A Note from Andrew

First of all, thanks for your kind comments and prayers over the past week.  Our family has really been encouraged by that!  For the first time in nearly three weeks, we're all feeling mostly back to normal--a feeling we won't take for granted!  We really need and depend on your prayers, so thanks!  Incidentally, regarding comments, it's come to my attention that sometimes comments that are posted on my blog do not actually show up there.  It's like they vanish.  If you have written a comment and later you see that it's not there, please take a moment to try again.  I apologize for that inconvenience, but it's not something I seem to have control over.  I really appreciate your feedback and value your comments.  Thanks!

                  

This week I received a short e-mail from a guy named Andrew.  I've never met Andrew, and before he e-mailed me I didn't even know who he was.  But I was both challenged and encouraged by what he said, and I thought you might be as well.  With his permission I'm copying his e-mail down below (I've added the pictures to the blog, just cause every post needs some pictures.)  Please take a moment to read it.

Dave,

We have never met before, but I have been following your blog for several months now and your stories are very inspiring.  My name is Andrew and I live just outside of Memphis, TN with my wife, Jennifer, of 6 years and two children, Hannah, 3 and Caitlyn, 1.  God has been doing a great work in our lives over the past year or so and we have felt the call to overseas missions with MAF.  I have been flying for the airlines for the past 3 and a half years and felt the Lord wanted to use my skills for missions.  Reading your blog has been very inspiring and excited us for what the Lord will have for us as we begin this journey.  

I am scheduled to quit my job at the airline in about 3 weeks to go back to school full time for my maintenance training for 18 months.  I have no background whatsoever when it comes to mx, so this will definitely be a challenge, but one that I look forward to.  My wife and I took a trip out to Nampa back in May to see the campus and meet with several people to put a face with MAF and find out all the information we could.  I have been in contact with Brian, an MAF recruiter for the past year and he has definitely provided much encouragement through the process.  We are just now beginning to see the faith and vision that comes with missions.  Quitting my job with the airlines, a job that I worked very hard to get, goes against everything that I thought I wanted several years ago.  I imagined moving up the ladder of success, gaining seniority, and living off an easy six figure income.  Well, God had other plans apparently!  We are in the process of raising support through a non-profit organization we were able to get plugged into, so we are already experiencing the joys, struggle, and process of raising support since all of our income with disappear in a couple of weeks.  

Reading Scripture definitely helps keep us grounded, but reading your blog about all your experiences over in Kalimantan also gives us much to be excited about.  We still have a long journey ahead of us before we even step on the plane to leave the U.S., but we know that in His timing we will be where He wants us.  I will be praying for you and your family as you serve over there.  God bless and thanks for all the good stories and encouragement you have provided for me!

Blessings,

Andrew

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"He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" - Jim Elliot

Isn't that encouraging?  I get so stoked whenever I hear or see someone who is taking a leap of faith to follow the Lord's leading!  For many--most in fact--that probably does not mean going overseas.  However, I'm afraid many of us are often guilty of being too scared and insecure to even get a little bit out of our comfort zone right in our own communities, churches, or places of employment.  Many times Joy and I have had folks mention to us how they wished they could be doing what we're doing, but... and you can fill in the blank with a ton of reasons.    Well, how about looking at this temporal life through some lenses with an eternal perspective.    

This life on earth is short!  One day, when I look back on what I did here, I would like nothing better than to know that I lived life to the fullest, with no regrets, ALL for His glory!  Right now, that means we're serving Christ in a remote part of Indonesia.  Life here is not always easy.  In fact, there are many things that are quite difficult about living and serving here.  However, when folks comment about our having made "a sacrifice" to be here, or implying that it takes some sort of extra spiritual grit or determination to pack up and move overseas, it's sometimes hard to keep from responding sharply, "You have it all wrong!  We're not making a sacrifice, we're blessed!  Where you are is not important.  What you're doing (as far as a skill or "job") is not important.  It's Who you're doing it for that is important.  It's why you're doing it.  We are right where God wants us to be in this season of our life, and we wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

Andrew and his family are taking a leap of faith that many of us will look at and admire with a sense of awe.  "Wow!  They must be really spiritual--quitting a high-paying job, walking away from a career for what?  I could never do that!  But maybe I'll pray for them."  In a few years, I dare you to check back in with Andrew and Jennifer and see if they have any regrets.  The road they face will be long, challenging, and full of many faith-stretching speed bumps.  But if they're journey is anything like ours, and many others I know from small towns in America to remote corners of the globe, the truth is I think they are about to embark on the best journey of their life...one that they will never regret!

Perhaps you've felt that tug or prompting from Christ to step out of your own comfort zone a little more at work, school, in your community or church?  Perhaps you've even ignored a persistent feeling of being drawn into overseas missions, or praying more fervently for the missionaries who's faces are stuck on your fridge, or giving more generously to your church, or helping out in a local ministry in your town or city?  Why not make this the day or week that you get started on that new journey.  Go ahead and chuck that sense of insecurity in the gutter and take a leap of faith!  I promise you won't regret it!