Johnstein!

You know...sometimes things that we think are vitally important are simply placed in a position of importance due to their urgency. This semester, I have had the joy of working through a great discipleship/bible study with a group of friends and this week, our scripture reading has been supplemented with a short passage by Charles Hummel. In the Tyranny of the Urgent, he discusses how we often get distracted by tasks that are driven by a sense of urgency; often at the expense of things that are truly important. Most of the piece is focused on priorities. That is, as followers of Christ one of our ultimate priorities should be to fulfill the Great Commission. So we establish routines and checklists to help us do this. We schedule meetings, we plan events, we set deadlines, and we establish rules. And then we name it. We call it ministry. Hummel makes an interesting distinction between things of urgency and importance. He uses Christ's ministry as our example (probably a good choic...

     This is a long overdue update from us. To be honest, we have really struggled this year and it has been hard to write an “appropriate missionary letter’…sometimes we feel that we should only share the positive things in ministry and living abroad. We know that feeling is pride and foolishness. So you’re gonna get our hearts in this one. Good, bad, and ugly.      This year has taught us that you, our supporters and friends, are not only supporting the ministry we have the privilege of being part of, but you are also there to help us by understanding some of our everyday challenges.      So, this update is less about the ministry we’re involved in and all the activities and relationships, and more about what God has been doing in our lives…shaping, disciplining, and molding us over the last few months.      We hope that you can be encouraged and challenged by our experiences...

... 2012 is over. What a year. This year started with Justin's emergency appendectomy and included 4 different hospital stays for our family. It ended with the loss of Rebecca's dad and the mourning process that has followed. It's been a year of great satisfaction in God's call in our lives but also a year of amazing struggles. We moved (again). We had the honor of joining the class of 2012 on their Senior Trip. We stepped into some new roles at ICSV. We have see our son continue to grow into a young man of God. We have seen our daughter loved and nurtured by an entire community of students and friends. We've struggled with the long term picture and how God will use us. We had to deal with saying goodbye to too many friends...and feeling the loss of being "left behind". I feel that this year, more than ever, Romans 8 has moved out of the realm of the cliche. We have seen God at work throughout our sufferings. His goodness has shined in ...