1. Our Focus. If you have been reading this blog, we’ve reached one milestone fairly quickly. That was the sprint we had and now we’re are into the first small endurance run. Missionary William Carey called himself a “plodder for Christ”. He accomplished much not because he jumped out of bed one day, did it all and stopped; but rather, he did the same things day after day no matter how seemingly small or tedious they were. It is going to take discipline and focus day after day to keep the goals in sight and it is easy to lose our focus.

2. Our work. It can’t be expressed enough of how important it is to work in a church. We are asking and praying that God would use us here at Vision Baptist that we may be proved to do a work for God’s glory. If God cannot use us here, then it is most likely that He cannot use us in China.

3. Our time. Please pray with us as we seek to be the best stewards we can of our time. It is amazing how little time there is for us. Most of it is consumed with work but please pray that we would make the most usefulness of the extra time we possess. This issue seems to be the greatest hindrance in getting prepared to do what we truly want to do.

4. Our field. Jesus said, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” We are asking and praying that God would raise up people to go to China as missionaries. There is a great need for people to hear the Gospel.

Once again, please pray with us this week for these requests. God can do a work, and by doing this, you can be a part of it.

I want to, however, highlight the problems with debt and why it  you should avoid  it at all costs…

1. 1. It enslaves you. Proverbs 22:7 says, “…the borrower is servant to the lender.” This is incredibly true. People no longer work to live but to pay the credit card bills and other debts that they have acquired. As the old song says, “I owe my soul to the company store…”
2. 2. It hinders the work of God. I have heard pastors get up and say that they had all the money to accomplish a task or meet a goal but the problem is that it is in the pockets of the people. I doubt that. I would say people owe it to banks and other lending institutions. Look at the numbers, if you have $5,000 in credit card debt, then most likely your minimum payments add up to over $100 or more. Toss in the average car payment of over $400 and that’s $500 more dollars that could go into the ministry. And let me also add, God is not necessarily hindered by this but it does hinder you from being blessed by being able to give more.
3. 3. It promotes a must-have-it-now mentality. Maturity is being able to delay pleasure. A long time ago, if you wanted to make a purchase, you had to take your time, save up, and then you could purchase it. Today, as long as you have good credit, you can buy just about anything, anywhere. This draws our focus from the things of God to the things we can buy. Our treasure becomes earthly treasure and so our heart is revealed. We are easily swept into materialism and bow at the feet of banks to get them to give us money.
4. 4. It promotes bad stewardship. We are called to be good stewards, or managers, of the things that God has given us. Credit allows us to live beyond our means. We are should be people who budget and live a lifestyle that shows God is in control. If you bring home $40,000 a year, that is where our lifestyle should be. With our bad stewardship, we then spiral out of control. You may think you are not out of control but I like the question one consumer advocate said: “How long could you survive if you lost your job tomorrow?” Most are at a point that they seem to be floating in life’s sea with no problems but if they lose their job or some other financial disaster strikes, they will sink.
5. 5. It creates idolatry. I touched on this earlier but debt creates idolatry through materialism. We become people who like and want stuff over people who love and want God. We get things we cannot afford, to impress people we do not even like. It makes us superficial at best worrying nothing more than about the appearance of things.

I am sure there are many more reasons that can be added to the problems debt creates. The biggest reason to get out of debt is not just these reasons however. The biggest reason is that, as Christians, we are to live in such a way that it shows that money is not our master but that God is. As Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Either your money will control you or you will control your money. Imagine what we could do as a church if we had no debt and lived a lifestyle that showed that eternity is what really matters.

Here’s what happened that you may not have realized: Around 38 babies are born in China every minute. Times that by 60 for an hour then by 16 for the time you were awake. That means 36,480 babies were born in China while you were awake. Question: How many of those babies will grow up to hear the gospel? How many will live a full life, have kids, then die and never have a chance to hear the gospel? What are the odds that they will even hear the name of Jesus Christ?

Now that was the births in China, but here are the numbers for the deaths in China. The death rate is about half the birth rate. Nineteen Chinese people die a minute. That means in the time you were awake, 18,240 Chinese people died.  How many of those are in hell right now and have never heard one word of the Gospel? In 10 billion years, they will still be in eternal torments that will never end. Did we tell them that Christ died for them?

It is sometimes easy to give numbers and statistics but the fact of the matter is that these numbers have names, faces, family and friends. These are just numbers, they are souls –  Parents, grandparents, sons, daughters, cousins. China is 5% Christian and that includes every kind of brand of Christian. The future needs to be changed. We need to get the gospel to China.

Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers….

It was not always like that. A few months ago some changes happened and although I did not like them, I hoped for the best and carried on. As time passed, Things spiraled this way and that way but a couple weeks ago, I was pushed into a realm that I do not like to be in.

I am a control freak in many ways. I can relate in many different aspects to Jacob in the Bible. Constantly having plans and schemes to either avoid trouble or trying to make something better. I trust myself entirely too much and I am one who must be pushed into uncertainty. I believe that is what God is doing in my life at this moment. I have become too confident in myself; trusting my judgment, plans and ways to allow me to do what I believed was the right thing. It made me lose focus and ultimately when things begin to go the way I do not want them to go, I have had to realize my faults in this and I have become very aware of how I am not in control of my life.

During this new year, every day will have to be a day in which I place my entire faith on God and what His plans are. Some people would think that it is horrid to have to do something like that, but for me, it gives me great peace. God’s sovereignty, His control over everything, gives me great peace and joy because I know that He is good and does things for my good and His glory. I can look back in my life to situations where I thought things were at their worst. I was not where I wanted to be, doing what I wanted to do. It was in those times that God taught me so much and grew me to make me who I am now.

It isn’t going to be easy. Whatever happens will happen. I am not in control. It is at this point that I know how God is in sovereign in all things. I am thankful for this because I, as a wretched sinner, can make a mess out of anything. I simply cannot state it enough: God’s will be done.

The big announcement is this: a year from now (around Feb 2011) I will be finishing up my college degree by going to Peru for 6 months. Some, if not most, of you will say, “That’s it?”  It’s bigger than that. It’s the next step towards China. This blog is here to show the progress, so you can be a part and see all that happens as my wife and I work our way into becoming equipped to start a work in China. I would urge you to subscribe to my blog either by clicking here or clicking the link on the left right side of the page that says “Subscribe via E-mail”.

Here’s the next couple steps that we will be taking in order to get to our goal:

1. Get out of debt -The first thing is that sadly, we are in some debt. This all occurred before Crystal and I were married. Both of us have made the commitment that, Lord willing, we will never be in debt again. This will take between 7-9 months to finish off. Debt is much like (and possibly could be) sin, just because you stop doesn’t make the consequences of it go away. I will advise anyone I can, stay away from credit cards and any kind of loan; it is not wise to get and use them.
2. Work at the church - The biggest thing that any missionary needs is training before they get to the field. Though we work full time, we want to take advantage of the year we will have here and learn all we can to become prepared for the ministry. God has blessed us in that we are in a church whose focus is this. I will begin working with the pastoral staff and others to become better trained.
3. Raise funds – Though the trip is a year away, we’ll work slowly to begin with to raise funds for the 6 months. Some companies do what they call soft and hard launches of products. In a sense, we are soft launching ourselves to raise funds within immediate family and friends circles. Hopefully, in the next few weeks we will have an account through Vision Baptist Missions that will be used solely for our trip. This will also allow people to make tax-deductible donations to our fund.

It is exciting to see how God is working in our lives. I’m so thankful for the people who He has brought to help challenge and direct us into His will. Please pray for us as we continue and watch this blog for continual updates.