Hospitality

I needed to post this picture for Diamond and Anna-Pearl. :-) It's the lizard that I actually touched after this picture was taken. I am amazed by the vastness and diversity of God's creation displayed in the existence of lizards . . . If you'll click on it it you can see a bigger image.



Dean and Reba and Diamond and Anna-Pearl and Buddy and the cats (Tiger and ???) showed us super-Christian hospitality! I wish Nicole could have spent more time with us. Almost all of the Christians I have met have been hospitable people by nature, but this family seems to have been given the gift of hospitality. I think even Nicole, who was only in Jonesboro part of the time, felt more connected to God through the new relationships we found in Jonesboro because they were based on the cross and on our mutual passion to see the Gospel spread far and wide.

Our mission team worked together in Jonesboro, Arkansas since Monday morning. We participated in a Strategy Lab in which we dug deep into the core and distinctive Christian beliefs that guide our strategies and the core values that define us and determine how we limit our plans. It was good to focus on the vision God has given us through wrestling with scripture and thinking about the people of Wollongong, Australia. We also had some awesome worship breaks in our group of about 12 men and women. After this week I believe that God has provided our team with energy and direction that will keep us moving on the right path of preparation. I believe we will "slowly by slowly" over the next several months and years realize the vision, which is a small part of God's grand vision for the liberation from decay and transformation of the whole world. Church-planting will not be easy, but we will participate in it based on who God is and on who he has called us and the people of Wollongong, Australia to be.

Throughout the week, Dean and Reba's family took super care of our needs (took us in, gave us beds and a bathroom, woke us up, fed breakfast, shared conversion stories, laughed with us, and on and on). Jon and "Buddy" had us laughing really hard. Buddy is an Australian Retriever. It just so happens that their family lived in Stillwater for a significant amount of time and have maintained many relationships formed there. (They remembered my family, too, especially Melissa.) Reba reads stories of missionaries to the girls. I will post more on this family as well as the strategy lab later. For now, here are some pictures: