Home Assignment

We will be in the US on August 1 for what is called “Home Assignment.”  Missions agencies used to call these times “furlough”, but that suggested “vacation”, which it definitely is not!  In most agencies, overseas workers are brought home for 1 year of Home Assignment each four years.  In the type of work we are doing, that is not practical, since International Churches tend to see up to 40% turnover each year in the congregation.  To take a full year off would simply be impractical, so we planned to have shorter periods of Home Assignment every two years.  The concept is found in Acts 14:26-27, when Paul and Barnabas returned from their first missionary journey and reported to the church at Antioch, that had sent them out, all that God had done over the previous two years.  We will be doing much the same.  Over the next 8 weeks, we will be sharing with partnering friends and congregations and with potential new partners what God is doing in Darmstadt and around the world through the planting of English-language churches in cities around the world.  We will be looking to close the final portion of our financial support, and giving individuals and churches the opportunity to support other church planters who are waiting to get to the cities God has called them.  Please pray for us as we will be driving to at least 8 states, and speaking in at least 8 churches, and meeting with current and potential partners in the ministry.  Our schedule is below.  If you are in the neighborhood, we would love to get together with you – send us an email to let us know!  If we are not getting to your area, please be assured that we would love to visit every one of our ministry partner friends, but it just isn't possible. 

Please pray for our church leadership in Darmstadt during our absence.  The church will continue to minister through the weeks we are gone with regular service and LIFE Groups meeting.  Visiting pastors and men from the church will be filling the pulpit, and there is much that must be done by our faithful leaders – who must juggle their church responsibilities with their career and family responsibilities.  Like Paul, we have been encouraged by the fact that the Lord “has many people in this city!”

We return in late September to prepare for the launch of a new year of ministry in the city of Darmstadt.  Our English-language movie theater ads are set to begin at the end of August.  We plan to do a prayer walk and Bible distribution to students at the University as part of our first birthday celebration weekend on October 5-6, and will be expanding and multiplying our LIFE Groups through the fall.  Pray for God’s blessing and leading on the plans, and pray that we will remain sensitive to His leading, and flexible to His sovereign timetable in all things!

Home Service Schedule

August 4 – New Cumberland, WV

August 18 – Danville, VA

August 25 – Epikos, Milwaukee, WI

September 1 – Oakbrook Curch, Green Bay, WI

September 7 – Open House & Reception – Mayville WI

September 8 – Gateway Community, Mayville, WI

September 15 – Wellspring Community, Hartford, WI

Special Visitors

Dr. Jerry & Dee Sheveland (L), President of Converge Worldwide
 Dr. Jimmy & Laurie Martin, (R) General Secretary of the
International Baptist Convention - worship together at CIF!

July has been a very busy month!  We began the month by welcoming Dr. Jerry Sheveland and his wife Dee to Germany.  Dr. Sheveland is the president of Converge Worldwide, our US-based sending agency.  What a joy it was so spend time with this godly couple as they came to witness firsthand what God is doing in Darmstadt and around the world through the planting of English-language International Churches.  Jerry and Dee accompanied us to the annual summer meeting of the International Baptist Convention (our European-based agency) in Interlaken, Switzerland.  It was a great experience as they taught seminars, met pastors and their wives, and students, church leaders and families from IBC churches around the world.  After the conference, we drove back from Interlaken to Darmstadt (you quickly learn that some sections of the Autobahn have no speed limit, but other sections suffer from chronic traffic jams!), where the Shevelands spent several days visiting and encouraging us, worshiping with us, and sharing at the worship service of CIF. 

Asher, Eric, Cayden & Nicole McCrorey in Darmstadt.

Four days after the Shevelands returned to the US, we welcomed our daughter, Nicole, her husband Eric, and our two grandsons, Asher and Cayden, to Germany.  We have had a wonderful visit with them.  What a blessing to have godly children!  Eric serves as youth pastor at Maranatha Alliance Church in Horseheads, NY, and Nicole is a great partner in that ministry.  Asher, who is three years old, amazed us with his reciting of his first Bible memory verse, Psalm 19:14 (see video here).  Cayden is simply delightful at 8 months.  We have spent a great 10 days together, and as I write this, we are beginning a day of packing and last minute preparations for our flight together to the US tomorrow morning.

Grandma & Grandpa with the boys near Dachau.

"Do not be afraid..."

“Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent.  For I am with you..” Acts 18:9

In recent weeks at Converge International Fellowship, we have been focusing our study of God’s word in the book of Acts.  What a great place for a young new church to spend a few months!  It is so encouraging to read the history of God at work in the early days of the church – we see the early victories, the difficult challenges, the apparent setbacks turned to victory, and, ultimately, we see the sovereign hand of God at work in all situations.  Recently, as we studied chapter 18, we took note that when Paul arrived in Corinth, it was a difficult time for him.  He had recently split with his friend, mentor and partner in ministry, Barnabas.  He was alone, having left Silas and Timothy in Macedonia.  He was low on funds, and was working as a tent-maker in Corinth to support himself, so that apparently could devote himself to ministry on Sabbath days.  In that period, Jesus appeared to Paul and in dramatic fashion reassured him to keep up the work – he was not alone!  Christ was with him!  The Lord also promised Paul that He had many people in the city.  In our study, we noted that in that same chapter of Acts, we have more individuals identified by name as coming alongside Paul in his work than in any other single chapter.  When Christ knew Paul needed encouragement, He not only reassured him of HIS enduring presence (wonderful enough!), but supplemented that support with new and renewed partnership and friendships.  How encouraging that is!

Repentance Is Rare

There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. Luke 15:10

Humans, deceived by the devil and charmed by their own pride and abilities, deny that our world is a rebel province in God’s universe. They deny that human society has willfully pulled loose from God’s rule and the rest of God’s domain.

In fact, they deny that men and women are the creation of God. They deny even that they owe any allegiance to God, their Creator!

The Bible is the record of how God deals with mankind, and we can draw but one conclusion: All people are morally obligated to repent and to ask forgiveness of God. Failing to do so, they will perish.

How rare it is in our day to hear of genuine repentance. We live amid a proud, selfish and self-sufficient people. Even in our Christian churches there are those who want nothing more than to be known as “respectable church members”! When repentance is real and faith is genuine, the atoning death of Jesus Christ is effective for pardon and forgiveness and regeneration.

Dear Lord, the idea of people perishing—being separated from God for eternity—is a frightening thought. Will you help today’s churches grasp this dreadful fact so that they will redouble their efforts to share the gospel with lost people?

From Mornings with Tozer, by A. W. Tozer.