler being raised from the dead through the prayers and praises of two young men in Zambia. Also, a young brain-damaged child with a disfigured face completely healed through prayer in Malawi. Shannon and I have also been reading together a book called Always Enough:God's Miraculous Provision Among the Poorest Children on Earth by Rolland and Heidi Baker. I would highly reccomend this book to you if you want to read about what God can do with orphans. The Baker's have a large ministry serving orphans in Mozambique. The book shares amazing stories of God miracles-multiplying soup in a pot to serve over 200 from a pot of soup made for 4, sick and disabled people healed, and young untrained orphans, through their innocent and trusting prayers, raising the dead! Why do these people experience the same miracles that many of us in America pray for all of the time? Sure, we occassionally see these type of things here but it is not as common. Shannon and I discussed a lot of things. Is it because we are too dependent on ourselves-that we, Americans in general, don't have the complete and total dependence on God that these people do? We don't know. I can tell you though that from what I saw of so many people in Africa and Shannon saw in Haiti, is that these people often have discovered that God is the only thing they can depend on because nothing else is for sure. We can't help but wonder if we all lived in greater need-of food, housing and security-if we wouldn't be seeing more miracles in our home country. Shannon and I are just praying for ourselves that we learn to be more dependent on God. We need to trust him more for our daily needs. Will you pray with us for a wave of that dependence to wipe across the entire nation of America?

I also want to share with you about a piece of artwork we recently discovered. It is a painting of around a dozen children of all diferent colors, sizes and ages, standing together. It shows just thier beautiful precious faces. Several look to be needing a change of clothing and a bath. The title of the artwork is "Today's Orphan's, Tomorrow's Leaders." Our goal, as well as the goal of our leadership, is to raise as many Tanzanian orphans as we can, to be healthy, educated and godly leaders one day. Please pray with us as we work toward that goal. By the way, for my 19th wedding anniversary, I received that piece of art as a gift from Shannon. It will be getting framed and will go with us to Tanzania. It will hang in our home as a constant reminder of why we are there.

Praise report

In regards to our son joining Shannon on the Tanzania trip in September we have applied for his passport. It was expensive-an extra $60 to expedite it- but should be here in 2-3 weeks. We are praying for it to arrive by the 14th as that is when the visa applications are being sent in for the rest of the team. If we have to apply for his seperately it will add even more to the cost and possibly take longer. Also, we have been able to get him tickets for the flights. Let's pray that passport here!

Happy Birthday to our first daughter

Today our first daughter turns 10! We remember when she was born after our first two were both boys, how happy we were to have a girl! It has not been her happies birthday ever as she had to say good-bye to her two foster sisters today but she is going to be fine. We love you sweetie!

The house seems quiet

It is with great sadness we share with you that the two little girls that came to live with us just 16 days ago, have moved. This was not what we wanted and social services did not have a choice in the matter either. We loved having them here and they fit into our family structure well but Shannon and I had prayed that they either become a part of our family legally through adoption quickly, or that they leave us quickly. The longer children are in our home the more attached we all become to each other. It is always in everyone's best interests for speed, especially with children so young. It seems that they were not to be a part of our forever family so God has answered our prayers for them to move on quickly. Even with 5 children still here, it is quiet now. We have cried our tears that we needed to cry and will move on as we have done before. Ugh. It is so hard. Every time we wonder if we will ever do this again but with each call we cannot say no. Please pray for the girls through yet another transition and us as well.

An exciting development for Shannon's trip to Tanzania

We have talked off and on about this certain thing over the past month or so and had ruled it out over and over again due to finances but finally yesterday, Rev. Debra, Shannon, and I decided it is going to happen if it is still possible. What, you say? Our 13 year old son, will be traveling with Shannon and the rest of the team to Tanzania in September! We are going to apply for a passport for him today...expedited...and Rev. Debra is checking to see if we can still get him on the flights. He is at a difficult age to be moving anywhere much less to a foreign country he knows very little about. He has always had a heart for missions and has read many missionary biographies over the past years. We want him to have more of a peace about our upcoming move and to develop a heart for the people and country like the Lord has put in us. We are certain that after traveling there, his life will be changed-that he will see that where we will be is fairly modern, very safe and in need of Jesus. Also, he will develop relationships with Pastor Richard's large family including his two young sons that are close to his age. He is very excited about this as are we. Unfortunately, since he has been attending a local Christian school since last March and will continue on there in the fall, he will be missing 2 1/2 weeks of school. We know though, that He will be able to catch up quickly. Please pray that his passport comes very quickly and with no problems, that we can get him airline tickets with everyone else and that we find the finances to fund it all. We have decided that we will be sending out a fund raising letter now with two of them going. We have sold our camper and our extra vehicle to help fund Shannon's trip and I have sold many clothing items and homeschool books on eBay as well but we will appreciate any finances and prayers we can get from the outside.