A dark place.

“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.”  Romans 1:28

There were a number of occasions while living in Haiti when sights, sounds and strange feelings caused my skin to crawl.  The urging to eat Goat head soup which was a special treat prepared for me, having a vodou priestess charge me with broom and shrieking words I didn’t understand, sitting in an outdoor privy near the school in Anse d’Hainault at 4 AM fumbling for my flashlight and realizing that when the light beam came on there was a tarantula on the wall six inches from my right ear or the eerie things the vodou priest sent (evil spirits) to disrupt my prayer time…yes, there were times.

The attached photo was taken when driving to Port Salute which is on the Southwest claw of Haiti in the Les Cayes District.  A large rock was jutting out of the Caribbean perhaps 100 feet from the shore and it appeared to have some poles sticking out from it’s flat top.  I asked Pastor Israel Isidor who was with me what this formation was and he replied it was “tableau du satan” which translated is “devil’s table.”  He went on to tell me that vodou priests made their sacrifices on this rock.  He indicated that prior to 1985 they were sacrificing ‘young’ or ‘very old’ humans on the rock and then they were pressured by the government to stop that form of sacrifice as it was bringing bad attention to Haiti.  Now they sacrifice animals; goats, dogs and pigs to please the evil spirit world.

For the most part, vodou was not one of the subjects that were brought up in conversations very often when I was living in Haiti and I am assuming that it was either an embarrassment or just something that people didn’t care to bring up.  When I was asked to share a message on Sunday morning at the Lutheran congregations there, it was one topic that I always tried to find a way to weave it into my message; as the vodou needs to stop, Haiti needs Jesus and the truth about vodou needs to be told again and again.

The Easter story needs to be shared in Haiti every day because the vodou priest spins a different lie about the outcome.  He tells people that Christ died and was buried.  He tells them that satan defeated Jesus Christ and if you don’t believe it, then he will bring a host of evil spirits into your life and they are real; seen them, didn’t like them and only by the name of Jesus Christ did they leave.  As Pastor Isidor proclaimed, our Holy Spirit has much more power than the spirits of the vodou priest.

Thank you for helping to prepare young children attending Christian schools to go out and share the Easter story with their families and friends in Haiti, bringing the light of this world to those still living in darkness.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

Don't worry.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:34

It doesn't matter if you're asleep or wide awake; there are two thieves in this world that often try to creep into your life to rob you of your peace and joy.  They are known as "yesterday" and "tomorrow".  Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow because He knew we would have more than enough worldly burdens to handle today.

The attached photo was taken at the Lutheran church in Roche Jabrouin (Rosh Jabrune) which is to the mostly south and a little west of Les Cayes.  The soil there would remind you of Oklahoma; red clay, red rocks and I recall very vividly having a flat tire on the way there and was worried about getting another puncture on my lone spare tire as the rocks were like driving on coral with sharp edges.

The congregation there didn’t seem to be worried about when their church would be completed.  They had constructed concrete pillars to support their corrugated metal roof and there were quite a few pews.  This photo was taken in the summer and there was no school in session at the time.  There was a Gospel song on the radio yesterday that made think about Roche Jabrouin and perhaps after you read the lyrics you too will think about this church in the country, in the middle of nowhere Haiti.

“There's a place dear to me where I'm longing to be with my friends at the old country church.  There with mother we went, and our Sundays were spent with my friends at the old country church.  Precious years precious years, sweet memory, oh what joy they bring to me.  How I long once more to be with my friends at the old country church.  As a small country boy, how my heart beat with joy as I knelt at the old country church.  There with Jesus above in his wonderful love saved my soul at the old country church.  How I wish that today all the people would pray as they did at the old country church.  If they'd only confess, Jesus surely would bless as he did at the old country church.”

If you are complaining that it was too hot, cold, dark, windy or sunny in church last Sunday, or you have looked at the weather forecast and then decided that you may not go to church next week because it is supposed to rain and you don’t want to get wet or get the car spotted; consider the members of this congregation in Roche Jabrouin.  God blesses each of us in many different ways; some with much and some with less, but always He meets our needs.  You probably would say that things are different here in North America and if I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

Don’t worry about what this world considers to be proper, correct, expected or the way it is supposed to be; consider what the Son of God did for you on Calvary.  We worry about sacrificing of our comfort to answer His call to go and make disciples throughout this world.  We can learn much from the congregation members at the old country church in Roche Jabrouin.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

The Cornerstone.

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.”  1 Peter 2:4 (ESV)

If you visited Haiti and got into a AWD vehicle and were to make a visit to a preaching station or church and school in a rural area and shared a devotional message with them about a cornerstone, the message would probably not be very clear or relevant to their culture.  Many of the structures that you would visit would be made from branches, palm leaves and bamboo or wood poles, and if the structure was really nice it would have a corrugated metal roof.  A cornerstone is a very precious stone to a stone cutter; it is the solid piece that the remainder of the structure is built upon.

The attached photo is of a church and school in a small town west of Les Cayes and is located about a hundred feet from the shore of the Caribbean sea.  I seem to think that this school is located in Chamblain but I could be wrong…for today, only God knows where this school is located.  When I first saw it the first words to come into mind were ‘maintenance nightmare’ or possibly ‘hurricane magnet’.  When showing this photo to groups in North America, people just don’t want to believe that this is a school; some people hear voices, some see invisible people and others have no imagination whatsoever.  God can use the simplest of things to accomplish the greatest feats imaginable; consider what He does with each of us.

The truth here is that Christ is the cornerstone of this Church and School in Haiti.  The children attending this school will be the missionaries who take the news of their risen Savior to the lost souls living in their neighborhoods.  The Lutheran hymn “Christ is our Cornerstone” was written by John Darwall in 1837 and its message still holds true today.

“Christ is our cornerstone, on him alone we build; with his true saints alone the courts of heaven are filled.  On his great love our hopes we place of present grace and joys above.  Oh, then, with hymns of praise these hallowed courts shall ring; our voices we will raise the Three in One to sing.  And thus proclaim in joyful song, both loud and long that glorious name.  Here, gracious God, do now and evermore draw near; accept each faithful vow, and every suppliant hear.  In copious shower, on all who pray each holy day Your blessing pour.  Here may we gain from heaven the grace which we implore, and may that grace, once given, be with us evermore.  Until that day when all the blest to endless rest are called away.”

Thank you for your continued support of Christian education throughout this world, as His children go about fulfilling His Good and Perfect purpose and walk with their Savior.  

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

At the market.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."  Luke 19:10 (ESV)

During Lent, we focus on the last days and weeks of the life of Jesus Christ; his suffering, humiliation, scourging, beating, death and resurrection.  We are also reminded about why He came here for us, what His purpose on this earth was and why we daily should turn to Him with thanksgiving for our gift of Eternal Life from His death on Calvary’s cross.

The attached photo is of a market near Font Baptiste which is high on a mountain in the Arcahaie District in the Northern claw of Haiti.  Here large crowds of local people gather twice a week to hopefully sell a small pan of vegetables or fruit, or a basket, or a dress or something that they have made or trade something for something that they might be needing.

I don’t know how many people were there but suffice to say there was a mass of humanity there and I can’t begin to tell you what the noise of their voices sounded like on that hot morning on the road to Font Baptiste.  The man in the center of the photo, scratching his head with his right hand is Pastor Joseph Romulus, he was looking for ‘zaboka’ or an avocado.  Pastor Joseph is like you and me, a sinner.  The other people in the photo are also sinners.  Close to 65% percent of the people living in Haiti practice vodou, they are sinners just like you and me, but they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior; hopeless sinners.

Our Lord Jesus sent Pastor Joseph, you, me and over 42,500 Haitian children attending Christian schools in Haiti to take the Gospel message to the lost still practicing vodou in Haiti.  They either have not heard the truth or have and still believe the lies of the vodou priest who still proclaims that Christ did not rise from the dead and satan won the victory.  Seek and save the lost.  I heard a Lenten hymn recently, “Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness” by Nicolaus L. von Zinzendorf and it is one of my all time favorites and always reminds me why Christ came and then the Holy Spirit moves me follow the direction Christ gave us, to seek and save the lost.

“Jesus, your blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress; mid flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.  Bold shall I stand in that great day, cleansed and redeemed, no debt to pay; for by your cross absolved I am, from sin and guilt, from fear and shame.  Lord, I believe your precious blood, which at the mercy seat of God; pleads for the captives’ liberty, was also shed in love for me.  Lord, I believe, were sinners more than sands upon the ocean shore, You have for all a ransom paid, for all a full atonement made.  When from the dust of death I rise to claim my mansion in the skies, this then shall be my only plea: Christ Jesus lived and died for me.  Then shall I praise you and adore Your blessed name forevermore, Who once, for me and all you made, an everlasting ransom paid.”

Thank you for blessing the lives of the children being fed through Trinity HOPE programs with your prayers and financial gifts that daily uplift them as they go out into their world and seek and save the lost.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

RAK

(Jesus said) "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  Matthew 6:33

I really do hope that you have had an opportunity to show somebody a random act of kindness (RAK) somewhere along your journey, and heard them utter the words to you; “You will never know how much this means to me”.  Perhaps those exact words didn’t leave their lips, but you could just see them in their eyes or feel them in the warm hug that they gave you afterwards.  It is a warm fuzzy moment…it is a God moment.

I’ve been blessed to see doctors in Haiti receive those words through a translator, teachers receive that hug and a nurse receive that through two sets of eyes and a pair of smiles.  It is a moment when our Heavenly Father is smiling at what has just taken place.  He told us ‘you don’t know how much you mean to me’ when He sent His Son to the cross. 

There have been many faces in Haiti captured on film that seem to say ‘thank you, you will never know how much this means to me.’  The attached photo of a school girl at Bon Berger in Caredeux seems to be telling Lori Wolfe-Beerenstrach that, as the lens of her camera opened on a hot Haitian day as school was getting out.

It is too bad that I could not attach a photo from every one of the schools that have Trinity HOPE feeding programs so you could see over 42.500 children saying “you will never know how much this means to me.”  We also need to say to God every day, “You will never know how much it means to me that You gave Your only on to die for my sins.”  That random act of our Heavenly Father’s kindness and grace is immeasurable and unthinkable by human standards.  Thank you for continuing to ‘make their day’ by supporting Trinity HOPE and preparing those children in Haiti to do His work, spreading the Holy Gospel to the lost in their neighborhoods.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

Wanting the best.

“From childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  2 Timothy 3:15

Ask a North American mother what qualities she hopes her child will have when they are grown and many will undoubtably list attributes like independence, free-thinking, individualism, leadership and somebody who doesn't go along with the crowd.  And today, a mom might say that she just wants her kids to be back in school…in person.  Ask a Haitian mother the same question and you will probably get a different answer.  Many Haitian moms will say they would hope that their child would get an education, a job and have a better life than they have had…and have food.

If you have ever been to Haiti and have been in their homes, you would have witnessed the moms preparing meals or tending to their small gardens and you would better understand those differences.  If you have visited life in rural Haiti you can see firsthand what life might have been like here in the mid to late 1800’s as time seems to have stood still.  The rest of the industrial world has not visited the small hamlets except for the gasoline powered vehicle.

Haitian people are for the most part very patient and orderly as they stand in line waiting for the arrival of a taptap; wait in line hoping for a day of work, waiting to get some water or food.  What do you want for your child?  A better life than what I have endured and for them to know Jesus.  That is what the parent living in Ouanaminthe wants for their son attending the Lutheran school in the attached photo. 

Christians want their children to grow up knowing and walking with Jesus.  One of the greatest needs of the Haitian parent is to realize how important it is for their child to know Jesus as many of them only rely upon the vodou priest and bring up their children without faith in the Savior.  The vodou priest brings them fear and leaves them hopeless.  Perhaps ninety percent of the schools in Haiti are Christian schools and the rest run by the government; the next generation in Haiti will have HOPE in their Savior.  At the present time, there are over 42,500 children attending over 200 Christian schools in Haiti who are learning about their Savior and receiving a meal from Trinity HOPE.  Thank you for helping the parents in Haiti to make a better life for their child, and also for answering the call of our Savior to seek and save the lost.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

Meals on wheels?

“In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves.  And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!"  And the fig tree withered at once.  When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?"  And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen.  And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."  Matthew 21:18-22

I read these passages in a Lenten devotion yesterday and they caused me to look at my life’s journey in a way that I had not really thought about before.  This passage grabbed me by the throat, had read it before but like most of Scripture, the more you read it the it more opens up to your life.

I don’t know where your journey has taken you, but mine has certainly has had its ups and downs and there have been many occasions when I have stumbled only to find Him there ready to pick me up and set me back upon my feet.  That is a God thing; taking the least of this world (that would be me) and setting it back upright to try again at doing His work.  What are your thoughts when you read about the fig tree that produced leaves but no fruit?  Where has your journey led you?  The attached photo was taken in Caredeux as John Hall and I were delivering a load of beans that originated in Morrill, NE and made their way to Food for the Poor in Port-au-Prince and rice and vegetable oil to Good Shepherd Lutheran school.  On this day my white truck had power steering and the rear springs seemed to be fully compressed as we drove down the bumpy streets through Port-au-Prince on a hot afternoon.  Meals on Wheels, Trinity HOPE style.

There were a lot of children fed from this food.  I am so thankful that so many of you have followed the call of the Holy Spirit to go into the mission fields of this planet and assist with the harvest.  Thank you for sharing of your time, talents and prayers with the 42,500 children, His children living in Haiti who are being fed Spiritually and nutritionally in over 200 Christian schools in Haiti.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

Beautiful children.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end.”  Ecclesiastes 3:11

I just cannot begin to count the number of times that the phrase “the children are so beautiful” is spoken following a Trinity HOPE presentation.  It is always brought up by somebody and the attached photo taken of a girl in Caredeux probably might cause you to think of that now.

God has made everything beautiful in it’s time, and as John Hall used to say quite frequently, “ain’t God good?”  If you have spent some time in Haiti, seeing the children and where they live, gives you a different perspective of this verse from Ecclesiastes.  The home they live in is typically the size of a single stall North American garage.  If the parents have money or support from somebody living in the U.S., their house may be the size of a double stall garage.

No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no kitchen cupboards, plug in appliances, toilet, sink, screen or glass in the windows; their living conditions are primitive.  The homes that I visited outside of Port-au-Prince in the rural areas typically had one dresser in the family bedroom and that held every family member’s earthly possessions.  The girl in the photo doesn’t know what it is like to live on your street or what you come home to at the end of your day.  She just doesn’t understand how abundantly filled your life is and neither can we living in North America, begin to comprehend what their living conditions are like in Haiti.

He is in control, from the beginning to the end and we just don’t and can’t understand why that girl is smiling.  A few decades ago Ray Stevens had a song out called ‘Everything is beautiful’ and that song has made it into my mind on many occasions while living in Haiti. 

“Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white they are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world. Everything is beautiful in its' own way.  Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter's day.  Everybody's beautiful In their own way under God's heaven the world's gonna find a way.  There is none so blind that is he who will not see.  We must not close our minds, we must let our thought be free.  For every hour that passes by you know the world gets a little bit older.  It's time to realize that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.  We shouldn't care about the length of his hair or the color of his skin.  Don't worry about what shows from without but the love that lives within.  We're gonna get it all together now everything gonna work out fine.  Just take a little time to look on the good side my friend and straighten it out in your mind.”

Great song, certainly not in any Lutheran hymnal, but a wonderful message and I hope that you have heard it and you will be humming it tomorrow.  It seems that too many North American folks can’t understand why people living in poverty in other countries can possibly be happy and we then try to make North Americans out of them, giving them money, money, money and ‘we’ end up making their lives miserable.

Thank you for supporting Trinity HOPE.  We are really quite simple; we feed children attending Christian schools in Haiti, one bowl at a time to 42,500 kids every day they are in school.  We are sensitive to how much they need to keep them healthy as they go about doing His work.  We feed His children a bowl of rice and beans every day; that’s it…nothing fancy, just preparing them to do as we do, take the Gospel message to the lost.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

Doing it my way!

“But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.  So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.  “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways,” Psalm 81:11-13

When you were a child, or a brilliant teenager without a blemish, or a worldly educated thirty something or maybe yesterday, when you were receiving directions on how to do things correctly or at least better than what you were doing ‘your’ way, that you listened and then when they left you alone, you returned to doing your tasks ‘your’ way?  Perhaps I am the only one to have done that, but reading through scripture it seems that I am in good company.

Stubborn; there are five definitions to this word in the dictionary.  (1) Unreasonably obstinate; obstinately unmoving: a stubborn child.  (2) Fixed or set in purpose or opinion; resolute: a stubborn opponent of foreign aid.  (3) Obstinately maintained, as a course of action: a stubborn resistance.  (4) Difficult to manage or suppress: a stubborn horse; a stubborn pain.  (5) Hard, tough, or stiff, as stone or wood; difficult to shape or work.  The Haitian word for stubborn is “tet di.” 

When you drive into villages in Haiti and notice the houses with the tall, rustic wood flagpole that is adorned with the multi-colored banners that are owned by a stubborn person whose eyes, ears, mind, heart and body are owned by the devil; it should cause you to shudder.  Their stubbornness continues to separate them from the love of Christ.  They continue to reject the Holy Spirit.

Our Triune God continues to reach out to them through the lives of young Haitian missionaries who you are helping to support with a school lunch provided through Trinity HOPE.  The Holy Spirit continues to nudge those lives trapped in the lies of the vodou priest to turn into the Light and accept the Savior of this world.  I close today with the words to the hymn ‘Just as I am’ which was written by Charlotte Elliott in 1836.

“Just as I am, without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me and that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.  Just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot, to Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.  Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.  Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; sight, riches, healing of the mind, yea, all I need, in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.  Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.  Just as I am; Thy love unknown has broken every barrier down. now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

Your hands.

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”  Galatians 5:24-25 (NLT)

My sins, your sins and the sins of the children from Ouanaminthe in the attached photo, were nailed to cross of Christ some two thousand years ago.  Nailed to the cross; His hands and our hands; what a sacrifice He gave for us.  While living in Haiti and worshipping at Pastor Thomas Bernard’s Lutheran Church in Caredeux, there were many occasions when he asked me to share a message with the congregation.

Pastor Thomas said it was good for his congregation to hear God’s word from a North American from time to time as my life’s journey had been down different roads than his, and theirs, and it was good for them to see God’s world from a different perspective from time to time.  One Sunday I shared with them about the hands of Christ being nailed to the Cross and invited the members to stop for a moment and look at their hands, where they had been, what ‘they’ had done with them and how God had used them.

Have you ever looked at your hands, I mean really looked at your hands?  You are probably sitting at the keyboard or looking at your smart phone in a climate controlled house; but please look at your hands, palms up, palms down clenched and then open.  Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years.  My hands, though wrinkled, growing weaker, shriveled and scarred have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life.  They have held a surveyors Philadelphia rod for years, held a hammer while inspecting a bridge while immersed under 30’ of ‘black’ water, plunked on a computer keyboard and held my daughters when they were only a few seconds old…and they have been together in prayer.

They tied my shoelaces and also pulled on my cowboy boots. They’ve been lava soap dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent.  They have scooped manure in the barn and changed diapers.  They once carried a wedding band and trembled when I was with my mother when she left this world and held on tightly as I walked my daughters down the aisle at their wedding.

Today it seems that they are wearing out at a fast pace.  My strength is being sapped with every coming month, but I still remember when I could do so many different tasks with these hands.  Today, these hands are doing God’s work, reaching out to you to share the message of Trinity HOPE and scrolling through Scripture to embrace my human thoughts, words and memories.

One day our Triune God will reach out and take your hands, my hands and the hands of children living in Haiti and take each of us home.  One day, our hands will touch the face of Jesus Christ as our Heavenly Father will tell us “well done good and faithful servant.”  Guard your hands, may they continue to do His work in this world. 

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay