Yesterday, Monika and I talked a great deal about our future and planning for our marriage this upcoming summer. And today, I have received word from her that we will have our choice of days as to what day we want to be married. I thank God for placing her in my life and I am excited and pleased to see our lives moving forward into marriage. We were looking for the same date of the initiation of our engagement, and we have found that date to be open. So it is certainly an exciting time for me and for her. Please pray for us as we continue to seek the Lord and plan our future.

I was reading from the The Valley of Vision this morning, and the prayer my eyes were drawn to was aptly titled “The Nevers of the Gospel”.  As I read it, the stanza that has left an impact was, ” May I never, rest in a system of doctrine, however scriptural, that does not bring or further salvation…” and I think about this and the influences we have today that are ripping us away from the Gospel message.  Our one desire and passion is to know God and seek after Him while so many things interrupt our relationship with Him.  I am struck by these words penned by a Puritan brother that have relevance for us today.  May we, as followers of Jesus Christ not be swayed or thrown out of discord by an insignificant systematic unit, but that our hearts would grow deeper and fonder of the Gospel message found in the pages of the divinely inspired Word of God passed down from the apostles teaching to us now.  If you do not have this book called The Valley of Vision I would highly recommend it to you.  Words are powerful, and the words of brothers who have fought the good fight echo in our ears and can impact us to remember, we are not followers of a certain systematic doctrine, but we are followers of the one true God, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom we own all reverence and honor to Him for saving us when we were but dead in our sins.  Blessings to you all.

Getting there not only signifies that the support is increasing, but also getting there is referent to arrival within the ministry locale. I continue to contemplate the issue of missions while on this side of the ocean and ask unanswerable questions to myself. Are we really focused on the building of the bride of Christ, the Church?

I find that I am in need of God grace more and more, day by day, which can sound cliched but in the midst of attempting to raise the necessary amount and the encroaching date of departure, I know it will be by the grace of God alone. Getting there…an ever present reality in search of completion, getting to the field, getting the amount necessary to live, getting closer to the Lord, the one who has called us unto His own. Getting there…we are all certainly getting there.

As you can all imagine, this is a very difficult proposition and the struggle grows as all of us are trying to be faithful to Christ in the midst of forming this new institution.  Please keep us in prayer while we continue to press forward.  Plus, at this time we still have a need to be met for the seminary itself.  God has given us a group of people who were able to help us buy the building, and we had close to 30% of renovation finances come in and utilized and we are extremely grateful for this.  We started classes as of September 10th with the help of some missionaries and pastors in the country.  God has provided continually for us.  The need we are experiencing at this point is to pay for the daily needs of the students and the facility.  This is a great financial need, so please pray for us regarding this issue.  Pray that God’s Will will be done and that we will have no doubts as to His provision in the fashion He deems appropriate.

My personal finances have taken a hit.  One church was unable to fulfill the apportioned allotment described to me so my total has fallen from 75% to 56%.  So my departure was also delayed due to this unfortunate event.  Even though I am only at 56% of my total, I will still be headed to Czech on the first week of December.  You all my pray for me to learn the language quickly, to get life situated as well as possible, to serve as well as I am able to, and to continually hold tightly to the Lord seeking wisdom and provision.  I am certainly encouraged by your notes and caring statements you have sent me.  Especially at this time, it is most difficult for a missionary starting out, and sometimes it can look discouraging, but the one sure thing that I was reminded in John Piper’s message on Adoniram Judson was that through it all, GOD IS STILL SOVEREIGN.  That will never change and all of our circumstances do not come as a surprise to God for He is with us, and is watching over us, for it truly is my only comfort, (thanks Dr. Yarbourgh) is that I am not my own, but purchased by HIS blood on the cross.  Until next time…Grace and Peace to you all.

Well, I want to thank the men at E Free in Bloomington Normal, for the opportunity to spend some time with them last weekend.  We had a wonderful time and the session listening to Roger Stuber from Tremont IL share stories of his time as a missionary pilot near PNG.  I was so blessed to spend some time with many of the men there.  Conversations were all a blessing and it was great to see old friends and fellowship around the campfire encouraging each other in Christ and enjoying each other’s company.  God certainly blessed this time.

I know it has been a long time since I last posted.  I want to apologize for my tardiness in writing again.  Through the whole summer, I wanted to spend as much time with my fiancee Monika as was possible.  That was achieved though I did not  make time to update you all on what is happening in my life and in the process of getting to the Czech Republic.  You may all pray for her as she is back at the university finishing her masters degree in Economics and Business Administration.

