Dreamer, Awaken and lift up thine heart to the horizon where sprawls the unspoken, unpainted not-YET-composed canvas of your Divine Creativity.

Dreamer, Awaken and lift up thine heart to the horizon

where sprawls the unspoken, unpainted not-YET-

composed canvas of your Divine Creativity.

So I attended my 20-yr High School Reunion and 2 weddings in 5 days, drove more than 500 miles round trip, and moved every piece of furniture in our house...twice!

I am a little tired but so...focused and humbled.

The best moment of the Reunion was walking up to the crowd that was just hanging out and the pandemonium that broke out when they realized who I was. Becky Jenkis almost hugged my neck off. I hadn't seen most of my classmates since we walked out of the stadium at Graduation on June 2nd 1989. I had just turned 18 the day before and would be baptised 2 days later.

We lost 1 classmate our Senior Year, and then another a few yrs later. I was saddened to learn that we had lost yet another. 93 remain. I, along with Eric, were neck-and-neck for skinniest in High School. We both are teachers and are both twice the man we were then,lol!

Only a fraction showed up for the reunion. Every one of us seemed to be what I would call successful. Teachers, counselors, engineers, moms, dads, coaches, real estate agents, accountants, Pastors, and pastor's wives...we have every career covered. And of those attending, a large number are now believers. I was most proud of and impacted by Scott Carnes, proud father of twin toddlers, who came with his French Canadian wife whom he met at an Airshow he was attending. Scott was shot-down in Iraq as a pilot several years ago and confined to a wheelchair. He was so full of joy and plans and LIFE. He's neck deep in building a family and planning for his return to work. He really made me look at my work ethic and perspective on obstacles. Do I complain about challenges that God placed there to make me stronger?

My conversation with now Pastor Jason Hunter really stuck with me, too. I have been a believer since around 8 or so. My faith was the one thing that got me thru the next 30 years. Jason said that he was glad to see me so much more passionate about Christ now. It made me wonder if anyone even knew during the 1st 10 yrs of my walk that I was a follower of jesus Christ. I immediately wished I could go back and influence them for Christ back then.

I was pretty successful "politically" in High School which began in 7th grade for us (7-12). My Senior year I no one even ran against me for all the presidencies I had been filling since Junior year. I had lots of "friends" Jason made me wonder if I wasted that influnce back then or if people knew I was a believer by how I loved them. Or did they know I loved them?

I know that those relationships were my favorite part of that time. New friends to love and do life with every year. Listening, a lot. Helping friends thru what we thought were crises.

One comment, above all the others encourages me daily since I heard it at the reunion that night. Tony Sutton expressed something rather surprising. Tiffany Hammond and I were voted "Most likely to Succeed." But I think we all did succeed. Tony said at one point "Rick, you were the one we expected to arrive in a helicopter or something crazy." It made me remember how my HS best friend, James West had written something similar in my yearbook. He wrote that he knew I would do great things, maybe even run for President and that he'd cast the first vote for me.

What I heard in Tony's comment, and James', was my clasmates, my friends dreaming BIG for me. Sometime in the last 10 years I finally shed ALL of the shyness of the kid my classmates knew until 1989. I have little fear, but still lots of butterflies, when teaching, singing or speaking to groups of people, large or small. I actually get a thrill from the influence possible in teaching, public speaking, and especially in worship leading. But somewhere along the way I realize I stopped dreaming ANYTHING is possible for me. Not that I've settled. The last 20 years have been fuller than I hoped my whole life would be.

But do I still think I can DO or BE anything I dream? Even though I was shy I remember my turmoil even after picking a major finally at the end of my Sphomore year of College... because I still couldn't pick just one thing. I still wanted to be an astronaut, AND a doctor, AND a lawyer, AND a diplomat (Ambassador to France more specifically). And in 1989 you could never have convinced me I was "unable" to achieve any of these...IF I set my mind to it.

My question to myself since Tony shocked my "dreamer" back awake is "Do I still dream extravagantly for the future or do I just hope my life will be averagely good?"

