for the only cause that matters

Crisis of Hope

2009-06-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

********Cliffnotes available at page bottom***************************

1 Corinthians 13 is called by many the “Love Chapter,” and is quoted at many of the wedding that I have attended. As chapter 13 opens, it does speak of love’s many attributes. As the chapter progresses, it shifts a little and speaks of our limited earthly perspective. “We now see as through a glass darkly…” it continues, putting more truth to poetry. But the chapter ends with this phrase that has long intrigued me

“Now these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

It isn’t the last few words that have for so long, captured my attention. After all who could deny the greatest is love. What has captured my attention is the list. The list of three, faith, hope and love. What makes these three attributes stand above the rest? What is their significance to us as Christians. What is their relationship to each other?

The first is a no-brainer. Love is the greatest. The Bible says that God is love. Love binds together the body of Christ, or the church. In fact, so much ink in the Bible is dedicated to the topic of “love” that I never doubted that love would top such a list.

Undoubtedly faith also would have made my list, if I were to write a list of three. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. In reading the gospel accounts of the miracles of Jesus, we read over and over Jesus say the words “your faith has healed you.” It seems that faith is an essential ingredient in the miracles of God. Faith enabled Peter to walk on water. Jesus said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains. The book of James links faith with works or action. In fact, the author wrote that faith without works is dead. For faith to be real, it has to be linked to action. Faith is our shield. Of course faith belongs on the list.

But what then of hope? Why is hope included in the list of the big three? What am I not seeing here?

For the past decade, I have been alarmed at the increased hopelessness of my generation. Information barrages us constantly. There is global warming, the melting of the icecaps and other awaiting environmental catastrophes. There are millions of starving children in Africa. There are crazy dictators pursuing nuclear arms, and terrorists aiming at America. There are incurable diseases of AIDS and other “epidemics” who’s spread at any time threaten our global community. There are gangs, violence and drugs with all their sociological effects. There are daycare workers beating children, kidnappers, and killers. We are told that social security will be bankrupt by the time we are of age to use it, and I have heard people talking of what they’ll do when the next depression hits; when it all comes down to guns and bunkers. We have been told that Islam is growing and Christianity is slowing, at a time in world history when population is exploding. Amongst all of this “information” that we hear on a daily basis, where is the hope? Are we losing our hope? Have we entered a Crisis of Hope? And if so, what are the implications? What will be the effects? And why again, is hope on the list of the Big Three?

In pondering all of this a couple days ago, I began to once again think about many of the miracles that Christ preformed. Yes, it is true that according to Jesus their “faith had healed them.” It was because of their faith that Jesus COULD heal them that initially brought them to the Master’s side. But it was hope that Jesus WOULD heal them that motivated that faith to act. And maybe that is it. Maybe that is the relationship. Hope motivates faith to act… and when faith acts, miracles can happen. Think of it like this, we are all sailboats, and faith is what our sails are made of. Faith enables us to move. But hope, is the mast. It holds the sail. Just like a sail boat with a sail and no mast doesn’t move, so faith with no hope is worthless. In the same way, hope without faith, is like sailboat with a mast that has its sails put down… it will never move. No not until faith is hoisted on hope do things begin to happen.

The more I think about the analogy, the more I like it. I know, all analogies have short comings, but let’s explore this concept a little more. When storms begin on the oceans, the first thing a good sailor does is to drop the sails. If he doesn’t, he risks getting beat up by the wind and getting blown off course. And if the wind blows hard enough, it can actually break the mast. And without a mast, after the storm passes, the ship drifts at the mercy of the sea. Now think of how this could apply in our lives. Sometimes when the storms begin to rage in our lives we should drop our sails (not our hope). We don’t stop hoping, but dropping our sails prevents us from acting. With our hope secure and patience to wait to act until the storm passes we can get through many hardships. But when we act too quickly in the midst of hard times, we often find ourselves in more trouble. And sometimes when the winds blow hard enough, and the circumstances become difficult enough, we get caught in a cycle of acting and reacting and our hope can break. And with our hope broken, we loose our direction.

I think of the old navel battles that I read about in school. How the three-masted battleships would come up broadside one with another, and shoot their canons at each other. One of the goals being to destroy the opponent’s mast. Because every gunner knew that without a mast, the enemy’s ship would be paralyzed. Paralyzed: unable to run, unable to persue. I think of how this could apply to us. Though we sometimes forget it, the Bible tells us that we are engaged in a war. And I wonder if our enemy hasn’t intentionally aimed his weapons at destroying our hope. Because he knows that a Christian without hope is paralyzed. I look at the hopelessness that is being bred by some of the things that I wrote about a few paragraphs before, and I wonder if this hopelessness is resulting in apathy. All of which in turn, will render us completely ineffective as Christians.

As Christians, where is our hope? If hope is the ingredient that sustains our faith, and enables it to act… in what should we hope? Is our hope secure, or has it taken a beating in these turbulent times? Returning to the boat analogy, in a sense, a sailboat is built around the mast. The mast in turn holds the sail that propels the boat. The mast is at the heart of the ship, and as such, it has to be protected. In the same way, our hope is at the heart of who we are, and as such, it should also be protected.

As a culture, it seems that we are becoming more and more pessimistic. Is our pessimism as a society reducing our capacity to achieve? I think back in history of people who did incredible things. I think to the soldiers preparing to storm the beaches of Normandy. And I think how things could have been different had every soldier thought “oh well, Hitler has already won. What is the use?” How different history would have been written.

As Christians, the Bible is absolutely full of verses and stories that provide hope.

The word “hope” occurs 121 times in the King James translation of the Bible. And what is truly interesting is which authors used this word the most in their writings. Job, David, Jeremiah and Paul all found themselves often concentrating on the subject. These were all people who knew how to suffer and to suffering unjustly. The hope that many of these men had was independent of their surroundings. Their hope was secure. Hope would have been on their “list of three.”

So my question today is: To what do we secure our hope? Do we hope and believe with the same steadfastness as these men, the promises of God’s Word? Do we live with the hope of heaven? Do we hope and believe that one day God will set things right? How firm is our hope and belief that God will take care of us today? Or are we as a people; are we as a Church, slowly loosing our hope? And in doing so, slowly loosing our direction?

All this is not to say that the situation is hopeless or beyond remedy. The Word is absolutely full of hope. There exists a hope that will never fail. A hope that will not disappoint. A hope that will not leave us shaken. And that hope, according to 1 Tim. 1:1, is Christ Himself.

As far as prayer request, please continue to pray for our funding. Pray also for the OMS confrence that I'll be attending in the end of June. It will be the longest time I've been away from my family since Samara was born.

Thanks for being a part of the team,

for the only Cause that matters,

Micah and Marla, Samara and Noelle

ps. the first couple pictures are of Samara on a particularly warm spring day. The pictures of Noelle... well... I had a naked baby and a bear rug at my disposal, what would you have done?

********Cliffnotes: Crisis of Hope******************************************

In his writtings to the Corinthian church, Paul penned these words. Yet these three remain; faith, hope and love. Of the list faith and love get alot of press, but what of hope. What is it's role in the Christian's life, and what is its relationship to the other two attributes. In this e-mail I explored some ideas of just why hope was considered so important. The quest to successfully answer this question in my own head is not yet over, but through an analogy of a sailboat, I think I'm learning more of how faith and hope are so vitally linked to one another

Only In Alaska

2009-04-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

*************Cliffnotes available at page bottom****************

Having just recently entered our house again from clearing the drainage ditches that surround us, I’m reminded that there are many things that I have gotten to do recently that I have only get to do in Alaska.

I guess that feeling first hit me the first week after we had arrived. We spent the first few days after our arrival unpacking our things, moving in, and making this house that we are house sitting our home. Itching to get into the snow, and take advantage of this winter wonderland, we loaded up on the snow machines (that’s snowmobiles for anybody outside of Alaska) and headed up to the hills for some riding. It took us 15 miles of riding to arrive at our destination. It was a place where the snow was still deep, and the hills created a sort of skate park for our 600 pound machines. When we finally broke for lunch, and turned off our machines, the cell phones started ringing. Apparently the volcano Mt. Redoubt had blown and the ash cloud was heading our way. The fact it had blown was kind of a surprised to me. The mountain had actually blown a few days earlier, but the prevailing winds had taken the ash far away from us. I guess I just assumed that once a volcano blows, it’s done. Well I was wrong. (It’s blown something like 20 times since the time we first arrived). Apparently this was a big one, and the winds were bringing the ash right for us. As we looked to the direction of the volcano, all we could see was a massive blue and black cloud. In the discussion of what to do that followed, I learned that volcanic ash can destroy snow machines (snowmobiles). It’ll tear up the skis on the front, eat up the track that propels it, and if it gets into the engine, can wreak havoc on the motor. So the race was on. We had to get home before the ash started falling. From the hill the overlooked the landscape, I could see where we had to go, and it was right into the middle of where that dark blue cloud was just about headed. We pointed those machines and opened them up. Man we flew, and all I could think of was how cool this was. I mean, never in my life had I raced a cloud of volcanic ash on a snow machine. Only in Alaska. At one point I hit 70mph, just keeping up. We got home, covered the machines and about 3 minutes later, the ash started falling.

I’ve had that feeling others times here and there. Yesterday, for example, the day heated up to about 40 degrees. The snow started melting quickly, but the ground below it was still frozen. So the water started forming little rivers and streams looking to settle in low spots in the ground. Unfortunately the crawl space under our house just happens to be that low spot for the surrounding area. There was already about 8 inches of ice cold water sitting under our house when we first found it, and knew it’d be a lot more if we didn’t do something about it. Marla’s dad Tom went to a friends house to get a pump to take care of the water under the house, but we knew the pump would do little good if we couldn’t redirect the new water that was coming into the yard somewhere else lower. So with shovels in hand we began digging a network of water channels that cut through the snow. These channels soon became little rivers, and our house began to look as if it had a moat the width of a shovel that had been dug around it. As the afternoon wore on, and we were beginning to have success, I began thinking: never before had I dug a moat for the defense of my house. Only in Alaska.

Looking out our kitchen window this morning, I saw three bald eagles fighting over something to eat. The same few eagles we’ve been seeing for the past few days on the trees out side our house. We’ve had multiple moose (meece?) walk through our snow covered lawn. And on the drive home from town, we’ve enjoyed great views of the volcano venting a giant plume of smoke. In all of these times, the one thought that keeps coming to me: only in Alaska.

I know, most of these things are normal (except maybe for the volcano), and maybe I should have expected them, but hey! I didn’t grow up here. And though I married a local and even wear Carharts and Xtratufs, I am still very much a greenhorn.

Well it seems that spring has definitely sprung. The snow is melting, and the brown grass is starting to show through everywhere. It’ll be a completely different place in another couple weeks. Samara has been loving hanging out with her grandma and grandpa ‘laska while Marla and I have been busy trying to organize a trip to Texas that we’ll be taking in a couple of weeks. We’ll all be going down that way to fund raise, and we’d sure appreciate your prayers. We’ll be starting in Dallas, then driving to Houston, and then to San Antonio. We’ll then go participate in a mission’s conference in Waco before heading to Las Vegas, New Mexico. We’ll then drive back to Dallas, going through Amarillo. All and all, it’ll be just over 2000 miles in a car with a toddler and 2 month old. Please pray for: #1 God to bless this trip, and provide for our funding needs and #2. For the girls as they travel and sleep in many new beds in many new places.

Thank you for your continued partnership in ministry,
For the only cause that matters,
Micah and Marla

Ps. The first couple of pictures are of the ash cloud as it approached. Then there is a picture of Marla writing in the ash, followed by a picture of Noelle being held by grandpa ‘laska, and finally a shot of our little house.

**********Cliffnotes: Only in Alaska***************************
This was just a fun email about some of the differences in living in Alaska. Though my time here has been short, I’ve already got to do some things I’ve never done before. Things like race a volcanic ash cloud home on a snowmachine and dig a moat around my house for its protection. There have been wildlife sightings, and Samara is just loving her grandma and grandpa ‘laska.

Please pray for an upcoming trip to Texas. Pray that God would provide for our funding needs, and that they girls would travel well.

Feb. 26, 2009 - Pondered in Her Heart

2009-02-27T17:12:00.001-08:00

**************************Cliffnotes available at page bottom**********************************************

Concerning the birth of Jesus, the Gospel of Luke tells us that "Mary treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart." (Lk. 2:19). I've often wondered just what did she treasure. What details, as a mother, did she ponder... did she hold dear. So in the retelling of the birth of our second daughter I thought it only right to let Marla be the one to tell this story. So without any further words from me, I give you the birth of Noelle Nicole, as seen from her mother's eyes.

As all of you know I have been pregnant for the last 9 months. And yes, I'm pretty happy to be able to see my toes again. During the course of the pregnancy it was discovered that this was to be a "high risk" pregnancy. The problem began because my blood type is RH-, which would not have been a problem if Micah's blood type was also RH-. Because he has a positive blood type, Samara also had a positive blood type. Again, this is pretty common, and isn't usually a problem in the United States because here, women with RH- blood are given a shot called rogahm, which works to mask the RH factor. Because most of Samara's pregnancy and her birth was in Brazil, the doctors never gave me rogahm. And somewhere at the end Samara's pregnancy, possibly at birth, my blood became exposed to her + blood type, and my body began to produce antibodies to fight this "foreign invader." This wasn't much of a problem for Samara because she was so far developed, and it took my body a while to start producing these antibodies in large quantities. Then we became pregnant with Noelle. Early in this pregnancy my immune system recognized another "foreign intruder" and began working overtime to produce these antibodies. Fast forward to about 20 weeks into this pregnancy. During the first appointment here in the states my doctor during the routine blood tests finds these abnormally high levels of antibodies. Thus began the weekly trips to the perinatal clinic for ultrasounds and doctor visits, as well as our crash course in why all this matters and what could happen to our baby as a result. There were two possible things that could have happened to Noelle in utero. One being that her system would be overwhelmed by all these antibodies killing off her red blood cells and she would develop anemia, leading to possible blood transfusions in utero. The second, and the one that did happen, was that her little immune system would work in high gear and begin producing huge levels of red blood cells to compensate for the ones my antibodies were killing off.
Fast forward to last Saturday afternoon, my mom was flying in on standby from Alaska and after watching seven flights take off without her, finally caught one that landed her in Portland at PM. We came home and were excited to have few days to spend together before Noelle arrived. But God had other plans. Only twelve hours after my mom's arrival (about 4:30am), I awoke feeling contractions that were becoming more consistent and closer together. I timed them for about an hour and they were a steady 10 minutes apart. I woke up Micah and as he was finishing packing our things for the hospital, I also woke up my Mom and she said something along the lines of "you're kidding!" As we walked in the hospital (about 7:30) the nurses were changing shifts and we saw a friend from our church who I've gotten to know through a womens prayer group. So Jamie got to be my triage nurse. A bit later after I'd walked the halls having contractions and finally got admitted and into a room we found out that my doctor, Dr. Guinn, was the one on call that day! As the hours wore on my contractions got closer and closer together. Finally at 3pm Dr Guinn broke my water and things really progressed after that. It was the most intense and difficult thing I've ever done. Micah was an awesome "coach" as he breathed with me through every contraction and knew just exactly how to help me cope. It was also so special that my Mom got to be there, she would be massaging my back while I was breathing and getting through each contraction. I got to the point where I knew that I couldn't go on for many more hours without something to help with the pain so we decided to do a dose of Fentanol which took the edge off the pain for about 1/2 an hour. I think I had that two times. I don't know how much it really helped physically but I think that mentally I thought it was helping and that made me believe I could keep going. Labor seemed to go on forever...finally I was dilated fully and the Doctor said I could start pushing. This was great as it felt like we were really getting close. I'd pushed for about an hour when the doctor said she needed to use the forceps to help Noelle's head come out. So in went the forceps and with one more big push at 8:36 pm Noelle Nicole was born. Micah cut the cord and Dr. Guinn placed her directly on my chest where the nurses rubbed and wiped at her with a towel. It really was a fabulous moment to finally be holding this little girl we've been praying for and anticipating for so long. Micah's parents, brother Ben and Samara were able to come in and meet Noelle and it was so cute to see how excited Samara was to meet baby Noelle. And compared to our experience in Brazil this was SOOO much better. The nurses were super helpful, and we felt very supported and well taken care of.
Noelle spent that first night in our room where I was able to hold her and feed her and snuggle her. First thing the following morning they did a blood test and we found out that her bilirubin count was high at 9.4 and she needed to be admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). By Monday afternoon she was in the level 2 of the NICU (the higher the number...the higher the danger...3 is the max) under the blue lights that help break down the bilirubin in the skin so it could be passed from her body through her digestive system. It was really hard to not be able to hold her and snuggle her. We could only take her out about every three hours for 1/2 an hour to feed her. They began testing Noelle's blood every 6-12 hours to monitor her bilirubin levels more closely. On Tuesday morning I was discharged from the hospital, but the nurse got permission for us to "board" at the hospital while Noelle was in NICU. That meant that they found a room that wasn't being used across the hall from the NICU and we were able to stay in it. It had a bed, a tv and a bathroom. They let us use it with the understanding that as soon as it was needed for another patient we'd be kicked out. It was so wonderful to be able to be right there and see Noelle whenever we wanted to and to hold her little hands and to pray over her and to be able to nurse her. They tested her again Tuesday morning her count had risen to 10.4. By Wednesday morning it was at 16.4 and by that evening the it had level jumped again to 18.9. What the pediatrician couldn't figure out is that even after having received intense photo therapy for almost 36 hours, her bilirubin count continued to climb. It was at that point that the doctor transferred care to a neonatalogist who had been called in especially to care for Noelle. Our neonatalogist was named Dr Newman. Dr Newman was wonderful as she came into our room and explained everything in great detail. From what we remember, she said that Noelle's bilirubin levels were alarmingly high, even with the photo therapy because her problem was concentrated in the blood. She said that Noelle was born with the number of antibodies (from me) in her little system, but her little body had been attaining equilibrium in utero by producing a high number of red blood cells. The thing is, after she was born, she was no longer receiving more antibodies from me, but her body didn't know this for a while, so her immune system was continuing to crank out a high number of red blood cells. Those red blood cells filled her body and then would die. These cells were being produced and dying so fast, that her liver couldn't process them out as fast as they were dying. So they were building up in her system. As those blood cells died and burst open they released a substance called bilirubin that is yellow in color thus causing the jaundiced yellow skin color. High levels of bilirubin can have very serious and permanent effects of brain damage, deafness, seizures and even mental retardation. These begin to happen with levels near 25. Dr Newman was not wanting to get any closer to those numbers and said we needed to intervene right away. She said that Noelle's bilirubin count already warranted a blood transfer and had even ordered the blood from the blood bank before coming to talk to us. A blood exchange in a newborn is taking all of her blood out via a vein in her umbilical cord, while at the same time slowly injecting in somebody else's blood through an artery in her umbilical chord. St Vincent is a huge hospital with the largest NICU in the state. There are about 600 babies born there each month, and even so, this transfusion procedure is very rare. Dr. Newman said they only do "several a year." She said it takes about three hours for the blood to be ready and that in the meantime there was one other treatment (IV IG) they were going to try where they give Noelle a drug through an IV in her umbilical cord that helps to kind of coagulate the bilirubin so her little body can pass it out more efficiently. This was all very emotional for Micah and I, we knew there were so many risks and all we coud do was pray and trust that God was in control. At that point Noelle had already been transferred to the third and highest level of the NICU. As Dr. Newman handed us documents to sign authorizing such a procedure we began to realize how very serious Noelle's condition was or could become. I cried in Micah's arms multiple times and while we were so very thankful to be where Noelle had great care. It was so hard to watch her little body laying there knowing the fight that was going on inside of her. Needless to say we were all for Dr Newman doing whatever she needed to help Noelle.
Surprisingly, IV IG drug treatment helped. After the first treatment was given late Wednesday night (it takes several hours to administer the treatment), her levels had dropped to 17. Dr. Newman was pleased enough to call off the transfusion for the time being and to give Noelle one more dose of the IV IG the next morning. As it turned out, when the doctor tried to put in the IVs in Noelle's umbilical cord, it was already too dried up to access the veins and arteries there so they had to give her an the IV through the soft spot in her head. The second dose of the IV IG, going in again through that IV in her head, brought her bilirubin levels down and it did not look like Noelle would need the transfusion after all. PRAISE GOD!!
During all this time Micah and I were totally supported by so many of you, family and friends who were praying for us and for Noelle and even a few who came to visit. One thing that was so wonderful was that between the two Grammas, Samara was totally being taken care of. She was in her own home, with her toys and bed and normal routine. This made it so much easier on me, not having to worry about Samara. Yes, it broke my heart each time she came to visit and would cry when she had to say goodbye. However I knew without a doubt that she was totally fine, and that as soon as the elevator doors closed she'd stop crying and be having fun with her "maamaw and maamaw laska". And as for my mother, she said that she was in "Gramma heaven," finally getting so spend so much one on one time with Samara.
Thursday Noelle was monitored and her levels had continued to drop, and she was moved back to level 2 in the NICU. They had done the IV IG and now they removed on of the big lights from above her so see what would happen to her bilirubin levels. We could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Friday we were just waiting and watching to see what her levels would do and what the Dr would say. They were hovering around 9.5. We knew that she might have to be in the hospital for several more days, and we were so thankful and amazed that we'd been able to board in the hospital all this time. Saturday morning after we went in for her normal morning feeding, the nurses called to say the neonatalogist that was on call was there to talk to us. Dr Kemp told us that Noelle's levels were looking good and that he was going to release her to go home!!! We were totally surprised, in a good way, and so thankful. It took nearly 5 more hours to actually be released. The hospital code of "hurry up and wait." The one condition in bringing her home was that we had to get a Wallaby (portable bili-light blanket) to bring home with us and she had to have it on her 24 hours a day. So we had to wait for it to be delivered from somewhere in the depths of the hospital. There was the normal checklist of things to go over and finally at about 2pm a NICU nurse escorted us to the front doors and helped into the car. It was a great moment to drive away and have Noelle safely strapped into her car seat behind us.
We arrived home to grandparents armed with cameras to document Noelle's arrival. I think they were happy to see Micah and I too =0) It's been great to be home and sleep in our own bed and eat good food and have our little family together again. Samara is pretty enthralled with baby Noelle and loves to help with everything. She is a great big sister and transitioning really well to this new addition to the family.
We still have Noelle on the Wallaby and we have to take her every morning to the hospital for a blood test. The last two days she has been barely under 10 in her bilirubin count, so she is holding steady. We do not know how long this will go on, it could be days or it could be weeks. We are just taking one day at a time and are thankful for all or the support, emails, cards, gifts and prayers that all of you have sent our way. It's been an emotional week, but we've seen and experienced God's faithfulness in such personal ways this week. He's met every need and taken care of every detail. From my Mom arriving in time for the birth and being here to help with Samara, to my Doctor being the one on call, to catching the high levels of bilirubin so early, to a great neonatalogist, to being able to room in at the hospital the whole time, to Noelle eating well. Over and over we've seen God's hand in this situation and we praise Him for his goodness to us.
When I became pregnant with Noelle I spent a lot of time praying about this little one and who she would be and specifically what her name should be. I'd go on long walks and think and pray for both Samara and for this new little life growing inside of me. There was a word that the Lord pressed on my heart for Noelle when I was about 12 weeks pregnant. It was the word victory. I shared this with Micah and of course we got online and looked up all kinds of names that had the word victory or victorious in the meaning. But we just didn't really like any of them. I also had fear in my heart that if this baby's name had the meaning of victory that she would have difficult things in her life to be victorious over. I was afraid of what that might mean. So I just pushed the prompting from the Lord to the back of my mind and we looked at all kinds of other names for this baby. But nothing seemed right. five or six weeks later Micah and I were talking and he said he really liked the name Noelle but it means "day of birth" which didn't seem very cool at the time. Then after we found out about all the possible complications with this pregnancy we came back to the word victory as it seemed that God new what He was talking about after all in that being the word pressed on my heart. In our looking we came upon the name Nicole which means "victory for the people" and we liked the idea of combining the names Noelle and Nicole for the general meaning of "a victorious day of birth." Her birth was indeed wonderful in that she is now here and we can hold her and love on her and be delighted in her. While there were some scary and sketchy times in that first week we are thankful for the victorious day of her birth and we look forward to seeing how she will live out a life of victory as God continue to write His story through her life.
Thank you all for your prayers, and we'll do our best to keep you informed in the coming days. Our plan is still to head to Alaska as soon as Noelle can travel, but we're just not sure when that will be so we'll be in Oregon at least a few more weeks. We are not totally out of the woods yet, Noelle has been home for 4 days and her levels have been slowly going up from 9.5 on Sunday to 10.5 today. If she gets back up to 12 she will be re admitted to the NICU at St Vincents. So please keep praying for her and we will do our best to keep you informed. Please feel free to write or call or if you are in the area to stop by we'd love to hear from you all. Also please continue to pray for little Noelle's levels. They had gone down to 7.4, but have risen back to 10.5 since being home. If they go higher than 12, Noelle will be re-admitted to St. Vincentes.

in Him for Him,
Marla and Micah

ps. for those interested, we've posted a short video on youtube that shows the umbilical cord being cut, and Samara's first interactions with her sister. Just go to youtube, and search for "Noelle Nicole Routon"
*******************************************Cliff notes below******************************************************************** ***************

-I talk about my pregnancy with Noelle and explain the details of the complications of being RH- and not getting the rhogam shot while in Brazil. Noelle's little body is fighting the antibodies she received from me by very producing high levels of red blood cells. As these red blood cells die off they release bilirubin which causes jaundice in babies. Noelle's levels of bilirubin were very abnormally high and that is why she was in the NICU and monitored so closely. She thankfully did not have to have the blood transfusion, as her body responded to a drug that helped her pass the bilirubin through her system. We are home now and she is on a Wallaby (or bili-light) 24 hours a day and we take her in every morning for a blood test to check her bilirubin levels. The past three days she has hovered between 9.1 and 10. We are not sure how long we'll have to continue this, could be days or it could be weeks.
- The name Noelle Nicole means "victorious day of birth" and we are thankful that she is here and that she will be fine. We look forward to seeing how God will continue to write a story of victory in her life.
-You can continue to pray...we are not totally out of the woods yet. Noelle has been home for 4 days and her levels have been slowly going up from 9.5 on Sunday to 10.5 today. If she gets back up to 12 she will be re admitted to the NICU at St Vincent's and the doctor will reconsider the blood transfusion.

