Our Journey into Missions (Pt.2) - My 1st mission experience.
Making the decision to follow Jesus was a radical one for me. I continued attending every meeting I could and was reading my bible non-stop. My learning curve was vertical. Along with some single guys from Edwards AFB we would go drive out together to attend church. For about 9 months we did this religiously, to use a pun. It was hard for us to meet people our age because our commitment was to the military which made it difficult to plug in to ministries at the Vineyard. But we would make the services as often as possible. We also would visit other churches for evening services since the Vineyard did not have a Sunday evening service, and we were hungry for teaching. It was October of 1981 that we visited a church in Rosamond called the Wayside Chapel where after a few Sunday evening services I met the woman who 8 months late became my wife and still is today. We were married June 5th of 1982. Shortly after, we moved on to base housing and opened up a home bible study group in our house as an extension of the Vineyard.
The story behind meeting my wife is one I wont get into detail here, but truly was divine appointment. I will share that story eventually as I think it serves to show how God can and does guide us through the big and small decisions in life. Julie has been my best friend and partner in life through the good times and the bad. She has been the perfect partner for me. During the lowest times of our marriage she has been the stable one who literally has held us together. And in the victories, she has made me feel like a strong leader.
Thinking back to when I decided to follow Jesus, one thing stood out to me. If I was going to do this, I wasn't just buying fire insurance, I wanted LIFE insurance. I wanted to live a life of pursuing God and living out my new found faith demonstrated by service.When I stood up in front of the church that day, I had already spend numerous months counting the cost. I had considered whether I was making a choice to follow a group of people, or dig into getting to know who God is at a personal level. I'd fleeced Him a number of time asking for answered prayers. Although God is not a genie, he did seem to answer specific prayers in ways that seemed beyond my understanding. At the Vineyard, there was a belief that we accept the story of Jesus as a historical truth, not simply an analogy. If Jesus did miracles and said we would go even greater things, we ought to believe that. And so this new life included learning to live baby steps of faith building.
After a couple years or so of walking this faith, in 1983, the Vineyard made an offer to participate in the construction of an orphanage in Ensenada Mexico. Teams were going to the site from a church in San Diego, CA for week long mission trips and some long weekend trips. The Vineyard was partnering with that church. A friend of mine named Stewart and I decided to join a group for a weekend so we headed down on a Friday and returned on a Sunday. It was a memorable trip for me not because of what we did necessarily, but for what I realized we could do.
During our long weekend, nearly 8 hours of which was driving, we mixed concrete and poured a floor in the orphanage dining area. It was very basic manual labor in a hot and muggy climate next to the Pacific ocean. We clearly were not prepared for the humidity and failed to take enough changes of clothes. Needless to say, it was a very sticky and stinky weekend. The orphanage sat next to a ravine that was filled with trash. During the rainy season, the ravine would wash out and much of the trash would end up in the ocean. But we were there in the summer time and it was just trash. We never went down to the ocean during this trip, I think because we were so busy with work. But for a moment I wanted to do something nice for the 28 or so children of the orphanage, so around 3 pm I heard a little ice cream truck's music playing outside. I went out to ask how much an ice cream bar would cost. Only 10 cents they said. The owner/operators of this little truck, which looked like an old US Postal Service truck that was repainted with bright colors, were a young couple. The husband was maybe 22 years old and his wife maybe 17 or 18 and she was about 6-7 months pregnant. When I told them I would like to buy 30 ice cream bars for the kids, their eyes lit up and they immediately went to work. Three dollars was all it took to put a smile on 30 faces. It just seemed like we couldn't do that in the states so easily. I realized that money goes a long way in Mexico.
Now, shortly afterwards I was reprimanded by the orphanage director. I had failed to get permission and might have ruined the children's appetite for dinner. I had to apologize for my ignorance. Nevertheless, I had learned some valuable lessons that stuck with me. After returning home on Sunday I mentioned to Julie what a great experience it was, that I had learned a ton, and hoped to get involved in missions one day in the future. That was the weekend that planted missions in my heart.
We did not revisit missions for nearly 18 years, but our lives did become missional. That part of the story picks up when we left the Air Force and transitioned to civilian life.
The story behind meeting my wife is one I wont get into detail here, but truly was divine appointment. I will share that story eventually as I think it serves to show how God can and does guide us through the big and small decisions in life. Julie has been my best friend and partner in life through the good times and the bad. She has been the perfect partner for me. During the lowest times of our marriage she has been the stable one who literally has held us together. And in the victories, she has made me feel like a strong leader.
Thinking back to when I decided to follow Jesus, one thing stood out to me. If I was going to do this, I wasn't just buying fire insurance, I wanted LIFE insurance. I wanted to live a life of pursuing God and living out my new found faith demonstrated by service.When I stood up in front of the church that day, I had already spend numerous months counting the cost. I had considered whether I was making a choice to follow a group of people, or dig into getting to know who God is at a personal level. I'd fleeced Him a number of time asking for answered prayers. Although God is not a genie, he did seem to answer specific prayers in ways that seemed beyond my understanding. At the Vineyard, there was a belief that we accept the story of Jesus as a historical truth, not simply an analogy. If Jesus did miracles and said we would go even greater things, we ought to believe that. And so this new life included learning to live baby steps of faith building.
After a couple years or so of walking this faith, in 1983, the Vineyard made an offer to participate in the construction of an orphanage in Ensenada Mexico. Teams were going to the site from a church in San Diego, CA for week long mission trips and some long weekend trips. The Vineyard was partnering with that church. A friend of mine named Stewart and I decided to join a group for a weekend so we headed down on a Friday and returned on a Sunday. It was a memorable trip for me not because of what we did necessarily, but for what I realized we could do.
During our long weekend, nearly 8 hours of which was driving, we mixed concrete and poured a floor in the orphanage dining area. It was very basic manual labor in a hot and muggy climate next to the Pacific ocean. We clearly were not prepared for the humidity and failed to take enough changes of clothes. Needless to say, it was a very sticky and stinky weekend. The orphanage sat next to a ravine that was filled with trash. During the rainy season, the ravine would wash out and much of the trash would end up in the ocean. But we were there in the summer time and it was just trash. We never went down to the ocean during this trip, I think because we were so busy with work. But for a moment I wanted to do something nice for the 28 or so children of the orphanage, so around 3 pm I heard a little ice cream truck's music playing outside. I went out to ask how much an ice cream bar would cost. Only 10 cents they said. The owner/operators of this little truck, which looked like an old US Postal Service truck that was repainted with bright colors, were a young couple. The husband was maybe 22 years old and his wife maybe 17 or 18 and she was about 6-7 months pregnant. When I told them I would like to buy 30 ice cream bars for the kids, their eyes lit up and they immediately went to work. Three dollars was all it took to put a smile on 30 faces. It just seemed like we couldn't do that in the states so easily. I realized that money goes a long way in Mexico.
Now, shortly afterwards I was reprimanded by the orphanage director. I had failed to get permission and might have ruined the children's appetite for dinner. I had to apologize for my ignorance. Nevertheless, I had learned some valuable lessons that stuck with me. After returning home on Sunday I mentioned to Julie what a great experience it was, that I had learned a ton, and hoped to get involved in missions one day in the future. That was the weekend that planted missions in my heart.
We did not revisit missions for nearly 18 years, but our lives did become missional. That part of the story picks up when we left the Air Force and transitioned to civilian life.
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