step of faith

Perhaps I have it a little bit easier than Abraham. When God called him to leave his country, and follow God to a land the Lord would show him, Abraham went, having never seen Canaan before (Genesis 12). In contrast, I’ve been to Ukraine three times, seen some of the needs and spiritual darkness in Kiev, and been called to serve there. However, I feel that I’m taking a huge step of faith, in that I will soon be leaving my civil engineering work to focus full-time on raising my support this spring.

I’m aiming to wrap up my engineering responsibilities within the next three to five weeks.  My last day is a little bit of a moving target: I’ve told my supervisor when I hope to quit, I’m trying to flex as much as possible if the firm doesn’t have my replacement in place, and yet I have to walk in obedience to God’s call toward Kiev.  Pray that the Lord provides a good employee to take over my projects.  Pray that I finish my work with diligence and grace, that I continue to be a blessing in the engineering work were I’ve served 10+ years.

Pray for me as I’m faced with my first round of goodbyes–sure, I’m not moving away from Chattanooga to Kiev immediately, but I won’t see my colleagues daily as I have these past years.  Thank the Lord for his goodness in providing my job, for his goodness in the delightful people I’ve worked alongside, and for his goodness in providing the savings I will be living off of while finishing my support raising.

Finally, pray for me as I step into full time work building my team of financial and prayer partners.  What will I be doing? you may wonder.  Assuming that 10% or so of people will be able to give, and needing 30 to 35 new monthly partners to meet my remaining $1,600 per month support need, I’ve got to present my Ukraine ministry to 300 to 350 new people, and its best to meet in small groups or individually.  That means I’ll be calling churches, small groups, youth groups, and individuals, finding contacts, scheduling meetings, meeting with people to tell them how God is working in Kiev and how they can join in sending me, and following up with those people.  All the while I’ll be sending out thank you notes and my Ukraine prayer updates.

When?  I need to have 80% of my monthly support by April 15, so I can register for MTW’s pre-field training in July. Lord willing I’ll be moving to Ukraine in early August.  So pray for $800/month in new support by April 15th, and the other $800/month by the summer.

Thanks for your crucial role praying and giving: I can’t go unless you help to send me in a manner worthy of Jesus’ name. (3 John 6,7)

depending on God in prayer

In my last prayer letter, I asked my readers if anyone would like to join an Intercessor’s prayer team. I know God works through our prayers, delights to answer them, and I don’t want to go to Ukraine without solid prayer support. I’m thankful for my many friends and family who pray for me regularly, some even daily.

There haven’t been as many responses to my request as I’d hoped, which I find disappointing. However, it opened my eyes to another area were my tendency is to walk in my own strength: I assumed that God would give me a group intercessors–and quickly, too, rather than asking him about it and waiting for him to act, in his time. I’m growing in my dependence on God in prayer. Will you grow with me?

Will you pray with me for a meeting this Wednesday? I’ve applied to a local church’s missions committee for Ukraine support, and they will be considering my application at their meeting this Wednesday. As many churches do (including my home congregation), they place a high priority on supporting their own members missions work first, then regular attenders, then non-attending non-members like myself. However, I’m in the same presbytery and am seeking as much support as possible within our presbytery. Ask God to give me favor in their eyes, that they may decide to partner in sending me.

new numbers, faithful God.

Shortly after posting my monthly support at 57% due to the 2012 monthly support budget, I found two additional pledges totally $75/month in new monthly giving, and another $950 in one-time gifts!  So, as things now stand, I’ve received:

• 59% of my monthly pledged support
• 87% of my one-time support

In other words, I’ll be fully supported with $1,600 in new monthly pledges and $3,300 in one-time giving.  God is working through your prayers and giving, and my overall support is right at two-thirds: thanks!

More importantly though, God is building his kingdom in Ukraine, and his providence in my own life keeps pointing that direction.  Financial giving is only one of the tools God is using to build my trust in him and send me to Kiev.  At the truthXchange conference last week, and at the L’Abri conference, I met a number of people who offered contacts they have in Kiev, or sources for Ukrainian language and Russian language evangelistic and discipleship tools.  One friend recommended I connect with his friend, who I didn’t find a the conference, but ran into two days later in Terminal G of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

shifting numbers and our great unchanging God of grace

Sorry for my relative absence here of late.  Last week I attended the truthXchange Think Tank 2012 (http://truthxchange.com) in sunny Escondido, California, after a weekend exploring San Diego, worshiping with believers at Harbor Presbyterian (http://www.harbordowntown.org), and standing in awe at the beauty of a city nestled between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.  On the way home I stopped in Rochester, MN, for half the L’Abri conference, and to visit good friends and a few Ukraine supporters.  I arrived home Monday, thankful for a good trip, and for numerous reminders of the overwhelming goodness of God’s grace for us in Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, MTW was revising my support budget for 2012.  Previously, I’d raised 60% of my monthly support, and 80% of my one-time; in their new budget, the amount of monthly support I have to raise has increased slightly, and the one-time amount decreased.  So I currently have 57% of my monthly support, and 87% of my one-time support.  I now need to raise $1,672 in additional monthly pledges, ($201 more than before).