Jan. 7, 2009 - Micah's 95 Theses

2009-02-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

**************************Cliffnotes at post
bottom**************************************************

The Word of God is an amazing thing. Sometimes He uses His word to
encourage, sometimes he uses His word to guide and direct, and sometimes
He uses His word to chastise and discipline. But our response to His
word can also be an amazing thing. Sometimes we listen intently,
sometimes we don't understand, and sometimes we brush aside what we don't
like. It is to our own detriment if we don't clearly understand that
God's word is either 100% true it's not. It is much like the people who
say that Jesus Christ was a good man but not God Himself. The two
phrases are not coherent together. If you believe Jesus Christ was a
good man, how could you believe that He intentionally lied about who he
was to all of his believers when he told them that "the Father and I are
one?" No, no, no, if you believe that Jesus Christ was truly a good man,
you have to believe that his words were true, and that he was who he
claimed to be. Believing one, requires the other. In the same way, when
we believe that God took serious His words of warning or of discipline,
we will also believe that He took seriously His words of love and
encouragement. When we open the door to possible "clauses" or exceptions
to God's words of warning or discipline to us, we also consequently
weaken the power of His other words of comfort and grace. Either God's
word is 100% true, or it's not.

As you know, we've been back from Brazil for almost 4 months now. Our
transition back to American culture hasn't been without it's share of
bumps and bruises. And, it was often funny what things stuck out to us
as strange from this place we call home. Things like how quiet the city
streets are, and how awkward it feels to eat a whole meal with only a
fork. There were other things that were more serious as well, some of
which I have hesitated to share. Impressions and observations of aspects
of a culture which used to define my identity, now drive me crazy or make
me sad. Aspects of American Christianity, or perhaps only Northwest
Christianity, or perhaps Portland, Oregon-ish Christianity, or perhaps it
is only the typical "Christian" mentality that I have encountered in
various people I have met since being back. I have not written about
such things because I do not want to paint "the American Church" with
broad sweeping generalizations, and I do not want to pretend I am an
expert on something I am not. But more than that, I have not wanted to
share any negative impressions that I may have out of a growing respect
for the Church (big "C" here). It was not always so with me.

As one who had been wounded by churches in the past, I used to think it
my duty to speak out against them. But then a few years ago, I came to a
realization that changed all of this. The Bible calls the Church the
bride of Christ. And regardless of her current outward appearance, I
still believe that she is the future wife of Christ. And, I also know
that most fiancées don't take kindly to people talking smack about their
future wives. So right then and there, I decided that I had better keep
my mouth closed on the subject. But then last night, in the midst of a
restless night, I felt lead to share some of these impressions. Please
keep in mind that these impressions are not related to all believers or
even all churches....So here goes...

Put quite bluntly, I can't believe the extent that a worldly mind set has
entered the Church. Perhaps because we have historically been a
Christian nation, we as a nation have slowly been lulled to accept that
here in America, the world and the church aren't really two different
things. But they are. It seems increasingly harder and harder for
average Joe Christian to differentiate between biblical principles and
American values. "The pursuit of happiness," though guaranteed by our
constitution, is not a right defined by the Bible for every believer. In
contrast, Paul writes that "all that live godly in Christ Jesus will
suffer." "Liberty and justice for all" is also a great American concept
which is not in the Bible. Though God does promise his eventual justice,
when Jesus spoke of a foreign government forcing people to do something
(Matt 5:41) and walk one mile, he instructed his followers to walk two.
Something about that just feels wrong, but it's what the Bible says. "The
dignity of every man" and the "inherit goodness of each person" is a
concept that goes against what the Bible says in Psalms that "there is
none that do good, not one." And again in Romans 3:23 when Paul writes
for "all have sinned, and fallen short of the Glory of God."

So what do we do when such contrasts become apparent between cultural
values and biblical principles? To which side are we drawn? To which
side do we commit ourselves? The bigger question that lies at the heart
of all of these questions, connecting them together: whom do we fear
more; man or God? A generation or two ago pastors and evangelists
preached of fire and brimstone. They spoke of coming judgement and
seemingly scared a lot of people into becoming Christians. Now it seems
that the pendulum has swung the other way. Grace, mercy and love is the
message that now seem to iminate from preaching pulpits and bumper
stickers. The media has also picked up on this, and when it does portray
God, it is usually portrays some nice guy dressed in white clothes
talking to Joe blow off of the street. And I love this accurate
depiction of Him: caring, good humored, never in a hurry and
approachable. But what do we do with those who in the Bible approached
God and died on the spot because they were not ready, or they were
unclean? As much as my heart wants to jump in Jesus's arms when I get to
heaven, I can't find a Biblical example of this happening. In most
heavenly depictions of people with God, they start either on their knees
or on their faces, not in His arms or talking causally. Hum? Through
songs, books or other media, popular Christianity today seems stuck like
a record on the grace and love song. Don't get me wrong, the grace of
God is profound and beyond comprehension, and I am so thankful and
unworthy of it. I don't want to take anything away from the love
relationship that God has with His people. The problem is that God is
full of grace and love while remaining righteous and holy. Our minds
can't quiet get around it. With Him, it is not one or the other. He is
both at the same time. One not diminishing the other, but enhancing the
other. Our minds can't quite grasp it so we naturally tend to gravitate
towards one extreme or the other. The "fire and brimstone" sermons of
two generations ago would seem quite out of place in most church
sanctuaries of today, yet there they belong. These sermons of yester
year describe God just as accurately as the intimate songs of worship
that we sing today. However, we don't hear these sermons anymore. We
choose to focus on the other "more appealing" aspects of God. And in
doing so, bit by bit, we lose our fear of the Most Holy. So, when it
comes to making those daily decisions, the fear that dominates us more
than the fear of God, is the fear of man. The result is that our
actions are motivated more to satisfy, please and impress our neighbors,
our friends, or our families than God. "God is good, all the time" is
what is said in our churches, but the other side of this way of thinking
is "so I'll just ask His forgiveness after I sin." Our fear of God is
faltering. When was the last time you heard your pastor stand up and say
"be ye perfect," as the crowd responds back "as I am perfect." Our fear
of God is faltering, and our behavior reflects it. The Bible calls the
fear of God the beginning of wisdom. So, in an age when knowledge
abounds, it would seem that with the fear of God true wisdom is
disappearing. And, our families, our churches and our nation are
beginning to reflect this.

In our effort to please people, it seems that too often our modern
churches try to morph biblically solid doctrine into what they perceive
people want hear. In an effort to attract more people, modern American
Christianity can easily be seen imitating the world. If something is hot
in the secular world, it seems only a matter of time before the
evangelical world will have their version of it. If you don't believe me
just go into a store that commercializes Christian faith. From Christian
boy bands to Christian video games, one doesn't have to look far in the
evangelical world to see the truth in this "chasing after" mentality.

We follow the crowds hoping that they'll come to our churches, believing
in our hearts that our churches being full will validate God's approval
of what we are doing in His name. Yet, this mentality that is so evident
in the church of today, seems to ignore the fact that Jesus said in Matt.
7:14 "narrow is the way which leads to life and few find it." We somehow
believe that these statements were not made for us or for our churches.
We desperately hope that Jesus was talking about other countries, other
churches, other people or other times., but not for us... not for today.

So we try to be selective on what we preach, selective on what we teach,
selective on what we say We use words that are politically correct so as
to not offend people and risk them not coming back to our congregations.
We accept them as they are, as Christ did, but then we water down His
truth so they are not changed. And when His truth has been watered
down... we ourselves are not forced to change. We are not forced to
choose between our old life where we had "freedom" to sin, and our new
life where we are called to be "slaves" to Christ. And without this
"coming of age" experience (putting off our old selves and putting on
Christ), though we may well know the binding slavery that is inherent
when we act "free to sin", we will never experience how being slaves of
Christ and dying to self actually ushers in life in abundance. We miss
out.

In our chasing after, in our watering down of God's word, we are salt
that is loosing it's saltiness. We become, as Jesus Himself said, good
for nothing. I realize these are harsh words, but sometimes we forget
that in the Gospels Jesus often taught with harsh words. Why did Jesus
make more references to hell than he did to heaven during His earthly
ministry? Why did Jesus not refrain from using fear to motivate?
Because He knew that fear can be a great motivator. Even writing that
last sentence seemed a little sacrilegious to my flesh. Scare people to
living correctly? Is that right? God is so good, and a Holy life has so
many benefits of it's own, so why not attract people to that goodness.
Because we as humans have a tendency to be lazy, and react only to that
which we see as most pressing. Think about it. We all know we SHOULD
eat a balanced diet and get exercise, but by and large, it is not until
we hear from the doctor that we are inches away from a heart attack that
we REALLY begin to change our behavior. Human nature tends to react most
to that which is screaming for attention; and fear screams for attention.
This is understood outside of the spiritual realm. Advertisers
capitalize on this concept to sell their products. And in fact there is
a level of fear that is healthy. Fear of getting hurt keeps us from
touching hot stoves, or jumping the fence at the zoo to go and pet the
pretty lions. We believe in having fire codes, immunizations, and
insurance policies because of the fear that things could go wrong. And,
indeed, it would be most unwise to opt out of these things because things
do, in fact, go wrong. So why does it feel so sacrilegious these days to
talk about fear and God? Have we embraced too readily our interpretation
of the "there is no fear in love" verse, and discarded all the verses
that talk of the benefits of fearing God. Has our generation built it's
theology so firmly around "God is love" that we have no room for "God is
just?" Do we intellectually plug our ears to God's warnings by
explaining away why His unsavory words don't apply to us? Look at our
churches, and look what is becoming normal. Our lines are becoming
grayed, because we fear what others may think or say about us more than
we fear God.

The result is that we live in confusion, neither hot or cold. It makes
me sad. Please don't misinterpret what I am saying. I'm not saying we
should be brutal with the truth, beating people with "what the bible
says." This e-mail is not written for nonbelievers. This e-mail is
written for us who believe in Jesus, and is focused on how we deal with
God's word, AND His holiness. What our attitude is when we are corrected
or chastised? Education is a choice. Two different people may face
identical situations, one may choose to learn from it, and the other may
not. Do we allow ourselves to be taught? When God's Word says something
that we don't want to agree with, what is our attitude? Do we have to be
right at all costs? Do we realize that God is God and we are not? Do we
demand that He prove something to us. As my pastor used to say "do we
judge the scriptures or do we let the scriptures judge us?" It's a
reaction or attitude that boils down to a simple matter of fear. And,
our lives will, for eternity, reflect the answer to this simple question:
'whom do we fear most?'

in Him, for Him
Micah and Marla

ps. The attatched pictures are some pictures we took of Marla's
pregancy. Thank you for your prayers for this pregnancy, so the weekly
untrasounds haven't shown any anemia. 10 weeks to go!

**********************Cliffnotes: Micah's 95
Theses**************************************************
In this e-mail I fel led to share some impressions that I have had about
American Christianity since returning from Brazil. I think that what
lies at the root of many of the problems that we expirience in today's
American Church is that we, as a people have lost our fear of God. For a
generation or so, we have been focusing so much on God's attributes of
love and mercy, we have largely ignored His holiness and justice. And the
results of this mentality are staggering.
*************************************************************************
**********************

Dec. 1, 2008 - Walking in the Dark

2009-02-27T17:08:00.001-08:00

*****No Cliffnotes: Micah writting about walking by faith, even when it doesn't make sense******

It's been a real answer to many prayers that Marla and I have been able to remain in God's peace these past couple of months, and for those prayers we thank all of you. It's not that times have been particularly hard for us, there are just a lot of unknowns in front of us. We are facing a lot of things that we cannot control, and the way things play out will greatly effect our lives. Not our lives "down the road sometime," theoretically, but immediately. We know this peace that engulfs us is an answer to prayer from God and not just willfully pushing out of our consciousness the questions that we don't have answers for. Because each time someone asks us "so what's next for you guys?" we are faced once again with the uncertainty of these days; we are faced once again with these questions that don't yet have answers, and we are not scared. We are not anxious. We know how we would like things to go, we have our ideas, our goals. Things like:
We will be funded by June of 2009, we will be returning to Brazil in July of 2009, we will work at starting a new church when we arrive, we will be successful. Other things like Noel will be born without problems in February here in Portland, she will be ready to travel by March and we will live in Alaska from March to June. For each one of these plans that I have just mentioned, there are about 1 million "what ifs" that could lead us in different directions. What if Noel isn't born healthy? What if she has a sever complication? What if she'll never be able to live in a place without the most modern medical facilities? What if Noel is not granted her Brazilian visa? What if we can't get back into the Brazil? What if we can't raise the support we need because of the economic situation? There is literally no end to such questions, and no limit to how many times they can run through our heads if we would but agree to entertain them. But God's Word is good, and He has confirmed so many times to me lately just to continue to trust our future to Him.

The first time was when I started to worry, God brought to mind in the 14th chapter of John. In the text, Jesus had just predicted his own death and the desertion of all of the disciples, and then He encourages them with these words: "Do not LET your hearts be troubled, trust in God. Trust also in me." The words "DO NOT LET," in particular stood out to me. This is not a passive verb, but an active verb. It would seem, from the text, that our hearts natural tendency is to be troubled. We are to actively "not let" it be so. And all of this is done, according to the text, by trust. Trusting God, and trusting Christ.

A few weeks ago in my morning devotions, God spoke to me again as I was reading through the book of Isaiah in my Portuguese Bible. In verse 16 of chapter 28, my version reads "Quem tem fé, não tem medo." Which translated means: "Who has faith, does not have fear." So it would seem from this verse, that the degree of peace that we have in our lives corresponds to the degree that we believe that Romans 8:28 "that all things work together for good to them that love God."

Then, more recently, reading on in Isaiah again I came across a very interesting verse that I had never seen before (or at least had never stuck out to me before in the whole area of faith for the future) And this verse was the doozie. Isaiah 50:10-11 reads: "Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow."

As I read this verse, I noticed two groups of people who were in the same situation. Both groups were in the dark, and both groups were walking. It might even be argued that both groups were in the dark BECAUSE they had obeyed the voice of God's servant. But the first continued walk even though he couldn't see, because he trusted God. And the others tried to "keep walking" on their own terms. They had to understand the darkness, they had to "see" what they were passing though, they had to know what lay ahead before they could take another step. Of the two groups, the second group was more informed, they were better prepared, and yet it was they who ended in sorrow. It would seem that both groups were doing the will of God (obeying the voice of God's servant and walking) but the second group did it on their own terms. And in the end, they ended in sorrow. There are all kinds of Biblical examples of this. Abraham jumps to mind. He was a guy who trusted God for most of his life with huge decisions. He walked in the dark without a light for so long. But when he tried to light his own torch (to make God's promise of a son happen on his terms), he ended up sorry for that decision. Moses also comes to mind. He was a man that saw the oppression of his people, and as a prince of Egypt tried to do something about it on his own terms in his own timing, only to be expelled to 40 years of tending sheep before God was ready to use him. These were men of faith. These were people God greatly used. They were called by God and responded to his voice. But what did they do when they entered the darkness (perhaps for the thousandth time)? Did they continue to walk in their calling even though they didn't have the answers? Or, when it became dark, or they became tired of the darkness did they "take inventory of the situation" first, and do what was prudent? Did they do what made sense? And then I remember that often history judges men far different than how God judges men.

So as these days grow dark economically, perhaps politically. As those of us trying to follow God hear of wars, and rumors of wars, what is our response? Do we make a plan, do we make our own provisions, or do we keep walking though we don't know what is around the corner, trusting God to sustain us. One choice make sense to the world, and one does not. So Marla and I choose to walk on in darkness, encouraged by the power of your prayers and encouraged by comfort of God's word. Not because we can see the future, but because we can remember God's faithfulness to us in the past. And because we trust in His goodness.

Thank you for your prayers,
in Him, for Him,
Micah and Marla

Oct. 18, 200? - Gone with the Wind

2009-02-27T17:05:00.000-08:00

********************************Cliff Notes at Page
Bottom*******************************************************************
*******

I guess it probably hits everyone. Those grey days of discouragement.
The days that you ignor the big questions, the hard questions, for fear
that they have no positive answers. The days that you feel
underappriciated and over worked. The days when you question if it is
really worth it. If there isn't an easier way, an excape. For me, these
days had been brewing for a couple of weeks. I think it was the
combination of a few projects that didn't turn out as I had expected
they'd turn out, and people who didn't act (or react) as I had been
expecting. There had been so few pats on the backs or encouraging words.
What was worse, when those words of recognition were being given to all
of my peers, somehow my name was not even mentioned. As weather had
turned dramatically colder, bringing with it rain and a sickness that had
attacked the three of us. I guess the combined effects of all of this
left my resistance down. My physical resistance as well as my emotional
resistance. And I found my self complaining. First to Marla, and then
to God.

"Lord, there has got to be an easier way to live. Living far from our
family, and the things that we like to do. The falling value of the
dollar, the rising costs of living here, the slowing economy in the
States, how can we raise the support need to return? Is there really any
value in us being here anyway? What does the future hold?"

The following morning as I continued reading through the book of Nehemiah
chapter 6 really spoke to me. Nehemiah who was following the will of
God. He was teaching the people of Isreal to truely become the people of
God. And yet in the middle of all of his good work, there were three
powerfull guys who opposed that which he was doing. In verse 13 he
writes: "He had been hired to scare me so that I would commit a sin."
And I began to think of the cases when big descicion are made in the
middle of a storm, and how often those descision lead us down the wrong
path, and lead us contrary to the will of God.

In my questioning and complaining I hadn't question if we were where God
wanted us to be. I hadn't question if we were doing what God has wanted
us to be doing. He has confirmed this in so many ways, for so long now.
But I questioned His reasons, I questioned His results (at least those we
can see after only 2 years here). I questioned his purpose, and I began
to doubt His resourses and His provision. Somehow thinking that if God
would answer these questions, I would be satisfied. Thinking that those
answers would provide the energy, the fuel, I needed to keep going. This
one-sided conversation I was having with God ended in the middle of the
night when He responded with the same words that Jesus spoke in John 4:34
"My food is to do the will of the One that sent me, and completing His
work." Through these verses it becomes clear that Jesus's energy, that
Jesus's fuel was found in the knowledge, in the conviction, that He was
where God wanted Him to be.

Is this knowledge, the knowing I am doing what God has for me to do,
enough to sustain me? Enough to give me strenght, enough to give me
force? In humility, I once again realized how far I have to go in my
growing into the like-ness of Christ. If I am to be like Christ, that
knowledge, that conviction, alone has to be enough to sustain me. It has
to be enough to uphold me. It has to be at the root of my strenght.
When discouragement come like a storm, it is this conviction that should
anchor me. Just as storms pass, discouragement will not last forever.
And when it passes, when the wind stops, I want us to still want to be
found in the middle of His plans for us.

And now a little bit from Marla...

Climbing onto a chair so I could reach the back of the tall
cupboard above the
bed in our little guest room, I found our long unused and almost
forgotten bag of socks, sweaters and jackets. Winter arrived this month
in Londrina, brazil and we are just absolutely freezing to death at 60
degrees. We’ve really begun to wonder how in the world we are going to
survive even summer time in Alaska! Bring on the wool socks and long
johns.

While we were hoping to be putting on those wool socks some time
soon we are still waiting for my permanent visa to be granted. The
government internet site where you are supposed to be able to check the
process has been down for several months. This means that each time we
want to check the process we go to the federal police here in Londrina
and have them access it for us. Last time they reported that it was
approved by the first desk and onto waiting for approval from desk number
two. The good news is that there are only two desks! So we continue to
wait and to trust God that He has a plan and that His timing in all of
this is perfect. Our plan is basically to get plane tickets to the
states as soon as my visa has been granted. We are looking forward to a
fundraising trip lasting somewhere between six months and a year. With
the falling value of the dollar and the addition of Samara to the family
our support account is getting closer and closer to the red each month,
and is urgently needing more funds. We’d love to be making some concrete
plans, you know setting up speaking at churches and visiting many of you,
but as of now we have no idea of any dates. So we continue to wait and
trust and pray that we are faithful to BE where God has us. We sure
appreciate your prayers that God would raise up financial supporters and
also in asking that my visa be granted SOON. I know that our parents
appreciate those prayers as well as they just can hardly wait to get
their arms around Samara.

Samara is 13 months old now, and we are astounded at how fast the
time has gone by. She is a very fun and busy little girl who loves music
and to be outdoors. Her first two words are both in Portuguese (other
than Mommy/Mãe) She says “ow wow” for dog and “bala” for ball. She loves
to go for walks and see the dogs on the street and she is a big fan of
watching her Daddy play soccer too. These days she is really into
playing with refrigerator magnets moving them between the fridge and
another metal cabinet in the kitchen, back and forth, back and forth.
She also has discovered the fun of “dressing up.” She’ll come out of her
room with a pair of pants on her head and carrying one of my shoes that
she wants to put on. Just pinning a dish towel around her shoulders will
entertain her for minutes on end. One of my favorite new things is to
pull a chair up to the counter and have Samara “help” me in the kitchen.
She is quite a little assistant we have lots of fun “working” together.
She truly is a delight and a joy. We are so blessed and thank God for
every day that we get to be her parents.

May 1st was a holiday here and our church and mother church had an
evangelistic retreat for the day at Camp Shalom. The idea of the retreat
was for the church members to invite friends, relatives, co-workers,
neighbors…who do not know Jesus. The morning was spent in a time of
worship, a short message and then small discussion groups, and ended with
worship and an invitation to accept Jesus as your personal savior..
Micah had invited the guys from the neighborhood that he plays soccer
with and six of them came. One of them accepted Christ at this retreat!
I spent the morning time with the 56 kids under age eleven that were
there. We sang songs, told the salvation message using a watermelon as
an example of our lives (black seeds=sin, red pulp=our heart…) Next we
divided the kids by age group and made salvation bracelets. Then it was
time for outdoor games like “red light- green light” and “sharks and
minnows” I was leading the group of four to six year olds and it was so
cute to watch them later as they met up with their parents for lunch to
see them explaining the significance of each color in their new bracelet.
We all had our picnic lunches and then the afternoon was free to hang
out, swim and play soccer. Micah is super excited that these “soccer
guys” are starting to respond to Jesus and asks for wisdom as he spends
time with them both on and off the soccer court.

Something that we hear again and again here is the difficulty that
parents are having raising their kids. They just have no idea what to do,
how to discipline, what types of consequences are appropriate etc. Micah
has been teaching a class on The Family and many people who signed up
were looking for help with parenting, but the class is more about how to
have a healthy marriage. So I was asked to teach a parenting workshop.
Yeah, me with my whole 1 year of experience!! So I went to some experts
for some help… I have a Love and Logic book that I’d let my friend Linda
borrow and she was so excited about the concepts and how much they were
helping with her son that she was just going on and on and on. So, a few
Saturday’s ago I gave a “Love and Logic” workshop for parents or anyone
who was interested. About 25 people came and I did my best to condense
the principles and strategies into about an hour and a half. The goal was
for people to go home that evening with tools in their parenting bag to
help them immediately, practical things that they could implement. Many
of the people who were at the workshop have expressed how great they
thought the material was and how it has helped them to start thinking in
a different way, to not loose control and to have hope again that
parenting can be fun. So yeah, for Love and Logic!

As I said Micah has been teaching a class on The Family that has been
both challenging and fun for him. He is discovering that teaching is lots
of hard work and prep, but also very rewarding. About a month ago Micah
went to a week long training where he learned how to start evangelistic
Bible studies in homes. So now he and Diogo are teaching some leaders
from our church as well as our mother church these concepts and
strategies with the hope of beginning some of these Bible studies for
non-believers in our neighborhoods.

As always we are ever thankful for your faithful prayers and support. We
know that God is using each one of you in a specific and special way in
the work He is doing here in Brazil. Knowing that you are praying really
encourages our hearts and at times helps us keep our heads above water.
And other times we are bursting with joy because we know that your
prayers are helping to open doors for people to know Jesus and that is SO
AWESOME. So thank you for letting God use you to not only bless us but
to be a part of bringing Brazilians into His kingdom. You are appreciated
and we also love to know how we can pray for you so please email us with
what is up in your lives, families, jobs, hearts and ministries. We pray
that God shows you today just how much He delights in you and also we
pray that we’ll be sharing lunch or a cup of coffee with you in person
sometime soon, and yes those will be long johns you see peeking out from
under our jeans.

If you are interested we have posted some videos of Samara on YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/routon27

********************************Cliff
Notes********************************************************************

-Micah started the email complaining to God. "why are things hard?"
"Isn't there an easier way?" Then in the middle of the night God reminded
Micah of the scripture where Jesus says "My food is to do the will of Him
who sent me." (I guess that's what is called Christain perspective)
-Still waiting for Marla's permanant visa before we can make plans for a
much needed fundraising trip to the States
-May 1st was an evangelistic retreat where one of Micah's "soccer guys"
accepted Christ.
-Samara is wonderful and fun and a total delight
-Marla taught a "Love and Logic" workshop for parents that went well and
seems to be having some positive results
-Micah is helping train leaders to begin a new evangelistic Bible study
ministry
-We are SO thankful for YOU

Aug. 8, 2008 - 150% Person

2009-02-27T17:04:00.001-08:00

*************************************Cliffnotes Available at page bottom********************************************

So what is a 150% person? It's really no mystery if you've been to OMS's new missionary training in the last 5 years. It's a term that was created to capture the idea of becoming part of another culture. Not just a spectator, but a participant. You have to voluntarily let go of some of your own cultural identity, in order to embrace and personify the new culture in which you are a foreigner And as you do so, little by little you become less a foreigner You become more trusted, you become relatable, you become more intimate with those whom you came to serve. It is no easy process to choose to let slip away parts of your own cultural identity, in order to assimilate another. But when all is said and done, is there another way? Missionaries have been doing this for generations. The apostle Paul said it best when he said in 1 Corinthians 9:22 "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some of them." You've seen old faded pictures of these types of missionaries. He was the tall white guy in the black-and-white picture dressed like the Japanese that surrounded him. Perhaps you even remember them passing through your church. The mission Sundays when he'd come with his slide reels. The lights would dim, and the stories would begin. Stories of the lives of these strange faces that seemed to look back at you from the screen. Strange faces, strange names, strange customs. At least, strange to us....but not to him. He knew them all. And though he was here with us that day, much of his heart was still in another country . Sure he was dressed like us, and he looked like us, but he was a man divided, you could tell just by looking. Belonging fully neither here or there. A man without a home. And this is the price of becoming a 150% person.

Ironically, this was particularly the price that I did not want to pay when I started in missions over 8 years ago. I guess that is at least part of the reason why short-term missions was so appealing to me initially. I thought I could zip in, see a culture, experience different things, and zip out. Gain an experience, but not have to change, not have to pay that price; not have to loose a piece of who I was, not have become that man divided. Then, I lived in a different culture where I saw the necessity of becoming a 150% person. I figured I could adapt, I could change....but this change would only have to be a temporary change. Like the 007 in the movies, I figured that when I boarded the international flight that would bring me back to the US, I could turn it off, I could come back whole. I would not have to leave a part of my heart in a different land. But as the reality of leaving Brazil for a while, and Londrina for good, came upon us a little over 2 weeks ago, I have found that I'm having a much harder time packing, a much harder time leaving than I had hoped. And through this time of packing, this division is only becoming more and more apparent.

