An Incredible Story

"Your word is a lamp to my feet
    and a light to my path." - Psalm 119:105 ESV

We want to share with you an incredible story of the power of God's incredible Word!

An incredible gift.

Kids loved receiving their new Action Bibles, donated by ChildHope. We loved being able to put those Bibles in their hands. It did not take very long for us to hear testimonies:

• Kids from the school near the notorious Palmasola prison showed up to church with their new Bibles so they could learn how to use them.
• A high school student from that same school was in the hospital to undergo tuberculosis tests. He had his mom bring his new Bible to help him pass the time.

The Bible, God's Word, is an incredible gift. And receiving God’s Word is always a blessing.

An incredible visit.

God opened the door for us to enter the Palmasola prison, where a number of kids sponsored through ChildHope used to live, and where a number of sponsored kids’ parents still do.

We went in to talk to some students' fathers. The school was able to share report cards and important information with the dads. A pastor friend was able to share from God's Word. Then, we were able to hand each of them a copy of God's Word so they could read it for themselves. We gave them each one of the same Bibles we had recently given their kids. They were excited. We were excited.

An incredible opportunity.

On the way out of the prison, we were given the unlikely opportunity to visit Mery. She is mother to a couple kids sponsored by ChildHope at the school in Samaria. She had been imprisoned shortly before our visit. She would later be proven innocent of her charges. However, that was not much consolation in that moment. A mom behind bars. Her boys left with her parents. During our visit, we gave her one of the Bibles. She is a Christian, and we wanted to encourage her.

Mery has since been released from the prison. She is now back at home with her kids. That is where I recently had the chance to visit her. I asked her about the Bible, and that is when she shared the following beautiful testimony with me.

An incredible testimony.

Mery brought her Bible to an office where she was working within the prison. It became a community Bible. Other ladies began reading God's Word too. Ladies who had never read the Bible before. A friend commented to her about how she had never understood the Bible so clearly as she did then.

When Mery left the prison, her friends asked her to let the Bible stay behind so they could continue reading it. She did. Mery still visits her friends in prison. They recently asked her to bring a notebook and pen with her, because they have been copying Scriptures from the Bible she left for them to read in their cells. They are so hungry for God's Word!

The incredible God!

We never know all that God has in store when we follow the steps of His plan for our lives. But we do know that, whatever it is, it will be incredible, because God is incredible!

In this case, what began as a project from ChildHope to put God's Word into the hands of kids at partnering schools throughout Latin America turned into an opportunity to leave copies of the Bible in a notorious Bolivian prison. As people read these Bibles, God continues to speak His incredible Living Word!

Trust and Obey

It's interesting to look back on some memories from my life and see how God was leading me on a path to where I am now.

I remember...

I remember one occasion when I was in "the pantry" of my childhood house. I remember climbing up onto the dryer and looking at a couple of books my mother had on the shelf. They were books about American Sign Language (ASL). They were intriguing.

I remember learning the ASL alphabet as a kid.

I remember a deaf congregation meeting upstairs at the church where I attended.

I remember being about nine years old when some missionaries came to our church to share about their project of translating the Bible into the language of a people group in Papua New Guinea. I remember thinking how cool it would be to do something like that.

I remember realizing that I had a love and fascination for languages, always trying to learn phrases in various languages from friends who spoke them.

I remember meeting a breathtakingly beautiful girl from Philly when I was a junior in college. I remember finding out that her parents were deaf pastors in New Jersey. I remember discovering that this girl shared a call to serve overseas in missions some day.

I remember while we were serving as missionary associates in Costa Rica that our area directors encouraged us to consider ministry to the deaf in Latin America. I remember visiting a missionary couple working with the deaf in Nicaragua and hearing the need.

I remember seeing our approval to serve as missionaries to Bolivia and how ministry to the deaf was listed as one of our focuses even though we had not requested that it be listed.

I remember attending a missions event for college students in the U.S. and being challenged by the need for ministry to the deaf in Latin America.

I remember meeting a woman here in Bolivia who grew up in a missionary family working with the deaf here in Bolivia and hearing more specifically about the need here in this country. I remember hearing about a project a team is working on to make a video Bible translation for the deaf using Bolivian Sign Language.

Hindsight is 20/20

At the time that each of these moments happened, I didn't realized they were individual parts of a greater story. I didn't make the connections.

When I was a kid, or even when I was in college, I didn't realize that I would one day be working with the deaf.

As I look back on those memories now, however, I can see that God has led me on a particular path. Now, it seems so very obvious. 

God set these seemingly small moments along the way that led me to where I am now.

I am where I am, because God has led me here.

