Listo Para Cristo (Ready For Christ)

Some would think that "Listo Para Cristo" is a statement of death. Like you are ready to to die or you are ready for Christ's return. After this past week, I would have to say it means to be ready to experience Christ at any given moment.
Last week was our 51st Missions Conference at Bethany Bible Church. We had 2 missionaries, Pastor Chuy Leon and his wife, Letti and Dr Jackson, president of Evangelical Baptist Missions. Since the Leons and the missionaries are from Mexico and Peru, our theme was South of the Border. Fitting, right?
Anyways, our original phrase was "esta preparardo para Cristo?" Then Pastor Chuy says,"What is this? Easier to say "listo para Cristo"" He's right. It is easier. It makes more sense now, too.
Sunday, Tim and his wife, BarbaraLee, spoke about mentoring. Finding that person that gets it and being their guide. Monday, at prayer group, both Tim and the Leons stressed what sets us apart from all the other religions is our love. I believe Paul also said that "the greatest of these is love". If we just love on people, ask nothing in return, they will see Christ in us. Don't need seminary for that!
Tuesday night with another prayer group, we had Steve Frerichs from Peru. This is when stuff gets really cool. Steve was a last minute add on. He called up one day and said that he was going to be in town and was wondering if he could come by and share whats been happening in Peru. Steves dad was a long time friend of Bethany and died recently. Although we don't support him monetarily, we let him come in now and again. This time, it just so happens to be our conference. He didn't know. So, we said why not. Pastor wasn't to hip to it and almost didn't go because he wasn't feeling good. But, evening came and felt a little better and a little obligated. So he went.
Steve shared whats going on with Peru and told us he's started working with their professional soccer team. A sports ministry. Then he shared how there are all these little towns in the hills with at least one guy in each town that is sharing and teaching the word. If they could, for one weekend a month, meet with those guys, all at once and mentor them. They could then go back and be more effective. How cool is that? Soccer guys in the city. Bible school in the mountains.
Then Steve gave a great talk out of Matthew. Keeping our eyes open and looking down for those people that need to lifted up. So awesome. Well, now Pastor is all excited! He wants more of Steve. Turns out, Steve has nothing else planned for the rest of the week. He comes Wednesday for AWANA and translates for the Leons. Perfect! Dr Jackson is to come Thursday for the teenagers but has an engagement in Tacoma all day and then all day Friday. Pastor calls him and says,"Look, we have you Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Stay in Tacoma, relax, we'll see you Friday night." So, we bring in Steve for the teens. Another excellent talk on "what are your idols?" Things they never thought of before. Are you getting it now? "Listo Para Cristo"
Enter Dr Jackson to tie it all together. He told us, through life, God is always with us. But, there are times that we can say that He really revealed Himself. Those are the times that we need to(here it is) be ready for Christ. Wow. At some point, often many times, God is going to tap you on the shoulder and say,"This is it" and we need to be ready! Ready to mentor. Ready to love. Ready to teach. Ready to serve. Ready to live. Ready to die for Christ.
Listo para Cristo?

I Don't Want To Be Here

Now the boys are back in school, it appears Kirra is moving back and Kaley maybe off to Mexico again for an internship with the mission. Why is Kirra moving back? I don't know. I have an opinion but I'll hold on to that. Kaley has been invited to be an intern for Missions International in Tecate, Mex. She would be a teachers assistant teaching 1st and 2nd graders english. This would be a 9 month thing and she will either live with a sponsor family or at the mission itself. We are waiting for more details.
The boys started school the other day and it was eventful. The night before, Jarod must have asked me a dozen times where the bus stop is. We finally looked it up online but that turned out to be the wrong info. So, as a result, he and 4 others had to make a run for the bus when it showed up. That was funny. I asked him how his day went and he said,"Awesome! I have cute girls in each of my classes!" Nice. I'm glad he has his priorities in order.
Joben's day, on the other hand, didn't go so well. Now that Jarod is in jr hi, Joben is in elementary "by himself". All alone with 500 other kids. He's been sweating this out for the last month. Kaley helped him get all his stuff together the night before and Renee got him his favorite Lunchable. We got him and dressed in his new clothes and walked him to school. When we got to his room, he saw some of his buddies and they were all happy to see him. Settled into his desk and the teacher started his intro. I said, "One more picture and let's go." Renee went to give him a hug and kiss and he lost it. I wasn't going to take a picture of that. So, we took him outside to let him get himself together. "I don't want to be here". I felt bad for the little guy. Renee got him to breathe again and told him all his friends are here, it will be ok, blah, blah, blah, just relax. So, he wiped his face and went back in. Sheesh!
When Joben came home I asked how his day was and he said,"Good". Not quite the exuberance of Jarod, but, it's a start. I asked what happened to him and he says,"Well, my stomach was feeling all funny and I didn't want to be there."

The Empty Nest(well, sorta)

This week, Kaley is in Mexico with the Leons and Kirra will be moving into an apartment with her older bro, Joe. Soon, it will just be Jarod and Joben in the house. Jarod will be going to camp next week. Then it will just be Joben! Jacob and Amber are still here, but, they signed the lease for their place in Bremerton and will be going there later.
Kaley returns in mid August. So, until then, I think Jacob and Amber will move from the laundry room to her room. Wow, "her" room. For the first time in her life, she will be able to claim sole possesion of that room. Jarod is already making plans for when she moves out. It doesn't matter though. I have my own plans and out rank him.
Renee' continues to imagine what our grocery bill will look like. We may go from $300/week to $150. That would be amazing! The water bill will go down, the garbage will go down! We'll be rich!!

2 Much

There has been alot of stuff happening in the last few weeks. Perhaps the 2 biggest were Renee and I celebrated our 25th anniversary and Kaley graduated from high school. Those are some big doin's.

Renee and I kept it simple and had dinner where it all began. We went to Anthony's in Edmonds where we had our first date. She asked me to formal tolo. I brought her back to the house so my parents could see her big pink dress and take pictures and stuff like that. We looked goooood. My niece was there. She must had been 6 yrs old. She looked at Renee with the biggest eyes and said,"You look just like Cinderella" She still does.

Now, 25 years later, life is a rollercoaster. Ups and downs, spins and curves. You just never know what's coming around the next corner. You can let it make you sick and hate every minute of it. Or, you can just hang on and scream,"WHOOOOOO-HOOOOO!" Then, at the end of it all, sit back and say,"What a ride!" We chose the later.

Kaley's graduation was really nice. They seem to go faster each year. We took pictures of her getting ready, with flowers, in the front yard, with her hat, without her hat and waiting to go. We decorated the house in gold and black. Hung banners and streamers. It was no secret that we had a graduate in the house.

Then we left for the pomp and circumstance. I still have no idea what that means. A three vehicle caravan towards Hec Edmundson Pavillion. I think they call it Bank of America Arena now, but, it will always be the HecEd to me.

Anyhoo, we sat, we stood, we listened and clapped, listened and clapped, blah blah blah. Then what we all showed up for. The shake and grab. Kaley had a very big smile the rest of the night.

We all came back home and partied and ate and just had a very nice time together. Good times, good times

Tecate' 2009

This should have been done along time ago and perhaps as it was happening but, whatever, right?


I cannot tell you how many times God revealed His awesomeness to us and myself while on this trip. There are times that we may not know about until we go back next year. This year, we almost bailed on the whole trip for economic reasons and the belief that we weren't doing any good in Tecate'. But, I think it is safe to say that at least three things happened every day that can only be accredited to God. I think my big lesson was trust and listen. My philosophy, if you will, is if you want something done right, do it yourself. God was letting me know that aint so. Don't tell anybody, but, I was really nervous about this whole trip. I prayed more about this adventure than anything else. Ever. That's just dumb. The cool thing was, I was so at ease by the time we were leaving. It was like we were just going down the road to the store or something. God had this. I just had to trust and listen and do.


It was snowing when Tal, Steve, Doug and left Tal's house on April 4th. How crazy is that? As we went south, snow turned to rain then clouds then beautiful sun. Our big concern was getting to Siskous before the deer start roaming. If we hit a deer with the church van it may end in a draw.


Anyhow, we didn't make it, but, with Tal at the wheel(as he likes driving thru the Siskous) we got behind another truck and he "plowed" the path for us. He didn't hit anything. That's just the word Tal used.



So, from there to Sun Valley was uneventful and smooth sailing. To avoid morning rush in LA, we cut across Bakersfield, down thru Hesperia to I-10. I think. I was driving but Tal was navigating and I just trusted him.



That was also a blessing. To have Tal along. Tal is an "Ol Truck Driver". He knows stuff. He's been on these roads many, many times. I know enough to listen to experience. This was my first time to run point on trip like this and Tal has done it before. I was in his ear the whole 10 days.



Now we are at Al and Brendas' home in Desert Hot Springs. Hot springs... aaahh. Tal couldn't figure out why I wanted to drive straight thru and get to Al's so early. Hot springs. we sat in the jacuuziis and swam and relaxed. We had plenty of rest so that we could get an early jump Friday for whatever we would encounter in Tecate. We all slept very well that night.



