Pastor Daniel and the Word of the Lord

Last night a wonderful friend and brother came halfway around the world and spoke the Word of the Lord to all of us here in Rose Creek Village! 

Now this wasn’t just any old person …it was our beloved Pastor Daniel from Kerala, India. We love Daniel. He is such a man of God and a huge inspiration to us. Every time he has spoken to us it has been absolutely wonderful. Not that it’s always comforting words of encouragement. Sometimes it’s a kick in the pants. Sometimes it’s both. Last night was no exception.

The last time Daniel addressed us it was in keeping with what we felt our Father was already saying to us… we need to go out. That we need to take this incredible Life we live and bring it to others. We totally agree.

Now it wasn’t as if we hadn’t been trying. The last three or four years we have literally been all around the world laboring to see what we are supposed to do and how to do it.

Currently we are sponsoring five small orphanages in India and one large orphanage in Burma. We have traveled to both of those countries to teach and help  indigenous ministries located nearby while visiting the orphanages we sponsor.

We have established a church in Nakuru, Kenya and are being asked to bring what we’re doing to Uganda from two pastors in Uganda. One of those pastors named Wilberforce was in my house yesterday. We have traveled to Kenya extensively every year for the past 4 years or longer, visiting and building up our church family that is made up from the residents of the poorest part of Nakuru. Sometimes we are there up to four months out of the year spending our time living with and teaching the people in the church there. My wife and I with a team from the Village leave for Kenya June 15 for 3 months.

We have traveled to Mexico helping local missionaries Jason and Nichole Fitzpatrick, sending teams of young people for a two years. We are presently sending one of our biggest families to live there and help them long term. We have spent time in Liverpool, England to see if we should or could move there and gather people together. We have sent one of our brightest young men to train with Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint from the movie “The End of the Spear” to become a missionary pilot.

We have been to Providence, Rhode Island, Memphis Tennessee, Millington Tennessee, and taken a host of other smaller excursions across the United States. We currently have placed families in Sacramento, California, Memphis and soon to be in Millington Tennessee.

We provide a ministry  to the elderly people in our town and we are helping families build their houses in Jackson and Selmer Tennessee…for free. We run a coffeehouse with the best sandwiches anywhere and all for the purpose of sharing our Life with others. Throughout the week there is offered an open forum for people to talk about life and God, a story time for the people of our town, and live music night Saturday evenings.We have always sent our talented young people to dance, play music all over the United States that people might see and taste what the Lord has been doing with us.

I mention all those things simply to say that we really do want to go out and we have been proving it by our actions over the past few years.

But when Daniel spoke to us this time that is not what he meant.. What he did mean is that every single one of us should find our purpose for drawing breath and be about preparing and doing what we were created to do. Whether that happens to be in the Village or around the world.

Drawing from the story of Caleb in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Joshua, Daniel spoke of three things that bringing this Life to others would entail.

The first is to know your mission. Caleb knew what God had for him to do and desired to do it when no one else wanted to. Even forty five years later. You need to know what God has given you to do.

The second was to wait on God while preparing and keeping yourself focused on being completely for that purpose. Caleb was as strong at eighty five as he was forty years later. 

The third was to go with the blessings of your spiritual leaders. Caleb was under authority for he knew that all authority is from God. He would only move with the blessings of his spiritual leader.

What was utterly amazing to me and the other leaders here in Rose Creek is that was exactly what we have been struggling to communicate to the church here. No one had talked to Daniel about any of those things…with the exception of God. When Pastor Daniel spoke he even used some of the same expressions and illustrations we had used in talking to people earlier that week. We were greatly encouraged.

Everyone I’ve talked to loved what he brought. I had young people come up to me afterwards and tell me they were hesitant about coming but were so grateful they didn’t miss God.

I love the unity of God’s Spirit. It spans distance, time, culture, age and connects us to the most wonderful of people. That connection connects us to the mind of God who uses all who seek to have His mind.

Who is like our God?