God's Foresight is 20/20

We don't know what the future holds. But we can have confidence in knowing that God does!

For me, hindsight is 20/20. I'm glad that for God, foresight is 20/20 as well.

God is sovereign and faithful and so very good to us. We don't know what the final destination might be with regard to a specific path of ministry/work in our life. But God does.

What is our job then? We must seek God and faithfully follow each step along the way. We don't realize how the steps fit together in the end, but if we are most concerned with obeying God we can trust that He will work all that out.  So really, our job can be simply summarized as obedience to God based in our trust in Him. Our job then is to trust and obey!

As you look back and your life, do you see the steps He has laid out before you along the way? Where has God led you? Do you trust Him? Are you willing to obey?

Social Reset

Do you remember your best friend(s) from you were a kid? Do you have one now? In some cases, it may even be the same person.

I had best friends growing up. They changed as life changed, but there were always those with whom I was closer. I would talk on the phone for hours, even when it meant paying an exorbitant amount of money on the long distance phone bill (remember when you had to pay per minute for "long distance" calls?).

Social reset.

One thing that happened in my decision to go to school in Springfield, MO was that it forced me to say goodbye to my former friends and essentially begin a new life socially. Obviously I maintained friendships to some extent, but that was before social media and technology became what it is today. I didn't even have a cell phone.

After I graduated from college I moved back to Massachusetts, but an hour west of the city and no longer near my friends from before college. And in the process I left my college friends too. Once again I was forced to essentially reset life on a social level. After marrying Polly, we developed close friendships with others once again. Our closest friends moved away but we still managed to have close, meaningful relationships with others.

In 2014, when we moved to Costa Rica, we yet again found ourselves hitting the reset button socially. We developed good friendships with other American missionaries as well as Costa Rican nationals. Then we left, went back to the U.S. and prepared to become missionaries to Bolivia. More changes. More social resets.

Here we are, less than a year into our time in Bolivia. We are building new friendships, once again with other American missionaries and with Bolivian nationals.

Reset again.

While we don't get rid of our previous relationships, as relational beings we desire community in a physical sense. We want to spend time with people in-person, not simply via technology. We want people at our house. We want to spend time at theirs.

There's a challenge that comes with constantly resetting your life socially. You constantly find yourself entering situations where people have often already developed their long-lasting friendships long before your arrival. So while you develop friendships, it's hard to find best friends.

And that leaves you looking for others who are not deeply established in their existing friendships. These are typically internationals. And like you, they generally live a transient life. So it's hard to connect to deeply knowing that you or they will soon be gone.

Genevieve, our 7 year old daughter, is dealing with this problem right now. Her best friend is Italian. And we just found out that they are moving back to Italy next month. Reset.

The biggest challenge.

Sometimes people ask what the biggest challenge is as a missionary. Some suggest that we give up so much, our livelihoods and homes and such when we leave. But the truth is that I don't care about stuff. I miss people. I miss being established. I miss my life when goodbye wasn't such a common word and hello wasn't said with such reserve knowing how this too will end.

I don't normally share about these kinds of things, but after sharing a short post on Facebook this week, I decided to open up more and explain further to give you a better idea of our biggest challenge. 

We're not unhappy or depressed or down in the dumps. It is a reality we have accepted to be real. It's just a reality that sometimes stinks. Especially for our kids.

This is an area where we would appreciate your prayers.

Praying our Way to Bolivia

It's hard to believe, but September is here! We are now in our target departure month. It's hard to believe. And we are still well on track to hit the target of leaving by the end of the month. We have chosen today (Friday, September 1, 2017) as a prayer emphasis day to really focus on praying for some of the needs we have as we wrap up our time in the States and to ensure a September departure. Of course, we welcome all prayers at any time. Would you agree with us in the following areas?

God is already answering prayer!

Actually, before I start, I need to share something exciting!! We have been asking people to pray about decisions regarding Genevieve's schooling in Bolivia. I even included in our our prayer post from the other day. Today I was planning to post a more specific prayer about a school we have been looking at and hoping that they would have room and accept her late. We have been praying about it and even prayed about it this morning. Well, we heard this morning that the school is accepting Genevieve!!! This is phenomenal news for us and we want to express a big thank you to God for His goodness in this!

Now let's agree together that God will similarly move in other areas.

