Be Prepared!...God, country, self....and a little bit of prayer

I just wanted to give an update on how things are going with Tara and I. Last week was a transition from Waypoint to our home in Commerce. Waypoint was very generous in letting us use the box truck to move our things. It was really nice having Mark, Marcus, Tyler and Matt help us move. We had the truck packed in 2 hours and had it unloaded in 1 hour. Nothing was broken and they seemed to have each box placed in the right room. Tara was nice enough to have labeled each box and what room it goes in before we loaded the truck. Praise God for a wife who loves to organize! Can I get an AMEN!

Even though we have spent most of the week packing and unpacking, we did enjoy some break time by attending an Eagle Scout Award Ceremony for our friend Kyle Mostellar. Kyle was on our mission team to Kenya this past summer. The service was amazing and the Boy Scouts motto is "Be Prepared"...not only for emergency situations but for life in general. The best way to be prepared is to focus on what really matters...God, country and self. These are the basic principles to live by and it was a blessing to see a young man who has a heart for the Lord accomplishing a task to make him a better Christian, a better citizen and a better person.

So I am sticking with that and focusing on being prepared. As Tara and I prepare for Kenya we must put our priorities in order. And to do that we must rely on the Lord. So I am asking you to pray for and with us on this journey. Our main focus is making sure that we, as Americans, are not going over there with the great American solution and trying to fix everything. We don't want to show up as mighty whitey and try to fix all the problems. We are going as missionaries. We are going because the Lord has called us and asked us to go and witness and tell of the great things that He has done in our lives and proclaim the gospel as a life source for everyone. We have spoken with several other other missionaries and some organizations that have missions in Kenya. We have decided that the best thing for us to do in preparation for long term missions in Kenya is to volunteer with an organization already established there. We are in the process of applying with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). YWAM has a base camp in the Athi River Valley just south of Nairobi. They also have several programs that we would benefit from by being exposed to. They have an orphanage, a school, a medical clinic, an agricultural program and they also do community outreach. All of this would give a lot of insight as to how we might be of better service in Kenya. We would like to volunteer at the Athi River Base for 6 months. This would give us time to learn the culture and the language a little better. Our goal is to be in Kenya volunteering by March/April of next year. Please pray for us.

Other Prayer request:

Pastor Julius as he
continues his prison
ministry in Kenya

All the Kids (200) at the MACCO
school in Nairobi

The kids (80) at
Glory Shiners Junior Academy
in Nakuru

I want to close with scripture that was in the back of the program for the Boy Scouts Eagle Award Ceremony:

"for the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised."--2 Cor 5:14-15

wow! I love the beginning of that verse......."for the love of Christ controls us....."

Blessings,

Joel and Tara