Monday, December 29, 2008
Under Two weeks...
We are big time finishing the packing details this week and would love your prayers...
THANKS!!!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Humble me...
Click on this link!
Monday, December 22, 2008
21 days in counting...
Here is the formal schedule (weather pending):
December 24 - Attending Crossroads Bible Church Christmas Eve service
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Garbage Day + Snow = Happiness

Saturday, December 13, 2008
Satisfied...
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
I found this picture as I was going through all our 2008 pictures to try and get a photo book done before we leave. I was just struck by the serenity and the beauty of this picture. It was taken early, before my kids had awoken and the day had begun. I was able to just be quiet before the Lord that morning. As I look ahead to Zambia, I love this idea of being satisfied in the love of the Lord, whether it be looking out at Puget Sound in Washington or the wall around our house in Zambia. May His love alone satisfy and may it lead us to singing and gladness despite whatever our days may hold.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
A month away...
Thanks!!!
Saturday, December 06, 2008
A new year and a new start...

Looking for a read through the bible program for the new year... Look no further than this link here at Bible Gateway.com for a 4different tracks that can be done online or printed out... Now is the time to being planning for a new year and a new start!!!! I am excited for a new year and a new change to grow in the Word!
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Sharing the ministry...
We have been pretty busy these days preparing for Zambia. I have had a lot of fun sharing the ministry with a variety of groups this past week. I say I because of having some sick kids this past week, so we has mostly become I much to 'I's dismay. I shared our ministry with a couple of groups in Idaho this past weekend and then came back to Bellevue and we shared with some supporters. I then shared with a home fellowship group of believers from India. I am preaching this weekend in Canada and then we will have about three weeks to pack before Christmas. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers as we prepare to head back to Zambia.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Sharing about Zambia...
Monday, November 24, 2008
forty-eight days in counting...
It feels a bit like deja vu to be counting down like this again... But, it is our life as the "take to Zambia" pile begins to grow in my office and we find ourselves speaking more, setting up get togethers and sharing about ministry with our supporters.
I preached last Sunday at Oikos Fellowship in Bellingham, sharing a bit about Zambia and more about how God completely rocked my world in Zambia. I called it a "preachimony." It was fun to have some former students from Crossroads there as well. The pastor, Pete Williamson, will be coming over to Zambia in April to teach at a pastors conference. I am super excited to have him come out and see what God is doing in Zambia as well as be able to teach and preach to my pastor friends. I am sure that he will find out as I did, that you will learn a lot more from them than you could ever teach them. I covet this experience for every pastor...
And then tonight we got together with a few of our Bellingham faithful supporters and friends to share about our first nine months in Zambia and what the next two years hold for us. (In case you haven't heard, we are going back for an additional two year term. What life will look like after that is unknown to us right now but thankfully God knows...)
This weekend we head to Spokane/Idaho area to see family and friends and share with two churches there. We will be back in Bellevue the following week meeting with more friends and supporters.
I will preaching at Northview Community Church on December 7 in Abbotsford, Canada where my good buddy Jeff Bucknam is the lead pastor.
It is amazing how fast the time has gone by here in the U.S. The family is healthy and excited to get back to Zambia. But, the time here in the states has been very good for our family. And not just for our family, but God is putting us in touch with families and college students who are interested in joining us in Zambia. That is exciting.
Thank you for your prayers for us as we come into our final month of our furlough. Thank you for your support of us this past six months.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Africa in Bellingham
This Micah project consists of four things:
We are having a three week food drive to stock our food pantry for about needy families in our community.
We are raising money for caregiver kits through Worldvision to send to Zambia. They are small kits that help trained caregivers the medicine and the training to hep those suffering with HIV/AIDS in various villages.
We are doing a sustenence diet for a week, which consists of rice, beans, an apple and some oatmeal, to better empathize with the hungry and option-less in the majority third world.
And, we are doing a World Vision Experience tour at Western Washington University where you walk through a life of a young child in an African village.
It has been a joy to be a part of helping plan it and think through the different scenarios because of our experiences in Africa. I had a chance to preach today as well. You can hear it online at northlakeonline.org sometime later this week.