Prayer needs in preparation for departure

Please agree with us in prayer regarding:

Visas/Residency Docs

• That the kids will have no issues with the necessary immunizations required (and otherwise necessary) so we can submit their visa applications
• That God will already be moving in the hearts of the workers at the consulate to receive and approve the kids' applications without any issues
• That our remaining documents will arrive in a timely manner so we can get them certified
• That God will already be moving in the hearts of the workers at the consulate to legalize all our residency documents with no issues
• That we will find favor throughout this entire process

Budget

• That the remaining 10% of our budget will come in through new partnering churches and individuals so we can hit the 100% mark we'll need prior to departure
• For the remaining services and meetings we already have scheduled to share our hearts and an opportunity for partnership
• That God would put us on the hearts of those who have already considered partnering with us financially and make a way
• That God would put us on the hearts of those who haven't already considered partnering with us financially and make a way
• That God would supernaturally put us on the hearts of those who don't even know us yet and make a way
• That God would give us favor in any board/leadership meetings where churches are discussing partnership with us
• That God would give us other services or meetings as our schedule allows

Personal

• That God would help us navigate through the emotions of preparing to say goodbye to life as we know it and leave for Bolivia (for all of us but especially for the kids who are still learning how to better navigate emotions
• That God would help us as we pack for Bolivia - that we would know what to take and what to leave (sell, give away, pack away, throw away)
• For traveling mercies as I (Mike) go to Florida for just about a week (Sept 2-6)
• For traveling mercies for all our remaining travels prior to departure
• For favor as we go through medical, dental and eye exams
• For us to get all the paperwork done correctly for Genevieve to go to school
• For strength as we seek to tie up any other loose ends
• That God would help us not to be anxious as we go through this process

Honestly, there are so many other specifics I could offer, but these are the ones that come to mind as I write this. Hopefully this is at least a starter for some ways you can be agreeing with us. We have no doubt that God is able! He has always been faithful to us and we have confidence that He will remain faithful.

Thank you so much for your prayers! Please let us know how we can be praying with you (mikeandpollybrown@gmail.com). May God go with you always!!

Taking Aim at the Target

[UPDATED 08/31/17 09:43am]

Well, September is almost here. Our target has been to leave for Bolivia in September for quite some time. One big question looms: Will we hit the target?

We believe that the answer to that question is, "Yes!" That answer is based on the fact that we believe that God is able! We also believe that we need to bring our needs and desires to the Lord in prayer. This is why we are sharing this prayer guide with you, so that you can agree with us for God to move in some specific areas as we take aim at the target. We ask you to agree regularly as God leads us through these areas. We are also specifically focusing on prayer this Friday, September 1st as it is the first day of our target month. Perhaps you may consider taking a little extra time to focus on prayer for us and these needs on that day.

Clearance

We must receive clearance in a number of areas prior to departure for Bolivia. Of those, these prayers are focused on 2: visa clearance and financial clearance.

1. Visa

Polly and I already have our temporary visas necessary to arrive in Bolivia. The kids still need theirs, however. We also need to have all necessary documentation for temporary residency legalized by the Bolivian consulate in New York City prior to departure. Please pray for:

• [UPDATED] Favor as we send in applications for Genevieve and Jonah's visa to the Bolivian consulate in New York City
• All the documents we need to apply for temporary residency to arrive quickly
• Favor as these documents are certified
• The officials at the Bolivian consulate to accept and legalize all the documents (there is one in particular that could be an issue, though we are believing it won't be; thankfully a new plan B option would not affect our time frame)

2. Financial

Praise God that we have reached 90% of our monthly budget raised which allows us to deal with our visas and, upon their approval, purchase our plane tickets. Please pray for:

• The remaining 10% of our monthly budget to come in as we cannot leave until we are at 100%
• Blessings upon those who have partnered with us already
• God to speak to the hearts of the church leaders and individuals who will become a part of our sending team through finances moving forward
• Favor in all remaining itineration services, meetings and conversations

Preparation

Clearances are critical, but they are not the only thing requiring our attention. We have other things to focus on in preparation for our impending departure to Bolivia. Please pray for:

• God to give us wisdom and guidance with what to pack and what to leave behind, sell, give away, throw away, etc.
• Us to be able to acquire things we still need
• Decisions regarding Genevieve's schooling in Bolivia
• Strength through all the impending goodbyes
• Favor in upcoming medical, dental and eye exams
• Favor and wisdom as we prepare to purchase plane tickets
• Traveling mercies as we travel a lot during our final month here
• Strength to work through a busy schedule
• God to help us navigate the emotions that come with transition
• Any loose ends that need to be tied up
• Favor and wisdom as friends help us look for housing in Bolivia

Of course, you can pray for us in any other area as you feel impressed on your heart by the Holy Spirit. Especially considering that these are items prior to our departure. There will be many prayers needed when we arrive and while we serve there as well. Thank you for praying with us. Please feel free to Facebook message us (facebook.com/mikeandpollybrown) or email us (mikeandpollybrown@gmail.com with anything that we can be praying for you about or with anything you feel the Lord puts on your heart regarding us as you pray. Thank you!

