Strengths and Weaknesses

Okinawa CSM/CCM staff

At the beginning of a new year; making resolutions, plans to improve, to be a better person, to function well as a team is exactly what our Cadence team did at our first ever Cadence Student Ministry/ Cadence Children's Ministry, CSM/CCM, conference. (Sarah and I are the first CCM missionaries). It was a time of looking to the future, seeing where we want to go and asking the Lord if He would direct us there.  It was also a time for us to get to know each other better because over half of the Asia team arrived on the field 3-6 months ago,  To help us understand each other better we all completed a ProScan Trait Survey. It is like a personality test that identifies an individual’s four basic personality traits and a whole lot more; strengths and weaknesses, sources of motivation, energy level, current satisfaction level, and sources of stress.

Sarah and I were both hesitant about going away for a whole week to do a conference. Our thoughts were, “it’s the new year! We have so much to do! We have so much planning and so much work to do, so we shouldn't be going to a conference! We just got on the field!!”  It was a rookie outlook on what conferences can do for a team and for our own renewal. Needless to say, we followed the guidance and wisdom of the leaders set before us and made the journey to the first ever CSM/CCM conference.

During our free time one afternoon, a few of us
explored a waterfall.

We had our conference at Okuma, which is a resort on the Northern part of Okinawa that is for U.S. Military.  Our leadership brought in guest speakers, Darrell and Cheryl Hammond from Higher Ground Consulting, for the week to help us understand the ProScan test. They are experts on building teams and improving communication between people.  While we talked about a lot of information over the week, my big takeaways were the motivators and demotivators for the team (especially when it comes to Sarah).  The motivators are something that truly drive you to take action. We all took time to look at a list of motivators that were specific to our ProScan results and defined 4 of them.  After that we all shared with each other our motivators.  I shared that cooperation, friends, happiness, and outside activities were the things that get me to take action.  If I have one of those things in my life, I love to take action and get things done quicker!  Happiness is my number one motivator.  If I’m not happy, I’m not effective. Period.  Sarah’s motivators are stability, structure, time to adjust to change, and strong leadership.  Knowing these will help me motivate her to do her best!  We had a chance to talk to Darrell and Cheryl one on one about these different motivators. They told me to encourage Sarah to take time out of her day to reflect and have moments of peace.  This will help her feel less stressed and be more motivated to do things, not just in work but in life.  While most of her motivators are going to take time to establish, we have started working on them.  It was great insight for me as a husband to understand that these things are important to my wife!  It is making me a better husband and person! The demotivators also helped me better understand how and why Sarah communicates the way she does.  While the demotivators weren't unfamiliar to me, I just didn't have a name or description to put with them.  Putting a name to something always helps me better understand.  All of this information is also going to help me with my new teammates as we begin to work more together.  I’ll be able to know how I can be most effective when working with them or just hanging out. It was such blessing to go to the conference!  We came back refreshed, ready to hit the road hard!!

Our leadership team encouraged all of us to get to know 

each other better. Sarah and I did that by sharing 

meals with those on our team.

Sarah and I have come to a clearer realization that rest is important!  Whether you are in ministry or not, taking time to rest and reflect on life is important.  Cadence International is helping us realize this. This past conference, we learned a lot, on top of  getting refreshed! After making an international move and starting two overseas children’s ministries, it was needed and will continue to be needed!  Looking to the summer, we have our all staff conference. This is a conference for every missionary within Cadence to attend and it is hosted every 5 years.  While we still have a little bit of the “we just got here” bug; we are totally on board with being refresh and renewed by all the stories of ministry happening on U.S. military bases around the world. We will be sharing the details of our summer conference in the weeks to come, stay tuned!