I am encouraged by our church and its hunger to love not just with words, but with action and in truth, to love orphan and the widow, and to open their heart to the heart ache that awaits them.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday, November 02, 2008
A trip to Portland
We had a chance to share about Africa during their weekly shared meal after the service, showing a video as well as answering questions. As for the picture above, Stephanie and the girls sang Takwaba (their favorite African worship song) and the other picture is a game that our kids were playing with the Knifong kids appropiately called "10 days in Africa." We arrived home at around 7:30 pm and the kids were begging to go to bed. I like that when that happens:)
Monday, October 27, 2008
"leave" - ing well
I was thinking...
So, a friend wrote something the other day in response to a blog... He said that the 20's were better than his teen years, his 30's better than his 20's, and now his 40's are better than his 30's... I thought that was insightful and I have been mulling it over for a few days. That life gets better as you grow in love and understanding despite the fear of the unknowns and the trials that knowingly await is an encouraging fact. I am not sure if this always true, but it seems to be true for me. I love my wife more today than when I first met her. My heart swells with love for my kids and they only get more fun and cute and quotable the older they get (o.k., I know they aren't teenagers, yet:). My understanding of God and life and people and the Bible grows... It gets better.
So, I, during this fall season, as the trees are changing colors, I have found myself more and more just in awe of their beauty. And I realized today, that I really think I grow in my appreciation of the beauty of God's creation. I notice and appreciate the leaves more today than I did last year. I think that is cool. I hope that trend continues.
But all this leads me to another thought which is actually a question... Why do the leaves turn the most beautiful colors when they are dying? Why is that the most beautiful and amazing the leaves will ever be is when their days are at their end? And, I was thinking that is not only what I want in my life, but I what I also look forward to. I want to finish well. But I want to finish well, knowing that my end is just my beginning. It seems there are so many cases in so many arenas of people not finishing well. I see marriages that started out with so much promise end in divorce. I see athletes do stupid things and end poorly. I am thinking of like Woody Hayes whose whole career was tarnished by hitting a player at the end of his career or that soccer player Zidane whose last game ever during the world cup, he lost his temper and head butted a guy. He was thrown out, his team lost and he never played again. I see politicians who have brilliant careers go out in flames because of affairs or corrupution.
But there are some people who end more beautiful. I think of Billy Graham or Mother Teresa or mentor of mine, Sherb Heath or even the Apostle Paul. He wrote, " 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." I think that finishing well really is a matter of living well, not for the present, but for the future. I am still relatively a young man and I can't talk about what I don't know, but I am sensing that the ones who end well are the ones who know their end and they approach with joy and confidence and joy. It changes how they live. They live like Heaven is real.
C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
I think when we focus on this world and we are afraid of death, we die early, like when a leaf falls off in spring. No matter what the age, I think beauty comes in when we live life for eternity, no matter how old we are. And so there are two things from that: 1. Back to this idea that life just keeps getting better. I think that is a small taste of Heaven, and a gift from our Father. In Heaven, we don't get bored, but we worship and learn and serve and love. It just keeps getting better. And 2, our love and desire for Heaven is the secret for finishing well here, however long our lives last...
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Is He really enough?
All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough
You are my supply
My breath of life
And still more awesome than I know
You're the coming King
You are everything
And still more awesome than I know
All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough
You're my sacrifice
Of greatest price
And still more awesome than I know
You're the coming King
You are everything
And still more awesome than I know
More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough for me
Friday, October 10, 2008
Reflections on my Zambia Trip



Wednesday, October 08, 2008
My bags are packed deja vu
Thanks for your prayers... I have lots to report!
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Say hello to the Puff Adder outside our gate!
Untitled from Steve Allen on Vimeo.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Hot and Tired...
A two day retreat/strategic meeting starting tommorrow... Please remember me!
Thanks!
Steve
Thursday, October 02, 2008
From Home to Home...
We have been home for four months today. I have had many people tell me that they miss my blogging in Africa. My daughter Kamryn when writing in her blog one day after being home said, “Writing in America isn't as interesting as it is in Africa.” And, I mused on that for awhile. I decided my next blog would be “Living a life that is blogworthy (no matter where you are.)” What does it look like to live a blogworthy life? What does it mean to live a blogworthy life? Exciting, daring, adventurous, interesting? Is it just that Africa is different, is it because we long to live different or is it more?