This is going to be epic!

"Are we there yet?"

That's a question we expect to hear a lot over the next month and a half. Why? Because we are heading out on a nearly 7 week road trip.

During this trip we will either pass through or stop in each of the following 20 states:

Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia

That's 40% of the states in the U.S. during one trip over just under 7 weeks.

This is going to be epic!

During this trip we will see family and old friends, meet with pastors/church leaders, preach, share about our mission, see new places, have fun adventures, witness some friends get married (Polly is actually in the wedding), go through security training, missionary training and missionary renewal, be commissioned as appointed missionaries with the Assemblies of God World Missions and even attend a district council.

This is going to be epic!

During this trip we will travel dozens of hours over thousands of miles. We will sleep in at least 12 different places, meaning 12 different beds. We will pass three holidays - Memorial Day, Father's Day and Independence Day.

This is going to be epic!

But in order for this trip to be epic, it needs one more very critical thing: prayer. That's why I'm writing this blog. We desire your prayers covering numerous things as we embark on this epic road trip. Will you pray with us?

Below are some of the specifics areas about which you can be praying for us, but also please feel free to pray for other areas as the Spirit leads you. I have broken down the list into sections to better organize it:

1. Spiritually

• That during a crazy, busy schedule we would make time to spend in prayer and Bible reading
• That we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit for opportunities to share the love and hope of Christ with people on our journey
• That we would look more like Jesus at the end of the trip than the beginning

2. Physically

• For health - we will be traveling so much and interacting with so many people; also, we will have to work harder to find/create time to exercise and will be eating out more than usual; we need self-control
• For rest - we will be sleeping in different places and running on a different schedule than the norm and driving a lot of miles
• For safety in travel - we will be traveling a lot of miles with a lot of other motorists; we are driving an older van with nearly 200,000 miles on it so prayers for the van to experience no mechanical issues would be great too
• For good weather - for travel and personal protection and enjoyment

3. Relationally/Socially

• Interpersonal family relationships - we will be traveling a lot of miles and spending a lot of hours together
• Family - we will be seeing family we don't often see and even meeting family we've never met, including our 1-year-old niece
• Friends - we will be seeing old friends and making new ones
• Those left behind - we won't be seeing my Massachusetts family during the trip and will only see Polly's Pennsylvania family near the beginning and end; the kids will also be leaving behind their close friends they've made here for the duration of the trip
• The right connections with the right people for the right reasons
• That we would be a blessing to others and be willing to be blessed by others

4. Emotionally

• Spending lots of time together, especially in a car, lends itself to a range of emotions; we must be careful how we deal with and express those emotions
• The flip side of seeing old friends and making new ones and all that excitement is the inevitable "see you later"
• Patience, patience, patience - we will need lots of patience

5. Mentally

• To stay awake and alert as we drive
• To grow and learn so much from others and especially in our trainings
• Clarity in mind and thought as we make travel and other decisions

6. Financially

• For great gas mileage and great deals at hotels (thankfully, we will be spending very little time in hotels)
• For God's blessing over those who generously give to our budget which covers the travel and training expenses
• That the offerings/donations we receive on the road would cover the travel expenses
• For God's blessing over those who have graciously offered housing and/or meals during this journey

7. Ministerially

• For great services when we have the opportunity to preach/share
• For great meetings with pastors/church leaders
• For favor as we learn things that will help us in our ministry here and in Bolivia

Thank you so much for your prayers! We're so excited for this trip but also a little overwhelmed and stressed. But we know that God goes with us and we trust Him to bring us through. This is going to be great. With God, this is going to be epic!

Count Your Blessings

“Count your blessings.”

Have you ever heard that phrase? It’s not a verse from the Bible, but it is a theme we can certainly find in the Bible. Many of the psalms involve the psalmnist looking back and recounting God’s blessings in his life. The whole idea of memorial stones in the Bible seems to be a method of memorializing blessings from God. Really, we could find and discuss a lot of references in the Bible which speak to this idea.

My concern in this blog during this Thanksgiving week, however, is not that people in the Bible “counted” their blessings but why I believe there’s value in doing it. Why count our blessings?

I could use many of the psalms to make the following point, but since I was reading Psalm 61 when I felt God put this word in my heart, that’s the one I’ll use here. Specifically I want to focus on Psalm 61:1-3 (ESV):

1 Hear my cry, O God,
    listen to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
    when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
    that is higher than I,
3 for you have been my refuge,
    a strong tower against the enemy.

