Daily Archives: June 15, 2013

Our missions’ organization really does a great job to make sure we are trained in all the areas that they have experienced from the past and are expecting for us in the future. Due to the intensity of some of the material that we just covered here in the first week of October, we would like to share with you some of that training but can not post such sensitive material here on our blog. Use this as an excuse to call/email/text us! We would love to hear from you and tell you what we are learning.

Hint; since most of the places we are looking to work in are very volatile as a whole, we were trained for some various situations that might occur in our life.

Don’t you love surprises!? This past week was our home church’s mission’s conference. It was an awesome time to see God working all over the world, that we get to be apart of His work, and to hear some very impactful messages.

Dr. Don Sisk challenged us to use our life to the glory of God (as in the parable of Matt. 25 and the servants with 5,2, and 1 talent). God does not want us to be stagnant and “hide”, but to use our life to bring a great reward for our Master. Later that night Don Sisk brought a message on “looking at the back of the book”. He challenged us that when times are hard (and they will be), to be encouraged by looking at the back of the book (Revelation). Knowing God has overcome the world, and the situation you are in right now will not last forever, but God’s Kingdom and glory will last forever!

God’s timing is always the best! This past weekend I (Seth) had the chance to come home for the mission’s conference (and by God’s grace I have not missed one yet since I started going there) at my home church. Also, I got to come home and surprise my mom for her 50th birthday. I snuck into her work and several of her coworkers watched with anticipation as I walked into her classroom and gave her a hug and shouted “Happy Birthday”! She immediately turned red and had that look “why/how are you here”, with tears in her eyes and a big smile that didn’t go away for hours, I was able to be with my mom and celebrate her birthday.

Before any of this ever happened, I had to say good-bye to my wife at the Saint Louis Airport. With tears in both of our eyes, big smiles, and a long hug we said “good-bye” for the longest time we have ever been apart in our marriage and it was painful. We both agreed that this was the “best thing” to do, to surprise my mom and to make it to our home church’s missions’ conference. But it was still very hard and my stomach hurt all day being away from my Beloved.  This trip truly was a trip filled with joy, tears, smiles, and sadness.

Healthy Baby Job-Praise God!
Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord is our Healer! We finally received news on Job’s kidney. The doctor said the obstruction in his ureter has subsided. His kidney is still swollen but not as much as it was 3 months ago. His kidney tissue is healthy and doing well as is his bladder. They think it should not be any more of a problem, but the parents (Scott and Jennie) want to have another check up in 6 months to make sure.

We are rejoicing because GOD is good and has healed Job immensely! Thank EACH OF YOU for your prayers and concern for Job and our family. Please continue to pray that the rest of this swelling and any other remaining issues would be healed of GOD! Thank-you so much for everything!

Seth’s sister (Jennie) and her family (Scott, Moses, and Job) came down to visit us a few weeks ago and they were here for a whole week! It was so nice to hang out with the kids and glean much wisdom from Scott and Jennie and their lives, they are Missionaries in Indonesia doing a tribal church plant among the Dao people. They have been there for almost 10 years and have experienced many things. They were such an encouragement and we got to make many good memories! Praise God the abnormal growth we were all worried about on Moses’ hand is nearly gone. But please to continue to pray for little 3-month-old Job, he went in October 2nd to get a diagnosis on his kidney, the doctors believe there is an obstruction and might have to operate. It is never good to open up a baby and we are praying that God heals Job so the doctors do not have to lay a finger on him.

Another blessing was getting our car fixed. Every so often, a group of mechanics comes down here to the Training Center in Missouri from all over and they use their gifts to bless the missionaries here and the missionary candidates (that’s us). Apparently one thing that is common with missionaries is that their cars always need a little TLC. We got to experience that first hand and they fixed our igniter coil for free! Praise God, that is an expensive part and with how much traveling we do we need our car to run the best it can.

Seth also worked on the car before the mechanics came down and changed the brakes and a caliber without his dad for the first time, he was very proud of himself.

At church…We have had a lot of firsts together in the past couple of weeks. We had an opportunity with a family at our church in Kansas to go inner-tubing, we now go to the same jail ministry, we had our first visitors while being down here in Missouri, the first time an inmate led part of the teaching, the first time we did not have to pay for a part (or the labor for installation) on our car and much more!!

As we are getting back into a routine, one particular Sunday when we were in Kansas, a family, Doug and Shelle Eden, thought it would be nice to treat us to some good ole’ time on the lake. Next thing we know, Doug was trying his best to knock Seth off the tube while pulling him behind on a Jet-Ski,; with a couple close calls, Seth managed to hold on! This is the same family that also introduced Nicole to her first time on a 4-wheeler. The Eden’s treated us like their own family, as so many other families have done as well at our church in Kansas.

Another first, Nicole is beginning to teach a ladies/girls Jewelry class in between the morning and afternoon services on Sunday’s once a month. The ladies seem really interested and about 20 ladies signed up! This will be an awesome time of fun, learning, and getting to know the ladies better.

In jail…In addition, we now go to the same county jail to minister. This is nice for many reasons; now we can talk together about the same ministry and strategize our focus on how to “best” to minister to the inmates. We also get to spend more time together and that is really nice. Nicole, Jinny, and Grace are the ladies that make up the female team. Seth, Dave, and Pastor Jim (he usually drives us to the prison) make up the male team. Both teams are starting from Genesis explaining through the scriptures. We are focusing on the beginning, foundational truths, and the lineage of the Promised Deliverer. The inmates are very receptive and they are seeing the Grace of God and His Provision for sinful mankind. I (Seth) have been teaching/discipling a man named Joel for 8 months now. A few weeks ago we had Joel teach part of the lesson. He taught on Genesis 19, focusing on the Holiness of God and how He demands punishment for wickedness. Joel used part of his testimony and the guys were really excited to see “one of their own” teaching. This is always the goal of ministers, to see the locals teach their own, that is the “end goal” of a missionary, it is nice to see it put into practice here and now.

I (Nicole), have been very encouraged by the excitement the ladies are showing each week as we teach. For the first time, some of these ladies are hearing the Creation story explained and connected with the rest of the Bible and to their personal lives as well. One key theme that has stuck out to the ladies and also to me personally is how God pursued Adam and Eve at the moment when they ran and hid from God. As humans, our natural default is to hide when we are ashamed. God didn’t let us go off on our own; He ran to us and pursued us, giving us an alternative. God gave Adam and Eve clothes (coverings) and gave them the sacrificial system of killing an animal as a temporary fix to their sins until one day Jesus came to once and for all pay for the penalty of sin. The penalty for sin is death and it was only through a perfect death that the wrath of our Righteous God could be appeased.

As we continue to get back into the swing of things, I (Seth) went back to my jail ministry. I am teaching at the county jail with a fellow classmate (Dave) and we are going through familiar events in the Old Testament that show God’s redemptive plan for mankind that lead up to the birth of Christ. This approach really opens eyes to see who God really is, and how He has always striven for a relationship with mankind. Two weeks ago, Dave taught on God’s ark and Noah showing that mankind has only two choices; to trust God (in the ark), or not to trust God (outside the ark). Last week, I taught on the tower of Babel. In this teaching I focused on how man apart from God only wants to “boast himself” up, and yet in our pride, God still “comes down” to us and shows us mercy. His mercy scattered us and did not destroy us. God’s desire to keep His promise in providing a Redeemer will bring us back together as one. Next week, I will teach on two men; Abraham and Terah; one man choose to trust God and take Him at His word, the other did not. This is the pattern from the beginning of Genesis and will never change.

The newest transition for me (Nicole) is that I will be joining the same jail ministry as Seth. Of course I will minister to the ladies instead, but in this move I will have the opportunity to “hone” my teaching skills as well as minister alongside my husband. We can talk about the lessons we are preparing, and at this jail, we are more free to do one-on-one visitation with the inmates in order to more effectively encourage and disciple them. This is very exciting!

Well, that sounds exciting doesn’t it? Nicole and I truly hate missing any service at our home church in PA and we love having meals with our family. In order to accommodate both of these, the result is leave after midnight and drive through the night in order to avoid “rush hour” in every major cities between PA and MO. It was the last night to enjoy my (Seth’s) family, and so we ate with them, talked with them, and waited till my nephews were put to bed. After that we took a brief nap so that we could be rested and miss the traffic. God blessed us in that; we had no car problems, no accidents, we don’t think we forgot anything, no traffic, and the worst thing that happened was we had a nut wear out on the back of our toilet (in MO) filling the bathroom floor with water. It was an easy, yet uncomfortable (it is a toilet after all) fix. Thank You God! If that was the worst thing to happen on our trip, then we are blessed. Nicole was extra blessed! She slept most of the ride and did not have to hug the toilet.

After unpacking, grocery shopping for the week, and a quick bite to eat, it was time for bed. We started right back into the swing of things and began classes at 8am the next day. The first block of classes includes ‘Missionary Technology’. In this class we are taught the “basics” for living in a remote indigenous area, how to build your house, minor electrical work, plumbing, how to use solar power (photovoltaic-PV) systems, the difference between AC and DC electricity, among many other things. As many of you know, most of this unique work requires specific knowledge. We are also going through Romans as a class. This is very practical as well, for in this class, we go through certain “positional truth’s” (i.e. justified, reconciled to God, seated in the heavenlies, etc.) and explain them to the rest of the class in a sixth grade terminology who have never been to church, while the class is allowed to interject questions that are at the seminary level in regards to theological comprehension. So we are having fun! Explaining deep truths in a simplistic way that applies to you directly is an awesome challenge each believer should go through. This directly applies to foreign missions in that, when we translate the Word of God into a tribal language, they will not have a one-to-one ratio for words in their vocabulary for such words as “justification”, and so forth.

