Frank was always a hot head...it was his demise.

Go...

"'Not called' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put down your ear to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put down your ear to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face--whose mercy you have professed to obey--and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish to His mercy to the world.
- William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

Reappear...

Hey, Hey everybody! This post is coming after a LLLOOOONNNNNGGGGG hiatus. The fam and I have been in Mississippi since the end of May and have been going from "can to can't" since. Now that I'm finally taking the time to write just a bit about our time at home, it's almost time to get back to beautiful Roach, MO (much prettier than it sounds.)

Only 2 days after we returned here for the summer I jumped back into the role of children's minister for the summer at my home church, Briar Hill Baptist. It's been super busy, but really stinkin good as well. I've taken my time with the kis on Wednesday nights to test out the chronological teaching that we went through during our first semester of training with New Tribes Mission. I will go ahead and admit that the first week or two was pretty touch and go, but once I began to get the hang of drawing out the themes of the stories, the kids (and myself) began to learn a lot. Here's one of my favorite examples of that from the summer: We had already covered the creation story, Adam & Eve, the fall of man, Cain & Able, and we had made it to Noah and the ark. For this story (and all others) I had been using pictures from bricktestament.com for illustrations...which the kids LOVE! ***Disclaimer*** these illustrations were created by an atheist and there are some images that are not appropiate for kids, adults, etc. so if you decide to use any of them for your own teaching purposes make sure you weed through them. *** One of the last illustrations I used was of Noah and his family offering a sacrifice to God. I was just about to wrap up the lesson when a little girl raised her hand and asked "Why is Noah killing that animal?" At that about 3 or 4 kiddos interjected with, what was for me, a EUREKA! moment. A couple kids answered, "THAT'S HIS SACRIFICE FOR HIS SINS." and another young guy quickly followed that by saying, "YEAH, SOMETHING ALWAYS HAS TO DIE FOR OUR SINS."

It had happened! The kids were not just hearing the truths of the Bible, they were really retaining them and applying it. I was super excited! How great will it be once the connection is made in their minds and in their hearts that, yes someting does have to die for our sins, and Jesus came and died for OUR sins...to be OUR sacrifice!

It was the very next week when my 9 year old neice came to me after that Wednesday's lesson and said, "Uncle John...I'm ready!" At that my shy little neice, completely own her own, told me how she wanted to accept Jesus as her Savior so that she could be forgiven of her sins. WOW! What a priviledge!

Well, in midst of all the good things at church, Jessi, the girls, and I have had the opportunity to go and speak to a few different churches around the state about where God is leading us in foreign misisons and about our training with New Tribes Mission. We were able just this last week to go visit some dear friends at Pheba Baptist Church and also at Old Rice Road Baptist. It was encouraging to see their excitement for God's work.

Oh, what a busy, busy summer this has been, but good things sure have come from it!

My Jungle Girls...

After enduring a brutal Missouri winter (brutal for a couple southerners anyway) and a lot of recent downpours, mother nature has finally dealt a few days of warm and beautiful weather. So...seeing as though we are training for tribal missions I thought I see how my girls would handle a little of the jungle life and expose them to the great outdoors of Roach, MO...that's right, "Roach." After slathering the girls with some sunscreen like we were basting a Christmas turkey we were out the door with fishing poles in hand (Lu, of course, sporting a fashionable Barbi pole.) Lucy was SOOO excited to finally go fishing. Jessi and I had made the mistake of telling her back a few months ago that once the weather got warmer we would take her fishing. At the time we had no idea what a persistent barrage of "Is it warmer yet?" questions we would, from that moment on, endure.

Well, her day had come. It was, at long last, warmer. And with only one worm's demise and just a couple bobs of her cork Lu had caught her very first fish. Now, there is never a moment that I am not proud to hear my girls call me daddy...but, when Lucy screamed out in excitement "DADDY, LOOK!!! IT'S A BBBBIIIIIGGGG FISH!" I was one proud papa indeed. The Barbi fishing rod had served her well. In fact, Lucy and I went on to catch four fish together. Certainly, it was a day I will not soon forget...my first born's first time fishing.

Fish, however, were not the only thing we caught in the "warmer" days that followed. From lizards to crawdads, snakes, turtles and frogs, my daughters handled them all like true jungle girls. Every bump and scale was examined closely, every croak and hiss mimicked. Even Jessi faired well with just about all the creepy crawlies...except the snake, of course. That's a hill that just won't be crossed. My jungle girls, all three of them...I'm a lucky guy!

George Family Update 3...

Tribal Celebration...

i just liked this...

George Family Update 2...

Giving God A Name...

So, this past Wednesday Jessi and I were sitting in a "Form and Meaning" class when we were given an assignment that completely caught me off guard. "Give God a name," our teacher said. What? Give God a name? See, we had been talking in class about the difficulties of translating the Scripture to a tribal language. So, he proposed the task of giving God a name for a tribal group. We had the options of choosing b/w vernacular, the trade language, or choosing an entirely new name using the tribe's native tongue.

For example, say you move into a new tribal location. Option 1: You can stick with the name "God," but what will they understand this word? What meaning will they ascribe to it? Will they syncretize it with some of their old beliefs of God and ascribe immoral attributes to Him? Option 2: You could use that country's trade language word for God. An example of this would be using "Dios" in a Hispanic country. If you decide to do this, would it be possible that the tribal group would relate this word with other country groups who have claimed to worship "Dios" but had treated them wrongly in some way or another (as many tribal groups are often mistreated by governments.) Option 3: You could choose to create an entirely new name for God using the tribal language, but how well do you understand their language? Would you misrepresent the nature of God by the words you choose?

During our class, our group came up with many different pros and cons for each option. But in the end decided on option 3. Our teacher, who himself had been a tribal missionary for about 15 years, told us that all three have been used successfully and unsuccessfully. I have to tell you...I had a few beads of sweat pop up over making this decision, and this was just a class assignment, not the real thing. In the words of my main man Harry Carary "Holy Cow!" Seriously, I know this is the name of our mighty King, but it is also just one word of many in the Bible that we will hopefully soon be translating.

"Inadequate"...this doesn't even bein to describe how I'm feeling.

George Family Update 1...

At Long Last...

GET YA NEWS! GET YA NEWS FOLKS! THE GEORGE FAMILY FINALLY ARRIVES AT NEW TRIBES! Four years plus prior to this week God began to finally narrow our vision and calling for foreign missions. For me, I was hit like sack of hammers after returning home from my first over seas mission trip to El Salvador. I remember walking through the door of my parents house and my dad greeting me there and saying this..."Well, you glad to back in the States?" All at once this epiphany came over me (as if epiphanies happen any other way.) "No, not really dad. I miss being over there." Before you think I'm patriotically waving the colors of any country, please let me clarify. While I'm most certainly proud to call the U.S. my home and feel blessed to have had the religious freedoms that we do I simply missed being out of the environment of foreign missions. My trip to El Salvador was the first time I had ever been to a place that didn't seem to have a church on ever street corner, or find people who had no previous exposure to the Gospel message. Coming home, I was simply left with a hunger to be a part of that work.

Over the course of our engagement and marriage, God began honing our heart's desires in. Little by little, then, by leaps and bounds. The idea of people around the globe without any access to the saving power of the Gospel message became a burden to say the very least. The thought of thousands of people groups without a single word of the Bible in a language they could understand became an excruciating thought. Via my wife and the World Wide Web we were exposed to the work of New Tribes Missions and today, here we are in Roach, MO four days away from our first training class to prepare us to take Jesus to those who have never heard before.

May God give long life to those people around the globe who are waiting to here of His love for them.

5 More Minutes Mom!!!

At at given moment I feel like I'm going to wake up to sound of my mom's shrill voice "JOHN MICHAEL....TIME TO GET UP...........JOOOOHHHNNN MMMIIIICCCCHHHAAEEELLL!" Argh! I love my mom like crazy, but when she yells it's like one of those veloca raptor things on Jurassic Park. I can still smell my high school cafeteria, and feel that hardened blob of bright green gum against my knee that I could never get off of the underneath side of my desk in 11th grade chem class. Ok...close my eyes...now open!!! Nope still here, still married, still a daddy. This is crazy! Don't read this wrong. I have absolute ZERO desire to revisit my teenage days, but there's just no way that I'm a dad of two little girls (one of which will turn three in just a few short months,) no way I've been married for four years, no way I've bought and sold a house, no way I've lived overseas, worried about health care, actually watched the news to hear about the stock market as if I had some sort of legitimate worries. ......... This is nuts! I'm just John Michael. Pimpled face, knappy hair kid who just sort of is here...that's it. It's hard to look back on the last five or so years of my life and piece together everything that got me to where I am now...sitting on my couch, with my wife and two little girls in the next room over asleep, one month away from moving (for the 8th time of my 4 year marriage) to train for the next 1 1/2 years to be a missionary to unreached tribal people for the rest of my, physically capable, adult life. Seriously!?

After a short break to read over what I've already written and to admire my extreme misuse of ellipses and run-on sentences, I realized that spoken tone could very well be lost in typed text. So "..." let me clarify one thing. I am EXTREMELY happy with my life and where I am today. I have two amazing little girls who make me feel like superman and a wife who is way to pretty to be married to me. I'm truly a blessed guy. My life is just so awkwardly forgiven that I have a hard time believing it's real sometimes.

Finally Recording Some Songs...

Sunday School Video...

On The Altar State of Mind...

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, "You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages." To that, Calvert replied,

"We died before we came here."

Disillusioned Saints...

I'm finding that my patience proves more worn by entertaining the Church's "saints" than by enduring the wait for the world's sinners. My hearts eyes are becoming increasingly aware of the sad state of our believer's lacking desire for the masses to know the Savior we claim to worship. "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship." Our bodies? ... our arms, our legs, our minds, our hands, our feet, our ears, our eyes.....how much of my body is devoted to self and not to God!? When we go to work in order to earn money, do we do so with hopes of using that wage to bring glory to God? To send Bibles to those without, to put food in the mouths of those who have not? If this were our purpose, and if we truly rejoiced in seeing God glorified, would not even our jobs become a tool of praise? I am so tired with myself and others! Seeing the Church, Jesus' bride, turn our backs on the One who gives us life eternal. We give our tenth, if we give that at all, and somehow fool ourselves into believing we've done our duty. If I'm not mistaken the woman who gave her two coins was not praised for her abundance, but for the fact that she completely emptied herself for the sake of God.

How much have we forgotten the love of Christ that we're not only apprehensive to do, but even refuse to do the just minimal task for our Savior. When approached with an opportunity to serve we spit our excuses out by the bucket full, as if our excuses pardoned us from our duty to Christ. What a sad state we'd all find ourselves in had Jesus decided to give His Father an excuse in the Garden of Gethsemane rather than being willing to "offer" His "body as a living sacrifice."

The realization we all need to come to is that every time we're unwilling to deny ourselves of whatever pleasure it is we cling to instead of serving God we are very likely denying someone the opportunity to know about the Good News Jesus came to share with the world. The Bible says we should "offer" our bodies. An offering is a willing transfer. God's not going to force us to serve...but should we choose contrary to Him, what does that say of our love and devotion for the one who pulled us out of the muck and mire. Do we want Jesus to be our Lord and Savior...or just our Savior?

A Rebuttal...

Had I a need to run away from Bigfoot I wouldn't run into the woods. If being chased by little green men I would not pause to admire the pretty patterns drawn out in the hay.........now let's read..."He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." Here's what we know: Jonah was running from God, the God "who made the sea." and he was running away on........duh, duh ,duh (dramatic, suspenseful tone!) A boat. There's humor here. I can smell it.

A Break From Christianity...

Apparently, Halloween is not only a night for young kiddos to take a short break from reality and retreat in to a fantasy world of super heroes and fairy princesses, but also for a few of us older ones to take a break from our foundational beliefs all together.

I'm not sure when it all happened, but it seems that Halloween now affords people with some sort of "free pass" to cast aside their Christian values and replace them with a lot of the things that are so stinky wrong with our culture today. Imagine this is you will...A normally respectful girl, proclaiming Christian, living what seems to be a fairly solid life. However, Halloween rolls around and somehow this same girl finds it perfectly ok to to put on some skimpy, cleavage-flashing (or more like nearly revealing the whole "show") costume. Slutty nurse, slutty cheerleader, slutty cop, slutty sailor, slutty angel, slutty devil...whatever the case may be, notice that there's a theme. Any other day of the year we would think it ridiculous and sinful to dress this way, but for whatever reason people feel as if God gives us pass on Halloween or is taking a nap and won't notice. He isn't Baal and He's not out on a long walk...He's seeing what's going on , and I feel pretty confident that He isn't happy about it.

I don't guess I can really come don't of those who aren't claiming affiliation with Jesus (at least not for the sake of this post,) but for those of you who represent Christ remember that we don't get "day's off." It's a full-time job. Put your clothes back on.

Thanks Weird Guy...

So...there I sat in my office (slash senior adult lady's Sunday School room) when in walk this elderly fellow that I've never seen before. He stepped into the main office where I promptly heard him ask for the senior pastor. Our senior pastor not being in the office, he was introduced to our outreach pastor, Bro. Roy. Upon introduction, a hearty discussion quickly begin. Being a few doors down I couldn't make out all that was being said, but what I could hear seemed pretty bizarre. So, of course I had to make my way in there to get a better listen.

I went in to the office to "get some coffee" and quietly stepped past Roy who was sporting a rather bewildered look. I poured my joe and then decided to prop up the door jam while I listened to the discussion. It only took me about 30 seconds for my face to contort to the same look of bewilderment as Roy. I honestly still have no clear idea of what that weird guy was talking about. Something about Jesus (but be it known that his idea of Jesus was certainly not the same as my own,) and sin, and humor, and orbs of energy.....seriously, I have no clue.

Anywho, after a few seconds of being at a loss for words, or patience, Roy turned to me and said "what do you think about all this, John Michael?" While trying to give my thoughts on the subject it became pretty clear to me that I really had no idea about what the weird guy was talking about. Being me, however, I continued talking hoping to say something that would appease the air of confusion that was making me a slight degree of dizy. The guy was obviously not satisfied with my answer and with a certian level of aggervation, began to say a lot more nonsense. I figured that if I was going to listen to him, I might as well be comfortable...so, I took my place in the chair that was next to his.

Somewhere along the way he began quoting the verse about "milk & meat" from 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I was fine with that up until the point when he began saying that the verses following go on to say that God will take away His salvation from someone if they sin after conversion. Seeing as there was a Bible sitting next to me on the end table next to me, I politely picked it up and handed it to the man. He ask me angerly what it was for..."I'd like for you to show me those verses," I said. The guy got pretty hacked off and again began quoting Scripture to me, saying that 1 Thessolonians says that I am the one who has to give an answer for the hope that is in me. I told him that actually that verse is in Peter, and then just told him that I was arguing and that I was just unaware of the verses he was talking about. He took the Bible, looked at the spine of it, made a funny face and began to thumb through it (I later found out that he was a hater of all translations that are not KJV.) After a few moments, he took the Bible tossed down on the table, and brushed his hands off as if they were dirty or something. This was an obvious display of his disgust with that particular version (NIV.) I asked him if something was wrong with that Bible, and Roy reitterated that question stating that he had led probably a thousand soilders to the Lord with all manner of versions. I would like to add that the guy never found the verses he was talking about.....b/c they were never there to begin with.

***2 more stories about this guy and this blog is done***

Somehow, the guy segued in to a story about a sick kid in the hospital who was going to die. He said at first he didn't care about him and then he decided that he would "project some positive energy on him." He said that after doin this he saw an image of this boy with "a silver orb of energy wrapping around him." After doing this, he told God that if he was real then how come he could project his engery on the boy and heal him but He couldn't. "IMMEDIATELY," said the weird guy, the silver ord changed to a gold one..."and I knew it was not of this world." Oh yeah, b/c silver orbs of engery floating around people are totally normal...but gold ones, Wow!

About that time Roy got a phone call. I'm sure he was quite relieved. As he stepped in to his office to take the call the weird guy told one final story. He said that the previous week he had gone to a "fellowship." He wouldn't call it a church...or our church a church for that matter. He said he told all the men at the church that He wanted to pray. "I want to pray, HEY, let me pray, let me pray," he said. The men ignored him he told us. Then he said it all over again, only louder and more animated. "HEY, LET ME PRAY, LET ME PRAY. I WANT TO PRAY!" "Finally," he said, "they let me pray. And I told those men that didn't any of them understand anything about the Spirit. And I got up and left." ...........at that........he got up and walked out of our office as abruptly as he came in. Our church secratarty look at me as I sat trying to figure out what had just happened and said with a matter-of-fact face, "We get 'em like that in here from time-to-time."

Oh yeah, also at one point of this 20 minute or so conversation, he told me that if I had read Matthew I would have had known he was coming that day. What?

A New Look...

Well, thanks to my 朋友 in china, the Johnsons, I now have a new layout for my blog. I was reading on their page the other day, and being jealous of the cool design they had when I saw a thingy that showed me where they got that look for it. Coodos Johnson family, coodos.

Speaking of new looks...I saw a girl the other that had gotten a new hair doo...sometimes change isn't a good thing.

Continuing with this theme, does anyone remember what the old Coliseum used to look like in Jackson? Is it just me or did it just look like a giant hot dog stand. Man! was that thing ugly. Then they remodeled the outside (which now looks MUCH better) but they put a shiny new copper roof on it. I'm pretty sure my retinas are still damaged from catching the sun's reflection off of that thing while driving down I-55.

Once more...my wife has been working out a lot lately. Now, her new look, I'm liking it!