David prays to God with confidence and faith believing that the Lord is going to answer him. Why? I think the key to that answer is found in verse 3. It's because God has already proven Himself faithful in the past as a refuge and strong tower to David. And here is the truth that I felt like God put in my heart as I was reading this:

God's past faithfulness fuels our present faith.

Our faith is not a blind faith. Our faith is a result of looking back and seeing God's hand on our lives. When we see how faithful He has been to us, it motivates and encourages us to have faith in our present circumstances!

So why count our blessings? Why take time to think about all the things for which we have to be thankful? Why take time to thank God for all He has done? So that we can remember His past faithfulness to give us the faith we need now. He has done it before and He can do it again!

This is the reason David points out God's faithfulness to him in the past. This is the reason Joshua set up the memorial of 12 stones in Joshua 4. And this is the reason we too should count our blessings and express our thankfulness for all God has done and accomplished in our lives this year: to have the faith to believe for Him to answer us again in the year to come.

So I encourage you to take some time to set up your own memorial stones. Count your blessings. Write them down. Remember all the good things God has done for you. Give Him thanks. Then when you're standing in front of an obstacle that seems so challenging, you can have the faith to know that God is faithful and that you can trust Him!

**UPDATE** I want to share an example of this that came yesterday morning before I wrote this post but after I had decided to write it. We were blessed to receive a generous personal cash gift from the Southern New England Ministry Network's Women's Ministry this year. We wanted to be able to use the whole thing for Christmas but needed to put 2/3 of the gift toward our credit card. Yesterday morning when we opened our statement of donations, we noticed that a friend had made a personal cash donation to us (totally unexpected) for the exact same amount of the other donation we needed to put toward our credit card. We were once again reminded that God is faithful, even in "simple" things like this.

** Want to read more? I wrote a blog a couple of years ago about how a hen came to symbolize God's faithfulness in our family. Check it out! **

Unloading the Weight

It has been a little over 3 weeks since I started regularly exercising and eating healthier. And I am feeling great. I have been losing weight and getting stronger and faster by the day.

As I was running last week, a thought occurred to me: I am improving exponentially. I believe there is a good reason for this. I am running (and riding my bike one day a week) which is building my muscle and making me stronger. But I'm also losing weight in the process. And the more weight I lose is the less weight I need to carry with me as I run.

This fit with another thought I had recently: The hardest thing to do is to get going. But once you get going, it's a lot easier to keep going. It's like a ball rolling down a hill. It starts off slow but it gets going and starts flying. I really do believe that most people just need to find that motivation to get started. And something I think that will help is by remembering that you can't tackle it all at once. You're not going to lose weight and get in shape in one day. It will take time. But you have to start that time at some point. My mentality is that you should just aim to do better than before in the beginning. You don't have to hit the ideal right away. Get the ball rolling.

After I had the initial thought last week, another thought came to me: This is not much different than another aspect of our lives. How often are we carrying heavy burdens with us? How often are we trudging through feeling defeated and overwhelmed? We need to start getting rid of some of that baggage, because once we get going it will become easier. The less weight we're carrying with us the more confidence we have that we'll get rid of the rest. This is true of our physical bodies, but also mentally and spiritually, I believe.

The words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 ring so loudly as I think of this:

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (ESV)

I don't know what you're carrying with you right now. But I do know who can help you: Jesus. As I read in my devotions on Wednesday, Psalm 30:11-12 says,

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, 12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (ESV)

So it's time to get out there and start shedding some weight, both physically and metaphorically. I want to leave you with some encouragement.

Physical Weight Loss Encouragement

Get out there and get started. Start small. Take a walk around the block. Want to run? Start with some walking breaks in the middle. "Oh, but that's not good enough. I should be able to run the whole thing." Listen, you will with time. But you need to start somewhere.

Metaphorical Weight Loss Encouragement 

Spend some time in prayer and reading the Bible. Ask God to take your burdens. He can give you rest that you will never achieve on your own. Not ready for the certain things yet? Start with something you are ready for. Trust Him. He will never let you down.

Here are 2 more verses:

Psalm 68:19

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. (NIV)

1 Peter 5:6-7

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (ESV)

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Most people lose weight leading up to their wedding day. I, unfortunately (in this instant), was not like most people. I was the heaviest weight of my entire life around my wedding and honeymoon. I had never really struggled with weight issues until college and the years following. I've covered more about that story in a blog already so I won't cover it here.

