Light of Togo

Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: Nov ‘08

Finally back home in Oregon, but not for long!  We safely drove 3,500 miles coast to coast (our 7th time doing so!) with no problems whatsoever.  Thank you so much to all of you who were praying for our safety during our trip.  We were able to visit some family and friends along the way, and God gave us a great time with all of them.

We are really excited to be back home, but we’re even more excited to get out of here in February!  It’s coming quick, so we know that we can’t just sit back and relax.  There’s lots of work to be done, especially in the next six weeks or so until we ship our container.  Please pray for all that needs to be done, and that we don’t forget any important details.

Please also continue to pray for the Togo Departure Fundraiser.  We have already received a few donations, and we praise God for His provision.  We have come to the point where we realize that even if we don’t receive a penny, that God will either provide in some other way, or allow us to get by without what we think we need.  In either way, we know that God is going to do what is best for us!

I’ll have some exciting opportunities to speak and preach while we’re home, so I’d also like to ask you to pray for those as well.  One of these opportunities will be speaking to a public school Bible club, and possibly even in some of the regular classes.  Please pray that God will open these doors so that He might have an opportunity to minister through me.

I know that I’ve given you a bunch of things to pray for, but right now we need and appreciate your support of us in prayer more than ever.  We realize that if we ever get to Togo, that it will not be because of our own skill or ability, but because of God alone, doing what only He can do.

Please make sure to check back often at the website where we will be updating you more frequently with everything that’s going on.

Thank you for your prayer and support!

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

We exist to glorify God. Period.

If you have not come to the point yet where you realize that the sole purpose for your existence on this planet is to glorify God, you must not have ever read the Bible. There are countless ways in which a follower of Christ can bring glory to God, but here in this passage Jesus tells us that one way is in bearing fruit.  Again, let’s not forget what Jesus is referring to when He talks about fruit.  God is glorified when we show His love through our lives, when we express the joy of knowing Christ, when we exercise faith in the unfailing nature of God.  As John Piper says in his excellent book on missions, Let the Nations Be Glad, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  When He is everything to us, He is most glorified.

As the branch abides in the vine, the fruit producing process is simply a natural outflow of the life of the vine.  Imagine yourself at a local farm, where you are strolling through the rows of trees and plants, taking in all the sights and smells of non-city life.  Suddenly, as you pass by the grape vines, you hear a familiar but out-of-place sound.  It is the sound of struggle.  You bend your ear to distinguish the source, but you see no one.  Then something catches your eye.  It is a vine, to which is attached a small branch, on which is no fruit.  This comes as no surprise to you since it is not yet the season for grapes.  However, you see and hear that this little branch is grunting and groaning, struggling and squirming with all it’s might, trying to push out some fruit.  You say to the branch, “Hey buddy, what are you doing?”  He stops his efforts briefly and responds, “I’m making fruit!”  You try explaining to him that he can’t do it by all that struggling, and that it’s not even the season for it, but he turns a deaf ear and continues his travail.

As silly as this illustration is, it is a mirror of many Christians who have their focus on the wrong things.  Here is a question: is bearing fruit a good thing?  Yes, of course.  But does it mean that it should be the focus of all our attention?  We must realize that fruit in the Christian life is the result of our attention being fully on our abiding in Jesus and on the glorifying of God.  It is much like the sinner who tries to “be saved” by living a pseudo Christian life, without first going to the source of this life which is Jesus.

The last part of this verse can be a bit tricky.  At first glance, it appears to be telling us that discipleship is conditional and based upon the fruit that we produce.  If this is the case, how much is “much fruit?”  How can we ever be sure if we are disciples of Christ or not?  This dangerous thinking leads to many errors, such as putting all kinds of external stipulations on determining whether or not somebody is “right with God” or not.  I have seen and experimented this kind of Christianity, and in it there are many extra-biblical man-made rules that many times take priority over simple Bible truth.

