An Autumn Death

       

It is truly a grand thing that happens in fall; the beauty that comes from dying, the splendor that is accompanied by surrender. What a glorious thing to die and be beautiful while doing so. God is good to give us a picture of what it looks like to die to self. It is a picture of grandeur and guts. 

This of course is not for the tree to choose, but for us, it is a decision. I have been contemplating this fall, this annual autumn that I find myself in, the very choice to die to self again and again. Given the needed visual, I continue to see God growing me, by “dying” me. He gives us the choice to follow Him “unto death.” This is by no means easy and it is a daily thing we must do. But I, like many of you, desire to become as nothing, I must decrease, so Christ may increase.

I am grateful for another autumn to see what God is killing in me, so that I might resemble more of my Lord. What an awesome sight to see how God can use dying to reveal the beauty of true life. A life not bent on money, things, experiences, connections, accolades, position, power, or prestige, but a life dead to self and alive in Christ. 

We have a reminder every fall to re-evaluate our life, or more appropriately our death. To observe what we missed the year before or what we were unwilling to let fall deliberately to the ground. Grateful for the time of reflection. 

Let us see the glorious beauty in dying. 

Calculating... 3, 2, 1

It is Sunday evening and we just had an amazing day with some friends who are heading to the Mission Field of Spain. They will be working in Santiago at the end of the Camino Trail and are ready to go as soon as their Visas are approved, hopefully within the next few weeks. It was great to see them and to see the anticipation on their faces. We also already had a call scheduled with our Area Director and also great friends who are serving in Jinja, Uganda. We attended orientation with both of these couples a little over two years ago. While our planned departure was much later than both of them due to our family dynamics at the time, we are at a place where we really...really want to be in Zambia and continue the work that God has asked us to do.

So I started thinking about where we are and what it is going to take to get us to Zambia by the end of the year. We have made great strides over the past couple of months in gathering partners for this ministry and would love to see this continue. Based on this, I did some calculating. How many more people do we need per week to join our team? The pictorial graph attached below shows that, once all of those (people) have been spoken for, we will be ready to leave. As you can see, we only need 47 more people to join our team. That's less than 1 person per day between now and the end of November. If you have been thinking about joining us would you consider pulling the trigger today? We would consider it such a blessing to have you as part of our team. As Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians in chapter 4 verse 17,

"Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit." ESV

We would love to have you share in the blessings that will come from this ministry.

To join our team, either click on the picture above or click the link below. Thank you in advance! Together, we can bring Jesus to the community of Chibolya in Chongwe, Zambia.