Its tempting to be discouraged when I see my monthly support numbers shifting from 60% down to 57% due to having to raise an addition $201 per month.  But God hasn’t changed, he knew this was coming, and he will provide in his time and through your prayers.  My calling and task remains the same: reminding you that God builds his kingdom everywhere, by his grace.  Thank you for giving, for praying, and for participating with me in the work of making Jesus known to Kiev, Ukraine, and the entire earth.

The truthXchange Think Tank centered around the good news that God our Creator, who is separate and distinct from his creation, hasn’t abandoned it but actually came down, entered into creation in the Incarnation, and has made a way through the cross of Jesus that we might be re-united to God.  God is lovingly working to bring all things under the lordship of Jesus, and I believe that he will provide all my needs, according to the riches of his grace.

(The video below explains what truthXchange is all about.  Watch it, and then if you’d like to hear more the audio from the Think Tank is available on their website, http://truthxchange.com.)

quick update

Thanks for your continued giving and praying! I’ve been writing thank you notes since the New Year, and just learned of two more monthly pledges. Here’s what God’s provided so far:

• 60% of my monthly support!
• 79% of my one-time support!

To reach full support, I only need $1,470 in new monthly pledges, and  $5,360 in one-time gifts.

Thanks for your prayers!  Thanks for your generosity if you’re giving – including my newest monthly supporter, Anonymous.  I don’t know who you are, but God does, and I’m grateful for your gracious generosity.

I’ve gotta scoot, but you’ll be hearing more from me soon: God is working in me, in Chattanooga, and in Ukraine.  Thanks!

light reflections

Ambrose of Milan

“In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” – John 1:4.  Earlier this morning I was playing a few hymns at my piano, and stumbled across this ancient hymn by Ambrose of Milan, 340-397.

O Splendor of God’s glory bright,
From light eternal bringing light,
Thou light of light, light’s living Spring,
True Day, all days illumining:

Come, very Sun of heaven’s love,
In lasting radiance from above,
And pour the Holy Spirit’s ray
On all we think or do today.

And now to thee our prayers ascend,
O Father, glorious without end;
We plead with sovereign grace for pow’r
To conquer in temptation’s hour.

Confirm our will to do the right,
And keep our hearts from envy’s blight;
Let faith her eager fires renew,
And hate the false, and love the true.

O joyful be the passing day
With thoughts as pure as morning’s ray,
With faith like noontide shining bright,
Our souls unshadowed by the night.

Dawn’s glory gilds the earth and skies,
Let him, our perfect Morn, arise,
The Work in God the Father one,
The Father imaged in the Son.

His hymn was set to WINCHESTER NEW, which I assume was a new version of WINCHESTER in Hamburg back in 1690 when it was included in the Musikalisches Handbuch.

Tunes may come and go, lyrics may be translated from 4th century Latin to 20th century English, but the light of Christ shines through the ages.  Pray that I will increasingly reflect Jesus’ glory while I’m raising support here in Chattanooga, and when I reach Kiev.

light for ordinary time

Yesterday was the 12th day of Christmas, and today is Epiphany, the celebration of Christ our light.  Tomorrow marks the start of Ordinary Time, until Lent.  So what is Christ’s light for us in ordinary time, all through the year?  We walk in the light of Christ when we’re filled with his Spirit.

In the Old Testament the phrase “being filled with the Holy Spirit” is used to describe special callings and equipping for specific tasks, such as the artist Bezalel who was filled with the Spirit of God for the building of the tabernacle, or John the Baptist, the final Old Testament prophet described as “being filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:15) for the task of announcing the Messiah. However, the Spirit is not given to all believers in the Old Testament, and is not given permanently, otherwise David would not have said, “take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11). In the case of Sampson we are told, “the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him” (Judges 13:25), “the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him (Judges 14:6,19; 15:14).

In the New Testament, when Jesus receives the water baptism from John, the Spirit descended from heaven and remained on Jesus. John said to the crowds, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (Jn. 1:33). The Spirit remained on Jesus, and he lived is life in the power of the Spirit, died on the cross, “and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4). As the second and last Adam, Jesus became life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and has given the gift of the Spirit to every believer, as a seal of salvation and down payment on the promised inheritance.

When Paul uses the phrase, “be filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18, it is in contrast to being controlled by drunkenness. All believers have the indwelling Spirit (Eph. 1:13, John 14-16), but since Christ is the one on whom the Spirit remained, to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with, ruled by, obedient to, and conformed to Christ. Being filled with the Spirit isn’t a second blessing, or a second class of Christians that only some believers attain. It is the gracious provision of the Spirit of Christ to every believer, for Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (Jn. 14:18). The point of 1 Corinthians 15:45 is that Christ, by virtue of his exaltation as the last Adam and second man, has come into such permanent and complete possession of the Spirit that the two are equated in their activity.

