Weekly Update: June 29th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 6/29/12

Hello everyone,

I pray this update finds you all well!

In less than one week from today our family will be in South Africa! We leave for the airport this Sunday evening. Monday will be a long day of traveling for us; two airplanes and then a long drive to Worcester!

Getting back into the lifestyle of living at a YWAM base will be an interesting change for us. In many ways The Netherlands has become a bit homey for me and for my wife it’s become her home again. We have very good friends and family here and I am sure their company will be missed as we travel to a new place to live.

Still, we will be back for a bit after the School Of Apostolic Pioneering is over in South Africa. We will need to be here to finish up my wife’s visa before traveling back to the US.

In South Africa we will be joining five others to staff the School Of Apostolic Pioneering; in that group there are two other couples with youngsters too. For all of us it will be the time staffing the school with our own children! We will see how things get divided up when we get there, but I’m sure that it will be a good chance for all of us to learn how to be leaders and parents at the same time!

I’m not sure how getting internet looks like down there yet, but I’ll continue to try to get the weekly updates sent out as weekly as possible!

Thanks for your attention!

Other Updates:

– My wife’s visa process is still moving along; we’re working with our lawyer right now to get copies and paperwork together for the second step that should be finished before we get back to the Netherlands.

– Both my wife and I are pretty tired and a little sick, well, my wife is certainly a bit more sick than I am right now. Finishing unfinished projects have been sapping most of our energy. Please pray for our health as we travel to South Africa!

Scripture:

This morning the Psalm I read was Psalm 70.

At first glance, I suppose a person could argue that this is just another one of those psalms that is asking God for revenge. There are a number of psalms that could sound like that, but I don’t think that’s what we’re reading about.

In the life of King David, who wrote this psalm, we see story after story of injustices taking place; at times people are trying to kill him unjustly, other times he sees injustice in others, and other times he is the one at the center of the injustice. When he writes about others doing injustice he is severe, when he writes about the injustices done by his own hands he begs God for forgiveness.

What is the take away for us?

We live in a world full of injustices just like King David. Today, in Syria, people are going to be killed because they’ve defied a government who hasn’t spared its hand in committing injustices against men, women, and children. Wherever the life in people, which God has created in them, is not respected injustices will follow. What should we do? What does David do?

David, when injustice was before him, turned to God.

We could imagine trying to right all the wrongs in the world, but this is an impossible task for us; that, in fact, was one of the things God asks Job in Job 40:6-14.

In our day, which isn’t much different from David’s day, we need to turn to God and ask Him what to do. We are poor and in desperate need of God to change our hearts to oppose injustice. Only when the hearts of people will change will injustice cease.

God has sent Jesus Christ into the world to do this.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in The Netherlands!

– Pray that God would help us remember the lessons that He has taught us while being here!

– Pray for our health!

– Pray that everything will go well in our travels, we fly out of Germany on the 2nd of July and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, later that night.

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June 15th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 6/15/12

Hello everyone,

The past couple weeks have been very special for our family!

The Sunday before last, my wife’s brother had his public profession of faith at our home church here in the Netherlands. The profession of faith service is a response to the family baptism service that I’ve written about earlier. The baptism service gives honor to God for taking the first steps toward the child, the profession of faith service gives honor to God for continuing that relationship and our response back to God.

It was a very beautiful service and I am excited to see my brother-in-law and the other young people choose to show their love for God.

The other big thing that has happened over the last week is that God has provided us with all the money that we needed to buy our plane tickets! We certainly weren’t expecting it, but when my wife called her insurance company to see if we would need to pay anything extra this year, they told us that we would be receiving money back for the months we were in the Netherlands!

So, between that and the rest of the support we will receive over the following months, we should have our costs for South Africa covered!

Even though God has been very faithful to us in the area of finances, this last time of waiting has been really nerve-racking for us. I remember talking to my wife about it and feeling like if God would just provide for us then we could have rest. However, that hasn’t been what God has been teaching us. He’s used this experience to teach us, again, that He wants us to rest in who He is – not in how we want or expect Him to act.

