Proclaim & Serve 2018

This past Saturday I was privileged to attend the first annual Proclaim & Serve Missions Conference, designed and hosted by Apostolic Christian HarvestCall.   The conference took place in Tremont, Illinois at the Tremont Apostolic Christian (AC) Church.  The conference officially started at 1pm, though Bethany, Jesse, and I attended one of the 3-hour Pre-Conference sessions that started at 9am, and then we were served lunch in the Fellowship Hall.   The final session of the day wrapped up around 9:10pm.

To give just a glimpse of what this conference was like, below is all the sessions that the conference offered.  The sessions that I attended are in BOLD.  This information is coming from their website (https://www.proclaimandserve.org/).

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS (3 hours long)

•  Sharing the gospel - Matt Kaufmann
• Fear,k apathy or a lacking skill set are common inhibitors to share the gospel.  However, there exists an exercise that believers can engage in today that will strengthen their faith and glorify God.  A wonderful side product will be fear giving way to courage, apathy giving way to desire and lacking skillsets - experience.  This workshop will expose and practice this gospel centered exercise. 
• Understanding the gospel more fully - Justin Koch
• "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is."  The old adage is filled with sage wisdom.  Buyer beware.  When it comes to earthly transactions this adage is a good principle to keep near.  However when it comes to the gospel of Christ, this old adage collapses.  It really is too good to be true.  Nonetheless, it is true.  In this workshop we will seek to make ourselves more effective witnesses of Christ's resurrection. We will address four questions:
  
  -What is our source of Hope?
  -What is our source of Joy?
  -What is our source of Power?
  -What is our source of Identity?
  
  In our walk and work here on earth, the gospel must never be secondary.  Join us in grappling with the truths of scripture that provide the foundation for effective witness. 
• How to help without hurting - Paul Steitmatter
• Our church family continues to become more and more aware of poverty in the world and the opportunities to make a difference are greater than ever before.  However, over the past years we have learned that poverty alleviation is hard.  How do Christians meaningfully reflect Christ's grace when the disparities of wealth and power in our wold are so great? Why do the good but uniformed intentions of North Americans who engage the poor sometimes lead to unintended consequences that can be damaging to everyone involved? When does our culture and heritage lead us to make wrong assumptions when preparing and engaging in cross-cultural missions's trip?
  
  If your interested in learning together about ways we can serve the poor in God honouring ways that make a lasting difference, join us for this workshop as we simulate thoughtful preparation for engaging the materially poor. 
•  Caring for our missionaries (for active and prospective Mentors and Advocates) - Kirk Plattner
• This session is for active and prospective (Those who have a strong desire to engage int he missionary support process) missionary mentors and advocates.  This workshop is designed to provide mentor and advocate training for the purpose of more effectively caring for our missionaries.  We will discuss what has worked, what has not worked, and ideas for developing church support further.  The workshop will be interactive and practical.  

MAIN SESSIONS (Everyone attended all of these) (~30-40 minutes per session)

• Does the church have a mission or the mission have a church? - John Huber
• This presentation is a biblical overview of God's missional timeline and the role of the church as privileged participants in what He is doing and will do in the future.  Special emphasis is given to the role of the gospel as the means by which God will accomplish His mission.
• Our missionary experience - Keith & Alisa Beyer
• Listen to the perspectives of those currently serving on the mission field.  Hear about their struggles and joys and ways you can support them in this work.
• How to be culturally relevant without losing truth - Mike Leman
• How do we work though the challenges of proclaiming salvation by faith in Jesus in a different culture?  How do we teach new believers to be faithful disciples of Jesus regardless of their ethnicity or former religion?  The Apostle Paul said ... "To the Jews I became as a Jew and to the Greeks I became as a Greek." ... or did he?
• Preparing for God to use you - Arlan Miller
• Often our mindset towards ministry and mission can be "sometime, in the future, when I get there...then things will change."  However, God's Word calls us to a different mindset: a mindset of preparation, learning, and doing the here and now. 
• The long tradition of Apostolic Christian evangelism - Fred Witzig
• One of the roots of the Apostolic Christian Church goes deep into the historic beliefs and practices of the Anabaptists, who in the Reformation period became famous for their passionate evangelizing of Europe's marginal peoples.  From the 1500s, to the church started by Samuel Forehlich and extended to the United States int he 1800s, to HarvestCall today, evangelistic missionary work represents a rich tradition for Apostolic Christians.  

MINISTRY UPDATE BREAKOUTS (~30-40 minutes each)

• Planting new AC churches: challenges and opportunities - Tom Waldbeser
• USA: testimonies from South Carolina - Ray & Glad Slagel
• CVE: a day in the life of a caregiver - living the gospel one blow-up at a time - Brock Wiegand
• Haiti Dairy: listening to Haitians, listening to God, working together - Dewayne Dill
• Hospital Lumiere: dental teams fill a void - Todd Stoller
• What doe the Deaf in Jamaica lack? - Seth Kaeb

TOPICAL BREAKOUTS (30 minutes)

• What can we learn from the way Paul evangelized? - Wayne Laubscher
• Why Haiti is NOT  lost cause - Marie Lucie Jeune
• Elder Panel: ansering your questions about missions - Kent Heimer, Marvin Dotterer, Mike Leman, Duane Rocke, Tom Waldbeser
• Honor: what love looks like - Heather S.
• Truth centered community transformation - Dale Koch

DISCUSSION GROUPS (~30-40 minutes each)

• Do missionaries destroy indigenous culture? - Frank Sauder
• What it is like moving to bolster a small church - Duane Rocke
• Missionary Sending - Why, Who, When, What, and How - Kirk Plattner
• Sharing Christ in a world full of questions - Daniel Currier
• Do motives matter? - John Huber
• Redeployment vs retirement - Stephen Baner
• Using Bible distribution to reach the lost - Wayne Laubscher
• How can my local church be a missional church? - Brock Wiegand
• Is prayer central to missions? - Klint Beyer
• You and me, honouring Muslims - Heather S.
• When is our work over? - Arlan Miller
• Remembering them that are in bonds - Bill Schick
• Sharing Christ in the classroom - Fred Witzig
• Helping without hurting - Paul Streitmatter

The day was a full day, and I didn't think I would make it awake the whole time.   Even though I was very sleepy right after lunch, I did make it the day without taking a nap :) . I was very thankful that they set out bins of water and Life Saver Mints to assist as well.   I wish I could have taken more sessions than I did, but there just wasn't time.  Thus, I am greatly looking forward to next year's conference!

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Side note - the picture below shows the label on the water bottles that they gave out. 

As a way of ease and cost, I reuse my plastic bottles.  I had this bottle at work today, and while we were watching and playing with the kids outside, the teacher in our classroom asked me about it.  She thought it was neat and quite funny too.   We both joked about it for a bit, and laughed.   It struck me a quite neat that a water bottle label could catch someones eye like that and could potentially be an influence too.  

That Man

So today was yet another transition day for a kid in my preschool classroom.  This particular little girl is from across the hall in one of the infant toddler rooms - she is still two years old.  Over the past couple weeks she has come over to “visit” our preschool classroom. This week she started staying longer on her visits.  Tuesday she stayed for lunch and today she even stayed for nap time.  When she comes back next week she will be in preschool full time.

Anyways, I sat by her at nap time today and tried to help her sleep - with little success, which was okay since she wasn’t all that rowdy or loud.  As nap time was nearing its end, the main teacher in our class took this girl back to her infant toddler room.  When the teacher came back she shared a funny story from her trip across the hall.  This little girl was telling her infant toddler teacher how I gave her some coloured pencils and paper to draw with during the last 30 or so minutes of nap time.   However she didn’t use my name.  She just said, “That man gave [them] to me”.  Later, after school, as both the infant toddler and the preschool teachers were walking this girl and her mom through the new classroom over here in preschool, the infant toddler teacher told me similar things.  She shared that this girl kept referring to me as “that man”.  So she had told her mom that anytime you hear about “that man” she’s talking about Joshua.

