The Field is the World (Matt. 13:38)

I'd like to share something with you that the Lord did last week in our progress. A fellow who was referred to me by a large church in SC told me at our meeting of his excitement for what we were doing. His church, he said would probably never support us, since they have their own denominational missionaries, but that didn't stop him from supporting us personally: he's owner of a chain of restaurants in the Augusta, GA and Aiken, SC areas. A month later, we received a check for $100--and we thought, naturally, that was ongoing. After we returned from our staff conference we realized that we hadn't received any more gifts, So I started calling. When I was finally able to get them, I discovered the gift had been intended as a one-time gift. (And we had already counted it as ongoing, having received the first check). This prompted me to call someone else who was a little behind, also assumed to be a $100/month supporter. Sure enough, they were also one-time givers. We hav...

I thought I'd tell you a little story about how the Lord used frogs to remind us of something we'd been meaning to do. Emily's bedtime prayer really touched us last year after she was allowed to watch a World Vision-type television program while we were living in Florida last year: Dear Jesus: Please let our family help those kids on TV that have nothing. Please give them the biggest cup of water to drink and a potty seat for the kids and one for the Mama too and some toliet paper and let us send Luke's extra toothbrush (he volunteered) and some toothpaste and some soap. Please give them underwear, if they are boys give them underwear ,if they are girls give them panties. Thank you that we have beds and please make a bed to fit in those giving boxes that folds out into a big bed,big enough for the whole family to sleep on and some tools to put the bed together and a soft cushion for the bed. Thankyou for our toys and please give those kids toys and a tv and then have so...

Many of you know that despite the fact that it's necessary for us to continue to build our team of ministry partners, we are actively involved in a part of our ministry: helping to staff the world's first Internet-based Ministry Response Center . It's really a blast--I get to follow up, disciple and answer seeker questions coming in from people from all over the world. Last month, responses came from England , France , Slovenia , Romania , Nigeria , Cameroon , Ethiopia , Tanzania , Zimbabwe , India , Malaysia , The Philippines , New Zealand , and even Pakistan and Algeria . I personally handled 71 responses, (and I'm only one of over 300 volunteers), communicated the Gospel, prayer, doctrine and encouragement with Christians and seekers from all these countries. Helped a believer in Ethiopia get a bible through Campus Crusade's office in Addis Ababa. Helped answer the question, "Where in the Bible does it say I can pray a prayer and be saved" I helped ...

Well, obviously, looking at the situation in New Orleans the last few days, we got off light last year. We knew we did, even then, because we saw damage all around us but experienced none ourselves. Sometimes a crisis, like 9/11, brings out the best in people. As we're seeing in New Orleans, it can also bring out the worst. Jesus taught us how to use pointed examples of our mortality like this as opportunities to share the Gospel. In Luke 13, the Pharisees confronted Jesus about the destruction of the Tower of Siloam, which fell on 18 people in their day, as well as the Galilaeans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the sacrifices. He said, it wasn't that they were worse sinners than everyone else that this had happened to them, but that unless we repent, we will all likewise perish. No one knows the hour of their death, no one expects death when it comes. We expect each moment to be like the last, and we have no real reason to think that way. Life is full of unexpectedness, an...

We've been back home for the past two weeks, and have had to hit the ground running! First, we moved from one side of Aiken to another. Our landlord, who has been such a blessing to us since January by letting us go month-to-month at a very low rate, needed his place again, so the Lord provided another place we were able to get at a 3-month lease just before our CSU trip! One difference is that the new place was unfurnished, and we gave away some furniture before leaving California, stored a lot (most) of it in Florida, and had been staying in a furnished home. So we had to buy a few things in the last couple of weeks just to avoid sitting on crates and using spools (see images) for tables like in college. We also have a new nephew! Our sister-in-law, April Eckburg, gave birth to Scout River Eckburg, 8lbs. 6oz, on Tuesday, Aug. 9th. Both Mom and baby are doing great today, but April suffered internal bleeding following the Caesarean-Section and had to have a second surgery. We'...

Last night we stayed in Mt. Vernon, IL , exactly 500 miles from Salina, KS where we spent the previous night. Today we drove from Mt. Vernon to Calhoun, GA, to make tomorrow's trip a light one of only 236 miles. We were able to purchase the entire CSU conference audio package on MP3 the last evening of the conference. (now that's quick!) So we were able to listen to some of the sessions Cindy missed due to stomach flu. Listening to the conference audio, we heard again the amazing news that as of the conference time, every five seconds someone reads a gospel presentation from one of Campus Crusade's websites! It's exciting to be a part of such a revolution. Our group, WorldLINC , is a part of a larger division called Global Media Outreach , which includes "God Loves the World" , EveryStudent.Com , Starting With God , and "The Life" , among others. Dr. Douglass told the story of a young Canadian lady who was so excited by the individualized contact wit...

This evening we are at a hotel in Salina, KS. We finally have an Internet connection again! During the CSU Staff conference, we stayed in Longmont, CO with dear friends from California who now live there: Mike and Joyce Willis, their kids Andrea, Heidi, Dustin, and Janelle. Afterwards, we drove south to Castle Rock, CO to stay with another couple (also dear friends!) from Calvary in Southern California, Bill and Jana Krummann, with their son Kyle. We visited Colorado Springs' Garden of the Gods and Focus on the Family's HQ on Saturday. I also was able to visit and sing at their church, Community Baptist Church in Franktown, and was able to schedule a support appointment before leaving this afternoon. We have once again seen the Lord do something miraculous. In addition to several other smaller pledges, we saw a special ministry partner commit to a pledge that amounts to about 9% of our annual need! In short, we are now lacking only about $45 per month of having 75% of our goal...

This morning's group session in the arena was once again very introspective. One speaker mentioned a catch-phrase of C.S. Lewis'---that Jesus was the great " Iconoclast ," or breaker of our "small" images of who God is. In Luke 7, people come to Jesus with major problems that no one else could solve. A dying servant, a dead son, a crisis of faith... We were challenged to bring our challenges to the Lord and expect Him to carry them... ...then we were shown a heart-rending film. Several years ago, a son was born, like our daughter Emily, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Only, unlike in her case, the result was devastating. The doctors told the parents there was no brain activity. He was mostly paralyzed and unable to communicate. The parents refused to believe the diagnosis and approached a university to have them create a computerized means for him to communicate. His first words were, "go, Bruins!" Over a period of years, he convin...

We first arrived at the conference last night--there was a carnival atmosphere for the kids; unfortunately, we didn't know that, and we didn't bring them...but what they don't know won't hurt them, OK? So please help us keep the secret. Anyway, Luke and Emily are staying with Mike and Joyce Willis, friends from Calvary in California. Andrea, the Willis' 7-year-old, was Emily's first friend, and their son Dustin has really hit it off with Luke. We brought gifts for the kids to smooth the introductions. The evening was a great time to "cease driving and know that He is God." We had a good time of praise and worship followed by fellowship with fellow staff members from Orlando and San Clemente. This morning's session, led by Steve Sellers, was a real challenge to confront anything standing in the way with intimacy with God: tradition, mechanical action/busy-ness, unforgiveness, pride... We had two afternoon sessions on developing further intimacy with...

Today we're in Longmont, Colorado, less than an hour away from Ft. Collins, where our National Staff Conference will be taking place the rest of this week. We will be staying the rest of the week with Mike & Joyce Willis here in Longmont. Cindy's looking forward to getting caught up with her good friend Joyce, who left California last November. It's been over 100 degrees through most of Kansas and Colorado. So much for it being much cooler here! Of course, I spent 45 minutes or so yesterday outside in that heat making the kids run around and act crazy while Cindy visited a health-food store to get stuff for Luke. None of us were really sweating, although the kids were a little red-faced. 15 minutes of packing in Aiken the Sunday afternoon we left (after a church presentation) had me dripping wet; and the temperature readout on the truck read 89 dregrees. Humidity makes a big difference! We don't know what to expect for the conference; all the CSU veterans love the ...

This morning, we're leaving from Hays, Kansas. We made it in really late last night, so we're later getting off. Lord willing, this will be the last day of our cross-country expedition. Yesterday, midway through Missouri, we visited what must be the world's largest Western store--the kids loved it. They had stuffed animals of every variety on a ledge near the high ceiling-Giraffe, Wolves, Deer, Lion, Cape Buffalo, Bear, Wildebeest, Sable: just about anything you could name. How exciting! Luke and Emily each got a cowboy belt, which they like to wear outside their shirts. We should arrive in Longmont, CO this afternoon and are looking forward to the long drive being over. Our excitement for yesterday morning was discovering the oil-filler cap had been left off when we had our oil changed. We'd already driven about 800 miles that way. We went to the Ford dealership to get a cap, but when we came out to check, we found the cap under the hood! Praise God we didn't lose ...

