As missionaries, our focus is so often primarily centered on what God is doing there rather than here. Training, preparing, sharing, and going – these are the verbs which describe the direction of our daily workflow: toward Mexico! Yet God is always at work everywhere, and one of the most exciting updates this week (for us, at least) is based on opportunities for growth here in Washington.
While living in Missouri, one of my greatest pleasures was our outreach program with the men of the Lighthouse, a halfway home for men struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol. Both with group teaching and one-on-one discipling, we spent time together with these amazing guys: seeking the Lord together, and growing more like Christ. This experience led me to recognize that every Christian needs to continually disciple others, and themselves be discipled at the same time. Yet since our return to Washington, the opportunity to do this regularly has been elusive! Individual opportunities continue to come and go, but that regular time of growing together with brothers in Christ has not happened (despite a significant amount of effort to seek out that time). Not, that is… until now!
This week, I have the privilege of beginning a discipleship group with a couple good friends of mine, named Matt and JJ. The three of us have decided to meet weekly, and together seek the opportunity to grow more like our amazing Savior, Jesus Christ. We are committing to a long-term relationship built on prayer, time in the Word, intentional accountability, transparency with one another, obedience to God’s command that we multiply… and, ultimately, to a relationship built on Jesus, the One to whom we all want to be conformed. Will you please pray for the three of us, as we begin this journey of at least six months together?
During this past week, we enjoyed the visit of my (Jordan’s) parents and sister from the Seattle area. While their time here was all too short, their presence refreshed us and their assistance with many projects was a huge blessing! Amy worked hard throughout the week on Taylor’s (rescheduled) baby shower, which turned out wonderfully. We had the privilege last Sunday of updating our home church, Peaceful Valley, on how God has worked through us over the past year. We also were able to have four meetings to share how God is leading us toward Mexico, and God provided an awesome opportunity to make that information available to a huge group of people who were beyond our immediate reach! Finally, we were (and still are!) grateful to see our pledged monthly support grow again: moving from an estimated 47-50% up to 50-52%.
Praising God: for time with Jordan’s parents and sister, all of whom we have greatly missed since our return from Seattle!
Prayer Request: that God would grow each of Matt, JJ, and myself through this time of mutual discipling. Pray also for wisdom for Amy as she too desires to enter this kind of relationship with two other ladies!