Since I lost my weight in 2009, I had done a pretty good job of keeping it off. I went to Costa Rica weighing about 175 lbs (about 10 more than my ideal weight). I don't know how much I weighed upon our return but that number ballooned even higher after reintroducing myself to some of my favorite foods (especially cheese) that I hadn't enjoyed very much during our time there. When I finally weighed myself back on Sept. 12 I was about 190 lbs...25 lbs more than my ideal weight. Oops. It was time for a change. So I decided on a reverse New Year's Resolution. To lose 25 lbs by the New Year. 111 days. 25 lbs. The challenge was on.

So, I have spent the past few weeks changing my eating habits and exercising again. And as of Monday (2 weeks after starting), I was down 6 lbs. More than that, I feel stronger, faster, healthier, and just all-around better. Oh, and my clothes fit better. I still have a long way to go, but it has been a good start.

I was thinking about how nice it is to celebrate these victories. Then I read Psalm 21 in my devotional time one day. I want to highlight a few verses that share one thing relevant to this that I took from this psalm:

1 O LORD, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
7 For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.

You see, I think it's great to celebrate our little victories. But that's because I think it's a great opportunity to remind ourselves that our victories come not in our own strength but in the strength of the Lord. God is the one that gets the glory and the credit for our victories. They are reminders for us to thank God for His goodness and favor.

Since early on when I started running again years ago, I have run with a mantra: "In His Strength. For His glory." I run with God's strength and do it to glorify Him because He's so good! So I do celebrate a great start to accomplishing my goal. I celebrate to thank God for the strength to have a great start. Let's never lose focus or forget to thank God for His goodness to us and the strength that He gives us!

BONUS: Running Tips

Since I'm sure some of you reading this are in a similar place, trying to lose weight, I thought I'd share a few personal tips. Healthy eating habits are also critical and a different discussion altogether. These are strictly some tips regarding the exercise. I'm not a medical professional nor a running professional and these are just personal thoughts, not official scientific advice:

Change up your runs - Do not run the same distance or pace every day or even every week. You should vary course, distance and pace. Some examples of types of runs you can do are:

• Distance runs - Run an easy pace where you can talk and aren't breathing heavy for your longer runs.
• Mid-distance runs - Run a pace where you are breathing a little heavier, not really able to carry a conversation.
• Hills - Find a hill at whatever grade and length you're okay with and do repeats by running up at a good pace and then jogging back down. Repeat at least 3-5 times.
• Intervals - This is best done at a track or around a block. You run a lap fast, then jog a lap. Repeat at least 4 of each (8 total laps). If one lap around the track is too much to start, do half the lap.
• Fartleks - During a normal jog you can randomly pick an object within view and sprint to that object before returning to your normal pace.

There are obviously many other types of runs, but this gives an idea. The point is that if you run the same distance and pace and route all the time, your muscles will start becoming adjusted to it and you'll eventually stop improving. By switching things up, you'll be better off in the long run (pun not initially intended).

Be creative with running routes - I recently did a running route that had me pass by all the houses in which I have lived in Malden as well as the hospital where I was born. This made for a far more interesting run because I had lots of little destinations and had lots of opportunities for reminiscing as I run.

Cross train - Even if you prefer running like I do, cross training is always advised. I haven't always stuck to this, but I am this go-round. You can swim, ride a bike, row, etc. The idea is to still do cardio activities but not running.

Create a plan - In order to make sure you are changing things up, you should create a plan. This also helps ensure that you are more likely to not take off days when you should be running. You are more likely to follow a schedule if you actually create one. I continue to tweak mine but it currently looks like this:

• Monday - Speed drills (hills, intervals or fartleks)
• Tuesday - Cross-training (biking)
• Wednesday - 5k (mid-distance) running pace
• Thursday - Off
• Friday - Long distance jog (the goal is to still get faster as you continue training)
• Saturday - Weight training or crossfit style workout (or active family activity)
• Sunday - Off

I will still walk or do other activities during off days or other days beyond my workout at time, but your body needs rest from strenuous exercise at least once a week (in my opinion). The key is that you have constant goals.

Set attainable mini-goals - Set goals along the way aside from your ultimate goal. Make sure they're attainable. But little victories give us confidence towards bigger victories. And they remind us that God is with us, giving us strength!

Just Keep Peddling

This past Sunday, we didn't have a scheduled service, so we decided to attend my home church where I grew up which is not far from where we've been staying. Already ready to go by 9:00am for a 10:30am service and knowing the church was only 2-3 miles away, I decided to walk to church on a beautiful day. I asked Jonah if he wanted to go with me. Of course, he did.

Jonah has one of those tricycles that has an optional handle in the back to push. So whether he's peddling or not, we can push him on it. He can move the tricycle a little on his own, but he certainly couldn't have made it the 3 miles (as it turned out to be). So I walked, pushing Jonah along. Even still, he just kept peddling along the way.