This morning, we're in St. Louis, MO. We were able (praise God) to get an antibiotic called in for Luke, so we're hoping his skin will improve dramatically and be better for the rest of our trip. We're also hoping to get on the road earlier so that we can make more progress today. Topeka is only six hours away, and is the next big city; but that makes for a 9 1/2-hour drive on the final day. So we're hoping to make it further into Kansas today: Salina, Hays or Oakley. We're grateful for such a reliable vehicle and for our relative health. Cindy hasn't been feeling too well and Emily has the sniffles, and of course, there's Luke's chronic eczema, but otherwise, we're very well.

We are in Chattanooga this morning, at a hotel with wireless internet. Lotsa things have happened since our last communication. Luke's allergies were confirmed at the Allergist's office--but they were categorized. Since he doesn't go into anaphylactic shock with them (he only gets hives, which aggravate his eczema but aren't life-threatening) we were encouraged to feed him some of the things to which he showed mild reactions. We are beginning the 2nd leg of our journey to Ft. Collins, CO and will need to find a pharmacy at our next stop, St. Louis, to get some oral antibiotic for Luke on the way. His doctor in GA mistakenly filled a prescription for Elidel cream, one we don't use much anymore. We're still praying for a (Divine) appointment at National Jewish Hospital in Denver. It has an 8-week waiting list, but maybe there'll be a cancellation while we're there. We are at 61% in our support-raising. The Lord has been doing some marvelous things. Last we...

I just got a few minutes to sit down and type again and share about the latest news with Luke's allergies. As I reported last time, we knew in California that he was allergic to Peanuts and Eggs, the previous blood test from the allergist indicated allergies to wheat, corn, soy, milk and shrimp. It didn't take us long to discover that wheat , particularly, is in practically everything. So we were experimenting with (costly) organic foods containing rice as a substitute. Rice cereals, rice breads rice cakes, rice milk and rice ice-cream. We now have preliminary results from a second round of testing, revealing that he is even more allergic to rice than to wheat. Wow. Some items in this test will take a little longer, but we already know he's allergic to rice, beef and pork. Until the allergist returns from his vacation, we've just reverted to dairy and wheat since rice is evern worse and we have to nourish the little guy somehow. Please pray for him: he would prefer to...

I would like to think I wouldn't be here if I weren't convinced CCCI was the best ministry out there, but we can talk all day about what best means. So all I can do is to point to some of the unique accomplishments of Campus Crusade for Christ: The Four Spiritual Laws tract. Created by the founder, Bill Bright, in 1956, this simple presentation of the Gospel is the most widely-distributed "religious booklet" in history. It's in 200 languages and about 2.5 billion tracts have been given out in the last 49 years. The JESUS Film : created in 1979, this remains the most accurate film depiction of the entire life of Christ ever created, almost word-for-word the Gospel of Luke. It's been translated into over 850 languges and seen by billions worldwide, the most-translated, most-watched film in history. It has been responsible for over 128 million known decisions for Christ. Campus Crusade for Christ is the world's largest missionary organization, with over 26,0...

We're only discovering the limits of Luke's potential diet. Everything has wheat, or "gluten," or corn, corn syrup or corn starch in it. What doesn't have these items usually has soy in it. This is going to be a real challenge. The nutritionist wasn't much help. "He can have all of the water he wants." We're not sure that was a joke. We've had blood taken for a second round of tests and we're hoping RICE isn't something he's allergic to. We're buying books, reading websites, and experimenting with lots of powdery, papery-tasting foods for starches, fresh fruits and what few vegetables we can get him to eat. In the meantime, his pediatrician diagnosed him with strep-throat and all of us are fighting it off. He's doing well with his anti-biotic, but Cindy's coming down with it and not feeling well at all. I can tell I'm fighting it off, feeling run-down and a scratchiness in my throat, espeically in the mornings. I ...

Yesterday, we received the blood test results on Luke. Poor guy is allergic to just about everything, according to the tests: Grass trees ragweed dust mites eggs milk corn peanuts wheat soy shrimp We're going to need to consult with a nutritionist to figure out what he can eat. Also there will be another test, since not everything was tested and peanut allergies are an indicator of allergies to other legumes (peas, beans, lentils) which are an important source of protien. We're hoping he won't be allergic to broccoli (who isn't? ) because with dairy out of the picture we need alternative sources of calcium. This explains a lot about the awful rashes he's had--but we still need a lot of prayer and wisdom. Thanks for your continued prayers for Luke!

