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.