A Whole New World

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well, I am here! Nine days ago I arrived in Buenos Aires, tired and jet-lagged from the flight from L.A. to B.A. by way of Sao Paolo, but I was warmly received in the airport and by old and new friends here in Argentina!

The last week has been a week of overcoming a dramatic time difference (five hours), of getting used to Spanish again (and often becoming exhausted in the process), and of reconnecting with leaders and members of the churches in the area. Buenos Aires has changed little in the last three years, but there is just enough different (especially in the size of the children!) to give me plenty to work on adapting to in the next week or two.

Further beyond even that, my great initial task here will be slowly to begin soaking in the culture, forming and building relationships, and laying the foundations of a long-term ministry that will be informed and sensitive to the cultural in which I will be serving but equally centered on a Gospel which is a stumbling block both to Jews and Greeks but which is the power of God for salvation for all who believe.

This weekend we have a number of interesting goings on: a "Three Streams" training course will be happening on Saturday as well as the kick-off for the parish youth group. This Sunday I preach my first sermon in Hurlingham (the text will be John 3:1-17), and next week we will be easing into even more activities in which to be involved.

Thank you all for your prayers and continued support!

Post-Reno News

I cannot believe that the week has gone by so quickly, and that tomorrow the workweek will be over!

I had a fantastic time in Reno this past weekend with the good people of Sierra Anglican Church. Not only were they gracious enough to fly me out to speak with them about the mission to Argentina, but I was given the royal tour around Reno, Carson City, Virginia City, and Lake Tahoe by the rector Fr. Ron Longero, his family, and others from the congregation. It was a tremendous time of building relationships, and I pray that the Lord continues to build up and strengthen the connection between Sierra Anglican and his work through our mission in Argentina!

Apart from (once again) moving to a new location for myself, this time in Escondido, there is little to report for this weekend. I am in the process of nailing down where I will be at this coming weekend, but it is more a question of "which of these options?" than "can anyone suggest anything?" God has been very good to me in these last few weeks, and I am at a very low level of stress and anxiety, may he be praised.

Regarding finances, I have reached 90.6% of my budget in pledges, and we are getting close enough to taste a departure date, even if I cannot yet buy that plane ticket. We are still shooting for March 8th ... next week will be the time to reevaluate that goal.

Take care, and have a great weekend!

Pre-Reno News

Well, it has been an exciting week between two busy weekends. Here's the gist of what's been going on.

Last weekend, I made two trips up north which proved to be exhausting but fruitful. Saturday on I went to a Missions Committee meeting for the Diocese of Western Anglicans, helping to plan our diocesan Missions Conference at the end of September. Then Sunday, I made the drive up to North Hollywood to share about the mission with St. David's Church. I came out of the weekend genuinely exhausted, but thankful that the Lord had given me the opportunities to speak about this mission that he had.

This coming weekend, I am very excited to travel up to Sierra Anglican Church in Reno, Nevada! The church has very generously and openly not only invited me to come but is covering my travel expenses, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to involve this faithful congregation in the mission. Please pray that I am faithful to the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that the Lord would open the hearts of many to hear God's call to be involved in this mission to Argentina.

Regarding finances, we continue to move ahead, and the current level of pledged support hovers around 87%. Please pray that the Lord would continue to grant us financial commitments to this ministry!

Departure Needs and Date

One of the questions that I am most frequently asked regarding the mission to Argentina is: when are you leaving? The answer that I have been giving lately is, "When I receive the necessary pledged support for my missionary budget." In other words, in order to be certified by SAMS-USA, my missions society, to depart for Argentina, I need to have 100% of my budget covered by pledges and cash gifts.

My current average annual budget includes not only a salary and a housing allowance, but also benefits (e.g. health insurance), ministry costs (e.g. transportation in Argentina), communication costs (e.g. cell phone), and overhead (e.g. salaries for SAMS support staff in the U.S.). At last count, I have received support for approximately 81% of this budget.

My hope is to arrive and begin serving in Argentina by the end of this February. Given the level of support that the mission has at this point (81%), we are close! But, in order to make this goal, we need approximately 20 more people and churches to pledge to giving monthly to our ministry by the end of January.

Please take this need before the throne of the heavenly grace: pray that God our Father would move the hearts of his children to partner financially in this ministry. And please pray and ask our Lord if he might be calling you to be one of those partners!

