Friends, Family, and Partners in the Gospel of Christ,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I write to you with much joy over what God is doing in my life; it is hard to imagine that a year ago I was in Haiti. Thank you to everyone who through your prayers, financial support, and great encouragement made that trip and the work that God did there possible. It continues to bless me as I adjust to returning to my own culture with eyes and a heart that has been forever changed.
When I last wrote to you I was beginning school at Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS). Well, the year is almost over, and God has confirmed in so many ways that WTS is where he wants me. It is a very academic seminary, so at times it has been difficult to remember that I am learning about GOD who is definitely NOT an academic exercise. But through great friends, like my roommate Aaron, and the lessons I learned in Haiti, He has been keeping me very close to him through the last year. In fact, He has been constantly blowing my mind through my classes and my professors. The concept of the “Kingdom of God” and all that entails has been at the forefront of my mind. As Christians, we are citizens of a new kingdom, and this impacts everything about our life. It has been stretching as God has pointed out to me areas that I am continuing to cling to and how I need to live by grace and not by fear (see Romans 8 for Paul’s mind-blowing discussion of this).
Apart from seminary, I have been blessed by being involved at my church. From praying with some amazing people on the Vine Prayer Team to having the great privilege of co-leading a Sunday school time for 18-25 year olds, I have been challenged to put into practice those things that I am learning in my classes. God has also been very gracious to me by giving me a part-time engineering job which helps immensely in keeping the loans down. All around it seems God has been showering me with blessings.
On a sadder note, my Grandfather was diagnosed with cancer this spring. It has spread throughout his body, and there is not much the doctors can do. But even this sadness comes with great joy, for over Easter weekend, my Grandpa gave his life to Christ! What the cancer intended for evil and death, God intended for life everlasting! Easter was a very special day of celebration for my family, the resurrection of Christ and the new-life of my Grandpa. Praise God! Please keep him in your prayers, that God would ease his pain and be close to him in these last months. The picture at the left is our family easter service by the lake shore in Tennessee, with my grandfather being second from the left.
That is a bit of where I am at in my journey as God leads me to His mission field. There has been no clear direction as to where in the world He wants me to go, but I have felt a pull toward working with Muslims. Please pray that over the net few years God would give me his direction in His time. Also, pray about where God would have me involved in His ministry here while I am at seminary. Some possibilities have begun to emerge, so pray that God would open and close doors as He so desires.
Another reason I am writing is to invite you to partner with me on two opportunities God has provided this summer. First, for two weeks in June I will be returning to Haiti to encourage the people that I met there and to continue to assist in helping the Haitian people find water, both physical and spiritual. Three of us will be flying down between June 9th and the 23rd where we will stay with Bruce and Deb Robinson, the missionaries I lived with before. As of now, we will be helping to design a few irrigation canal structures that will help bring much needed water to crop gardens that are a source of food and income for the community. They have already built a dozen of these canal structures and have had great success.
The second opportunity is to lead a team of people during the first week of July to Slidell, Louisiana where we will help Faith Bible Church put on a week of vacation bible school and a block party. Homes are not the only things that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. This will be a time to rebuild the lives of these children through laughs, love, and the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 10 says, "Jesus said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these'...And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them." Jesus still desires to have the children come to Him, a
nd he needs us to be his arms to hold them and hands to bless them.
Would you partner with me in these two opportunities? I beg for your prayers. God has continually impressed upon me the need for prayer. When we humbly recognize His power, He is so pleased to release it upon us so that only He receives the glory.
In Him,
Ben