Faith

Today was a great day at church!  We had the chance to show the kids to have faith no matter what! Our bottom line was, " When you hear what Jesus has done, it helps to have faith."  I was on stage for large group and was suppose to do a experiment with Bill Zood the science dude, but he was MIA! What was I going to do!!!  Luckily my co-leader came to my rescue and encouraged me to do the experiment!  She reminded me that I had read the instructions, had seen it done, and I had all the materials; it also helped that she had faith in me that I could do it!  This led into a bible story from Luke 7:18-22, while John the Baptist was in prison for a couple of months.  He began to lose faith and needed some encouragement,  so he asked his disciples to go and talk with Jesus about Jesus being the Messiah.  When the disciples got to Jesus, He told them to watch and listen.  After a little while of watching and listening, they had seen Jesus do amazing things and heard him speak!  Jesus told them to go back to John and tell what they had seen Jesus do and what they had heard.  This good news encouraged John but he had to rely on his friends and the stories of what they had heard Jesus say and what they had seen Him do.  At our church we also ask a great question each week, which is "SO WHAT??"  The "so what" for today was great!  We are much like John the Baptist, having to build our faith on the stories of what others heard Jesus say and what others had seen Him do.  We made a great parallel from what we talked about to the kids lives.   

We get to do awesome fun things like this and tell them truths of the Bible! I cannot wait for us to be able to do it with the kids of the military!!

Trust in the Lord.

"Dot your leader night" at AWANA.
Every time a child said a bible verse, they put a dot on us!

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 has not always been an easy verse for me to swallow. I tend to think my way is the best way; I like to be in control and I like to have a solid plan.. After all, I am so wise and full of infinite knowledge. The truth is that I don’t like to make mistakes, but who does? And no matter how hard I try, I will still end up making quite a few… I will let people down, I will say mean things, and I will make bad choices. If I did not make mistakes; if I was always put together and perfect, Christ coming to die for my sins would be pointless. Traveling across the world to share the Gospel with military children would be meaningless. And that is surely not the case. Because Jesus Christ did indeed die for me and everyone else for that matter, my life has purpose, Matthew’s life has purpose, we all have a purpose.

           

Matthew leading Large Group

There have been times on our journey of support raising where I wonder if our full support will come in and where it will all come from, if we will ever have the opportunity to minister to military children or if we will be “stuck” in Virginia for the remainder of our lives. When those thoughts begin to creep in, I am taken to the very words spoken by God, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). God did not promise to give Matthew and I an easy, happy-go-lucky road/life. God promised that His way will not harm us and that His way will cause us to depend on Him. It is in this dependence we will learn to trust Him fully. In this life, we will have smooth travels, ride on bumpy roads, get stuck in traffic and maybe even have a little road rage. But one thing is for sure, if we trust in the Lord, He will make our paths straight. And this path will one day lead to military ministry.

            As Matthew and I continue to rely on the Lord and watch as His plan unfolds, we will continue

serving in our church. On the Sundays Matthew and I don’t lead a small group, Matthew has been helping co-lead large group and I have started to learn more of the “ins and outs” in leading children’s ministry. We have had an amazing opportunity to connect with a church body that has encouraged us, strengthened us and taught us so much! It will be hard to say goodbye when we head to the field, but we know we will always have a home here in Virginia.
            Matthew and I have big hopes to have 100% of our support by the end of next month (January 2014). As of right now, Matthew and I have 14 people who are giving to us on a monthly basis, which is averaging 25% of our monthly goal. We would love to have 72 more people pledge $75/month or 54 people pledge $100/month. Join us as we pray for God to send more people our way! Maybe you are one of them!!

Kid's Quest Camp

About a week ago, Sarah and I went to Camp Kid's Quest with our Church!  There were about 27 counselors and 120 kids at camp.  A couple of days before camp, the Kids Quest staff held a meeting for the counselors that were going.  We learned each counselor was in charge of around 4 to 6 kids.  I was picked to have a special group of boys for the week; whose names are Kevin, JJ, Javier, and Diego.  I was introduced to Tim Gardiner, the one who invited these boys from his public school.  It was truly a God thing that they were able to come.  Tim told me that these boys had a rough childhood and they didn't attend church on a regular basis.  He told me about their different personalities.  I was getting more and more excited to meet these boys and share the love of Christ with them!  We prayed that the Lord would rock their worlds!

Large group time!

                The first day of camp arrived!  It was a busy day of figuring out what was going on and meeting our campers!  My boys arrived and you could tell that this week was going to be fun!  They were full of energy, ready to do things!  While they went and put their bags down, I introduced myself to Diego's family, they brought all four of my boys. The parents didn't speak much English, but I let them know that I was going to take care of her boys and that they didn't have to worry about a thing.   Later that day, after setting up our cabin and eating dinner, we went to "Club"!  The message, funny skits, and worshiping took place here.  It was interesting to see how the boys reacted to worship.  At first, they were very timid and shy, not wanting to stand up and sing with everyone or do any of the motions.  During the second song, I encouraged them to stand up and sing so they stood up and tried to learn the motions.  By the end of the week, they were jumping up and down singing all the words and doing all the motions!