At one point a thought occurred to me:

Jonah never questioned the route we took. He never questioned my decision to cross a street or when to do it. He never questioned my choice to be on one side of the road or the other. He just kept looking forward (occasionally turning to look at his surroundings) and just kept peddling.

Jonah was going for a ride on his tricycle with me, his daddy. He trusted me. And for good reason. I was born and raised in Malden. And I had been to that church hundreds (possibly thousands) of times during my life. I knew how we needed to go to get there. I knew where we were going. I knew how to get there. There were a number of ways we could have gone, but I opted for what I thought to be the best path for us. Not the shortest path. Not the path with the best views. The best path.

This isn't much different from our lives in a number of ways.

God, our heavenly Father (and no, I'm not trying to compare myself with God, just making an analogy using my role as a father), always knows where we need to go and how we need to get there. Our job is not to think we know better and question the path. Our job is to keep looking forward and just keep peddling. And similar to Jonah riding his tricycle, even though we're peddling, God's really the one enabling us to keep moving forward. It's really by His strength and not our own. But He does allow us to do our part and peddle.

We need to remember that God knows the best path for us. Not necessarily the shortest path. Not necessarily the path with the best views. But it's the best path for us!

Maybe you're going through a situation you don't understand right now. Maybe you don't understand the timing...you think you're ready to arrive at whatever is next. I want to encourage you today to trust in God. He's got this. Just keep plugging away and trusting Him. Just keep peddling.

"For who is God, but the LORD?

And who is a rock, except our God?—

the God who equipped me with strength

and made my way blameless."

Psalm 18:31, 32 (ESV)

Confusing the Why with the What

Many of my life lessons and analogies come from running. Today was no different.

I recently started re-emphasizing a healthy lifestyle. This includes running more regularly. Because I am the way that I am, this means logging my various workouts. I like to keep track of what I've done so that I can measure improvement.

At one point during my run today, I cut a corner shorter by about a couple of feet. In reality, I didn't really cut it all that short. But because I am the way that I am, I think of silly things like this. I was thinking about how I could even log that. Then I thought about the extra steps I had taken in a different area and how I didn't even consider over-running what I would log. If this sounds confusing, it's probably because my mind tends to be confusing. Regardless, the point is the same. I was focusing on how to log my run.

It almost immediately hit me. This is what we can do in other areas of life as well. We begin doing a certain activity, get into a routine, so that we can grow in a certain area. But at some point along the way, we begin to focus more on what we're doing and can actually lose focus on why we're doing it.

Let's look at one spiritual application.

Do you pray? Do you read the Bible? Why do you do those things? Hopefully you do those things because you want to grow spiritually, in your walk with the Lord. You want to grow in your faith. Have you ever tracked this? Have you ever allowed prayer and/or Bible reading to become a "check-list" item? You know, something you do to say you've done it. But you don't do those things to satisfy a to-do list, right? You do them to grow. But instead of focusing on seeing that growth, you begin to focus on the activity that is meant to help you achieve your goal.

Further into my run another thought hit me. This time it was as I was taking a selfie while running. Again, I was losing sight of what mattered most. I allowed this run to become an opportunity to show people that I was running. While there is a good level of accountability this can provide, the motive what probably more of me wanting people to see that I was running.

Let's go back to that spiritual application.

Do you sit down with a Bible and cup of coffee so that Instagram or Facebook knows that you're doing your devos (short for devotionals, which is a common word used to incapsulate the idea of praying and reading the Bible)? I'm not saying it's wrong to post photos in these moments. I'm just suggesting that we check our motives.

So I encourage myself and you today. Let's not get so caught on what we're doing but remain focused on why we're doing it. It's possible to do the right things for the wrong reasons. It's also possible to do the wrong things for the right reasons. I want to do the right things for the right reasons today.

Thank You

This is probably our shortest blog posts, but it's also one of our most important ones.

Polly and I visited a partnering church last night for a service. We were on the stage during the time of praise and worship. As I looked out at the crowd of people in this church which has supported us from early on, this thought came to me:

When some people think about missionaries they think about sacrifice. They think about the sacrifices that missionaries make in order to serve their respective fields. They think of how missionaries leave family and friends and livelihoods behind. They think of how missionaries give up the feeling of control and stability regarding their finances. And it's true...missionaries do make sacrifices.

But as I continued to look out at the people in that church, my thoughts turned to the sacrifices they made. Many people in that room give generously of their time to pray for missionaries and finances to help missionaries do what they do. Specifically, these people in this church helped us get to Costa Rica and will help us get to Bolivia. And they have sacrificed to do it.