It is the anticipation and experience of sadness and excitement at the same time. Excitement to get to the US, to see friends and family, the eat a good burger, to watch Samara play with her grandparents, to watch a sunset on the Oregon coast. And yet the sadness of saying goodbye. The friends God has blessed us with here, the memories of so many first with Samara, the church we have invested in so much. It's the excitement of being home for Christmas surrounded by family combined the sadness of knowing to do such, we'll miss the wedding of a good friend, and the births of two of our friends babies. It's the phone calls from our parents preparing their house for their grandchild, and the meals with good friends passed in awkward silence because everybody knows that we'll not be able to hang out again. Then there are also so many of those little things that have only become sentimental when we've realized that we may never experience them again. The pack of friendly neighborhood dogs that roam the streets at will, or the kids playing in the streets that Samara loves so much The washing our sidewalks, the clapping at people's gates, or the awkward teenage boy that always comes and yells for me right after we put Samara down for her afternoon nap. It's bittersweet.

With each picture that is taken off the wall, with each box packed, this bitter-sweetness intensifies. I guess we can be thankful for the to-do lists that we have to work though each day, and for the business of preparation that temporarily takes our minds off of things. But these thoughts are always there, not far off. Easily triggered. In fact I debated for a while even writing this e-mail, but when we started this journey nearly 4 years ago, I made a commitment to remain as transparent as I could in these e-mails. And this bitter-sweetness is part of this journey. I imagine it will become a familiar part.

And yet, when I stop to think of all of these emotions, they are not something I want shielded from. For in experiencing them, it become becomes increasingly evident the extent of our investment here. And the tears that we see in others eyes only serve to show how warmly and readily hearts here in this community received us. I also would not desire any shade of pity from anybody in this process. Though it is hard, it only serves to remind me in a real way that this world, neither Brazil or the US, is my home. And my heart will never be fully satisfied until we are all in that place which our Father is preparing for us. And when we all do get there.... I have some friends I'd like to introduce you all to.

Prayer requests:
-Health as we travel. Marla's pregnancy has left her very tired lately
-Transition for all of us, especially for Samara.
-The church family here, as they were told just last week that we will likely not be returning to work there
-For our time of support raising in the state, that God will raise up new partners to join us in prayer and financial support.

Thanks for being a part of this,
Micah and Marla

ps. The first picture is of Samara helping us pack. And the second is of our worship team praying before our Sunday service

******************Cliffnotes: 150% Person************************************************
This e-mail touches on some of the difficulty assosiated with living in two different cultures. Obviously these seem to surface more in times of tansition. And it makes sense

July 28, 2008, - 1,2,3 Ready, Set, Go

2009-02-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

******No Cliffnotes. Micah writing about 3 peices of exciting news*********

1,2,3 ready, set, go? What kind of title is that? Well it just so
happens that today we are writing with three pieces of information that
you all might find interesting.

#1. Our trip to Criciuma. In our last e-mail we had written requesting
prayer concerning an upcoming visit to a city about 16 hours south of
here. The purpose of this trip was to survey the work that had began
there about 6 months ago. To get a feel for it, and discuss the
possibility of us working there when we come back. Well, it was a very
different city than Londrina. It is less than one third of the size with
about 180,000 inhabitants. It has a more European feel to it than most
places that we have visited in Brazil. The streets are cleaner, the
parks better maintained. Industrially, it is more developed, and
unemployment isn't much of a problem. Most people have jobs, and in fact
most people drive cars. The people in general are more closed, and a bit
colder than what we have found in Londrina. We drove through many, many
neighborhoods of the city and didn't find people hanging out in front of
their gates talking with their neighbors. Evangelistically, the people
in the south, particularly in this state, have been harder to reach with
the Gospel, a bit more resistant. The work that was started there was
started by a young pastor and his wife who were sent their by the
denomination. They have started 1 Bible study that meets in their home,
and were very excited at the possibility of having us come and help.

Are we excited about Criciuma? Well to be honest, going to Criciuma
(Christy) means leaving our work here. We have loved our church, we have
loved our neighborhood, we have loved our pastor. And going to Criciuma,
or any other city for that matter, means leaving this which we have come
to love. But we also realize that the time has come to expand, and we
make this decision in faith and obedience. Excited? Sure, we liked the
city. It is closer to the beach (30 minutes), and hiking and camping, but
our heart is divided. But we look forward to what God has for us there,
and to what He will do.

#2. Marla's Visa Came!!! The 18th of July, nearly one year after Marla
originally started the process of applying for a permanent visa, and
after one rejection, her permanent visa has finally been granted. This
means that we can come and go into and out of Brazil at will for the next
9 years!!. Thank you for your prayers. Through the whole process we
have felt a supernatural peace knowing that in God's perfect timing the
visa would be granted. As you know we had been expecting to be back in
the States in April, but have been delayed. We can see that God was
keeping us here so that we could be involved in decisions like going to
Criciuma, and have an influence on the future direction of OMS here in
Brazil. The extended time here also has enabled Marla and I to better
train those leaders who will be taking our places, and to better prepare
the church for our exit. So we are now in the middle of looking for
plane tickets to the States and getting ready to pack up our house and
say our goodbyes.

#3. We are pregnant again! Marla is about 11 weeks along, and the baby's
due date is February 19th (one day after my birthday) We're excited
about the addtion of another little one to the family. Marla has not been
feeling very well and is hoping that as the end of the 1st trimester
arrives that the nausea and tiredness will begin to fade. We're not sure
where we will be when this baby is born but Marla is not against giving
birth in an American hospital this time. So we're just trusting God with
all the details and praying for a healthy little one.

Prayer requests are for all the details surrounding our move. That we'd
find good ticket prices, that we could get and pack boxes, for good
health etc.

Thanks for your partnership,
Micah, Marla and Samara

ps. the pictures should be self explanitory. Fabio and Silvia are the
couple in Criciuma

July 1, 2008 - When and Where

2009-02-27T16:59:00.002-08:00

***********No Clifnotes. Micah riting about future assignment possibilities*******

As I opened my eyes last night between worship songs, from my perspective point up on the stage with the rest of the worship team, I could see people filtering in. There were many new faces, and yet many familiar faces were missing. Extra chairs had to be brought in from the back to aaccommodate The next song started, the eyes closed once again. Amongthe new faces were some of guys that I have been playing soccer with for the past year and a half. One whom had come to some of the youth events, but never to a Sunday service. As we came off the stage, Diogo started to preach. The message was one of those that seemed to fit perfectly with where the church is currently. A church with many new faces, and with many familiar. A church starting to realize it's potential, and believe. And that beliefis on many levels. For some, it is believing that there is a God, who sent His son, that they might live. For some it is believing that God will see them through their times of need, their dark hour. For some, it is the expectant beliefof a miracle. the same type of bbeliefthat preceded many of Jesus's miracles of the four Gospels. For others, the belief that God is about to use this church greatly in this neighborhood, and that their contribution here, today has eternal consequences. And for me, the belief that God knows exactly what He is doing, and the work that we helped to start here, will continue long after we leave.

"After we leave." It's never been a question of "if" we'd leave, but "when." And when I'm talking leave, I'm not thinking of a temporary absence. Simply a ministry that is interrupted here and there by furloughs and trips back to the United States. But rather 'leave' referring to when we to let stand on it's own, that which we have had the privilege to help to start. Leave for good. It's been in the back of our mind since the day we arrived. Our departure has strategically been part of the plan since day one. The question was simply when. And that answer is increasingly becoming clear.

Clear when I look from the stage at the head of Marlon bowed in prayer. Clear as Wesley leads worship from his keyboard behind me in a spirit of humility and dedication. Clear when I see where Rosiane has come from and the person that she is growing into. Clear when I see Andressa pray. These have been the people that I have most invested myself in these past few years. And it has been an honor to watch them mature personally and spiritually. To watch this God of the Bible step out of the pages of a book, and show Himself real and trustworthy in their lives. To watch them trust themselves to His plans. It has been an honor. But with this honor has come another question. One that has been increasingly calling attention. Is this still the best use of Marla and I? Or is there somewhere else that has a greater need?

These questions have little to do with our feelings, or a lack of love for the people we serve. We love where we are at. We love the people, we love the church, we love the neighborhood. Here we have created a home. Here we have people we can trust Samara with. People who stand in line for the chance to baby sit her. When we go to our little grocery store, the clerk takes her in her arms to play with her as we do our shopping (and is even mad at me when I leave her at home). The guy in the fruit and vegetable store, the lady that sells meat shiskabobs, the guys at the corner everything store, they all love her, and ask about her. I love my soccer ministry. The guys that I have gotten to know. So many times we pass these groups of guys all huddled together in the dark of the night when they turn around and say "Oi Micah, todo bom." I have to look at just about every guy on the street between the age of 8 and 30 just to make sure I don't know him. Because I don't want insult those whom I do know, by not saying hello. We love it here. We are comfortable here. The questions mentioned above don't have to do with feelings, we are dealing with strategy. When? Where?

These questions of 'when' and 'where' are not ours alone. In a real sense, they are very related to the mission in general here in Brazil. When OMS arrived here in Brazil over 50 years ago, they started with a fourfold strategy.
1. Evangelize the people
2. Put together those evangelized people in churches
3. Train Brazilians to lead those churches (this includes theological education: aka a seminary)
4. Partner with those Brazilian churches and church leaders to do new works

And to a large extent, God has blessed OMS greatly in accomplishing the first three here in Londrina. People have been evangelized. Churches have been started. We have 7 churches in this city alone. Under it's own strong leadership the Brazilian denomination that OMS started is starting to do well. The seminary continues to produce quality pastors. While all these good things are happening it is important to note that, there is still a need for evangelism here, still a need for more church bodies, still a need for a greater number of trained leaders. But the question we as a mission have been facing here lately is, are there places with greater needs here in Brazil. And the answer to that is overwhelmingly YES.

I think that it is coming time that we start concentrating more on the fourth part of our strategy...partnership. A week ago Marla and I had a meeting with the president of the denomination together with his wife. And we asked them to help us with the decisions of "when" and "where." To decide together where could the denomination best use our missionary family to help to accomplish the expansion that it desires. The vision to see more people won to Christ, and new churches planted in less evangelized areas. Two possibilities were discussed. And in a few hours Marla, Samara and I will start a 16 hour bus journey to investigate more in depth one of those two possibilities.

The name of the city is Criciúma, and it is in the state of Santa Catarina where we currently have no churches at all. There is already a Brazilian couple that has started this pioneering work there about 6 months ago. We'll be visiting them, asking questions, getting to know them as well as the city and the work that they have started. All with the likelihood that we could be returning there to work next year. We would ask for your prayers as we go. That we'd ask the right questions, and that God would speak to us, laying clearly before us the path that we are to walk. Also please pray for little Samara as we go. We think she starting to get another couple of teeth, and has already started the cold that usually accompanies these new little white presents.

March 28, 2008 - March Update

2009-02-27T16:59:00.001-08:00

***************************Cliffnotes available at post bottom*************************************************

It seems like a long time ago that we were waiting in Oregon for our visas to come so that we could come to Brazil. And now, after so many experiences (moving to a different hemisphere, learning a new language, learning what it means to start a church, having a baby..just to name a few) we sit at the other end of the spectrum. Waiting in Brazil for a visa to come so that we can go home. No, it's not that US immigration policy has clamped down so much that they won't allow us back in the country, it is that we are waiting for Marla to be granted her permanent visa (green card) from Brasilia, so that after leaving Brazil, we'll be able to get back in; hassle free! But I will say that the waiting is getting easier. Looking back at each of the other times that we have been delayed, we've been able to see God's hand behind it. So this time, we have confidence that when God is ready for us to leave Brazil, we'll have our visas; and until then we won't. It doesn't make making long range plans easier let me tell you, but it does take the stress of the "what ifs" out. I guess this growing confidence that God will take care of us, in one sense, could be linked to a faith that is at least starting to mature. I remember that before I started this journey with OMS almost 8 years ago, I really didn't really feel like being involved in missions, either short or long term. I mean don't get me wrong, I liked the idea of an adventure, and I liked the idea of traveling and seeing other places, but lets face it, in my experiences...missionaries were weird. Those missionaries that came to our churches, came and showed slides of themselves in some strange place, standing in the middle of strange people, looking and even feeling comfortable in their midst. But when they came back to their "home" they stood before our churches looking a little lost. Usually their clothes were a bit out of style or they didn't know many people at the church. Most times they had that "fish out of water" look about them. Short term missions sounded great to me, at least at the start. The travel, the adventure....all without having to loose your own cultural identity as the "long-termers" had. But then I went on a couple one week mission trips to Mexico. The trips were great, a definite spiritual highlight. Our group bonded, we sang songs, we sought the Lord, our points of- views were changed. But when we returned, real life set in. And for me, it became too easy to compartmentalize that experience from the rest of my life. Sure the trip was a great experience, but it did little to change my daily life, and I felt guilty for that lack of change. I didn't want to develop a compartmentalized Christianity. If I were to be changed, I wanted to be changed for good. So there I was 8 years ago, not wanting to loose my cultural identity as many of the long-termers had, and not wanting to compartmentalize my spiritual walk as I had already done, being "available" to God. Since then, I can see that God sure has a sense of humor calling me into long term missions through a series of short term experiences. Those things that seemed so important then have started to be replaced with a new set of priorities. I'll never forget a question that was asked of us new missionary candidates during my first training session in July of 2000. The trainer asked the group of us "why are you involved in missions." He patiently listened to all of the answerers that each person gave, and then he said "you are all wrong." He said, "The reason that you are involved in missions is because God wants to do something in your life, and the only way he can do it is through this mission experience." In my mind there is no such thing as "a high calling" professionally. Being a preacher, a missionary or an evangelist gives no one more spiritual weight than anybody else. The central issue isn't to what you have been called, the issue is being faithful to that calling. If God has called you to be a great teacher, than do that to the glory of God. If it is to paint, to fight fires, to drive a bus, to be a great father...do it for the glory of God. The issue is being faithful to that to which you have been called. And then through that step of faithfulness God can do something in you that He could do no other way. God has been using this missionary experience to change the priorities in my life. And as these priorities in my life have started to shift and align more to what God wants for me, my peace, confidence, and excitement for what God has, has started to become more of a constant in my life.

I was in a worship service the other day just praising God for what He has done in our lives, feeling truly honored and blessed to be here. Feeling lucky to be doing what I get to be doing. Feeling the joy of the Lord. It is this joy that the Bible says is to be our strength. Then it hit me, that this joy that I was feeling wasn't because of a certain situation. In fact many of the situations in my life have started to become more and more complicated. There is more and more responsibility. More problems, tough problems...and yet, I am not as burdened by those problems as I used to be. There is an emerging trust. A trust based on what God has already done. And because of that trust, I can become excited about what the future holds without knowing in advance what the details of that future are. I look into the future and for the first time in my life can see something that resembles a long term plan starting to emerge. There are many details that need to be arranged first before I go into it, but for the first time in my life, I don't have a big question mark when people ask what I want to be doing in the next ten to fifteen years. And I gotta say, looking dimly into that future, I'm pretty excited to get to be a part of what God is going to do.

So anyway, what have we been doing lately? It sure seems like a long time since we last wrote. So I'll try to cover a lot of ground quick. In the end of January, our pastor Diogo was married and took about a month of vacation time for his honeymoon, and to adjust to married life. During his absence my responsibilities with the church grew. I was asked to preach (this time without a translator), and fill in various roles. Since Diogo has returned we have been doing some pretty massive restructuring of ministries within the church. Because of the restructuring, I'll start preaching more, and start teaching a type of adult Sunday school class. I have also began to sing on the worship team (something I really never pictured myself doing). My responsibilities within OMS have also been increasing. Marla and I have volunteered for the job of orientation for new missionaries. A family of 5 arrived about a month ago, and we have been pretty busy orientating and supervising their work / language school / housing search / car search / and basically just getting adjusted. There have been a few other interpersonal issues that have been brought up these last few weeks, that God has really used to make us missionaries more of a family. It wasn't easy or fun, but the end result was good. Since we last wrote, Marla's involvement at church has also increased. She continues to direct the Sunday school program (about 7 rotating teachers and 25 kids), but the curriculum has changed. This new curriculum has been great for the kids, but has added a huge challenge. Marla and I also shared at our first mission conference a week and a half ago. The church we shared at was packed, and we were the opening speakers. We used the time to show pictures of some of our other trips, and tell stories. We finished our time up front with a challenge to become more involved in world missions. After the service, we both went into a large class room to talk more informally to anybody who was interested. There were about 20 people who stayed after for a question and answer time. It was greatly encouraging to us. Missions or ministry outside of the context of the local church is an idea that is talked about little and promoted little in our churches here. The denomination that OMS has worked to found almost 50 years ago has yet to send it's own missionary, so it was great to see such interest in missions on a grass roots level. And that is something I have dreamed to see since I first arrived in Brazil. God is doing something here, and it's awesome to have part in it. And folks, don't think for a second that we are here on our own. We are only here because you are praying and supporting us. We consider ourselves your representatives here in Brazil. And what ever God chooses to accomplish through this ministry, you too have a part of it. So thank you

In our preparing to speak at this mission conference, we came across some very interesting data. The first piece was the global population explosion that has been happening the last century. Experts project that the world population that is now at 6.7 billion will pass 9.2 billion in a little over 40 years. This is substantial when you stop to consider that global population for thousands of years sat constantly around 1/3 of a billion. It wasn't until the 1800's that we passed the 1 billion mark. What that means practically for us today is that more people are alive in this generation who don't know Jesus, than all other generations combined. That's pretty heavy. And at a time when we as a church should be doing our maximum to reach these people mission organizations are dwindling. 3 years ago, when we started to fund to come to Brazil, it was projected that 44% of all OMS missionaries would be retiring in 10 years. All of our fields within OMS are hurting for personnel. Marla and I have also been reading (actually Marla does the reading, and I do the listening) the book The Heavenly Man. It is a biography of Brother Yun, one of the founding fathers of the modern house church movement in China. He had been beaten many times to the point of death, spent 7 years on different occasions in prison, and preach courageously through out China and now throughout the world. With a background like he has, he had some interesting commentaries on the Western church. In one of them he writes:

"I've seen people in Western churches worshipping as if they're already in heaven. Then someone invariably brings a comforting message like, "My children, I love you. Don't be afraid, I'm with you." I'm not opposed to such words, but why is it that nobody seems to hear a Word from the Lord like, "My child, I want to send you to the slums of Asia or the darkness of Africa to be my messenger to people dying in their sin"?

A few paragraphs later he writes: "The Great Commission has not changed. There are many churches trying to create a heaven here on earth, but until the Western church obeys the Great Commission and takes the gospel to the ends of the earth, people are just playing with God and are not really serious about the truth. Many churches look beautiful on the outside, but are dead where it counts, on the inside. If you truly want to see God move, the two main things that you must do is learn the Word of God and have the obedience to do what God tells you to do."

These are strong words, and have challenged me greatly, and it is with them that I leave you today.

Thank You for all that you do,
in Him for Him,
Micah, Marla and Samara.
ps. oh yeah, prayer requests: Please continue praying for Marla's Visa, that God would grant it in His perfect timing. Please pray for me as I preach next Sunday, and get ready to teach a course on "the Family." Pray also for a church planting / cell group conference that I'll be going to in a few weeks. Pray also for our support account, that it will stay in the black. Pray for the group that I disciple, some of them have encountered really hard personal and family times.
pps. photo descriptions

**********************Cliffnotes: March 08 Update*************************************************************
In this e-mail I wrote a bit of how God has been using this mission experience to grow us into the people He wants us to be. Our faith is growing and starting to mature. We also shared a little bit of some of the activities that we've been involved in lately. We finished with some information and a commentary that really challenged us this past week. If you've skipped down to the bottom of this message to read the cliffnotes, it's because you have little time to read, but I would encourage you to at least read the last three paragraphs of this message. Start with the paragraph that starts "In our preparing to speak..."
thanks
*******************************************************************************************************

Jan 9, 2008 - Fear and Future

2009-02-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

***********Fear and Future cliffnotes available at page bottom*******************

It was supposed to be one of the conversations that would bring clarity. One that would bring focus, and confirmation, but when it ended, I was left with more questions that when we begun. More questions, and yet small, growing excitement at the potential.

When God first called me to follow Him, I resisted. I didn't resist His salvation. I didn't resist the cross, that is a free gift given to all who will take it. What I resisted was His call for discipleship. The "deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." That's the part I didn't like. Though salvation is free, discipleship costs, and I knew that. So when God called me to follow Him, I was reluctant. In my argument with God, after I had exhausted my final reason, He trumped them all when He said to me "Micah, I'm going to do something, and you can be a part of it or not. You decide." So then and there, nearly 10 years ago, I laid down my hopes and dreams to follow Him, wherever He led. And in that moment I accepted the privilege to participate in 'something' greater than myself, 'something' of lasting significance; all the while, not knowing exactly that that 'something' would be.

So here we sit ten years later, still trying to clearly define what the 'something,' is. What that 'something' looks like in a practical way. "Please God, what is it that you want us to do? Why have you placed us here? Why have you given us these passions and abilities? What is it that you want us to do with them? Why have you allowed us to see such needs." Each question forming a piece of the puzzle of that when put together will show the will of God. But unlike most puzzles, there is no front of the box to look at, no pre-filled life resume to follow. Just the darkness of the unknown and God.

As we have been asking you pray about the generality of our future, I want to detail a little bit of the specifics of these pieces.

First is the piece of passions and abilities:
Marla and I share a deep desire for mentoring and discipleship. Although the preferred age groups are different, we both like to teach. She likes working with the children, and I like working with people a little older. We also have passions and/or abilities in hospitality, contribution, the development of ideas and strategies. We also like sports and the out of doors.

The second piece of this puzzle has to do with perceived needs here where we are. On the local level, our church is growing and expanding. Marla and I have had the honor of helping to develop future leaders, and starting some new ministries. As the church grows and becomes more and more established, we would love to stay where we are, lending a hand where needed as we have been doing these past two years. On a national level, the denomination that our local church is a part of has been undergoing major revitalization. We have a strong leader with a clear vision, and much work to do to accomplish that vision. The name of the denomination is "Missionary Church," and as of yet, have not sent one missionary to another country. In my experience there is little of a mission mindset in the general population of these churches. This needs to change. The denomination, that is around 50 years old, is a healthy denomination. But one sign of health is reproduction, and as of yet has not reproduced, or even had much of a desire to reproduce what was done here in another country. I look around me and see a generation of potential missionaries. Missionaries that could have great impact on the planet, they just need to be woken up.

I also see great need within OMS Brazil in the next 3 to 5 years. In 2 years the current field leader will retire. The next missionary family in terms of seniority is returning on furlough with uncertain plans of their return. What this means in terms of field leadership and direction, and how it relates specifically to us, I don't know...but the need isn't hard to see.

Combined with these other two pieces are the counsel of friends and supervisors, the prayers of you all, and the peace of God. Hopefully we'll be able to present a clear vision of what we'll be doing in Brazil when we are in the states this spring for furlough. (by the way if you’d like to have us visit you, your church, small group, friends…and share about Brazil, let us know…) But I won't lie, there is fear in the unknown. There is the part of us that screams for the security. A safer plan that doesn't have so many "what if's." A plan where we would know where Samara would grow up. A plan that would know if we were to paint a wall today like we want to that we'd be able to enjoy it for years to come. A plan where we'd finally be able to unpack all of our boxes...for good. But I don't know if that is what God has for us. But I know where He has brought us. And I know 'how' He has brought us. Though it has not been easy, He has brought us to a good place. And we have to trust, in a very practical way, that His plans are for our good. To give a hope and a future.

I see our empty suitcases sitting in our storage room almost every day. They serve as an ominous reminder that where we are is only temporary. That one day, very soon, we'll be traveling again. We'll be packing up our things in boxes and filling our suitcases. We'll be living from a car and from the houses of our parents. We'll be without our own space or routine heading into a future that is uncertain. A future who's plans are based on perceptions and speculations. And I guess fear will always surround uncertainty. But it is what we do with this fear that will mark our lives. I was reading a book recently that was dealing with this issue of fear. It used the example of a little girl learning to swim. On the side of the pool, with her toes over the edge stands a little girl trying to decide what she is going to do. Her father is in the pool with open arms waiting to catch her. She knows he is there, but can he be trusted. Surely there will be water that goes up her nose. Surely the water will be cold, and what if he looses his grip on her. The decision that she makes standing on the edge of the pool has consequences. If she jumps, she'll find that her father can be trusted. She'll find the water is cold, but not too cold. And the next times she finds herself on the edge of a pool, she is more likely to jump. If she backs away now, and lets her fear dominate her, the next time she is at the edge of a pool, she is more likely to once again be dominated by that same fear. The decision has consequences both ways.

For those of you who knew me growing up, you know I rarely let my fear keep me from jumping into any body of water (not necessarily a good thing). But as I have gotten older, it gets harder to make such decisions. When I got married, I was no longer living just for myself, I had my wife to consider. And now that I'm a father, I have my family and their security to think about. But I cannot loose that edge. God did not create me to be dominated or ruled by fear. As God was with me when I was single, so He is with us now. As He provided for me then, so He will provide for us in the uncertainty of the future. I have to fight to keep fear from having a foothold.

There is one fear, however, I never hope to loose. A fear that has served as a motivation for me for the last 10 years. It is the fear in the knowledge that one day I will have to give account for what I have done with what was entrusted to me. One day God will ask me what I have done for Him with what he has given me. And in that day, packing boxes and interest rates won't mean a thing. I want to be found faithful. I want to hear Him say "well done."

As far as prayer requests…. Between writing the previous paragraph and this paragraph, I jumped on-line to check how Marla’s application process was going on her permanent visa. After typing in the necessary protocol numbers we found that her visa had been denied. Hmmmm, now what? After checking, and re-checking that what saw was right, we drove down to the federal police to ask them what we could do. They said we could pay a big fee and contest the denial, or we could start again, and this time apply for permanency for Marla on the basis of Samara being a Brazilian (and Marla being her mom). They also said that these type of visas should be pretty much automatic, but it still means waiting another 4-6 (based on our previous experiences) for the visa to be processed and approved. So that may back up our original plans of being in the States mid-April. Anyway prayer for this process would be appreciated. We would also ask for prayer for the arranging of all the details while we are in the States, as well as wisdom on how to arrange for our absence from Brazil. This includes everything from packing, housing rental agreements, to preparing the ministries we are involved in to function without our presence.

We are trusting God for His timing and guidance and thanking you for your prayers and involvement in our lives and this ministry.

in Him, for Him
Micah and Marla

Ps. The first picture is of me leading a bible study group that we have on Saturday nights. The second picture is of Marla teaching in one of the Sunday school classes, and the third is a picture we had thought to send out as a Christmas card…better late than never

***********Fear and Future Cliffnotes*************************************
This email followed our last few months quest to find out what God wants us to do in terms of a long-term future. We had thought we were nearing an answer when a couple of conversations opened our eyes to a reality and a need we hadn’t previously seen. Instead of focusing down, we got a bigger perspective. It’s kind of exciting, and yet kind of scary at the same time. The rest of this email was a commentary on how we handle fear. The decisions we make when faced with a difficult situation have consequences. If we raise to the challenge, the next time we are challenged we are more likely to raise yet again. But if we shrink back because of fear, fear can get a foothold, and dominate our future decisions. Our prayer requests our more for our future. Marla’s permanent visa, our furlough plans, and wrapping up things here. Thanks for your prayers and support
********************************************************************

Nov. 21, 2007 - Thankfulness Unplanned

2009-02-27T16:56:00.000-08:00

**************"Cliffnotes" check at page bottom*************************************************

As I watched the policeman follow the stretcher through the emergency room, I thought to myself in retrospect, I never had really pictured myself in this situation. Yet there we were awaiting the results of the exam.

