It’s a very similar situation to the position of the Levites, who were set apart by God from the rest of Israel to serve Him. This tribe and its clans were supplied from the offerings and gifts brought by the other twelve. The cities they lived in were designated out of those in the territories of the other twelve. The Levites belonged completely to God.

The priests and their duties are well known. Those who did not serve as priests, on the other hand, had seemingly menial tasks. Most of them were responsible for the care of parts of the tabernacle, including transporting them when the Israelites moved from one place to the next. (See Numbers 1:50-51.) Once the temple was built, these people were assigned to other tasks in the care and administration of the temple, which supported the office of the priests (the descendants of Aaron) as well as the service of the king. (See 1 Chronicles 24-26.)

In these times also, there are many of us who serve God in support of those who are in positions better-known than our own. Yet we are as dependent on the Church as they. Our needs are not very different from your own. But what are they? Here’s where our support goes:

Wycliffe USA processes all of the donations to our ministry, and handles some of those line items as well. Once we’re in Germany, the Wycliffe office there will process the health insurance cost and transfer the funds for our living expenses to a local bank. I’m glad those people are there to take care of such details, so that we can focus on our ministry!

We need more people to join the churches and individuals who are praying for and supporting us right now. We need a little less than $2000 more each month before we can go. Jesus does not shun “small” gifts, so please don’t feel that you can’t make a difference. You can! If you want to help support Bible translation work in Europe, Africa, and western Asia through our ministry, just use this link to get started:

http://www.wycliffe.org/Partnership.aspx?mid=ECCA8C

There you can choose to pray, give, or both. We can’t do this without you. If you can’t give, please recommend us to your Christian brothers and sisters. Please give us a call if you know of other ways you can help us reach our goal. Thank you!

Moses, worried that he’s about to be lynched, runs to God for help. He’s pretty agitated. Yet God gives him a calm, gracious answer: Go hit that rock with a stick. Moses obeys, and God provides water for all those people. From a rock.

So God met the need of His people, even though they brought it to Him as a complaint? Wow. That’s some God!

Later, Jesus said, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matthew 6:31-32)  He also said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11) I don’t think I’m drawing a bad conclusion from the Bible when I write that God loves taking care of His people.

The Israelites experience in the desert made me think about our own move and our own needs.

In our April newsletter, I mentioned that we need an additional $2,000 in support each month to have an adequate living in Germany. We also have to sell the house. And we’d like for the boys to start school in Germany this August. That’s a lot of water. With the U.S. economy and housing market as they are, it seems that God is leading us to a big rock and saying, “Don’t worry! I’ve done this before.”

Yes, He has done it before. Katherine and I began serving Wycliffe at different times, and we each had to find all of our financial support before going to Africa. Lo and behold, God provided it! He did it then, and we fully expect Him to do it again now.

Here’s the fun part. You know how He does it? Through our brothers and sisters in Christ! After all, we missionaries would look pretty silly if we had to walk around with corporate logos all over us, like NASCAR drivers. So if you’re a child of God, it’s just possible that He’ll stir you to give to our ministry. Just like He stirred us to go in the first place.

One doesn’t have to be a “big giver” to make a difference. It would be pretty easy for 200 people to meet our present need, don’t you think? God just wants people who are eager to give. If you’re one of those people, or you know a fellow believer who is, then here’s the place to go: http://www.wycliffe.org/Partnership.aspx?mid=ECCA8C.

We’re all standing before an imposing rock as God calls us to reach this world with His message. Just read what Wycliffe USA’s leader, Bob Creson, recently said to Mission Network News about the size of the task. The rock’s big, but our God is ready to let loose streams of water if we’ll all obey Him!

So now the big push is to finish the sorting and selling and packing and fixing-up and planning and … you get the idea. Perhaps you’ve been through it yourself. In the newsletter, I describe what we’ve been up to and what lies ahead. In just a few weeks, we’re going to make our first major moving trip, and there’s a lot to do in the meantime.

Please enjoy the newsletter. You will notice that it mentions how much more support we need for our assignment in Germany. You may not be aware that all Wycliffe missionaries raise their own support. We’ll need to get the full amount before we can leave. And that, my friends, is part of what faith is for.

April 2010: A Liddle Good News (for reading on-screen)

April 2010: A Liddle Good News (for printing)

When I look around our house, especially in its present state – Katherine would be furious if I put up pictures – it becomes all too clear that we have a lot in our life here that hinders us. Old things, books, toys, clothing, furniture, paperwork, the house itself – it all weighs us down. And the process of getting rid of it all, in one fashion or another, is pretty painful. It’s so easy to say, “It’s too much. I just can’t do it.”

There’s a lot that we’re trying to do simultaneously: sell or give away unneeded items, renovate parts of the house, set aside things to put in storage, and prepare for life in Germany. Oh, and while all that’s going on, there’s the daily grind of household and office. “Hey, welcome to real life.”

But is that the way the Liddles are supposed to live? “… let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” I’m not aiming to get preachy – it’s just that the message from God is the only instruction I can truly rely on, especially when struggles in life seem insurmountable. Katherine and I are convinced that God has marked out a race for us. Now He’s watching to see if we’ll run … or if we’ll hide.

Please pray for us to have this perseverance as we literally wade through everything that we’ve accumulated in our time in the U.S. Oh, how the enemy tries to take hold of us through our stuff! Jesus said, “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” Unfruitful? I do not want to be like that.

Pray for Katherine and me to have patience with one another as we persevere through this season of stress. A big move will always put stress on a marriage We want to demonstrate to each other, to our sons, to our families, and to anyone else who’s watching (even the enemy!) that the power and love of God can overcome all difficulties.

This week I’ll complete the removal of some of the carpet in the house, clearing the way for the new flooring. We’re setting aside a mountain of things to tag and haul off to a Just Between Friends sale next week. And Katherine and I will be sitting down together with our health records, application forms, and a German dictionary so that we can apply for health insurance over there. Gesundheit! Bitte, beten Sie!

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:2-3) BAM!

Would Michael Phelps have won so many gold medals in 2008 if he hadn’t swum to the wall with everything he had in him?

My email migration team and I are approaching the wall in our project. We are on an excellent pace, doing far better than I expected – we have finished more than 95% of all the accounts. I expect us to be done by the end of this month. But we can’t let up now and just coast in, and we can’t stop short of completion. The last 5% require more effort now that we’re so close.

We have a mix of people who are left. Obviously, there are folks who have put off the process as long as possible. I understand that. Do you remember worrying over the order in which kids were to present their book reports in school? Most kids wanted to be at the end – and they’re the same way now as adults! There are also people who have schedules that are difficult to accommodate, and there are people who are traveling out of the country.

This week, I have to orchestrate the migration of some accounts for a couple who are so far out in the boonies on the other side of the world that they’re not even in email contact. I have to plan this in such a way that they don’t freak out when they return to the nearest city and that there’s someone on hand who knows enough about the situation to help them “get connected” again. These people are folks I do not wish to disappoint – the fellow’s a well-respected anthropologist who helps translators understand the people they’re working with. This cultural knowledge helps the message of the translated Bible really shine into the hearts of the people who read it.

So please don’t stop praying for my team and me – we want to touch the wall at full speed! (And not just with email!)

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Paul, in Philippians 3:12-14)

Wycliffe members are responsible for raising all of the funds that they’ll need for life and work in their ministries. Typically, the only funds that are raised by the mission itself are for large or special projects. Good examples of these are the Last Languages Campaign and individual projects that Wycliffe takes on. (Yes, do go and check them out – you don’t really think God’s going to let a little thing like the economy get in His way, do you?)

My main point is that Wycliffe doesn’t pay us a salary. But they certainly don’t leave us hanging in the breeze – they’re a very caring mission. To make sure that we’re financially sound (nothing’s secure, mind you), they estimate how much we need to live on – including taxes, Social Security, retirement, health care, etc. – and set that as our support goal. Now it’s very easy to write “they” and make the whole thing sound simple. But “they” truly are multiple people in several places, each person having a little piece of the budget puzzle. One must gather the pieces to assemble the puzzle. That’s where we are right now with the Germany move.

We’re decided on sending the boys to a local school, so we know that we don’t have to account for tuition. Katherine’s pretty sure that a local health insurance plan will be a better option for us than the one offered through Wycliffe, but we need to be certain of the details and costs. Our tax status will change overseas, and estimating taxes is always fun. (Everyone groan together, please.)

So please pray that we’ll get these numbers put together reliably. We don’t want to be wrong in either direction.

The trouble that has us all pretty down, though, is the fact that the young woman that I hired back in June to help with this project is facing a lot of issues with securing continued permission to live and work in the United States. It’s not appropriate to give details, but I want to take advantage of the attention you’re giving this note to ask you to pray for her. The situation could have an awful, sorrowful end if left to humans alone.

Please pray that God would cause our sister in Christ to find favor with the authorities who will make decisions about her future. Pray for the God of peace to bring calm to her heart and fill her with faith in His ability to provide for her always, no matter what the circumstances. Pray for His Spirit to be her constant companion and comfort when the world lets her down.

Yet I myself am not worried. I know that she is in good hands, since we serve the one who said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Katherine and I groan inwardly and outwardly when we look around us at our house. There’s something to be said for those religious orders that renounce materialism and worldly possessions (just see Matthew 6:19-21). Stuff reproduces and multiplies faster than rabbits, and some of it attaches to human sentiment like tar. And we have to deal with all of it, in one way or another, before we can move.

Please, oh please, pray for God to put a fire in us to go through our home and separate our belongings:

• Sell
• Give away
• Store
• Take to Germany

Some of this sorting needs to happen so that I can get to work on putting down a new laminate floor in the dining area, family room, living room, and hallway. There’s lots of painting to do, as always, so all the pictures and shelves have to come down, too. (So pray that we’re able to keep the fumes from stirring up the boys’ asthma; pulling up the vinyl floor didn’t do any of us much good.)

Now that was a nice segue to the next prayer request. Katherine has looked at a local health insurance option in Germany and thinks that it may be a better fit for us there than the plan we’re on through Wycliffe. We’re still collecting information at this point, but we need to be wise and discerning in our final choice – health care is a big deal for just about everybody.

And yet, the Man said, “… do not worry ….” (Matthew 6:31-34) – so I guess we won’t!

When you pray, please praise God for the hard work of Keith, Bob, Dallas, Paul, and Summer. Jon and Sheryl are out there, too. Ask God to fill them with grace, give them patience, and hold them up with the stamina and perseverance to see the project through to the end.

Ten of us gathered at the JAARS center in Waxhaw to talk about how we could make the online help desk easier to use for the Wycliffe workers worldwide. Two of those people were my future colleagues at Wycliffe Europe, Ken Haugh and Martijn de Vries. Two people came from Orlando, and another came from Calgary.

Right now, a person putting a request in to the help desk has to complete 10 fields. That may not sound like many, but some of them involve complex categorization of the request. Yuck. Only geeks care about that stuff. As a result of these meetings, we’ve cut those fields down to as few as five. We’ll find out how useful folks find these changes when we make this new look active at the end of January.

So, here is the newsletter. Pick the medium that suits you best!

December 2009: A Liddle Good News (for reading on-screen)

December 2009: A Liddle Good News (for printing)