I've been keeping up with the Daily Audio Bible (www.dailyaudiobible.com) which goes through the entire Bible in a year, with selections each day from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. It's a great way to keep myself accountable.
Recently, there were two contrasting stories that struck me. The first was from the Old Testament and recounts the amazing story of Elijah facing off against the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. All day, Baal is unable to respond, yet God comes through immediately with consuming fire from heaven. That's probably one of my favorite displays of God's power in the entire Bible. However, what really spoke to me is what comes afterwards: Jezebel is enraged and goes on a manhunt for Elijah. Tired, discouraged and defeated, he cries out to God, "I have had enough, LORD...Take my life..." (I Kings 19:4b, NIV). He says this only a matter of days after witnessing this miraculous assurance that God is able to do anything and everything.
By contrast, the book of Acts appears to be one long narrative of Paul and assorted companions going from city to city, boldly preaching the Gospel. While they convert many, they appear to antagonize even more, and there are multiple times where the crowds threaten violence and they need to hustle out of the city. In Lystra, the crowd actually tries to stone them to death. Acts 14:19b says "They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead." But what comes next? Verse 20 says, "But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe." He went right back preaching the Word, which is what incited violence against him in the first place....in the very same city!
Confession: I'm a lot more like Elijah than Paul. God will show me amazing things and have doors open for us and the very next day (if not hour), doubts, uncertainties and fears (specified and unspecified) creep in again. Why can't I trust that God did not lead us to Africa only to abandon us?
I want to be more like Paul than Elijah. Paul was the consummate optimist. In all his written letters, he never once wavered from his firm convictions that God will work all things together for good, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and that if God is for us, who can be against us? He even put a positive spin on his "thorn in the flesh," reasoning that since God didn't cure it, there must be a good purpose for it in Paul's life. Finally, he viewed his death as a martyr at yet another opportunity for God to be glorified. I'm sure he preached out boldly on death row until his very last moment on this earth.
With God's help, I'm going to try be more like Paul than Elijah these last few weeks in the States.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Time to Pay for All This
Dear Friends,
You have been SO encouraging to us during this process. We have been humbled about 2504 times already by so many nice comments. We have felt lifted up in prayer and supported on all sides.
It's very hard for us to ask for money to support us, but it is necessary to make our vision a reality.
The good news is that when you sign on to support us, you are helping SO many other people. Some of our money each week goes to supporting other Tanzanians that will do some work for us. Some will go to local farmers, grocers -- average Tanzanians trying to make a living in a tough economy. And the very reason we need support is so that our school can keep costs low and allow the children of Missionaries to afford a high-quality education while they do God's work in Tanzania. Your gift will bring a myriad of blessings to so many people!
Early next week, we'll be sending out support letters to as many of you as possible. In the meantime, we are very excited to announce that our online giving is set up and ready to receive donations. We humbly ask for you to consider a monthly recurring gift that will help us throughout our 2 year commitment. We are excited by any gift though! More importantly, we continue to covet your prayers as we work through details of the move and setting up our new life.
Follow this link for easy online giving. In the first drop down menu, find "Missionaries -- Africa" In the box next to that, you'll find my name "Steen, Timothy".
You have been SO encouraging to us during this process. We have been humbled about 2504 times already by so many nice comments. We have felt lifted up in prayer and supported on all sides.
It's very hard for us to ask for money to support us, but it is necessary to make our vision a reality.
The good news is that when you sign on to support us, you are helping SO many other people. Some of our money each week goes to supporting other Tanzanians that will do some work for us. Some will go to local farmers, grocers -- average Tanzanians trying to make a living in a tough economy. And the very reason we need support is so that our school can keep costs low and allow the children of Missionaries to afford a high-quality education while they do God's work in Tanzania. Your gift will bring a myriad of blessings to so many people!
Early next week, we'll be sending out support letters to as many of you as possible. In the meantime, we are very excited to announce that our online giving is set up and ready to receive donations. We humbly ask for you to consider a monthly recurring gift that will help us throughout our 2 year commitment. We are excited by any gift though! More importantly, we continue to covet your prayers as we work through details of the move and setting up our new life.
Follow this link for easy online giving. In the first drop down menu, find "Missionaries -- Africa" In the box next to that, you'll find my name "Steen, Timothy".
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Get Up and Keep Running: Thoughts for the Class of 2013
Devotion:
Thank you all for giving me the honor of speaking to you this morning. Mrs. Bazanowski asked if I could lead the breakfast devotions. I am so excited to be able to do this. But just a fair warning, this isn’t a typical devotion -- after all, it’s basically my last time to talk here at EC, and there is about a million things I want to say. Especially to you graduating seniors!
This may happen to you a lot in the next few months -- well-meaning adults that want to give you all the advice they’ve been meaning to give you for years.
Here’s the thing. Statistics say that somewhere between 60 and 80% of Christian teens will lose their faith when they go away to college. And all of us adults in your life -- your parents, teachers, friends...we’re pretty scared about that. We’re scared we didn’t do our jobs well enough. I know some of you are already convinced that’s true! And you might be right. But that’s what we’re going through these days.
So what I would love to do is somehow convince you, in the next few minutes, to be lifelong Christians. No pressure.
But really, all I can do this morning, is tell you a bit of my story and why I am a still a Christian 20 years after I graduated from high school. It’s a long story. So, I’m going to steal a page from Ann’s senior chapel and realize that since there is no way I can express so much of what is in my heart, I can at least tell you 3 things that I’ve discovered along the way.
Hebrews 12:1-3 is the passage I want to look at this morning for our devotions. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Now the big important part of these passage is the focus on Jesus and what he did for us. Read that passage over, and often, and really meditate on that. Keep your eyes on Jesus, and think often about his life and what he went through for us. It’s humbling! And it’s how you don’t grow weary or lose heart.
That being said, I am going to focus a bit now on verse 1.
1) The first thing I’ve discovered: the importance of Perseverance
If I was a senior in high school and working on my worldview, my metaphor would be easy. “Life is like the 400m hurdles.” Sorry I didn’t tell you about this sooner, but it is easily the best. worldview. ever. Ask Bethany. The very first time I ran the 400m hurdles in 8th grade, I fell...on the very first hurdle. It was truly an epic fail. I lay there for a bit wondering if I should just go home and never show my face again on the track. Then an official said “well, you might as well keep running.” So I did. I finished that race, and I kept running that event, and it turned out I got pretty good at it and now for the past few years have had the privilege of coaching it. Because “I might as well keep running.”
The 400m is a tough race--I proudly like to say THE toughest, but I’ve honestly never run anything else so what do I know? You need to try to sprint the entire time while running aggressively (not jumping, right Bethany?) over these obstacles that keep getting in your way. Like I said, it’s a perfect life metaphor. And it’s all about perseverance -- keep running and churning those legs and getting over obstacles however you can until you reach the finish line.
You will find passages about perseverance littered throughout the Bible. Because the writers knew, and God knows, that keeping on is not easy. Even Isaiah 40, that great verse that the EC Eagles get their mascot from...but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles!” But it doesn’t end there. It ends with a whimper, not a bang. “They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Woohoo! Walk and not faint! But life is like that.
Life is going to trip you up at some point...it’s going to try to make you faint when you are just walking down the street. Some of you know this already. I didn’t know it until I was about 25, and my father in law got brain cancer and then died in just a few short pain-filled months. I had no idea life could be so cruel and gut wrenching. It really threw me, and I really struggled with a lot of stuff spiritually that I hadn’t had to confront until that point. Does God really answer prayer? Why not mine? Is God really good, really all powerful? Or he is just a fairytale we tell our kids?
I am going to share something that I never dared to say out loud before. (Leaving has it’s privileges). These doubts and questions have never gone away. About 3 years ago, I really, really was at a point where I didn’t know if I could honestly call myself a Christian any more. I did -- I went through all the motions. I was a Christian school teacher and a Sunday School teacher, a Christian father -- what was I supposed to do!?! If I admitted this, I felt like I would lose my job and break my kids’ hearts. So before I admitted my severe doubts and crisis to the world, I faked it for a little while.