God desires to do us good and to help us grow. Sometimes, these two things can seem to contradict each other, but we can trust that God has His best for us at heart.

We are both very thankful that God has taught us this again!

Other Updates:

– Just the other day I wrote an article about the heart of being an apostolic pioneer. I realize, though, that this doesn’t really explain what the School Of Apostolic Pioneering looks like. If you would like to know what the school looks like in detail I recommend checking out YWAM Worcester’s page describing it.

The page is very informative and it has a video on it too. You can check both of these out by clicking the link here, SOAP – YWAM Worcester.

Scripture:

I think the Psalm that has hit me the most this week has been Psalm 127.

I’ve already written about it some in the article I wrote just the other day, but I think I want to focus on the second verse in the psalm. It says this:

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”

During the last couple weeks I cannot say that I have found myself that joyful, or restful for that matter. I have been quite frustrated at times when the topic of support would come up or how we would pay for our tickets to South Africa. This is quite unlike the other times I’ve waited on God for the money that I would need to do something.

I think that this verse sheds some light on how I’ve felt.

I’ve thought about what I need too much and who I know God to be too little. He has been very good to me and my family. Never have we been in a need that He hasn’t provided for. I’ve spent too much time thinking and worrying.

In my heart I know that God desires the best for us. He desires to be the one whom we can rest in. He desires to be the one we know will provide for us.

Somehow, I forgot this.

However, learning it again makes me glad and I praise God for it!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God that my wife and I have our tickets for South Africa!

– Pray that God will help us learn even more about Him and His provision for us!

– Pray that everything will go well in our travels, we fly out of Germany on the 2nd of July and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, later that night.

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

TAK Article: Apostolic Pioneering

Good news!

Just yesterday my wife and I were able to buy our plane tickets to South Africa! Our purpose in going to South Africa will be to staff the School Of Apostolic Pioneering.

Now the school’s name is a bit of a mouthful, so, we usually shorten it to SOAP.

I’ve wanted to write something like this for a while now, but yesterday, while reading Psalm 127, it felt like God told me to write it out. So, I’ll attempt to do that; I want to share with you what it means to be apostolic and what it means to pioneer, also, I want to use this Psalm to help explain that.

I hope that this explains what my wife and I will be a part of in South Africa this summer!

Psalm 127

King James Version (KJV)

1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

What is an Apostle?

What does being Apostolic look like?

As far as I can tell, an apostle is simply someone who has been sent with a message and who has been given the authority to deliver that message. Being apostolic is living the life you have been given with  that definition in mind.

How often do we choose to live our lives like this?

For some of us this can seem like a really easy thing to identify in others. I have a good number of friends who work in countries that are unreached. Are these people apostles? Yes, I think they are; they have been sent with gospel and Jesus gives them the authority to share that gospel with others. Do we all have to go to the unreached to be apostolic? No, I don’t think so.

Anyone who chooses to live their life in a way that carries the gospel of Jesus to people and places where His gospel is not chooses to live in an apostolic way.

What does this Psalm have to do with that?

The first two verses talk about this: God is the one who empowers us, don’t fret and worry about how things will go – God will take care of it.

When we try to do things without God’s strength in us we are being insecure and only want to prove ourselves. We aren’t willing to say that we are weak and He is strong. When we rely on God for our strength then we are able to be apostolic. Then, we can carry the gospel to people who do not yet have the gospel in their lives.

That is the first thing God has been sharing with me in this Psalm.

What is a Pioneer?

What does pioneering look like?

To be a pioneer is not that different from being an apostle; however, you can be a pioneer of anything.

When I was about fifteen years old I learned a lot about paintball and started a small paintball team with my brothers and cousins. Before we came together there wasn’t any paintball team, after we came together there was a paintball team where there wasn’t one.

That is how simple it can be to be a pioneer.

Now, being a pioneer of things that last is a whole other matter!

Living a life that is apostolic calls us to trust in God and reach out to those who do not know who God can be in their lives. This is going to result in people coming closer to God. Now what? Pioneering implies that we do something with this that is worthwhile and lasts.

What is to be pioneered?