Cambios y Despedidas

It has been a month since I've put a post up here: I apologize for my relative silence up here on the blogs and updates for the last month. Unfortunately, sometimes when there is the most to tell, the fact that I am so busy presents an obstacle to my giving supporters and prayer warriors the updates that they need. I'll try to work on being more regular on these updates.

The seasons of Advent and Christmastide went great at church as we finished up a year of ministry at Resurrection. However, in addition to the stress of special services and special sermons, I decided to move out of my apartment by January. This was due mostly to the termination of my salary at Resurrection at the end of 2010. However, I was able to effectively move out by December 31st, and I have been living on the very generous hospitality of families in the San Diego area since.

January 6 (Epiphany) saw my commissioning as a missionary from Resurrection. Our choirs did a wonderful job of leading the congregation in a traditional choral evensong, and Bishop Bill Thompson did me the honor of receiving my vows and laying his hands on me to send me out as a missionary. The following Sunday I gave my parting sermon at Resurrection (from Acts 20:25-35), and will be spending the balance of my Sundays in the States visiting churches to raise support regarding the mission. It has been a bittersweet pair of weeks, but necessary as I prepare to serve the Lord abroad.

I spent the past week at the Napa Valley Clericus with fourteen other brother clergy in what was a tremendous time of worship, fellowship, and encouragement. The following day (after driving back from Napa) was this past Sunday, and I had a great time visiting Church of the Blessed Trinity in Alpine, preaching and sharing about the mission.

This coming week will involve quite a lot: a trip up to a diocesan missions committee meeting on Saturday and sharing about the mission at St. David's Church in North Hollywood on Sunday. Please keep me and everyone involved in your prayers!

The Midpoint of Advent

We've reached the midpoint in Advent, and Christmas is now less than two weeks away!

Things went great at Holy Spirit Anglican Church this past Sunday ... it was a joy and honor to be with their growing congregation and to serve alongside my friend and mentor Fr. David Montzingo. My time to share about the mission had to be condensed into the sermon that I gave, but the passage from Matthew 11:2-11 went hand-in-hand with sending out missionaries to prepare the way for our coming Lord.

This week is full of meetings, study, and Lord willing phone calls to follow up about the mission. I am hoping that my voice has recovered enough that I can make phone calls about the mission and actually be understood by the poor person on the other end of the line. My pneumonia is gradually fading, but I'm not quite there yet, and I would ask for your continued prayers for my recovery.

As I prepare to move to Argentina, as I prepare to move out of my apartment, as I prepare to preach and serve at multiple Christmas services on multiple days, and to celebrate happily with good friends whom I will not see for a long time, I am trying to discipline myself to take breaks to rest, to reflect, and to refresh myself in the Lord. May he give me grace to do exactly that in the whirlwind of everything else going on!

With the Holy Spirit and with Fire

Here's a quick little update for you all!

This past weekend went well at the church planting summit, although I was almost completely unable to share about the mission. That was due in part to the rigid schedule we kept, in part to the weightiness of the conversation about church planting, and in part to my exhaustion. I have had opportunity though in the last few days to share about the mission with various individuals, and every day I am making more links and connections.

This coming weekend I am looking forward to being at Holy Spirit Anglican Church (San Diego) to preach and share about the mission. The Rector, Rev. David Montzingo, was a mentor of mine while I was in seminary, and I still consider him to be so. The church has been in existence just under a year, and by all accounts I expect to find a passionate congregation on fire for missions. Please keep me in your prayers!

He will be like a tree

Greetings from Newport Beach and Burbank!

I am currently in the Orange County and Los Angeles area attending our Bishop's summit on church growth and church planting, kindly hosted by St. James Anglican Church (Newport Beach). Clergy and key lay people from all around the Diocese of Western Anglicans and the Southern California area have turned out to hear church planting experts like Tom Herrick, William Beasey, and David Roseberry as they share their insights on church planting.

All the discussion of "planting" brings to mind the biblical imagery of God planting Israel his people as a vine or as a tree in the promised land, established and tended by him. The words of Psalm 1 keep resonating in my ears: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on his Law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree, planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does will prosper." My hope is that this conference will be an instructive time for us all in how to devote ourselves to the Lord, to his ways of being the church and planting churches, and to his promises to establish, prosper, and reign over his church!

