Sit still

The contented man holds still, likened to pouring a drink into a glass. “If we would be vessels to receive God’s mercy, and would have the Lord pour His mercy into us, we must have quiet, still hearts. We must not have hearts hurrying up and down in trouble, discontent and vexing, but still and quiet hearts, if we receive mercy from the Lord.”

Jeremiah Burroughs, "The rare jewel of Christian contentment"
Chapter 7, "The excellence of contentment," page 124

I was privileged to serve as the chaplain for the Bob Boscole memorial service at Tahoma just this past Monday for Robbi (Boscole) Baskin and her brothers Chris and Jeff. Here, Dan, Robbi and Dave's son, is playing with Chris during the reception at our church after the service. It was a short but extremely honoring service.

I attended an awesome missionary luncheon with Greg Von Tobel, Brent Hoiosen, John Ewell, and Derald Gall, this past Tuesday at the PFC office in Woodinville.

Greg shared about the Standing Stones clean and sober home ministry near Wapato where they just graduated a group and are looking forward to new men joining the work. It has been a very challenging year for Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel dealing with PFC issues. Greg continues to encourage me to participate in international mission trips with PFC.

Brent oversees the PFC Bible study correspondence courses that are distributed all over the country and even internationally and abouot how much he gained from the missions trips he has taken. He and his wife Carol are heading out in a couple of weeks.

Darold serves as a PFC chaplain at the juvenile institution at Maple Lane along with the staff chaplain Eric Pelz. He spoke about meeting the needs of teen-agers who are entering incarceration. I will be preaching in collaboration with a band from Olympia, "Just Five Old Men" on September 26 at Maple Lane.

John is exploring being a missionary with PFC and lives next door to Dick and Judy Rothlisberger in Maple Valley who have really encouraged him. He will be serving with a McNeil Island ministry team and perhaps at the Regional Justice Center in the near future.

I was greatly encouraged and challenged by each of the men. I am hoping to be able to go on at least one PFC international missions trip in 2010 and beyond that regularly as part of being a missionary with PFC. I was scheduled to return to Namibia (in Africa) in 2007 but I cancelled because the trip coincided with Peter's Kent Meridian High School graduation.

I was challenged at our fantastic August Faith Baptist Church missions conference to pursue cross cultural international short-term trips. Over the past several years, PFC has broadened focus to several countries in Africa, India, and Russia.

In the coming weeks I have scheduled:
Jerry Corelli concert, August 29
Family worship with John at Twin Rivers, September 6

Chaplaincy Advisory Group, RJC in Kent, September 14
Concert with Jim Dixon, Olympic CC at Forks, September 19
Concert and preaching with JFOM at Maple Lane, September 26

CAG appeciation dinner, Valley View Christian Church, September 28