I mean I wonder if I have let my search for and obedience to God's will for my life and future become something external instead of internal. I mean I know that I know that I know that I'm called to Missions in France. I'd leave tomorrow if I got the rest of my monthly funding. But I used to set goals for myself in relationships, in learning, in teaching, and in leisure and fun. I think part of me realized that maybe I'v given up on finding my wife and building a family like so many of my classmates and friends. I was actually thinking on the drive home from the Reunion, and the wedding I had attended earlier that day, that I am one of the few on the Praise Team who has never been married. The couple I sang for earlier that day could have been my son o daughter. I think I am/was afraid to hope it will someday be my turn. I think I had even stopped looking, expecting, and preparing for it.

So, be it resolved this 9th day of September 2009 that the I Ricardo L. Walker will allow my heart to hope for AND pursue exciting and creative things I might have let myself think impossible.

Dreamer, Awaken and lift up thine heart to the horizon where sprawls the unspoken, unpainted not-YET-composed canvas of your Divine Creativity. Speak. Sing. Write. Paint. And DANCE your JOY into Existence.

Mini-update France

Hey friends! I would love to speak to you or your friends about reaching a French-speaking community of 60,000 who have no church on the outskirts of Paris.

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I'd like to join a church-planting team of 2 French and 2 American families under a French Pastor and his wife.

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That means I am heading to the Mission field finally but still need one-time donations & especially MONTHLY partners. I've raised almost $12,000 in one time donations (=55% of $ needed to move & set up house).

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But I've only raised 22% of my monthly budget. I DON'T GET TO MOVE PERMANENTLY UNTIL I GET 100% coming in.

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I still need about 100 more monthly partners. Monthly pledges can be as little as much as your budget allows. Couples, groups, or single individuals can sponsor.

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I'm aiming for the end of the year to be fully funded.

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Let's sit down together if you think you can help, want to hear more or just ask questions. Contact here or at cell 843 446 3348. walker.ricardo@gmail.com twitter@ Ricardo33AD

Summit Day 1: An Unscripted Response

I look forward all year to the Leadership Summit sponsored and put on by Willowcreek as my recharger for the year. In fact I was so excited about it 2 weeks ago that I was unable to be nervous about presenting my Mission to France to my church that Sunday. 4 minutes to talk was not nearly enough. The total presentation was 8 minutes because of my 4 minute video. Essentially I shared that I hve been nurtured and trained by Christ United Methodist Church for 10 years to do what I think God is calling United World Mission to do in France;make disciples and plant and strengthen churchs in France in the Paris Region.

My takeaway was (1) knowing I made it clear that I'm leaving, (2)that God wants France to experience what we're aiming for here in the US in exposure to and living out of the Gospel, and (3)that I need monthly support to get there!

I made several new friends that day in terms of monthly partners that advanced me another 10% or so. That should put me at 30% of the monthly budget approximately! Severl one-time donations as well were much appreciated bringing my Moving Expenses (a one-time need of about 20,000) to 55% or $11,000.

The most satisfying gain however was ALL and ONLY for the Kingdom in the receiving of the vision for cross-cultural missions by several individuals at the service. They were so excited and desperate to learn how to move forward after hearing in my call...a similar call of their own! Knowing someone else will go because I aid yes to the call is so very inspiring and gives me the strength to keep fundraising!

I had little time to internalize all of this after the Sunday presentation because that ame week I headed to New York to help Jon and Tracey Bartholomew celebrate their wedding. Justin Newcomb and I flew up to stand with our former lifegroup member. We 3 met at Fusion and have stayed close even tho we all have moved on to other groups. The wedding, and the trip were made beautiful by the way Jon&Tracey's friends and family opened their hearts to us as if we were long-time friends!

I returned late, very late Monday night from New York and set my heart and face towards the Summit. I reviewed Titus as we finished studying it in my Men's group. Loudest and clearest I heard that we become fit for the good works to which we are called when we submit to the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit made available by the Ultimate Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I heard and accepted maybe for the 1st time that Paul is saying that we achieve the qualifications of an elder or generally of a disciple by recognizing that the Grace of Salvation is the power to say no to the evil in our hearts that we can't resisit on our own.

I heard that this Grace has been lavishly and extravagantly poured out on us in order, as a consequence of transformation, to excell in good works to which God calls us.

For me that means submitting to the pruning hand of the master who is both the Vine and the vinedresser!

So it was no surprise that I heard that "theme" over and over in the 4 Summit sessions today.

Bill Hybels, my favorite gospel motivator and leadership mentor, began with a challenge to the Church Worldwide. He set the stage for all the messages that follow by acknowledging that all of what we will learn in these 2 days is set against the backdrop of the Global Economic Crisis. Resources dificulties have changed ministry and things may never return to what we for the last decade or 2 called "normal."

But this change CAN BE the perfect opportunity for God to show His power and might in our cultures because we have to depend on Him in ways we never have.

When He quoted Habakkuk 3:2 I wept inside and out for God to DO just THIS:

LORD, I have heard of your fame;

I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

I wept for 2 reasons.

1-I have felt this same call to action after every Summit since the 1st I attended 4 years ago.

2-I KNOW THAT I KNOW that it is as simple as depending on God to show Himself strong in our weakness.

As leaders we have to SUBMIT to this vision by living Romans 8:6.

⁶The mind of sinful man^[e] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;

Then when we as leaders and as a congregation have submitted then God will begin to use us for those impossible good works. He's looking for folks who are worthy and able to be USED BY HIM...not worthy by actions but by their hearts...

2 Chronicles:9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

Simply put, this crisis COULD be seen as a major opportunity.

Session 2 Was a lot about management but part 2 focused on how we don't have to let management become an internally focused inertia that keeps us from acting in this exponentially challenging and changing time.

Gary Hamil in fact upped the ante by confiding a secret...we believers, as "the Church" are God's whole plan to bring the Gospel of His Son Jesus to the entire World; the IS NO PLAN B. In Compassion and community no one ought to be able to outdo the Church!

Session 3 I had been anticipating as much as Hybel's talk, unusually so, because I had already heard a few sermons preached online by Tim Keller. He preaches the "Gospel" in a way I have rarely heard.

If I summarize it I will not do it justice. So I'll just say that He demanded and exhorted us that no teaching or preaching is COMPLETE without connecting it all the way back to what JESUS did on THE CROSS. He modeled that by unpacking just the beginning and end of Psalm 23.

1The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.... 5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

We can understand and achieve the spiritual fulfillment of verse one only when we remember that we lack nothing because we had a Saviour who on the cross said "I thirst." he experienced it so that we could be free from it. Our cup overflows with rejoicing because he drank the entire cup of God's full wrath and judgment in our place!

It will take me the rest of my life to unpack and apply this way of learning from God through the Bible!

Not surprisingly Keller then gave us the application for this message on how to be revived from spiritual deadness: APPLY it 1st to our own hearts as leaders, then help those who depend on our leadership to do the same. Then all of us together DO what the Gospel then commands in Compassion and Community.

True Salvation and TRANSFORMATION will follow!

Session 4 was the easiest to summarize because it was an indictment against all the training and leadership development that we do not only at the Summit but on a monthly and wekly basis in our congregations. We build into each other and like athletes getting ready for a game we huddle for 5 minutes once a week on Sunday. In fact we huddle for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour..sometimes several hours.

Then the huddle ends...

and we go home until we come back to "huddle" again the following week!

I was undone by this talk the most emotionally because for me it was the culmination of all the talks today and years of Holy Discontent focused on how to get believers fully alive in Christ and fully reaching out to the broken, poor, lost in our community and abroad.

He was the only paid staff in his church until recently...a 2nd full-timer was just hired.

YET his congregation has prayed with (or for if absent) EVERY HOUSEHOLD in their zip code in inner city Detroit! He and his menhave closed 8 crack houses by just camping outside them 100 strong and singing and praying!?!?

He proposed something utterly ridiculous:

That we do outreach and "Ministry" on Sunday when we have the largest #s of the Body gathered in one place and empowered to DO IT. He teaches for xample on evangelism, does a skit on how to do it wrong, how to do it right....

AND THEN THEY GO DO EVANGELISM IN THEIR COMMUNITY!?!?

Outrageous, huh? He didn't mince words. He REBUKED us for HIRING staff to DO MINISTRY instead of hiring vibrant, resilient, capable staf to EMPOWER & EQUIP the congregation to DO MINISTRY!

My mind is still reeling. That's today's meat in a nutshell. May we not only digest it but apply it, live it, DO IT.

May we properly submit our hearts to Gospel Renewal, preach and teach Gospel-centered principles from the Bible, and then let the Gospel empower us to DO IT!

(Micah 6:8)

He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

A week in the Life

It's been a crazy good week already even though I'm on furlough from work for the next month!

New sponsors whose finances improved enough for them to make a 1st time pledge!

Some reunions and encounters that were God at his surprising best!

A couple of affirmations that even thru all my flaws the joy of the Lord that is MY strength is somehow visible.

Man night! We ate burgers with 3 different meats. Bacon, Beef, and Hotdog. More importantly we chewed on the WORD and the power of the Gospel. We lamented where the Bride of Christ is lacking and explored how she might again gain her effectiveness and Spirit-led beauty. We lifted high the Christ of repentance and redemption. We confronted our own personal idols and blind spots. There were moments where I knew that not the man before me but God himself was speaking to us.

I am trying to harness the gift that time was into preparing for my Presentation on Missions in France this Sunday.

Please pray for an end to a 4 day bout with congestion. And please pray thru Sunday that God would guide me to share the most compelling testimony of this calling to Foreign Missions with one aim: Glorifying Him.

Disciplemaking, TMP Summer Program, France Update

I know it's been too long. I am actually proud for once that my time has been spent MOSTLY doing the things I talk about and teach. I was introduced almost 2 weeks ago to Colby. Let's just say he has some major obstacles to overcome that most of us don't face including being newly homeless. We really worked hard together and trusted God to provide...and HE did! A job and a place to live!!! He is receptive and open to God but his prior studies of other religions are hindering true faith in One God whose Son purchased salvation thru his death and resurrection. We're readin and studyin the gospels, some of Paul's letters, and The Case for faith by Lee Strobel. In it Strobel sets out to prove God CAN"T exist. He ends up convincing himself that the only logical and acceptable response to all the scientific, spiritual, archeological, and literary evidence is to CONFIRM His existence and begin a relationship wih HIM! Please pray that this is what happens or Colby.

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Summer Program 2009 at Teach My People has flown by. We re-learned Ephesians 6:10-18 about Spiritual Warfare and worked our way through a new study of Philippians 4:4-9,13. This passage has challenged the kids and teachers to live so that we 1-make God smile, 2- make others smile, or 3 help other people (which thus accomplishes all 3). The apex of the passage for us were the things upon which we are reminded to think...."whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever I admirable..." All TRUTH comes only from God. He has revealed what is right and wrong as part of His long-term plan to grow us into all the potential we had at the CREATION and our own conception. Purity was and can only be accomplished perfectly by Jesus. We can only reach it by "trading hearts with Jesus" so that God sees us as pure as His own Son. We stay Pure by daily staying connected to God in worship, study, service, and prayer (asking10% and listening 90%). Sometimes we will make mistakes but we can be forgiven. Our heart's goal, though, must always be aimed at doing what's right, true, and pure. BUT even if we fail God still loves us. Not only did He declare everyTHING He created GOOD or LOVE-LY (worthy of His love)...He also finds everyONE LOVE-LY, even when we do wrong by accident and on purpose.

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Perhaps the most stunning part of my planning for the daily lessons was when I began to look at some of the fearsome things God calls good. Sharks. Bears. Sloths. Amoebae. Cow patties. We judge somehing's ability to elicit or deserve love by it's outer beauty or by it's usefulness. God seems to love things and people because HE, MORE THAN ANYONE, UNDERSTANDS WHAT OR WHO HE CREATED AND WHY HE CREATED IT/THEM. No one else can tell you who YOU are except the God who loves and created you.

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Inside I was actually weeping as I verbalized/testified to how sometimes the people telling us we are nothing...are our families or friends. My kids are all at-risk with difficult or unreliable home environments. I KNEW that for the first time they were receiving the TRUTH that they can be all they dream IN CHRIST and that God created them just as LOVE-ABLE as everyone else!

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The crowning TRUTH everyday was that we CAN'T...but (verse 13) we can do the things He WANTS and HAS already PLANNED if we depend only on HIS strengthen. The first day I challenged them to memorize the entire passage and offered a prize to anyone who could best me in recitation. I can't tell you how much it blessed me to hear 1st-5th graders tart at the beginning, keep up with me, and finish the WHOLE THING. "I can do evrything through HIM who gives me strength!"

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The Program is ending 2 wks early mainly due to the high costs of payroll. I'll be off almost 5 wks. Pray that our filing for unemployment succeeds. TMP sai they won't contest the filing since we're out so long. In any case it gives me all of 5 full weeks to focus FULL-TIME on getting to FRANCE as a FULL-TIME permanent Missionary! I'm adding new partners very slowly but still encouraged. I have a presentation to the entire congregation at Christ United Methodist Church on Sunday July 26th. Will you begin praying daily for hearts prepared to break for the LOST SHEEP of France? Will you come that day? Would you tell you friends and baker, barber, postman, and co-workers (where appropriate) so they can come, too? Because of the Economy and financial instability I'm hovering around 20% in actual monthly donations, but a little more if you count all of those who have pledged to give.

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I would end by challenging you to remember that the Great Commission is not only for folks in FULL-TIME Ministry and it doesn't mean that you have to go overseas to reach LOST people. You are a Missionary every day at work, to your neighbors, at school, on the highway, in the grocery store. Your life lived to it's fullest purity, righteousness, loveliness, and JOY in HIM is the best Mission Statement you can make and the BEST Testimony you could ever give!

$100 video competition Vote Mon-Sun 20-26 of July 7 votes total

I AM TRYIN TO WIN $100 AGAIN. You can see the cover of Yesterday by the Beatles at the link below. You CAN"T VOTE Until MONDAY. BUT YOU CAN vote EVERY DAY Mon-Sun .FROM July 20-26. 7 days, 7votes. You can also forward the links to friends. Thanks also for comment. Comments and ratings also help increase votes from other folks on the site. http://tiny.cc/XkCsn

New French Friend. &New Cover Song=Help me win $100.

Posted New Cover Song http://tiny.cc/nYBcN pics & vids of my kids so far in Summer Program on my facebook page. One the kids' memory verses really stickin with me. Ps 27:8 My heart tells me 2 pray. They have really memorized some big and small but powerful portions of scripture. It's made me more conscious to hide his word in my heart. There's a great story of God's faithfullness after the following video information.

Let me explain the post title. I'm gonna post a link to the same video tonight but at Wekastar where everyone posts vidoes or votes on them in weekly cash prize competitions. To vote you have to sign up but very little info is needed. I've received no spam from them. And they legitimately provide the prizes they claim and even sign some of the more popular winners. I have no delusions of grandeur but if I can win money for doing something I already do veryday for free and because I love it... well that's a no brainer!

So go to http://www.wekastar.com to sign up so you can vote.

Then come back here tomorrow to look for the link to my Competition Entry Video. And vote for it!!!!

Thanks

In other exciting news:

I was grocery shopping Tuesday while killing time after work (and my workout after that) before my mens group.

I randomly chose the Surfside Walmart because I had a gift card to that chain.

I chose my healthy fresh fruits and vegetable and headed for my normal 20 items or less line.

It was a mile long!

I scanned the other lines and they were way shorter!

"Weird," I thought.

Then I almost changed lanes 10 times waiting for the people in front of me to move up enough to make sure no one broke in line.

I stayed put and they moved.

Finally it was my turn.

I squinted at the screen, trying to pay. I had taken out my contacts in the car because my eyes were burning.

I couldn't see squat beyond about a foot.

So the clerk, a nice middle-aged lady with a blurry name-tag, kindly helped me complete my purchase.

Being blind probably helped me to listen better. I distinctly thought I heard an accent...a FRENCH accent.

So I immediately grilled her in French! Translation goes something like this:

"I hear an accent. Do you speak French?"

"Yes, I do! And so do you!."

We were both so happy to meet that we exchanged cards and she hinted at inviting me to dinner. She even volunteered that she works there every Mon and Tues as a tacit invitation to return to chat.

It came at a time when my fundraising numbers don't reflect my passion for the vision to bring the French back to Christ. I felt it was God's way of affirming that goal.

I mean, what if I had gone to the Walmart closest to my home instead? Or had decided to stop there on one of the 5 days of the week when she doesn't work? Or what if there hadn't ben an unusual crowd of Less-than-20-item shoppers that day? Or what if my impatience had led me to another lane.

I don't know how God will use this relationship to bless Claudine? I don't even know where she stands in relation to God or whether she has family or friends here.

What I do know is that meeting her has already blessed me by encouraging me to keep working to gain supporters no matter how long it takes.

Please continue to pray for the Mission to France and begin praying for God to reveal his plans for my friendship with Claudine.