This is also a great opportunity for me to meet with people from around my diocese and remind them that the Lord is calling me to be a missionary and is calling them to support me (as the first long-term missionary from the diocese) in some way, shape, or form. Please keep me in your prayers as I seek to communicate God's vision not just for "mission" (in some abstract way to be open to outsiders), but for "missions" (in a concrete, global sense).

De profundis

I am alive, in case you were wondering.

It has been a rocky last couple of weeks, dominated by a hard bout of pneumonia which came on as I traveled from Central Indiana to Southern Indiana and Central Kentucky on November 13th. At first I thought I had contracted a cold, then the flu, but in the end a chest x-ray confirmed that I did indeed pick up bacterial pneumonia.

This came at a hard time. My fever spiked up on Saturday, November 13th just as I was preparing to preach for and share about the mission with the terrific congregation of Trinity Anglican Church (Evansville). The Lord blessed me tremendously as I spent time with them, but my health continued to decline that evening as I headed to Central Kentucky where I planned to spend Sunday morning with Holy Apostles Anglican Church (Elizabethtown). After church that Sunday, during which I was able to meet some fabulous people and share a lot about the mission, I collapsed in my motel room from Sunday to Wednesday, trying to recover.

However, I kept getting worse, and on Wednesday I decided to trust God's protection and head up to Richmond, Indiana, to stay with my parents. I arrived in horrible condition with a raging fever and a worsening cough, and within a few days my health had deteriorated even further to the point that I went to a clinic. Armed with a diagnosis and powerful antibiotics, the Lord quickly helped me to get to the point where I was able to preach and teach Sunday school on missions in Argentina at Christ the King Reformed Episcopal Church (Dayton) and then head down to St. Barnabas Anglican Church (Covington) to meet the good people of that mission and share about what God is calling me to do in Argentina. The rest of the week was spent in part in convalescence, but I also had meetings with potential donors as well as with the leadership of Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church (Mason).

All of this has meant that, though the Lord was gracious and allowed me to keep most of my major commitments during my deputation period in the Midwest, he also through this illness prevented me from sharing about the mission in Louisville, Lexington, Columbus, and to some extent even in Cincinnati. While this comes with some personal frustration, I am absolutely convinced that our heavenly Father is Lord of life, death, health, and sickness, and that this has been his loving visitation. In addition, the One who has called me to serve him in Argentina will be faithful to get me there. He may have shut the door to my raising support in those churches, but he has great plans for me, for our whole missions team, and for his sheep in Argentina.

After Thanksgiving with my family, I am back in San Diego, preached this past Sunday (the First Sunday in Advent), and look forward to a week of continued recuperation and preparation for the mission field. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to find the balance between healthy, responsible rest and diligence in what God has given me to do in the time that he has given me to do it.

Indianapolis Extravaganza

For the last week, I have been setting up appointments in the Indianapolis area with various pastors, and they have gone very well.

I had a terrific time with a couple of former missionaries with the C&MA to Buenos Aires on Wednesday. We shared about our respective ministries, and in a couple of hours I felt invigorated, confirmed, and challenged in my mission to a culture that so desperately needs the Gospel. Wednesday's lunch was important for me and, I believe, for the work in Buenos Aires!

Thursday I got together with the rector of the AMiA church plants around Indiana, and I left amazed at what God is doing in my own home state, a region which still is only sparsely inhabited by orthodox Anglican congregations. The leadership seem to be thrilled with the mission in Argentina to which God has called me, and they will be looking into ways in which to help spread the word of my need for partners.

Finally today, Friday, I was able to meet with leadership from the Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Indianapolis, a CANA church made up mostly of native Africans coming from an Anglican tradition. I had hoped to meet with the Bishop, but he called in sick. Still I had a wonderful time speaking with the recently appointed archdeacon, and we will be taking steps to insure that this congregation so devoted to worship and to prepare will be upholding me and this ministry before our heavenly Father.

I head tomorrow to Evansville, Indiana to preach at Trinity Anglican Church at 4:30 PM, and from there I will be attending worship at Holy Apostles Anglican Church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Weekends can be tiring, but I have high hopes for what God will do when his people come together to worship him!