There has been a ringing phrase in my head lately... “Don't waste His grace.” Wasted Grace. What is wasted grace? Here is how Paul defines it in1 Cor. 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
Paul was saved and made holy and made an apostle by the grace of God. Was Paul going to waste that gracious gift lavished upon him? He said, “It is not without effect” which means it was not in vain, or it wasn't wasted. As a result he worked harder than any of the other apostles, but even that ability and passion to work was grace. What does wasted grace look like? It looks our kids who after receiving a gift play doesn't say thank you and then plays with the box instead of the gift.
Eugene Peterson says it even better:
1 Cor. 15:10
But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I'm not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven't I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn't amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it.
Wasted grace is forgetting who we really are (sinners with no hope) who are lavished with gifts to bring God glory and then doing nothing with those gifts. What do we have to show for His grace? What ongoing difference has grace made in our lives?
I think this is the start of living a blogworthy life. We can take no credit for it and we can't plan for it, but it is God working in us to give us life and then use that life to bring life to others...
I am heading back to Zambia and you can be sure that you will hear about it. May grace lead us whether in Zambia or America or wherever he leads us to live a life that others want to read about...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
A surprise worth mentioning...
It has been great being back home for a number of reasons. When you are away, you know that you will miss out events both big and small and that is just part of the sacrifice. But, when events happen (like a baby, for example) and you are home, it is fun to be a part of the fun moments that you would have missed out on, like today, for example.
Sam Mullen is a young man who I had gotten to know through the college ministry during my first year in Bellingham. Though he was going to W.S.U., we often met together during his trips home and enjoyed a great friendship despite the distance. So, you can imagine that I was pumped when Sam, now a college grad, knowing I was coming home, asked me to do the premarital counseling with his fiance, Amy. During the counseling, as we were talking about wedding details and what they were looking to do, the idea of a wedding in the midst of their crazy schedules was overwhelming. In passing we talked about doing a surprise wedding, but I didn't really think it was something that they were going to do.. Well, he called me a month ago and said, "We want to do a surprise wedding!" He only told myself so I could help organize the script of the wedding for his dad who was going to officiate the wedding and his brother who lived in Houston. The rest of the people knew that their was going to be a surprise birthday party for Amy. It was brilliant. Sam could talk to all his friends and family about the surprise, he could talk to his wife about the surprise, and everyone, but Amy, was going to be surprised! Sam organized a casual football throwing, outdoor beach BBQ, where everyone else brought the food and BBQ and chairs (and God provided the sun).
After everyone arrived, Sam sent the father in law to get Amy at the Ferry Terminal, where on the walk back, she broke the news to her dad that he was going to walk her down the makeshift aisle in about 15 minutes. And then Sam and I told Marc, his dad he was going to officiate the wedding in about 15 minutes as well. I gave him the service outline with the vows that Sam and Amy wanted and said, "Here ya go!" Then Sam told the mothers... "Surprise! I am getting married:)"
He gathered the 70 or so family and friends together and then shared the "surprise" and the reason why he chose to do this. He shared some personal things about family and then he said this:
Friday, September 19, 2008
More (or less) sports...

Back in the day when Seattle was good at sports (there was a day, wasn't there) when the Mariners tied the record for most wins and Sonics were playing the Bulls for the championship and the Huskies were top 10 in the nation and the Seahawks were in the Super Bowl, there was a skip in this rain soaked state. But things have been gloomy as of late, and a friend made a comment today that this past year has been the worst sports year for our (any?) state ever... The Mariners officially are the worst team in baseball, the Huskies and the Cougars are battling it out for the basement in their division, the Sonics are now the Thunder and the Seahawks are 0-2 (I am still hoping for the best despite 6 receivers out with injury). I am not sure what did it, but I am thinking this article by Rick Reilly might have jinxed us (though I don't really believe in jinxing). I am just glad that life is more than sports and I feel bad for the sport worshippers out there (i.e. Big Lo). If you need a chuckle during this dark time in Seattle sports, read this article and laugh... And thank the Lord their is more to life than sports!
By Rick Reilly
Okay, Seattle, grab a grande, skinny, no-foam, half-caf Espresso Macchiato and let me explain why the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to grind you up like a Sumatra blend in Super Bowl XL.
You suck at sports.
You always have. You make nice motherboards, but you're dweebier than Frasier Crane's wine club. You've had the big three pro sports for 30 years now -- almost 40 for the NBA -- and you have one lousy championship to show for it. Uno. The 1978 Seattle SuperSonics. My goodness, you people have fewer parades than Venice.