I have no doubt many make other sacrifices as well, but it was these sacrifices that I was thinking about. The sacrifices that helped us. The truth is that we couldn't have made any of our sacrifices if they (and many others) hadn't made their sacrifices first.

After the service last night, we were approached by a family (Polly and I went to school with the dad, who wasn't there last night). They wanted to tell us that they pray for us regularly. Specifically the 5 year old son always wants to pray for us and wanted to meet us. It was such a sweet, humbling moment that I had to take a photo with them:

So with that truly humbling thought in mind, we want to say a big THANK YOU! to everyone who has made a sacrifice in any area of life on our behalf to make our missions work possible. So if you have given a single penny or a split second in prayer or a few moments to care about us in reading our blogs, newsletters, updates or in sending us a word of encouragement, thank you! We appreciate you!!! May the Lord bless you and increase to you many times over for all you have offered on our behalf!

A Couple of Trains and a Lesson on Trust

During my morning run, I stopped to take a few photos while on a bridge over the Mystic River. While taking a photo, I noticed an orange line train crossing another bridge over the Mystic. Then I saw another coming from the opposite direction. They were heading toward each other.

In this photo, if you look really closely, you can see the two trains heading toward each other just as they are about to...

Okay, let's be real. We all know that these trains were not going to crash. They were on different tracks. Although I knew they weren't going to crash, I couldn't help but think about how they looked like they could.

As I continued running, a couple thoughts came to mind which both ultimately teach a lesson about trust. I want to share those thoughts with you now.

1. Trust the Conductor

The trains looked like they could have crashed from where I was standing. But there were conductors on board each train who knew that they were on the right track, so they knew they wouldn't crash. And it's unlikely that anyone on the train even realized there was another train until it was passing. It's also unlikely that anyone worried that they were going to crash. Why? They trusted the conductors.

God always knows what is best for us. He is our great Conductor, guiding us along the right train tracks. And while trains really can crash and train conductors can make mistakes, God is perfect. We can always be confident and know that He will take good care of us.

But sometimes, we think we can figure things out better than God, our Creator, can. We think that our plans will be better than God's plans. We think the other set of train tracks look better. So we switch to the other tracks and...CRASH! We make choices every day. But we need to make sure that the choices we're making are according to God's will and plan for our lives. We need to trust Him!

Did you know there's potentially another problem with going against God's will? Think about it...if we're doing the wrong things, then perhaps whatever we're doing was meant for someone else. Our plans crash into each other. For example:

We want Job A. But God knows that Job 1 would be better for us. We still decide to go with Job A because we think it will be better. We trust ourselves over God. Now we're doing Job A (which won't be as good for us as Job 1) and the person who should be doing Job A is left to look elsewhere.

Maybe it's not that drastic...but maybe it is. Regardless, our decisions have consequences: some good, some bad. And sometimes those consequences impact other people.

So, we should always want what God wants for us. It has been my experience that when I have had a plan for something and God has led me a different way, I have always ended up looking on it (whether sooner or later) realizing that God's way was the better way.

We need to trust God as He leads us.

2. God's Perspective is Perfect

Another thought I had was about perspective. From my perspective, it looked like the trains could have crashed. The problem was that my perspective didn't have all the facts and information available to it. There were different sets of tracks on that bridge, but I couldn't see them.

That's a problem with perspective: we don't always have the best one. In fact, we really never have the perfect perspective. How often have we held an opinion about something or made a decision about something only to learn later that we were operating with the wrong perspective. But God does have a perfect perspective! Always!

God has all the information, all the details. He sees and knows everything. I don't. So His perspective of any situation is the perfect one. I would rather trust His perfect perspective over my imperfect one. He sees the big picture. He knows what we need and when.

Trust God

We can't steer our own train. We don't have a perfect perspective. The solution to each fact is the same: we need to trust God!

We are so grateful to those who have taken time to pray for us as we have been walking through this transition. Thank you so much if you have prayed for us. We spent the last 3 days of focused prayer asking God to answer some specific prayers. Last night as I was praying for the final time during the 3 days of focused prayer, I felt like the Lord put something on my heart: that we need to just trust Him because He knows what we need and when. He will take care of us. He has the answers. I felt such a peace.

As I was running today, before I even came upon the trains, I kept singing a line from a song (not even a Christian one) over and over again: "When one door closes, I pray one more opens." I was thinking about how we need to accept God's answer, even when it's a "No" and He closes a door. Because I know that He will open a different door will will prove to be better in the end.

So we don't have all the answers to our requests from the past 3 days. But we know that when God gives us the answers, they will be the right ones. We will trust Him!