You guys were sophomores at the time. James, Dan & Dan, Josh, Anthony, Tyler, Matt, David -- you guys had me for first block computer programming. I didn’t want to do devotions that year because I felt like a complete hypocrite. And I know you remember what I ended up talking about. “Everything is ______________ (meaningless). ” Go old Ecclesiastes. I put a Christian spin on it, and I did mean it, that search for meaning in life, but it was a tough time.
Perseverance. Hang on even in the tough times, the dark times. “You might as well keep running,” so I did. And even though it felt like I was faking, I kept going just a little longer. And then, that Spring Break, I took a trip to Africa. Anyone want to guess if that changed my life? I hope my class noticed something different about me...I like to think you did, since almost all you ended up going to Uganda or another mission’s trip over the next 2 years.
I found something so much bigger than myself when I was in Uganda. It was a bit like in Job when God speaks up and is all “Where were you when I formed the earth?” Like, whoa...God is huge and I am puny and I kind of take back my big existential crisis.
I certainly still have moments of doubt and worry. But denying God’s existence after my two trips to Africa is ludicrous to me now -- it would be denying what I have personally seen and experienced. So when people ask me why I am now moving to Africa...I have a hard time telling them. It’s because of Africa that I still believe in God. It’s made me a better person, even here in America, but I think God wants me back over there -- there are still things I need to learn in Africa.
Even if you are struggling, even if you are quite sure that there is no way that God could ever, ever exist...keep running a little while longer. Put one foot in front of the other for a bit, even if you’re not feeling it. Because it’s not about a feeling, it’s about a commitment to the race. And God can break in at any moment and throw you to your knees. Just keep running and see what happens. If you get really bold, dare God to show himself. (But get ready for an earth-shattering, move-to-Africa answer.)
2) Another thing I’ve discovered: The Cloud of Witnesses
So let’s say you are struggling with doubt. You are thinking about hanging up the track shoes and dropping out of the race. Here is the key thing that has kept me from doing that: I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Every time I think to myself that there is no way that God could be real, I remember all the people that I know, that I trust, that I respect, that are Christians.
Just look at the faculty I am working with. I cannot believe that all of these great, smart, kind people are wrong. Would I say that I know better about these matters than Mr. Verrengia, or Ms. P? Would I really want to get into an argument about it with Doc or Mr. Bev? It’s actually unfair to name names here...all these coworkers, I am quite certain they are better people than I am.
When I question my own beliefs, I am also questioning theirs, and I can’t do that -- I don’t dare do that. And that’s not to mention my friends, my family. Now I know that when you think of Christian adults, you may first think about your parents. And maybe that’s not a positive correlation right now. But think of your Christian friends, your Christian mentors. I am not going to say there aren’t a lot of great people out there that don’t yet know God. But me personally, when I think of the best people I know, the people I want to emulate, the people who really seem to have figured something out about life that makes sense -- they are Christians.
When you are struggling...think less about yourself and your doubts, and more about the cloud of witnesses around you. Boy, if you really have to, remember me. One of the most humbling things in my life is when my wife reminds me she is still a Christian because of me -- she graduated EC and was ready to pack up her faith and move on. Then she met me and I wouldn’t let her. And I can tell you that through the years, the tables have turned and she has kept me faithful.
Find yourself a cloud of witnesses. Trust them even when you don’t trust God. And then pick yourself up and keep running.
3) One last thought on Casting off the Sin
One last point, and I’ll try to keep it short. Another part of the verse was “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” It says that the sin easily entangles. It also makes it sound like it’s pretty easy to just cast all that off. Shake it off and keep running. It reminds me of coaching track, especially watching the two mile race, where I am standing on the sideline yelling great advice to Tyler... “Hey Tyler, you should run *faster!*” Of course, we all know it’s easy to say but not as easy to do.
So here’s one little idea about how to do this. It’s not so much how to throw off the sin, but how to keep it from sticking. Do good works. As you go off to college, or to the military, or to work, keep something in mind -- life is not about you. You won’t hear this very often. In our culture, when you are 18-22 years old, it seems that we actually give you permission to be selfish. Get out there and be independent! Live life! Discover yourself! And hey, we all do want you to discover more about yourself and find out what you want to do with your life.