What's amazing is, you do college sports even worse. In the 70 years that a mythical national championship has been awarded in college football, the University of Washington has one half of one title: in 1991 (with Miami). Zippo in basketball, baseball, track or field. O.K., the Huskies are good at crew (three women's titles, one men's). Wonderful. Somewhere, three salmon cheer.
Your most famous athlete is a horse, Seattle Slew. Your most famous athletic moment was Bo Jackson's turning the Boz's chest into a welcome mat on Monday Night Football. Your greatest contribution to sports was the Wave, the fan-participation stunt that screams to the world, "We have no idea what the score is!"
And do you know why you stink, Seattle? Because ...
1. You're too nice.
Look at your Seahawks. Your MVP halfback, Shaun Alexander, teaches kids chess. Your scariest player is named Pork Chop. My goodness, last week, you offered valet parking service to reporters at Seahawks headquarters. (Seattle fans: If you see valet parking at Detroit's Ford Field this week, they're trying to steal your car.)
Nearly every five-dollar-steak-tough athlete who comes to Seattle leaves -- Gary Payton and Randy Johnson for instance. Consider Seattle's two favorite athletes -- Steve Largent and Fred Couples. Those guys wouldn't complain if somebody extinguished a Cohiba in their ears. Your sportswriters are more forgiving than Hillary Clinton. If they covered Jeffrey Dahmer, they'd refer to him as "a people person."
You Seattle fans don't just accept mediocrity. You crave it. You support your boys come hell or low water. You show up at the rate of three million a year for the Mariners, who never fail to let you down. Even the stadium sounds cuddly: Safeco Field. You pack the house for the underachieving SuperSonics, led by the NBA's nicest loser, Ray Allen. Your Seahawks went 21 years without a playoff win, and the fans didn't so much as clear their throats. Everybody just goes, "Well, that was fun. Let's kayak!" Hey, you can't spell Seattle without settle.
The whole town is 100% June Cleaver. I once walked into Nordstrom, the Seattle-based department store, and sheepishly asked if I could bring back a shirt I'd bought a month before in another town. The clerk said, "Sir, this is Nordstrom. You could wear it for 10 years, throw up on it and roll down a mountain in it and we'd take it back." Ask that at Neiman Marcus and they call security.
It ain't happening. Walruses don't do triple Salchows, and Seattle teams don't win titles.
2. You're too geeky.
Your owner, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, looks like the kid in high school who always got taped to the goalposts. If Allen wins, will he call all his friends from band camp? Throw his slide rule into the air? Plot his joy on a scatter chart?
Look, your average Seahawks fan drives a Prius. Your average Steelers fan drives a Ford Excursion, which has Priuses in its tire treads. Seahawks fans own poodles. Steelers fans eat them.
3. You're too wet.
Seattle is a great place if you happen to be mold. It just rained 27 straight days and it wasn't even a record. Seattle is basically a lot of guys waiting for a bus with rain starting to seep into their socks. Most kids are seven years old before they realize the umbrella is not an extension of the right arm. No wonder most great athletes leave. Ken Griffey Jr. left, basically saying, "I want my kid to be able to play outside once in a while."
In short, you people are too peaceful and happy in your Emerald City. You ever know anybody from Pittsburgh? You want this Super Bowl. Pittsburgh needs it. You're going to get smoked like a platter of smelt.
(But do you mind if we come live there?)
James 1.27 lived out and made practical...

ZEELAND -- A few years ago, Zeeland doctor Christa Murphy watched a Zambian mother and her young son waste away and die of AIDS.
Not long before the boy died, Murphy looked into the child's eyes."He just stared past me with hollow eyes. My heart was really broken," Murphy said.
Not long after, Christa, 33, and her husband, Rob, 38, decided at least one HIV-positive Zambian child would not suffer the same fate.
Today, they are the proud parents of Isaiah Murphy, 2, a Zambian orphan they adopted in December.
A boy once likely to die by age 3 is now healthy, smiling, and with no sign of the virus.
"There is just a lot of hope when you see him," Christa Murphy said.
The Murphys are to be honored for their commitment today at the White House lawn, part of the annual Angels in Adoption ceremony. Nominated by members of Congress, recipients from all 50 states are recognized for giving permanent homes to children in need.
"When you have a family like this who makes a decision to adopt a child, it just sends out such a positive message," said U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland. Hoekstra nominated the Murphys for the honor.
"People in these other countries, they notice that Americans are not going over and taking the healthy kids."
For the Murphys, their journey toward Isaiah began with a trip to Zambia in 1996. We decided we would like to spend a year somewhere serving in another culture. We ended up in Zambia and just falling in love with the Zambian people."
Nine years later, they were back on another mission trip, this time with two daughters of their own. The Murphy family today includes three biological daughters, Acacia, 8; Christianna, 5; and Katriya, 2.
Christa Murphy, a family practice physician, encountered a woman at a hospital in northwestern Zambia in the late stages of AIDS. The Murphys were there as part of World Medical Missions, the medical arm of the international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse.
"She was lying on her back. She didn't have the strength to sit up," she recalled.
About a month later, the woman's 5-year-old son was admitted with severe malnutrition. He was emaciated, his eyes sunken, his body defenseless against infection.
"It was really too late for him," she said.
In September 2007, Rob Murphy returned to Zambia with a team from Grand Rapids-based Bethany Christian Services.
"I got a call from the orphanage that said they have a little boy. They asked if we wanted to adopt him."
He was able to spend a few hours with him before returning home. Murphy learned his background: Born in June 2006, he contracted the virus at birth. His mother died of AIDS. His father was reported to be unable to care for him.
Left to the Zambian medical system, he would have been lucky to survive past age 3.
But as their adoption date approached, the Zambian government sent out mixed signals about whether it would continue to allow international adoptions.The Murphys boarded a plane in December with no certainty the adoption would happen.
"He was actually the last child adopted out of Zambia internationally at the time," Rob Murphy said.
When they brought him home, Isaiah had 475,000 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood. Thanks to a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs not generally available in countries such as Zambia, the virus today is undetectable.
The Murphys expect a long and productive life for their son.
"His prognosis is very, very beautiful. The data says there is no reason he can't grow up and have a family and not pass HIV on," Rob Murphy said.
The Murphys hope others see the same need they witnessed in the eyes of a child.
"These kids are dying, five a minute every day. We really have to do something," Rob Murphy said.
Friday, September 12, 2008
One step at a time

Some good friends of ours loaned us a standing keyboard while we are in Bellingham. It has been awhile since our girls had played the piano, so they were playing on it all afternoon. Their favorite part of the keyboard is the demo key, where with just one push of a button, an assortment of beautiful songs are played. They have listened to the songs enough to know how can move their hands around the keyboard as if it is them playing. My niece was over this weekend and the girls were "playing" the piano. Her eyes were wide in disbelief that my girls could play the piano this good. It was pretty funny. This afternoon while I was watching Kamryn DEMOnstrate her abilities, I thought to myself, "It will take a long time for you to be able to play that for real." And truth is, she could someday play that good, but she will need to discipline herself greatly to get there.
I was reflecting on that thought later this evening and life really is about small steps in the same direction. We all see the Michael Phelps and the Lebron James and the Tiger Woods, but we don't know the daily discipline that goes on behind the scenes for them to be able to perform at the level that they do. Tonight I was reading an article about a man who went from jail to Yale Law School. The author of the article wrote, "It has been anything but easy. Idarraga will always have to fight his past, to convince those who have not walked in his shoes that they should take a chance on him. He tells kids that the way to keep moving ahead is by having goals and a plan to reach them.“We can learn to define our own goals!” he exclaims. “How do we get there? It begins by taking small, purposeful, consistent, disciplined steps … if you do not learn to define your own future, you already know that it will be defined for you.” He shared in this article that he would study 15 hours a day in the prison library... In Africa, there is a saying that we achieve things in life, bit by bit. I have learned personally that every marathon begins with the first mile. It is the discipline and the small steps and time that allows a person to be able to do something tomorrow that he couldn't have done today.
I fear that we have forgotten this in our spiritual lives. We are either discouraged because we are not what should be or want to be and/or we have forgotten that our spiritual lives are full of daily decisions to choose God's will and not our own. It really is about forgetting what is behind and pressing on towards what is ahead and daily moving forward in light of the great goal of Heaven. It is the discipline of being satisfied in Jesus and serving when no one is watching and recognizing that Heaven is the ultimate goal that changes how we live here. As great as it is to be an excellent piano player or basketball player or whatever else, nothing compares to the rewards that will last forever in heaven. Mayb it is memorizing a book of the Bible one verse a week. Maybe it is serving the poor once a month. Maybe it is starting to sponsor a child. So much can be accomplished for Jesus if we just do it, one day at a time. So, start today, forget what is behind and press on toward what is ahead. Contemplate the greatness of the goal that lies ahead of you. Reignite the fire that God wants to use you to make a difference in this world and that you are part of the big picture. Whatever you do, do it one step at at time, walking in the fullness of His Spirit for the glory of God.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Pastor Leadership Development
This week Tracy laid a foundation of the inspiration of Scripture, a brief overview of the Bible, and expectations for the class. Tracy strongly feels the privilege as well as the responsibility of teaching these men. We look forward to how these men will benefit from as well as use their knowledge to bless their congregations. To God be the glory!