I’ve been called many things by kids before, but “that man” is a new one.  I wonder what will be next, haha.  

Car Update

Well, since I last posted about my car nothing has changed.  I have not heard from them, and I've hesitated contacting them just because the longer they take, I think there may be a possibility they will cover more of the cost (?), maybe.   I have enjoyed the car I have as a loaner, and I've driven over 800 miles in it.    I may try to contact them this week though, considering that this coming Saturday will be the three week mark since I took my car in to them.   

Abi, Alex, Pizza, Driving, Narnia and Wisconsin!

Last Friday, Friday the 13th, was quite eventful.   Abi and Alex, her boyfriend, came by, with my dad and Grandma Baurer, to spend some time together and then also stay for lunch.   Abi and Alex flew out of Dallas up to St. Louis late last Wednesday evening and stayed in Illinois through early Sunday morning when they drove back to Texas with my Dad.   It was great to see them and spend time with them; I don't think I have seen them since Christmas!  During our talks Jesse and Nina sprung out Jesse's Virtual Reality headset, and Alex and even grandma tried it out.  Watching them play was quite entertaining and a very joyful experience!

After that we left for Monical's Pizza, though on the way most of us stopped at Spare And Share, the local thrift shop, to see if a certain old camera was there - Alex is big into cameras and was interested.  However when we got there we found that not only had it already sold, but someone else was there double checking if there was anything of it's kind left to buy.   Yet again on the flip side, Alex found a working Slide Projector for only $10.  

At Monical's Pizza we enjoyed great fellowship, food, and Jesse, Alex, Abi, and I raced to see who could finish the Sudoku on the place-mats first. Nina didn't play the Sudoku and Bethany had to work - we were sad that she wasn't able to make it.   After Monical's, since we had some extra time, we headed over to Prairie Christian School (Where Nina (my cousin) attends and my aunt Renee works) to learn from Nina how to play GaGaBall.  I was quite surprised how much fun it was!  After a few short rounds we left.  Abi, Alex, Grandma and my Dad in one car and the rest of us in another.  From there the Schlipf's and I headed north, towards Wisconsin.  About 10-15 minutes down the road we met up with Bethany and she joined us in the van.   We then proceeded to Madison, Wisconsin to watch a play that Karissa Stahl (also our cousin) was in.  I went last year, and the play was phenomenal! The director of this small play rotates her plays through the seven chunks of the Narnia Series, by C.S. Louis.   Her and another lady wrote the extraordinary plays themselves under the permission of the C.S. Louis Foundation.  Last year was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and this year it was The Silver Chair.  Both were very well done plays, with actors ranging from 7-years old to 15-years old.   I don't remember much from the book, The Silver Chair, but from what Jesse tells me, the play did an amazing job at keeping to the book and capturing the whole thing in just a short hour or two - and that is saying a lot coming from Jesse.  

After the play and light refreshments, we headed back to the Stahl household for the night.  I had a great time with them, through talk, and by playing with Lavel.   The next day around noon, we headed back home (about a 3 hour drive without traffic).  I am greatly looking forward to heading back up there in two weeks for out cousin get-together!  

10 Cent Provision

You know, God provides in even the smallest of ways.   The other day as I was taking one of my packages of coins into the post office I was informed that there was a problem with it.  Since I am able to purchase stamps cheaper online, I pre-stamp all of my packages with stamps instead of paying at the post office for a $3.50 sticker.  Well, I had $3.75 on this one particular package, which was the needed amount, but I had put tape over top one of my 10-cent stamps because I had originally put it on an envelope but then removed it to put it on this package.  When I removed the stamp, all the stickiness was gone.  So to solve the problem, I had taped it on.  Well, come to find out, the post office won’t accept a taped-over stamp because they can’t cancel it with their stamp.   So I owed 10 cents on this package still.  Instead of hassling with me credit card (and later my budget) I went out to my car and (thankfully) I had a dime in there that I brought in to pay for the stamp.  

