Lily's Story

A while ago, we were up in Detroit Lakes sharing with a church. We had a really great time up there and we were really blessed by the wonderful community.  While we were there, we met a woman named Lily*.


When we arrived at the church and got into the sanctuary before the service began, I took a second to look around.  In a room full of people chatting and greeting each other, I saw one head bowed and hands folded.  An older woman was deep in prayer before the service began.  I noticed her against the contrast of chatting but didn't think much of it until after the service.


We had a fellowship meal afterward, and Lily stopped us in line and asked if we would stop by her table to talk with her. When we had a second, we broke away and went to visit her table.


She told us about her many friends and family that were in religious traditions focused on works and not salvation by grace through faith.  As we talked with her, you could see her heart breaking for those that knew who God was, but had never had a true relationship with Him.  The more she talked, the more we could see how emotional of a subject this was for her.  She told us how glad she was for our ministry and promised to pray for us.


We are very passionate about reaching lost people in western Europe, but I was truly challenged by the fervency of this woman.  We need to continually ask God to break our hearts and show us the world through His eyes. Our prayer is that we can have a heart like Lily's for the lost people around us.


How is God breaking your heart for the people around you? 


Do you need him to break your heart again?




*Lily isn't her real name
Photo credit is here user TACLUDA on rgbstock.com

BWCA Canoe Trip

Last Sunday Bethany and I set out on a great adventure.  We traveled to one of the great wilderness areas of the US for 4 days of canoeing, camping, and adventuring.  The weather was perfect and so were our times together.  It was wonderful to see God's creation.  Over and over that place confirmed Psalm 19:1-2


¹ The heavens declare the glory of God,
   and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
²Day to day pours out speech,
   and night to night reveals knowledge.


I hope that the photo slideshow does just a bit of justice to the glory of God in creation we experienced.


How have you seen God's glory in creation recently?

The Three Rs...

When I was little, I learned in school that the three R's stood for "reduce, recycle, reuse". Taking care of the environment certainly stuck in my mind! But this past week, I decided that the three Rs most important in our current phase of life are words like rest, refresh and rejuvenate.

This week, Nate and I drove up to a family cabin on Lake Nebagamon, WI to spend 2 days on a spiritual retreat. The retreat is something required of us by WorldVenture, to help ensure that we are staying mentally, spiritually, physically and emotionally healthy during each phase of the process as we prepare for the mission field. We really love that WorldVenture values this and pushes us to rest and get away.

Our time at the lake was exactly what we needed. We spent time in prayer and study, focused on worshiping God and reading about what true worship is. We read the chapter on worship from Richard Foster's book Celebration of Discipline and each of us studied worship on our own through sermons, books and scripture. We also spent time resting and relaxing. After a few days, we definitely came home rejuvenated!

Here are a few photos from our time at the cabin...

A favorite spot - sitting at the end of the dock gazing out over the water

Sitting in front of the fire

The view of the cabin from the shoreline

Reading time

A great way to start the day - a good book and a cup of coffee!

When was the last time you took a spiritual retreat? It can be hard to get away amidst the busy-ness of life, but you will come back refreshed. I highly recommend it!

Learning to Thirst

One of the things I love about intense physical exercise is the sense it gives you of your own body.  I'm not talking about a weird mysticism, but the more I work out, the more I have a sense of what my body needs in a moment or how I am feeling.  Sometimes it is a soreness that wakes up stiff muscles; other times, it is digging deep into energy reserves for a big push and burning quads.  I really enjoy this feeling. I believe we glorify God when we use what He has given us to explore His creation and test our personal limits.

A few weeks ago, we had some of the hottest days of the year.  While most people hunkered down in their air conditioning and waited out the heat wave, I went for a bike ride.  The heat index in Minnesota was well over 100 degrees F, and the wind was whipping across the open farm fields at about 15 miles per hour. Everything about the day was intense.  As I rode along, I asked myself several times, "am I really out here, braving this?!"  About ten minutes into the ride, I grabbed my water bottle and took my first gulp of water.  At that instant, a feeling rushed through my body. It was as if my body was screaming out, "Wow! That is exactly what I need!"  My body was so thirsty that there was physical response of relief and refreshment.

It is easy to forget how spiritually dry our lives can be.  Often, it is not until we take a much needed spiritual drink, such as spending time together in prayer, having an engaging spiritual conversation or meditating on a passage of scripture, that we realize how spiritually thirsty we actually are.  How easy it is to forget to grab that drink of water!  It is not until after we have been refreshed that we realize just how thirsty we were.

On the largest day of the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem, Jesus stood up before the crowd and said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37,38).  In fact, Jesus uses this a few times.  He says something like this to the woman at the well.  In both cases, Jesus was alluding to the words of the prophets.  They spoke of God as a fountain of living water.  This metaphor resonated with the people living on the edge of a desert where water is an important resource.  And on hot summer days, we understand a piece of what it means to thirst physically. And as we grow in our communion with God, we will also begin to understand what it means to thirst spiritually.

May the hot summer days we've had this summer remind us that we are ever in need of staying spiritually hydrated!