And may whatever it is bring him Maximum Glory!!!

Tues. Valuing friends and a lifetime's experience.

We've been visiting Conway Manor, a nursing home, for 2 or 3 years now. We ostensibly visit to play Bingo but our ulterior motive is fellowship and just loving on the elderly forgotten. We.ve made some lasting friendships. The hard part, which prompted me to blog, is the losses. It always starts the same way. Someone is absent and the others say he or she "is not feeling well." After a months or 2 or 3 of bein absent we arrive to find our friend has gone on to be with the Lord. it's hard to let go when you have no closure. no one notifies us to attend the funerals, wakes , or memorial services even tho we would love to.

It's hard but it's alo worth it. We learn so much from them. And it also teaches us so much about what it will be like to be old. Sometimes it makes me afraid. But most times I pray that I can end life with at least the same joy and grace they do!

3 New Monthly Partners & $3000 one-time donations!!! .

So some long-time friends decided their budget will include a monthly gift to support the Ricardo-to-France-Foundation.

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That puts me at around 20% in pledges of monthly support.

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My home church CUMC got on board with a monthly pledge and one-time gift. It is very important to me to not only have their endorsement but also their monthly support. Many times I've been asked if my church is supporting me.  At first I couldn't fathom why they wanted to know.

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I think their need was/is just to know that the money they might give is going to be used by someone whose own church trusts them completely, enough to pour the church's own finances into the vision.

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I also received two large one-time gifts totalling $3000. Checks aren't in my hand but are on the way! That puts me at around $12,000 or approximately 60% of one-time moving costs raised!

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The hardest thing right now is getting people to let me present the vision. People who haven't already heard the presentation. People who can actually afford even a small monthly donation. People I don't yet know...but who are just waiting to be invited to give or pray.

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That's where my current donors and prayer partners come in. I truly believe you have friends or family...one or two people who would be willing to sit down for dessert and coffee to hear about our mission to make disciples and support Church-planting in France.

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I also would like to remind anyone considering supporting me at a future date that my progress NOW is being monitored. You may ask... 

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"Why should I start giving NOW?"

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UWM, my sending agency, can't send me based only on promises to give, or pledges as we call them. I am not considered 20% funded until 20% of my monthly budget is coming in every month. So I won't get permission to leave until 100% of my monthy budget is pledged AND coming in. And then continues to come in.

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Sometimes ambitious of faithful missionaries stop working at 80% and do the 2 or 3 month training that precedes departure for the field while they continue to raise those last few supporters.

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It all depends on what kind of momentum you get going in recruiting prayer and financial supporters.

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It seems to be going slowly. The recession has made this a tricky time to ask for any kid of charitable gift. But no one feels the minutes passing more acutely than I do. Instead of support-raising I like to call it people-raising.  Even though finaces are tight for all of us I believe God is calling about 50 more people to partner with me to help bring the French from the edge of apathy back to the bosom of Christ. I remain truly encouraged that this is not only God's call but also His will for me and for my family of supporters.

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Whatever your involvement or reason for reading I thank you for honoring me and this vision with this brief offering of your time and attention.

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Blessings and peace in and on you and your house. In the name of the only one who is worthy. Jesus the Christ.

Free Bday Food Voucher Links

Alright this is 14 birthday clubs that give you something free on your birthday. 

The food places give you free meal or sandwich, not just dessert. 

Ice cream places give you free icecream!

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Cover Lucky Jason ft Colbie Caillat

Cover of Winter Son Sara Bareilles ft. Ingrid Michaelson

Birthday Thoughts!

Thank you all so much for the prayers and Birthday blessings.

I count myself rich and blessed to have friends and family like you all.

Thanks to those of you who became supporters as your gift this week!!!

I still feel 25.

I cannot believe how close I am to 40.

I sometimes don't recognize who I've become.

I can't BE..without being connectd to God.

I've gotta have triple chocolate cake with hersheys syrup.

Mom always makes a cake but for about 20 years my brother get both our share!

I resolve to end this Summer in the best shape of my life. Please encourage me if you see me lookin hungry or sore.

So many potential changes coming right now. The future is more open than at any other time in our church family.

I have the realest, funnest, and funniest friends on the planet.

Love you guys, minimum 70 year commitment!