Thailand scouting trip

Sandra and I just returned from Thailand. We had a great time with our team out there. This was San’s first time in Asia and the first time for her to meet our SE Asia country leaders Surasak from Thailand and Sareth from Cambodia. Many of you know already that Sandra and I have been feeling a tug in our hearts for some time toward Cadence’s ministry efforts in that part of the world. This trip was mainly a scouting trip for us to help in making a decision as to whether or not this is a direction the Lord is moving us full time. While in Chiang Mai, Sandra was able to see the Christian school, housing possibilities, shopping choices, and various other living situations.
I have been going to Thailand and Cambodia two times a year for several years now and have been feeling as of late a real desire to be closer to the action so to speak. Our director David Schroeder has been very encouraging in our seeking the Lords direction in this and so we are now in the process of praying through many things related to this direction.
These are exciting times for us and we covet your prayers as we seek the Lord. We will of course be keeping you all up to date as things progress.

By the way… wanted to let you know that at our English Camp 3 weeks ago in Cambodia, 120 army officers accepted the Lord at a worship meeting! Sareth is now busy coming up with a follow-up plan. Pray for these new believers and for an effective way to follow up. The main problem we have is that there only 3 mature believers to do all this work and their plates are already very full.

Gritty and honest

http://www.michaelyon.blogspot.com/
Michael Yon is reporting some of the best, honest, and politically-free accounts of the job our troops are doing in Iraq. Reading his blog will make you proud of our men.

More Germany pictures 

Bike ridin' with the kids

The kids and I have been taking our bikes up to Bomar Lake near our house. It has been a ton of fun now that Jared can ride. We count the bunnies that we see on the way there and back. This last time we counted 35! Gotta keep going while the weather is still good.

Jared rides his bike without training wheels! After just one minute of instruction he was off to the races. I could not believe it! I was grabbing the back of the seat as he started to ride and after 3 rotations of the pedals he was pulling away from me and has not stopped yet. I have never seen a kid get the two wheeler down so quick. He and I have done several long rides already with some pretty good uphill riding involved. He is a real natural.

Cadence Intl. and Carver Bible team up

Tyler and I spent 3 weeks together this summer in Germany with a team of short-term missionaries from Carver Bible.

Nearly 30% of our nation’s Army is made up of African Americans. While certainly no ministries have excluded these soldiers and their families, none to our knowledge have been purposed in reaching them and this is exactly why Cadence International and Carver Bible College have teamed up.
Carver Bible College is an evangelical bible college that has as its motto “Training to Transform”. They are committed to teaching the word of God and are seeking to promote world missions in African American churches.
Jeff Easley quick-fact: Prof. Jeff Easley is also a member of the Cadence International Board of Directors.

Carver team leader Jeff Easley also had the opportunity to preach at the North chapel on Ramstein Air Force base. The team was invited to teach at the Gospel service (the gospel service is a chapel community of 450 that is predominately African American) mid-week bible study and both Keith Barksdale and Carlos Holiday had a chance to share. As you can imagine the KMC has a large amount of single military personnel and the chapel has an outreach designed especially for them. The team attended two of these meetings the second of which Mark Steven was able to share his testimony. Lourdes Zamy, our only female on the team, was quickly making friends and jumping into relationships with single military women and dependant wives.
KMC quick-fact: The Kaiserslautern Military Community is made up of 75,000 US military personnel and their families.

Cadence has a vision for reaching all people of color in our armed forces and this trip is just the first step in fulfilling this vision. After one of the services the team attended, the chaplain chased us down and expressed to us how much he appreciate the team coming to minister in the community. We had spoken to him about the possibility of sending someone full-time to work along side him in ministry and he was not only open to it but was excited about the possibility. So we are praying that this trip will be the start of something wonderful. It seems that the door most open is one that would be reaching the teens of the gospel congregation. Please pray that the Lord will raise up someone from Carver or someone associated with the school to go. We also have an opportunity for Carver to send a team back in December to attend the Malachi (Malachi is the youth arm of Cadence) middle school retreat so we are praying for funding and people from the school.

We want to thank all of you who have prayed with us in making this trip happen.