Week Two

As I come to the end of week two of my training here in Yorktown, I wanted to write a little update on all the happenings of this past week. God has truly blessed me abundantly, and each new day I struck by the wonderful mercies of my God who has saved me and given me true life. His hand sustains me each new step heavenward.


This week we received all of our Personal Protective Equipment: dry suits, gloves, boots, goggles, mustangs (like a body life vest that’s supposed to keep you warm), etc. This is all of the stuff we’ll need for going out in the small boats, depending on what weather conditions are. Today we tested our dry suits in the pool to make sure they don’t leak. We have been having classes this week on navigation and using charts. So we have been working on coursing and preparing some charts that we will use later on in training.

I have been really enjoyed reading in 1 John this week and learning about God’s great love for sinners. My heart is encouraged in the Lord. I press on this week as His servant to do His bidding. He is my joy, my strength, my song!

#3 The Lord Encamps Around Those Who Fear Him

April 5, 2011 One more day spent here at Training Center Yorktown, and the Lord truly blessed me with a fun time in training. During my time this morning with the Lord, I was soooooooo encouraged to read a verse from Psalm 34 saying that the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them. He is with me every moment…I am never alone! And He will deliver me. I may feel a hundred different things: fear, excitement, weakness, stress, pressure, joy, etc; but the Lord is always with me and with Him I shall do valiantly. We started out our training today with some physical training and team/leadership building games at the gym. Then we had more classes on leadership throughout the day. Now it is almost time to head to bed and get some sleep before tomorrow’s physical training test. As I close another day I am left truly amazed by the God whom I serve. He fills my heart with joy and cares so tenderly for His children. So I praise the Lord Jesus Christ for paying my sin penalty, for taking my place at the cross, and for giving me abundant life!! I do not deserve any of this, but this wonderful gift of grace is mine because of Jesus and His great love for sinners. And this is this is the message of good news I have to share. And I want to encourage all of you who also are saved by God’s amazing grace that this is the message God has called all of us to share. God has placed us in this world to encourage fellow Believers heavenward, to share the gospel and be an instrument to lead unbelievers to Christ, and for some we are the only bit of heaven they will ever know…so let us be spent today for what truly matters. Let us give these people in our lives HEAVEN on earth, showing them Christ’s love and kindness. Always remembering that the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.

#2 My Times are n His Hands

April 4, 2011 As I sit here in BM “A” school feeling out of place and overwhelmed from being in a new and strange place, I am greatly comforted and encouraged by God’s unfailing and everlasting Word. In the Psalms it says that our times are in His hands. I can be certain and confident that it is the Lord who has placed me here…not by chance or by accident, but on purpose and for a set purpose. I am His witness---a partaker of the glorious salvation that is in Christ Jesus. At times all seems too difficult and I don’t see how I can go on, but Jesus is walking with me down this path. Yes He has brought me here to this uncomfortable, difficult place where I am to meet Him in the fire, proving that His love is better than life and He is my treasure far greater than anything else in this here…only 12 short weeks.

The Journals of A Guardian...#1 On the Road Again

March 31, 2011

My family and I left Copperas Cove, Texas this morning and put in some good miles on the road. We arrived in Meridian, Mississippi and enjoyed a meal of pizza and wings. We are making it closer and closer to my training school. I am excited, but also a little nervous. This I know for sure though, God is with me every second of this adventure. I know He will teach me and challenge me in new ways.

So I am excited to take this adventure that He has given me. For such a time as this God has placed me on the earth to be His witness and to gorify His name.

I want to make much of You Jesus!!!! I want to live every moment for You. Take my life...may I be used up for Your glory and fame...may I be wasted completely for You Jesus...broken and spilled out...wholly spent for Your name's sake.

So I am on the road again...taking the adventure God has for me.

Not Just Pretending

"Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other."

Romans 12:9-10

It is easy to pretend. A lot of the time, I just go through the motions and put on a good act so that others have a good impression of me. My words are very big, but my actions are so very little. I will say that I love others and care for them, but that is as far as it goes. However, this does not please the Lord at all. He does not want me to pretend...HE HAS COMMANDED ME TO LOVE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST...and love is not a feeling but an action. So I must put love in action in my life and "really love others" and not just pretend.

Jesus did not just pretend to love sinners...He loved us with genuine affection. He humbled Himself and became like us so that we could be saved. Jesus came to us and met us in the depths of our spiritual poverty. We were living in the shadows of death, walking about as dead men in the darkness of evil; and He came and gave us life...He is the light of the world. He did not just give us a message of love, but His entire life was a picture of love as He demonstrated God's love by pouring out His very life on the cross and endured the wrath of the Father that should have been ours to bear. He gave up His life so that we might have abundant life. He suffered that we might share in His joy. We were helpless, hopeless, desperately lost, blind, and completely wicked, but Jesus did what we could not do. He saved us...He helped us...He is our hope....He found us....He has given us sight....He has cleansed us by His blood and now we are clean. Hallelujah! What a Savior!!! We are redeemed by Jesus..Praise His name!!