The week had started pretty normal, as any other. I was busy about the work of the church, and Marla had her hands full with Samara, and arranging our upcoming travels to Sao Paulo. We had been putting off the visit to the nearest US Consulate since Samara was born. We knew we needed to go register her as an American, and apply for a passport and social security card for some time, but the very thought of such a hurried trip to the world's second or third biggest city with a baby, made it easy for other things, to become priority. But finally the plans had been made. The appointment had been set up, the bus tickets purchased, and a cash advance given to cover all the consular fees. We were to leave on Monday night at 11:40pm, travel through the night, arrive in Sao Paulo at 5:45am the next morning, take a taxi to the US Consulate, have our appointment at 9:30am, go back to the bus station to meet some friends for lunch then finish off back at the bus station to meet our 7pm bus that would bring us back to Londrina. That Friday night Samara woke up with a fever. This being her first sickness of any kind, we were a little nervous. So at 4am (our time), we called one of our good friends in the states who works as a nurse at a medical hotline. She put our minds to rest and we went back to sleep. The next day (Saturday) Samara's fever was higher, but we kept it under control with some infant Tylonal. Sunday, her fever went even higher and she was more sluggish, and lost her appitite. Sunday night we resolved to take her to her pediatritian to get his advise on our upcoming lightning trip to Sao Paulo. Monday morning Samara's fever had broken, but Marla took her to the doctor anyway, just to get his opinion. He said she was fine and that we should go ahead with our travel plans, so we started to get ready. Monday afternoon the fever returned but only for a few hours. We went to the bus station like normal, got checked in, and boarded, all with her asleep in her car seat next to Marla. She had a rough night waking up screaming every couple of hours, which in turn woke up everybody else on the bus every couple of hours, but what do you expect, it's a night on the bus right. Everything went according to schedual when we got to Sao Paulo. We got off the bus, took a taxi to the consulate. Arrived earily enough to pick up breakfast at a little place across the street, had our meeting, and by 10:30, had all of our applications submitted, and were walking out....mission accomplished. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves on a bright sunny day, and had an hour to spare before we needed to make the 30 minute trip back to the bus station to meet our friends. In the taxi we had passed a nice looking mall, so decided to return there to kill the hour. Being a city holiday, the stores in the mall were set to open at noon. The very time we had marked to meet our friends. So for the next hour we strolled through the mostly empty mall and wished we could stay a little longer to take of advantage of American stores such as Applebee's and Starbucks, (which we hadn't seen since leaving the United States over a year ago.) But a promise is a promise, so we left the mall, and took the subway to return back to the bus station.

Like planned we met our friends, being a little late because we had never taken the subway in Sao Paulo, and it took longer than we thought. We got caught up over a fast food meal in the bus station before going with them to a different mall, that was on their way home. All during this time Samara was extra fussy, and we were not able to comfort her. It was then that we began to notice a rash that was starting on Samara's face. We'd been told that a rash often follows a fever and not to worry so we continued with our friends. Because of a church comittment they had made much earlier, our friends Marcus and Julianna could only hang out a couple hours, but it was great to see how they were doing. Because most of everything else in the city was closed due to the holiday, the mall was packed to such a point that navigating our stroller through the crowd became pretty difficult. It was there that Samara started to scream. And I'm not talking cry, but scream. She would not be consold, she would not calm down. So after about half an hour, we found a babychanging room, where Marla was able to calm her down give her some pain medicine and eventually put her to sleep in her stroller. We had just a few minutes left to be with our friends before we walked them back the the Mall exit closest to the subway stop, and hugged them goodbye. About 5 minutes later, Samara woke up again screaming and wrything. We tried a quiet dark hall, just to get her calmed down, but to no avail. After another 20 minutes we desicded to look for a pharmacy in the mall. After the security guard told us the phamacy was on the ground floor we broke the big mall "no-no" and took the stroller down 2 escalators, to arrive at where we thought Samara would find relief. The pharmasist was very helpful and very concerned, and Samara was growing more and more agitated. Her rash had spread over her body. They called a nearby doctor's office, only to find it closed because of the holiday. They told us the name of a hospital and suggested that we leave immediatly. Now in my mind I'm thinking: babies cry right? Granted Samara doesn't scream that much, but she'll calm down right? And the rash is weird, but our bus leaves in 3 hours and we need to be on it. After one deeply worried look from Marla I said, "what was the name of the hospital again?" A fellow customer, Marine, said "I'll go with you if you want." Marla shot me another look, the kind that said "she's a complete stranger, this is a big city, we'll be fine." As the pharmasist walked us to the nearest taxi, I looked infront of us, and saw that lady from the phamacy and thought "I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm not even from here, and we'll need all the help that we can get." So I yelled to her, and she hopped in the front seat.

Marina paid the taxi as he dropt us off at the emergency exit. The hospital attendant told us we'd have to enter from the other side of the hospital, but viewing the condition of Samara, ushered her and Marla right in, as Marina and I went to the main entrance. When we entered, Marla was already there giving the clerk some of Samara's infomation. When the asked for local contact information, Marina gave hers. Screaming the way she was, Samara went right to the front of most lines, and with in 30 minutes of being in the pharmacy, she was in front of a very good pediatrician. Marla and our new friend Marina were with her, as we all couldn't go, and I wouldn't be as much of a help a Marina could be. After a few minutes, the four left the examining room, with a request for 3 tests. One blood, one urine, and one for Rubela. Once a fever had been ruled out, all the nurses seemed to pay no mind to the screaming infant in front of them. That's when Marina really stepped in. I'm not sure what she said, but what ever it was, we were moving once again. By 5:30pm we were standing at the door where they take blood tests. The room was small, and there were seats for people to wait for the results of their tests in the larger room in front, which just happened to be the emergancy room where the ambulances were bringing injured people from all over. As I stood talking with Marina, I looked in and saw that they had just tried to get a blood sample from Samara but had missed, she was screaming and flailing, and her blood was all over. That was the last straw for Marla, in tears she left the room and said "Micah they want me to hold her down, and I just can't, I just can't." So in I went, looked our screaming little girl in the eye as I pinned her shoulders to the examining table so they could take her blood. The blood was drawn, the bandaid put on, and there we were on those seats in the emergancy room awaiting the result that were supposed to come by 8:30pm (an hour and a half after our bus was to have left for Londrina). Marina took the paper so that she could get the rhubella test that would be available in 10 days. We exhanged e-mail addresses, hugs, and with that our Sao Paulo angel left the hospital.

So there the three of us quietly sat. In the emergancy room of a hospital I never even knew the name of. In a neigborhood, I don't think I could ever get back to if I had to, once again alone in one of the world's biggest city, knowing that we'd miss our bus home. We were physically exausted from the previous night's bus ride. Emotionally spent from the previous 4 hours. Yet I tell you the truth, the longer we sat there, the more we realized how truely small our problem was and the more thankful we became.

The first guy they wheeled in, the guy that was followed in by the police officer, already had a bandage on his ankel. From what I gathered he had no documentation with his motorcycle when he wrecked it and was looking at loosing his motorcycle and a pretty massive fine. He was more angry than hurt. He hobbled off the bed with the help his family. The next that came through the doors, came through being carried in the big arms of who I imagined was her husband. She was sobbing grasping at her leg as he layed her down on the stretcher before checking in with the attendant. The nurses that entered just walked around her talking between themselves seeminly unaware of her existence. The next guy that walked in was dressed as if he was a butcher. His clothes looked as if he had come off of a motorcycle and his left hand was covered by a bloody rag. As I was talking with the guy about getting Samara's blood test results a police "special unit" vehicle backe up to the two big doors. In the back a dead kid. One police officer grabbed his hands, one his legs, and without a stretcher they carried him through the room, down the hall. I had not seen it, but when I left the room, Marla's hand was over her mouth, and there was a trail of blood from the back of the vehicle down the hall. About that time a nurse told us a more quiet place would be better for Samara to wait for the test result. So after walking a bit through the hospital we found a dark quite hall. Unlike what we've found in the states, people are allowed in much of the hospital, and there are waiting rooms for different departments sprinkled all over. We sat in some seats, in that dark hall and just exhaled. After about 20 minutes, a young guy wheeled what was probably his sister or his girlfriend in a wheelchair into the room next to where we were sitting. From the way it looked, we guessed the young lady was anorexic. He left her in the room with the doctor and sat just a few seats down from us. His shoulders sank as he sat, and his head fell into his hands, the strength that he had been showing just a few minutes earlier obviously exausted. With his fingers in his corn rowes he just sat there thinking, just a few seats down from me. I had just turned off my mp3 player and was gathing my courage so that I could ask him if I could pray from him when Samara woke up and started craying again. Then the mt arrived and began talking with him, and I kicked myself for the missed opportunity. On our way back to get the blood results we passed a hallway that was completely crowded, and one lady, about 50 years, old crying unconsolably by herself. And I thought to myself, that I had not seen so much emotional brokeness since the revival meetings when I was a kid, but unlike those meetings, there was no one here to comfort. It was like the Bible stories that you hear. People sick, or dying who fall at Jesus's feet. People are still sick, people are still dying. What a ministry one could have at a hospital so filled with brokeness.

After not being able to obtain a urine sample because Samara had been eating and drinking so little, (combined with an incompitent nurse who was assigned to extract the sample from Samara, only to strip her and prep her, then leave the room for several minutes only to return to find she had gone pee in his absence and the only urine that she had let go since 6 in the morning was now dripping down the bed)...lets see, where was I. Oh yeah, we left the hospital at 8:00pm with the results of Samara's blood test in hand. The pediatrician who first attended us had left, so we just took the results with us and hurried down the dark empty streets towards the subway station, Marla carring our sleeping baby, and I carrying everything else. We used our last two subway tickets, and entered the train. We had about 25 minutes to reherse what we would say to the bus company begging them to let us on any bus heading to Londrina that night, before arriving at the main city bus station. We got off the train and went directly to the Garcia Bus Company counter. We began our story, the clerk looked at our tickets, and said they had a bus leaving for Londrina in 5 minutes, and to go talk to the driver. We ran through that station, picked up some bags we had locked for the day in some security lockers, and made it down there in time. When we entered the bus, we were 3 of 5 people on board a bus designed to carry 50. We had three seats next to eachother. I guess the bus made some other stops to pick up some other people, but to be honest, I don't really remember. After our first stop, I closed my eyes and I was out for the count.

We arrived 5:10am the following morning, just 3 hours later than originally schedualed. We went home and prompty fell asleep. That day (Wednessday) we went back to our pediatritian, showed him the blood test results, and he told us not to worry. The temperature, the rash, was all probably roseola, which we had guessed. The irritability and screaming he didn't know. But Samara was better, and even now continues to improve. From the best that we can guess, we think that her loss of appitite put less food in her stomach. Then when we gave her some pain medicine, it really upset her stomach. She was far from home, and far from much of the things that normally give her comfort. She was also surrounded by so many new noises and sounds, and movement, she just went into overload mode, and tried to shut it out the only way babies know how to shut it out...screaming. Wow, how glad we were to be home. After we got back from the doctor we all took another nap, and in truth are still recoving even today. We are so thankful. Thankful that Samara will be fine and that we really are so healthy. Thanful for Marina!!! Thankful for the daily prayers of you guys and many others, Thankful to be home and be together. Thankful to our heavenly Father for his care for us. And thankful to be heading to sleep in a BED!We love you guys and we are SO thankful for you. We just wanted to update you on the last few days.

in Him, for Him,
Micah and Marla and Samara

**************"Cliffnotes" Thankfulness Unplanned*******************************************************
Not all adventures we take in life are pleasant ones. This email relayed what happened in an emergancy room in Sao Paulo, and what happened to bring us there.
1. We had planned a trip to Sao Paulo to get Samara's Passport, Social Security card and American Birth Certificate
2. Samara got a fever before we left
3. We checked with our doctor and went anyway
4. She got considerably worse in Sao Paulo, for unknown reasons
5. We ended up going to a hospital, accompanied by a lady we had never met before, seeing things we had only seen on tv
6. We got home ok, and Samara is getting better, and we are still recoving.
*********************************************************************************************************

Oct. 10, 2007 - October Update

2009-02-27T16:55:00.000-08:00

**********No Cliffnotes, Marla writting a news update******************

Unlike many of the emails that we send your directions, we wanted to give some updates and information on some of the things that we have asked you to pray about.
Our first prayer request was for our future. We asked prayer, not just for our immediate future but long term. After much prayer, and giving up some of our own hopes and dreams, we feel very strongly that we are to stay here in Brazil. I have never felt so fulfilled in what I've done as I do here. From everything to helping our pastor with the leadership of the church, to discipleship groups, to reformatting the Sunday school program, God has blessed and grown the things that we have had the privilege to be involved in. Though it's hard to look far into the future and not see things like family camping trips on the weekends or watching our kids play in highschool basketball games, we rest in the confidence that God has gotta have something great for us down here too.
Second, Marla had asked for her friend Linda. And since this is Marla's thing, I'll let her write

Hey everybody, Marla here...
I'd written a while back about my new friend Linda. Just as a recap we met last year at the local health clinic and occasionally would see one another on the street and chat for a few minutes. Then we moved to a new house, had a baby and she came by to see us and after visiting each other a few times we decided to
walk together two mornings a week and we've been doing that since April. Linda is from Sweeden and married to a Brazilian guy. She has had a difficult life
having a mother who's been an alcoholic Linda's entire life, and growing up in foster care since about age 7. As a young teenager Linda went to church with a friend for awhile, but her foster mother got to where she would not allow it and Linda didn't like having to sneak out and fight with her foster mother about church so she quit going. So anyway over the last several months we've become better friends. We'd talk about everything under the sun, and many times our converstaions would move in the direction of spiritual things.
Linda has a deep hunger for peace in her life and a lot of questions about the Bible and God and Cristianity. So we'd talk and several times I prayed with her about specific situations or struggles she was going through. I invited her to church the Sunday Micah's parents gave their testimony (end of July) and she came. And she has been coming to church with me every Sunday since! I was able to give her a Bible in english (which she speaks fluently) and also invited her to a special afternoon time we had with some women from church where we made scripture journals. She told me the last time we walked that she's been getting up 1/2 and hour early in the mornings to read her Bible and write notes, thougths, verses or prayers in her journal. I am praising God that she is responding to Him. One Sunday that we'd had communion at church she kinda looked at me and wasn't sure if she was supposed to take it or not. After the service we were talking about it and about what it means to have Jesus as your personal savior and we read Romans 10:9 together and talked about how you accept the free gift of salvation by confessing and believing. And I said something about praying and asking Jesus into your heart to be Lord of your life. She was like "Marla, I think I did that when I was 13...does it still count?"
God is moving in Linda's life and her heart. And I praise Him for her friendship and for the ways he's using Linda to challenge me in my personal spiritual walk. I thank you for your prayers for her and ask that you please don't forget this woman. She has a lot of hurt and mistrust and fear in her heart and I ask you to join me in praying for her to continue to respond to God and to surrender her life completely to Him, and allow Him to heal and rebuild and give new life. Also for her Husband who at this time has no interest at all in God. And for her little boy Adriano who is coming to church with her each week. That seeds of faith will be planted in his young heart.

Third we had asked prayer for our support account. We hadn't given many details other than falling value of the dollar and increased finacial need because of Samara. A long time ago, before we even came to Brazil, I promised to write with openness and clarity. The purpose of this was not just so that I could journal what was going on, but to give you a better picture of the things we face, and to give you a better picture of what being a missionary is like. We have remained committed to sharing both the highs and the lows of this road. But when dealing with things like money, we have kept it vague, because money can be a sticky subject. But about a week ago, I felt a bit convicted that I hadn't really been completely open with you all. So with a recommitment to openess and honesty, I'll fill you all in. When we arrived in Brazil about a year ago, we had a pretty good black balance in our missionary support account (about $12,000). For the first 3 or 4 months the incoming $ matched, more or less what was being expended, so our support account stayed more or less the same. Then about that time we got an email from our headquarter office. We had been opting out of a lot of benifits that OMS requires of the career missionaries. We had been doing this to protect that black balance. But about 8 or 9 months ago, OMS headquarters said, you guys have been with the mission for 6 years already, and are signed on for at least 2 more, so you can no longer opt out of the benifits (retirement). So our monthly expenses went up about $600/ month. Then we got some emails from some of our most faithful supporters, who's finanicial situations had changed because of loss of a job, or switching jobs, or living on a fixed income, who physically could no longer support us finaicially on the level that they had been. Then the amount of rent that we pay was increased pretty substantially. The combined result of all of these things was about $1,200 more was going out monthly than what was coming in. About 5 or six months ago, when this really started to become apparent, we committed ourselves to prayer. We didn't want to just see the need, and jump on-line without seeking God. So we have been praying every since. Marla and I wrote into headquarters and took a voluntary salary reduction of about $350 / month, to help keep us in the black, but even with the salary reduction, our black balance is being reduced by about $900-$1,100 per month. As of the end of last month our black balance had been reduced to about $6,800.
Every month we receive a report, emailed to us, detailing incoming funds and from who they came. Every month we read over that list, and feel so incredibly blessed. We know so many are already giving sacrificially, and feel honored to be representing you all in Brazil. And behind those names that we read every month, we know there are so many more lifting us up in prayer. Folks, we never take for granted the prayers that you all pray. In a field that seems plagued by health issues, security and safetly problems and traffic that terrified my Mom, we are thankful for every prayer, and pray often for you in return. When Samara was born we were blown away by the generosity of so many of you. Everything from clothes, to handmade blankets, to checks, to a videotaped babyshower, and another that was webcammed. Words cannot expressed how loved we felt by you all. And yet in the back of our minds, this need remains. We have hesitated a long time in writting this email because of the gratitude that we continually feel. And yet at the same time it wouldn't be fair to let you guys ,who have been so involved in the other aspects of this ministry, be left in the dark. If our support account goes into the red, our salary will be cut, and if it gets farther into the red, we will be pulled out of Brazil to go back to the States to raise more support.
Through all of this, we have not felt (even a little) abandoned by God. From the beginning His timing has been perfect. And we know that God's plan, done God's way, never lack provision. Though many of your names are on the checks that go to OMS monthly, it is God to whom we look for our support. We are confident that in His time, He will provide, through His channels. And rest assured, that when He does, you all will be the first to hear.

Thank you for your faithfulness,
in Him, for Him,
Micah and Marla and Samara

ps. The attached picture is of the 3 of us on a new trail we found a few weeks ago

Sept 12, 2007 - The Funk

2009-02-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

*****No Cliffnotes, Just Micah writting about being blue.. and gettin past it********

There are those days, those weekends, in which we often find ourselves where something isn’t quite right. Though we con’t put our finger on it, we know that something is missing, something has changed. It is in these days, during these times that something seems to hinder thoughts and feelings that have come to be normal. And this feeling, this hinderance, this thing that is not quite right, I have come to call “the funk.” “The funk” is different than other things that often have similar results. For example when you begin to get sick, or are sick, or when you have unusual amounts of stress in your life. Though the symptoms are the same, the primary characteristic of “the funk” is that it’s cause, it’s root is indefinable. Such was my case last night.
When I went to church, I had known something was amiss. I just guessed and attributed it to the fact that I had been working to resolve computer problems for most of the day, and had little success. But then the worship service started. The songs were the same, but for some reason, I could not seem to get into them. My mind wondered, I started to notice the singers that were off tune. I started to get annoyed when the PowerPoint slides were behind, and either consciously or unconsciously, I began to make a list of how things could be better. My thoughts were justifiable right? After all, how would the service appear to newcomers? But then I couldn’t get into the sermon either. Andy my prayers almost seemed to bounce back at me. I guess it was the prayer thing that had bugged me the most. The other shortcomings I could attribute to a fault in someone else. But the prayer thing? I couldn’t shake it something was off. I’ve known this funk before, and usually when I’ve been able to trace it down to it’s roots it’s had to do something unresolved in my own life. Soooo what could it be.
Prayer. Jesus a man of prayer, didn’t do all that much teaching on the subject, not even to his own disciples. After a year and a half of following him, and witnessing him, they finally asked him to teach them how to pray. There must be some secret right? Something that he hadn’t taught the masses so long ago on the Sermon on the mount. Something he could share just with his disciples, just with his closest friends. Not only did Jesus share with them the exact thing he had shared with the masses, he shortend it by a few words.
So there it was…. The format for prayer…given by Jesus himself. If we dissect it you have:
Recognition of who God is
Worship.
Submission
Supplication
Asking for forgiveness
Asking for protection
In the whole prayer only one thing was required of the pray-er… forgiving others.
Why is the forgiving of others so important? Oh, I know some of the psychological implications of harbored bitterness, but the day-to-day stuff. The little stuff. The little things that you tuck away in your mind for some future conversation that you’ll have. You’ll have these conversation with basically pure motives, to see the other person improve. To see the other person get better. But the problem is, in this world of crazy schedules, often times these conversations never happen. So there you sit, there I sit, with all of these minor things, minor irritations building in our minds. It’s hard to call these things areas of forgiveness, because after all, the things that happened were so small, they doen’t merit the title of “sins.” But they build just the same. And as they build in our minds, our fuse gets shorter. And our communion with God gets fractured. Jesus held forgiving others with such importance, he told the masses that if anyone has something against you…leave you sacrifice on the alter, and first be reconciled to your brother. Also the Bible reads that if we don’t forgive our brothers when they sin against us, God will not forgive us. And without this forgiveness our sin, our guilt remains, and communion with God is broken.
So there I was this morning far before Samara woke up debating with God, if these things I had harbored needed to be forgiven. Deserved to be forgiven. They were such little things. They needed to be righted. For the good of the church right? My input was valuable right? So I wondered in these early morning hours what then is the line between needing to forgive someone and needing simply to right a situation? Then God brought me face-to-face with my own motives. Did my motives in confronting the other person want to change an action, or want to change their feelings. Sure I had wanted the action to change for the good of the church, for the good of the system. But so too, did I want the other person feel a little bit guilty, a little bit bad. I wanted them to feel a little bit of the gravity of the situation that they had helped cause. And in that sense, I was wrong.
Forgiveness was needed, and I knew it. But like always, grace cannot be justified. When God extends His grace on me, I like it. But how could I justify extending grace to another? But like other things in life, forgiveness doesn’t rely on my emotions, or my thoughts, but on my will. Like getting out of bed in the morning, especially after a long night; I don’t feel like getting out of bed, and I can justify why I deserve to stay asleep, but sooner or later I have to decided to kick one foot after another off the edge of the mattress and start my day. And usually after I do, I feel better. And also just like getting out of bed, I have to decide to forgive everyday. Sometimes those same thoughts and feelings remain for a while, so everyday I have to recommit to the decisions that I made, until sooner or later those thoughts and feelings are gone. And we are restored.
The Bible says the “Prayers of a righteous man availeth much.” And our society today is in desperate need of true prayer warriors. If we are to do much in this world, if we are to do much in our minististries we have to be righteous. Our righteousness is dependant on us being forgiven, and or forgiveness is dependant on us being forgiving. Even in the little things, the small annoyances, the minor irritations.