This weekend, we spent time with Cindy's Dad, Dick Eckburg, with his wife Judy, in North Carolina. The four of us joined Cindy's brother's family, (John, April, Tessa and Tyler), as well as Cindy's Mom, Donna, for a visit to Lincolnton. We fished, (caught nothing!) grilled, played outdoor games and visited Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, NC. It was beautiful and relaxing, despite the thunderstorms. We waded a mountain river below a waterfall. Well, Emily and I did, anyway, with John, Tessa and Tyler. Aside from the hours of driving, it was therapeutic rest for us to spend a couple of days unwound from our calling and meeting schedule. It was appropriate for we three fathers to enjoy just being fathers for a change. That's been a somewhat ironic part of what I've been doing for the past six months, actually. I was a bit spoiled by one of our greatest blessings in Southern California--living eight minutes from work made it easy for me to come home every day ...

The Bible says natural men are like "brute beasts...their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names....They are laid in the grave..[they] shall carry nothing away...they shall never see light...like the beasts that perish" ( Ps. 49 ) What's the use of building an empire, wealth, even having convention centers, stadiums and malls named after yourself? It's all going to burn up ! God loved the world enough to die for it , the best way we can use our time as good servants , is to see what the master deems important and so structure our lives as to maximize the effort we can devote to that cause. We can't save monuments from the fire, but we can be co-laborers with him in saving PEOPLE from the fire , and people saved from the fire will be LIVING, breathing, PRAISING monuments to the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us for ages to come.

As I have shared with many of you, the realities of MPD require that we ask for appointments at a rate about three per actual appointment. Coupled with the fact that we desire to have about 10-15 appointments per week and we have to call roughly three or four times as many people in order to speak to those 30-45, we tend to make 120-150 calls each week. Thus, with other forms of communication and the time of actual appointments and management of schedule, we often spend more than 60 hours per week on MPD. Not everyone is aware of that, I understand--but it's important for those of you who are our partners to understand and pray for us as we're in this process. Not only for spiritual fortitude and insight for the process--but also for sustained vision for the call before us. My point is that, especially expressing it this way, a task-oriented person can get so caught up in the task that they lose sight of the purpose of the task. I once heard an apt illustration once of the di...

The ministry we're currently engaged in keeps us in reflection on the central theme of our April letter: God's sufficiency most revealed in us by our lack of it; the great treasure we possess shown to most striking effect by the fact that we have only "earthen vessels" in which to hold it. Still, we lament with the Apostle Paul and cry out with David. David is such a great example for us... Leader of the Mighty Men, such a heroic and beloved leader, in fact, that his pining out loud for a drink from Bethlehem's well inspired three of his most valiant warriors to break through the Philistine Army's line just to get him a drink ( 2 Sam. 23 , 1 Chr. 11 ) We think of David as the courageous warrior, poetic and philosophical, yet compassionate and emotional in scenes such as 2 Samuel 18. He represents us, then, not only as we wish to be, but as we are, particularly in his mournful Psalms about being downcast, feeling God is far from him, begging God to incline ...

Today, Cindy took Luke to the dermatologist (finally!) at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, just across the Savannah River. He gave her several new ideas, new medicines, and an appointment with an allergist. He's been doing lots better, but Luke's pediatrician communicated with the dermatologist how bad he was last week! (Luke had a great time telling the Doctor about his lightsaber, shown in one of the photographs Cindy brought of his skin's condition last week.) I had two appointments; one with a pastor of a small out-of-town fellowship, one with a couple here in town. When I returned home from the first appointment, I found the answering machine contained a message from the couple cancelling our evening meeting: they have "things to do around the house." This so illustrates the spiritual nature of this process. We need for the Lord to pave the way for us, to make the people we call spiritually ready before we call them. I'ts easy to imagine even highl...

I've been planning to do this for some time! The blog is envisioned to be a more direct way of communicating what God is doing in our ministry. Several people have challenged us to journal what God has done so far, but we've only managed to do that sporadically. Hopefully this will be simple enough to contribute that it will become part of our day. We've been challenged to complete our fundraising by September, and we have about 48% to go, so we are expecting God to do something amazing within the next few months. It would be unworthy of us to fail to give Him credit for it. Hopefully as we reflect on how He moves, we can communicate about it properly. The reason I put it that way is that it frequently takes us a while to understand what He has done. We envision this blog as a vehicle for more detailed praise than can be effectively communicated in the prayer letter, and a channel of blessing to His people who read it with a prayerful spirit. How are we feeling? We feel a l...