But it’s not all about yourself. Life, the world...it’s all very much NOT about you. It is about what you can do for others. If you are struggling, if you are at that point where you feel that Christians are a bunch of hypocrites, or that if God was real, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world...instead of giving up on God, wait a little bit and first do something good for someone else. Spend some time trying to fix a little of that pain and suffering. Empty yourself, and see what happens.
Listen, I wish I had some magic words of advice for you that would keep those doubts and fears at bay. I wish your life would go so awesomely that you’d never have to question God’s goodness and blessings. But I know some of you have already experienced a lot of brokenness. I know some of you have already chosen to not believe. And I am not going to be able to change your mind. All I can say is persevere...remember your cloud of witnesses...and do good things for other people. Maybe it will help.
Class of 2013...I am going to miss you all. Hey, did you know that I am completing my 12th year teaching at EC? In a way, I feel a lot like you do, graduating after 12 years of EC influence on my life. Ready to move onto a great new adventure. Let’s both go out of here with EC’s lessons in our hearts and minds. And oh yeah, let us not forget the rest of Hebrews 12...keep our eyes on Jesus and hold fast to him. Then, we might as well get up and run.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Officially counting down
We officially booked our airline tickets this week: Tuesday, August 13 at 11:55 pm out of JFK, Turkish Airlines. We connect in Istanbul (not Constantinople, for all you TMBG fans!) and arrive in our new home airport of Dar es Salaam at the unholy hour of 2:35 a.m. on August 15. It's around 17 hours of travel time, plus a 3 hour connection, plus a 7 hour time difference. I'm tired just thinking about that! Also really hoping the "issues" in Turkey settle down soon and don't affect the airport :(
So that means it is REAL. We are GOING. In a mere 59 days, counting today and the day we leave. Yikes! It's an excited yikes, but also a terrified yikes.
Booking the tickets was a bit of an adventure. Unfortunately, we were not able to book round trip tickets, so while we still plan on coming home for an extended visit next summer, we'll need to navigate those tickets from Africa. The good news is that because the tickets are one-way and because we ended up using CRWM's travel agent, they are a lot less money than we had hoped. The kids' tickets were also a bit cheaper than ours (still ridiculously expensive, but less so). Another happy surprise is because airfare is in our "budget," CRWM picked up the tab for this and future support will go against paying back that debt. This was fantastic, as I was planning on putting them all on my credit card myself. The bad news, for the left-brainer in me, is that two one-way tickets are more expensive than one round trip. But, as Tim would say, we'll put that on the list of things to worry about next spring.
I'm also not 100% thrilled about using JFK or the fact that we'll be getting into Dar in the middle of the night. However, the next-best option (out of Newark) only gave us 45 minutes to connect in Zurich. Knowing Newark like I do, the odds of us leaving on time are extremely low (especially since that flight left at around 6:30 pm). I know that I'd be spending the entire Newark-Zurich flight checking my watch and stressing out about running through international customs with 3 tired and cranky kids. So we chose the less optimal time and airport for the trade-off of our sanity. Thankfully, our dear friends agreed to drive us and our myriad of suitcases there, even though I feel JFK feels like it's at the end of the earth. Love you, Wilsons!
The other stressful aspect of this is that we got an email from HOPAC this week which strongly encouraged us to raise 90% of our support budget before booking tickets. They said that they'd rather us come late than leave early due to lack of funds. Obviously, we haven't raised 90%, or even 10%, but we're stepping out in faith. Honestly, we really don't have the option of staying here. Tim's job is ending and it's not financially feasible to stay here without an income stream. In addition, we want to go. We want Tim and the kids to start off the school year at the appropriate time.
So we're trusting God that the support will work out (and no, for those who have been asking, the online donation link with our names is still not active). I will shout it out to the world when it is live! In the meantime, for those of you writing checks and using snail mail, you can send any donations to CRWM, 2850 Kalamazoo Ave SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49560-0200. Put our name and the funding code WMEA 803894 in the memo of the check.
Thank you for all your prayers and your financial support!
So that means it is REAL. We are GOING. In a mere 59 days, counting today and the day we leave. Yikes! It's an excited yikes, but also a terrified yikes.
Booking the tickets was a bit of an adventure. Unfortunately, we were not able to book round trip tickets, so while we still plan on coming home for an extended visit next summer, we'll need to navigate those tickets from Africa. The good news is that because the tickets are one-way and because we ended up using CRWM's travel agent, they are a lot less money than we had hoped. The kids' tickets were also a bit cheaper than ours (still ridiculously expensive, but less so). Another happy surprise is because airfare is in our "budget," CRWM picked up the tab for this and future support will go against paying back that debt. This was fantastic, as I was planning on putting them all on my credit card myself. The bad news, for the left-brainer in me, is that two one-way tickets are more expensive than one round trip. But, as Tim would say, we'll put that on the list of things to worry about next spring.
I'm also not 100% thrilled about using JFK or the fact that we'll be getting into Dar in the middle of the night. However, the next-best option (out of Newark) only gave us 45 minutes to connect in Zurich. Knowing Newark like I do, the odds of us leaving on time are extremely low (especially since that flight left at around 6:30 pm). I know that I'd be spending the entire Newark-Zurich flight checking my watch and stressing out about running through international customs with 3 tired and cranky kids. So we chose the less optimal time and airport for the trade-off of our sanity. Thankfully, our dear friends agreed to drive us and our myriad of suitcases there, even though I feel JFK feels like it's at the end of the earth. Love you, Wilsons!
The other stressful aspect of this is that we got an email from HOPAC this week which strongly encouraged us to raise 90% of our support budget before booking tickets. They said that they'd rather us come late than leave early due to lack of funds. Obviously, we haven't raised 90%, or even 10%, but we're stepping out in faith. Honestly, we really don't have the option of staying here. Tim's job is ending and it's not financially feasible to stay here without an income stream. In addition, we want to go. We want Tim and the kids to start off the school year at the appropriate time.
So we're trusting God that the support will work out (and no, for those who have been asking, the online donation link with our names is still not active). I will shout it out to the world when it is live! In the meantime, for those of you writing checks and using snail mail, you can send any donations to CRWM, 2850 Kalamazoo Ave SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49560-0200. Put our name and the funding code WMEA 803894 in the memo of the check.
Thank you for all your prayers and your financial support!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Buckle up baby, it's a bumpy ride
I don't usually turn to the immortal words of Bon Jovi for inspiration. But every year, for about a six week period at the end of the school year, I feel like I dive in and don't catch my breath until late June. And that's in a "normal" year (normal being a relative term, but in this case being, "we are not moving to a new continent in 2 months.")
If anyone is considering having children, I would strongly recommend against having two with birthdays only 11 days apart. It's also extremely difficult having kids' birthdays and related festivities at the end of the school year when we are also contending with school projects, end of spring sports, end of dance, myriad of high school events for Tim to attend, Father's Day, other extended family birthdays, end of year teacher gifts. And we're not even in the prom or graduation stage yet! I find this period of time even more stressful than the 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
I find this extremely discouraging because we've made a conscious effort to limit the activities that our children participate in. I never wanted to be the minivan-taxi shuttling them from one event to another. But...there's three of them, and everything comes at once.
This week alone we've had a super late baseball game which didn't even finish until well after 8:30 p.m. and Charlotte's 7th birthday party which was, to put it mildly, two and a half hours of INSANITY. I feel like I might never recover from that one. We've got tired and cranky kids and are tired and cranky ourselves. We had an epic hour and a half battle over homework last night, because it's not just about the homework. It's about the massive life change we are jumping into while still trying (and failing) to handle "regular life."
Now we're deep in the midst of garage sale prep which is scheduled for this Saturday. I pray for a deep reservoir of strength that I just don't have right now, to manage to price and sell all this stuff.
I struggle with keeping God as a priority in the crazy times. In the middle of insanity, how do we find the stillness that comes only in Him? How do we quiet our minds when they are filled with details? How do we find the time and make Him our priority when there's so much stuff to get done? How do we limit the craziness to only that which glorifies Him?
I certainly don't have any easy answers. But I do know that I'm holding on to a verse this week, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted among the earth." (Psalm 46:10). I'm reminding myself that the details are going to get done if we place our trust in this refuge. And in the end, they are only details.