Well, I think that depends on what God tells you to do, though, ultimately, the church is what is being pioneered.

I’m not speaking of a specific denomination or wing of theology, I am speaking of the church that makes up Jesus’ body – the one that He is the head of. Some people who have taken the SOAP school have taken this pioneering up in Phoenix, Arizona, others have taken it up in red light districts in Asia. Soon, we are looking forward to see people pioneering things in Africa.

The church, those who follow Jesus and are committed to Him, are commanded by Jesus to love others as we would have others love ourselves. Pioneering is about doing so in places and in ways that it has not been done before.

The last three verses this Psalm reminds me of this too.

We really only live for a short time and then we’re gone, however, our children go on after us. When we focus on being apostolic we will raise up spiritual children. When we pioneer, we are gathering our spiritual children together to do something great for God – to show off His love.

We can only do so much, but God has spiritual children for us that will out do us. We can trust God that He will be with them and do more with them than we could alone.

Apostolic  Pioneering?

Yes, this school is all about Apostolic Pioneering

The message we have been given to give is the gospel of Jesus, He has given us the authority to share it with others. As people respond to this gospel we are pioneering the church in new places and with new ways to share God’s love.

It is very exciting to be a part of the first School Of Apostolic Pioneering in Africa. We have already seen this school be effective in Asia and North America too.

Together, when we live apostolic lives and pioneer things that last, we will see God raise up children who are not ashamed of Jesus and who will “speak with the enemies in the gate.”

Please be praying for this with us!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June, 1st 2012

Weekly Update: Thursday, 6/1/12

Hello everyone,

Yesterday was my wife’s 23^rd birthday!

We all had a good time and there are plenty of snacks left lying around, but I think most of you reading this are bit far away to stop by and help eat them. I made a banana cream pie, my wife and her father bought lots of these chocolate covered whip cream ball things, and we ate a really good dinner.

I found out that it is actually rather simple to make a banana cream pie from scratch.

Half way through the process I realized that I just made my own vanilla pudding and after that I tried to make a meringue top for it. If you’d like to try your hand at it here are the links to the recipes that I used: Banana Cream Pie, Meringue Topping, and Pie Crust.

If you dare, have fun cooking!

Other Updates:

– During the past couple weeks it has been fun to be in the Netherlands. Last Sunday we’ve celebrated Pentecost and ten days before that we celebrated Jesus’ Ascension. They are both national holidays here in the Netherlands.

– While support raising this past week I’ve had the chance to pray with most of the people I’ve called this past week. It has been very encouraging and I look forward to keeping everyone in our prayers!

– Concerning the SOAP in South Africa: we still need to raise $2,350 dollars for our plane tickets as soon as possible, we should be able to cover the costs of staffing the school ($1000 dollars) with our current monthly support, and we still need to raise $400 in case of extra expenses.

If you wish to support us in this, you can contact our Home Front Committee for more instructions at: “hfc@zaaier.com”.

 

Scripture:

Reading Psalm 46 has been really important for me this week.

It’s been pretty easy for me to start feeling down over the past couple of days. I start thinking about things more than I experience them and before long I can’t concentrate anymore or have any reason to feel good. The only answer that I have found during times like these has been to turn to Jesus and ask Him to help me.

Yesterday was like that, it was also the day that I read Psalm 46.

In there it says to “be still and know that I am God” and right after that “I will be worshipped in all the earth.”

Far too often I get focused on trying to do the right things and I forget to be still. I remember that my first responsibility is to love God and love the others around me, but I forget to be still and let God prepare me for that. He reminded me of that yesterday. Whenever He calls us to do something, He will be the source of our strength to do that thing. He has called all of us to be the church and tell the nations about Him, but we forget to rely on Him for the strength to do so.

As followers of Christ (and as a follower of Christ) we need to learn how to rely on Jesus for our strength – for everything that we will need to do what He calls us to do.

Yesterday, God helped me learn that again.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– In the next few days we will have a better idea of where we are at in raising money to go to South Africa for the SOAP. Please be praying with us that God will continue showing us the direction He has for us and that He will confirm what He wants to do through us!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom