Another Missions Trip!

What a surprise just one week ago when Pastor D.H. O'Keefe, WD missions director, called to say there had been a cancellation on the "Pastors on Missions" trip and I was the next one on the list! He invited me to join them for a missions trip to Spain and Portugal leaving March 16th ... just eleven days away. I asked for the details and the costs for my wife to join me on the trip and then promised to get back with him the following day. We weren't really able to talk about it too much until my wife returned from a ladies prayer meeting late Monday evening. We discussed all the commitments we would have to cancel, find substitutes for, or rearrange in order to go. Never knowing when another opportunity like this might come we finally decided to make the decision to go and spend the rest of our days before the trip making arrangements for our absence.

Our church has been very supportive. They were thrilled that we were going together on this trip. The last three international trips I’ve taken with other preachers. My wife made one trip to Canada to speak at some ladies meetings without me. So this is our time to go together! I certainly prefer it that way. Because we have such good and dedicated people attending our church I have great confidence that everything will go well. I invited guest speakers to minister and my assistant, Jarrod Wilson, to take care of the teaching load. I think everything is organized and ready!

Dr. Daniel Segraves, president of Christian Life College, was also very supportive of us taking this missions trip. I discussed the opportunity and he assured me that we should go. With that approval, I set out to find substitutes for my classes and arrange tests and some cancellations for the week and a day that we will be missing from classes. I only had to cancel two classes; I’m sure my students will be disappointed!

There has been a strong missions emphasis at the college, this year in particular. Brian Henry and I made the trip to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India last October to minister in a conference in Anand. Just one month ago a team of eight students went to Hyderabad, India to minister in some of the village areas of that region. Following that a team of about 15 students went on a missions trip to Mexico. I feel that this exposure to various parts of the world gives enlargement to the vision of our students for an enhanced concept of world ministry. It also increases my frame of reference and passion for other people of the world. As a result our church is blessed by this exposure to the worldwide vision of the Gospel through our ministry. We are very thankful for another opportunity to participate in international missions ministry.