Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Messy Christmas!



 

 


This post began several weeks ago as our Christmas letter and after about 7 drafts, I gave up. This year was just too full, too hard, too good, too raw…too much to capture and make palatable for a Christmas letter. So, after a few drafts I was out of words and, thankfully, Andy said, “This isn’t a Christmas letter, this is a blog post.” YES. 


Merry Christmas – here’s what began as your Christmas letter and ended as a blog post that might make you think we’re crazy! I’m pretty sure Christmas letters are supposed to recap the year and share reflections…which we sort of do all the time now with facebook and instagram and blogs and all the other social media venues that I haven’t ventured into. I don’t tweet. We tried to think of how we would sum up this year in a glossy, meaningful way and – to be honest – we came up short. Honestly, my first draft of the aforementioned Christmas letter was full of clichés. I was the queen of clichés. We were like a Norman Rockwell painting incarnate in the first draft.


Generally, we feel like we have no idea what’s going on and we are hanging on for dear life to get through the week in one piece. In a good way, of course. The fullness of life can sometimes feel like more that we can handle. Our house is a mess, the sink is full of dishes, there’s three weeks of laundry folded on top of the dryer, and sometimes our kids eat cheese and apples and olives for dinner. 


That’s just the outward reflection of the inner chaos, though, isn’t it? It is for us. We often, even though we love God, feel like we are wandering. Not wandering without Christ, but wandering…more like faithful plodding. We go. We move forward {at least we think it’s forward}. We walk where the Lord leads us. 


Visual aid: Imagine a team building activity where you’re blindfolded and told to complete an obstacle course with a partner who is also blindfolded. There you go. That’s our life. Maybe it’s yours, too…


There is a strange comfort in knowing that we serve a God who can take our jumbled up, messy lives and make beauty. We aren’t going into missions because we have it all together. We are going because we are called and somehow God makes sense of our chaos because it glorifies Him. We are far from perfect. We hide, we are dirty, we fall. Yet our God comes to rescue us. We have focus in our journey to missions because God gives it to us. We make amazing progress in our support raising because God leads and guides our steps. We are busier than ever sharing and moving towards serving with MMS…but we are still, every day, in desperate need of Christ our Savior. Christ came as a baby, helpless and needy, and ultimately righted all our wrongs. And he comes day after day after day to show us that we need him. To love us in our mess. I guess the recap or reflection for this year is that we are clueless. But we are led. Led by our Savior.


During Christmas our kids are fascinated with the baby Jesus. They love pretending to hold the baby and they want to talk about what it was like for Mary to take care of her baby. The nativity is, by far, their favorite decoration. We sing about the baby Jesus in many Christmas hymns. In many of those hymns, however, the words about baby Jesus are not about his baby-ness. The familiar words of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Holy Night, and Come Thou Long Expected Jesus recount the position of sinners and power of our reconciling Savior. 



Come Thou Long Expected Jesus…
Born to set thy people free; 
from our fears and sins release us…
Born a child and yet a King…



Hark the herald angels sing…
God and sinners reconciled…
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die…



O holy night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and e’er pining
Til he appeared and the soul felt its worth



The words are about how this baby, born meek and mild, will reconcile sinners with God. Unable to reconnect with God on their own and after hundreds of years of silence from God and the prophets, the Israelites – and sinners all around – will have a Savior. As this thought settles on my heart, I am reminded that God will stop at nothing to pursue us…including entering our messy, chaotic world as a baby. A baby is virtually irresistible to everyone. Who doesn’t love a baby? Other than King Herod. Many times babies have the power to bring families together, pulling the wandering lost sheep back into the fold as everyone marvels at this new miracle, this new chance at life. And didn’t baby Jesus do just that? He began the long process of drawing the family of God back together.  


I felt slightly less insane when our pastor preached on Sunday along a similar theme…it’s not about the fragility of the Christ child. It is about what the baby Christ reveals to humanity. Christ came not to overwhelm us with his cuteness, but to overwhelm us with his power and glory. Sometimes I feel like I have the ability to take something simple/clear/concise and make it complicated. That’s how I felt about the non-baby-ness of Christ topic. Geez, why do I have to take the cheerful cuteness right out of Christmas?!?!? But Christmas was never meant to be cheerful or cute. So, I won’t apologize.


But I will invite you to live in the mess. Sometimes I let the piles of laundry make me grumpy. Like yesterday.  Always be seeking to see Christ more clearly but don’t let the mess of your life block your vision of Christ. Like I did yesterday.


Well, the house isn’t any cleaner. All the wrong things are still in all the wrong places. But we are rescued. We are covered. We might feel lost and messy but we aren’t. Well, we are but our Savior has already made it right. He puts all the right things in all the right places. Rest easy, dear ones. Your house, your life, your piles, your clutter…you will never get it right. But that’s ok. Our life is a stinking mess, kinda like the manger, but God is still using us and glorifying himself along the way. 



Merry Christmas!
 

p.s. Please visit us on facebook at En Route – People, Planes & Prayer to see all the photos, updates, and ongoing recaps of our life and missionary journey! There’s pictures of the kids, pictures of us in turkey hats, and a plethora of great kids quotes! You can also follow Trisha on instagram for similar types of things, plus foodie posts :) 


Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Giving Tuesday : Gudemans En Route

Hey! Did you know that yesterday was Giving Tuesday??? We didn’t!!! How could we have missed this since we are in the midst of a major support raising effort to be at 85% by the end of the year?!?!?!

We’ll chalk it up to being newbies :-)

Despite the fact that it’s now Wednesday…let’s keep the Giving Tuesday momentum going! We’ll call it Partnership Day {we don’t want any day of the week to feel left out}.

We are close to 60% of our monthly needs met through pledges and donations. The Lord is really speaking to our hearts about meeting our financial goals quickly so we can GET to MMS!!! God is saying unmistakably now, it’s time. We are ready to serve and our hearts are already there.

Because time is of the essence and it takes MMS a little while to process gifts, please call or email us with your decision to be a partner in ministry (If you’ve set up a recurring donation online but haven’t heard a thank-you directly from us, it’s because we haven’t received our update from MMS).

Donate online (click on the big DONATE button on the right sidebar) or by speaking with us. We can give you step-by-step directions for how to give online or by sending your donation through the mail.

We believe that God is glorified in the joining of hands and hearts and resources for His Kingdom. When the people of God come together to support Kingdom work, He is glorified!

In Him,
Andy and Trisha

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Missionary Math

We've been learning a lot this week about taking ourselves out of the equation.

When we talk to people about partnering with us financially, we talk a great deal about ourselves. Mostly because we think that's what they want to hear. And because they ask us questions about us. We spend valuable talking time focused on US and the work that WE will do and how God will use US in his service.

We.
Us.
Me.
My.
I.

We have to
    must.
    need.
    to stop talking so much about ourselves and talk more about God. God is doing this amazing work in the world and he wants his people (read: you and me) to join in the work.

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who labor build it in vain.
psalm 127:1

We can talktalktalk about how the Lord has called us into missions and tellyoutellyoutellyou all about what we will do. But we will quickly run out of things to say and we will sound like a broken record. Sound like a broken record. Sound like a broken record.

But when we talk about the Lord, we never run out of things to say. Let it be Him who builds our house. Let it be Him who shines brightest. Let it be Him who we continually glorify. 

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; 
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
psalm 89:1

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Birthday cards and internationally mailed homecooked meals

We got our first card from someone we don't know.

It's kind of a weird thing about being a missionary. Lots of people know you, pray for you, see your picture, and share your stories but you have never met them. We don't know the names of all the people who lift us up in prayer or who think of us on our birthday or who give an update about us to their missions committee.

We trust that they are there, though, because without them we wouldn't be missionaries.

Grace's brithday is coming up later this month and she got a card from Bob & Pat Smith (their names were not changed because their names are Bob & Pat Smith). A 7 year old's birthday is kind of a big deal.

Just in case you forgot.

So, even if you get a card from people you've never met, it's awesome.