Sunday, September 07, 2008
How exactly to celebrate...

It is pretty obvious that I love sports and really wish they were eternal. I guess what I mean is that in the long run, it really doesn't matter who who won and who lost and what player got this hit or scored that touchdown. But, there are lessons you can learn and insights you can gain and analogies you can draw. So as to justify or satisfy my love for sports and love for eternity and my desire to see them unified as much as possible, I hereby give you another lesson...
So, the Huskies lost a heartbreaker when the a short kick was moved back and it was eventually blocked. And like I said, when I get to Heaven, I won't really care who won or how it happend... But to make it eternal, it reminded me of an interaction Jesus had with the Pharisees. The Pharisees loved talking about the rules and making more rules to keep rules. They were all about rules and laws (just not obeying them). For example, the Sabbath. This was a rule God made for man to help them rest and to set aside time to worship God. It was a rule made for man by God to help man. But the Pharisees started adding more rules to the Sabbath about how far you could walk and not walk and what you could do and couldn't do. They got really mad at Jesus a bunch of times because he would heal people and eat food on the Sabbath. They said he was breaking the laws of Sabbath. But, Jesus understood the difference between the Spirit of the law and the letter of the law. He understand that man weren't made for rules but that the rules were put in place to help man. Jesus said in Mark 2:27 - "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." It is easy as Christians to get so focused on the rules and the doing of this or that that we forget about the point of the rules is to help Christians love God and love people with all our heart, soul and mind and strength.
So, my plea to the referees who watch these kids play their hearts out, don't forget that the rules still serve the game and do not let the the letter of the law determine the outcome of the game. A hold is still a hold, a pass interference is still a pass interference; that is a different thing all together. What we are talking about is why this rule was put in place just 15 little years ago to keep glory hounds giving glory to the team that helped get him there. And may we realize why the law was given, to show us that we are sinful and to give us boundaries, not so that we can create more and more rules, and not because the rules makes us religious. We must see the rules in the spirit that it was given so that we could have opportunities to and the way how to love God and other people.
So, there you have it... Any thoughts?
Saturday, September 06, 2008
ACTION Zambia continues...
Here is a good post from my buddy Brent over in Zambia... It gives you the complexity of what we are dealing with in Zambia...
Pastors Discipleship
On Thursday, Graham and I, along with 10 Zambian church leaders (mostly compound pastors) started a new discipleship program. Over the next year, Graham and I will be leading this group through some material focused on Deepening Our Intimacy With God.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Amazing what a year will bring...
This day last year, September 4, 2008, we were leaving America behind for a new adventure in Africa. Who would have thought that we would be writing this blog from American soil with girl #4 living in our house? We are learning to live day by day, trusting the Lord, and living in His will. Thanks for all your support and prayers for us.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Loving My Child
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Don't let pride kill you.

John the Baptist said it best, "He must become more and I must become less." Today and tomorrow, when you get humbled by something you do or say or don't do or don't say, don't fight it. Just confess your sin to the Lord and say thank you to the Lord that he is continuing to make you available, humble yourself before your wife or husband or friend or boss by saying sorry or admitting you were wrong and then be free.
We all know the proverb, "Pride comes before the fall" and "Honor comes to the humble." Humble yourself under the Lord and HE will lift you up.
May our attitude be as our Savior, our example and our pastor...
Philip. 2:5-11
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
[6] Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
[7] but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
[8] And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death--
even death on a cross!
[9] Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
[10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
[11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Luke and Elise are ALIVE in Africa...



Read this update from Luke and Elise, our good friends and teammates in Africa:
Dear Friends
Greetings from increasingly hot Lusaka, Zambia. I (Luke) wanted to write a quick note and let you know the latest on new ministry opportunities and development with us. As Elise has mentioned in a previous update we have been investigating ways to “mobilize” the churches we are working with. We have realized, during our two years here, that there is much knowledge transfer going on in churches but very little mobilization of the congregation. While knowledge and study of God’s Word is essential, if that knowledge cannot be transferred into practical actions are we really helping the Zambian we came to serve? It to this end that we have been intent on developing outlet ministries that allow different congregation to see the power that exists when we take the knowledge of the Word of God to the streets. This has mainly been in the areas of door to door and open air evangelism, as well as hospital visitation.
The past two weeks I have gone over to the main hospital here in Lusaka, UTH, and spent time visiting with various patients. I always take a member from a local church with me because of the language barrier and most importantly because we are hoping they will catch the vision for themselves. Yesterday, 25/08, we went to the pediatrics ward and all I can say is that I left broken hearted. So many little ones with tubes stuck all over their bodies and anxious mother with looks of desperation covering their faces. We went to visit a little 8 year old boy named Enzo. This little guy has a significant hole in his heart which means you can literally hear his heart murmur without a stethoscope. With or without treatment the diagnosis is that Enzo will probably die in the next year but the hope is that treatment might prolong the inevitable. We went to love on little Enzo and pray a pray for healing in faith, what a privilege to serve this little one in this manner. While there we also meet a little girl name Musonda who, just like Enzo, also had a heart condition as well as problems with her lungs. As we prayed for her she labored heavily to take each new breath in, but when we finished she rewarded us with a big smile. Her mother, a Jehovah’s witness, was reluctant at first to let us pray for her but finally agreed. After we had finished we noticed that all the other patients in the ward has gotten up and left the room we were in. We took this a clear rejection of our prayers and proceed to leave the ward. As we enter the hall, Musonda’s mother came running after us and frantically explained that she was concerned that we had only prayed for her daughter, what? As I asked the Zambians who had come with me to explain what she was so concerned about, they told me that there is still much superstition towards whites (we are sometimes thought to be Satanists) and she believed bad things would happen to her daughter if we only prayed for her. We assured her that we had just prayed for a little boy in the next ward named Enzo but she would not be satisfied until she asked him for herself. These are the little ways satan has bound these people in fear and keeps them from receiving the healing message of Jesus Christ. Continue to pray that the name of Jesus would break down these spiritual barriers and that He would continue to equip us to do battle for His name sake.
We are also still organizing a meeting with the head of all prisons here in Zambian with the hope that we will be granted permission to begin work in the prison system here in the country (amazing opportunities for ministry). I continue to help lead, with my good friend Brent Roberts, a small group ministry with Great Commission Baptist Church. We are excited as we have identified two future leaders in the group and are hoping they will partner together to start a new small group within the church. This is such an answer to prayer as our mission, from the beginning of our small group ministry, has been to see replication happen (praise God). We also began work a couple of weeks ago on creating a curriculum for evangelism that will be piloted at Evangel Baptist Church, which is the church we are currently attending. I have begun a five week program on evangelism with the men’s group each Saturday morning a 7:30 and I am excited at the evident eagerness to see a heart for evangelism fostered at this church. Please pray as the long term vision for this program will be to implement it into all levels of the church—leadership, men’s/women’s ministry, youth programs, AWANA, small group, etc. Elise and I feel that this type of training and educating is why God has called us to Zambia. Also, as you continue to pray for us you might be interested to know that last Tuesday 08/19 the president of Zambia passed away in Paris, France. This has been such an interesting time as the government has decreed that there will be 21 days of national mourning which will end with his burial on my birthday September 3rd. Things remain very stable here but the implementation of the new government would prove to be troublesome. I am sure that violence will be avoided at all costs but as we have seen in other instances bathing these types of situations in prayer is essential. Pray that Zambia would continue to remain a beacon of stability in a somewhat unstable region and that the Christian heritage they claim would continue to be the cornerstone on which this great country rests. FYI—please check out our blog at: www.whitfieldwateringhole.
His Servant
Luke <><
If you want to invest your money in eternity in a way that will reap rewards for years to come, invest in this young couple... They are amazing.And just an added thought: there is nothing they are doing that we can't be doing back in America, per se... And what is even crazier, most of it is biblical:)
Matthew 25:34-40 (NIV)
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. [35] For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, [36] I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
[37] "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? [38] When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? [39] When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
[40] "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'