New Member to the Family

I said in the last post that a new member had been added to the family and left it at that. I have been waiting aproval from my boss to give you any further details because of security issues and safety for the man. Fortunately he did give me the go ahead to post more details so here you go! The following is the student's recap and video tesimonial of the experience. Praise Jesus!

Dreams and Visions

Often times in life the task that is most difficult and challenges us most, proves to be most worthwhile or rewarding in the end. This past week I received what was to me a difficult and challenging task; I was to travel to another city and live with a local family for a week to practice my language.

When I first heard that I was going to do this, I immediately knew that it was going to be challenging for me but I felt ready for it. My readiness suddenly changed once I got on the train. As I sat silently on the train, I became very homesick and many thoughts began to run through my head. I felt inadequate, weak, helpless, and like a failure, wishing that the train would take me to my home instead of to a foreign home.

My attitude was very much wrong and I knew it, so I had to confess before the Son right there on that train. I laid everything at His feet and asked that He would give me strength to be faithful to Him, to be a light in a dark place, and that this week would be something for me to write home about. He heard and here I am writing home about my week.

Staying with the host family was still difficult and uncomfortable at times but I had a peace that surpasses all understanding. Midway through the week I had an opportunity to share the truth with the man of the house in depth and it went well. After much discussion, we came to a point where he understood some but didn’t agree with who the Son is. The next day went by and we didn’t talk much about it and I was going to be leaving early the next morning, so that night I asked that the Son would reveal himself. When I woke up in the morning the man I was staying with looked like something had changed inside of him. He proceeded to tell me about a dream that He had last night. Although it was difficult to understand every part of the story because of the language bearer, he said the Son came to him proclaiming “follow me” and after telling me of his dream all he could say was “I must follow this man”.

Although the task of staying with a host family was very difficult and very challenging for me, it proved to be worthwhile and rewarding. In fact, I stand silent trying to think of anything better!

Ministry Update

In the past few months Cafe 1040 has been extremely busy and some amazing things have happened. There have now been over 40 students that have gone through the program, we have been to many different conferences, college campuses, had a fundraising cruise, sent 11 students for the current semester and this just in, a new member has been added to God's family. (See 11 students and their luggage above)

Currently I am working with 3 students to get them prepared to leave for North Africa, on the 14th of August. I have completed all the screening process, which involves a phone interview with the student, a phone interview with the parent's, a phone interview with the pastor and an employer reference check. Once the screening process has been completed and the student looks like a good candidate, we move to the Pre-Go training process.

This process consists of making sure that all the logistics are taken care of, from immunizations to passports. The main part of this training is support raising. This is where I walk the student step by step through their support raising, from writing the support letter, to having one on one support meetings, all the while training them for their future in missions. All this is done through random phone calls at any hour of the day and the structured conference calls that we have to make sure that the entire team is on the same page and that we are building the team and team unity through this process.

Some of you may not know this, but the number one reason that missionaries will leave the field to return home is other missionaries. So, as you can see, this team building is key for the success of their time overseas.

Last but not least, I am putting together my schedule for the months of August and September. I am planning on visiting many colleges and universities in the South East, attending a few conferences, and meeting up with a couple ministries that we have partnerships with to help keep up relations. I'll keep you posted when plans are more concrete.

Until then....

-Mike

Just Call Me Peter

I mentioned in an earlier post that I attended a career fair at UGA. At the fair I was one of very few Christian organizations represented, very different from the other conferences and fairs that I have been to. All of them were at Christian schools, so I was surrounded by people that were like minded, I was very much salt among salt. At UGA it was very much the opposite, for the first time i was light in the darkness and it was my time to shine. Unfortunately I failed misterably, well at least the first three oppotunities that I was given, which is why I titled this entry "Just Call Me Peter" because Peter, a disciple of Jesus, was given three chances to admit that he was a follower of Christ and all three times he denied it. Just watch the movie if you don't believe me, or I am sure you could read about it somewhere.

Allow me to explain. I actually didn't deny the fact that I was a Christian, it wasn't like someone came up to me and asked if I was a Christian and I said no, but given the chance to say that Cafe 1040 is a Christian ministry, I left that part out, therefore I was lying by omission.

A lie by omission as defined by www.choice101.com/19-lies.html#LiesOfOmission :
A lie of omission is a method of deception and duplicity that uses the technique of simply remaining silent when speaking the truth would significantly alter the other person's capacity to make an informed decision.

After I had done this I was reminded in scripture, ""But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in Heaven." Matthew 10:33 I immediately took some time to repent, asking God to forgive me for what I had done. I called my boss and asked him if he would pray with me also, for courage and strength to not backdown when the question came again. After I took time to pray and ask for forgiveness, God blessed me. I had so many opportunities to share about what we do and not once did I leave out that we were a Christian ministry.

Being open and straightforward afforded me the opportunity to have a great conversation with a Hindu girl. She had all kinds of questions and ideas of her own about Christianity. She had already been to a few of the other Christian booths that were represented and had a lot of resentment towards them for the way they treated her. She said that one of them took one look at her and said "We only hire Christians," and didn't say anything else to her. She wondered why all Christians act like they are better than everybody else and act like we belong to a special group and if you are not a part of that group than you are nothing.

Why does she feel that way? What can we, as Christians, do to change the way that she and a lot of other people feel about Christians and Chrstianity?

God Doesn't Always Use Who We Think He Will

This week I attended the UGA Non-Profit and Government Career Fair. I was one of about 10 Christian organizations that were represented at the fair, the rest were secular or some form of government agency. From the very beginning I had a bad attitude about attending this conference. I wondered why we would want to be representatives at something like this and felt like because it wasn't a Christian school that there wouldn't be anybody interested in a mission's ministry and that it was a waste of time. You see, most of the conferences that I have attended have been at Christian schools and had a mission’s emphasis of some kind. Most of the students that come to the booth, are either interested in missions or at least see the importance of it. Being at UGA I figured that I might talk to a few people and that one or two might be interested in what we do, but would not be serious about any positions that we have to offer, boy was I wrong.

As far as conferences go this was a very successful one. I talked to countless numbers of people that were very interested to hear about what Cafe 1040 is and what it is that we do. The Christian students that I talked to were very excited to see the amount of Christian organizations represented and said that it was very encouraging to see us there. Six girls that I spoke with filled out our "Staff" cards, which are cards that we have them fill out if they are interested in a potential staff position with Cafe 1040. I even had some of the students show interest in taking part of the actual program once they had graduated. None of them filled out any cards, so I guess that it is up to God whether or not they follow through or not.

So, what I thought was going to be a waste of time proved to be a very good use of time. And, once I again I am reminded that God doesn't always do things the way that I would do them or use who I think He will use to accomplish His will.

Engaging in the Battle

Have you ever felt like being a Christian wasn't what you thought it was supposed to be like? Or even, dare I say, thought that being a Christian was boring. Well, there have been times in my life where that is what it felt like, I just didn't get it. I would read about people who were "on fire" for Christ and had no idea what that meant. Or hear about people's "walks with God" going so well and wonder if I even had a walk.

Can anybody out there relate?

Well, I think that I now know what the problem has been, I think that I have gotten to the bottom of having a walk with God or being on fire for God. My problem had not been that I had not gotten it or that it was boring, it was that I had not put my feet to the ground.

Think about this. You are a soldier and you are in the desert in the middle of nowhere. All you do, all day, everyday, is train for the war. You have target practice to make sure that you will be able to hit your target when the time comes. You do all kinds of physical training to make sure that your body is in tip top condition for the running and crawling that you will have to endure. You eat the right foods, you read the right books, you do all the necessary training to be the best of the best when it comes to being a soldier. But, you never actually get to fight in the war, they never actually call your unit, and all you get to do is train. Over time the training starts to seem futile. You become complacent and even forget what you are doing in the middle of the desert and why you even started training in the first place.

Now, let's equate that with being a Christian. Everyday you wake up, and train for the battle, the spiritual battle. You wake in the morning and you pray. After you pray, you read the Bible. Throughout the day you try your best not to say anything that might be offensive. Then you go to your fellowship group where you interact with all your Christian friends and discuss what God has been teaching you. In your spare time you memorize scripture. Sunday comes, you go to church, making sure that you put your tithe in the offering plate, bowl or bucket. You do this day in and day out trying to become the best Christian that you can be. But, you never actually engage in the battle. Over time all this stuff seems to seem useless, you ask yourself where this abundant life is that Jesus talks about in the Bible? You become complacent and even forget why you became a Christian and even if you still believe in this whole thing at all.

Fortunately for us, we don't have to wait for our unit to be called to engage in the battle, because we already have been given orders by our Commanding Officer to fight. I know that you all know where I am going with this, that's right, Matthew 28:18-20.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and one earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

What are you waiting for.....?

The Beginnings of Blogging

I am not sure that I am doing this right. I am pretty internet, computer, technologically illiterate. My friend once referred to his computer as "the fancy light box that sat on his desk." As the times are changing I am starting to feel more like my friend. Except I would probably have to refer to mine as "the fancy white notebook that sits on my lap," since that is where you will find my iBook most of the time.

Ok, now that I have rambled about this nonsense, let's see if this worked.