So, many of you who know me know that I am 100% terrified to fly. I have been in one incident (I call it a crash, my mom disagrees but she wasn't there), I had a tooth break flying into Yugoslavia so that wasn't good (the dentist is my other fear, and the one's in Yugoslavia are nasty at best), and once flew in a twin prop. plane from St. Petersburg to Moscow that reminded me of the plane in "Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom" that they had to jump out of. So anyway I'm scared to fly. The last time I flew was with my dad to Talladega Ala. and I literally had to be drugged...like seriously drugged. I had a panic attack seeing video's of my daughter before the flight, anyway it was a scene man. I'm telling you all this because I had to think about flying again yesterday. Pastor Chris and I both have a passion to see Crosswinds Church plant and fund a church overseas. It's a really cool trend in today's churches to do this. PC3, funds and built a church in Kenya before they even built there building, Lifepoint funds and built a church in Brazil and still meet in a school, and while we haven't nailed anything down yet the words have come out of our mouths that we want to see this happen with Crosswinds. It has been a passion of mine for awhile but something dawned on me yesterday....I would at some point have to fly there!! I was watching a Lifepoint sermon online and the Pastor and Worship Pastor were doing the service remote from Brazil and it hit me, we would have to do that. I mean you can't fund and build a church and never go to it. I prayed about it all last night, and by putting God first I actually became really excited about the idea. And now I want to fly to a little village in Africa and worship with other believers. Now this is easy to say because, heck, we haven't even really really talked about it, but still God is working in me. Can you imagine the awesome trip my kids would get to go on to see remote areas of the world and really get to see real people and not just a tourist trap in some "famous" city overseas? The thought of that and the lessons I and my family would learn from doing something like that kept me up all night in anticipation!! Now, I told Rebecca not to get too excited b/c there's no way I'm flying anywhere other than where God uses us to plant a foreign church. Guys, if you do nothing else this week put God first in all things...period. Putting God first has made my wife really happy with me this week, putting God first made me want to fly somewhere to minister His Word and play music for His people, putting God first has made my lack of sleep vanish so I could spend time with my kids, and putting God first will make Crosswinds explode in Leland and in the world...seriously THE WORLD. Back to flying, God spoke to me last night through my own words to Rebecca, "If we fly there we get to see and minister in ways we could never imagine, and if the plane crashes we get to wake up in Heaven...win, win". God first...period.
Blessings,
Scott
PS-I have a feeling that I will expound on this later and God furthers what He wants to do in this situation and idea!!
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I am so pumped I found your blog! I didn't realize you had one!!! OH MAN Scott God is just fueling me with so many dreams/visions. We too have a passion for a church overseas... I will be so bold to tell you that God has been telling me since about 2004 that He was going to lead me to Ghana, Africa. A long long story -- but we have 'family' from Ghana. The women of this family came to America with hope & promise of a better life - they worked here sending money back to their families. They became my grandma's live in nurses when she had alzheimers. The one closest to us, her name is Patience. She was able to bring her family over and they bought their first house in New Jersey close to my parents. She is determined to be wherever we are -- she believes God wants to use us together in some way. She booked a flight randomly and stayed for one day to look at houses down here and interview at the hospital - where she got offered a job. She is determined to move her family here by summer and plug into CrossWinds.
ReplyDeleteOh Scott --- there is such a need in Ghana.
God has never let me give this dream away of going to Ghana and doing mission work there. Ghana has a special place in my haert. I told God I would give back to Ghana what He gave to us through Ghana. They were the biggest blessing to my grandma & us. I don't know what we would have done without them.
I don't know what God is doing exactly. But I do know that He's doing something. This dream is forever changing -- and how we get there and what we do there is forever changing --- but He has never let this dream go.
I have a folder in my file cabinet that just says, "ghana" and it's just bits & pieces of what I learn about them. articles. memorabilia. my penpals letters from there.
Children orphaned by AiDS (1-14 years of age) in 2001 = 204,000
Estiamted people living with AIDS/HIV (chidlren 0 - 14) = 34,000
Estimated people living with AIDS/HIV (0-49) = 360,000
% of population below $1 a day = 45%
major issues: child slavery & labor, child trafficking, trokosi - a religious tradition in which virgin girls are given to voodoo priests to appease the gods for crimes committed by their families, street children / orphans, prostitition, AIDS, "general" poverty, malaria, education, nutrition
major religions: christianity & muslim
SOOO for what it's worth - there you go. I don't know how / when / with you GOd will send us there. but I know He continues to grow a passion for Ghana in me.
P.S. but we also have a heart for Gospel for Brazil... Southside (our previous church) linked with Lifepoint and they are doing incredible things down there!!
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