A couple days  passed and I was leaving work (yesterday) and, what do you know, I noticed a dime on the parking lot near my car!!!  I’m not that desperate for money, but I do see that as a beautiful small provision from God.   He told me that He would provide, and I take that as both in the larger things in life and  the smaller things.   A dime may not seem more like luck rather than a provision, but I will take it as a provision because it brought me joy, and the Bible says that all good things come from God (James 1:17).   

Sometimes You Have To Let Go / Give To Recieve

God is so Good!   A little over a week ago I got a envelope in the mail from my Chiropractor's office.  Inside was a check for just a smidge over $100 to rebalance my account with them.  I was excited, and planned to put it toward my car payment (now that I need to make monthly payments on my "new" car).   However my dad wanted it, and he had the right to it, since he had covered my past three appointments there.  So I gave it to him knowing that he would put it to good use.   A few days later I was checking my PayPal account to see how much money had come in from eBay sales (selling coins mostly), and I noticed that 'out of the blue' someone had just sent me $100 a few days earlier!!!   WOW!  Just as I let go of the $100 from the Chiropractor, God reporvided it though someone else!   Thank you so much whoever it was that sent me the money!!!  It was such a blessing (and excitement)!

Coin Sales

Coinwise, I have had a lot less sales lately.   That is partly because I don't post as much, and partly because I drastically raised the shipping costs.  I did the latter because I had too many issues with coins not arriving, and it was costing me heavily, so I raised the shipping costs in order to equip each package sent out with a tracking number to ensure prompt arrival.  The former is because of the latter.   I knew that less would sell, so I haven't posted as much.  Though now that I have much cheaper stamps, I would like to try to get back to work at posting more coins.  

I also had a guy on Craigslist that is somewhat interested in buying a lot, if not all, of my IKE Dollars (Just over 1,750 of them).   However he hasn't said for sure if he will buy them or not - he wanted some time to think about it.  So, in the meantime, I will work on trying to sell them on eBay.   

Stamps, Stamps, & More Stamps

A while back I had found (with my grandma) accidentally that you can buy USPS stamps on eBay for cheaper rates than at the Post Office - though if your not careful, you can also pay a lot more for them too on eBay.   Anyways I had found a really good deal with a 10% credit back deal, and I purchased a lot of 300 forever stamps (valued at 50 cents each) for about 36 cents each.   This really helped with my coin sales on eBay as it either reduced the cost of shipping to charge, or raised the profit range I got.  

Last week I ran into my last sheet of 10 forever stamps, and I decided to restock.  Now that I have a car to pay off, I didn't have the money to buy another big lot of 300 in cash.  However, on July 1, eBay gave me the past quarter (3 months) worth of credit back I had earned - in all: $94.23.    Now I could use that and buy the lot of 300 stamps (only paying $20-30 in cash).  However that particular lot was no longer that cheap.  However I did find another one the same price and I bought it.   I bought it while I was at home on my phone.  When I went to pay eBay informed me that the required form of payment was not supported by the eBay Mobile App.  I thought that was strange as I've never had a problem with that before.   So the next day at school, just before work, I logged on to eBay and payed with my credit card - I normally use PayPal.   However it didn't seem to go through.  So I called eBay and they told me to do it again.   However I didn't have time to do it then as I had to get to work.  The next day I did it again.  But as I went to pay, I was not given the usual option to use my eBay Bucks (in-store credit).  It immediately payed the full price of $120 - an amount I can't afford.  I called eBay and they told me they would walk me through it next time - and that I can contact the seller and ask him to cancel the order.   So I did.  The guy was gracious and told me he canceled the order - and even sent me a picture of the cancellation confirmation.  That night, after work, I went to rebuy the lot, this time with eBay's help.  I called them again and they walked me through each step.  I was given the okay by eBay to confirm my purchase and then enter my credit car info in again.  So I did.   However it did the same thing again and went a head and placed the order without giving the option of using my eBay credit.   eBay then figured out where I had messed up.  They informed me that the seller was a Merchant seller and thus coupons and credit can't be used on their items.   They told me how to identify Merchant sellers in the future - look for the payment options.  If it's Visa/mastercard, American Express, and Discover, then it's a Merchant seller.  If it also includes options such as PayPal, then it is not a merchant seller.   They told me they would contact the seller this time and ask for another cancellation.  They told me that if the seller refused to cancel the order a second time, eBay would back me up this time.   Again the seller was gracious and canceled the order.

However a few days later I noticed that I was still charged $120 on my Discover card.  I went back and found that the first order was never actually canceled.   I looked at the confirmation picture that the seller had sent me and found out that, as it seems, he accidentally canceled the wrong order.  Another buyer had ordered a lot of 500 stamps and that buyer had a similar eBay name as I do (an understandable mistake on the seller's part).  I informed the seller and asked him to cancel my order.  He was very apologetic, however, he noted, he was unable to cancel the order as the stamps had already been shipped - eBay doesn't let you cancel a shipped order.  He didn't know what to do, so I suggested that he refund me the $120 and I will decline the stamps when they arrive - upon declining them, USPS will return them to the shipper.  The seller agreed to that, except that he would not refund me until he receives the stamps back (to ensure that I'm not scamming him).   I am not worried at all that he won't refund me, because eBay will make it right if there is trouble and this guy likely can't afford a bad review.

So, I was quite disappointed that I wasn't able to get the stamps, but God had a different plan.  It was as if He didn't allow the stamp situation to work out because He had something better!   God is so Good!   Not long later I found another seller on eBay selling 50 cent stamps (not forever stamps, but the same current valued stamps as forever stamps) in rolls of $100 for 30 cents each.   So I was able to buy 300 stamps again, and only use my eBay Bucks and no cash!!!!!  WOW GOD IS GOOD!!!!   

One Prius To The Next

So my car has had break problems since a few days after I bought it and I have taken it to the Bloomington Toyota Dealership twice and another mechanic once to have it checked out.  After taking it to the Toyota Dealership the second time, a week and a half ago, they estimated me just over $3,300 to fix the problem - claiming the hard-hard-to-get-to piece costs $2,500 plus 4 hours of labour.  Upon hearing that and hearing the advice from not only both my parents, but also the Toyota Dealership as well, I took it to the used car dealership that I bought the car from.   They took it in and gave me a loaner car to use until they figure out if they can get the work done cheaper (and hopefully help with the expense) - the Toyota Dealership thought that the problem may not have been known by the people I bought it from and may have been caused by sitting in a lot for a long time (likely prior to the used car dealership buying it).   They gave me a silver 2010 Toyota Prius.  Having this car makes me a lot more thankful for mine (three years newer).    This car heats up a lot when parked outside (as it has a black interior - mine is more white/cream coloured), three of the windows don't work and there are a number of other little things like that.  When the shop gave it to me the did tell me a few things about how the car wasn't finished yet (to be sold that is).  

The used car dealership took it to their mechanic who spent much of last week test driving it to try to repeat the problem.  Finally on Thursday, they were able to successfully repeat the problem.  The shop then called me and told me that they hadn't forgotten about me and they filled me in on this update.  They also said that they have been really busy this week so they haven't had a ton of time to spend on the car.  But they are going to dig into it now and see what it will cost to fix it.  I still have the loaner car - it gets about the same fuel economy as mine does.