If anyone is considering having children, I would strongly recommend against having two with birthdays only 11 days apart. It's also extremely difficult having kids' birthdays and related festivities at the end of the school year when we are also contending with school projects, end of spring sports, end of dance, myriad of high school events for Tim to attend, Father's Day, other extended family birthdays, end of year teacher gifts. And we're not even in the prom or graduation stage yet! I find this period of time even more stressful than the 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
I find this extremely discouraging because we've made a conscious effort to limit the activities that our children participate in. I never wanted to be the minivan-taxi shuttling them from one event to another. But...there's three of them, and everything comes at once.
This week alone we've had a super late baseball game which didn't even finish until well after 8:30 p.m. and Charlotte's 7th birthday party which was, to put it mildly, two and a half hours of INSANITY. I feel like I might never recover from that one. We've got tired and cranky kids and are tired and cranky ourselves. We had an epic hour and a half battle over homework last night, because it's not just about the homework. It's about the massive life change we are jumping into while still trying (and failing) to handle "regular life."
Now we're deep in the midst of garage sale prep which is scheduled for this Saturday. I pray for a deep reservoir of strength that I just don't have right now, to manage to price and sell all this stuff.
I struggle with keeping God as a priority in the crazy times. In the middle of insanity, how do we find the stillness that comes only in Him? How do we quiet our minds when they are filled with details? How do we find the time and make Him our priority when there's so much stuff to get done? How do we limit the craziness to only that which glorifies Him?
I certainly don't have any easy answers. But I do know that I'm holding on to a verse this week, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted among the earth." (Psalm 46:10). I'm reminding myself that the details are going to get done if we place our trust in this refuge. And in the end, they are only details.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Patience and Prayer.
One of my mother's favorite things to say to me while I was growing up was, "You were born impatient (I was 5 weeks premature) and you haven't changed a bit!" Although I certainly have a lot more patience than when I was a kid, it's still not nearly enough.
Oh, how I love instantaneous results. Things falling into place. Ducks in a row. I's dotted. T's crossed. To-do lists checked off. Everything tied up with a pretty bow. Unfortunately, that's not how life (and this journey in particular) work.
If I look back over the last month, there have been amazing and numerous answers to prayer. We've blogged about the biggies (house, car, becoming CRWM missionaries). We've also officially received the kids' passports, had a successful first fundraiser, did a good job preparing for our upcoming garage sale (Saturday, 9-3!), and have a lot of committed prayer partners.
Despite all that, I want more. A lot more. I want a renter for our house...NOW! I want to be on the CRWM website...NOW! I want plane reservations...NOW! Health insurance, banking, furniture, full ministry support....NOW! I don't want problems, challenges or delays whatsover.
I often wonder what God must feel in listening to my outpourings of frustration, which, honestly, is akin to a temper tantrum at times. Thankfully, He has infinitely more patience than I do. He is a loving Father who always listens, and (unlike this impatient earthly mother), never loses his temper with us. He encourages all communication with Him, including our cries of anguish and our impatient demands. He encourages relationship with us, and takes joy in our communion with Him at whatever point we're at.
I've been reading the excellent book, Prayer, by Philip Yancey, and have been gleaning a lot of great information from that. Yancey struggles with a lot of the same questions that many of us do: "If God already knows everything, why bother praying?" "If God knows the plan for our life, what's the point in asking for something to change?"
Although I'm not finished with the book yet, I believe Yancey says that the primary purpose of prayer is relationship. The best way to grow a human relationship is to talk...a lot...about everything. And so too with God.
So despite the fact that God already knows how everything's going to turn out, I'm going to keep crying out for immediate answers. And perhaps be given a greater measure of patience in the process.
Oh, how I love instantaneous results. Things falling into place. Ducks in a row. I's dotted. T's crossed. To-do lists checked off. Everything tied up with a pretty bow. Unfortunately, that's not how life (and this journey in particular) work.
If I look back over the last month, there have been amazing and numerous answers to prayer. We've blogged about the biggies (house, car, becoming CRWM missionaries). We've also officially received the kids' passports, had a successful first fundraiser, did a good job preparing for our upcoming garage sale (Saturday, 9-3!), and have a lot of committed prayer partners.
Despite all that, I want more. A lot more. I want a renter for our house...NOW! I want to be on the CRWM website...NOW! I want plane reservations...NOW! Health insurance, banking, furniture, full ministry support....NOW! I don't want problems, challenges or delays whatsover.
I often wonder what God must feel in listening to my outpourings of frustration, which, honestly, is akin to a temper tantrum at times. Thankfully, He has infinitely more patience than I do. He is a loving Father who always listens, and (unlike this impatient earthly mother), never loses his temper with us. He encourages all communication with Him, including our cries of anguish and our impatient demands. He encourages relationship with us, and takes joy in our communion with Him at whatever point we're at.
I've been reading the excellent book, Prayer, by Philip Yancey, and have been gleaning a lot of great information from that. Yancey struggles with a lot of the same questions that many of us do: "If God already knows everything, why bother praying?" "If God knows the plan for our life, what's the point in asking for something to change?"
Although I'm not finished with the book yet, I believe Yancey says that the primary purpose of prayer is relationship. The best way to grow a human relationship is to talk...a lot...about everything. And so too with God.
So despite the fact that God already knows how everything's going to turn out, I'm going to keep crying out for immediate answers. And perhaps be given a greater measure of patience in the process.
Friday, June 7, 2013
We're Gonna Need a Little Help
This is awkward. So, we're flying the family across the globe to Tanzania. We're settling down in the tropics, living close to the beach, running around a big yard with a monkey. On the weekends, we hope for some snorkeling, and a safari now and then.
And we'd like to ask you to help us pay for it.
We hope and pray that we can prove worthy, at least a little bit, of your trust and money. Because while we are looking forward to the adventure, we also are looking forward to the job. We believe God wants us in Tanzania, and we believe He has some good things for us to do there. We'd love it if you partnered with us.
Tim's Plan: I'll be working at Haven of Peace Academy, teaching middle and high schoolers technology. In America we spend a lot of time talking about "21st century classrooms" and "preparing students for the future of the information age." I don't think it's very different in Africa -- only more important. If students in developing countries don't keep up, I fear the divide between Haves and Have Nots gets greater. I am excited to start teaching critical skills for the students of HOPAC and grow the technology program there. I want students to get workplace-ready skills that they can use to be successful in college and international careers. I want students to develop critical thinking skills -- problem-solving and media criticism. And I really, really want students to learn more about a reformed Christian worldview that engages culture and technology and looks to transform it rather than have it transform them. I am going to also teach a Service Learning class. During the 3rd trimester, the school turns its focus to creating ways the students can reach out and help the community around them. I can't wait to be a part of that!
Steph's Plan: While Steph will wait to look for a specific job until after we arrive and settle in, she has a growing passion for agriculture and nutrition. She really hopes to find an NGO in this area that she can work for. While Tanzania is a stable country, many many people there continue to live on less than $2/day. Steph hopes to be able to learn more about the agricultural situation in Tanzania and Dar Es Salaam and help the impoverished improve their chances to be fed.
We want to be very open with our supporters about our finances. Currently, we are planning to live on an annual budget of $40 - $50K. That includes plane tickets home once per year, rent, food, health insurance, paying for household help, utilities, and setting up a whole life in a new country with 3 young kids. Already, we are astonished at the cost of some things: cars aren't made in country, so duties drive the price way up. Rent has to be paid up front for a year. We found some used air conditioners for the house, but they cost thousands!
HOPAC pays us about $14,000 per year (plus tuition for 3 kids!). That's enough for rent and some of the food we'll eat. We're responsible for everything else. The truth is, we can't afford to take this plunge without your help.
We'll be on an adventure that sometimes will be thrilling with crazy opportunities and real joy. We also expect it to be a tough challenge as we learn new cultural norms, a language, and miss home. We think God is calling us to attempt this for a reason.
Please, prayerfully consider if this is an opportunity for you to also help God's kingdom by supporting us. We'll keep you super informed of everything going on in our lives through this blog, emails, and newsletters. We'll continue to follow God's plan and try to bring whatever peace, justice, and opportunity to the people of Tanzania that we can.
You can donate now by sending a check to Christian Reformed World Missions and putting our name in the memo (2850 Kalamazoo Ave SE Grand Rapids, MI 49560). Soon (hopefully next week), you'll be able to donate online through their website (http://www2.crcna.org/pages/crwm.cfm)
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