The month of June was very busy. We missed a few nights of sleep here and there, but when we did sleep we slept in many different beds: our own bed, a friends bed, the car, a few random beds here and there, a cot in a cabin, in a tent on rocks with nothing but 1” of tarp and sheets separating us from the ground, and even a roach hotel… literally, Seth killed a large roach one night while staying there.

After wrapping up our first semester (of three) we headed to Tennessee to visit Seth’s sister (Jennie) and brother in law (Scott) as Jennie’s due date for their second child was soon approaching. The baby was not born while we were there (the first time) so we headed home to Pennsylvania. We got word two days later that the baby was on his way, so we went back to Tennessee. Once in PA after baby Job was born, we stayed for less than two weeks, during which, we went to Michigan as camp counselors with our church youth group and Nicole went to Maryland for a friends’ wedding. We are currently in New Jersey with Nicole’s family.

Here are some of the highlights of our summer so far…

– We went to Tennessee to see Seth’s sister, Jennie Phillips, have her baby (well not literally); we wanted to see the baby. Praise God Job Luther Phillips was born healthy through an all-natural birth.

– We went to camp CoBeAc in Michigan with our church’s youth group and heard some amazing preaching and witnessed God move in the youth’s lives and see them make big commitments to our GREAT God.

– We had an opportunity to house sit for a family in PA, what a blessing!

– We celebrated our one-year anniversary on July 2! Thank you God for an awesome first year of marriage…Song of Solomon 3:4 “but I found him whom my soul loveth.”

– We had great time with family and friends in both PA and now in NJ.

Coming soon…

– We plan on helping out and being apart of church activities while in New Jersey

– We look forward to enjoying family time and connecting with friends here in New Jersey (contact us if you would like to get together with us)

– Nicole is making a lot of jewelry for her upcoming jewelry party in PA, August 11. Ladies get ready and save the date!

Family:

-Jay and Bri (Seth’s brother and sister in law); they are in Papua Indonesia transitioning into their next phase of ministry. Our niece and nephew, Eden and Jericho are doing great, they are with their Nana (Seth’s mom), who is there visiting!

– Scott and Jennie (Seth’s sister and brother in law); Jennie is doing wonderfully after giving birth to their second son and is looking great. They are acclimating to life with a new bundle of joy; baby Job, here in the states.

– Seth’s parents; my dad is lonely these days, my mom is in Indonesia visiting Jericho and Eden… and I guess Jay and Bri as well 🙂

– Nicole’s parents; they just got back from a short term mission trip in Panama to see if this is where God is leading them to serve full time. They had a great time and especially enjoyed their time with Dave!

-Dave; he is still down in Panama and seeing God work in the skate park ministry that God gave him to serve in while taking college courses.

The summer is here! We finished our first of three semesters of training down in Missouri. Two more to go! That’s so exciting, for those of you who have been with us throughout the years, it is almost surreal that the time for heading over seas is getting closer and closer, and will soon be here. We had classes to finish up at the end and lots of “getting the proper perspective” and focus (es).  If you have been following our blogs, you may know that we have been taking phonetics (the art and science of understanding the sounds we produce through our mouths in order to make “speech”); which we have now completed. Phonetics wrapped up with a research project where we studied a language of our choosing (we chose Indonesian of course J). We learned so much in that project, not just about the language of Indonesia but also the culture and history that makes up Indonesia. Indonesia is made up of thousand of islands, and has had many influences from all the trading companies and many wars that occurred right on their “front yard”. Indonesian became the official language of Indonesia in 1945 after declaring its independence. After gaining their independence, the Indonesians wanted their language to give them a sense of identity. Since their country had so many influences from outsiders, they struggled to know who they were and desired, in their diversity and great natural barriers, to have a uniting bond that would be the bridge to connect the many islands. So in 1945, “Indonesian” became the national language taught in all the schools for everyone to know and be united through. This bond gave the country a national pride that they never had before and they were now able to call someone their countryman that they once could not even communicate with. I don’t want to go too in-depth with this brief overview, but we just wanted to inform you of who we soon will be serving amongst. Many influences, cultures, and religions make up this language group of Indonesia, remember; it is not the language that makes up a people, it is the people and their culture that makes up that language. Our God is one Who loves people (2 Pet. 3:9), and we are called to imitate Christ (Phil.).

