As the Wheel Turns

So, as we are in the states, one of the objectives was to recruit the team, which really means trusting in God to form the team and listening to the Spirit as we follow Him. We hope to have recruitment finished within the next month. Then we can shift as a team towards "long-distance-bonding". So far, Angie and I are the only ones who have met or spent time with each of our team members in person! I know it has got to be strange for our team, who is just getting to know who they are going to be ministering with!

Our time for being in the states has been extended from the end of June to the end of September. Having that extra time is important for our team to get more of a base in their financial support, as well as giving us a chance to do more VBS programs and camps.

Everything we do in the states impacts our future work in Verona. It is the foundation for what we will build on as a team once we arrive in Verona. May God's will be ours.

Such Amazing Love

I have long been fascinated at the ways that God has placed himself and his message of redemption and reconciliation in the cultures of the world. In China we were often fascinated to learn of stories or traditions that gave an opening for us to share. Even within the Jewish culture, where they had so much from him, he left them messages. Things that say, "Look! Jesus is the Messiah! It could only be him!"

For several years now we as a family have been learning about some of the Jewish holidays. We are slow and bumbling as we celebrate these things, but they have such wonderful pictures and lessons in them. We have been celebrating Passover. Though officially Passover isn't for a bit yet this year, we try to celebrate it in connection with Easter- since that is the way it was for Jesus. This year we "cheated" and participated in a seder presented by Jews for Jesus.

There are so many wonderful, beautiful parts. Bryan loves the search for the affikomen. This is a broken piece of matzah that was taken from the middle of three sections of a special cloth. It is wrapped in linen and hidden away for a time during the meal. Then the children seek it out and are paid a ransom for it. Many Jews aren't even sure why the cloth has three sections....can you see the picture there?

This is the piece of matzah- an unleavened bread made so that it is pierced, has stripes and bruises, and is broken- that Jesus took and gave to his disciples when he set up the Lord's supper.

Out of the four cups of wine that are taken during the meal, it is the cup of redemption that Jesus used for the time we remember as the Lord's supper. The cup of redemption- no coincidence there!

How perfectly wonderful that in a feast celebrated for more than a thousand years before Jesus came there are these messages. I have only shared a couple with you. There are more! What love to take the time to carefully place these clues and reminders everywhere! How carefully planned! How much love and care is that! To set these things up when he set the world in motion!

What has he placed in Italy? What things in their culture will we find that are shouting about him to the dear people he loves there? I can't wait to find out!

The Spirit and the Mind

In Creole, the language spoken in Haiti, your intelligence and and "spirit" are all rolled into one concept. They are the same thing. As a child is gaining a conscience of where things go, how to put things together, the routine of things... as Americans we say, "Oh! She's getting so smart!" Haitians however say, "Oh! She begins to have a spirit!"

Maybe we as Americans need to start thinking more with our spirit and the Spirit within us along with our smarts.