Over and over again I discover that following Jesus isn’t so much about what you do for him, but the heart behind what you do.

Recently Lynnette and I had been praying and thinking about our decision to help Nolan and Jay plant their exciting new church in Manila, Hope Metro. The both of us felt strongly that we were called to the Philippines and when we saw that they were going to plant the church, it seemed to make sense to join them.  We felt like God was giving us the blessing to be a part of their team. 

However, the difficulty in following Jesus, for me anyway, is always knowing the difference between what God is calling me to do and what simply gets me excited. The problem with simply being excited is that mixed in those emotions can be prideful and selfish motivations. Jeremiah 17:9-10 tell us about this: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." 

Because the Lord can see in our heart things we can’t recognize, it compelled us to seek Him more about this decision we had made to go with Nolan and Jay. What we discovered was that although there was excitement for the church plant, the calling to be on the pioneering team wasn’t quite as clear. What we also discovered was that when we first felt like God was calling us to the mission field 2 years ago, there was an emphasis on helping children affected by abject poverty and abuse - and we had taken our focus us off of that.

So in light of these discoveries, we shared with Nolan that we would have to humbly step down from the church planting team and in this season we’ve decided to press more into God and have him search our hearts and examine our minds, and give us some insight to what he is calling us to do in the Philippines. We are not yet saying that we will for sure do this or do that, all we know is that when we do make that decision it will not only be with great excitement, but more importantly, great faith.

NEXT STEPS FOR US

Since this decision God has been faithful in revealing many opportunities to explore His calling for us. If God provides the finances, Lynnette and I will be traveling to the Philippines this July to visit and serve in some orphanages. We are still planning on moving to the Philippines next May 2011 and we are confident that God will reveal more of his plans to us as long as we are open and faithful to what He has in store for us. 

THANK YOU NOLAN & JAY!

Lynnette and I are very grateful to Nolan and Jay  for being so understanding and open. I have no doubt that God will use their great faith to reach many in the Philippines. We are thankful to God for bringing them into our lives and using them to grow us in our faith. God is so good!