Kenya coming...

Well... Rachel told me she would be checking for this and I don't really have the time to do it all today, so I will only whet your appetite. Then I am going to branch into the unknown and upload some pictures of the Kenya mission trip.

We left for Kenya October 3rd, meeting most of the group in Chicago. I was participating with International Commission of Lewisville TX, a group our family had gone with for many years. We had 45 Americans and 54 national African missionaries and pastors working in either 32 or 36 churches. God allowed us to lead 9,650 people to saving faith in Jesus Christ. We walked the bush everyday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It was incredible. Pray about going next year... September 3-16.

More later.

Brazil Final

Well, Pr. Kraig Neet made it back amidst the same travel woes of missed flights and delays that we all faced. He reported another 51 decisions for Christ during his stay in Rondonia, Brazil training the drug rehab folks.

The last decision was his dying father-in-law in Hawaii, as he led him to salvation over the phone, after many years of resistance. Kraig got home and the family was able to arrive in Hawaii before he died. Pray for Lois' family and Kraig as he preaches the funeral today.

Glorious trip all-in-all.

Brazil

Well, we are all now back from Brazil... nearly. Our group had many travel woes with the airlines, but all-in-all as usual it was a wonderful trip. 876 first time decisions for Jesus as Savior.

Now, Pr. Kraig Neet from Longview, WA is still there in Rondonia to do a drug rehab program training. Troy Smith the author of the S.A.F.E. (Setting Addicts Free Eternally) allowed us to translate it into Portuguese for use in Brazil. One of the state policemen that is a member of FBC Cerejeiras, RO got his government rehab group to approve giving it a try. It has had an 80% effectiveness here in the USA. We made it L.I.V.E. in Portuguese (Libertando Viciados Eternamente). Next week he is training 140-150 state drug rehab personnel in how to administrate the program on both in and outpatient settings. Many of these people are not believers, so pray for his evangelization during the training.

Next year... July 16-30!! Mark your calendars and plan to go with us. Email bnewton@acacialumber.com for more info.

Catching Up

Wow! I just can't stay on top of this blogging like so many of you that are committed to it. We are having a great summer. As Donna said on her blog, the Oregon strawberries are beyond any you have ever had. They are solid all the way through... don't have that white hollow center the CA or Mexico berries have. And no sugar needed.

Rachel was right... The yard is full. Cherries are picked. Blueberries are starting. Grapes are forming for later and the weeds are growing. We are on a 20% slope, so we elected to have a no-grass yard. We have boulder walls and bark mulch around all the plants. But the weeds still come. I think that is part of the Fall as I remember the story correctly. Blame it on Adam... huh!

Brazil is screaming down on top of me. This year has been wild with the airlines being a pain. I am still trying to get the last 6 of us booked domestically. Has to be done tomorrow. In the midst of it all, we had VBS and I am scrambling to finish the last "after-class" online assignments for Worship and Music in the Faith Community. Don't know if I mentioned or not (Robert & Todd esp.) but at our class in CA, Rick Muchow, worship pastor at Saddleback was a presenter. His book "The Worship Answer Book" was one of our texts. It was a great time of visiting in class and one-on-one. I recommend the book to all. Easy read and great thoughts

San Francisco

Well early Monday morning it is off to San Francisco for a week long intensive 3-hour class at our Mill Valley (Northern California) Campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. It is Worship and Music in the Faith Community. I have already read 2-1/2 of the three textbooks we had to read, written 2-1/2 of the three papers to get into class and tried to take the online quiz no less than six times. They are having trouble with the details of all of us doing it. Finally the Prof sent an email telling us that the main thing was to read the text. The quiz was over one of the books.

We read Andrew Hill's Enter His Courts With Praise which speaks of Old Testament worship for the New Testament Church, Paul Basden's Exploring the Worship Spectrum: 6 Views and Rick Muchow's The Worship Answer Book. Rick is worship pastor at Saddleback and will be a presenter on Thursday morning. I am about halfway through this last one. I had stuff due on the other two so I did them first.

The neat thing about the summer classes at NCC is there is an endowment scholarship for all students from the satellite campuses so we don't have to pay tuition. So I get three hours credit for about half the cost. Still have to get there and eat. Oh well... I'm off.

New York

Oh yeah... as I was reading Donna's blog, I was reminded I was supposed to post my recollections of the trip and see how they compared. New York is an ant hill!!!!!!!!!!! Only Shanghai has been worse in my book.

When I finally got her to stop following the "natives" and stepping out in front of traffic the trip went much better. We did have a great time. I hadn't been there since 1966 and she had never been. We stayed in the old Pennsylvania Hotel right across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. Lots of activity to watch and become a part of.

We had dinner with one of my business associates, Michael Pasenchuk, and his wife Joannie. We got to see Mike Jr, who we had only seen emailed pictures of right after he was born just over a year ago. The sightseeing was great and I have to agree the Mesa Grill experience was the tops. The food was great (as you would expect from a Food Network chef) and the staff was too... very friendly and accomodating. We'll be going back.

We did learn something the hard way... If you are going to go to the Statue of Liberty and want to go inside, you have to register online for a timeslot at least 48 hours in advance. Otherwise you do like us and walk around the outside and hit the gift shop. Next trip will be the Ellis Island part of it. We were too tired to get off the Ferry at that stop.

Slow Poster

Wow! It has been a terribly long time since I have blogged. I have been to Brazil for lumber business and the training meeting for the leaders of churches where we will have teams this July. We have 9 churches committed and 18 Americanos going.

During all of it I have gotten back into seminary. You know, after you preach for 33 years you ought to go to school to figure out what you don't know. Taking an online class on the Gospels that has really been fun and a Creative Expository Preaching class using James' letter. All good. Think I might have an A in both. Planning a weeklong class at the San Francisco main campus in June before the mission trip because the tuition is free. Then was blessed with a "full ride" scholarship for the Fall and Spring. Maybe I can get my MDiv before I retire from something.

Donna and I went to NY on business last week and took Amtrak down to see Rachel and Jason and all the Burch bunch + others. Great weekend. Back home and hit the ground running. Guess that's all that's fit to print today.

Brisket

The Christmas brisket Donna blogged about was good. It did get a little dry around the edges, but it was our first attempt on the gas grill. We used tuna cans to put the wood chips in to smoke, but the low heat wouldn't keep it smoking. However, Mitch's rub put on the night before really did the trick. We'll try again and then maybe someday I can get a Little Chief Smoker.