               The theme of the week was on how God has had a plan from the very beginning.  The first night we talked about the magnificent garden and how sin entered the world.  After every club, we had small group time.  We each led our groups in a discussion about the club's message, how the kids were doing and what they thought.  My group talked about the relationship Adam and Eve had with God and that sin broke that relationship.  I was blown away by how fast these boys absorbed and understood the message. The following messages were about Abraham and Isaac, the Israelites being saved from slavery, and the lost tribes.  Each message emphasized that God keeps His promises and that He was the only way the world could be saved.  I could see that the Lord was working on the hearts of my boys by their answers to the small group discussion questions, especially Javier.

Me and my boys!

                On the last night, the message was about Jesus and how God's plan has come together to save the world from their sin.  It was a powerful presentation of the gospel and made my kids start thinking and asking really good questions.  They asked how to get into heaven giving me "what if" scenarios such as, "what if a man pushes a lady out of the way from getting hit by a train, would the man go to heaven?"  We went through about 10 different scenarios before it clicked that Jesus is the only way for to get into heaven. They understood that by admitting you are a sinner, believing in Jesus Christ, and choosing to receive Jesus meant that your relationship with God is restored and you have eternal life.  Javier was excited to share that he had done this and that Jesus Christ was his Savior! I was super excited for him; we celebrated by doing a dance!  Diego and JJ were still taken back that the people in the scenarios didn't go to heaven and started to become distracted.  Kevin became quiet as he started to think about it really hard.  Later that night, we had a bonfire where kids could share their experiences of being at camp.  At the end, the host gave an invitation to all the kids to accept Jesus into their hearts by saying a simple prayer.  with everyone's eyes still close he asked everyone to raise their hands if they prayed that prayer.  At this moment, I had to see if any of my boys did; so I peeked and saw Diego's and Kevin's hands were up! PRIASE THE LORD, I thought to myself!  What an exciting way to end camp!

Where are you from?

Sometimes in life the most simple of things are the toughest of things.  When growing up as a military child, you were always the new kid in school or neighborhood. As the new kid, you were always asked a bunch of questions; what’s your name, how old are you, what do you like to do, where are you from? In my opinion, “where are you from?” was the toughest question to answer for me as military child.  The question was loaded; a military child isn't from one place. Most move every two and a half years.  The question becomes another constant reminder that they are different from the other kids. 

How does one normally answer the question, “where are you from?”  When asking people, the normal response is “I’m from... a place they have known their entire life.”  For a military child, they don’t have the luxury of saying “I’m from…” They have many choices on how to answer: Do I tell them where I was born or do I tell them the last place I was or do I tell them I’m a military brat or do I tell them I’m not from anywhere?  For a child to have to figure this out as well as developing who they are can be tough.  It makes you feel disconnected, never having a definite place to call home.    

For me, being asked “where I was from” always turned into a more in-depth conversation.  I always liked to talk as a kid, so I would tell them that I was from nowhere.   This type of response always made people ask, “What do you mean nowhere?” and it made me laugh.  I would tell them that I moved every 2 ½ years because my dad was in military.  Most people would say “oh, that’s cool, where have you been?” I would tell them that I had lived in Oklahoma, Germany, Texas, Hawaii, Washington (state), Germany, New York, and Maryland. Most people would say “oo, that’s awesome! When I was a kid, I would agree by saying “yea, it’s pretty cool!” always wondering to myself what it would be like if I had the same friends, the same school, and the same house.  I was always curious about what it felt like to be in the same place your entire life. It was a foreign concept to me.  As I grew up, I asked people what that felt like, most didn't have an answer; they would shrug their shoulders and say I don’t know.  Others would say it felt normal because it was the only thing they had ever known.  After hearing that from a few different people, I came to the realization that moving around for me was normal; it was all I had known.  

Now that I am older, I began to wonder why God put me in the lifestyle of a military brat. I believe it is so I can show God’s love to as many people as possible.  He has given me a heart to love people. My hope is that I have done that and I can continue to do so.