Glad It Wasn't in a Covered Wagon!

Well...I made it to Oregon.  Fortunately for me it was in an airplane flying high above the mountains and rivers rather than in a covered wagon over the Oregon Trail.  I arrived Saturday evening, and I spoke at Woodburn Evangelical Church on Sunday (I had a short time of sharing in the morning service and I shared my full presentation in the evening service).  The church was wonderful and welcoming and I have enjoyed getting to know my hosts!

Yesterday my hosts for most of time here took me to see Multnomah Falls and Bonneville Fish Hatchery, which are both beautiful and interesting places!

The weeks before this have been quite hectic (hence the lack of blog posts), and I am grateful to have a relaxing week.  On Sunday I will be sharing at Happy Valley Evangelical Church.  Then on Thursday I will be sharing with Jennings Lodge Prayer Fellowship, and Saturday I will be sharing with the Men With Vision group at Oregon City Evangelical Church. I am so grateful for the opportunities to share as well as meet some wonderful people!

During this time I am working on plans to visit Pennsylvania and Kentucky this summer.  I would really like to add some more meetings to each trip, so I appreciate you prayers (and if you know anyone out there who could be a contact for me that would be a huge help as well!).

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Did You Know?

What do you think of when you think about Saint Patrick? A day of green, shamrocks, and leprechauns?  Did you know that he that he was a missionary?

Saint Patrick was born Maewyn Succat, in Roman Britain sometime around the 5th century.   He was from a nominally Christian family.  At 16 years of age he was captured by Irish pirate and forced to work as a slave.  During his captivity he turned to Christ, and his time as a slave was important for his spiritual development.  Working as a shepherd, he devoted a lot of time to prayer.  After six years of slavery he felt that God was telling him that it was his time to escape.  He successfully escaped to England, where he studied more about Christianity. 

During this time he took the name of Patrick.After several years of study Patrick headed God's call and returned to Ireland as a missionary.  He was not welcomed initially, but he didn't give up.  According to records he baptised thousands, converted the sons and daughters of kings, started churches, and set up church leadership.

"In the light, therefore, of our faith in the Trinity I must make this choice, regardless of danger I must make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation, without fear and frankly I must spread everywhere the name of God so that after my decease I may leave a bequest to my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in the Lord—so many thousands of people." - Patrick

(Sorry the text is highlighted in this post...I wasn't sure how to undo it!)

(sources www.wikipedia.com and http://www.crossway.org/blog/2011/03/the-life-and-mission-of-st-patrick/)

Sometimes Community Is a Lemon

                                                    (Lemons in Honduras are green...not my pic)

Community can be as simple as the gift of  a lemon.  I was a recent college graduate, serving as a volunteer in Honduras.  My roommate (another recent college grad) and I both liked to cook, but one night she and I had run out of ideas of what to make.  All the meal ideas we had involved ingredients we that were miles away in town.  

Not knowing what to do, we decided to put off making dinner, and walked the hundred or so yards to the house of a fellow missionary.  She welcomed us with glasses of ice-cold zuko (it's like Kool-aide), and we sat down to chat about how our weeks were going.  Somewhere in conversation, she found out that were out of new recipe ideas.  She asked a couple of questions about what we had on hand, got up, and handed us a recipe and a lemon (the only ingredient we lacked).

I experienced a lot of community that year, but the gift of the recipe and lemon was really symbolic to me.  We could have found the recipe on the internet, and there was actually a lemon tree in our yard, but it was the friendship, not the lemon chicken that turned a discouraging evening around.  A few days later we paid her back with an egg she needed to make cookies.

 If I had to boil community down to one word it would be sharing.  Sharing our time, talents, possessions.  Sharing our lives, both the big events and the day to day joys and struggles.  Sharing our thoughts, hopes, and what is on our hearts.  Sharing our lemons.

5 Fun Facts about Honduras

1)  Christopher Columbus discovered Honduras.  In fact, he gave it it's name.  When he arrived in Honduras, he said "Thank God we found these great depths!"  Honduras means "great depths"

2) Not all Honduras speak Spanish as their first language, or even speak Spanish at all.  On the islands and on the Atlantic coast Garifuna is spoken widely.  In La Moskitia,  it's Miskito.  There are other languages of smaller indigenous groups as well.  The speakers of these languages do not always speak Spanish.

3) If you are buying fruit such as bananas or pineapple, it may very well have grown in Honduras.

4) Honduras is second only to Austrailia in number of coral reefs.  The reefs make it a great destination for snorkeling and  scuba diving.

5)  The Mayan ruins in Honduras are not particularly large, but they are particularly artistic and most of what is known about Mayan hieroglyphics comes from Copan. The ruins of Copan date back over 1000 years ago.

The "In Between": Encouragement from the book of Ruth

Have you ever wondered where God was when you were in an “in between” time? I certainly do. This Sunday in church (I went to Church of the Shepherd in Grove) the pastor spoke on Ruth 2. It was part of a sermon series he is doing on the book of Ruth called “Unseen Redeemer”.

In chapter one of Ruth we get the background story. A man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi left Israel with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion because of famine. They went to Moab, where they settled down, and their sons married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. The Moabite people were related to the Israelites through Lot. The Moabites followed some of the Jewish traditions and had some of the same holidays, but they worshiped Chemosh the “fish god”.

Then Naomi's life went from bad to worse. Her husband died, followed by her two sons. The grief caused Naomi to changer name to Mara, which means “bitter”. Left alone in a foreign land, Naomi resolved to return to Israel.