In a situation like this, it is helpful to consult the original language of the text.  From the study that I have done, it appears that the idea is this: Fruitfulness in the Christian life is not a condition which is required to become a disciple of Christ, but rather it is the proof that one already is a disciple.  Jesus once said that you can tell whether a tree is good or bad by its fruit.  A vibrant, healthy tree will produce good fruit, but a dead or dying tree will produce undesirable fruit or no fruit at all.  The point of this parable was to show that what the tree is, it will produce.  It would be silly to say that the good fruit on the limbs is what makes the tree good.  But it is perfectly acceptable to say that the fruit on the limbs is good because the tree is good.  We must be careful not to reverse this order.  We bear fruit because we are disciples of Christ.  All Christians bear fruit.  It’s not always the exact same kind or quantity of fruit for everyone, but all Christians bear fruit because all Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ.  There is no such thing as a “non-discipleship Christianity.”

So where are your priorities, your focus?  On struggling and straining to push out fruit on your own?  On the glory of God?  Maybe on neither of these things.  The Word of God challenges us to abide in Jesus, rest in His life as our sufficiency, and to do all things for the purpose of glorifying God.  And through this God will bring forth fruit in us, showing that we are followers of Christ.

It’s amazing to think that we have been living in Quebec now for almost one year.  We have been thinking a lot lately about our first few months here and the amazing ways that we say God work in our lives.  Here’s a brief summary:

May 6th, 2007 - last meeting of deputation, Pasco, WA ~ May 7th - La Grande, OR…journey begins ~ May 8th - weird van noise, overloaded back end, prayer ~ May 9th - really weird van noises, squealing, grinding, more prayer ~ May 10th - arrive in Quebec, 2,851 miles in 4 days, decided never to do that again…no apartment reserved, no furniture, no French, no plan, no idea…more prayer…stay with missionaries we’ve never met, poor missionaries ~ May 11th - meet another missionary we’ve never met, gives up his whole day to drive us around and translate…thanking God…appointment to see the only available 3 bedroom apartment in all of Quebec City…nice, good price, 5 minutes from the university, no bugs or crazy neighbors…we’ll take it…thanking God again ~ May 12th - thrift store marathon, no translator, lots of hand motions…and prayer…not finding furniture…receive random phone call from unknown furniture-collecting lady, offers furniture, next thrift store, receive call from furniture-collecting lady’s friend, offers more furniture…thanking God ~ May 13th - Sunday, church…what are they saying? ~ May 14th - classes start at university…what are they saying?  more prayer ~ May 15th - morning classes, more random calls from more unknown furniture-collecting people ~ May 16th - classes, still no idea what they’re saying, is this even French? …moved into apartment, slept on floor…thanking God ~ May 17th - classes, feeling very lost…prayer…another call from furniture donator, this is borderline weird, wondering where they get our number, only explanation is God…thanking God ~ May 20th - fully furnished apartment, everything free…speechless ~ May 9th, 2008 - Jesse still trying to regain sanity from 2,851 miles in 4 days, Tiffany doesn’t believe it will happen

Without going into every little detail, all we can say is that what God did was nothing short of a miracle.  Since then we’ve seen God work in so many other ways, but mostly in giving us the ability to speak and understand French…finally.  I know that we’re not fluent, but just to be able to carry on basic conversations is light years ahead of where we were a year ago.

We really appreciate all of you who have prayed for us in the past year, but please don’t stop.  Many people have told us that our last several month in language training will be the most important because we are now at the level where we can make the most rapid progress.  And as we look ahead to January of next year, we see the next big obstacle of getting to Togo.  We really have no idea yet how it’s all going to work out…we just know that it will.  It might not all happen exactly as we plan, but it will happen as God has planned, and we just want Him to get all the glory for everything, good or bad, in our lives.

I recently called our veteran coworker, Randy Alderman, to discuss our coming to Togo in Jan/Feb of next year.  We had a really great talk and it made us all the more excited to finally get over there and be involved in the ministry.  One thing that he really stressed to me is the importance of proper planning for the things that we are going to need and use in Togo.  Without explaining all the details, it basically comes down to the fact that there are many things which are better to purchase in America and ship to Togo rather than getting them there for a much higher price and lower quality.  Because we have never had a house of our own and all of our current furniture/appliances are either borrowed or extremely used, it will be necessary to set up our house from scratch.  On top of this, there are many other expenses that are associated with moving 7,288 miles away and getting set up in a new country.  After getting off the phone with Randy I realized, “wow, this is going to be expensive!”

