The
Journey
As I come
to the end of my third year on the mission field, I’ve been reflecting on the
idea of the journey in relation to life and God’s faithfulness in the midst of
it. As I was preparing to leave New
Jersey in December 2014, a few of my former coworkers gave me a slate plaque
with the word “journey” in large letters followed by the oft-quoted Jeremiah
29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future.”
While that word was given by the prophet in an
entirely different context, the Lord spoke to me on that December day as I was
leaving my cubicle for the last time that He was taking me on a journey, and
that He had good plans which included a hope and a future for my life. Even in the face of limited luggage space and
airline weight restrictions, I decided to take that plaque along for the
journey as a reminder of God’s faithfulness and the word He had spoken to me. It has hung on the walls of rooms I have
stayed in along the way.
From the
moment we become Christians we embark upon this epic spiritual journey as the
filmstrip of our lives plays out. We
often refer to our life with the Lord as our “walk”. Abraham went on a journey as he was called
out of Ur of the Chaldees- looking for a city with foundations whose builder
and maker is God (Heb. 11:10). Jacob went on a journey and had a vision of angels
ascending and descending on a ladder to heaven (Gen. 28:12). Joseph and Mary went on a journey and in so
doing participated in the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the birth of Jesus
the Messiah in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
My
journey in recent years has taken me first to Austria where I served for a year
at Schloss Heroldeck and then to York, England where I have served for the past
two years. The Lord put a handful of
ministries on my plate early on after arriving in York. One of these is teaching at the Bible
College. I just finished teaching
through the gospel of Luke and will teach Acts in the upcoming spring semester.
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| Christian graffiti in York |
Another
involvement is the prison ministry where I have had the opportunity to lead
worship, teach, and pray with the prisoners.
An interesting development in regard to this is that a paid part-time chaplaincy
position has recently become available in the HMP Humber prison where we
minister and I felt a leading from the Lord to apply, so I did, and as it
stands now I have an interview at the end of January so prayers are
appreciated.
We also continue our outreach to Hull on a
weekly basis. The Bible study remains
small with mainly people from York, but it gives us a reason to be in Hull
every week and we’ve been doing worship music on the streets and as a result
have had numerous conversations with both Christians and non-Christians. Please pray for God’s will to be done in this
great city.
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| Music outreach in Hul In other news, Calvary Chapel York recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary; Terry and Nancy Clark were on hand to help out with a musical celebration of the event. It was fascinating to watch the photo stream in the sanctuary of what the Lord has done in York over the years. |
Well, that’s the update for now. I will be in the United States from Dec. 14th-Jan.
8th. I will be speaking at my
home church (Calvary Chapel Gateway) on Sunday, Dec. 17th. Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year in the Lord!
