Saturday, January 03, 2004
Looking Backward and Forward
1-3-04
On New Years Eve I invested some time to look backward on 2003.
I skimmed over the Tuesday Briefing blog http://tuesdaybriefings.blogspot.com/
I took notes of what God has done.
PEOPLE
Here are just a few of the highlights from 2003.
I met many wonderful people.
Most of them I am still in contact with on a monthly basis.
Said good-bye to many seminary graduates, that I will not see until heaven.
New Years Day I called just a few of my friends to wish them a good new year.
I find that I am rich relationally, good friends are super valuable.
PROVISIONS
During the past year God provided many important tools.
People had been praying with me for these for years.
During this same year I have had a very thin cash flow, so each was special.
A new desktop computer
DSL connection (many troubles before swapping for the right modem)
A web site to cast the vision for ministry www.OSUonline.org
Reading chair (wow this is a comfy rocker)
Ford Escort (this has opened up many options)
Ergonomic keyboard and trackball (eliminated pains in wrist and elbow)
Computer desk (using one third the floor space with twice the comfort)
All in one printer-copier-scanner
Full week of fund raising workshop (will be very helpful after underway)
Very helpful sessions with a professional coach
Learned about blogs and have seven active blogs with others in the works.
Somehow paid my rent and other bills, often right on time.
EVENTS
Moved in same building to another apartment so they can remodel my old one.
50th birthday – survived the emotional roller coaster
Visited a few local churches may have found my home church
Few wonderful times downtown Dallas passing out gospels of John at lunchtime.
Serving with SOUL Outreach Ministries on Sunday Mornings to the homeless
Lap top computer crashed yet most of data was recovered after much prayer.
Worked with Christian 12 step recovery group named Celebrate Recovery.
Worked with a wonderful administrative assistant for a season.
Was introduced to Theophostic www.theophostic.com
Received several Theophostic sessions that have helped greatly.
Few sessions with a professional Christian counselor that were wonderful.
Had some odd illness that sent me to explore nutritional supplements.
Came upon Juice Plus that works well for me www.juiceplus.com
Came upon Prayeraphrases and gave away hundreds of copies.
Gave away hundreds of copies of a book on creationism free from the writer.
Gave away thousand of copies of the gospel of John www.livingwater.org
Gotten into the habit of sharing a Weekly Money Report, greatly helps budgeting.
Short trip to the Internet pornography, then Jesus rescued and restored me.
Made first promotional video for the emerging ministry.
Made the first face-to-face meeting for the ministry.
Received an automatic raise for having been at the Help Desk for four years.
Came along the side of various ministries to help them during the Holidays.
Learned about a software that will make presentations briefer www.mindjet.com
LOOKING FORWARD TO 2004
While recently organizing my home office, the same subjects were repeated.
I have been preparing for an educational nonprofit for many years.
I have thousands of pages of notes in hundreds of files and dozens of notebooks.
Over the years the core concepts have stayed the same.
The audiences and methods have changed.
In my mind and heart they are all interrelated.
Given enough money and time I could get these off the drawing table.
Even to me, the web site is overwhelming www.OSUonline.org
That is a good sampling of what God has put on my heart.
I cannot do it alone, it will take the work of paid staff and volunteer teams.
After the ministry get going it will pay its own way.
There will be donation, product sales, memberships and ads.
My challenge for 1978 has been to raise the seed capitol to launch the ministry.
WEALTHY
40 percent of the wealth in the USA is controlled by 1 percent of the population.
Some of those who are have millions are committed Christians.
I know some names and several organizations where they are members.
The tuition at the seminary is subsidized by some major donors.
These are the ones that provide full scholarships for international students.
I am coming along side to assist these same people with needs beyond tuition.
Many of those same people care about missions and local benevolence.
They will appreciate the effective systems that God has led me to design.
The system will gracefully distribute donations in small units where needed.
There will be suitable records for open accountability and the IRS requirements.
Like all Americans the wealthy have extra things they do not need or want.
They have jewelry, furs and antiques in storage that they never use.
To get the ball rolling I have felt led to ask for these as donations.
In the coming weeks I will be investigating ways to sell these through brokers.
These contributions will help to provide the 40,000 dollar seed capitol.
That will pave the way to a professionally designed web site.
There will be a business plan and wisely woven projects to keep us on track.
