Sharing the gospel in the process...

Last weekend my 81 year old uncle called me for the first time in my life. I lived with him for a year back in the mid-90's and we are on good terms, he just never picks-up the phone to call. At first he left a message without any details and, assuming the worst, I called him back as soon as I got it. He was looking for information about a hip replacement for his girlfriend and thought I could help.

When the call first came through I was instantly nervous that it was going to be an announcement about some terminal disease...I figured he was calling me to tell me he was going to be dying soon. The prospect of his death was scary and sad for me on many levels. He is the last living Uncle on my mom's side of the family and from what I can tell he has no faith in God in any way, shape, or form.

Once we were chatting for a bit I mentioned our trip to Africa and he asked me, in a mocking way, if I thought that the end of the world was near (this is a topic he often would ridicule me about when I lived with him in LA). I told him that I did not know, and that there seems to be a lot of worry about the end of the world but not about the end of our individual lives. He laughed that off a bit and didn't take my bait...I couldn't get him to grab the hook that would take us into a chat about death and eternal security.

None the less, I have decided to write him a letter sharing with him the key elements of the gospel. He has never been very open to these types of chats, and I am nervous about his response, but I felt led to write the letter so I am sending it today.

Please pray for my uncle Paul in LA...that the letter will hook him on Jesus!

Study Time...

Its time to study. There is a 20 page outline, single-spaced, cross-referenced, and with a myriad of Bible verses that we will need to know inside-and-out while we're in Africa. The African pastors are hungry for the Word of God and will listen attentively to the Bible being taught for hours on end.

Unlike the U.S., there are not many places to which a pastor can go for intense Bible training...that is where Equipping Pastors International comes in! Pastors like Phil regularly meet with indigenous pastors overseas to hold Bible teaching conferences that supplement the other small amount of training they receive.

Tonight we are the students. Between now and our departure in July Phil is going to be teaching us the same content we will be helping to share in Uganda and Kenya. In small chunks at a time he will take us through the lessons line-by-line, step-by-step.

This is actually our second time through much of this material. It is the same teaching we received in our pre-marital counseling 13 years ago this summer! How exciting to share with others the keys to the door to our marital house.

Plane tickets...

Tomorrow the plane tickets will be reserved! This past Sunday we had the Smuland's over for some planning discussion and trip dreaming. We'll be in Entebbe, Uganda for the first week and Mt. Kenya for the second. We'll be gone a total of 19 nights.

If you are reading this and have not received a prayer/support letter please let me know! I probably don't have your most current address.

Keep praying!