New Blog

Although God's work continues in Manila, we no longer play a direct role in this ministry. We pray that God would bless the Manila team and help it prosper. May God continue to call Filipino men and women to himself to the praise of his glorious grace. May those Filipinos draw others into the family of God through their worship and witness. May they be agents of transformation as they look after orphans and widows. May more Filipinos proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in areas that restrict access to Western missionaries. Lord, may your kingdom come and your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

With bittersweet feelings we close this blog and start another. While researching some statistics on the border, I ran into a discontinued periodical named "Borderlines." I thought that would make a great name for our new blog. So please stay in touch at Borderlines.

New Direction

We had a great time visiting with the BEAMM team, and accepted a call to serve on the US/Mexico border with Mission to the World. We hope to go to language school for 9 months to a year. Then I will apprentice under Manuel Padilla, a church planter in East El Paso. This community is 90% Hispanic, and is crucial for training up the next generation of leadership for both sides of the border. Some of the specific needs are for leadership training, and community outreach through sports. I better get my brother Rob to help me out with my soccer skills. After this apprenticeship in El Paso/Juarez, we would like to go to Nogales, Sonora and help start churches there.

Our team has several church plants in Juarez. We train pastors at San Pablo seminary where I hope to teach when my Spanish gets up to par. And we are planning a community center to focus on mercy ministries. We are currently accepting short term teams for English language camps, VBS, and construction projects. Please see BEAMM's website if your church is interested.

The Next Step

This week we will have our second interview with the Border Evangelism And Mercy Ministries (BEAMM) team on the US/Mexico border. This team is a partnership between Mission to the World (MTW) and Mission to North America (MNA) to reach strategic border cities through church planting movements resulting in a transformation of society for the glory of God.

Their goal is: By God’s grace and His blessing, BEAMM will promote church planting movements by establishing a network of churches in each major border city: Brownsville / Matamoros, McAllen / Reynosa, Laredo / Nuevo Laredo, El Paso / Ciudad Juarez, Nogales / Nogales, El Centro / Mexicali, and San Diego / Tijuana. Associated with each church network will be a regional Theological and Leadership Training Center for the training of future pastors and lay leaders, and a Christian Community Center which will provide English as a Second Language (ESL) and skills training, counseling services, job placement, and mercy ministries to the community. Furthermore, BEAMM will partner with MNA in establishing bilingual church movements in local Hispanic communities throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Please visit http://www.beamm.org/ for more details on their vision and work.

After pursuing recommendations on several continents, both Heather and I agree that this ministry would be a good fit for our family. It would use our gifts, our passions, and our experiences. It would use our gifts in mercy and evangelism. We have a passion to see Christ glorified through the planting of local churches. We have a vision for identifying and equipping leaders to plant churches and reach out to the poor. In Wichita, Jeff started an English as a Second Language Outreach to Hispanics, and Heather taught Bible clubs to the kids of the parents attending. We took the Heartland youth to Chihuahua on several mission trips. Jeff's parents and extended family are from Las Cruces and El Paso. We would start out doing a two year apprenticeship in El Paso and Juarez. After that we would like to go to Nogales, Sonora on the Arizona/Mexico border.

We will let you know how things develop. Please keep us in prayer this week.

Sealing the Envelope???

We are eager to bring you up to speed with some big changes in our lives. We feel blessed to have so many people who believe that God will use us to help his Kingdom grow. Thank you. We think about you all often and pray for the Holy Spirit to empower you as you live for his glory.

We completed all of our training and reached 100% of our support in February. The Lord made our path straight and everything came together until we reached the final point of buying our tickets to the Philippines. But suddenly the Lord has clearly shut the door to the Philippines. The missionaries who were going to mentor us in cross cultural living and ministry are moving to other countries. As a result, Mission to the World is working with us to find a new field of service.

As you can imagine this took us by surprise and we have had a hard time letting go of a growing love and vision for the Filipinos. As we seek God’s leading we are getting counsel from MTW, some key mentors, and our home church. These people have reminded us of the truth that God is in charge and his plans cannot be thwarted. Even though the situation seems very confusing to us, this is all part of his perfect plan. We are looking to him as we seek direction for our future. We have come to a place of peace, thanking God for his providence.

This prayer from the Valley of Vision has been the cry of our hearts through this process.

O God, whose will conquers all, there is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service. Thou art All in all, and all enjoyments are what to me thou makest them, and no more. I am well pleased with thy will, whatever it is, or should be in all respects, and if thou bidst me decide for myself in any affair, I would choose to refer all to thee, for thou art infinitely wise and cannot do amiss, as I am in danger of doing. I rejoice to think that all things are at thy disposal, and it delights me to leave them there. Then prayer turns wholly into praise, and all I can do is to adore and bless thee. What shall I give thee for all thy benefits? I am in a strait betwixt [between] two, knowing not what to do; I long to make some return, but have nothing to offer, and can only rejoice that thou doest all, that none in heaven or on earth shares thy honor. I can of myself do nothing to glorify thy blessed name, but I can through grace cheerfully surrender soul and body to thee.

We are looking into several options at this point. We ask for your prayers and patience as we are eager to move forward. We hope to let you know very soon of our future plans. Thank you for standing with us as we seek to serve our Savior.

Missionary Kids

You know we have been doing too much travelling when the kids make believe "customs." The other day Gracey was pretending to be the customs official, Sam was the traveller, and Betsy was the bomb-sniffing dog. Sam would bring his "luggage" and Gracey would ask for his id. Then Betsy would check the bags. Then Sam would go back and do it again. They did this over and over. I almost died laughing.

Please pray that our kids would be rooted and established in Christ as they go through a lot of transition. May we all find our identity in Christ.

Peace and Quiet

I got home last Monday night. We've enjoyed a week of catching up on sleep, going through two months of mail, laundry, and unpacking all but 2 of our 12 suitcases. Many people are asking when we are leaving for the Philippines. We are waiting for some info from the field and getting things squared away with the home office. We should be able to give you a better idea by March 1. In the meantime please pray for us as we get stuff ready to ship. Please pray for wisdom in the many decisions facing us during this transition.

We're Back!

We are back in the United States! We returned to Atlanta Sunday evening, February 4th. My Grandpa Vaughn passed away early Sunday morning. Tuesday I flew to Las Vegas, Nevada for the funeral. Last Thanksgiving, Grandpa wandered off in a demented state. He ended up hiking 35 miles to Red Rock one of his favorite spots. He was found a day and a half later walking back. The day after the funeral, we hiked Red Rock in memory of Grandpa. We are thankful for the two extra months to spend with him. Gracey, Betsy, and I got to visit with him last Christmas. I returned to Atlanta this morning and took Heather and the kids to the airport where they flew to Wichita. I am currently in Chattanooga, TN where I will speak at a Sunday school at Covenant Presbyterian tomorrow. From there I will drive home. Please pray that God will give us peace and rest following our two months of travel. We need to recharge our physical and spiritual batteries for more transition ahead.

Thank you to the many of you who have been praying faithfully. And I especially want to thank our small group at Heartland who turned on the hot water heater, bought groceries, and had a hot meal waiting for Heather this evening.

Here are the newsletters our group put together over the last four weeks in Belgium:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4

To view the PDF, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader: