State of the Union...

Things are going well. We have been reading through Romans and just finished the biography of Charles Cowman, the founder of OMS. Each day we meet and discuss what we have read. Our discussions have lately been focused on the topic of Reformed Theology vs. Weslian (and everything between) and attemtping to surmise for ourselves what exactly "salvation" is, because your view of salvation determines what exactly your ministry does.

We were blessed twice last week to have Randy Spacht, the incoming Excutive Director of International Ministry sit down with us and discuss the book of Romans. He has also been a proffessor at an OMS related Seminary in Colombia.

This morning Eric, Richard, and I spoke in the chapel. We talked about ourselves and shared our testimonies. We also led one worship song with Tom on guitar.

On a selfish note i was able to introduce a few people on campus to a board game i like called "Settlers of Catan."

Once Upon a weekend in Penn's Woods

This past weekend i attended a Convention/Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania for OMS' North Eastern Region. We drove about 9 hrs from Greenwood, Indiana. There i got to hear a missionary couple from Brazil and another from Haiti speak on what the Lord has been doing in their countries. Another couple spoke about how they heard God's call on their lives, and are soon about to depart to Mozambique. It was also a blessing to meet quite a few retired missionaries.

Now that i finally have a connection to the internet feel free to e-mail me at chiron1138@aol.com with any questions you might have or even if you just want to say hi. Adieu

No they weren't dancing in the Aisles...mostly

I have been quite blessed this past week and a half. Every where I go people pour out their love on us. On the OMS Campus in Greenwood, IN. everyone is welcoming and surprisingly more than I had expected have extended their hospitality to us and opened their homes. But none of this has compared to the love that would be poured out to us in Rochester, NY.

We left for Rochester early Friday morning at 5am. It was going to be about a 10 hour drive from Indianapolis and would once again extend a personal record of the farthest East I had ever been. Tom Wright, my boss/mentor/friend, was invited to preach at a Black Pentecostal Church there called the ‘Pentecostal Miracle Deliverance Church Center’ or PMDCC for short. This Sunday’s service was a yearly held event called Holy Convocation which was set aside as an encouragement for people to rededicate and refocus their lives on Christ. We would be attending a church service there Friday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening. For the interns under Tom; Richeard, Erik, Jorge (pronounced Horhay), and I; this was to be a cross-cultural and cross-denomination learning experience.

While in Rochester we stayed at the house of a dear friend of Tom known affectionately as Mama Brown, or just Mama. Last summer she traveled on a high school missions trip to Hungary with Tom as adult leader. Mama is a 66 year old Black woman whose kids have grown up and left the house and showed herself to be one of the most loving people I have ever met. In more than just appearance she is as Black as midnight, and has a very southern style of metaphor in her speech. I sadly can’t bring one of her many phrases to mind, although each was quite funny. She also affectionately called those who entered the hospitality of her home, her sons.

The young men (us four interns) stayed in the loft of her 3 story house where beds were prepared. The house had so mush character. It wasn’t very wide or deep, but it was very tall and the rooms were stacked on each other, and in the center of it a stairway ran its height. But the most noticeable thing was how much it squeaked and creaked when you walked. Mama attended to us at meal time like royalty, and we had collard greens, corn bread, okra, pork in the greens, and fried chicken. Definitely the cooking was very Southern in origin.

We attended the Friday night service and the dress was formal. Walking into the church I will have to be honest and say that I did feel uncomfortable for about the first minute, being in all-Black church. But the people were very welcoming that I quickly got past it. It was the first time that I had been to a Pentecostal service. To use some slang, it was quite ‘kickin.’ The worship time was loud and intense and I enjoyed every second. “I don’t think I ever clapped so much,” my friend Richard later remarked. Mama Brown gave the message for the Friday night service. The sermon was quite interactive. Members of the congregation maintained an ongoing dialogue with the person preaching. “Amen” and “Preach it” and “That’s right” and “She/he speaks the truth” could be heard after almost every statement given.

Saturday we got to meet up for lunch with my dear friend and Pastor, Peter Burch. It was such a blessing to spend time with him, and his wife, Holly, and his kids, Ashley and Devante. I introduced my cohorts to Peter, and we spoke for a few hours and had lunch. Also he took us on a tour of his church he is pasturing at, and his vision for the different ministries he would like to start in helping and reaching the community. I am very anxious to see how the Lord will use him.