Brenda's son was there, too. He's a missionary in Mongolia. At dinner I had a great time asking him questions about mission trips and relationships and experience. What I came away with was you can't put a value on relationships. Meaning, this is our 6th year going to Tecate. On the surface, it may not appear that we are doing much good. It may not appear that there is much progress or growth. But, we have developed a relationship with the Leons. We have a bond of love and trust with them. For any REAL growth to happen, you need that first. Wow, that was cool. You know whatelse was cool? He wasn't supposed to be there. He was there for his mom's birthday but they didn't think he was going to able to come. Somehow, it worked out that we were all there together. Weird



Let's go to Tecate!! We got there and hooked up with Dan Bender right away. Dan is the short term mission coordinator. From there, we went into Mexico to the church and found Pastor Leon and his wife Letti. This is a recon mission. We survey what has been done and what we need to do before we can start, yadda, yadda, yadda. I let the other guys do all that while Letti and I sat and talked. I needed to find out what's been going on down here.



This church does not appear to be growing. They have 40 -45 people every Sunday and Thursday night. It's been like that for the 6 years. It's been like that since the church started 20 years ago. But, the thing in Mexico is you go where the work is. People come and go all the time. It's unusual for a family to stay in the same location for more than 3 years.



So, even though they have a steady 40-45 people, it is a different 40-45 year after year. This is the cool part. Pay attention. Families come to the church, get saved, baptized, discipled then leave. They go to where the work is or tend to family members in other cities and, are you ready? Share the gospel and leading others to Christ! The Leons know this because as people migrate around they come to the Leons and say,"Yeah, I know so and so in Mexicali and he said I should come here because I'm a Christian and you share Jesus with him and he shared Jesus with me..." This happens all the time.



There is a family that lives behind the church. When we show up, we use their backyard for game time. Last summer, the lady came to Letti and asked why we built that roof. Letti explained the practicalities of it. The lady said "No,why do the Americanos come here and do these things for you?" Letti said, "This is how they can show you how they love you because God loves them. And that God loves you, too." That clicked in her head and she started coming and bringing her kids. They are all now believers and were baptized.



There are 2 other churches that visit the Leons' church. Our group is the only one that the locals ask,"When are they coming back?"



We were to demo the kichen and rebuild a 2 story structure in it's place. It was also supposed to rain our first day. Sunday night we prayed for no rain. Monday, no rain. "It's going to rain tomarrow" they said. We all prayed. No rain. "It will rain tomarrow for sure" we were told. We all prayed. No rain. It didn't rain until we had all the kids home and all tool put away on the very last day.



Thursday night was our big parents night. The kids were to go home and invite their parents or signifigant adult to come. The regulars and even Pastor Leon said no one would come. We all prayed. We canvassed the neighborhood and prepared for a crowd and believed. That night, 4 families that have never been there before came and continue to go to this day. Never underestimate God.



This is just my experience. I can't tell you all the things other people have shared with me. All I can say is trust, listen and do

Prayer

Recently, I was asked to pray for someone I know. This happens often. I'm a Christian and it's no secret that I am very involved in my church. So, people ask,"Will you please pray for so and so?". Sometimes I don't know who this person is but, I'm fine with that. It's just that sometimes, I don't think they know what they are trully asking.
I want to make this clear to folks who reserve prayer for the dire situations. God is not a genie in a lamp. God desires a relationship with us and prayer is how we are to build that relationship. Just like you would with an earthly friend, you need to have communication. What kind of friend would a person be if they only came to you when they had a serious problem? Then said,"Thanks. See ya!" Off they go until the next catastrophy. Not much of a friend are they?
God would appreciate it if we talked to Him all the time. Yeah, really! Even when times are good. That's when we can thank Him and praise Him for all that He has done for us. That would also be the times when He blesses us more. To abide in Him is for Him to delight in us. Weird, huh?
But, there is a catch. There is always a catch, right? Jesus says that the only way to God is thru Him. What's that mean? Let's say I know someone who works with Bill Gates. His personal assistant. Well, I can't just call Bill and shoot the breeze with him. But, by knowing his P.A., I have an "in". Same thing with Jesus.
By dying on the cross for us. Taking all the burden of sin to Himself, He has relieved us of any dirt in our lives. He has opened the door to His Fathers house and put out the welcome mat, sorta speak. You don't want to enter God's house with dirty feet, do you? Of course not.
So, how to get to be Jesus' friend? Well, you send ALL of your money to P.O. Box....NO, NO, NO! I'm kidding! all you need to do is ask, believe and confess.
-Ask that Jesus will forgive you for 1) waiting so long to come to Him 2)for the sins you have been storing up all this time and 3)thinking you could do this on your own.
-Believe that He DID die for you, was raised up from the grave 3 days later .
and lastly
- Confess with your mouth that Jesus is now in your life. Tell somebody that you are now trusting Him with your life!
That's it. No mumbo-jumbo. No spin in circles 3 times. No mailing of money or giving away pamphlets door to door. Just be sincere.
"Jesus, I'm sorry I've waited so long. Please come into my life and forgive me for the things that aren't right with You. I want to be your friend and I need You to help me get control of my life. Amen"
If you can pray that and mean it, well, welcome to the family. It now trully means something to say,"Will you pray for..."

Get well, Thomas! I AM praying for you!