The hardware, software and people will be in place to follow the initial plans.
Life refuses to neatly obey even the most careful plans.
We will adapt, adjust and learn our lessons as we go.
God will surely do great things through us.
We will testify of His faithfulness and goodness.
We will be careful to give Him all the glory.
Together we will produce educational and informational products.
Many of these will be free and some will be sold.
There will be several kinds of membership online.
We will teach the importance of consistently improving stewardship.
As people use their time and money better they will gratefully donate.
Along the way God will provide a paid staff and many volunteers.
We will be used by Jesus to facilitate better missions work locally and globally.
When I meet an international student I imagine what I could offer in one year.
I could quickly put their story and pictures on the web.
They can offer prayer requests and testify as to the answers.
They will have fewer financial crises because others pray and give regularly.
They will call home internationally more often because we gave phone cards
They will visit their home country more often because dozens of people gave.
They will have dozens of American friends when they graduate.
The web site and other communication methods will maintain contact for years.
My heart goes out when I meet a seminary student headed for the mission field
They have chosen to follow Jesus into an uncertain future.
They will experience cross-cultural stresses.
Often after graduation they then go overseas to learn a new language.
They leave the comforts and conveniences of the USA.
They take their young children into the foreign country.
These brave souls have put feet to their faith.
These ambassadors of Christ are worthy of our love, prayers and support today.
Last week I met a man that is a family physician.
He has a wife and infant child.
A second child is on the way.
The family of four is headed to China.
They will minister to the poorest people in the rural villages and teach doctors.
Before leaving their sending agency has an important requirement.
They need to have one hundred people praying for them daily.
I seek to be used by God to connect such missionaries to a growing support base.
MIND JET
I have NEVER found a software program that better reflects the way I think.
You may have heard of mind mapping where ideas are presented as diagrams.
There can be all kinds of circles and arrows on a page.
Imagine if there was a computer program that could do that quickly and easily.
Plus this works in many dimensions and will sync with Word, Power Point and Outlook.
I have downloaded the trial version and invested many hours using it.
This will help me to BRIEFLY share the Big Picture when meeting face- to-face.
During the previous few presentations it took a LONG time to go through the flip chart.
There were dozens of Power Point slides each covering one tiny part.
But with this I can unfold something the size of a poster and show the overview.
I can give them a CD with all the layers of details.
They can explore the parts most related to their area and all others.
The cost of burning a CD is tiny.
I believe I can post this on the web for you to examine soon.
SHORT TERM
During the coming weeks I will be
· putting my many notes into Mind Jet.
· meeting with key people at the seminary
· contacting those who can broker the sale of high dollar items
· preparing to attend fund raising Boot Camp January 30 and 31
· taking the Perspectives course about missions
· seeking the initial board of director members
· praying and asking for prayers
THANKS again for ALL your prayers.
SHALOM
John 11:52 PM
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
TUESDAY BRIEFING
12-30-03
ALL glory to God in Jesus Name!
May today be filled with special moments of love and kindness.
May you learn and apply the lessons that Jesus is teaching you.
May Jesus Christ become the central reference in all your choices.
Amen?
COMPLETED
1. My family lives out of state. My dad, brother and I never get together for the holidays. We phoned as usual on Christmas Day. This frees me to serve others.
2. Last week I enjoyed being used by God to come along side and serve with three different ministries during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On the day before Christmas 50 volunteers delivered meals, toys, clothes, New Testaments and gospels of John to 50 families with Angel Truck Ministry. On Christmas Day a dozen volunteers delivered the same items to 17 families with His Hands Ministry. Christmas afternoon I was again helping to feed the homeless at Dallas International Street Church. This year there were about two dozen volunteers including two of my friends. There is a link to a blog at the end of this for more details on these events.
3. The great good news is that these who have had so little all year were filled on that special day. Yet God used these experiences to move my heart in concern for them the rest of the year. They have physical and spiritual needs long after the holidays have past. How can we be used by God to help them to help themselves out of this cycle of poverty, unto rebirth and spiritual maturity?
4. A second third of the clutter in my home office has found a happy home. Heaps of chaotic papers have become piles of topical materials. Many outdated pages went into the trash. Much of the data has moved into orderly files and onto the computer memory. There is hope that this could become an orderly place to work.
