Happy Easter! The traditional way of calling our attention to this is: He is risen! And the response is: He is risen indeed! It is good to know this. I am still pastoring a church and so this has been a very busy time of year for me. At about 3.00 yesterday afternoon I finished leading the final of six different worship services which began Thursday night with a Messianic Seder Supper, Friday night service of light and dark, Saturday Easter Vigil at 11 PM, Sunday Sunrise Service at 7 AM, our regular worship service and then our monthly service at a local assisted living facility. I’m exhaused, but blessed at the same time.

While all this has been happening, Audra and the kids have been going through the house and having a yard sale. Our goal is to get rid of at least 75% of our stuff–it’s amazing how quickly the most important things we’ve held on to for years suddenly becomes…what’s the word…oh, yeah…junk. It is a good thing that one persons junk is another person’s treasure. The weather didn’t cooperate a whole lot (we’ve been having record low temps here in Georgia), but they still did fine and made a lot of contacts.

Because we are cross cultural workers with The Mission Society we are not affiliated with any one denomination. We are Wesleyan in our theology, but are not United Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian or non-denominational or any other thing. We are a mulit-denominational sending agency. I like that becuase God is bigger than any one denomination. Not going with a single denomination has it’s difficulties, though, top among them is the reality that in order to go and work with the people of Peru, we need to raise 100% of our own support. That takes a lot of people who generously love God and want to spread the Kingdom of God to the corners of the earth. We have a lot of people praying for us and have had a number of people giving us financial support. We appreciate them all. We still have a long way to go, though. I haven’t looked at the numbers lately, but I think we are somewhere between 10 and 15% of the goal.

Let me be honest, this is a source of stress for me. I know God will provide and that faithful men and women and children (friend and stranger alike) will be there and we will get to Peru. I believe this. The waiting, though, is hard for me. It is not a part of my personality. Every week we have been sharing the vision God has for us with various groups, the response that night is positive, but the response of making a commitment to support us through the Mission Society has been slower. Please pray for us. We need your prayers and we value them.

On the desktop of my computer I have been alternating pictures we took on our recent trip to Huancayo. Every time I see them, my heart is drawn there to the place and to the people. As a family, we all feel an urgency to return and work for the kingdom. It will happen. The task ahead of us is pretty daunting, but all things are possible with God. After all, Jesus was in the tomb with a huge stone rolled across the entrance. Today that tomb is empty! He is risen. He is risen indeed!

Thanks be to God!