Colossians 3:16,17 is a parallel passage to Eph. 5:18-20; in Ephesians we are to be filled with the Spirit and in Colossians we are to let the word of Christ dwell richly in us. Christ is the word of God who created all things, and whose word creates the new creation in our hearts, and just as the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters at the beginning of creation and controlled the unfolding work of creation, so we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us and the Spirit to fill us, controlling and creating the new creation in our hearts and lives. In John 16 we see that the Holy Spirit’s role is to glorify Jesus, and in 2 Cor. 4:6 Paul draws a parallel between the Spirit’s work at creation and his work in our hearts: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Being filled with the Spirit means to be filled with Christ.

We sang during Advent, “He comes to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found.”  Christ’s light shines on every square inch of creation.  If you’d like some music to reflect on Christ in the midst of ordinary time, check out the band Ordinary Time (you can stream their albums on their site).

Happy Epiphany, and may the light of Christ shine through your life, even in seemingly ordinary time.

end of year giving?

Out of curiosity, I just ran a couple quick numbers: if everyone who’s given a one-time gift (not counting a couple annual gifts I’ve received) toward my Ukraine support raising were to give the same amount once more, my one time need would be exceeded by $6,965. Converting that extra to monthly equivalents, my monthly support would rise from 59% up to 70%. So, if you’ve given a one-time gift, do you have it in your budget to give the same amount once more?

You’d have that much more to deduct on your 2011 taxes, my one-time need would be met, and I’d only have 30% left to raise on my monthly support.

Thanks for your crazy-generous giving, friends. I’m excited and humbled to see how God is working in and through you!

social networks, mobile phones, & real good in the world

Sometimes God lets us see some of the really cool ways he works.  In October I told you in my “near & far” post that I was working through a Tim Keller article on idolatry.  Well, in my October 19th update I shared how God’s Spirit opened my eyes to my Nokia phone idolatry and turned my heart to repentance and thanksgiving.  I’m thankful for God’s good gift of my mobile.

Another area in which I’m seeking to unmask any idols and grow in faithfulness is how I use social networks.  I want to use them well as tools, from a position of faithful thanksgiving for God’s good gifts, for real communication with people, and for faithful action in the world.

To that end, Nokia was running a contest for people to nominate their favorite charity in Facebook and say in 250 words how it lined up with Nokia’s corporate values.  I entered International Justice Mission (IJM), because IJM does great work fighting human trafficking and slavery.  Here’s my entry essay:

“We worked all the time. We would only stop to eat. If we tried to rest, they’d abuse us and force us to work again,” said Dambru Jani, a 20-year-old laborer who’d been enslaved in a Chennai, India brick kiln. The CNN Freedom Project reported 6/29/11 that officials from the Tamil Nadu state government, working with International Justice Mission (IJM), raided the kiln, freeing 500 slaves from brutal conditions and constant work.

I nominate International Justice Mission for the #NokiaCareUSContest because modern-day slavery is today’s urgent human rights issue. CNN Freedom Project reports: 30 million people are slaves today, international human trafficking (70% women, 50% children) generates $32 billion annually, and some 17,000 people are trafficked into the United States annually. This problem is massive.

IJM pursues a collaborative casework model to help local communities and governments stand against modern-day slavery. IJM works with local communities and governments; follows individual slavery cases through rescue, victim aftercare, perpetrator accountability in local courts, identifying and confronting corruption along the way; trains local law enforcement, advocates stronger laws to bring perpetrators to justice, and strengthens local communities against slavery.

IJM’s work aligns with Nokia’s core values: Passion for Innovation by working with and improving local criminal justice systems; Very Human rescue and care for victims, Achieving Together by building trust with national partners to reduce slavery, and Engaging You by raising global awareness of the massive scale of slavery and by providing quantifiable results freeing slaves and taking perpetrators to court.

Support IJM!

After the initial entry, people would vote on Twitter to narrow the list of charities to a top-ten list.  Then Nokia’s judges would pick the one they felt best fit Nokia‘s core values and give that charity a $2,500 check.  I tweeted.  You tweeted.  Perhaps you prayed that IJM would win, as I did.  Then in early December NokiaCareUS tweeted:

Winner of the #NokiaCareUSContest is…..International Justice Mission!! cc @IJMHQ @jkepler

International Justice Mission won their contest, and even while I’m raising support for Ukraine I was able to use some of God’s good technology gifts to give $2,500 and some publicity to IJM!  You can see the photo directly here: http://t.co/0ryMMhcz:

The really cool part of this story is that God took something I’d made an idol of, unmasked it for me, opened my eyes to see his gift-goodness in new ways, and let me see Nokia’s contest advertizement.  Thank God with me for his grace, for his power changing my heart, and for his good gifts to me and to everyone who uses technology or social networks to do good in the world.

Perhaps Caesar Augustus idolized his power and glory when he issued the order for all the world to be registered.  Yet God used the census to send a young expectant Jewish couple to Bethlehem, setting the stage for the central act in all history.  Praise God with me this Advent that he hasn’t abandoned his world, but worked in it, and graciously still works in it to push back the effects of the Fall and redeem all things–even my idolatries.

moving generously!

Look what God’s done: 59% monthly support! My latest Ukraine update‘s already outdated. Keep praying and giving, friends!  God’s moving you to generosity, and I’m awed at his graciousness!