Saturday night we were blessed with a Lasagna that a member of the church dropped off to help feed the ‘missionaries.’ It was a great time of bonding and fellowship between the four interns, accept we later found out that night that one of us snored quite heavily. We ironed all our clothes the night before because Mama would have it that none of us would iron on the Sabbath.

Sunday night we woke up early and, if I remember correctly, had a hearty breakfast. Mama outdid herself with Pancakes and grits, and bacon. We went to the Sunday school before the service during where I got to give a short message, sharing my testimony and encouraging the audience to be a light for Jesus wherever they are, sharing the Gospel of Christ with their friends and acquaintances. It was sprung on me at the last second but I think the Lord quickly prepared me and allowed my hopefully to relate to those who are different than I.

The main service was great. I was quite blessed by the energy in the worship time. Tom gave the message out of Revelations on the coming victory of Christ over the Devil. His words were powerful, on account of his source material…the Bible. Interesting enough his style of worship changed to fit his audience, specifically a Charismatic Pentecostal church. It reminded me of how Paul talks about being a Roman to the Romans and a Jew to the Jews so that he might win souls for Christ. Logically one might accuse him of falsely representing himself, but in good conscience I know he will say that he was adapting his style to better reach his audience.

After church was a siesta time. We had Dinner between 3pm and 4. This made my friend Jorge happy because this is the usual time that he eats lunch in Spain. I found out after, that in the south, dinner refers to lunch, and supper to dinner. Strange. We had some green beans that meal that was sent over by another member of the church. Very good Green Beans, I might add. In the words of Mama, “They had Jesus in them.”

By 6pm we went back to the church and attended “Sunday Extension,” which is like an evening Sunday school. I really enjoyed this, too, because the adult participants were very engaged on the Subject at hand. I took part and contributed as much as I could. This surprised the teacher leading the class, who by the way was the cook of the green beans we ate earlier. After that was the evening service
Each week in every service it seems they have an opportunity for people to “testify” on how the Lord has been answering prayer or working in their lives. With a little encouragement, Richard, Erik, and I all got up and spoke. I think this impressed the church leaders. After this another 2 guys got up and testified, who previously in their lives had been involved with gangs and drugs before Jesus got a hold of their heart. After hearing Tom’s message they were inspired to drive around the streets of downtown Rochester and find somebody to share the Gospel with. The person they found first was a gang member with a pocket full of booze, and a younger family member at his side. He related to the two guys what his life’s state and how he had recently been in a gang shoot out. In turn the two guys told him about the good news of Jesus Christ; the fact that every man has a sin nature that they are born into, and it is this sin that will lead them to spiritual death when they die, Hell. But God in his compassion, love, and grace made the ultimate sacrifice by sending His Son Jesus to die in our place. Like a sacrificial Lamb of the Old Testament our sin was placed upon Him. Romans 10:9 says,

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The Gang Member on that street corner placed his faith in Jesus and vowed to change his ways. He emptied the bottle from his pocket right there on the street and decided to live as an example to his younger family member at his side. Yes, Jesus is in the business of changing lives.

We got back pretty pretty late from the service. “That is enough church for one day,” humorously remarked Jorge as we started to change our clothes. The rest of the night I purposefully got no sleep and spent it talking with my friend Jorge(pronounced Horhay) about his home in Spain, his family situation and what his church is like there. I in turn told him about myself.

We left at 5am for Greenwood, Indianapolis. We sadly did not stop at Niagara Falls but should in two weeks. The drive went pretty smooth. I drove a portion of the 10hr trip. Some how our van is still working, and I would like to thank anyone has prayed for it. Please continue. It’s actually currently being looked at by the on campus mechanic.

The rest of the week was pretty good. We are still going through in-depth through Romans and the book called “Missionary Warrior,” a biography of the founder of OMS. More on that later.

Tomorrow we leave for Hershey, Pennsylvania for a Regional weekend conference/convention for OMS International. It will relay to constituents what OMS has accomplished in the past year, and their current plans for the future. I am looking forward to it. I believe missionaries from the field will be speaking. Our departure time is 5am and the drive is about 9hrs from Greenwood, Indiana. Stay tuned for a full report.

In passing I think if I post more often my post will be shorter. Toodles.

Off And Running...

