Devotional

Below is a devotional sent to us by our sending agency, WorldVenture. I thought it was so well said, I decided to post it on our blog for others to benefit from as well. Jenn and I are beginning to comprehend this type of life as we watched God do the impossible when we, and so many of you, decided to ask in prayer!

Enjoy.

Dear Mission Family,

One of the implications of living in the shadow of the cross is understanding what it means to pray, think and live supernaturally.  I believe it is the heart of sanctification.  We are to live by the power of the Spirit of God.  But how easy it is for us to forget.

A good friend met with me recently and announced that he is a genuine apostate.  He has left the faith.  This friend has a dramatic conversion story, many examples of powerful Spirit work in and through him, and he is a seminary grad and former pastor.  But he has tossed it all aside believing now that present reality is the only thing that ensures peace in this life.  The supernatural, including an inerrant Word of God, Jesus as the Son of God and even the hope of eternity for him is gone. 

I wonder if my friend doesn't actually reflect my own challenge of trying to live my life apart from faith in the supernatural.  For my friend, it is now intentional; for me it is simply that it comes unSpiritually natural. 

Kind of like the disciples when the 5,000 men and more were listening to the Master.  "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." 

That was an excellent response to a very real problem.  The disciples might even have had some concern for the crowd and were giving a very reasonable solution.  Jesus could have agreed with their plan and dismissed the crowd.  However, that solution would not have taught them to live supernaturally.  And so Jesus replies, "YOU give them something to eat."  Immediately they were forced into the realm of the supernatural.  Using the best language of my Missouri roots we would say, "Ain't no way no how!"  True, but it IS the way to live, think and pray.  Jesus encourages us to operate in the realm of the supernatural.

I wonder how often I roll through my day not even thinking about what God might want to do through me that is impossible without his intervention.  Perhaps I've developed a habit of measuring every challenge by my capacity rather than by God's.  Perhaps I've even applied that to the capacity of my WorldVenture department or our WorldVenture impact in the world.  "Oh, we can't do that.  We don't have enough..." you fill in the blank.  And so there it lies, dead in the human capacity pool because we fail to pray supernaturally.  We don't even give God a chance to say no!

I think it was Martin Luther who once said, "I've got so much to do today it will take two hours of prayer to get it all done."  There was a man who understood the difference between personal or organizational capacity and supernatural prayer.  Would you care to try it on for size this month?  Actually, it never fits; you don't have the capacity!  But why not test this supernatural God with some supernatural prayer?  Reopen that "ain't no way no how" folder and see if your prayer can match your God.  And don't forget to act if God whispers back, "YOU give them something to eat!"

Doug Hazen

Regional Mission Director

Northwest Regional Connections

Clearance!

Friends, we are so excited to tell you that we have received clearance from WorldVenture headquarters to leave for Hungary! We will keep this update brief because we are up to our eyeballs in packing, sorting, organizing, phone calls and cleaning in addition to attempting to maintain some semblance of sanity.

Let us share just a few of the amazing ways God has been working during the past month to make our departure possible:

Week 1: Three families that has previously told us they would not become financial partners contacted us to tell us God has instructed them to join our support team and wanted to know how to do so!

Week 2: Two students of Dave's, one from his time at Wheatland Bible Church and one from Laramie County Community College joined our financial team for a huge boost in our monthly support!

Week 3: A group of three sisters prayed about giving, pooled all their money, including their cherished $2.00 bill, and told their parents they wanted to send it in to WorldVenture so that "The Kelleys can help the hungries".

Week 4: Wheatland Bible Church prayed during their Sunday morning prayer time that we would have the funds needed for clearance to leave for Hungary and within 24 hours we did!

The ways in which God has been providing for this coming term in Hungary keep surprising and delighting us. He has written us a beautiful love letter composed of the last several weeks. We couldn't begin to share all the stories of faith and generosity in one update, but we did want to share just a few and give our gracious Master all the credit. We are so honored to be on this faith-journey with all of you and pray you are encouraged.

We are still in need of more people to give financially on a regular/monthly basis in order to reach full support.  If becoming a monthly financial partner is something God has laid on your heart, please do so. You can sign up online on WorldVenture's website. Please contact us if you have any questions.

We will be leaving for Hungary June 24th! We will be making stops at four churches along the Front Range leading up to our departure. We would love to see you before we leave, unfortunately we will not be able to meet with everyone.  If you would like to join these congregations in commissioning our family to the mission field, please consider attending one of the following services. 

May 26th - 10:30 at Christ Center Community Church in Fort Collins,CO
June 2nd  -   9:30 at Calvary Evangelical Free Church in Broomfield, CO
June 9th   - 10:45 at Wheatland Bible Church in Wheatland, WY
June 16th -   9:00am , 11:00am and 6:00 pm at Element Church in Cheyenne, WY

We hope to see you there!

More Than the Accompanying Spice

(Plus a quick financial update at the end)

The Call

I can remember the moment I felt God begin to call me to foreign missions.  It was the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. It was a tugging I couldn't ignore.  After four short-term trips to Mexico I knew it was time for the next step.  A year later I stepped off a plane to begin a summer-long internship with a missionary family in eastern Asia.  Shadowing and participating in the day-to-day activities of missionaries was eye opening and challenging.  It wasn't all romance and adventure. It was hard and it was lonely. God spoke to my heart in eastern Asia and made it clear that he was asking me to serve him in full-time, foreign missions.  I said yes, though I did mourn what I thought would be the sacrifice of a husband and family. There are not a lot of eligible bachelors on the mission field.  Just saying "I'm planning to work as a missionary after I graduate" generally clears the vicinity of any would-be wooers. Has anyone else noticed this? Just me? Well anyway, I was committed and I planned to head overseas after finishing my food science and human nutrition degree at Colorado State University.

Obviously God had other plans on the family front and I am thankful he did.

 I met Dave on my last short-term trip to Mexico and besides his good looks, I was drawn to him by his shared burden to reach the up and coming generations for Christ.  We are both passionate about life mentoring.  I'll define life mentoring as being involved in the everyday activities of students with the intention of guiding them to become all God designed them to be while modeling an authentic life of faith. God picked out a wise, dedicated and selfless man to be my husband, leader and partner in ministry.  I'm so grateful I get to be his wife and serve on the foreign field next to him, but even if God hadn't brought Dave, I would still be going.

My Role

I am more than the accompanying spice to Dave's classroom ministry. While my goals on the home front are also to encourage and equip believing students, live the gospel for all to see and support the missionaries, these goals take slightly different shape for me. First, we have our own little third-culture kids (TCKs) to equip and encourage towards a Christ-centered adulthood.  If I (we) neglect them and their discipleship, our ministry to other TCKs falls flat like a chubby toddler in the Wyoming wind. Second, by serving our own TCKs we model to our students what a Jesus-following family looks like.  Sometimes it isn't pretty, but we do have Christ and the gospel makes a difference in how we live. The way our family does life also impacts the missionary community around us and it is my goal to be an encouraging, loving, helpful co-laborer.

Better Together

Watching Dave as a father and husband as well as their teacher gives Dave important credibility with his students, makes him more approachable and paves the way for meaningful conversations about life and faith. Dave is more effective in the classroom because we serve as a unit with complementary roles. Not to mention the fact that it will be easier for Dave to make a difference in the lives of our students if he has clean-ish clothes, is fed and is the beneficiary of what I generally call "domestic support." When not being about the business of  nurturing our young kids and keeping our household running proficiently, if not smoothly, I plan to engage with our students by supporting them at extracurricular events, helping out in the classroom, opening up our home to them as family life allows, and eventually facilitating small groups for girls. Who knows? A nutrition, science or health course might even be in my future!

Clearing A Major Hurdle

By the way, did you hear that we are 91% funded?! God is moving in incredible ways and he keeps taking us by surprise. We can now begin the process of securing tickets to Hungary! However, we will not be cleared to actually board the plane and leave the U.S.A. until we are 100% funded.  Please join us in continuing to pray towards the remaining 8.76% of our funding.  Considering  a monthly pledge or lump sum financial gift to further our ministry to TCKs? Follow this link to sign up!