Jesus is our example of REAL LOVE, and we must follow in His steps. We must be a picture of Jesus' love here on earth. We must be spent, be poured out, emptied, used up, and be absolutely WASTED FOR JESUS because He is supreemely valuable in our lives. He is the greatest treasure, the greatest pleasure, the greatest joy we shall ever have.

So be spent for Jesus and live as He lived. Let us really love one another and no just pretend. Put love into action as Jesus did. And remember only Jesus can strengthen us and enable us to do so. So rely completely on Christ to obey His command to love...depend upon Him and surely He will do it.

THE MISSION

Written for my family as they move to Cameroon, Africa to share Jesus love with the people there.

Rejoicing in all God has done.
In your lives, I see Him displayed
As your greatest treasure of all;
Your mission: to proclaim His name.

Fix Your eyes on Christ…Run hard to the goal.
Consider the work He has done, He has saved your souls!

Press on, HOPE IN GOD…IN HIS HANDS you are safe. UNDER HIS WINGS…you are held---
you are HELD BY GRACE.
Take up your cross, follow Christ, let His praises resound.
Be BROKEN AND SPILLED OUT
as you journey HOMEWARD BOUND.

Cheering you on as you go
As you make much of Jesus today,
Considering all else as loss
Compared to the Savior’s name.

Fight the battle of faith…stand firm in Christ.
Trust Him with all of your heart, give Him your life.




Praying for you in my heart.
May God’s sustaining grace push you on
To follow Christ outside of the camp,
Calling the nations to join the song!

Jesus is mighty to save
For while yet sinners He died in our place.
Shout---shout His praise For He has given us grace!

Always Be Ready!

"I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard."

-William Burns

Lost in the shadows of world missions is the story of William Burns. He is not remembered in history as a great preacher, a successful evangelist, a deep thinker, a passionate missionary, or a vibrant Christian, and although he was all of these things and more, most people do not even know who he was or what he did. Before all else, Burns was a man of prayer: persistent, persevering prayer. He spent long hours seeking the Lord in prayer. His ministry went forth as He pressed on, on his knees. The deep spring of spiritual wealth and passion that watered his ministry found its source from his precious Redeemer who had transformed Burn's life by His love. 

William Burns was born in Scotland during the year of 1815. God saved Burns early in his life and filled him with a great passion and burden for lost souls who needed to hear the Gospel. God used him as a tool in the Kilsyth Revival of 1839. Burns faithfulness to spend time with God in prayer marked his ministry and set his heart ablaze for God's glory. Scotland was turned upside down as a result of God's transforming work through a man who was committed to pray.

However Burns was not satisfied, and after laboring to proclaim the Gospel in Scotland, He decided to go as a missionary to China. A man asked Burns when he would be ready to leave for China, and his reply held no hesitancy at all:  "Now, I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard."

Burns worked alongside Hudson Taylor for a time, and they both greatly encouraged and spurred on by each others faith. Their ministry together was bathed in prayer. During days of public preaching as they declared the Gospel boldly, one would always be in constant prayer as the other preached, and then they would switch off. Taylor wrote in his journal of the impression Burns had on him, "Those happy months were an unspeakable joy and privilege to me. His love for the Word was delightful, and his holy, reverential life and constant communings with GOD made fellowship with him satisfying to the deep cravings of my heart."

Burns labored hard and relentlessly for the Lord in China. He went from town to town preaching the Gospel to all who would listen. At the age of fifty-three, Burns became terribly ill and died. His life on earth was over but his legacy and passion for the Lord echo on in history as we are spurred on today by his example.

So as my story comes to a close, here is my charge: Let us follow in his steps being completely spent for our precious Redeemer. Let us remember that Burns was not a great man who did great things, but rather that he served a great God who does great things. To follow in his steps, we must begin on our knee. We must start in prayer, continue in prayer, and end in prayer. Prayer must suround our every move, it  must be the very air we breath. For in prayer we are looking to God to fill our every need. But we must not be so easily distracted from this pursuit; we must wait and wrestle with the Lord just as Jacob wrestled with the angel. Burns longed for believers to know the same sweet fellowship that he had with the Lord, "Oh, how is it that the Lord's own people have so little perseverance? How is it that when they do enter into their place of prayer to be alone, they are so easily persuaded to be turned away empty; instead of wrestling with God to pour out His Spirit, they retire from the secret place without the answer, and submit to it as being God's will."

Burns was always ready to do whatever the Lord called him to do because he persevered in prayer. Let us also be faithful to pray and spend our time seeking the Lord. O may God use us to turn the world upside down as we live our lives with Him in constant prayer.