Hard Lessons and The Week In Review

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." Acts 1:8

I have to tell you, after this last week at ILC, the remotest parts of the earth seem pretty far away. We are now two weeks into our eight weeks of training and the week was filled with some pretty hard lessons. You would think that the hardest part of this training is getting ready to live in different cultures and speak different languages, but it is not. The hardest part is the daily conviction by the Holy Spirit that we must continue to evolve and grow in our faith. Dr. Jerry Rankin, IMB President, spent three days with us last week teaching about spiritual warfare. He told a familiar story about a sculptor (Michelangelo, I think) who when asked how he made such beautiful sculptures said "I start with a block of granite and chip away at anything that does not look like a horse." That is pretty much what we have been through this past week. The Holy Spirit has spent the week chipping away at everything that does not look like Christ. Needless to say, I look more like a block of granite than I do a horse.

I was just looking through my notes from Dr. Rankin's last session and wanted to share some of what he taught. Of course, the goal of spiritual warfare is to have victory, and we can have victory as long as we rely on God and not ourselves. He reminded us that Satan is merely a fallen angel...a messenger. Satan is not equal with God and does not have the power of God. So, here are Dr. Rankin's six steps to spiritual victory:
1. Faith
2. Renewing of the mind
3. Commitment to the Lordship of Christ
4. Obedience
5. Abide in Christ
6. Love

We spent yesterday morning in a session about "What does a New Testament church look like?" Also very interesting. I will refrain from editorializing at this point.

Thursday we had a class on transitioning to a new culture and on grieving. Afterwards we had discussion in our small groups (these are the same groups we have house church and other activities with, so we are getting pretty close.) Kellye and I reacted in the ways that God has wired us...Kellye cried while I cracked jokes and laughed. One of the other guys in our group is my age and we are pretty similar, so we laughed while our wives passed a packet of tissue around the circle!

We have a map on our wall that gives statistics of the number of IMB missionaries, baptisms, church plants, etc. It is overwhelming to think that we only have just over 5,000 missionaries around the world...just a fraction of one percent of Southern Baptists in America.

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I cannot tell you how much fun it is to be surrounded by this wonderful group of people. I could go on and on about the great folks here. The teachers are fantastic, the Missionaries in Residence (MIRs) from the field bring such insight, and the other couples and Journeymen that are here make me smile and laugh daily. They are special people.

We have a lot of OBU folks who are here. Want to baffle a group of strangers? Break out in Ka-Rip and see what happens!

Humm....so much to tell it is all getting kind of jumbled in my head this morning. We have been so busy and are just physically and mentally exhausted. I think things are going to slow down a little bit, though. We don't really have much planned for the weekend, so I will be able to catch up on my schoolwork and write a few papers that are due this next week. Tonight the AV Team is sponsoring "High School Musical Night" and will be showing HSM 1 and 2 on the big screen along with popcorn and other snacks. Those of you with kids know what a big deal HSM is. Of course, OU football kicks off in two weeks, so I will be finding a television and making a pot of chili!

We had a huge storm Thursday night. Lost power several times and the wind was incredible. You could see it blowing sheets of rain across the small lake out our back window. However, it did make for a relaxing night's sleep.

One of the requirements of the people on the Russia field is that we walk to the front gate and back several times a week. That is a 3-mile trek every time we do it. I was proud of the kids, they did pretty well the first time we did it. We are trying to go at least three times a week. As for me, I think it will be easier in the Moscow winter than it is in this heat!

Well, it is almost 10 AM and the kids are relaxing and Kellye has gone to town to shop with a friend. While that should make for a relaxing morning for me, I have reading and writing for a seminary class that has to be done. Know that you are missed, loved and prayed for.