Archer Audio Update - September '08

… SO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Sheea and I feel that we are, in fact, being led by God into missionary aviation and are beginning to pursue that effective immediately.  Because He has provided a local school for the needed training our kids will have same loving school and family around them for the next few years, I will be able to keep my job which will pay for our living expenses and will continue to gain further management experience which I’m sure would be useful no matter where we are. 

THE PLAN

Rather than uprooting our family and moving to Longview God has provided us the opportunity to attend a flight school which is only a 35 minute drive from our home.  Not only is it closer but it is significantly less expensive to attend.

We need to raise support to pay for the needed training which works out to a cost of $1,550 per month.  It is important to raise the funds because we cannot join a missionary organization while carrying debt.

In addition, because we cannot join a mission organization until after the training is complete we have partnered with two churches, Grace Bible Church in Dallas, Texas and Bridge Church in Brighton, Colorado.  Grace is partnering with us in the role of personal accountability: overseeing our progress and helping us continue to grow into our future role as missionaries.  Bridge Church has accepted us into their Bridge to Missions program, and is partnering with us in handling all finances and financial accountability involved with the training.

My flight training began September 6th and will continue for the next two years or so.  At that point I will need to undergo mechanic training (Airframe & Powerplant) but we are unsure where that training will take place as of yet.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

• Introduce us to your church leadership and/or friends who have a heart for missions.  We would love to speak to your churches or classes about what God is doing in our lives, the lives of Ecuadorans and Huaorani, and missions in general.
• We would love to meet with you in person, speak to you on the phone or even hear from you in an email.  If you have questions or just are willing to spend some time talking with us, we’d love to do so.
• Prayerfully consider whether God would have you participate in our future ministry by investing financially in our required training.

HOW TO DONATE:

Set up a monthly donation with your bank on-line or mail checks yourself to:

Bridge Church
c/o Bridge to Missions
36 South 12th Avenue
Brighton,   CO   80601

HOW DID WE ARRIVE AT THIS DECISION?

After we returned from our trip, one of the first men of God that I called for wisdom and advice was Tony Ross, my best friend, and pastor of Bridge Church in Brighton, CO.  I asked him if he had any thoughts or other input regarding God’s will for our lives and how we could be sure we were seeing it.

He told me he believed there were two very important questions we needed to ask ourselves.  One, “What am I clearly hearing from God? (Undeniably so)” and two, “What is God doing in my heart?”

WHAT WE’RE HEARING

There have been many, many areas that God has been working on Sheea and I, some tougher to go through than others and most with a joyous conclusion.  In our struggle to clearly discern what He is saying to us we spent a lot of time praying, reading the Bible, consulting wise believers and talking to each other.  We did as James instructs us in James  1:5,6 “But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind.”  If one verse can summarize what we heard Him telling us as a response, it was Philippians 2:13 “for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.”

WHAT WE EXPERIENCED ON OUR TRIP (OUR HEARTS)

God has gently led us into service and reliance on Him.   He has provided for us and grown us closer to him and each other.  We have had opportunities to serve in our church, invest in peoples’ lives, to spur them on to growth and we in turn have grown as well.  Then, as you know, God invited us to go on a great adventure with Him to Ecuador where he continued to work on our hearts and minds.

We felt surprisingly “comfortable” while we were on our trip.  Not that everything went perfectly and was oh-so wonderful, but just a pervasive sense of peace and encouragement while we were there. As we told you in our last post God provided for our needs by supplying the AV Gas we needed when we needed it.

God filled our hearts with His love for people we encountered in Ecuador.  The missionaries, the Ecuadorans, the Huaorani, everyone.  We didn’t feel in any way superior or deserving of some great privilege, but saw our brothers and sisters in Christ as just that, brothers and sisters.  To think, we have family living out in the middle of a jungle, praying for us is an incredible thought.  We saw first-hand the need for missionary aviation and the deep impact it can have on people’s lives.

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