Happy Thanksgiving - Pray for Egypt

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave -- what a blessing to be born in or to live in the land of America.  As Joshua shared with the Israelites in Joshua 24, we reap fields we did not plow and drink the fruit of vineyards we did not plant.  It's appropriately Thanksgiving here in America; and we all should be thankful for so many blessings that we have taken for granted and for which others thought and fought to provide and preserve.

We spend this Thanksgiving in the Western U.S., telling our story and our call to a place not like this.  While we prepare for Turkey and Black Friday sales, Egypt lies in an uncertain mess.

click to read and watch the state of continuing revolution in the midst of economic uncertainty: CNN article and video

As I've shared with people across the United States, I've shared that democracy is always a messy process.  No matter how we may romanticize our revolution and nation's birth under the founding father's, we had decades (if not centuries) of trying to get it right, even bloody, shameful events that we rarely even remember in history books.  However, the genius of the founding fathers of the U.S. was to first frame the Declaration, prior to the Revolution, and then quickly the Constitution; but in Egypt, revolution has come and they are no closer to a unified declaration that leads to uncertainty and only more revolution.

Pray for peace among the people of Egypt--for a vision of what's worth fighting for, not just fighting to find what's right.  Pray for us as we continue to share and seek partners--pray for us to be able to arrive in Egypt to encourage and teach the believers soon.

Pray for Egypt this Week

(image from Al Jazeera)

There's more riotous events in Cairo today as the first of 3 rounds of elections are set to begin Nov. 28; as we understand it, the next two elections will be in Dec and Jan.

Pray for the people of Egypt to seek peace.  Pray for the believers in Egypt to model peace and be at peace in their hearts.  

Unity in Action

Click HERE for more info!

I read one of our Caribbean pastors wrote that our belief in unity has to be displayed in a willingness to practice Come-Unity -- the practice of intentionally drawing near to one another so that we can truly love, know and be known.

3W is preparing to connect the European and International Church -- hope some of you will want to join this one, or plan on a future Care-a-van experience.

Keep Portland Weird--and WONDERFUL!

The unofficial, official slogan of Portland is, "Keep Portland Weird" (as seen on the side of the building behind the very popular VooDoo Doughnuts)!

And though I'm sure there is a quirky uniqueness that is embraced by the general populace of this fair city, i've found the multitude of Church of God congregations and the individuals in each simply warm, wonderful, and very supportive.

We've come to the Northwest because of the unique connection to the Egyptian Church and believers, and we have found many congregations with a strong history in missions support and a desire to be informed and involved in resourcing and partnering with international ministries.  In our week plus here, we have met directly with or at least with representatives/pastors from:
Oak Park ChoG, Salem
Lynchwood ChoG, Portland
Springfield ChoG, Eugene
Holladay Park ChoG, Portland
Mt. Scott ChoG, Portland
Rockwood ChoG, Portland
Hoodview ChoG, Woodburn
Vancouver First ChoG, Vancouver, WA
Sunset Park ChoG, St. Helens
as well as a group of Warner Pacific students attending Dr. John Johnson's "Exploring God's Call" class

We are indebted to Lynchwood's Mission team, including Patty & Larry Deacon who made all the arrangements for our stay and scheduling our time with all of the above groups.  Pastor John Kukendall has a great group of leaders at Lynchwood!  And, much appreciation should be expressed to Walt & Martha Perry who hosted and fed Titus and I over the course of our stay in Portland.

Tonight, Keli and Zeke fly in to help us share with Rainier (OR), Neighborhood Chapel (Auburn, WA), Onalaska (WA), and Centralia (WA).  By then we will have past the half-way point of this PAC/NW excursion -- thanks for all your prayers, support, and encouragement...

Blessed by Boise, Wandered to Walla Walla, Enriched by Richland, and Positive in Portland!

What a whirlwind of destinations in the past week!  Titus and i flew out of Nashville last Saturday morning and arrived in Boise, Idaho -- we've never been to this part of the country so all of this is an adventure.  We were warmly greeted by Pastor Tom of the Cloverdale Church who took us to some good eats at Juds (famous for a hamburger challenge on Man vs. Food) and ice cream at a little shop not far from the Boise State Campus.  Pastor Tom has a few radio programs and is often a chaplain speaker for the BSU team and their opponents; he is also the chaplain for the Idaho State House of Representatives.  The Cloverdale Church is equally as impressive: the children's program warmly greeted and included Titus (and were ecstatic to see him come back on the next Wednesday night).  We stayed with an exceptional couple, Wes and Tricia, who shared their lives as well as their home with us--it was great!  Pastor Tom further blessed us by loaning us their minivan so we would have to rent a car for the next part of our trip!  By the way, Boise is absolutely beautiful--we loved the community with the mountains in the background.

Titus and i drove to Eastern Washington through Eastern Oregon, which took us over and through a lot of mountains and valley/canyon passes -- the distance "as the crow flies" is not that great, but the twists and turns made it about a 4 hour trip with breathtaking scenery -- i highly encourage this drive.

We wandered into Walla Walla last Tuesday where we met with Pastor Jim Snyder of the Blue Mountain Community Church -- also a beautiful area!  Pastor Jim was in seminary about the same time we were at AU.  And, to our surprise, BMCC used to support Franco and Bea's monthly work in Cairo--so there looks to be good partnership already established that could continue to us.  Pastor Jim treated us to lunch and with a Starbucks card (a true friend in the faith!) before encouraging us to cross back into Oregon to Milton-Freewater where we met Pastor Doug; he was a warm and engaging pastor who has been serving the church there for over 20 years.  Pastor Doug's congregation supports a couple who retired from military service only to enter the mission field in Africa (Tanzania?) -- what a testimony!

We then went on Wednesday a full mile from where we were staying to the Columbia Community Church in Richland, WA.  Pastor Mark Barker along with staff Chad, Curt, and Jason met and dialogued with us about calling, and mission, and hope for the Middle East -- it was a truly positive and interesting time of sharing.  C3 has some exciting things happening with a lot of new conversion growth and a new emphasis on creating missional relationships internationally--they were asking all the right questions and excited about the answers for future partnership.

After the drive back to Boise, we had one more evening with the good folks of Cloverdale.  We then flew out of Boise EARLY Thursday morning and were greeted a short time later by our Portland contacts, Larry & Patty Deacon.  The Deacons have been great hosts even before we landed, arranging a full schedule for the next 7 days to interact with most of the churches, pastors and leaders in the area.  They helped us get some laundry done, took us to see a 2-story chocolate fountain (Titus' new happy place) and a trip to Multnomah Falls--breathtaking once again.  Portland is beautiful, too -- but now its cold -- but the people are o-so warm.  We're staying with Walt & Martha Perry (parents of Danette Biesley serving in New Zealand)--they've been great and very encouraging.  We shared with a very engaging and curious class of ministry students in one of Dr. John Johnson's classes at Warner Pacific today--that was great, and weird: great because we love interacting with young leaders, but weird because i realized in my preparation that i was twice their age!

now it's time to run -- lots of great pics will show up soon on a new pic page -- keep us in prayer for safety, favor, and for family as we operate away from each other...