There was much excitement when Grace opened the birthday card from from the aforementioned not-high-risk-of-identity-disclosure-so-I-didn't-change-their-names Bob & Pat and their congregation, which we'll be visiting in December. It was really special to sit at the kitchen table and listen to her read in halted 6.99 year old reading all about the weather, Bob & Pat's grandchildren in between peppered questions about being a missionary kid and hopes for a happy year. They described how our picture is on their Missionary Letter bulletin board.

What a gift for our children to be folded into the families of those who love and care for us as missionaries.

Supporting a missionary is more than the money. The money is necessary, let's be frank. The biggest thing I've read, however, in my internet trolling of missionary blogs is that missionaries are lonely. Sometimes they are literally lonely because they serve in an isolated location. Often, it seems, that missionaries are lonely because they're L.O.N.E.L.Y. Alone in a crowd. What makes you feel better when you feel alone in a crowd (because we've all felt that, missionary or not)? What makes you feel remembered?

A birthday card from a congregation that's never met you but is praying for you and celebrating with you?

How do you take care of your missionaries? This has really shaken up how we try to care for missionaries we support both locally and far flung. Cards, emails, home-cooked meals (not ideal for international mailing), and care packages (better for international mailing) are part of our routine now. And now that we've been on the receiving end, I realize that our commitment to missions is more than the monthly donation.


Grace's card -- embellished with some of her handiwork ;-)






Friday, August 8, 2014

On receiving gifts

What is the proper way to receive a gift? We'd better figure this out because we will all be faced with this situation at some time or another.

I've brainstormed some appropriate gift-receiving responses:
HUGE smile
Clapping (if you're under age 6)
Exclaiming something along the lines of -- "Oh my gosh! How did you know?" or "Wow, I am SO surprised."
Hugging the giver
Saying "Oh, you shouldn't have" or "You didn't have to do this."
Make a big deal out of it and say how you can't believe you forgot their gift, ohmygoshthisissoembarrassing.
Sweat.

Or
just
receive
it
with
a
grateful
heart.

We tend to downplay ourselves by intimating that we are not worthy of the gift. Is that for us to decide? Or the giver?

We have had several weeks of being on the receiving end of gift-giving as more people have partnered with us in missions. I think we've gained 13% in just 6 weeks! While we were driving home Andy brought up the topic of how we respond to God's gifts. We praise Him for his provision, express amazement at His goodness, we thank Him for using believers to advance the gospel. While those are appropriate responses, they are kind of grown-up versions of the list I brainstormed above.

Thank you thank you thank you! Oh, Lord, you shouldn't have.
Thank you God, but you didn't have to do this.
How did you know, O Lord, that I needed this? Thank you so much!
Oh, thank you God, but I don't deserve this, did you save the receipt?

Recently, we were blindsided by one individual's generous gift. It is a major purchase and we had already been planning how we were going to squirrel money away. Over the next several days, Andy became increasingly self-deprecating, wondering why he had received this gift...we hadn't even done a polished presentation...we fumble over our words when we talk with folks about financial partnership...how could this have happened?

As if it was a curse rather than a blessing.

While Andy was mulling over the situation he happened to get together with his friend Jeremy. He shared the story and his subsequent thoughts/emotions and Jeremy, in true Christian love, knocked some sense into Andy. It was sort of backwards route to getting Andy to not only see the gift for what it was -- A GIFT -- but also recognize his sinful pattern of thinking.

"Don't you think you are good enough for someone to buy something for you?"
Poke.
"Do you think you need to be worthy of this gift?"
Poke.
"Aren't you good enough?"
Poke. 

Well, no.
Will we ever be good enough? No.

But we are missing something. The thing that helps us transition from knowing we are unworthy to accepting a gift despite our condition.

Expectancy.
Anticipation.
Confidence.
Hope.

Ok, four things that mean the same thing.

In the Jesus Storybook Bible, the story of Jesus embracing the little children is adapted. As the disciples bicker about who will enjoy the gift of sitting at Jesus' right hand, Jesus slips away and joins the play group of children running around nearby.
"So while Jesus' friends were arguing, some people who knew all about getting gifts -- in fact, you might say they were gift-experts -- had come to see Jesus. Who were they? They were little children" (pg. 258).

Now. My kids are not always ideal specimens at receiving gift but just roll with the analogy. Anytime you over-think an analogy, it breaks down. This analogy is used in the Bible. though, so I think it should hold up fairly well.

Children don't have the the guilt and angst and over-analyzing-tendencies and mis-placed humility and BAGGAGE that we do.
They simply receive. They don't presume to deserve the gift that is offered. They don't plan to behave in a certain manner when a gift is given to them.

But they are so grateful. So smiley and huggy and full of electric happiness down to their toes. They also, with an innocence only available to newer humans, expect to receive gifts from people who love them. They are disappointed when there is no gift from a favorite aunt or from grandma.

People who love each other give each other gifts.

God loves us.

God gives us gifts.

We need to develop our sense of anticipation along with our response gratitude. Should we be surprised when God provides? No. Should we be smiley and huggy and full of electric happiness down to our toes? Yes.




by Trisha

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Summer Days

 Our summer has been full and fun so far! Here is a glimpse of what we've been up to in June and July.

         The kids finished Soccer Shots!

Grace had her last day of KINDERGARTEN!!! It's off to 1st grade!


Chillin' in the back yard
Happy Father's Day to Andy! Micah was really in a festive mood...



Andy and Micah enjoying some s'mores!
More s'mores!
Grace got her first driving lesson from Poppy :-/

Bikes, fireworks, swimming...what more could a kid want???



Celebrating Emily's birthday!

Micah's first trip to the ER...thankfully not a true emergency, just a bloody stubbed toe :-)

 A visit to Spiral Path Farm to dig for potatoes and enjoy some homemade ice cream!

For the record...Micah DID NOT help AT ALL. He posed for a cute picture but for the most part he just banged himself on the head with the container until we needed to fill it with more potatoes.



A trip up to Chautauqua Lake...one of our favorite places!





Friday, May 23, 2014

Costco --> it's been real!

Andy's last day at Costco will be June 17!  As long as we've known we were headed into full time missions, we knew this day would come. There are not enough hours in the day for Andy to parent solo during the day, work in the evenings and on weekends, make follow-up phone calls, manage the logistics of fundraising, travel to churches for speaking, and visit individuals interested in our ministry. Trisha does her fair share of support raising work -- mostly correspondence and writing {like right now}. Too much stuff. Good, worthy, beneficial stuff. Stuff we want to do well. Not enough time.

While we all accept a certain level of busy-ness in our lives, there comes a time to change things up. NOW IS THAT TIME!

We know the path the Lord has us on. Andy's job at Costco isn't getting us there any faster. We are just short of matching his current earnings through monthly donors {to MMS}. With a couple hundred dollars to go for this short-term goal, we have felt the Lord saying, "Now. It's time to leave the big-C and focus on getting onto the mission field."

Um. Ok.

Perhaps it is our vivid experience of not having reliable income in the past that makes us hesitant to give up Andy's consistent-dependable-surething-reasonable-paying job at Costco. Perhaps it is our desire to be in control. To determine our own course.

Perhaps we lack the faith to trust God in new ways during uncertain times.

Yes. That's it.

So, a few hundred dollars short of meeting our short-term support raising goal, we need to trust that the Lord will provide. As we sat with this revelation {and it was nothing short of a revelation for us!} we became more certain that the time Andy spends at Costco could be much better used. 

For those of you into logistics...you'll enjoy this next part. If you aren't into the nitty-gritty skip down to the next paragraph :-)
Andy will draw approximately a 1/4-time salary from MMS to work on support-raising 15-20 hours/week. We estimate that he could easily do this amount of work given the tasks we have put off for so long since neither of us has time to do them in our current schedule. Some weeks we'll travel to a church to speak. On a daily basis, support raising is very office-y.  Phone calls, managing finances, correspondence, searching for elusive receipts, filing, planning engagements...VERY GLAMOUROUS.

You might be wondering what Andy does during the day now as he stays home with Micah. Why can't he do more of these support raising tasks while he hangs out with Micah???  

Close your eyes {keep them open, actually, so you can continue reading}. Think back to a time when you tried to accomplish something that required concentration, a non-shaking surface, and both hands while in the presence of someone under the age of five.

Are we good, then? No explanation needed, right?

If you have been considering becoming a monthly ministry partner NOW IS THE TIME! When we say that we know the Lord has been pushing us in this direction, we also know that he uses his people to accomplish his will. Your prayers sustain us, encourage us, and uplift us. Your donation get us to the field to full time service. 

 For His Glory!

*Please let us know if you are interested in donating through the Bible Fellowship Church Board of Missions.

 



Thursday, April 3, 2014

CaREEr MiSSioNArIeS!!!

After a long application process and a very encouraging interview with the Bible Fellowship Church Board of Missions we got the BIG envelope in the mail.

{baby drummer drum roll please}


Dear Andrew & Trisha,
We are please to inform you that you have been accepted by the Bible Fellowship Church Board of Missions as CAREER MISSIONARIES (emphasis mine, obviously).





Woo hoo!!!!

Well, what the heck does that mean? The BFC BOM (rejoice acronym lovers everywhere) is not a sending board that doles out money. They act as a gateway to the BFC community. It is with their 100% backing that we will approach the network of the BFC pastors and churches as we work towards becoming fully-funded.


The BFC has a high level of commitment to supporting missions and we are excited to share yet ANOTHER way that God is advancing the Gospel around the world. Airplanes. Or rather what and who they carry! Bibles, everyday life and medical supplies, and missionaries! Missionary aircraft make the transportation of goods, services, and people SAFE & EFFICIENT.

This presents a HUGE prayer request.

Visiting churches typically happens on weekends.
Andy works at Costco on the weekends.
This is a problem. 

We need $500 in monthly support for Andy to be able to leave his job at Costco and concentrate on support raising. Support raising is a full-time job that he is currently juggling with day-time-child-rearing and evening/weekend work at Costco.

Please pray for $500 in monthly support! We will not be able to start the BFC concert tour...I mean missions-speaking tour until Andy isn't working at Costco. We also have other invitations to speak at churches near and far that we must put on hold until we reach our short-term goal of $500 in monthly support.

Praise the Lord for the opportunity to share about Missionary Aviation with the BFC community!

In other news, Grace has lost 2 teeth and Micah lost all the important Lego pieces (you know, the cool flames and wings and missile launchers). Andy & I have lost our minds. Never a dull moment!




Monday, February 3, 2014

Missions Monday 2.3.14

MISSIONS MONDAY

Since August of 1975, MMS Aviation has served over 100 Christian organizations who use aircraft in support of their ministry. Sixty-nine graduates have served or are serving in remote locations around the world.

Visit the MMS Aviation for more about how they Prepare People & Planes for Worldwide Missionary Service.

::Each Monday we'll feature some info about missions to help us all broaden our understanding of how God is at work in missions throughout the world::

Sunday, January 5, 2014

It's a New Year!

It's a new year and we are excited about where the Lord is leading us!  We hope to get to MMS in 2014 and we are eager to serve as God leads us.  Our Christmas season was full with family, time with our kiddos, unexpected illness and time spent visiting in the hospital (Trisha's Pappaw), perpetual coughing....ahhhhhemmmm, excuse me, and even snow!

Here's a picture journey of our Christmas season. Enjoy! Please continue to pray with us for God's provision in MMS support raising. We are looking forward to many contacts and are hopeful for the Lord to provide mission partners.

We had some December-fun with Christmas lights, snow, winter-weather-dress-up, and a Jingle-Bell-Jog in freeeeeezing snowy temps!








We spent Christmas morning with our kids and had hours to open and play and open and play and eat and open and play some more! That was a gift in and of itself!








If you'll join us in praying, here are some things we are focusing our prayers around:
~Renewed energy for support raising. The months of November and December were intentionally low-key in support raising because we know people (and ourselves, too!) were focusing on family and additional activities.

~Andy requested a winter leave-of-absence from Costco for March and we pray for this to be approved. This is an opportunity for employees to request extended time off during the non-busy season without losing their status. We hope to make a lot of visits, talks, phone calls...whatever!...in an effort to invite folks into the mission and ministry of MMS.

~Prayer for our personal walks with the Lord and the discipleship of our family.