Quick Trip To Texas

A couple weekends ago, just in time for a big storm and a cold spell to hit Montana, Josh and I flew to Texas.  The Center for Pioneer Church Planting (CPCP) was having their annual open house and we were so excited to attend!   

 

The day before we left.

Our trip south included waking up at 3:30 am, driving to the airport on icy roads in 9 degree weather, a four hour delay at Salt Lake, the discovery of a lost drivers licence in Houston, difficulty picking up our rental car because of said lost drivers licence (thank you Jill for mailing Josh's licence to us!), and then a six hour drive south to Los Fresnos where it was 75 degrees and humid at 11:30 at night, and finally our arrival at our destination at 1:15 am.  It was a long day full of twists and turns! 

On the plane (Felt like we were on our honeymoon!) 

We were blessed to stay at the Chachalaca property, which has recently been purchased and will most likely be the ministry headquarters and the CPCP campus in the future.  The Chachalaca Inn is wonderful and we were so blessed to be able to stay in such nice room for free!

 Where we stayed



  

 

    

 



The sessions for the open house were great.  There were thirty prospective students, supporters of the ministry, and some people who came just to encourage the missionaries they support.  It was insightful to see where To Every Tribe has been and where they are headed.  There was also a lot of information about what the school's aim is- namely to launch gospel centered, biblically qualified, vocationally trained, unreached peoples focused, missionaries who treasure Jesus.
      

 It was similar to drinking out of a fire hose! The school's focus on training in the classroom with professors and missionaries from all over the world is exciting.  To be trained by former missionaries that have countless years of practical experience and can help students avoid common pitfalls is great.  
 

The In-field training was great to review again.  The CPCP is not simulating cross-cultural, unreached missions and church planting.  They are actually doing the real work through the students!  There are four villages that CPCP has been working with in Tamaulipas Mexico, all within 70 miles of the US border and another 15 minutes from Los Fresnos.



The emphasis on team missions was also great.  I can not verify these statistics but we were told the  average missionary lasts 2.4 years.  And the number one reason they leave is due to conflict within their team.  We need teams to do this work but no matter how focused on a unified goal people are, people are people.  They are all different and this two year training helps teams learn how to work through these differences and still keep the main goal in front of them.

The greatest part of the open house was to talk with the current fist and second year students and look at how community life works.  How do the families interact? What kind of support is in place for the families while the students are in Mexico or Paupa New Guinea?  How can you live in a two bedroom apartment with five kids!  It was great to ask some of these students and families what life looks like on campus.

The apartments where we will live



We were able to make a quick trip to South Padre Island.  It was cool and windy but still a treat to go to the beach! 

 



We were glad it wasn't a blue flag: presence of venemous marine life!

 

It's amazing how God graciously gives us something that seems so hard looking ahead at it, but with His help we get through it and that very same event seems easy compared to the next storm in life. The best illustration for me (Josh) is kids. When Brita and I were first married and going to college we truly felt like we had no time. Ha! We were going here and there; school, work, youth group, tennis, fishing, and the mandatory Saturday sleep in were taking all our time. Then we had Dan and life was crazy! It was so good but we looked back at life before kids and couldn't believe all the time we had. Then when we had two kids and thought we were spoiled with two parents to one kid with just Dan. Now we had man-on-man defense and again, this stage was more challenging than the last. But with the challenge came the greater reward. We now have been rewarded with four awesome kids and can't imagine life without them! But if you asked me if I could handle four kids one month after Dan was born, I would have looked at you with my sleep deprived eyes and said emphatically no! 

So it has been with our life.  Selling our house and moving into a two bedroom apartment was hard, but as we look to living so close to so many people in a smaller apartment in Los Fresnos, away from family and friends, this first step seems easy in comparison.  And what was really exciting was that when we got home to our apartment in Bozeman, it felt like home.  I was glad to be there.  And the joy for taking these baby steps in faith have already deepened our relationship with each other, with our kids, and most importantly it has made our relationship with Christ sweeter!  We are so excited we get to do this!

In short, it was a great trip and we continue to ask for your prayers as we move forward with partnering with others to reach the nations with Jesus!