God has already taken care of every single need, financial or not, that we’ve had and we know that He is going to work as He wants in this situation too.  We have seen Him use churches and individuals to meet many needs before that were completely beyond our own capability.  What we ask of you is to pray for God’s provision, and ask Him if He might want you to be a part of it in the coming months.

First of all, if you’ve never read “My Utmost for His Highest,” by Oswald Chambers, you really should. It’s a daily reading kind of book, just one page per day. It is basically a collection of writings and sermon/lecture excerpts from Chambers’ life.

Thanks to pastor Bill Anker in Spokane, Washington, I have now not only read from Oswald Chambers but about him too. He gave me Chambers’ biography a couple years ago, but I just got around to reading it lately. In case you’re interested the title is “Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God.” It’s not the most entertaining read, but it is very challenging to see Chambers’ approach to life, ministry, and Christianity in general. I’m astounded at his simple but deep faith in God. He was not a man that was striving for or worried about results, success, or popularity even among Christians. His sole desire was to abide in Christ and draw closer to Him, leaving all the results up to His plan. Wow, if we could just learn how to do that! Aren’t we so often guilty of manipulating circumstances and people so we can get our results, our success, or popularity?

It’s always encouraging to read about the men who followed Christ wholeheartedly in the past, but let’s not forget that God works the same way today! He can use anyone in any culture at any time. Some people talk as if God is done using people in great ways, but that is the farthest thing from the truth. God is still working in and through people who have abandoned to Him the directing of their own lives. This is really what it comes down to, isn’t it? Who’s going to be God? Is He, or are we going to pathetically attempt to rule our own life, setting ourself up as a little demigod of our ugly little kingdom? The issue here is worship. God deserves and desires worship, and He gets it when we acknowledge His divine right to BE GOD in our lives.

Boujour from Quebec! It is hard to believe, but we are finally here! God has done so many amazing things in the past month that it will be impossible to tell you everything in this one letter. Shortly after finishing our last missions conference, which was a huge blessing in itself, we drove to eastern Oregon to pick up Joshua’s new nanny, Malerie. From there, we began our very, very, very long drive to Quebec. After 3,100 miles and many strange noises from our van (but no incidences, praise the Lord!), we crossed the border without any problems and arrived in beautiful Quebec City on the evening of May 3rd. The next day we had planned to visit several apartments and hope that we could find one that would work out for us. However, God had already prepared one for us; the very first one that we looked at. We canceled the rest of our appointments and secured an apartment on our very first morning in Quebec. Ironically, this was the only apartment available at this time of year and it just so “happened” that it was perfect for us!

That day, and the four weeks that followed could only be described as one of the those “sit back and watch God work” kind of moments. We had intended to ship most of our household belongings here, then purchase all of the larger furniture and appliances once we arrived. However, God had already prepared it all for us. We began receiving phone calls from people we had never met, offering to give or loan us furniture and appliances. Within the first two weeks, God had blessed us with three beds, three dressers, two desks, a dining room table with chairs, a couch, an armchair, a coffee table, and a washer and dryer. Up to this point, the only things we have had to purchase is a refrigerator and a stove, which we obtained at a very good price. As we sit in our newly furnished apartment literally counting our blessings we can’t help but give God all the praise and glory for His constant and faithful provision in our lives.

On May 7th, we began our first day of classes, and amazingly we are already almost finished with our first (of many) session. Several times in the past month we have reached the overwhelming “French overload” breaking point, but every time God works in us to bring us to the end of ourselves and show us that His grace is sufficient, and that He is our sufficiency.

Please pray for us as we continue making many adjustments in our lives. In a very short time we have gone from perpetual traveling to being almost entirely stationary. Joshua is still getting accustomed to our leaving for school every morning, but he is doing very well overall. Quebec is almost entirely French speaking, so there is a bit of culture shock factor involved as well. However, we are really enjoying our new life here, and we thank God every day for the ways He is working in our lives.