Note from Mesa, Arizona

Unfortunately, it's another weekend away from the family. Yesterday, I got up at 5:30AM and hit the ground running. Got to the Phoenix airport, picked up a car, and headed directly to a meeting with a great church of young people called Rock Point. They surprised me by committing to monthly support right away!

After that, all I had time to do was check into the hotel, drop my bags of and head straight out to a missions banquest at Desert View. I sang "Offering," and set-up my table. Then, we had a good time of prayer together for a number of things, in cluding missions, and some people even prayed over me.

The Hampton Inn does a good breakfast and is a class act all around. Check them out if you're ever in need of a hotel. I'm actually sitting in the lobby right now. But I gotta go and speak a couple of times at the conference today.

Gotta run...

Back from San Jose

It feels good to be home and know that I'll be staying put for another week or so before I have to travel again. The missions conference at Berryessa went really well and it sounds like the faith-promise cards came in at a higher level than last year. Plus, they are waiting on more cards to be turned in next Sunday, so it could be even more. We'll see how God speaks to people and how much more invovled this church will get in our work.

My Super Shuttle driver was crazy! He got me home quickly, but he was "Mr. Tailgate" himself, weaving and "pushing" other vehicles on surface streets. I really felt like reporting his dangerous driving habits to their company's corporate office. Thank God I got home safely!

All in all, it was a very productive and worthwhile visit. Let's keep praying and see what God does this month!

Note from San Jose

Good morning! Yesterday I flew out to San Jose and met with the pasotr of one of our supporting churches. I'll be at speaking at their second annual missions conference today... in just a couple of hours, actually.

I also got to meet with a friend, Daniel, who went to Biola with me. He's been a faithful partner in our work and we had a good time catching up over Thai food last night. He gave me a great illustration of missions which I will use in my message this morning:

Missions is like a bow and arrow, where the arrowhead is the missionary and the shaft/flocking are individuals in the church. The missionary can't reach his goal and make an impact without the church. God is the archer, and he is sending us. But first, we need to complete that important component that allows us, like the arrow, to fly and hit the mark. I like that. Good thoughts...

They will take up faith-promise commitments after the service, so we'll actually know today how much they will be able to increase their giving to us this year.

I'll be back on a plane home to my sweet wife and cute baby boy this afternoon at 4PM.

Back from San Diego

Driving home was a bit harrowing since I was driving in and out of rainstorms for a couple of hours. But I'm now sitting at home, all nice a warm. I was so happy to see Jojo and Christine again! The rest of the day is family day! No work whatsoever.

Tomorrow morning, I'm heading off to San Jose at 7:20AM for another slew of presentations at a missions conference. Please keep praying for that final $2,000 a month we need to completly fund both our family's needs and a missionary work which must be done.

We'll stay in touch on the road.

Note from San Diego

Today, I began my time of travelling away from the family. It's kind of sad since Josiah and I are actually beginning to bond. He's often times following me around and wanting to be carried or go for a ride on Papa's shoulders. I'm here for a couple of days and will be back on Friday.


A Special Greeting for the Family

This afternoon I met with two individuals at the SWBC district office who helped me prepare for my ordination council later this month. God worked it out so that one of the men I met with turned out to be the pastor of a church considering us for support. In fact, I am meeting with his church's misisons committee tomorrow night!


First things first: "Plug me back in!"

Right now, I'm in a hotel resting up and using the Web. It's the first thing I do, which is no surpirse. Christine usually turns on the TV when she comes along on these trips. I haven't even looked for the remotes yet. That's OK. I find most cable TV boring anyway. I'll grab a bite to eat and then head on over to a prayer meeting at one of our partner churches a few miles from here.

Later...

'Year of the Mission' Tour

Yes, I am back on the road again. Pray for us as we gear up for another hectic tour of churches and events around California and Arizona promoting our mission.

One nice praise report from last week is that I was at a small Filipino church in Los Angeles which just started giving us $50 a month. After my time with them, I drove home and it took a little less than an hour. When I got home, they call me up and said they just finished a church board meeting and decided to double our support! Isn't that great? I love it when God does stuff like that. Very encouraging.

I especially would like to ask for prayer for *this Sunday* when I will be at a very misisons-minded church in Fullerton, preaching and sharing in two services. This could be a very big deal if individuals and the church decide to get on board. Pray for God to use me here.

Here's what my life looks like for the first few months of the year. Please pray over these events:

03.20.05 Grace Community & Joy Christian Fellowship (Garden Grove)
03.15.05 First Family Church (Whittier)
03.06.05 Evangel Baptist Church (Sacramento)

02.27-28 Horizons Church (Peoria, AZ)
02.25-26 Desert View Baptist Church (Gilbert, AZ)
02.13.05 Berryessa Baptist Church (San Jose)
02.10.05 Vista Grande Church (San Diego)
02.09.05 Filipino-American Comm. Ch (San Diego)
02.06.05 Grace International Ministries (Fullerton)

01.30.05 Voice of Truth Christian Fellowship (Los Angeles)
01.15.05 Warner Ave Men's Prayer Breakfast at Coco's (Huntington Beach)