July 17, 2007 - The Courage to Dream

2009-02-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

*************************************Cliffnotes available at page bottom********************************************************************

Few things are more damaging to faith than the death of a dream. An unfulfilled desire. What happens when something that we hoped for, or even prayed for, is never realized? Whether we recognize it or not, those events mark us. And when recognized, only we have the power to decide if those marks will be events from which we grow, or something that will dehabilitate us.
The ability to dream is a very human characteristic. No one has to tell a child how to dream, or how to use their imagination. It is instinctual. Just ask a kid on the street what they want to be when they grow up. Certainly the answers will very, but I imagine the younger the child, the bigger their dream. So what happens along the way that makes us stop believing? In short...life. The aspiring NBA star, never grows over 6 feet, and can't jump to save his life. The movie star is told that she isn't pretty enough. And the kid that wants to save the world only learns of the world's complexity of problems and beurocratic mess. So what happens? Step by step we downsize our dreams, to things that seem more possible, that seem more probable. Untill finally we arrive at the point where our lives are consume by pursuing goals that are in our own thinking "attainable." And yet, in my thinking, the most inhibiting part of this whole process, is how it damages and stunts our faith. The Bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. In the Gospel accounts of Jesus's ministry how many times do we read "go in peace, your faith has healed you."? We ask ourselves where are the miricles in the modern day, and I ask where is the faith. But I'm not asking of society in general, I'm asking it of myself.
Like a lot of kids, I grew up not knowing exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. Like many others, I was involved in a variety of sports, and loved the challange and the thrill of athletic competition. As I got older, it was easy to see that if I wanted to keep being involved in sports, I needed to train harder, I needed to become better. When I started high school and had to make the desicion between playing football and soccer (two sports that both played in the fall) I chose soccer, not because it was my favorite, but because I knew I'd never grow to the size needed to play college football. Then in 1994 the World Cup was played in America. The world's biggest soccer event, actually the biggest sports event in the world, was being played on our home soil. The TV stations carried the games, and I became entranced by the idea, the dream of one day playing in such an arena. At the time, I was in high school, I wasn't dumb. I knew that I'd never get to play in a game like that if I didn't get much, much better. I wasn't naiive enough to believe sheer will power would take me to my goal. So I started to dedicate myself to my task. I trained harder. I did drills on my own at home. I joined club teams. I beleived that if I tried hard enough, with a big enough heart, with enough sweat, one day, my moment would arrive. And in truth, I did improve. I did get better. As a sophmore I was selected to be on the varsity team, as a junior I recieved league honors, but my senior year, I began to realize I was off pace if I wanted to play soccer, I mean really play soccer. I just wasn't as good as some of the other guys in the league. I wasn't even as good as some of the younger guys on my team. So then, I downsized my dream. Oh just to get a college scholarship doing something I loved, that'd be cool. So I wanted to play soccer in college, and use that soccer to pay for at least part of my education. But the problem was, there wasn't any school looking at me as a potential player. I couldn't blame them, our team was always near the bottom of the league, and my senior year, the year that was supposed to be a great year, our team got a new coach, who decided we were going to have a "building year." Out with some of the good senior players and in with mostly underclassmen who had "potential." So my dream downsized again. Maybe if I couldn't attract a college team, I could play as a walk-on, and then at least get a mandatory athletic scholarship for my involvement with the team. So when I finally committed to a school, I decided to try out as a walk-on. Well, George Fox was a smaller school, but had an excellent soccer program. But unfortunatly they had just joined the NCAA division III, which meant no sports scholarships would be given...period. Well at least I could still play. So try outs started, and I did ok. Good enough to make the junior varisty squad (actually I don't think they cut hardly anyone). So as I played that year on the JV team, I began to realize my dream of playing on the world stage was never going to happen. But at least, I thought, I'd be a good player on the varsity team one day. So I dedicated myself to the task with equal vigor as I had before.
My soccer skill began improving, I was getting better. In actuality, I was playing the best soccer of my life, just months before my sophmore season was to begin, I began to sense God telling me to let it go. Determined not to give up, I dedicated myself even more, fooling myself with the "I'll play for your glory God," mentality as I only persued further that which God was calling me to let go. Finally one Sunday, just two weeks before our season was to begin, I was standing in church, when I knew for a fact that God was telling me not to play. In a prayer, I said "God if you don't want me to play, you'll have to hurt me." Just a word of caution....this was not a very smart prayer to pray. That very day, God did just that. I went bridge jumping (also not a very smart thing to do). A group of us drove an hour and a half south into a national forest where a bridge was that sat 60 feet above a deep mountain stream. Since 60 feet didn't seem high enough to impress my friends, and because I had already done it before I climbed the tresses of that bridge to a point and stood 90 feet above the surface of the water. Overcome with confidence, that I had already made this jump before, and completely forgetting that I had challanged God to hurt me just hours before, I jumped. A few seconds later I felt as if both of my legs had been broken at the knees. With my arms, I dragged myself onto the rocks on the bank of the river and just layed there for a few minutes. I did managed to make it to the top of the hill, but for the rest of the day, could not walk, and could barely stand. I recovered slowly, one month before I could really walk again, four months before I could jog, and six before I could sprint. And for the first time in my life, I watched the soccer season from the other side. The spectator side. And as that soccer season wore on, my dream finally and slowly died.
The death of my dream of playing soccer, isn't unlike the death of so many other athletic dreams. You could probably just change a few names and details in that last narrative and describe the death of 10's of thousands dreams that die yearly and the athletes who started their quest so many years ago starry-eyed from some movie or TV program. But what was truely tragic about the death of this dream, wasn't the dream itself, but how it marked me. The ways that it changed me, ways that I am just now realizing. And what seemed to make it worse, was that it was God himself that was asking me to give up my dream. I had kept my dream alive longer than most people that I knew. I was no stranger to perseverance and persistance, so when that dream died so too died some of my ability to dream. A year and a half later it got even worse. After much prayer and searching I felt God calling me into some sort of "ministry," which was the absolute last thing that I wanted to do with my life. Confronted with the fact that God knows me better than I know myself, I conceded yet another defeat. I was empty, a blank sheet of paper, clay to molded, what ever metaphor you want to use, I was tired of trying, tired of chasing my own dreams...so in short...I stopped dreaming. I became ready to do the will of God, ready to go where he wanted me to go, do what he wanted me to do, but as far as a 5 year or 10 year plan... I had none. I had none because what if God showed up and changed it, or asked me to leave it, could I deal with seeing another dream die? Or what if just like playing professional soccer, what if my dream just proved to be too impossible. It was too expensive to watch another dream die.
It wasn't that I wasn't person that had forgotten how to dream. It's that I hadn't the courage to dream. You see dreaming takes courage. Courage of being rejected, courage to take the risk of having your hopes fall flat. So in looking at what I stood to loose, I chose not to dream. Not to have a will. Of course I could spiritualize this lack of courage. Words like, "my will is to do His will." "I must deny myself daily and pick up my cross." And in fact, that view is Biblical. But there has to be another side of the coin. As I've been finding out more and more with God, atributes that we want to acribe to God, characteristics, so often aren't one OR the other, but both at the same time. For example: is God love, or just? One not diminishing the other. It's a thing or minds have a hard thing getting around, or understanding. But isn't our God just that: hard to understand, hard to comprehend? The Bible says "as far as the heavens are aboth the earth are my ways above your ways, are my thoughts above yours." We must stop thinking that we have to completely understand God before we put all of our faith in Him, because it will never happen.
So in all of this, how did the loss of a dream effect my faith. Well, in short, I stopped asking God for the impossible. I started believing that God would provide through the probable. Sure God would still provide, still show Himself to be God, but just in smaller ways...in more normal ways. My courage to dream, was related to my courage to ask. To ask for the impossible. To ask for the miracle.
This correlation between the faith of asking and the realization of miracles has been emphasized again and again for me in our weekly Saturday night Bible studies. We are studying through the Gospel of Luke. Right now we are in the middle of a bunch of miracles that Jesus is doing. And you know what He says so much after preforming such miracles? You know what He says? "Go in peace, your faith has healed you." It was faith that brought them to Jesus in the first place. It was faith that put them in that place of vulnerability. That place where everybody was looking, where everybody was seeing clearly their need. Doubt could have entered in, they could have given in, they could have "downsized" their dream. But you know what...they didn't. They knew exactly what they wanted from the Master, and they didn't settle for asking for anything less, anything "more probable." And you know what? They saw miracles. What if the friends who carried the paralytic on the mat, who dug a hole in a roof to lower their buddy in stopped short by saying or thinking "Jesus is busy. What will the owner of the house think? The guy has been a paralytic for so long, can't he just get by a while longer?"
This was no more clear for me than this week in our study. We were reading Luke 8:40-56. This was the story of Jarius, the synagogue ruler, who had the sick daughter who was on the verge of death. So this guy Jarius goes and finds Jesus to see if Jesus will heal his little girl. Jesus agrees and is on His way to Jarius's house when a lady who had been suffering from a bleeding desease for the past 12 years reaches out and touches Jesus. At that very instant Jesus senses that some of His power has gone out from Him. So He askes "who touched me." This woman fessed up to it, Jesus says "your faith has healed you." Then what happens. Someone arrives from Jarius's house and says don't bother Jesus anymore, your daughter is already dead. Then Jesus says the most interesting thing. He says "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed."
It would seem that the miracle that Jarius was hoping for was dependant on his beleif. What do you suppose would have happened if Jarius doubted? Do you suppose he would have seen his little girl raise up in perfect health? He had to have enough faith ASK for the miracle. To BELIEVE for the miracle. But you know the truely beautiful part of this story? Look at the order in which it happened. Jarius was on his way home with Jesus, with the solution to his problems, and just before his faith (the faith needed for the miracle to happen) recieved it's biggest testing. Jarius witnessed a miracle. And when Jesus stopped the crowd and ask "who touched me." When Jesus stopped and recognized publicly the other miracle that had just happened, I wonder if at least part of it, was done for the benifit of Jarius. So that the faith of Jarius could be strenghtend. Jarius's faith was strenghtend, and he did see a miracle. Without faith we will never ask for a miracle. Without faith we will never believe for a miracle, and without faith we will never see a miracle.
Do we in our day even want to see miracles, do we believe we will see miracles? Or do we downsize our dreams into the realm of "probable?" When we pray do we ask for the impossible? I could talk about evangelism teams that I met in India 4 years ago, who's main way of evangelizing is through preforming miracles. They ask people what they need, and they say "our God will do that, our God will heal you." And you know what? Often times God does preform the miracle. He does the impossible. They don't finish with the clause "if it's God's will." Oh, I know we should pray in the will of God, but if we truely know God, don't you think we'll also know His will. The problem of praying "if it's God's will" is that you're giving space for your doubt. You are afraid if something doesn't happen that God will look bad. If you know the will of God, let God worry about His own reputation, He's actually pretty good at it. In the book of acts, when the crippled begger asks Peter and John for money, they didn't say "silver and gold we have not, but what we have we give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazereth, walk.....if it's God's will." Peter said walk, and the crippled begger walked.
Have I stopped asking for a miracle? Have I settled for asking for the probable? Here I am, writting how the death of an athletic dream stunted my faith, and I know of so many that wrestle with the loss of so much more. The loss of the dream job, the death of a loved one, a long prolonged illness. But I beleive the effect was the same. I stopped asking for, I stopped believing for miracles. But you know something? I have resolved to start again. To dream the impossible dreams, and let God show himself once again, to be the God of not just the probable, but the impossible. I used to carry a quote in my wallet from a speech of Nelson Mandela that reads "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world...We are all meant to shine...We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."
So where does this dream lead us from here? I don't know, but I love where we are. I wake up almost everyday thanking God for the opertunity to be here in Brazil. We get to see miracles happening, we get help lead an incredible new church. We get to pour ourselves into vibrant people who are hungry for God. And to top it all off, now I even get to play quality soccer 3 times a week. God has blessed and protected us here. We have been carried in a very real sense by the power of your prayers. Our family has grown, and we get to hold a beautiful baby girl everyday. I've even let my guard down and let Brazil into my heart. Before this was hard to do because what if God calls us to leave Brazil? What then? But with the courage to dream, comes the courage to invest and the courage to love.
Sure those thoughts, those doubts still come, and sometimes the fear of the "what if" starts to build. But I have resolved that the dreams of my life will not be dominated by this fear. That I still serve the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. I can still dream the impossible dream. But this time it isn't based on my own skills and talents but on God. And I will let him prove that He is the God of the impossible. And know that this is not naiive youth speaking. I have had the privilage of being around men in their 60's, 70's and 80's. Men who have have been dealt their share of hard times. But men who still believe in the God of the impossible And it is these men who still see miracles.
Wheew, that was a lot, what about us? What about Brazil? What about my sermon that I preached a little over a week ago that I had asked prayer about. The sermon went really, really well. I preached what was on my heart to preach. At the end the end there was an evegelistic appeal. There were many teenagers and young people in our church whom I had never seen before. There were others that came that I did know, that had never been to our church before. The seed of the Word was sown, and God says in His word that it never returns void. Thank you for your prayers. The visit with Marla's folks was excellent. Our friend Kim Grimes is currently visiting, and my parents arrive in a week and a half. We'll write more about their visits and impressions in an email to come. I would ask for prayer for our support account. Because the value of the US dollar has been falling dramatically, and because OMS isn't letting us opt out of taking retirement anymore, our monthly need has increased. (Oh yeah, we also had a baby, which has also increased the need). We have been so blessed by so many of you as we read down the monthly giving reports that OMS sends us, we truely feel privalged to be representing you down here in Brazil. Please pray for new financial supporters who would join with us.
Thank you all so much for your partnership in this shared ministry
in Him, for Him,
Micah and Marla
ps. Picture definitions. If you notice most the pictures have Samara in them, actually, I'm beginning to think the camera only takes pictures of her. And the only reason we are in them at all is because we are in them WITH her. The first picture is of Marla's parents with Samara. The second is her first time to the pool (which she loved). The third is of a biking trip we did in Foz do Iguacu. The final pictures are self explanitory

*******************Cliffnotes: Courage to dream**************************************************
This email starts with the phrase "Few things are as damaging to faith as a broken dream." I then spend some time explaining how my dream of playing soccer on the world stage was slowly "downsized" and downsized by in life (and the fact I wasn't all that great in the first place). Untill my dream was either lost or downsized so much it fell in the world of "probabel." The problem is when we translate this to faith, we stop asking God, stop believing for things that look impossible, and thus miss out on seeing miracles happen today. But believing God for the impossible takes courage, dreaming impossible dreams take courage, but without this courage we will never see miracle. Prayer requests and praise notes: just read the last paragraph of the email above. Thanks
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June 4, 2007 - Lovin

2009-02-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

*******************************************Cliff Notes available at post bottom**************************************************************

"I love being a Mom" This is something I said to Micah the other day and it made his favorite moments of the day list. You see every night before we fall asleep Micah and I share our "highlights" of the day. For Micah these highlights are often centered around food and soccer so I was kinda suprised that he remembered that I'd said this and even more so that it made his list. But it really is true that I'm loving being a mom. Sure my days look a whole lot different than they did two months ago, sure I've got these little dried drool patches on the shoulders of my shirts, sure there are burp cloths thrown over the backs of all handy chairs, sure 4:00am and I are pretty well aquainted, sure many of those pre-pregnancy clothes still won't button and sure those curtains I started sewing two months ago are still not finished. But boy oh boy do I have a whole new appreciation for all you moms out there. And we just have one! A pretty cute one if I do say so myself. Samara is such a joy brings so much delight to our home. We love her to pieces!
Our days really do look different. Pretty much from the time we were married up until Samara was born, Micah and I spent the majority of almost every day together. Even here in Brazil we went to work together and were involved in many of the same meetings and ministries of the church. Since Samara's birth I've stepped back from most formal minsitry things at church and pretty much been at home the majority of my days. Micah not only kept up with all his old responsibilities, but he also picked up many new things to help take up some of the slack from where I had been. This has been an adjustment for us, one I don't really think we'd envisioned. We enjoyed spending our days together and working along side one another and we miss it.
We are both still involved in the leadership meetings at church and these usually entail a time of devotions and discussion as well as keeping everyone up to date on the different ministries and activities of the church. One thing that has been a focus in our church body lately has been a course called "Now That I'm a Member." It is designed to help people discover their spiritual gifts, learn about the assets and liabilities of these gifts and find ways to use their gifts within the different ministires of the church. It really is neat to see people understanding more about how God made them and gave them unique gifts as well as seeing them get excited to plug into different ministires.
I have been involved in the childrens ministry from the beginning of our time here and it's something that I really, really enjoy. The kids are just so cute and so excited every week for sunday school. They see us walking to church and come running up to ask "are you our teacher today, what are we learning." Our church building is a big concrete building with particle board dividers at the back for a few offices and two classrooms. Our sunday shool time for kids is during the main service on Sunday nights. Let me just say that someone is always coming into my class and telling us to "SSHHH." We taught the kids all kinds of creative ways to act things out, play games and celebrate without making noise and just using our bodies, arms and legs to cheer and show excitement. Over the last months we've had about 5 teachers rotating through the two classes (3-6 and 7-11 yrs old) and seven teenagers rotating as helpers. With the goal of training these teens to be future teachers, like a kind of teacher mentoring system. Several of our current teachers were wonderful to volunteer simply because there was a need for teachers, but they don't necessarily have a passion and love for teaching kids. The teens have been great helpers and have slowly been given more responsibility during the class time. They kept asking when they could start teaching on their own. So just a few weeks ago we offered a class one Saturday afternoon for anyone who wanted to learn more about teaching Sunday school. We told the teens that if they wanted to be teachers that they needed to come to this training time. A woman who has many years of childrens ministry experience in another church came and spent several hours demonstrating all kinds of creative ways to teach kids, different songs, games, dramas...Well three of our teenagers participated in this class and afterward were totally gung-ho to start teaching. So Elizia (the other lady who coordinates kids stuff at our church) and I decided to "turn them loose" so to speak. So this Sunday night Nathany (16) and Diorgi(13) are each teaching their first class and Elizia and I will be their helpers. I've no doubt that they will do great. They love the kids are are super inspired to have a more permant role as sunday school teachers. It's just been so neat to see them overcome their fears of being in front of the kids. At first most of the helpers seemed to be volunteering just to get out of sitting in the main services. They would pretty much just hand out snacks. But as the weeks went by and they began to get more comfortable and invest more in the younger kids, they slowly added to what they were willing to do, from telling the Bible story to teaching memory verses and leading games. I've really enjoyed getting to know the teenagers more too, they are so much fun and add a lot of creativity to the classes. So I'm pretty proud of Nathany, Diorgi and Thuany for taking the inititive to attend the training and now to become teachers themselves. Elizia and I will be their helpers just the first few times to help with the transtition, so that the little kids know that the teens are "real" teachers and to be respected and listened to. These kids stepping up to be teachers is a big answer to prayer in many ways. Several of our other teachers who have been helping but don't have the passion for teaching will now be free to pursue other areas of minsitry, and the teens who are starting to teach will have great opportunity to exercise their different gifts and abilities in the classroom as well as be role models to the younger kids. There are also several new people who are wanting to help with the kids ministry, so I look forward to seeing how our Sunday School program will be changing in the coming months.
Other big news in my life is that I have a new friend! Linda is a women that Micah and I happened to meet last year while we were in the local health clinic after Micah had dislocated his shoulder. She recognized right away that we were not Brazilians and that got us to talking. She herself is a very blond haired, blue eyed Sweedish lady and is married to a Brazilian. She has a little boy Adriano and they live about 3 blocks from us. Over the past year we'd bump into one another on the street and a few times she stopped by our house as she was passing by. We ran into one another on the street several months ago and I told her we were moving to a new house and where it was. A few weeks later she stopped by to see the house and to meet Samara. It's always been easy to visit with her and refreshing for me to visit with another women in English. So we chatted and she invited me to stop by her house sometime. I did and we ended up talking for a long time, both of us realizing that we were starving for deeper friendship with another woman. Not that I don't have brazilian ladies that I visit with...but it's still a bit labored to really talk, share our hearts and feel really close. So Linda and I sat and talked about all kinds of things. I learned that her mother is and has been an alcholic for many years, Linda was raised in foster care, and has very little contact with her family. When she was a young teenager she went to church with some friends but had to hide it from her foster mom. Eventually she decided that religion was not for her and has not had any interest since. She met her husband, Marcos, while they were both working in London. Linda was pregnant with Adriano when she and Marcos got together. She often talks about the difficulties she is having raising her son, and the screaming and yelling that goes on in their home. About how she really wants to be a good mom, but that she knows that Adriano is getting out of control. That she and Marcos fight alot. That her mother in law in involved in spiritism...ect One day I was at her house for a visit and she had been telling me about her struggles in her marriage and her frustrations as a mom so I asked if I could pray for her. I prayed for her and her family, that God would bless them and that she and I would be able to be good friends for one another. I also invited her to walk with me two mornings a week and we've been doing that for several weeks now.
A few days ago she asked me to go shopping with her. So we spent the whole morning together and I took her out for lunch. So we're walking around shopping and out of the blue she asks me "do you think people who are Christians have happier marriages and more peace in their homes than non-Christians?" Whoa, where did that come from. I was suprised...I know I shouldn't have been, I'd been praying for opportunity to share the gospel with her for many weeks. I knew that a seed had been planted in her life when she went to church as a girl and several comments she'd made over the past weeks led me to believe that she was/is looking for peace, hope and truth in her life. So here we were digging though a pile of handmade throw rugs and the opportunity drops in my lap. I'd like to say that I launched into an amazing, compelling presentation of the gospel then and there, but I didn't. I hesitated and sent up a prayer for help, wisdom and words. I talked about my marriage and how awesome it is to have Christ as the center of our home and to have a husband who loves the Lord first in his life. Linda looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. She was like " that means nothing to me." "What do you mean Micah loves God more than you." I realized that I was speaking "Christianese", that I was using phrases common to the believer, ideas that most Christians understand. I was talking to her as if we had the same foundation and understanding of who God is. I was not speaking her language. I felt pretty silly (for cryin' out loud I'm a missionary, I should have this down pat) By this time we were sitting down and finishing our lunch. I sent up another prayer for God to speak His words through me. And we started over with much more simply basics. Talking about God, do you believe he exists, who is Jesus and why is he important.... Linda was full of questions, and doubts and anger from how she had been treated by her foster mom for going to church. Full of fear about how her friends in Sweeden would view her if she ever became a Christian. Full of knowledge that her husband has absolutely no interest in spiritual things, and would prefer it if she felt the same way. I asked her if she believes in God. Her answer was that she believes in herself because everyone else disapoints, abandons and lets you down. But she said she'd like to read the Bible if she had one. So we sat and talkeda and talked and talked. I listened a lot. And in the midst of all her doubts and fears there was an open hunger for peace and freedom. She said "I know that my home is without peace." "I know that something is missing in my life." I talked with her about the salvation that is a free gift from God if we believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again to save us. By this time we were pulling up in front of her gate. We said our goodbyes and promised to continue our conversations on our next walk.
So I've been on my knees a lot these past days, praying for Linda. Praying that the seed that was planted in her life as a young teenager would find suitable soil in which to take root. Praying that no matter how insignificant that little seed of a word of God appears, however feeble its life may seem, however deep it's meaning may be hidden, and however slow it's growth may be that I will trust God that fruit will come. And that I will have the boldness to not make it sound like salvation is just a matter of having a happy home, a better day or joining a new club. But to make a realistic presentation of the gospel. He that has the Son has life. He that has not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him. (John 3:36) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16) That I will show love by saying "Linda, what will you do with the person of Jesus Christ? Your eternal state hinges on your decision. If you receive Him and respond to Him you will be saved, but if you reject Him you will die." This type of presentation makes me super uncomfortable. Part of me says, "be careful, you don't want her to run away", but I feel the Lord really prompting me that she will not appreciate how wonderful Jesus is until she realizes how lost she is. I ask you guys to please be praying for Linda, that the soil of her heart will be plowed deep and that the seed of the word of God will have fertile soil in which to take root and grow. That she will respond to the prompting in her heart and accept the free gift of salvation that is offered and that she and I will be so much more than just friends, that we will become sisters.
This Friday my parents will be arriving from Alaska for a three week visit. You can imagine how excited we are to have them here and how excited they are to meet their first grandchild. We are also looking forward to my friend Kim coming back to see us in July as well as Micah's parents who will be here in August. It's so great to have family and friends come to see us and we are incredibly blessed that they are taking the time and spending the money to get here and spend time with us. We've also been so blessed by all the notes, messages and packages that many of you have sent. Samara has received so many beautiful things and is one well dressed little girl. Micah and I feel so blessed by your outpouring of love for her. We're continually astounded at your generosity, support, prayers and thoughtfulness. We thank you with full hearts for being such important parts of our lives and of the work that God is doing here in Londrina. You guys are so appreciated!
In Him For Him- Micah, Marla & Samara

pictures:
mking brownies: is of Micah making browinies with two boys (Diorgi and Breno) that he is mentoring on Saturday mornings
nene (baby): is of Isabella, a 2 year old at church who just ADORES Samara
the rest I think are self explainatory

************************************Cliff Notes : Lovin' ************************************************************************* *****
This email I talked about how much I'm liking being a Mom, the joys and challenges for me.
I also talked about how God has answered prayers in the evolving and expanding Sunday School program
And I wrote about my new friend Linda, who is a foreigner just like I am and who only live a few blocks away from my house. It's been neat getting to know her and though she is not a Christian she is hungry for Spiritual things.

Prayer Requests
* Thanksgiving for a healthy baby
* Wisdom and sensitivity as I talk with Linda about the Salvation message and as we build our friendship
*Traveling safety and connections for my Parents who are braving a Brazilian bus
* Wisdom for Micah and I as we learn how to balance ministry with family
* Wisdom for Micah as he has new and expanding roles in our church

Jan 16, 2007 - this Philistine

2009-02-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

*************No Cliffnotes, Just Micah writting about finding courage to engage in spiritual battles********************************

"Oh, but you're a Routon" they used to say as we were growing up. It was a phrase used by our friends in high school to explain how come my brother and I never really got hurt. It wasn't that we played it safe either. Since we were born there has been a vein of adventure running through our very being. Growing us we tried every form of cheap extreme sports that we could think of. We jumped off of everything we could climb, from buildings to cliffs to bridges. I even remember once at a family camp when I was about 11, directing classes for some younger friends of ours how to jump off of the roof of a building and land 'safely' in the sand of the playground below, when their parents rounded the corner. My mom tells stories to this day of how shortly after we had learned to walk, she found us sitting on top of a swing set more than 10 feet off the ground. I guess Aaron and I didn't always grow up with a proper level of fear. And I'm not writing this with any form of conceit, fear can be a good thing. It's just that we never really got hurt, so we never really had a reason to fear.
Now before you start thinking that such a pain tolerance must have been great in sports, let me explain something. Though God blessed us with an ability to escape injury, we were not blessed with what coaches call "coordination." Determination, strength, and a decent level of speed we had...but coordination...forget it. In 7th grade basketball, though I could run the court all day long, I could not quite ever get the ball through the hoop. My sophomore year in high school, I made the varsity soccer team (quite an accomplishment for a sophomore). Though I sat the bench alot that year, when my coach would finally put me in, his last minute instructions to me weren't: "score a goal, make good passes, or use your head," but instead "establish a presence." So in I'd run, chasing the ball as hard as I could, usually knocking someone down in the process. It wasn't that I meant to mind you, it just seemed to happen. I'd like to say that being in Brazil has changed all of this, that my soccer skills have developed to such a point that I now play with what they call "finesse," but that wouldn't quite be true. My skills have developed, and I do score alot more goals, but one of my Brazilian friends recently told me that I play like a truck without brakes. So when I'm picked for our weekly games, deep down, I'm not sure if it's because they want me to score goals, or if they don't want to get hurt. But they keep playing and I haven't sent any of my friends to the hospital since college.
But growing up, this fuzzy line between fear and wrecklesness carried into some other areas of life as well. From driving to my spiritual life, I have never felt hindered by what some would call "reality." But then slowly things started to change. When I was starting to surf, I was never afraid of the big waves until I watched Aaron get sucked out to sea during an Oregon storm, and he disappeared from sight for more than 2 minutes. I was never afraid of jumping off of things until a bad water landing from a 90ft bridge kept me from walking for a couple of weeks, and running for months. I was never afraid of trying new tricks on my roller blades until I lost 2 front teeth and messed up my wrists for years. Now my toes hurt weekly from soccer, I've got a permanent lump from a dislocated shoulder, and to top it all off I now use reading glasses. All this before I'm thirty.
Marla says, I've finally gotten smarter. Like when we are at the beach this past December, we decided not to surf at the beach that had bone crushing waves. Aaron eve decided to check the depth of some water BEFORE jumping in. I don't know. This contrast was brought to light this past weekend when I was hanging out with a 12 year old boy. He was on his bike riding wheelies down the street, and climbing to sit at the top of various public workout equipment, while I was busy telling stories of what I used to do when I was growing up. "I used to...", used to. Have I now become "a used to." Now to be honest the physical implications of the question doesn't worry me. I know I'm getting older and need to take care of myself, it's the spiritual implication that have me thinking.
Just as things happened physically that made me stop and think, so too have things happened spiritually that have effected me more than I first had first thought. One was last year. I started an accountability group with about 3 other guys. It was a great time when we would come together weekly, be completely honest with one another, encourage each other, and uphold each other in prayer. These 3 guys were either young believers, or newly recommitted believers. But then the world and it's cares came and started to choke the new spiritual life of 2 of these three. It's funny reading the Bible. In Jesus's parable of the sower, the seed lands on 4 very different types of soil. What is interesting is that 3 or the 4 types receive the Word of God (we might call this 'conversion'). But of the 3 types of soil that receive the Word, only 1 actually reproduces in any significant way. As people working in churches we hope and even expect that every new convert will be this 4rth type of soil. And when things don't turn out like we expect we become disappointed and discouraged. And so it happened with me. Last May I left Brasil with 1 of my 3 avoiding the rest of our group as well as the rest of the church. By the time I got back in September another one had left the church, not involved anywhere else. I know these aren't my guys, they belong to God, but gosh, I had seen their hearts, I had seen their desire to serve, I had seen how they were willing to take a stand for Jesus, only for the devil to trip them up. And it's not just that either, there are other things too. Being married has changed things a bit, and I imagine have children will change things even more. Now my wife is amazing, and her parents have raised he to know her provision comes from the Lord, but living with the "I'll go anywhere, anytime" mind set has gotten more complicated for me. Since being in Brazil I have also seen the power of macumba (witchcraft). 'Storming hells gates' was alot more romantic to talk about before I saw people I knew suffering physically and emotionally the effects of evil incantations.
Just as there is a line between fearless and wrecklesness, there exists a line between having a healthy respect of something and fearing that thing. So when 2 of the original 3 in my guys group asked me to start the group again, even enlarging it, I had to face this fear. Fear of what? Fear of something happening. Fear of leading some into a deeper spiritual existence where they and their family will be attacked, fear of seeing some fall. But the God we serve is not a God of fear, but a God of boldness and of courage. So what difference does courage make anyway? Is not the situation the same whether you have fear or have courage? Let me illustrate this with a story that came from this week's sermon. This story is found in the book of 1 Samuel. The setting: early in the kingdom of Israel. Saul is the king, and you have two opposing armies camped on opposite hills with a valley in between. Everyday a giant name Goliath comes out and demeans the Israeli army. A small shepherd boy arrives on the scene appalled at the audacity of this giant, and faces him in battle. The bible says that after he chose 5 smooth stones, and exchanged some words with the giant he "ran to the battle line." We all know what happened next, he killed the giant. But what really happened to the two armies? From a strategic point of view, their situation changed very little. One less giant on one side, and a small shepherd holding the head of Goliath on the other, but strategically very little changed ...but courage arrived, and it was contagious. The whole Israeli army raced through the valley to the other camp, destroying the Philistine army. What changed? Courage arrived.
Just as fear is contagious, courage is also contagious. One of my favorite happenings of the Bible is also about David. There he was rejected by his king, running for his life, and the down and out people of society started to be drawn to him. The Bible describes the scene in 1 Sam 22:1-2 as "David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it they went down there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he (David) became their leader." Sounds like a real group of winners huh? But they rallied around David, they rallied around his God. And do you know what became of group of distressed, indebted, discontented men? They became known as David's mighty men. In time, they themselves would kill giants and defy entire armies, and single handily kill 300 men with one spear. Courage is contagious.
And today do we serve a different God than that of David. Is our God any less able to do the impossible? Any less ready? So why then do we fear? We fear because will focus more on our situation than on God. In our story of David and Goliath, listen where David's focus was: 1 Sam 17:36 "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like on of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." David never even gives the giant a name...he just calls him "this Philistine."
His size of his faith had nothing to do with the size of his problem. In fact you could say that the size of his faith could only be measured by the size of his problem. And so it is with us.
So the business with this guys group; I would ask for your prayers. I would also ask for your continued prayers for Marla and I down here. Having a "healthy respect" for this type of warfare means we know that battles are won on our knees, and on your knees. We covet every prayer offered up, and will keep you posted on requests for prayer. And if the tone of this e-mail started in an air of fear it let it now end with a sense of confidence because the God we serve is a big God, eternal and never changing.

