Getting back on Facebook

I used to have Facebook...I never checked it. I didn't give gifts, write on people's walls, or upload photo albums. I'm not supposed to be on Facebook at work, and believe it or not I follow that rule (I imagine there being some lowly state employee in a dark room who's only job is to spy on people's screens and rat on them when they're doing things they're not supposed to be). I closed my account because I was afraid that someday someone was going to send me a very important message only via Facebook, and I would not get it for three months or something outrageous like that. However, I came to the conclusion yesterday that I'm going to have to get back on. You heard it Matt and Jae Webb, I'm getting back on Facebook! There are a lot of people I have not kept the best contact with, and when we're in Australia I'd like to have another avenue through which I can continue to communicate with friends and family. I guess the point of this entry is really just to tell you to find me and invite me to be your friend, because I'm comin' back!

The Whitsetts

Each Sunday our team gets together for training with our mentor, Gary Green. This past Sunday we were blessed to listen to the wise words of our guest Brenda Whitsett. Brenda and Dwight were, and still are, missionaries to Australia. I met Dwight in 2002, and while he didn't know it at the time God used him to share with me the need for Australians and Kiwis to know the love of God. While I knew God wanted me to share His Gospel overseas, I did not know it was in the South Pacific until I heard Dwight speak about the area.
Dwight and Brenda are sweet, fun loving people who love to encourage others. On Sunday Brenda shared with us what it was like to be a North American woman living in Australia...with a job that was not like your typical baker or school teacher. Jenica and I really learned a lot from what she had to say. After our mentoring time, they stayed with our home gathering and spent the evening worshiping God with us. We all had a blast telling stories, sharing communion, and talking about the crazy ways that God works around us. I really enjoy their company, and I like to think that they don't mind us too much either!Brenda, Matt, me, Frances, Jenica, Gregory, Gary, and Dwight (with their sweet little grandkids in the mix)

On a totally unrelated note, my husband Matt helped me reach an epiphany tonight. I do martial arts, and lately I've been helping one of the instructors teach the beginner class. I have my own class of intermediate students that I teach on a regular basis, but teaching beginners is a whole new ballgame! Intermediates know the drills, so for the most part they just need to be polished. Beginners on the other hand have to be taught everything from scratch. If you don't show them how to do it correctly from the get go, they'll develop bad habits that stick with them for a very long time. Tonight I told Matt how I don't really know what to say to them, so I wish they'd just watch me and pick up on what I do. Then Matt said that's kind of what Jesus did with us, we weren't really getting the whole holiness thing just by words, so He had to come down and show us how it was done. That made me think about how Christians should live, enough shoving the how-to manual down people's throats when they want to know Jesus (which seems to be our method of choice). I'd like to make it clear that by "how-to manual" I don't mean the Bible, I mean the human created rules that we throw at people instead of putting our time and energy into getting to know and impact the lives of others. We have to show through every step of our lives what it is to follow Jesus. That means our actions have to be something worth learning from....
On yet another totally unrelated note, since I'm talking about martial arts I'll go ahead and post the video Matt put together of some of the demos I've done. Enjoy, and disregard the weird phantom girl that shows up sometimes. I get kind of fuzzy during short parts of the video, and we couldn't figure out how to take it away!

Housekeeping

I thought the last two weeks had been kind of ho-hum for our team, but looking back I realized that the things we did were exactly what I should be talking about. I'm sorry if you find this entry boring, but it shows the day to day reality of preparing to move to another country!
Tuesday night Jenica and I met up for our "date" night. Last semester we were really good about meeting up every week, but this semester it's been a little more sporadic. I really like meeting with just Jenica, because there's something about spending time with the other woman on the team that is really encouraging. We get to talk about stuff that we wouldn't normally talk about with the guys around, and it's refreshing! No offense Matt and Gregory....
Wednesday night Matt and Gregory were out of town, so Jenica and I went to the library to do some "housekeeping". We got together a very rough budget for Jenica, so when she talks to possible supporters she will have an idea of how her expenses add up. We then spent some time looking online at our visa options. One we looked at is a religious workers visa, it has a lot of criterion but I think we can meet them. That visa requires the help of a church already established in Ipswich, and there is one there that might be able to fill that role. Whichever way we end up getting there, it will take a lot of faith on our part and miraculous working on God's part! He's done so much to bring us to this point though, I believe He will continue to do some pretty awesome stuff to get us where we need to be.
This Monday I didn't have work. One of the perks of working for the state is that you get all sorts of holidays off that most other people don't! The team met for lunch, and had a really nice time just catching up. It was a much different pace than our usual task oriented meetings, which was great!
This Wednesday was the last time this week that "the big move" really hit me. We were watching Lost with our friends Wes and Ellen, they got married seven months after us, and they are our best married couple friends. They are on a team that will be moving to Conception, Chile in a few years. Birds of a feather stick together I suppose! Anyway, Wednesday evening they brought up the fact that we will be leaving in under a year, and they didn't like that very much! In all seriousness though, talking about what we're doing to prepare, what we haven't even thought about yet, etc. really threw me for a loop. We have a lot to do to get ready, and sometimes it seems like ten months is plenty of time while at other times ten months seems like no time at all. Needless to say, I'm now working on my blog at 10:49 pm, Matt is working on the website, and our team will be getting together on Sunday night to do some more preparation and prayer!

I'm proud of my husband

My husband Matt sent me this video today, and I think it's worth sharing. Firefighting is a way of life in our home, for those of you who don't know Matt is a volunteer firefighter. He loves it, and has become really knowledgeable in it. I sure hope so anyway, because he now sells fire equipment! Really though, he knows his stuff, and is always learning new things.
I love the fact that Matt does this, I am very proud to know that his main hobby is to help people in need. Sometimes people ask me if I worry about him when he goes out on calls and such, but as morbid as it sounds, if he died at a fire or helping with an accident somewhere then I would be so proud of him for meeting our maker because he laid down his life to help someone else.
Not that him being a volunteer firefighter does not have its stressful moments. I'm sure many would disagree with me, but I think there's an added level of stress when you're the wife of a volunteer firefighter over a paid firefighter. When your spouse is paid to do this, you know when their shift starts and ends. With Matt, his shift never ends! As you'll see in the video, I've woken up at 3am to the sound of the tones going off. We've also pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant just to turn around and drive to the station because of a call. I've also heard some sad, sad stories and seen my husband torn up about not being able to help someone in need. This isn't your Tuesday night bowling club, that's for sure. Here's the video, it really hit home for me and I hope it gives you a little better understanding of why I'm so proud of my husband.

The joys of fundraising

After Matt and I enjoyed breakfast at 11:30 this morning (yes 11:30! Saturday is my one morning to sleep in, and I take full advantage of it), I sat down to send a few emails. Before I get into that I think I should share the story of my friendship with Sascha Terry.
When I was a freshman in college, Sascha Terry came back from Abilene Christian University to share his story about going into the mission field. Sascha had met a girl at college who was interested in doing mission work in Brazil, so they decided that after getting married they would do long term missions there. Sascha grew up at what is now Kings Crossing Church of Christ in Corpus Christi, the church I attended growing up in Corpus myself. I remember the day pretty clearly, during morning worship he stood up and told the congregation how he would have information set up at his parents' house that evening about the work he, his wife, and their team would be doing in Brazil. He invited everyone to come and learn more. I went that evening, and I think I was the only person all night who came to visit him! Although that was probably pretty discouraging for him, it gave us an opportunity to talk for a few hours about mission work. It was a great experience, and on the way home that evening I dedicated my life to doing overseas missions. I firmly believe that God has put the desire to travel the world and share the love of Jesus with people of different cultures in certain people's hearts. It's not that people who do overseas missions are high and mighty or better Christians than everyone else, that's a bunch of bologna. I think God knows that sometimes people need to hear His truth from people not like themselves, people who have a different worldview or a different skin color. I think that's why I have a desire and a call to do this, and some other people do not.
Okay, back to my story! When Sascha and Jennifer moved to Brazil, I really wanted to help financially support their team. I know that my measly contribution each month was not much, but I know that my little bit combined with other people's little bits really helped. Because I was helping them out I kept up with their blog and the work they were doing there. It was really exciting, and at some times really hard to read about what they were going through. Although I didn't talk to them in person or ever visit them, I felt like I still had a connection to them.
Fast forward to now, and Sascha's family has just come back to the states. I know that there are many Brazilians who are now enjoying a relationship with Jesus because of how God used the Terry family there. Since I have a relationship with their family I thought it would be appropriate to ask them if the churches that helped them out in Brazil would be able to help us out in Australia. Before I go any further, I think it's time to talk about financial support for missionaries.
Do I like asking for money? Not really. I've jokingly been called a professional beggar by more than one member of my family, which really puts a smile on my face....Every member of our team plans to work in some capacity when we are in Australia for many reasons. One is the fact that if we are not out in the community, then we will be totally disillusioned to the life of the regular working Australian. Another is that working is a great way to make friends. Last is the fact that we don't want to be totally dependent on others in order to live. However, it's not like we will land on Australian soil on Sunday and then start a job on Monday morning. Also, we will not be able to have jobs that give us enough hours to support ourselves. Our first job will be to share the Gospel and teach people what it is to be the body of Christ, and that will take a lot of time. We'll be starting from scratch, and will be the ones who teach others what it is to lead as a servant. All this to say that we will need help getting there, and will need a lot of help to stay there. Our team is reading this book called "The Shaping of Things to Come" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. Here's what the authors write about supporting evangelists: "'Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel' (1 Cor 9:13-14). So wrote Paul, though he was quick to point out that he was not feathering his own nest. He told the Corinthians that he personally was not after any remuneration, only that the church should financially support the work of evangelists generally". It's a biblical principal to help out those who are sharing the Gospel. I must admit, I have a hard time with this myself. Think about it, I share the Gospel with people at work, but no one pays me to do that. Or on the other hand, is it okay to just pay people to share the Gospel, and not do it myself? Yeah right, give me a break. Sharing the Gospel with people is a gift, not a burden. We have hope that lasts now through eternity, how can that be something that we don't want to share! All I know is that our team is constantly trying to find that balance between having enough money to keep our lights on in Australia, while not stashing away so much extra money we're given that we can buy seven big screens and a sailboat or something ridiculous like that.
Okay, time to get back to my very first paragraph! So I sat down after our very late breakfast and sent some emails to the churches that helped Sascha and Jennifer out when they were in Brazil. Sascha was kind enough to tell them about our team in the midst of his busy move back to the states. For that I am very grateful. Today I followed up with them, and asked them if they are interested in helping us financially, emotionally, and spiritually. There's some anxiety in waiting to hear back from them, but I know that God will bring about the outcome that honors Him.