Her two daughters-in-law didn't want to leave Naomi alone, so they started to go with her. Naomi stopped them, telling them to stay with their families. At Naomi's urging, Orpah returned to her family. Ruth, however, wouldn't budge. She decided to stick with Naomi, and resolved, “Your people will be my people, your God will be my God.” We don't know if Ruth had started following Jewish religious practices when she married into Naomi's family or not. However, this seems to be her moment of real decision.

Chapter two begins with the two of them having reached Israel. They are very poor, and women in those days women had very few options. Rather than begging or becoming a prostitute Ruth resolved to glean wheat. Gleaning is picking up wheat left behind by harvesters. It's hard work and could be dangerous. Ruth, however was determined to do what work she could. She decided to glean in the fields of Boaz, a relative of Naomi's late husband Elimelech.

Boaz noticed how hard Ruth was working and he made sure she was safe and protected. He ordered his men to drop some of the wheat intentionally. And he invited her to join him and his workers for their mid-deal meal. She was curious why he took notice of her, an impoverished foreigner.

When she returned home that night Naomi was curious about how Ruth had managed to glean so much wheat. When Ruth told her about her day Naomi seems to have her first spark of hope in quite some time. She tells Ruth to continue working in Boaz's fields.

So...that's half-way through the book of Ruth. The first chapter was a lot of bad news. In the second chapter we see that Ruth is a hard worker and Boaz is a nice guy who was taken notice of her. Where is God in this story? Is He at work? He is...but we have to wait to see it.

Are you in an “in between” time? Are you waiting for God to move? Waiting to see Him at work? Read the book of Ruth. When you read how the story ends you realize that God was with them and working for them the whole time.     Updates to come :-)

Financial FAQs

From time to time I get questions about the financial aspect of being a missionary.  Here are some of the questions and answers.

Which do you need more: one time gifts or monthly giving?

Both are wonderful!  Right now my greatest need is monthly giving, but one time gifts are also very helpful.

Do you currently receive a stipend/salary?

No, I do not. I've been fortunate enough to be able to keep my living expenses quite low by living with my parents, and use money I had saves previously.  I am currently working full-time at a temporary job which will give a boost to those savings.  When I return again for HMA I will receive a stipend.

Do you get money to help with ministry expenses?

Yes.  I can be reimbursed for expenses that are specifically ministry related.  For instance I can be reimbursed for travel expenses when I got to speak at a church.  When I do a prayer letter I get reimbursed for the cost of printing and postage.  I look for ways to keep these expenses down (sending prayer letters through email, staying with people when travel, etc).

What happens to monthly gifts given right now?

Monthly gifts given now add up just like one time gifts do.  This money helps with ministry expenses, one time needs (plane ticket, visa, language school), and can be divided up and added to monthly giving to meet my monthly needs when I get to Honduras. 

How are you doing on your one time cash needs? 

Really well!  Thanks to your generosity I have enough to cover my one time needs. However, one time gifts are still needed as they help cover current ministry expenses, fund future ministry expenses, and can be divided up and added to monthly giving.

What kinds of things does your monthly needs go toward once you get to Honduras?

Well, there are the really obvious needs (food, housing, phone, internet, etc).  Other basic expenses include things like insurance and paying into Social Security.  Of course it also helps with ministry needs.  It goes a variety of places, but every cent goes toward making ministry possible!

Do you have a copy of your budget?

Yes, I do.  If you would like to see it, let me know, and I can send it to you as well as answer any questions about it that you may have.  Also, I'd be happy to expand upon any of these answers or answer any additional questions that you have.  

How to Pray for Missionaries

     Have you ever promised to pray for a missionary and then not known what to pray for?  It's especially hard if you don't know the missionary very well.  However, I have some suggestions!

5 Things Every Missionary Needs Prayer For

1) Pray for the missionary's spiritual life.  Just like you, missionaries sometimes struggle to find time for prayer and Bible study, see areas where they need to grow, go through stressful difficult times, experience tragedies, etc. If someone was to pray for your spiritual life, what would they pray? Pray the same thing for missionaries! 

2) Pray for their relationships.  Pray for their relationships with their friends, family, and fellow missionaries,  Pray for their relationships with people back in the States.  And pray for their relationships with the people they are ministering to and with.  Healthy relationships are SO important!

3) Pray for the country they minister in.  I wrote a blog post about this last year with some resources to help you do this: http://saritalarson.blogspot.com/2014/09/pray-5-resources-to-help-your-pray-for.html

4) Pray for the ministries they work with to flourish.  Pray for the church(es) and ministries they work with.  Pray for the leadership of the ministies, and for the people who they minister to.  Pray for unity, purpose, direction.

5) Pray for others to come alongside them. Missions isn't just about the people living in another country or in a particular neighborhood.  They can't do what they do without those of you who support them (both financially and in PRAYER).  These partnerships are absolutely essential!

Find Out More

    

     Send the missionary a note.  We love to hear from you!  Tell us what is happening in your lives, and share with us what is on your heart.  Ask us questions about what we do and how you can pray for us.

      It's great to have really specific things to pray for.  Have you signed up to receive their prayer letters?  Do they send out additional prayer request updates?  Give them a call or send them an email. If you don't have any contact information for them, then contact their mission agency, who should be able to get them in contact with the missionary.

     I sent out prayer letters about every two months, and I do additional prayer updates about once a week.  I do the prayer updates through a private Facebook group, and I would be happy to add you to the group if you message me.  I can send you the weekly prayer updates through email if you don't have Facebook.