Oct. 4, 2006 - The Why's

2009-02-27T16:43:00.000-08:00

*********Cliffnotes to "the Why's" available at page bottom****************

Sitting in the car driving back from San Francisco, many things were racing through our minds. We had just had our visas for Brazil flatly rejected, and as much as we tried to stop them, the questions kept swirling around refusing to go away. At that point we didn't know why our visas had been rejected, or for what reason. Was it God pointing us another direction, did He have something better up his sleeve? And if so, why didn't he just tell us? Why didn't he just direct our hearts before we went through all of this. What purpose did he have in bringing us to Brazil in the first place if we weren't to go back? But the questions just kept coming. The "why's" that sooner or later all of us ask.
Walking by faith by definition means following God's call without all of these questions answered. It is not blind or naive, it's just a faith that acknowledges that God is God and I am not, and that He is directing this life. But those questions do come.
To be honest we've been asking those questions since we arrived in Brazil last year. We came to pilot the eXtreme Walk program. We came with a heart for recruitment, and Brazil was kind of a means to an end. It was a foot in the door, a real mission experience. It was to be fuel for the recruitment fire. A well of real mission experience that we could draw from in answering questions and concerns of potential missionaries. Now don't get me wrong, the country and the people are great, and there is always a need for Christ where ever one goes, But we came for recruitment. Once we arrive however, our hearts we torn. Why Brazil, why now? More of those 'why's."
These why's continue as when we ride our bikes down the main street leading to our house. Every time we return from our Portuguese classes, or running errands downtown we pass about 7 different protestant churches, each with it's own small congregation, each with it's own light in this community, and we ask why here, why now. There are parts of Brazil that need the light of the Gospel, that have no witness, why have You put us in Londrina that already seems so saturated? But in faith we walk on.
Though that first decision that pushes us over the threshold where we can say with certainty that we have began walking by faith, is often a difficult step to take, the steps that follow can get easier. But behind this walk, this journey, the "why's" often scream for our attention. They try minimally to trick you to take your eyes off of the savior and at worst, have you take complete control back into your own hands.
But for us, and for me in particular, the why's lead to a lack of vision. Proverbs says that without vision the people parish. While we weren't perishing where we were, we did lack a sense of purpose. For some time I've been trying to perceive why Marla and I are here, and what specific contribution we can have to the Church here in Londrina, and here in Brazil. What strategic relevance can we have here? What is our purpose? And in faith, we've walked on.
It isn't that Brazil, or Londrina, or even our street is without it's share of spiritual need, the need remains great. Though we have many churches, they are mostly filled with women and children. There are plenty of guys and men of God who also attend but it often is very disproportionate. Marla and I jokingly wonder how anybody ever meets and gets married because all the girls go to church, and all the boys go to the bars.
In terms of church growth and people movements Brazil right now is a very exciting place to be. Though today somewhere about 30% are protestant evangelical believers, and if current trends continue the experts say that all of Brazil will become protestant in X number of years. Spiritually it kind a exciting. It feels like it must of felt in America back in the days of Lewis and Clark. Like our country felt destined to stretch from sea to shinning sea, the Church here in Brazil feels destined to reach the whole nation with the saving news of Jesus Christ. This goal, this desire is printed on T-shirts, and written on bumper stickers, it feels destined to happen.
Of course reaching this goal is dependant on evangelism, and our church here in Londrina is doing it's part. But for me, evangelism isn't enough. I don't know, maybe it was my own experiences in the church growing up, at times watching Christianity being a thing you do, not a relationship that defines who you are. Maybe it was watching friends of mine that I grew up with in church who never had deep roots, wander and get lost along the way. I think of how being in the country of Rwanda affected me. Hearing the horrendous stories from the genocides in the 90's; how neighbor rose against neighbor to butcher one another, and then to hear this happened in a "Christian" country.
It's been said of Africa that Christianity is a mile wide, and an inch deep. So for me, as the Church in Brazil continues to gather momentum, I have a burden and a passion for helping people grow in Christ. Where Jesus isn't simply incorporated into who they are, but changes and heals them completely. To help them be rooted in the word. To watch them be able to stand when times and temptations get tough. And to be able to help them to grow and contribute to what God is doing here and around the world. And all this starts one person at a time.
The need for discipleship is great. My experiences here last year, at least in our church, showed me that while churches may be filling up, the depth of relationship, and a working knowledge of the Word of God is lacking; in some cases desperately lacking.
So I guess I'm starting to see a purpose, a "why" if you will, as we once again start jumping back into things here at the church. There are so many places to plug in where this passion can be actualized and fleshed out. So far we've been asked to help disciple and lead discussions in a class about the basics of Christianity, to develop and guide a youth program, to plan and carry out a women's ministry, to start and oversee a soccer ministry, and help with the children's ministry and visitations. And with all this, our calendars are not yet full.
To be honest, it's been fun to be a part of this church as it begins. Ideally it's kind of been a blank slate. A place where together we can dream, pray and plan. Where we can, as a church body, can begin to recognize in each other the passions God has placed in each one of us; and enjoy a freedom to explore and develop those passion for His purpose. Slowly beginning to see how He has been fitting us together all along. Finding that in doing such, the "why's," at least for this phase, begin to fade away.
As I now start to finish up this e-mail, I realize that there are mothers who will be reading this. Those of you who would enjoy hearing stories of how 15 month old Isabella, with her curly hair barely gathered in a tiny ponytail smack on the top of her head, has discovered that if she can make it up the stairs of the platform as Diogo preaches she can smile at the whole congregation at the same time. Or those of you who would like see pictures of Marla, hear stories from her how entering the second trimester is going, and know how she is feeling. But rest assured those stories and reports are coming, but will just have to wait for now. For now I'd like to give a few prayer request before we sign off. #1. Continued good health for Marla and wisdom and help in finding a good doctor here. #2. For our church, and it's leadership. #3. Our Portuguese to grow and increase in leaps and bounds. Thank you for those of you who have shared with us your prayer requests, as it's been a joy to join you in lifting those burdens toward heaven. And as always, we want to thank each of you for letting us be a part of your team.
in Him, for Him,
Micah and Marla......(and peanut too)

*************Cliffnotes: "the Why's"***************************************
In this e-mail I wrote about the doubts that we all have in following God. Whether it be here in Brazil, or a small town in middle America walking by faith is hard. I wrote specifically about some of the doubts that we had in coming to Brazil, and questions we had about the role God had for us. Then I began to share how God has been revealing to me how we fit into this puzzle here. It's been great to see how the burdens and passions that God has put in our hearts can compliment what others have already done here. I wrote briefly about some of the activities we'll be involved in here including youth ministry, women's ministry, children's ministry, a soccer ministry and visitations. I finished with a couple prayer requests which were as follows:
1. continued good health for Marla as she enters her second trimester
2. for our church and it's leadership
3. for our grasp of Portuguese to grow by leaps and bounds
thanks again
************************************************************************

Sept 16, 2006 - Prisioners of Hope

2009-02-27T16:42:00.000-08:00

*********************Prisoners of Hope Cliffnotes available at page bottom*******************************************************
Hey Crew,
Where to start...I guess it makes sense to start at the beginning. When I wrote you last I wrote with the promise of a more in depth email, and as I look at all the things that are going through my head....it may take a while to get all of these thoughts on paper (or at least a screen)
A couple of weeks ago, while we were still visiting Marla's parents in Alaska, we sent in our applications for Brasilian visas so that we could enter the country and continue working as missionaries. Since our current documents were still valid, we needed only tourist visas to enter Brasil. These are typically very easy to get and we forsaw no problem. But while we were still in Alaska, we got word that the consulate had called wanting to talk with us. Actually we got word that they had called Oregon, Brazil and Indiana trying to talk with us. When we finally called them back, they said that there was some problem with our application and they wanted to see us in person, with all our documents in hand. Knowing we had only a few days between getting home and then leaving for Brasil, this news was a bit of an inconvineince, but what are you going to do, if they want to see you, they want to see you. So to keep a long story short(er) we planned to drive to San Fransisco to show them proof that we were legal to be in the country. That is when we sent out the first email to all of you. We arrived in San Fransisco the night of Tuesday, September 5, found a hotel, and got ready to visit the consulate the following morning. Arriving shortly before they opened, we found out that because of various holidays the consulate was only open 2 days that week. That meant two things: 1. that the office was going to be more crowded that usual. 2. that the consulate employees only had to take 2 days of vacation to not work that entire week...needless to say they were very understaffed. When the office opened, we took our number and waited our turn. When our number was called we went up to the window, explained who we were and started to get our our documents. The first lady who helped us then went into a back room to retrieve our file. When she came back, she got another lady who was more familar with our case to explain what was going on. The second lady sat down, and looked over our proof that we had brought from the federal police in Brasil, and dissappeared once again into the back room. When she returned, she said quite "matter-of-factly" that we would not be issued visas to return to Brazil. That statement really set us back. We didn't know what to say, we explained our situation, we showed her again the proof that we had brought down. Sure there was a long line of people behind us but we had drivin over 600 miles. Could she please explain what was going on? What had we done wrong? Why wasn't our proof good enough? After another couple of minutes, she very politely excused herself, took our papers, and explained that she was going to get the vice consulate to help clear things up for us. Ok, we thought, finally someone who can help us. When the vice consulate finally came to the window, she threw our passports and documents on the counter in front of us and began yelling at us.
"I don't know why you're still here, you've already been told we weren't going to give you a visa. In fact we've contacted all the other consulates in the country and they know about you. You've already taken more than your share of time, take your things and leave."
"What!!!" we thought, we were stunned. We had never in all our lives been treated the way this lady was treating us...all without provacation. We tried to open our mouths and politely question what was going, why this was happening, what had we done wrong. But each time we began to open our mouth, she would launch again into her verbal assault. With nothing left to do and no one higher to appeal to, we gathered our papers, and after only 10 minutes at that front counter walked back out the door.
Marla was fighting back the tears as we entered the lobby, but finally let her guard down as those elevator doors closed. What to say? We weren't expecting that, our flight to Sao Paulo left in six days for crying out lound, now what were we going to do? If we couldn't go to Brasil, what were we going to do? Where would we live? Lord, what just happened in there? All these questions started racing through our minds. What happened between them telling us to bring all of our documents to come and see them, and today? When we finally got back into our car and found the freeway towards home, we popped in a book on tape and gave our brains a vacation from the new endless assault of uncertainty.
As the book ended we got something to eat, checked into a hotel and began talking things over. We were in shock, and it felt like we were greiving the loss of a dream, the loss of our expectations with nothing to take their place but questions. We spent some time praying together, pouring our wounded and tired hearts out to God, and recommitting and trusting our future, whatever it may be to Him. We went to bed that night mentally, physically and emotionally exausted. We just wanted rest.
Early the next morning my mind awoke me thinking about our situation. How could we get back into Brasil? Would it really be that hard to forge a visa? How hard do they really look? How about using My brother's visa? We're twins, I could just mail it back to him after we had gotten in. Mind you these weren't rational ideas, I was just grasping. And when I finally woke up enough to know that I was grasping I was mad at myself. Why couldn't I just accept the fact? Why couldn't I just face the music? Why did I always have to hope? I mean sure hope is supposed to be a good thing, but unfulfilled hope, makes the heart sick, and I was already tired of feeling so confused and uncertain without hope making it worse. That morning, before Marla woke up, I took my Bible and my computer to go have my quite time in our car parked outside. And even before I opened my Bible, I felt God say He had a message for me in my reading. I thought "are you kidding, I've been reading through Zechariah. It's all about the exiles, and Isreal, and the prophets, what could God say to me today." But then my eyes came across Zechariah 9:12 where it reads "return to your fortress, o prisoners of hope; even now I annouce that I will restore twice as much to you."
Prisoners of hope, prisoners of hope; well that was certainly where I was at. And the phrase summed up even better than I could how I was feeling. Hmmm, what could this mean. As my quite time came to a close I pulled out my laptop and turned it on. I had brought a headset and using our hotels wireless internet connection, I called Brasil to at least inform our OMS field leaders Mel and Fran Noah what the consulate had told us, so that they could start the nessisary tasks of moving the rest of our stuff out of Brasil and back to the US. After I had told them all that you just read, Fran said "so you're legal to be in the country right? Well, why don't you try to come down on the documents that you already have. The worst that can happen is that they'll turn you away, and you'll have to spend a couple nights in the airport." They promised to get some other opinions and call us back. And within a couple of hours we had the field approval as well as approval from headquarters to use the airline tickets we already had and try to enter the country. It was then that I sent my last email. It kind of felt James Bond-ish.
The next couple of days was a frenzy of packing, lists and cleaning. We tried to pack for up to two years, but emotionally were trying to prepare to stay in Brazil from anywhere between 2 hours and two years. I figured if we could at least get to Sao Paulo, the federal police would recognize our paperwork, and maybe just scold us before letting us in. But I also know the airlines check paperwork before they even let you check in, and I was hoping that whoever would check us in would believe our documents and help us at least make it into Sao Paulo.
The night before we left we slept fine. We were feeling good about our chances, and knew that God was in control either way. We awoke at about 5:15, and arrived at the airport shortly before 7am. The lines to the United counter were long, and when we finally made it up to the front we hoped that these long lines would help the United agent breeze over our documents....but they didn't. He carefully scrutinized what we brought. We then showed him a very unofficial looking document that we had printed out from the internet about our case, and translated it for him the best we could. He then got on the radio, and called another person that could at least read Spanish to translate it for him, and before he dissappeared to get it translated he said that he needed to be sure, because if we were rejected at the boarder, United would be fined $10,000 for each of us.
He was gone a long time, but when he came back he said he believed our story, printed out boarding passes, and checked our luggage. He even made small talk asking various questions about Brazil and what we were going to be doing. So with our first sigh of releif we went through security, and onto our plane headed for Chicago.
Chicago was to be our second place that I knew we could get turned away because they often check right at the gate before you board an international flight to see if your paperwork is in order, and if it is not, they may refuse you entrance onto the plane. But at least we had 7 hours between our flight from Portland, and our flight to Sao Paulo...or at least we thought. When the time came to board, we were standing at the gate waiting with all the other people headed to Sao Paulo, when they changed our flight and delayed it's departure for the following morning. The flight screens carried this information first, and so I took our boarding passes to the front counter to ask what was going on. The flight attendant took our boarding passes, told us there would be no flight that night, and stamped both of them "Internationally Approved." When they made the announcement in after a few minutes the room got tense, especially when they announced all the local hotels were already full and that everybody would have to spend the night in the airport. People started yelling and wondering where they were going to sleep, and we were a little irritated too, but when we saw our tickets we thought at least they had been stamped. That night wasn't the best night of sleep I've ever had. The airconditioning was cranked up, and we would have froze if we hadn't found a pile of empty garbage bags and a few thin airplane blankets. We awoke the next day in time to get breakfast and find our gate in time to board. But when we looked at the screen, our flight wasn't even listed. It would be another 6 hours before we would actually take off, bringing our grand total of hours in Chicago to just over 24, which was pretty discouraging when we considered we had only been flying 3.5 hours to get there, and we had a long ways to go. But at least we were on the plane, the door was closed, and we were going to Sao Paulo. In a mere 10.5 hours after leaving Chicago we landed in Sao Paulo, collected our bags and went to the immigration line. The line was long and slow, but we didn't really care, all we wanted was to get through. When we found ourselves at the counter we gave the immigration officer only our passports and our documents that the other missionaries suggested. We offered no explination, just the documents. He looked over Marla's passport asked a few questions, and sat his stamp on one of her pages. And with the stamp just resting on her passport, he yelled at another officer to question if they would accept our documents. And after a short conversation, he brought his hand back to his stamp and stamped her passport. After he stamped mine as well, Marla uncounsously, yet very audibly let out a sigh of releif, and we were through...we had been let in. To be honest we weren't sure what to think, we had been so numb to the whole situation, the reality of actually being let in the country hadn't really set in. Suddenly everybody was speaking only Portuguese, and we were back on very familar ground. We found a bus going from the airport to the main bus station, and then purchased tickets from Sao Paulo to Londrina. The phrases came back quite easily and I found my self more or less understanding a language I hadn't heard in a long time. We watched the city roll by from the windows of our bus untill sleep overtook us, and after 8 hours on a bus and just over 54 hours of total travel time we pulled into the main bus station in Londrina. Our missionary family was there as was our pastor and friend Diogo. We talked about the details of our visa's and flights as the car took us down the all too familar streets that led to our house, and when the car finally arrived, it felt as if we had arrived home...or at least kind of. It's quite a strange sensation to have two very different places both feel like home, but it was what we were feeling. Our house was almost just as we had left it and within hours of arriving many of our friends from the church had dropped by to say hi and give us hugs. We were so tired we had to turn our lights off and close our windows to discourage others from dropping by so that we could get some sleep.
Today we are still resting up, Marla being more tired than I due to a physical condition she developed about 12 weeks ago. The bags are almost unpacked, and we have enjoyed our first 3 meals of rice and beans. We've already had a meeting to discuss what we'll be doing this next year, and have forms and worksheets to get through. We'll start some more language school on Monday, and return to life as normal the following week. (Oh yeah, we'll also return to the federal police to work on my permanancy...like a green card on Monday so keep that in your prayers.) And as the boxes unpack once again, and the pictures go back up on the walls, we want to thank you for all of your prayers. We know that God used them in bringing us peace in the midst of what was going on as well as favor in finding loop holes in bringing us back to Brasil.
Oh yeah, attached is the first picture of our little "peanut" because we think this little 12 week (currently) old looks like a peanut. Any questions...email us. (Don't let the size of this paragraph fool you, we'd love to talk about it, but we'd also like to hear from you. How you are doing, and how we can pray for you...all you have to do is hit the reply button.)
in Him, for Him,
Micah and Marla
ps. The first picture is of my bed in the airport, and the second is our first picture of "Peanut."

***************Prisoners of Hope************************************
This email was about the emotional rollercoaster that we've been on lately. It all started when we recieved word from the consulate in San Fransisco that they wanted to see us. So with nothing else we could do we drove to San Fransisco only to be yelled at by the vice consulate and told that we were not going to be given a visa, and we would have to wait at least another year to apply for a visa of any kind. That was the down part of the roller coaster. The next day we called Brasil to tell our field leaders we weren't going to be able to go to Brazil, when they suggested we at least try to come down on the paperwork we already had. It was kind of James Bond-ish, and each document inspection point we got butterflies in our stomachs, but after some long inspections they let us in, and we arrived safely in Londrina a day or two ago after a mere 54 hours of traveling. We are tired and doing well. Marla is a bit more tired than I do to a physical condition thats been going on for the last 12 weeks. For a BRIEF description on her condition please read the last paragraph in the main email, as well as the PS's that describe the pictures
************************************************************************

March 28, 2006 - Potpourri

2009-02-27T16:41:00.001-08:00

*******************"Potpourri" cliffnote available at page bottom*****************************************************

We've been keeping a list for some time about some of the strange sights that we've seen on our street, Sao Joao. I suppose they wouldn't be strange for the Brazilians here, but they seemed a little strange to our foreign eyes. The horse drawn carts picking up recycling stuff or the people pushing the carts doing the same have become so common place even for us that they don't make the top 5.

So without further a due here are the top five funniest things we've seen driving down our street:
#5. A bicycle with a motorcycle ferrying, headlight, reflectors, windshield and saddle bags all (but the bicycle part) made from cardboard and completely covered in black duct tape.
#4. A muddy Baja, ATV, which by itself is out of place in our neighborhood. But as this one was driving we noticed about 5 or 6 guys all hanging on the back right corner of the car. As it got closer we noticed the weight of those guys propped the front left corner up just enough so the wheelless disk brakes would only scrape a little as it went by.
#3. An entire landscaping....bicycle. This guy was driving a bike with a tiny lawn mower on his bike rack, with a rake and other gardening utensils strapped on the frame
#2. We came out of church late on night to see two guys racing their horses in an all out sprint down the deserted street.
and the #1 funniest thing that we saw on our street was: two cowboys slowly riding their cows down the street. Full saddles, bridles, and all...just slowly trudging along.

Things here have been going very well. It was just the other day I sat pondering all the things I have left that I'd like to do in the church with the 2 months that we have remaining until we leave. And I caught myself thinking 2 months isn't enough time. God has been opening doors and letting us be involved more and more, and sometimes it kind a feels as if we are up against the deadline to get done all the things we'd like to do until May 25th, the day we leave. And I was thinking what a blessing it is to be feeling this way instead of counting down the days until we leave as if waiting for Christmas. God has blessed us a lot, and the weeks and months are just flying by.

In our last e-mail we requested prayer as we endeavored to make a video for the churchs' one year birthday party. It went well, and God was good. It was still a mountain of work, but I think it may have been one of my best projects to date. The celebration was fun and our little church was stuffed, every chair full, and people standing out where the cars park.

This past week we were visited by our supervisors from the US. They came to see how the work was going, to hold us accountable, to give some advice, to encourage us and in general...be a blessing. And they were. It was a little funny at the start because we didn't know each other very well. But it's amazing what 4 and a half days can do. We started off with a little 2 day retreat in a city about 1 hour away from Londrina. It was a beautiful city, and a new place to explore. We then came back to Londrina and for the last 2.5 days did our best to introduce them to not only the people and the work that we are involved in, but also the best places to eat in the city. I tell you it can be tough work, but fortunately for them they had a couple of good tour guides. It was also a time that Marla and I got to test our Portuguese as we served as translators for every occasion. Wow, it has been a long time since my head has hurt like that. But God as faithful and surely helped us when we asked for it. It was also encouraging to us because we could see how far our language skills have come. Sometimes when you are speaking with only Brazilians, you see only how far your language has to go, and sometimes it felt like we weren't making any progress at all.

My experiment in applying the principles of "Practicing the Presence of God" has been going well. There have been days or sometimes a week or so when events or a busy schedule take my mind from this new discipline. But indeed it is a discipline, and yet it is much more. It is a new mentality. And sometimes mentalities don't change overnight. It is a difficult task, to try to bring Christ into everything I do, and sometimes I have greater success than others. But there are moments of success. Moments when I can feel His joy and His peace within ANY situation and thus my resolve remains constant. And I look forward to seeing what this world will look like when I better learn how to see it through the lens of constant fellowship.

One thing that has been challenging me greatly this past month is how interconnected the spiritual world is with the physical world. To be honest, I guess it started when we started to read Frank Peritti's "This Present Darkness." For those of you not familiar with it, it is a fictional story about the principalities of this world, and the on going struggle between good and evil, and how much power is in prayer. The book is fictional, and if read strictly as a fiction, or fantasy can be a nice story. But the book really got me started thinking about how intertwined the two worlds are, and to be honest it's a little discomforting. It's not that I'm now going to change my focus from Christ to angels and demons, but if the battle isn't strictly against flesh and blood (as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12) but against the spiritual hosts of wickedness are we not even pointing our swords in the right direction when we suppose people's problems are merely physical. I wish to be effective, and if that means recognizing problems as spiritual, I guess that means recognizing problems as spiritual.

We had just finished reading the book a couple weeks ago, and the idea's were still fresh in my head when one of the guys I've been discipling showed up at our gate. As we stood and talked he relayed the following story:

A week prior I remembered him coming to the Tuesday night prayer service to request prayer for his teenage niece as she was battling depression. She was not a Christian, in fact nobody in her family (except my friend) was a believer. Her dad (my friend's brother-in-law), had dabbled in spiritism stuff and was very against Christianity. My friend has been praying for all of his family to come to know Christ for a long time. Anyway, after asking for prayer for her at our prayer service on Tuesday, my friend went over to her house Sunday night after church. She was crazy (actually 'crazy' is a safe word I'm more comfortable with, a more accurate word would be 'possed'). Yelling a screaming. My friend asked if he could pray for her, and she flew off the handle, saying all kinds of stuff. Moments of lucidity would come and go, and in these moments she would say "he's trying to kill me, he's trying to kill me." My friend started praying against this spirit in the name of Jesus, and then he was inspired to go get help. He went to my pastors house, to get backup and recruited both my pastor and his roommate. While he was gone his niece became lucid and said "where's my uncle (calling him by name), I need my uncle." When they returned to the house they prayed over this girl for 4 or 5 minutes and then she became calm enough for people to talk to her. Her family wanted to rush her to the hospital, but before she left our pastor asked her "do you believe Jesus is stronger?" and she said "yes."

The next night my friend and the pastor's roommate passed by the house again, just to checking in on things. And that night; the girl, her mom, her dad and a good friend of hers all accepted Christ!!

It was all just like the pages of the book we had just finished reading. I know this kind of stuff happens in books, and happened in the Bible...but in real life....in my neighborhood? And as you read these words now, you'd be foolish to think these events, that these type of spirits are confined to Brazil or "other" places. As uncomfortable as it might make us, it's time to get our swords pointed in the right direction. As I write this I would request prayer not only for this family of new believers, but for those who prayed for their freedom. I spoke wish one of these guys a couple days ago, and he said since that night his level of temptation has picked up exponentially.

I would also like to thank you for all of your prayers for us since we arrived. As we sat in our missionary prayer meeting yesterday, I was again shocked at the number of illnesses and serious medical complication that exist among missionaries. And we are certain that your prayers for our heath and safety have protected us more than we even know. Marla has had some kind of weird rash on her chin for the last two months. She's been to the doctor, and gotten many different types of medicines. It doesn't hurt, or itch and nobody seems to really know what it is. She would appreciate prayers for that as well. I would also request prayer for me on Sunday the 9th. Diogo has asked me to preach that night, and I'm a bit nervous. As I begin to prepare, pray that God would give me His message, and that I'd be faithful in delivering it how He wants it delivered.

in Him,
Micah and Marla

The attached picture is of Marla and I with our shepherds Jack and Tabby
**************Cliffnotes for "Potpourri"**************************************************************
This email was a little bit all "over the place," but sometimes life is like that.
We started this email with listing a few of the funny things that we've seen driving down the street that we live on.
We then commented on how fast time is going for us here, and that we're feeling a bit of a time crunch to do all the things we want to do untill we leave (as opposed to counting down the days untill we get back to the US).
We thanked you all for your prayers for helping us make the video for our churches birthday party. It went well.
We then talked about our shepherds who came to visit us this past week and our time with them.
I wrote a little about my ongoing expiriement of "Practicing the Presence of God."
Then we spoke about spiritual warfare, and the reality that it truely is, not just here, but there too.
We closed thanking you for your prayers, and new prayer requests. They are as follows:
Continued good health and protection, for a 2-month old mystery rash on Marla's chin, for me as a prepare and preach a sermon on April 9th.
Thanks as always for your involvement.
********************************************************************************************************

Mar. 4, 2006 - March Mail

2009-02-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

****************Cliffnotes available at post bottom*****************************

Well the craziness of Carnaval ended yesterday, and we are left a little sleep drepived, and a house that is in desperate need of cleaning. God has been good, and alot of good things have been happening. The very act of writting them down in the form of an email often helps us remember what God has brought us through.

I beleive the last electronic chapter we sent requested prayer concerning our future, well those prayers have been receiving progressive answers. After much prayer and council we feel a peace and excitement about returning to work another year here in Brasil. Right now we are planning on returning to work with the same church as well as help mentor and facilitate the next group of eXtreme Walkers who will be coming to Brazil this fall. Much prayer went into this decision, and we thank you for your investment of times in intersession. Quite honestly we are very excited about having another year here, and the people we have talked to about it are very excited as well. I used "progressive answers" because we don't want your prayers to stop in this area. There are still alot of details that need worked out. Everything from funding to the storage of this house while we are gone. From the details and paperwork at headquarters to getting new visas to retaining our Portuguese for the 3.5 months we'll be in the States this summer. And then the summer schedual...... Awh... It can be mind boggling if you let it, but as Isaiah 30:15 says "In returning and rest you shall be saved; and in quietness and hope shall be your strength." So we will continue in quietness and hope, still knowing that our diligence is required, but having the confidence that He will open the doors when His time is perfect.

You all also prayed for Marla in her time of sharing with the ladies. These prayers were answered as well, and I'll let her tell it in her own words....

Once a month all the ladies from our church get together for a time of fellowship and food. This last time they asked me to share a little devotional with the ladies. I prayed about this opportunity and about what God wanted shared and felt led to talk about God's desire for a relationship with us, about Him pursuing us and His longing for us to choose Him. That Friday night there were about 20 ladies sitting in the circle out front of the house. We started with a time of worship and prayer and then I shared. I'd translated the first couple mintues or so into portuguese and with all my practicing before hand and the grace of God I think they understood most of what I said. Then I was assisted by Gwen Pinkerton, a fellow missionary. She did a great job translating. All in all it went very well and I'm grateful for your prayers.

In the past I'd (still Marla) mentioned several adolecent girls who I felt led to get to know better and possibly start a discipling/mentoring relationship with. This is something that I've been praying about for months and had seen little results or open doors. Well yesterday two of the girls came over for several hours to visit and learn how to make "American" cookies. One of them recently accepted Christ at the Vacation Bible School we helped with. Anyway God is good and really helped us be able to communicate and laugh and enjoy one another's company. I taught them how to make homemade oreo's, we visited and before they left I extended an invitation for them to come over once a week for a time of Bible study and hanging out. They said they'd think about it.....So, your prayers are coveted...that if this is something God is orchestrating that the hearts of these girls will be moved and they will respond to Him. Also for wisdom for me as I continue to get to know them better and maybe take on this role of mentor.....

Micah here again. In looking back, Carnaval was a crazy time. A time, I believe, when the enemy is hard at work, and this year was no exception. At one point I could literally feel an opprosive presence downtown. Feeling such things is still something I'm not used to, and even now am having a hard time putting it down on paper. But there wasn't a fear or anything like that, just a conscouiness that something else was out there, something oppressive. Anyway, alot of prayer went into this past weekend. We had activities at our church, and in general had a lot of fun. My guys group continues to go, and God has been so good in being there each time we meet togather. These guys seem so much like sponges soaking up the Word of God, and enjoying the deep fellowship with one another. (Just a point of interest, the Portugese word for fellowship is "communion," or as they say it "communao"). At times it seems like we are making some great headway, but then the enemy attacks. Distractions, sin, them seperating themselves (usually as a result of sin), girlfriends...the list could go on and on. All of this reminds my that this group is still in need of prayer cover.

Marla and I have also been assigned the task of making a video for the churches 1 year birthday party. Projects like these can easily become all consuming so we are trying to get things done while maintaning balance in other areas of life. And I've began reading again "Practicing th Presence of God," a Christian classic by Brother Lawrence. For those of you not familar with the book, it was written by a monk hundreds of years ago who took Paul's instruction to "pray without ceasing" literally. He developed a practice of communing with God all throughout the day. The difference between simply having devotions, and being a man of devotion. About half way through the book, I was hit with the realization that the words and the message of the book were simply remaining theoretical to me. Simply a good idea, maybe a goal to reach for "someday." I was challanged to begin to put into practice the things that I was reading in a very practical way. I gotta admit, it's not very easy, and I feel I've only taken the first step on this mountain climb. But I've taken it. And it wasn't a step taken without thought, it wasn't that I hadn't counted the cost. I guess it was the cost that kept me from taking the step the first time I read the book years ago.

The cost of becoming one of those people who see God in everything. One of those people who talk about God without ceasing. Every event, of every day is somehow related to God and what He is doing. In a strictly "spiritual, missionary way," I can tell you I have been around those people in the past, and to be honest, I found them to be kind of annoying. I mean can't things just happen with out God's constant work behind the scenes. Can everything that ever happens really be the subjest of a Bible study or a monolouge on God's goodness, or chastening or whatever. I mean is God behind me turning on the TV, or mowing the grass? What about when my bike needs repaired, or we need to go to the store to buy groceries, can't we just kinda handle those things on our own, and involve God in the bigger disicions. But if this second viewpoint is true, what then do we do with Act 17:28 that says; "for in him we live, and move, and have our being?" I guess to tell you the truth, those people always made me uncomfortable. I guess I felt a little "less spiritual" when they spoke of seeing God in everything. Like what was wrong with me, that I didn't see Him where they saw Him...that I didn't even look. I guess I feared bringing that same uncomforatible feeling to those around me. I mean isn't it far easier to talk about the Seahawks than the things that really matter. And why is it that bringing up spiritual topics always leaves someone squirming just a bit. I guess I assumed this squirming and uncomfortableness was a bad thing. But above all I erred in thinking that those type of people, those who seem to talk all the time about God, were talking about Him to gain some response from me. No, their talking about Him had nothing to do with me. Like talking to someone who has just started to date, or is interested in dating one particular person, they can't help always stearing the converstaion back to "perfect miss (or Mr.) so-and-so." It's expected, it's natural.

So I'm taking this step, realizing more and more that I won't fit back into life at home the way I did when I left. It might make people a little uncomfortable. But this descsion isn't about other people, it's about God and it's about me. And As I start this experiment, I'm finding that He is there, in every step, in every breath. As an example, just yesterday I got stumped on my video project, so I asked God a technical question about a video program, and what'd ya know...he aswered me. I guess I never thought of God as a computer tecky. Maker of the universe...sure, saver of my soul...you bet; but a computer tecky? And it's more than just answers to life's everyday questions that envokes me to embarque on the journey. It's the promise of the every day with Him, the beauty of every moment. Surely what uncomprehendable joy awaits as I seek the ability of living every moment in the peace and the presence, in communion, with the maker of my soul.

Anyway, prayer requests: For my guys group, for Marla's interactions with these teenage girls, details for next year, effeciancy working on the birthday video and continued good health.You guys are soo appriciated and loved.

in Him,
Micah and Marla

***************Cliffnotes: "March Mail"**************
This email we both wrote a bit about Brazilian Carnival, and some other activities that we are involved in

Feb. 7, 2006 - EBF

2009-02-27T16:35:00.000-08:00

******************Cliffnotes available at post bottom***********************

O que ta rolando? It's a question we answer many times a day, and a free bit of Brazilian slang for those of you who don't know. It means: "how's it going?" Things here are going very well, and we continue to be amazed how God keeps providing. Anyway, on a totally different thought, a month or two ago I had promised a story about a funny cultural difference. I apologize for the delay but have not forgotten my example.
In the united state, especially in Oregon, we come from a very politically correct culture. Especially when it comes to race and ethnicity. I mean in America culture we have people represented from all over the world, and we call them all "American." In fact, many times to call them anything else would be offensive. It's not like that here. Oh they have every color and every shade represented here as well, but if you see a guy on the street that looks Japanese, and you want to get his attention you just yell "hey Japanese." Or "hey German," or hey what ever. Even friends use this all the time. The first time we encountered this was at a church pool party where a little girl followed a little boy around calling him "Japanese" all day. And no one seemed to care. Of course it's a cultural thing. Everybody here understands it. But it when cultures collide that is when funny things happen. One of my good friends here was studying English at the same place Marla and I had studied Portuguese, when a group of Americans came on a mission trip. One of the young men in the group was of Asian decent, and my friend Luke as just trying to start up a conversation. So trying to get his attention, Luke yells across a crowded room in perfect English "hey Japanese." This poor guy didn't no what to think, and Luke didn't know why he didn't respond, so he yells again in perfect English "what's the matter Japanese can't you understand what I'm saying?" This time the poor guy, horribly offended, turns his back on Luke who was wondering if his pronunciation was off. It's not really a big thing, and it happens all the time, it just makes me laugh a little each time.
Anyway, Our VBS went exceptionally well. Thank you all for your prayers. We had made our plans expecting around 70 kids, so it surprised us quite a bit when over 120 showed up the first day. Snacks had to be re-thought, games had to be redesigned, and we filled every available chair from the church, from our house and from Diogo's house. It was "organized" chaos at first, but eventually we got a handle on things and had a really great time. I worked with Diogo and the adolescents, leading games most of the days and the lesson another. Marla took pictures (over 500 in 4 days) and assisted another lady who was teaching the 9-11 year olds. Marla and I had fun introducing such games as shufflebuns and a balloon stomp that went over so well we did it again with the adults this past Saturday. The theme was Navigating with Jesus, and each of the daily lessons led up the invitation to accept Christ on the last day. In our group of 30 teenagers, 6 of them accepted Christ for the first time. I wish you all could have seen that group all on their knees in a small circle on our front porch (for lack of space at the church) repeating a prayer that Diogo prayed. I can tell you there was much rejoicing in heaven that day. And it was neat to be a part of it. And as you sit and read these words I hope that you can feel the part you played as well. Not just in the people that responded, but in the seeds that were sown.
The final event was a Saturday night service where the kids were to invite their parents to watch them receive their certificate. Needless to say the church was packed again, and Diogo preached another salvation message before handing out the certificates. The crowning moment of the night came when we showed a video at the end that used many of the 500 pictures Marla had been taking through out the week. It was set to music, and by the time the video ended you could hear all the kids as they watched in the dark singing along to the familiar songs. We ended the night all hands joined in a crowded circle the stretched from wall to wall, singing a worship song the kids had learned during the week. It was pretty special.
Since then, church attendance has been up from 50 and 60 to over 80. There are a lot of new faces sitting beside their children, and a lot of kids who we first met at VBS that keep coming back. Another side effect of being the Americans up front of 120 kids is that now we don't know if we should know the names of the scores of neighborhood kids that we pass everyday. It's been challenging and yet a bit fun at the same time.
This week marks the last week of summer vacation for the schools here in Brazil, and it has been hot. We've had several days over 100, with no A/C, and high humidity. But it is the nights that we feel it the most. Our house retains a lot of heat, and has one little window in the bedroom. The temperature around midnight has been around 80 with our room being at least 10 degrees warmer...needless to say, we find ourselves drinking a lot of water, and dreaming of a night when we'll actually use covers.
A few weeks ago marked the half way point for our stay here in Brazil, and as we try to look into the future and decipher God's plan for us, we have the confidence that God knows what He's doing, and His plans are best (sometimes this confidence seems like all we have, but He has been good, giving us no more than we can bear). Our hearts have had peace, and he has starting to focus our thinking as to what the next few years with OMS might hold. And though we try not to focus on the amount of time we have left here, it is a fact that is definatly on our friends’ minds. Last week just about everyday somebody made a comment about our upcoming departure. So I guess we would request just for the peace of God to rest on everybody that will be affected in the plans for our future. Another prayer request is for Marla. This week she has been asked to share something at the monthly women's meeting. It will be the first time for her to teach in Portuguese, and unlike me, she won't have the advantage of using Diogo (being that he's a guy and all) to translate when she gets in a jam. So please pray for understanding and communications, that God would loose her tongue and open her ears and God’s word to these ladies would be wonderful.
Other than that, please continue to pray for our health, as we keep hearing stories how the enemy is attacking this area with many other missionaries. Please continue to pray for my guys group, and then of course for the details that surround our next step.
You all are loved and appreciated,
in Him,
Micah and Marla
**********************Cliffnotes: "EBF" ***********************
EBF is Brasilian for VBS, or vacation bible study. It was a week long event that was held for the kids of the neighborhood. This email, discussed the events and reflections of a week of Brazilian summer

Jan. 23, 2006 - Merry January

2009-02-27T16:34:00.001-08:00

**************************Cliff Notes for "Merry January" at bottom...but this one isn't too long**********************

Well the holidays have come and gone, but here in Brazil it's summer time so lots of folks are still in the middle of vacation. Kids are out of school and daily there is a group of boys running wild in the empty field across from our house trying to get lift-off for their colorful kites. Those little plastic kites with long tails and string wrapped around an empty coke bottle provide them hours of entertainment and add so much color and joy to their lives and all who pass by. This was our first international Christmas and it was a great one. Micah's brother Aaron came down from Alaska to spend about 10 days with us. Coming from Alaska in the dead of winter to Brazil in the heat of summer was a bit of a shock to his system but I know he enjoyed thawing out. We were so blessed and had such fun introducing him to our church family and friends, riding all over the city on bikes and spending time catching up. A three day trip to Foz do Iguacu was a highlight for all of us as we saw the largest waterfalls in the world, rode bikes in the jungle, paddled rubber kayaks through river rapids and spent time with a local church leader and his two little boys all the while. All in all his visit was really great and just spending time together as family was special as we made a wealth of memories and took loads of pictures. And the Aaron that headed back to Alaska was a little more sun kissed than the one who arrived.

Now it's been back to our routine of quiet mornings for prayer, studying Portuguese and writing emails, hot afternoons of errands and chores, meetings and naps and evenings and nights filled with activities and services at church. These last two weeks we've been planning and preparing for our equivalent of VBS. The theme is Navigating with Jesus. This is our church's first time doing VBS and it's been a great learning experience of all of us involved. There are about 12 adults active in the planning phase and looking forward to teaching and interacting with kids from this neighborhood. We've been spending 4 or 5 hours every afternoon at church preparing, making name tags, poster board song sheets, planning activities and games for the kids. Our prayer is that this VBS will be about honoring and glorifying God through loving and teaching children about Him. Our first day this Wed. the 25th and we look forward to how God will use this time to transform little and big lives and hearts for his kingdom.

This weekend we spent with the other missionaries for the annual retreat. Friday afternoon we headed to a hotel/resort about an hour away for several days of spiritual retreat, fellowship and fun together as a missionary family. While the location was not exactly what everyone had expected, we still had a great time just relaxing and getting to know one another better. Even though we're all working in the same city, we seldom have time together just to hang out, so I think we all enjoyed the opportunity to build friendships, play silly games, and spend time together sharing and praying about the upcoming year. I know Micah and I came away refreshed and appreciative for the missionary family here in Brazil.

The guys group that Micah is facilitating has been a source of joy for him. Currently there are 5 Brazilian guys committed to this group and they meet on our back veranda every Friday night for accountability and Bible study. It's been Awesome for Micah to watch as these guys discover that God can speak to them personally through His Word. As they realize that God Himself can reveal His word to their hearts and minds. Their growing knowledge of and desire for God's word is an occasion for thanks and praise. There are still struggles as these young men and new believers battle the enemy and his desire to bring them low through sin, discouragement, fear and guilt. In a very real way we still ask that you pray for these guys, that God would use these times in their lives for growth. That their hearts will respond to Him and that His mercy and grace will shine through their lives.

We have started a women's group that is meeting once a month for fellowship, sharing and prayer with another. This is a source of both great joy and great frustration for me. I love getting together with these ladies and spending time trying to get to know them better. However, it is also so very frustrating and makes me sad when I cannot communicate easily with them. Both the difficulty of understanding what they are sharing and the inability to share my own heart with them while feeling like my personality is lost somewhere in the halting, labored Portuguese makes this building relationships with the ladies a challenge . While this has been a hard thing for me and it makes me feel like I'm not a "good" missionary, God has been using this to draw me closer to Him. As I am, in a sense, forced to use other ways to show love and interest in these ladies other than just words, God is reminding me that He is so very much bigger than my lack of ability. It's not going to keep Him from accomplishing His desires in the lives of these women. And when I focus on what I can't do rather than what He can do, I miss out on what He is doing right now.

Micah and I are amazed that it is already almost the end of January, our time here seems to be going so fast. And as it zips by and our return date draws near we ask for special prayers for our future. From the beginning we have simply desired to follow God wherever He leads, and as we come to another time of decision making that is still our desire. We will be here in Londrina until the end of May, then we'll return to the states for the summer to see our families, visit some churches and hopefully finalize plans for the next year. At this time we do not know what those plans are, where we will be and what we'll be doing. Our time here in Brazil has been so far above our expectations and the friends we're making have become so special...if God say's "back to Brazil" we'd be thrilled. At this time we'd like to be somewhere more long term, But we're praying for open hearts to go wherever He leads. We ask you to join us in this prayer, that our hearts will be open to His leading and will for our lives. That in His timing He will reveal what we are to do and that we will rest in peace and patience as we wait for Him. And that we will be obedient and faithful right where we are as we wait and trust Him with our future. Your prayers are such an amazing part of our lives. And please, please understand that these are not simply words that we write to close each e-mail. Often we sit amazed how much our lives have been blessed, and the protection we have received and we know it is because you all are praying. God loves on us so much through each one of you each time you pray. And your prayers are touching the lives of so many others here. You are being used in His kingdom, you are being used for His glory. We pray you are being blessed by His faithfulness and fullness in your lives.

in Him,
Marla and Mica

PS. the first picture is of Micah and I at a local park in front of some bamboo, and the second is of the three of us at a restaurant.

************************************Cliff Notes******************************************************************** ***
We were blessed by a visit from Micah's brother over Christmas. Had loads of fun and made great memories together. We're gearing up for VBS this week and ask for prayers for teacher and kids. We spent the weekend with the other missionaries at the annual retreat and had fun getting to know one another better. Micah's guys group is discovering that God can speak directly to them through His word. Please continue to pray for these guys as they battle the enemy and desire to walk closely with the Lord. Our ladies group is a source of both joy and frustration for me as I build relationships with such limited language. I'm reminded that God is not hindered by my inability, and I need to focus on what He can do rather than what I cannot do in order to be a part of what He is doing. We ask for pray for our future as we seek God's direction for this next year. We'd like to be somewhere more long term, but pray that we'll simply be obedient to follow where ever He leads. We're ever blessed by the way God loves on us through your prayers.

Dec. 14, 2005 - Into the Battle

2009-02-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

**************”Into the Battle” Cliffnotes available at the bottom of the page**************************************

I guess it probably started back in June at our eXtreme Walk training in Marion,Indiana. Not during a session, or class, but during worship. That's when I gave full permission, for the first time, for God to burden my heart with the things that burdens His. These are nice words to be sure. Nice to think about, and they sound great in sermons, but until that point there had always been a part of me resistant to praying those words. Afraid of the consequences of such a surrender. But there I was, in His awesome presence, knowing His plans for me were always good. Always to give me a hope and a future. So finally I laid it down, my last bit of resistance, and committed myself to His plans once again. No more was I trying to work for God's kingdom AND have my own long range plans. And in reality it was truly liberating.

So what did God begin to do? Slowly he began to prepare me for my time here. He brought us here to Basil and opened doors for us to get to know the folks here. We were there at their baptism, and were glad at what God was doing in their lives. The church was (still is) growing, and so were the depths of our relationships with others. And more and more our hearts were being expanded to calls these new people friends. But for me, friendship always implies some level of responsibility. As friends, and especially as Christian brothers and sisters, we are to help one another in areas of weakness. When they stumble are to help them up. That is the duty, the responsibility and the privilege of being a friend. This I understood. I guess what I didn't understand, and in reality still don't understand is the depth that spiritual powers play in this "stumbling."

Ephesians 6:12 says: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." For years I've understood this truth from an academic standpoint, but until recently, I've never truly let this principal transform the way I look at problems. Don't get me wrong, from the time of my childhood I was always fascinated with spiritual warfare. Fascinated in the same way that a boy is fascinated with fighter jets. Amazed at the mechanics, the power and the stories. But for me, it was only a fascination. In truth I was afraid. Just like I liked seeing a jet fighters power fully displayed, I knew this only happened in time of war. And war means injuries, war means casualties and war means death. And that was a price I wasn't willing to pay. As I grew, I never became a fighter pilot. And in the same way, I guess I figured that true spiritual warfare was for other people. People stronger than I. I understood that those who engage in warfare, especially spiritual warfare (it matters not what continent you are on) are on the front lines. And people on the front lines can attract the most attention from the enemy. And I guess I wasn't willing to pay that price personally.

So what did God do, he began to expand my heart while at the same time opening my eyes. I've been reading a book lately on intercessory prayer, which has been challenging me greatly. It has been challenging me to start seeing our problems in spiritual terms. While at the same time, my relationship with some of these guys at church has been growing deeper and deeper. We are beginning to share with each other areas where we struggle. As I'm becoming more aware of these areas of weakness, I'm seeing them more and more through a spiritual lens. Let me give you one example......

Flash back to our first month here in Londrina. Marla and I were just walking around the downtown one evening, and we passed a street that had been closed, a stage erected and an orchestra warming up. Obvious that the performance was yet to come, we killed some time, and returned an hour later. Yes, there was an orchestra, but there was also a kids choir, acrobats from a circus, and multiple groups of teenage girls to preform a choreographed dance (a thing very popular here). There was a big crowd, and being downtown we even had a few cross dressers mingling trying to talk with people. The various groups took turns performing as the street crowded with people. It was fun, but there in the middle of it all I got a very dark picture of a spiritual reality. If you know anything about Brazil at all, it is no secret that along with many great things, this is a very sensual culture. A land famous for small swimsuits and carnival ("carne" Portuguese for "flesh" and I imagine "val" taken from the word festival?) There are porn magazines available at nearly every newsstands, and some billboards that leave little to the imagination. Even the dances of these teenage groups that night had some very sensual elements. During one of their performances, in an instant, I got a mental picture of a dark force moving these dancers, like a puppeteer moves a puppet. And every time he did, the crowd would respond in such a mindless, Pavlovian way. I knew how much our enemy hates man kind. How he hates man because the image of God that was created in man. And in this moment I saw how he desires to twist and pervert that image as much as he can, smearing it through the mud. And how in this situation he was using sex to do it. Being one that is not accustomed to seeing spiritual truths in such a way, I didn't know what to do with the information. I wasn't scared, or didn't feel suffocated, I just was aware of the situation. And I felt pity. The type of pity you feel for people who are in bondage...and don't even know it....

Anyway, back to seeing problems through a spiritual lens. As I'm getting to know these guys more and more, we are beginning to share in an authentic way. How things are "really" going. Areas of weakness, and areas of needed growth. While at the same time beginning to see these struggles than more than just against "flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness." I want so much to help them. But I feel, I don't know how. They clearly need a spiritual warrior, but for so long I resisted training because of what I feared it would cost me. And now, I feel my ignorance is costing those I love. And all of a sudden it makes perfect sense to me. Those who volunteer to join our military armies, don't necessarily sign up because they love to fight. They don't sign up because they love to see blood and guts and gore, they sign up to defend those who can't defend themselves. What a staggering truth. They sign up for a cause. War, spiritually and militarily, is both offensive and defensive. When at war, simply choosing not to fight doesn't mean I will be spared the cost of battle. When I don't put on my armor, when I don't pray, others can pay the price.

So here I am, knowing I need to be a warrior for these guys, but feeling completely inadequate. I find comfort in knowing that "when I am weak, then He is strong," and in the prayers of all of you. I need wisdom, I need to know how to pray, I need to know when to pray and when to act. I need insight and direction. And yet through this all, I'm finding peace. I know the situation is in God's hands. Even Him bringing us here for this time was according to His will. I know He will be there, and He will be faithful to these guys, it's just hard for me to see them fall. I know what it's like to fall, I have been there. I have walked the same road as some of these guys, and struggled with some of the same things they struggle with. But God, through the prayers of others, released to me victory over this temptation, over this struggle. And I want that same thing so badly for them.

When we first began this group of guys, I debated with myself if I should share the story of my deliverance with them. I wanted to identify with them, and feared that speaking of my freedom, would be received as not being willing to be vulnerable. (After all it is far easier to speak of answered prayers than prayer requests with those you hardly know.) I feared that this perceived "invulnerability" would be reciprocated by the rest of the group establishing in an unwritten precedent of superficiality. But then in that still small voice of God said "don't be afraid to be mighty."

