November 30 - December 2, 2007

Brad spent Thursday through Sunday in Branchville Correctional Facility (an Indiana state prison) with a group of 46 (I think) other guys on a Kairos team. This is modeled similar to Tres Dias, Walk to Emmaus, etc. but it’s geared toward the gang members and negative leaders in the prison. This is the third one we’ve done at Branchville. It’s amazing to watch these 42 inmates come in on Thursday evening not too sure what to think about us or the program. Then leave Sunday evening hugging us and not wanting it to end. (the Kairos team is not too excited about it ending either) God can really do some amazing things when we get out of the way and just let Him use us to show people His love for them.

Cindy spent Sunday morning at our church in Boonville, Main Street General Baptist Church, playing with the orchestra from our other church, Christian Fellowship Church. Everybody had a great time. Cindy said the next time the orchestra’s self-esteem gets low they will go play at Main Street – the people were incredible.
(Brad) On Sunday someone mentioned to me that it was December 1st and then asked when we are leaving. It hit me, from now on when people ask that question I won’t be saying January, I’ll be saying next month. It’s getting closer.

When we started the process of putting together a support team we talked about how we should do it. We knew it would require quite a bit of traveling to speak at churches and we wanted to share our hearts with as many people as possible. Initially we thought the best approach would be to remove ourselves from all the other stuff we were involved with (Brad with prison ministry and Kairos and Cindy with the orchestra). As we thought about it we begin to understand it was our involvement with thses that had played a significant role in getting us where we are in our relationship with God leading to our move to Central America. With this in mind it seemed crazy to remove ourselves from what was playing a significant role in growing our relationship with God. So, we made the decision that Brad would stay involved with prison ministry and Cindy with the orchestra as much as possible. In fact, we marked on our calendar the major events for these activities and chose not to schedule speaking engagements for those weekends. Yes, it did mean reducing the number of opportunities we could share. However, we believe God is more interested in our relationship with Him than cramming in as many speaking engagements as possible.

Besides, who is better at putting together a support team – us or God? (Won’t bother to answer that one) What’s that principle Jesus laid out about putting God first and trusting Him to take care of the rest? Of yea, it’s found in Matt 6 and Luke 12.

Thoughts

(Brad) I was reading a blog by another missionary who is in Ecuador. He was talking about do we really believe God for big things. Not just say we believe but really believe. Do we ask God for new believers? He said his team is praying for and asking God for 500,000 new believers in the next five years. I thought “Wow!” Then it made me think what should, if any, we be praying for in Central America?

Well, team, what do you think? Let’s go to God and ask Him what He thinks. Ask Him to give us a number of new believers He wants us to be praying for in Central America for the 2008. Will He give us a number? Will He say no number is needed now? What will He say? This is a team effort so I’m asking if you will join with us and go to God and see what He tells you. When you get an answer will you share it with us? This entire adventure is about trusting God and just opening ourselves up to be used completely by Him. We don’t have to wait until this team has a representative on the ground in Honduras to start the adventure.

November 25, 2007

We had the opportunity to share at Wadesville General Baptist Church in, you guessed it, Wadesville, IN. Pastor Joe and Jacquelyn Dumond allowed us the opportunity to share with the church. Afterward Joe and Jacquelyn had us over to their house for lunch. It was fun just sitting around the table, talking, and getting to know them. We also found out some stuff about other General Baptist missionaries who had gone to school with Joe and Jacquelyn. This new information certainly burst our bubble and changes our perception of the image we had of them. If these people treat us nicely the information will not be revealed. However, if not, no promises.

November 24, 2007

We spent the evening at Kevin and Andi Miller’s with several close friends just hanging out, talking, laughing, and eating. It was a wonderful and relaxing evening. Thanks.

November 16 - 18, 2007

Friday morning we left to spend the weekend in Arkansas. On our way we stopped in Poplar Bluff - General Baptist Medina (General Baptist Mecca is Evansville – if you’re not familiar with islam and the General Baptists this will make no sense to you – don’t worry about it). Once again, back to the topic. We stopped at the General Baptist headquarters in Poplar Bluff to take care of some paperwork stuff. Yes, even when you move out of the country to serve God you still have to fill out all the government paperwork just like you do here when change employers. What does Bible say about being obedient to those in charge of the government because He put them there?

So after completing the paperwork, eating lunch, Cindy going through some medications that had been donated to see what we could use, and missing a turn on the way out of town (ok, it should read Brad missing a turn on the way out of town) we headed for Heber Springs Arkansas. We spent the weekend with David and Jillbaby Eades. We had a blast.

Saturday Cindy and Jillbaby went to Little Rock to shop. She had a great time just spending time with Jill, hanging out, laughing, and seeing Arkansas. She had been looking forward to this trip since it was arranged in September and it was definitely worth it.

On Saturday David and the boys Mason (aka “Buddy”) and Harrison (aka “Buddy Lee”) took Brad to their farm for a guy day complete with being outdoors and shooting guns. At one point David asked Brad to get on the back of the four-wheeler and go with him to replenish the automatic deer feeders. After Brad got on he then handed Brad a rifle and said that’s in case we come across a bear - he wasn’t joking. I wish I could tell a story about how I had to shoot a bear that was charging us but the truth is all we saw were some wild turkeys that ran as we approached.

On Sunday we went to Jerry and Evelyn Eades' church and had the opportunity to share. Afterwards they were having there church Thanksgiving dinner so we were “forced” to stay and eat the home-cooked food. It was difficult but we forced it down until we were completely stuffed. Jerry and Evelyn are amazing people. Jerry is 83 and in February is going to make his (I believe) fourth trip to Honduras in two years. Evelyn is making her fifth trip in 2 ½ years. What an encouragement.

After lunch we headed back to the David and Jillbaby’s, changed clothes, and drove the eight hours back to Newburgh. It was a good weekend.

November 15, 2007

Jack Eberhardt and Sam Ramdial from General Baptist International Missions headquarters spent the morning with us. It was good because it covered more specifics about how to go from where we are in Honduras to where we want to be. We know where we are and we know where we want to be. The road to get from where we are to where we want to be is, shall we say, VERY FUZZY. (this could be because we’re ultimately not the ones in charge and if He showed us the entire plan at one time we might be overwhelmed and say “never-mind, that looks a little too frightening. We’ll just stay in the Evansville area”)
Part of the time was discussing the game plan and part discussing basic logistics. Overall it was left us knowing we are all on the same page.

November 14, 2007

We had dinner with Dan & Ginna Grimm. They have a missions organization, GATHER, and we consider them two of our missions mentors. It was through their work in Bolivia that Cindy was introduced to the Latin American people and Scott Strouse which led to her going to Honduras on her first trip a few years ago which led to Brad going to Honduras earlier this year and, as they say, the rest is history. (yes, for you English majors this maybe a run on sentence. Cut us some slack. Now that we are trying to learning another language we're still trying remember what all those English terms mean such as: conjugate a verb, definite and indefinite article, participles, etc.) Back to the topic. We spent the evening talking about what we would be doing, what they thought about what we plan on doing, asking for any suggestions, insight, and/or wisdom. Finally discussing how GATHER can be a part of what we are doing. Having experienced people to draw on is great.