Hello all. So i've finally gotten into the swing of things here in Greenwood, IN. All this time i've yet to get regular internet access, and this has been a hinderance in keeping up with anybody. So at this time this blog is the best way to let people know how i am doing. I also hope to jazz this blog up a bit once i get regular access.
Lets see where do i start? ... Last monday was our first official day of 'work.' At 9am we had a meetting with other OMS staff members. They had a short devotional, briefly talked of various office related things and than Richard, Erik, and I (the three new interns) were introduced. We each told a little bit about ourselves. After the meeting Tom gave us a brief intro on how the orginaztion breaks down. What division and region is under what, and who is in charge of this and that and how the international region relate to the ones here in America. In other words my description is rather vague because i have already forgotten most of this informnation. :-) Than Tom, our fearless leader, took us for a tour around OMS headquarters. To this office and that one. To this department and that. "And if you need help with this come here..." "And this is our inhouse mail room where you can..." People were very welcoming and each asked us where we were from. Than we got to meet the Director, i guess that is what you would call him, of the orginization. His office was nicely furnished and his secretary ran to get him for us. We shook his hand and yet again spoke about ourselves. Because of the large interest in these new "strapping" young men, as one little old lady put it, Tom has set us up to share our Testominies in an upcoming chapel. They have chapel twice a week, tuesday and thursday morning at 7:57am.
Our basic day, so far, works out that we have a Bibler Study for 4hrs from 9am to noon. Than lunch, and than some type of work project until 5pm at the latest. The Global Youth Ministries department, which i am interning under, is currently moving its office from and office to a garage. Now this may sound kinda of odd, but we are defintely trading up. The garage is pretty large but it is just going to need a little TLC. So we have been cleaning out the garage, furnishing it, moving furniture, painting the old office for the new tenant. Today we assembled a desk for that same person.
We have been studying in-depth in the Bible through the book of Romans, and also reading a book called "Missionary Warrior" a biography of the founder of the Oriental Missionary Society (now OMS International, this orginization that i am interning under) which is written by his wife. Both of whom are deceased. I also just started attending a Bible Study at a nearby church on a book called "The Contagious Christian."
I have been getting along so far quite well with my two roommates. Each of us have our own room, and our abode is a sweet little bachelors pad. There is a chance that we may lose it, if a specific missionary family comes home from the field. And their larger family would be in a greater need. If that happens we might be moved over to a nearby apartment, and possibly forced to share a room. :-(
In the area of entertainment the TV show "Lost" is playing nonstop in the living room. I brought the first and second season and addicted my my room mate Erik. Richard, Erik, and I are all trying to finish season 1 and 2 before 3 starts October 5th. Also there is a theatre nearby that plays movies for only $.50 every tuesday. So last tuesday night when went with a group of some of the younger people on OMS staff. Tonight there is an on campus a party for the TV show "Survivor." My "boss" Tom (he is not really my boss but the guy i am interning under) and a few others on staff are diehard Survivor fans. So i am looking forward to that.
On wednesday the Orginization had a half day of prayer, which was unexpectantly a great blessing. It was held at a local church and the first 50 minutes was set aside for a personal prayer time. I got alot out of this and was able to pore out to God specific worries and doubts that had been in the back of my mind in relation to this new chapter in my life, and what settled on my heart after was an overcoming sense of peace. A specific verse that i purposefully found during this time was the second half of Jeremiah 66:2. In it the Lord says,

"This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word."

And also, not on purpose, i found Psalm 103, a passage i had memorized when i was in first or second grade. It was probably the largest thing i had memorized at the time and was done for a ACSI Speech Meet. It says,

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The first verse is a challenge to me to be a person who is humble, and someone who is broken before God. When we are broken, when we can no longer do it on our own. It is there that we can find our strength in God, and we can know that peace that surpasses all understanding, and He can start his work in our heart, to create us into the person that he would have us be in the likeness and characteristic of His Son.
The second passage is an encouragement to the way that God relates to those who call Him Savior and Lord, and the writer in the first verse in response to all that God does can only Praise and Worship Him.
The rest of the half day of prayer was spent in an organized corporate prayer for specific missionaries and their kids that the orginization had set out to many various countries, and specific things that each were dealing with.
Tomorrow morning at 5am we leave for Rochester, New York. It will be a 10 hour drive, and we will be attending a Black Pentacostal church there. Just picture the Black church in the movie "Blues Brothers" and that is how my mind's eye expects it to be like from what Tom has told us. We will be attending a friday night service, and a Sunday morning and evening service there. We we will also be attending an evening Saturday service at a nearby spanish church. Tom is going to be preaching at the Black church which is our purposefor going. But alos to expose us to cross cultural ministries. I will also be meeting up with my former Pastor Peter Burch on Saturday, which i am really looking forward to. I have always thought of Peter as a mentor and was sad when he felt God's call to lead him back to his home town in Rochester where he is now a Pastor. Saturday is also his twin son and daughter's birthday. I think they are turning 10. I remember when they were 5.
I will post as soon as possible after we come back.