Before we head back to our home in PA, we are stopping in Tennessee to see Scott and Jennie (Seth’s sister) and to see how her pregnancy is doing. We are very excited to see friends and family and would love to get involved with each one of you as much as possible! Whether it is through a meal, church, or work, we would love to connect with you and see what God is doing in your life and share what God is doing in our lives. You have our contact information, so feel free to contact us!

The first half of July we plan on being in New Jersey and connecting with our Church out there and seeing our family and friends. We miss them all so much; we can’t wait to see them (you) all! Please contact us, we want to see you like we said and catch up with you while we are in the area 🙂

To give just a brief update with what’s going on in our jail ministries, and no we are not residents, J just ministers. I (Seth) have been going on Monday evenings to talk one-on-one with many guys where I can question them on the previous lesson we taught to see what they are getting from it. Also with one guy, I am doing a book study. All of these things are going very well. On Thursday afternoons, I go to the local county jail where two other guys from the school and I hold a Bible study. In this setting, we have over one and a half hour with the men (usually we have 10-30, mostly high 20’s). We start off with prayer. This is a great time for the men to open up and just leave their request at our Father’s heavenly home. God is gracious at times, and shows us His greatness by answering a request in less than a day! Some of these men see that evidence, and are blown away with God and His care for His people. Most people down in Missouri believe in God and have gone to church for a time in their life, but they all see God as distant, not wanting a close personal relationship with each and everyone of His children. Over the past month, some men have “experienced” God and their eyes have changed, and they are exited to know God in a deeper way.

There was a mini-revival a couple weeks ago with many men just crying out to God asking God for forgiveness. Men, crying before other men? Truly that is God working in them. These men are in jail, and they “have to” put on a tough persona, but everything they “have to do” seems to disappear when they experience God. Needless to say, Prayer has become one of, if not the main avenue of encouragement and challenge for these men.

Last week, I had the daunting task of teaching on Ephesians 5, and to teach marriage between man and wife. I am the youngest of the 3 men that go to the jail with me, and the one man has been married longer than I have even been alive. I lack in experience on this topic, but God reminded me, its not necessarily experience that makes a Godly marriage, it’s how closely both spouses cling to God’s Word as Truth for their lives, and that is something I can focus on. This is a very touchy topic with most men in the jail, who most/if not all are living in sin. They have a baby with a woman that is not their wife; they are on their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th wives. That is my audience. And to start it all off, one of the prayer requests that began that service was for a man’s girlfriend. He was in there because his girlfriend filed something against him because she was mad at him. The week before four men asked for prayer for their wives, and three men for their girlfriends (which they sometimes call their wife and have kids with them, but they are not married to them). That is the setting and my audience.

I used several illustrations from my wedding. The wedding charge focused on the mans perspective and kept going back and forth with the perspective of Christ’s union with the church and how Christ is our Groom, how are we doing submitting to Him as His bride? That really connected with the men, and gave many examples of how we are to love, encourage, build up, and serve our wives. I really emphasized the “God ordained” model for the family of husband and wife, two becoming one, and forsaking all others. I did not tip toe around that topic, I did not want a single person to leave there without knowing God’s Word says MARRY THE WOMAN YOU LOVE! Identify with her, be right before God, take that step and don’t be ashamed to show her you love her through that ceremony! Once you marry her, forsake all others and serve her selflessly. God showed up and they all just had their eyes on me the whole time nodding. To top it all off, the guy who had that prayer request, the one who was kicked out of his house and his girlfriend lied and put him in jail… was the one who was most verbally appreciative, and said “man that makes so much sense, I never looked at it like that”. That is what Satan has done; he has attacked the sacred union between man and woman, now many people have a distorted and even disgusted view of marriage. We as the church, must fight and emulate God’s desire for this union to show through our lives, so that all can see what God has for His people, first in our relationship with Christ as His Bride, and secondly with our spouse!

Over the past couple weeks at Laclede County Jail, I (Nicole) have also seen God show up in really cool ways. There have been several ladies who have really been grasping the gravity of the Gospel message. We focused on baptism two weeks ago and the beginning of Christ’s ministry. There has been some great feedback from the ladies that told us they are really gleaning from this format of studying (using the Stranger on the Road to Emmaus book) through the scriptures. One lady named Kristie in particular, has really been blessing me. One night she teared up and just thanked us for coming weekly and teaching. She said that she can feel the Lord in our teachings and can almost feel the pain that Christ bore on the cross for us. Kristie and another girl Danielle (her cellmate) have been asking us deep questions. Last week Kristie asked about original texts and translations of the Bible. She has been reading the book we are going through from the beginning on her own and praying with Danielle. Kristie has been telling her husband about this book and is encouraging him to pursue the Lord.