A couple of Sundays ago, I gave a brief update on our move to Orlando at our church – Westside Baptist in Mableton – during the Sunday morning worship time.
It was a quick 10 minute overview of why we’re moving and what we’ll be doing in Orlando at Campus Crusade’s International Headquarters. You can listen to it and view our slide show here: https://handsheadlines.com/mpd/HandsUpdate.swf
“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.†Luke 11:9
[Context of this passage: Jesus tells us to persist in asking Him because He always supplies good gifts. He promises that He is even much more faithful than a good parent who will not give his child a stone when asked for bread.] Read entire passage on BibleGateway – a great place to read the Bible online!
Our kids have a Children’s Bible Songs tape they often listen to (sometimes a little too often on long road trips! 🙂 ). One song – Ask, Seek and Knock – captures the heart of this passage in such a pure and simple fashion. We want to have a child-like faith in asking our Father both for our needs and for His desires to be accomplished in the months ahead. Will you please join us in praying? Here are 3 specific needs. Thank you!!
1. Finding 40 New Partners
In order to move to Orlando, we need to meet about 40 more individuals and families who will partner with us through prayer and finances. This is our full-time focus and faith goal for the next 5 months. This is quite a faith-stretcher for us. Yet, we’re seeking the Lord with an abundance mentality (Eph. 3:20-21) – realizing that He already knows all the people we need to meet! Please pray for us to find these 40 new partners quickly. Could you help us by introducing us to a few of your friends? Email us and we’ll tell you how.
2. Decisions and Timing of Decisions
We will be selling our house this spring, determining how much we can afford (and should spend) in Orlando, searching for a house to buy or build (possibly), researching schooling and home-schooling options and many other things! Please pray for wisdom for we who lack it! And that the Lord’s timing will be sovereign in all these decisions.
3. With Peace
Above all else, pray that we’ll experience much joy and peace from the Lord during the midst of big changes. Pray that peace will dominate our lives as we move forward by faith – not being overwhelmed with any task at hand.
To visit our new abode of work and calling, we recently ventured to Campus Crusade’s International Headquarters in Orlando for a 3-day scouting trip. Our vision was deepened, our hearts encouraged and our bodies warmed by the nice Florida sunshine!
We met many of the staff we’ll be working with, including Keith & Kay Seabourn (pictured here with us) who have served with Campus Crusade for 30 years! Keith is CCC’s Chief Technology Officer. David will be a project manager on his team.
We spent half a day with a realtor in Orlando doing some early “recon†of neighborhoods. Everyone we know in Florida has warned us: “You are moving to a VERY expensive area!†Somehow, we were hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Yet, as we drove around many varied neighborhoods – new, old, far or near – all of the prices were quite high. Most houses of equivalent size to ours here were from $300K to $350K. Basically double what our home in Mableton is worth! Next time we’ll take the pills for “sticker shock†before we travel down there!
One highlight of our trip was touring the JESUS Film facilities at Campus Crusade Headquarters. This film was produced by Campus Crusade in 1978 and has been used to introduce young and old to Christ around the world. It is the most translated movie in history – over 700 languages to date! Incredible stories of the Lord using the film in dramatic ways were shared. This is one tour well worth the trip if you’re ever in Orlando! Also, fyi, you can now download the audio/video of JESUS to your ipod or other handheld device. (click here to learn more)
The photo below shows where the hundreds of translations of the movie are touching the world.
According to this very interesting article by noted Web Researcher Jakob Nielsen, 2005 silently heralded a huge milestone in Internet history: the one-billionth user went online. That means that about 15% of the world’s population (more than 1 out of every 7 people) are regular Internet users. By 2015, it’s expected to grow to 25%. Particularly interesting is the fact that 360 Million of current Internet users reside in Asian countries! (Compared to 230 Million in North America). It’s predicted that in less than 4 years, Chinese speakers will outnumber English speakers on the web!
See the opportunity here? As more and more users quickly come online in places like China, India, Korea, etc., we have an open window to connect with these people – many of whom are hungry for Christ – via the Internet. A decent percentage of people in these countries already search for spiritual content online, and the Lord could swell this number even more if we as technology-and-resource-rich Christians create the right content online to bring them in. Pray with us towards this goal!
For more info see a similar article on the Web Evangelism Bulletin