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away ...

I definitely need to star this post with a disclaimer. I am a writer at heart, so please forgive me if this post runs long. I have been in Greenwood Indiana for two days now. As i write this, sitting in the living room of my new boss, Tom Wright, i can hear the "Manning Bowl" play in the background. Go Colts, i guess. (When in Rome ... ) And on that note i am sad to hear the Niners lost. :-(
Me and Richard have succesfully and safely arrived in Indiana. We stopped in Salt Lake City the first night and Colby, Kansas the second. Wyoming sticks out most in my mind for having straight long deserted unpoliced highways, and a horizon that stretches miles in every directions. The Salt flats in Utah were pretty cool. I picked up quite a few salt samples from there. We caught some traffic north of Denver, and i missed a turn off in St. Louis leading us to tour the city up close and personal. We arrived in Greenwood Indiana at almost 2am, Saturday morning. There is a three hour difference between here and the Bay Area, which will be to my advantage when i eventually get a cell phone (Cingular: free nights and weekends!).
OMS headquarters is pretty neat. It sits on about 20 acres, and the main building has 40-50 international flags sitting in front of it for all the countries OMS has ministries in. All the homes on campus house staff members for OMS.
We were welcomed by Beth Wright, Tom's wife, for Tom was unable to stay awake. She showed us our new home. The place is two stories, four bedrooms, 2 and a a half bathrooms, kitchen, dining, and living room, and its only going to be housing three people. We share a wall with a retired missionary couple from Japan. I have my own room, Richard has another, and the third is taken by a guy named erik. Erik had gotten in only earlier that day and he is the thrid intern under Tom. He is 24 years old, from Kansas, and training to be a pilot. He is also rather tall and a nice guy.
We spent Saturday after sleeping just setteling in, unpacking and arranging stuff in our rooms. Tom and Beth were busy with soccer in the early afternoon. Sean, their adopted son from Korea, had a soccer game. Later in the evening we went out to dinner in downtown Indianopollis with Tom, Beth, Sean, and Horhay (don't think i spelled that right). Horhay is from spain, 23, and has been staying with the Wright family for the past few weeks to work on his english. He met Tom on his last mission trip to Madrid a month ago. After dinner we toured the city. And later in the night, Richard, Erik, and I watched Anchor man.
Today we (which will always most likely mean Richard, Erik, and I) went to church at Tom and Beth's Presbyterian Church. We went to a sunday school class going through C.S. Lewis' 'Mere Christianity.' The main service had a guest Dixie Land Band leading worship. Noy exactly my style but it was neat to broaden my horizons.
In the evening Tom and Beth invited us over to watch the Colts' football game. Tomorrow my day starts at 8am with an OMS staff meeting. There i will be introduced to other people on staff and start to guage what my new responsibilities will be.
Friday we will be leaving for Rochester for the weekened. Tom is going to be preaching at a chruch and i look forward to meeting up with Pastor Burch and his family. Well now i must sign off. Toodles.

"Todo, where not in Kansas anymore..."

Well, actually we are... but when you read this we will for not be. Me and my friend Richard have been driving for the past two days. We drove from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, Utah the first night staying at a hotel there. The first day was about 750 miles, and today we drove almost 800. We are staying overnight in a motel in Colby, Kansas. We should be in Greenwood, Indiana by tomorrow night. Some highlights of the trip would be stopping at my Grandmother's house for breakfast in Truckee; going farther East than i have ever gone before(Reno); realizing how desolate Central United States is with plains stretching as far as the eye can see; romping at a rest stop on Salt flats in Utah. So far we have traveled about 1500 miles so far and by the end of the day tomorrow will have driven 2300 miles. Please continue to pray for our safety. Thankyou.