Here is another picture of us in Sheboygan WI after we spent some time with good friends of ours, the Zimmerman family.  This was a few weeks ago, since Monika left the end of September.

Well everyone, things are in high gear and the Lord continues to stretch me in the areas of faith and in relationship to being “poor in spirit” according to Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew 5.

I want to share with you all about my parents’ reconciliation and wedding for it was beautiful. I am still amazed everyday at how God’s power and strength can be and should be manifested in the lives of His people. It has truly been a blessing to watch them grow in their faith and their relationship unto the Lord. I have been touched by watching my father become the Christian father and husband to my mother and vice-versa for my mom. The new house is great and is a new start for them, but the burden of the other unsold houses are heavy upon them. Please pray for God to bring the right buyer but even more that God would draw them near to Himself and they would seek Him together as a newly remarried couple.

At this time BTS is moving forward, Vlada and Eliska are hard at work getting the facility ready for the students and all necessary preparations to begin pouring our lives into these students for the sake of Christ. I talked with Vlada the other day and he told me that they are dry-walling the rooms. He also told me that at this time we, speaking of BTS, are extremely low on financial support for the school. We are in great need for support for operations and student support. Since Czech has a social governmental structure, we as BTS will need to support these students. Likewise, supporting these students will encompass costs of living while they are studying full time for two years. I encourage all of you who read this blog to consider supporting BTS in all ways: prayer, encouragement and financial resources.

In a related note, I have been asked to stay in the USA for a month or two longer to help raise support for the ministry. Monika is here with me and she will have to change her ticket to stay with me and my family for a while longer, but we are satisfied in the way the Lord is leading us. So if I might ask you to pray for us, for churches to be willing to meet, for open hearts of people here to be willing to help BTS, and for Monika and I to have the strength of the Lord, for when we are weak we are made strong by His power and strength. This is a long process and I know it has only just begun, but God is gracious and kind to His people, we must be obedient to His commands. Much love and may our Lord bless and keep you all.

Here is a picture from the wedding ceremony.

It has been a while since I have written in my blog and I am not sure how many of you will have known that I became engaged to a wonderful woman, Monika Polakova a few weeks ago. And my parents were remarried after 17 years of being divorced, the picture is at their private wedding. God has been challenging me and preparing me for a life of service and I wish to share this with everyone who has supported me through the years. I will write more once we have internet at home.

As the date for my parents’ remarriage approaches, I ask that you all will pray for them. They are in the midst of a spiritual battle that is quite large. It is not easy, but by the grace of God, and His Spirit can this happen. So please pray for them. This is a picture of our family.

Before meeting up with my friend from church last night, I was walking down the street in front of two ladies talking.  I couldn’t help but over hear what one of the women said, for it shook me as I considered the consequences of its origin.  Her statement was regarding a need for hot humid summer fashion and the need to look good walking into a cold store and still looking good, or vis-a-versa whereby it is cold outside and walking into a store that is hot and still looking good.  It was her next comment that made me think, she said this lack of fashion was frustrating for her.  My thoughts revolved around her actually being “frustrated” over this, is she using the word in the correct sense in that she is truly turned in knots over this or is she merely dissatisfied with this lack of comfort and fashion?  So I started to think, if she is truly frustrated by this small thing, what am I frustrated about?  (Using the word in the truest sense of the word)

Our pastor, Tim, preached on the Lord’s prayer found in Matthew’s Gospel 6:5-15 and talked about how we need to be focused on God, His kingdom first, and willing to forgive even though we might have been hurt.  So where does my frustration rest, in that seeking the kingdom is a constant battle for me, and dare I say for all of us in the Church.  With people around the world dying and never having heard the gospel proclamation, and our petty desires for revenge, not justice (I being one of them, like the rest of us) causes frustration in the depth of my soul.  This realization helps me to see that it is not about me, it is Christ’s kingdom, it is Christ’s sake, it is Christ’s message for a dying world.

In this moment, probably like all other moments, there are many things happening in my life. First, I graduated from seminary, which God is to receive the glory for getting me through this, during which time I lost a close friend and professor who taught me so much, I feel that I will carry on parts of his ministry where I will go. Second, I am raising support, both prayer and financial support for my personal salary as well as the financial support for the school we are starting. As you might guess, or know intimately, this can be a stressful time. But what I have found is that I must trust in Christ even more and rely upon Him for help and guidance through the labyrinth of the mission field. Please pray for us as BTS, the students who will attend the school and for each of us as faculty to be lights shining in the darkness of a country who has perceived being run over by 2 world wars and the communist regime.