I just visited our closest Post Office to pick up some stamps. Yikes! The line was going out the door. Most days I would go on the next errand on the list. But I knew it had to be done. I thought maybe I could keep it quick since I was going to use the self check out machine.
I patiently got in line and tried to make small talk with the lady who walked in shortly after I did. She was not too pleasant, stating she simply wanted to weigh her envelop and she continued on complaining until thankfully a postal worker who was floating through the line asked if she could help. The couple in front of me was arguing as they weighed and prepared their Christmas packages. Throughout the other lines were a mix of agitated people and others trying to distract themselves with their phones.
It would be easy to point out how people are missing the point of Christmas, etc. In the midst of this line, I heard a familiar voice. A friend was mid way up the line changing the vibe for those around him. Instead of joining in on the complaining or ignoring it all together he was laughing and joking.
As followers of Christ, we are often labeled judgmental. This season let’s be know for our joy! After all, God is with us.
But Mary didn’t know the story when the Angel appeared to her and said “Don’t be afraid!,”(Luke 1:30, NLT) (Which as I’m sure you’ve thought before, kind of blows the soft cuddly imagery we may have had of angels). Mary was living the story as it was being lived out before her as her son would be called Emmanuel, God with us.
Noreen and I are reminded again and again how this journey to Utah is bigger than us. It started with a call, God’s call, not a phone call. Trust me at times, we responded like Mary, “Me?” Every time we share the stories of God’s leading with people it also builds our faith, not just for finances, but for the incredible plan He has.
I know there is an incredible plan for Chi Alpha and the Kingdom of God in Utah, because He keeps calling people. Over these last few months we’ve asked you to pray for a team of people to go with us. These next few months we want to share with you the stories of the people God is calling to Utah. I know it was God and not Daran or Noreen, because God was already stirring something in these individuals before we even talked about Utah. We’ve already written about Shiloh. But there are more! God is forming the team; former students from youth pastoring days, Chi Alpha students & missionaries we’ve never met, and others!
Like Mary, we don’t know the end of the story in Utah. The story is still being written. Unlike Mary, we’ve read the end of the story. We know that her little baby would grow to be the savior of the world. Yet Mary must have marveled over the attention as Luke 2:18 (NLT) describes ”but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.”
What about you? What is God preparing for you next year, 2012? Like Mary, think about these things God has spoken. Celebrate Christ this Christmas with the joy that will make everyone around you want what you’ve got. There’s a story to write.
“Mommy, why don’t you have any chores to do?” I proceeded to explain to Analiese that if I didn’t do any chores, she would not eat, sleep, or have clean clothes.
I asked Adalynn the other day why she poured a cup of water on her bed, and she proceeded to explain very matter fact, “Analiese’s duck wanted to sleep there.” She couldn’t understand why Daran and I were laughing so hard that we could respond.
They are currently playing with a big box that they have converted into a hide out in the living room. They fight over it all the time. When we told Ayden we were thinking of getting each of them a box for Christmas, he did not think it was funny. Ahhh! The joy of having children!
Hope you enjoyed the little update! We love you all and hope your Christmas is full of the love of Jesus! We appreciate you so much!
Psalms 9:1 “I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.”
We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! We hope you do as well.
So as Noreen and I pause and give thanks, we are thankful for many things. At the top of the list is our friends, family, and churches that are helping us to reach a generation of students.
“I’ve been praying for six months for a Christian group to come to my school!”
I don’t know whose mouth was more wide open, ours or Shiloh’s.
We had only been at Pastor David’s (the church planter) house for fifteen minutes when the pastor from the new Orem church walked in with Shiloh. After the usual small talk, Shiloh asked, “Why in the world did you come to Utah?” We explained that we were looking at a few universities in Utah to launch Christian student groups on campus.
When Shiloh told us his prayer we were nearly as excited as a kid getting his first bicycle on Christmas morning. Yet again we were experiencing the hand of God not just gently leading us but almost shouting.
Even more amazing, Shiloh had only recently come to faith in Jesus Christ as God. Now this former Mormon was working with us as we helped the new church in Orem as well as prayer walking through his university! His enthusiasm was only extinguished when he found out that it would be over a year before we would be back to work full time establishing Chi Alpha at his school.
I was reminded recently of how the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul in Acts 16. Not just once (v. 6), but twice (v. 7) the Spirit kept Paul from preaching in two provinces, Asia and Mysia. Then in verse nine Paul had the “Macedonian Vision” compelling him to leave at once for Macedonia. Then in Phillippi (v. 14) they found Lydia, whose heart was opened by the Lord. So wow, what a coincidence (said with sarcasm). Of course, God knew exactly what the plan was. It was not that God did not care about the people of the two provinces, his timing knew better. Later we know from Acts 19 and Revelation 1 that there were churches in these areas.
From the beginning, God planted the desire in our hearts to launch a new Chi Alpha. The question was where. The nation was wide open, but the Spirit of God led us to Utah and progressively to the university to launch the first Chi Alpha. A school of 32,000+ students, no Christian ministry on campus (unheard of!), and of course in the heart of Mormonism. Now you know why we feel so compelled and are working to raise 100% of our budget. The Spirit compels us. We must go.
As we left Utah that week, Noreen told me, “If Shiloh prayed for a Chi Alpha on his campus, I believe God would turn the world upside down to make it happen.”
So pumped!! Just got done with our one week pre-field orientation! Now we are full time support raising to go to Utah! My heart is there, now I just need to get my body there!
We have this game that we play at the dinner table where we focus on one of us and talk about our favorite things. The other night we focused on Ayden. We asked him what his favorite state was…his answer…Utah! God is preparing their hearts too!
Adalynn’s just had her birthday on September 30th and she is thrilled to put up four little fingers every time someone asks her how old she will is. Look for pictures in our next newsletter. She requested macaroni, pizza, soda, and a beautiful cake for her party. It was quite delicious!
Special thanks to all of you that have supported us since the beginning of this journey. We are honored to be your hands extended to Utah! We love you guys and can’t wait to update you on the journey to Utah Valley University!
“You should give this guy a call. He’s a church planter in Utah, not exactly sure where, but he’d be really cool to work with. Let me get his contact info.”
A couple of days later Joe had emailed me the contact info for the church planter. Joe is the Chi Alpha Director for North Arkansas College and had met this church planter at another missionary event.
For months, Noreen and I had been praying about three different campuses. Trying to discern God’s will, where to launch Chi Alpha. Remember there are no Chi Alpha ministries in the whole state. We could choose anywhere, but where was God lining things up? One of our responsibilities while in Arkansas was to lead a spring break missions trip. Where? Utah of course! But who should we work with? I could call an old college acquaintance that pastors one of the churches in Salt Lake. Or how about the church I grew up in during the 80’s? Then I remembered the seemingly random conversation I had with Joe about that church planter. I wasn’t even totally sure where he was launching new churches, or if they were close to any universities. Did he want any help?! While praying about it, I strongly felt I was to call the church planter first and see if there was anything we could to do to just be servants.
So I picked up the phone and called David Nicholson, the church planter. Guess what happened next? Yep, voicemail. David returned my call later that day, and was enthusiastic about hosting our small group. He shared his vision and what God was doing in their world, and how we could help. They were just about to launch their second church in the area, in Orem. From that phone call I knew that God’s providence was again at work. Orem, is home to Utah Valley University, the largest public university in Utah, a university that Noreen and I had been praying about. We were not ready to shut the door on the other schools yet, but it sure did seem like God was narrowing the list.
God wasn’t done yet, since we must have not been convinced yet, he had one more surprise for us…(to be continued.)
The three little lemons are having such a great time back in Missouri! They absolutely love their cousins and can’t get enough of them. We just had a new cousin join the family - Seth Paxson. He is a month old now, and I am sure that he is ready to join the other Lemons in their fun! Here is a little update on each of the Lemons:
Ayden- is in 4th grade now and still homeschooling because of all the moving. He loves it though because he is so bright and can fly through it so quickly. He reads massive amounts of books, and we have to force him to put the books away so he can go to sleep. The other day he was doing a science experiment with a light bulb and batteries and Daran saw on the page that you could put the two wires in water and try to light the light bulb that way. Daran asked Ayden why he hadn’t tried that yet. Ayden said very matter of fact, “Dad, water is a poor conductor so it probably won’t work very well. I’ll try. Give me some salt.”
Analiese - She is in 1st grade now and learning to read. We have to be very creative with Analiese because she does not like being read to like her brother does unless there are lots of pictures. She is plodding through and enjoying most of it. She loves clothes and fashion and loves to put outfits together. She lives for new seasons and new hand me down clothes from her Aunt Angel and cousin Alura.
Adalynn - asked me this morning when we were going to move to our new house. They are really excited about moving to Utah and Adalynn sees it as a big adventure. She is so looking forward to her birthday next month and is planning what she is going to do for it. She has lots of ideas - We will have to help her narrow it down to something reasonable!
Thank you guys so much for praying for us during this journey to Utah! Please continue to pray for our precious children as they approach this transition. We love you all and pray for you daily!
So I picked up the phone and called David Nicholson, the church planter. Guess what happened next? Yep, voicemail. David returned my call later that day, and was enthusiastic about hosting our small group. He shared his vision and what God was doing in their world, and how we could help. They were just about to launch their second church in the area, in Orem. From that phone call I knew that God’s providence was again at work. Orem, is home to Utah Valley University, the largest public university in Utah, a university that Noreen and I had been praying about. We were not ready to shut the door on the other schools yet, but it sure did seem like God was narrowing the list.
