Archive for the ‘Missions’ Category

Day 300: 1 Thessalonians 2:17-4:8 — Go I Must

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

I lay awake at about 3:00AM this morning thinking about dear brothers and sisters in far away places. In an age of instant communications some communications are dreadfully slow or nonexistent. There are many, many places in the world where people have no access to e-mail or Facebook. You try to send messages back and forth to them but communication is not always successful.

I thought of Vlad and Oksana, Nadia and her children, all from Ukraine. I thought about the members of two small congregations there that God granted me the opportunity to work with. I thought about Francisco and Jessie, the congregations in the Yucatan area of Mexico where Ava and I have been blessed to work in days past.

I read Paul’s words in 1 Thess 2:17-20 and on into chapter three. They become more than just words spoken by a long-ago apostle. They become my words as I long to see once again all those mentioned and hundreds more. To shake their hands and hug their necks. To sit with a translator and them and catch up on all the news. The news would be some good and some bad. Some will have left this life to be with God. Some will have fallen away. Some will have been added. I long to return to those mission points.

I guess some can walk away from mission work; I cannot. I’ve tried. God has put into my heart to go again and go I must.

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Day 216: Acts 22:3-21 — His Mission is Our Mission

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Acts 22:21 (NAS) “And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” I wonder if Paul at that moment really understood what God had in mind for him? Many years ago while I was still in school one of my instructors came to me and said “I want to talk to you about doing mission work.” My reply was something along the line of I was not interested in mission work.

Over the next two years Bob never gave up on me. Every chance he had he would talk about mission work. I had other plans. I wanted to go somewhere and become a great and powerful speaker. How wrong I was. I did graduate and began looking for a church to employ me. After seven months of looking, the only offer was to go to a stateside mission point and start a congregation. Ava, the girls, and I went, and we stayed at that location for ten years.

We left for a work at an established congregation. Within a year I was on my way to Ukraine for a mission trip that I felt would help me in my local work. What I had not planned on was falling in love with the people of Ukraine. In 1996 I made a mission trip to Mexico and found more brethren to love.

Late at night I think of Bob; he left the school and returned to mission work in the Philippines and will most likely end his days on this planet there. When thinking of him, I ask God to bless him for stirring my heart to go into all the world. Four trips to Mexico, twelve trips to Ukraine and ten years in French Catholic Louisiana are not enough.

God willing, the year 2011 will find me once again in Ukraine teaching the lost and training preachers for the struggling congregations there. In 2012, Lord willing, I will travel to the Bahamas to assist David Caskey with his work there. I’m praying God will allow me to go until He takes me home.

Acts 22:21 (NAS) “And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

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Out of Africa — daily blogging from the Namibia mission field

Friday, April 16th, 2010

AfricaDear readers,

I’ll be leaving at 11:40 Central Time this morning for Namibia Africa. I’ll be traveling with 5 members of the Fredericksburg TX congregation to the city of Walvis Bay. If you’re not familiar with the location of Namibia, here’s somewhat of a close-up look at Walvis Bay, and here’s a zoomed-out view.

This will be my fourth trip to Namibia to teach and preach the Gospel. Please pray for our safety, but more importantly, for the growth of the seed that we will plant while there. I will be blogging daily from Namibia, reporting our progress, but the reports will not be on this blog; they will be on the Fredericksburg Church blog.

The time difference is 6 hours between Texas and Namibia, so look for the posts around 3 PM each day, beginning this Sunday the 18th.

I look forward to seeing you all when I return, and look forward to the opportunity to report all that the Lord is accomplishing in Southwestern Africa.

To God be the glory,
Bob

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