5. I had planned to make more progress on preparing the presentation to the wealthy during the week that the school was closed. But the materials I needed were buried in the heaps. So I did mostly housekeeping. This was necessary but draining. I came upon work that I had done years ago that can be slightly revised and used in the near future. While helping the other groups God gave many insights and confirmations. I know that in the coming year these dozens of pieces will come together in a wonderful way.
CURRENT
A. There was a week without hours on the clock. So a smaller paycheck is putting pinch on paying the bills. I made lists of friends to call for assistance. I found that I avoided making those calls. Also there are special needs beyond the regular bills that are coming up this month. I need to have courage and strength to improve my fund raising actions.
B. During next year I hope that the emerging ministry will be able to afford to pay me a salary. But getting from here to there will take the same special grace that God has provided for the last several years. Meanwhile I am going to list here some of my current needs for your prayers. And if God moves on you to give toward them let me know.
UPCOMING
i. The car has been making a rattle for weeks. The sound has come and gone. It is right in the middle of the engine. One mechanic said that the lifters need to be replaced. One was replaced a few months ago and the noise left. There are three more lifters to be replaced. Pray for the source of this sound not to cause major damage in the mean while.
ii. For Christmas my father gave me a Water Pic and that is helping to keep my teeth cleaner. But there is dental work that needs to be done very soon.
iii. The fund raising Boot Camp is coming to the seminary campus on January 30 and 31. God used me to help negotiate that arrangement with the school leadership. I seek to attend and need to send in the registration fee.
iv. There is a highly recommended course on missions coming up called Perspectives. It will help me to become a better missionary to missionaries. I need to send in the registration fee.
v. The black ink is running low on the printer for my computer … HP 56.
vi. I am looking into getting a cell phone and ending the landline to save money. Verizon has been highly recommended. I can use the donation of a used cell phone or fund designated for a new one.
vii. The laptop crashed long ago. I am starting to go out to visit prospective supporters face to face. I can use a laptop computer instead of my flip charts.
viii. I can use some black dress shoes size 12.
ix. The Holy Spirit has been urging me to create a central diagram of the emerging ministry. This will be like a schematic that shows how the resources flow. For example I seek to represent the dynamics of what I saw over the holidays. When we delivered the food, clothes, toys and literature they each had a previous trail. This visual presentation will allow me to QUICKLY show how the donor’s contribution of money or goods will go to serve others. Thus I am taking these rough ideas to two new software programs. There is one that I own and hope to learn it quickly. There is another online that has a 21 day trial version that could give me the initial sketch. For this I need MUCH anointed time of concentration.
x. Part of my ministry to you is to build up your faith. Then you will pray better for me and others. One way to do that is to offer the short Faith Lessons in the Tuesday Briefing. Recently I have collected the previous Faith Lessons and published them on a new blog that has a link at the end of this briefing.
IMAGES
An image of the last week is as follows.
I had planned to plant new crops on the 40 acres north of the farmhouse.
When I got there I discovered it needed much preparation.
So instead of planting I spent the time clearing the rocks, stumps, and trash.
It is more ready than it was but there is still a long way to go.
I rejoice in progress toward a constructive goal even with unexpected delays.
FAITH LESSONS
When you pray it is important that you trust God.
By FAITH you can have confidence in the God of the Bible.
The Old Testament (OT) give a clear detailed account of His faithfulness.
God made promises that He kept.
God dealt with the children of Israel with patience, kindness and longsuffering.
God repeatedly warned and disciplined His people.
All of the discipline was for their good.
The SAME God of the OT is the God to the NT.
He has not and will not change.
Yet our New Covenant is based on better promises.
The gospels, epistles and book of Acts gives His wonderful track record.
Testimonies of answered prayers through the centuries says He has not changed.
Today and right NOW Jesus waits to hear and answer your prayers.
RESOURCES
Here is a nature site for home schoolers and those who like pictures of nature
www.nature.org
Here is an online gospel tract in many languages http://www.creationism.org/gospel/
Here is a good site about creationism http://www.creationism.org/index.htm
This is a nice tribute to our soldiers
http://www.saintsandheroes.com/infantry/
Link to Good Reports blog about outreaches and more http://goodreports.blogspot.com/
Link to Faith Lessons blog http://faithlessons.blogspot.com/
John 11:21 PM
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