"Mighty" its a word we don't use all the much any more. Once, I heard a pastor give a sermon on the mighty men of David. Teaching on who they were before they met David. 1 Samuel 22:2 reads: "All those who were in distress or debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader." They were not so much a group of winners if you ask me, but they rallied around David. David 'the giant killer' and in time they too became giant killers, defeat'ers of armies and defenders of Israel. I knew exactly what God was saying when He said "don't be afraid to be mighty." Nelson Mandella put it this way: "We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?' Actually, who are not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing so enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of god which is within us."

So, do I yet feel mighty? Do I feel ready to attack the enemy and His strong holds? Do I feel adequate to defend the ones I love? No, not yet. But I know I'm here for a reason, and no longer will I let fear keep me from going into the battle.

Thanks for your prayers and support,
in Him,
Micah and Marla

ps. please also pray for safe journies for my twin brother Aaron who is comig to visit us this Christmas. He'll be our first visitor and we are very excited to have him. I also have a little funny story, but I'll share it next time. Thanks again for being a part of this.

*****************Into the Battle Cliffnotes*****************************************************************************
In this email I discussed fears that I had in participating in spiritual warfare. I was afraid of the personal cost of going to the front lines. But through a series of events, I've come to understand that just like a real army, many of those who enlist, enlist not for blood and or the love of war, but to protect something precious. And I've began to understand my inavailbility for serious training in warfare (because of selfishness) can cost those whom I love. I am not sure exactly what to do now, but I've descided to join the battle. I need to know what I'm doing. So as you pray for me please pray for wisdom and for the guys of this guys group.
************************************************************************************************************************

Nov. 19, 2005 - November Update

2009-02-27T16:30:00.000-08:00

************No Cliffnotes: Marla writes about her expiriences***************

Brazil... For me this word always invoked primordial images of grass huts buried deep in a dripping jungle, with scantily clad children running about and a woman cooking at an open fire while a man returns from the jungle with fresh monkey slung over his shoulder... So it was a pleasant (if a tiny bit disappointing) surprise to find that the part of Brazil where we live is not at all like that. However there are plenty of differences between home and here, and as we visit more and more homes of Brazilians we continue to discover new and more subtle differences... for example...flip flops in Brazil have more than the traditional use as shoes...like when a child misbehaves, mom simply reaches down and whips off her flip flop to serve as a paddle. They also make a very handy bug swatter and you can see evidence of this in many homes. The dusty flip flop print on the wall or ceiling is a sure giveaway.

We find it hard to believe that three months have almost passed since we arrived in Brazil. The store windows have
Christmas displays now and people are planning what to do for their summer holiday. (remember Brazil has opposite
seasons from the states) It's a bit strange to start thinking about Christmas when the days are reaching 95 degrees, the mango trees are laden with fruit and there isn't a sweater in sight. We'll certainly miss having a white Christmas this year, but look forward to learning the traditions and customs of families here. Also Micah's brother, Aaron is coming from Alaska to spend the holidays with us. We're very excited to have him come and have been making lists(and checking them twice=) of all the things we want to do while he is here. Our first Brazilian Christmas should be a very fun and memorable time.

In past e-mail we've asked you to pray about our role here, what ministries to become involved in, which relationships to pursue on a deeper level and for God's leading as we become more a part of our church. Being the first extreme walkers in Brazil we have had weekly meeting with our team leader/pastor about how to be more involved, and God is opening doors. Thank you for your prayers! Our church is only about a year old and many of the leaders and members are very new believers. They are excited about what God has done and is doing in their lives and they are passionate about serving Him. Because they are such new Christians many of them have a lot of questions about the Bible and Christianity. They do not have much experience with church and they are like sponges, wanting to soak up everything. This has opened up avenues for us to begin discipling several people. Micah is meeting with two guys individually for discipleship and is very excited about developing these relationships. He is also part of a small group of guys who want to begin a youth ministry for our church. Along with planning and starting youth work this group is going to be meeting weekly as an accountability group. Micah is really looking forward to how God will work in hearts and lives through this time together. The guys are so gung-ho, excited and full of creative ideas, they can hardly wait to get started. Micah loves their passion and motivation, but he also wants to help them start something quality and lasting, built on a solid foundations and to help train them so that they can teach and train others. Prayers for wisdom, patience and sensitivity to God's leading are needed for this group as they get started growing, learning and ministering together. Please pray also for these guys. The concept of accountability here is very new, it's potential is powerfull and the enemy knows it. So please pray for the protection of these guys.

I'm meeting weekly with Sonia, a new believer in our church, to build a friendship and also for discipleship. She and I hit it off the first time we met and it's been a joy to get to know her more these last few weeks. She arrives at our gate on Friday afternoons, claps loudly (the equivalent of ringing the doorbell) and has her Portuguese/English dictionary in hand. We spend an hour or so visiting, talking about our walk with the Lord and praying together. There is another thing that I have on my heart and I'm asking you to pray along with me about this. A group of about four girls ages 13-16 come to church fairly regularly. They come as a group, not with their families. From all I have learned they are girls who do not have stable home lives, they live in a rougher neighborhood and are at a critical age and place in their lives. They like to dance and come to be a part of the dance and drama ministry. The few times I've talked with them my heart has stirred, they have such a hunger in their eyes. I've been praying about meeting with them in a mentoring role. I'm not sure what these meetings should look like, and I'm a bit intimidated to lead them at all with my limited and halting Portuguese. But God keeps putting them on my heart...Please pray that I will have clear direction about when and how to begin building deeper relationships with them. I've also been asked to be a part of the children's ministry on Sat. afternoons, this will begin next week.

Micah has been asked to teach at the service Sat. evening Dec.3rd and your prayers for this time would be so appreciated. He hopes to speak in Portuguese as much as possible and not have to use a translator very much. He's preparing to teach about prayer.

We also have been so blessed by our relationship with our team leader, Diogo. Today is his 24th birthday, he is young, but is doing a great job. Like Micah says "he has a good head on his shoulders." Both Micah and I have a lot of respect for him and feel that a large part of our ministry here is to encourage, and come along side Diogo and his fiance Beatrice. Unfortunately many times pastors have a hard time finding a "safe" place to just be themselves, to be encouraged, challenged and held accountable. For a variety of reasons they do not feel like they can let down and be vulnerable with people at church. Our relationship with Diogo and Bea is growing and it is a "safe" place to have fun and laugh together and to share struggles and cry together. Micah and Diogo will be meeting together weekly for personal accountability and prayer.

It is quite exciting to see God moving in the lives of our new friends here and in our own lives. Your faithful prayers are a source of strength and encouragement to us more than you could possibly know. Thank you for being such an important part of our team, for giving of your time in prayer and of your resources in support. Our hope is that through these e-mail you can catch a glimpse of how God is working through you here in Brazil.

in Him,
Micah and Marla

PS, the attached picture is of Micah (in the blue), our team leader and pastor Diogo (facing the group), and one of the guys Micah is discipling Carlinhos (other black shirt) in the front of our sanctuary.

Oct. 22, 2005 - One Perspective Away

2009-02-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

*******************Cliff notes for: "One Perspective Away" available at post bottom**************************************

.......Do I truly believe that my actions today can influence eternity for somebody? It's a question I've never really thought about before. I guess deep down, for me the idea of influencing eternity has been relegated to others more qualified than I. The Billy Grahms, the prayer warriors, and those with special training, and a special gifting. I guess in reality I've always been more comfortable with the idea of supporting these folks in prayer and lending a helping hand when needed. But for me? Anyway aren't these actions normally big, grandiose,and spectacular? Aren't they normally backed up by months of prayer and planning How can one simple action truly influence another's eternity? Do I truly believe it can happen through me? Does my life today reflect this perspective? What are the implications? What is my responsibility?...It's alot to take in...

Anyway, another week has passed for Marla and I here in Brazil, and the days are growing warmer. Looking at the calendar, we only have one week of language school left. This reality has brought up the sometimes terrifying thought that in merely a weeks time we are supposed to be "proficient" enough in Portuguese to begin to work at our church. You've got to be kidding? Don't get me wrong we've come a long ways, and we're feeling pretty confident in certain situations. And if nothing else, we've become pretty comfortable whipping out our title of "Portuguese student" any time we get into a mix up. With ease this has served as a valid excuse for our ignorance of facts everybody else just seems to know. The day is coming soon when this title will no longer apply, but God is good, and our Portuguese is coming. Last Sunday, I understood more of the pastor's sermon than ever before and we've even been able to truly worship in Portuguese a time or two.

For me, my learning of Portuguese has been a prerequisite for really learning about Brazil. I want to learn from the people what it means to be Brazilian. As my language skills have grown I have began to ask them about their stories, how they came to Christ, things they struggle with, and things that hold their passions. Not only trying to understand what they believe, but why: the cause and effect. When we begin to understand what makes Brazilians Brazilian, then can we begin to package the truths of the Bible in ways that make sense to the people here. This education has been truly interesting. Quite naturally my quest to understand these things have started with the people who speak the best English, namely our pastor and a seminary student that attends our church. In both situations I started with one simple question: "Commo voce encontrou Cristo?" How did you find Christ? And then just listened as they began their stories.

The story of Diogo, our pastor and ECC team leader (the same guy) started when he was 15. He wasn't a believer and not even interested in God. His parents had gone through a divorce a year earlier and times were generally tough. Diogo was very rebellious and his mother had no control over him. A missionary had given him a Bible which just sat on his shelf. One day, as is often the case with teenagers, he got into a fight with his mom for cleaning his room. So in anger he slammed the door and sat in his room alone. Looking on the bookshelf he saw the Bible on top of the stack of books. With nothing else to do, he picked it up and started to read. It immediately caught his attention and afterwards he sought the missionary out who had given him the Bible. He wasn't interested in becoming a Christian, but he did want to talk about the Bible and other things. And so the two began weekly meetings that lead up to our pastor giving his heart to Christ nearly 6 years ago. The story of how Marcus, the seminary student, found Christ really started 5 years ago. He grew up in a poor family in the northern part of Brazil and eventually moved to Sao Paulo to find a job. With in a few days of moving to the city he found a job at a paint store and began to make money. He spent alot of his money of beer and cigarettes, and had no interest in God. His sister was also living in Sao Paulo and had recently accepted Christ. To make a long story short he too was given a Bible and even came to church now and then. He enjoyed reading the Bible but wasn't ready to become a Christian. One day he went to a spiritist's ceremony and was seated in a chair. Although Marcus didn't know it at the time, his sister and the friend that lead her to Christ were praying for Marcus at that very moment. The person officiating the spiritist's meeting came over to him and did a dance in front of him trying to invoke the spirit of a dead person to speak through Marcus. When the leader reached over to touch Marcus, he fell over on the ground and started to convulse. Not knowing what to think, the other people at the meeting picked the man up and helped him to the side of the circle. Meanwhile another man started to preform the same dance in front of Marcus with the exact same result. Marcus went home that night relieved nothing had happened, and soon dedicated his life to Christ. All of that only 5 years ago.

I think of how both of their stories started with a simple act. Simple acts toward angry, confused, hung-over people. I think how God intervened and how their faith grew. Then I look at them now, passionate leaders dedicating their lives to the cause of Christ. In all of this I've wondered "what is it that stands in the way of God doing this again with people who pass by our church every day?" Sometimes the task seems so daunting. What will it take to reach the teens, I mean REALLY reach the teens, who always sit in the back row at church. And what about the folks that you know come faithfully, but you're not really sure why. Surely it starts with a Billy Graham, or decades of prayer, right? In my head I know these are things God does through ordinary people. So what is it about "when the rubber hits the road" that makes me so uncomfortable. In all honesty I'm not sure. The act of giving a Bible doesn't seem so difficult. Persistence in inviting your brother to church doesn't seem so hard. And what about giving time here and there to talk with a confused teen? Are these small acts enough? Are these small acts, the only thing that stand in the way of another soul finding eternity? In these questions I realize again, in a practical way, that it isn't us who does the saving. Sometimes God just needs a mouth to speak the truths that He's been whispering for years. Sometimes God just needs a hand to distribute the scriptures to someone so that He can use His word to break strongholds and change lives. Like in the analogy that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians: we are merely the laborers in the field. Some plant, some water, and some harvest. The miracle is not in those actions, the miracle is that the seed grows. And that miracle is God's alone. (1 Cor. 3:7 It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow). If only we could know in advance which part of this process we are for those who surround us everyday. Would this inspire us to plant more, water more, or harvest more? How would my life change if I truly believed that some that surround me are only separated from the Kingdom of God by one act of love done on behalf of the Father?

"Jesus, begin to open my eyes to the reality that surrounds me everyday. Fill me with the compassion and concern for the destiny of those in my neighborhood, at my school, and at my work. My desire is to be faithful in representing you. That my shortcomings would not stand in the way of the things you desire to do, and lives you desire to change. Give me then strength, boldness, wisdom, compassion and sensitivity to be a better reflection of your likeness. And to you alone will I give glory for the things you will do. In your precious name I pray. Amen."

Marla and I continue to thank you for your prayers. Our language acquisition has been very fast, and the two of us have remained healthy. Please pray for this to continue. Pray also for wisdom as soon we will enter into phase 2 of eXtreme Walk: the ministry phase. Pray for direction in where Marla and I are to become involved, and for the work that we will be doing. On a praise note, Marla has began to meet with a young lady from our church to improve Marla's Portuguese and this lady's English (the two really have a lot in common) Pray that God would really use this new friendship. Thanks for being a part of this,
in Him,
Micah and Marla
ps. The picture, (taken while I was quite unawares) explains better than words what its like trying to communicate. I call this one "...Whats the word....?"

*******************"One Perspective Away" Cliff Notes********************************************************************
In this e-mail I wrote about how Marla and I have only 1 week left of language school, and how we don't feel confident enough yet in Portuguese to feel excited about school for us ending.
I also wrote about how my doubt about God practically using me in everyday situation could in fact be hindering His will here. I explored the implications and ramifications of this thought and finished with a prayer for strength, boldness, wisdom, compassion and sensitivity.

Prayer Requests: continued language acquisition, continued good health, and for wisdom for us and our team leader
as we'll be entering the ministry phase of eXtreme Walk in 1 weeks time.
Praises: fast language acquisition, and for a new friendship for Marla with a young lady at church
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August 8, 2005 - Perfect Timing

2009-02-27T16:27:00.000-08:00

**************Cliff notes available at post bottom*****************************

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Ecc 3:1

For months now Micah and I have been planning and preparing to go to Brazil. Our target date to be there was July 20th which has come and gone. We do not always understand God’s timing, but we are learning that it is perfect! Thinking of leaving for a year I found myself wanting to see my parents, to go home, hug my mom and dad and spend time in Alaska as a family before we left. My Mom has been praying everyday this summer that she would be able to see us before we leave. Unfortunately there just did not seem to be any way for that to work out. We had things to do, places to be, responsibilities here in Oregon, and our time was limited before we were “planning” to leave for Brazil. Documents for my visa were in the hands of the consulate in San Francisco and we kept expecting to hear any day that it was in the mail to us. Days went by, weeks went by, July 20th went by… nothing. During all this time we were praying for God’s leading, for patience and for peace while we waited. It was hard to understand why we were still in Oregon, we felt sure that God was leading us to Brazil and on our end we were very ready to go. But God was asking us to wait.
Monday the 25th of July I went for a morning walk with my friend Kim. I had shared with her several times before my desire to see my family, and that morning we again lifted it to God in prayer. I came home and talked to Micah, he said; “Well Marla, give it a shot and see what you can find available with our frequent flyer miles.” Now, the chances of available frequent flyer seats to Anchorage, AK in July (peak fishing season) are next to none. So we prayed, and I, trying not to get my hopes up, called Alaska Airlines. Within 15 minutes, and much to our dismay I had two tickets on hold for that Wednesday. We talked about it and since we were still waiting for my visa realized that there really was nothing that we had to do that could not be done over the phone or email from my parents house.
I called my Dad and coaxed him out of the house to tell him we were coming so the whooping and hollering would not tip off Mom. I really wanted to surprise her. With a day and a half notice Dad did a stellar job. Wednesday morning he kidnapped Mom for a getaway day (which he’d been threatening to do for a week) and they headed north. When they arrived in Anchorage, Dad took Mom to her favorite fabric store and told her she had and hour to spend while he arranged things for the remainder of their “getaway.” He raced to the airport and met us, took us to a nearby store and with all our luggage we hid out on a bench. Dad went and picked up Mom and brought her to the store where we were waiting and the surprise was perfect! She was totally amazed and couldn’t believe that we were there.
Micah and I spent a fabulous week in Alaska. I am always blessed to go home and this time was especially sweet because it was so unexpected, and such an obvious answer to many prayers. We caught silver salmon on the Homer Spit, hung sheet rock in my Dad’s new shop, had dinner with family friends, and just enjoyed each others company.
Last August when we were in Homer, we spoke at my home church. It was the first of many churches and people that we spoke to over the last year. At that time as a church they joined our ministry team with commitment to pray and to give financially. So Dad asked us to give an update on Sunday. We shared and showed our DVD. After church we received a wonderful blessing in the response from people. We’ve shared at many churches and this was the most positive response we’ve ever had. God moved and people responded to Him. We had four new commitments for monthly support and prayer. And many people who expressed their interest. We were blessed with the outpouring of love and much needed support. God’s timing is perfect! It’s pretty neat that they were the first church we spoke in and the last (lord willing) before leaving for Brazil.
We are back in Oregon now and still waiting for my visa to come so we can get tickets to Brazil. It’s hard to wait, but we both have peace in our spirits that we are right where God wants us to be today. Micah and I have always said that our calling is not specifically to “missions” but to “follow God.” That means wherever He leads and whenever He says it’s time to go. We ask for your prayers as we wait, that this time would be used for His glory, that His purpose and plan would be carried out in a way that honors Him and that we grow closer to Him and one another in this time of waiting. When He does say GO, we want to be ready
I’m so thankful that His timing in perfect. I thank Him for the time to see my folks, to go home, to see the look on my moms face when she saw us, to be loved on and to love, to be blessed and to bless, to catch fish and eat fish, to make new friends and visit old ones, to work as a family, to squeeze into neoprene waders, to cook with my Mom, to see people respond to God and get excited about missions, to enjoy sunsets at 11:30pm, to watch Micah give my Mom computer lessons, to give and to receive, to pray and see an answer, to wait and see God’s purpose.
In Him,
Micah and Marla

**************************Cliff notes for Perfect Timing********************
• We are still in Oregon
• Waiting is HARD, but God’s timing is perfect
• We hopped a flight to Alaska with Frequent Flyer miles and surprised my mom
• Spent a wonderful week visiting and fishing and fellowshipping in AK
• Spoke at my home church which was the first church we spoke at about a year ago
• People responded to God and we received some much needed support
• We are so thankful for the blessing of our time in AK and for God’s timing in having us there
• We as for prayer as we wait on my visa, remaining funds to come in and final clearance from headquarters.

July 4, 2005 - Chasing Rabbits

2009-02-27T16:23:00.000-08:00

*******************************"Chasing Rabbits" cliffnotes available at bottom of Page**************************

It's like when you're hiking on a trail when you come to a view point, or a clearing in the trees, and all of a sudden you can see not only where you've come from, but where you're going and why. This past week in Indiana was an unexpected blessing, a true time of retreat.
Now don't get me wrong, Indiana is a fine state, but it's always hard for me to get excited for a week of training and meetings in air-conditioned buildings when I know how beautiful Oregon can be this time of year. And this year was no exception. Marla and I left Oregon about 10 days ago for a time of eXtreme Walk training combined with OMS's annual celebration. Excitement and anticipation were not the words I would have used to sum up our emotions, but for various reasons we had to go. So, with spirits weary from the past couple months, we packed our carry-on's and headed to the airport.
A shot of hot heat and air so thick you could drink it, greeted us immediately when we stepped off of our plane in Indianapolis at 10:30 at night. We were picked up and stayed the night with friends before leaving late the next morning to the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University. Located in Marion Indiana, the campus was beautiful and the facilities were great, but the hour and a half drive through cornfields and farmland left you with the overwhelming impression that you were in the middle of a John Melanic camp song...a small town in middle America.
Though this was my first time to eXtreme Walk training, I was no stranger to the OMS training that started late Saturday afternoon. As a veteran of 2 "Cross trainings," multiple church planting seminars, discipleship trainings, fund raising training, and pre-feild orientations, I have logged over 10 weeks of formal training in my relatively short OMS career. At times it has seems that I have been in training longer than I have been in any one particular country. This experience, combined with the reluctancy to leave Oregon produced within me a "been there, done that" attitude that I tried to hide the first evening of training. Eventually the chip on my shoulder fell off, and I was able to genuinely enjoy being there.
As was the case every night of training, the 9 of us finished our day together with a time of praise and worship, Bible study, and prayer. It was during one of these times that God began to deal with me. He brought to my attention that slowly I had been taking back control of areas I had committed to Him, namely our future. He had called me to a life of faith. He called me to believe that He would direct our path in His time. Just like when Abraham was called, we stepped out into a promise, not a destination. A confidence that He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper. Plans to give us a hope and a future. But the secret of all of this is faith. Abraham walked a long way before He knew where His land would be. It sounds great on paper and in hind sight, but living constantly with this ambiguity is difficult. It seemed easier when I was single. My decisions effected me, and even if God were to fail (if that were even possible), I alone would be the one to take the fall. But when I said "I do" I committed to put Marla's needs and her welfare above my own. These last few months have been kind of hard for her. I've been living out of a suitcase for the last few years, so this past year was nothing new to me. But 12 months with nowhere to call her own has been hard on Marla. So slowly, in my mind, I had built up a long range plan. One that included the American dream; 2.5 kids, white house with picket fence. As my friends have started to settle down and purchase houses and start families, I've slowly began to accept their situation as ideal and their plans as secure. I guess the old saying "the grass is always greener on the other side" was slipping into my thinking. But that may not be what God has for us. And that night as we were singing and praying, He asked me again to let go. To let go of my plans and expectations, and to be open to go where he would have me go.
A million reasons and justifications ran through my head. What about Marla? What about providing for her? In the midst of this internal conflict His voice gently replied "Marla does not look to you for her provision. She trusts herself to Me." My primary justification now disarmed, I scrambled mentally for another good reason why I should not let go of these fantasies, but they would not come. And I knew at the heart of my reasoning was fear and doubt. And so, with trembling fingers I once again let go.
I want to take just a moment to say, as a husband, what an incredible blessing it is to have a wife who trusts herself to God. Not that her faith enables me to be irresponsible, but the fact is; her trust in God (down to the core of her being) gives me, as the head of our family, a freedom to follow where He leads. How blessed I am, Thank you Tom and Linda for the example you set.
The next morning my spirit was lighter than it had been in months. And even training was more interesting. Ironically, the letting go of the American Dream for Marla and I was kind of liberating. Like a pastor later that week would say "the problem with chasing two rabbits, is that you catch neither one," I had let one rabbit go, and begin focusing on the other. And slowly, throughout the week, joy and excitement began replacing the weariness that we had come to Indiana with. The passion was returning. I'll say it again, the passion was returning.
Up to that point, my passion for what I was doing was on the decline. Not that I tried to let it show, or even admit it to myself, but slowly the passion that had fueled everything I did was drying up. I didn't know why, and I even felt guilty because of it. If I would have slowed down enough to face it, I feared the growing apathy and an "Eee-oor" complex in my own life. As the week went on and our training ended and OMS celebration began, each speaker seemed to develop further this lesson He was teaching me. It is funny that we as people think we know better than the creator what is best for our hearts. It reminds me of a small kid holding a balloon that desperately wants it inflated. He can blow into it a little bit, but his lungs aren't strong enough to inflate his balloon as it was designed to be inflated. So too our hearts are designed to be filled with passion, and it is only when we let them go that the Master can inflate them with His passion. For years I couldn't pray the prayer "Lord break my heart for the things that break yours," because I was afraid of the consequences. What if he broke my heart for a people around the world? What if my kids had to grow up away from their grandma and grandpa? Wouldn't it be safer if I could tell God where I wanted to be passionate? As I clinched the balloon and asked God to blow into it, I never stopped and thought of the consequences of not letting go. What if Abraham would have said "God, because You have asked me I've left my city, and followed you to the edge of my county, but this is far enough." An entire generation of Israelites said that, and never saw God's promises fulfilled. How tragic. Saying "I'll do what You say, but I'm only going part way" is chasing two rabbits.
Your right, it is scary. Following Him is always a risk. He does things like asking people to leave without telling them where they are going. Asking people to believe before they are healed. What He asks makes no worldly sense, but you have to ask yourself which rabbit are you chasing? I look for safety and security for me and my family. I've heard that the safest place to be is in the palm of God's hand. But I also know that He allowed His disciples to be martyred. That millions have died for the faith. That His road is not always easy. But I believe like C.S. Lewis wrote "safe?... no He's not safe. But He is Good." And as I take confidence in His goodness, my heart swells and my passion returns.
All of a sudden Marla and I are back to having no idea where God will lead in a year. We don't know if our boxes will ever get unpacked, but we know that we are in good company. Not only people from the Bible but people all around us. As we looked around the auditorium at the OMS celebration we were surrounded by a cloud of witnesses to His goodness, to His faithfulness. People of character that had been refined by His fire. And I took courage that through the decisions, fires, and years, their commitment, their passion, and likeness of Christ displayed through their lives only increased. I know how I want to finish, and knowing this helps me to know which direction to run, which rabbit to chase. And our joy is restored.
As far as prayer request, please continue to pray that Marla's visa would be granted and that additional people would partner with this ministry financially (monthly, quarterly or yearly) so that we can be 100% funded (right now we sit at about 80%). Pray also for our families as we prepare to say goodbye for a year.

Thanks so much for your prayers,
Micah and Marla

ps. The picture shows that it wasn't all meetings and eatings (Marla won this particular round)

******************"Chasing Rabbits" Cliffnotes*************************************************************** ***
This email discussed some things that God taught me durring the week of training a OMS confrence in Indiana that Marla and I just returned from. It brushed on a few of the details of training and confrence, but stuck mainly to the lesson I learned.
One of the guys that preached made a statement "the problem in chasing two rabbits, is that you don't catch either one." For me one rabbit was the American dream, and one rabbit was God's plans for our lives. I had my reasons according to man's wisdom why I should have both. God asked me to give up one. Reluctantly I recommitted myself fully to His purpose. The funny thing is the next day, there was more of a spring in my step, and a passion that I hadn't known for a while was returning. Just like the parable of the sower who spread his seed amung thorny groung, it's amazing how the cares of this world can choke out what is truely important. It was great to refocus on what truely matters, and have my passion return.
Please pray for 1.) for us to be fully funded. we need about 20% more monthly support. 2.) Marla's visa to come through.
Thanks
M&M
ps. The picture shows that it wasn't all meetings and eatings (Marla won this particular round)
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