Darcy, Craig and James Elliot Wiley and Barbara Cross. These friends helped set up the book signing and worked out the details for much of what happened in Indiana! What a blessing they are! (Barbara and Darcy are mother and daughter)


There is so much that we must trust the Lord for in life. Sometimes I wonder how much we really believe He will come through.

In two weeks, all of our leaders will make a journey from Tulsa (where they will be trained) to Dallas where Awe Star University will begin. Awe Star University is the training week for our missionaries, before heading off to the field.

Up to this point, the missionaries have been busy trying to raise support for their trips. They really have to work hard to do so. This year has been more difficult with the economy and fuel prices surging in opposite directions. People are less inclined to give.

As I review the finances of many of our students, my level of concern for how many of them will be forced out due to lack of money, increases.

I have seen the Lord come through in the past. I have seen students who were ready to back out because they had worked very hard and just could not get the last $1000 dollars raised.

Then just as they their discouragement was peaking, the Lord would bless them with someone who had just the amount of money they needed, and it often arrives anonymously! These stories are so incredible to see unfold!

This year, it has been a bit harder to believe things would work out. Many of them have raised the necessary funds and are all set. There are, however, many who I look at where they are and it is hard for me to believe they are going to make it. So little time is left.

Over the last couple of years, the battle we fought was a dropout rate of 15%. This year, that number has decreased, but so has the seeming ability to raise funds.

The bottom line is I know the Lord was in control then just as He is now. Most of these students will make it, and their funds will come in. We serve a God who wants us to trust Him. It is so easy to do when things are going well, but when they are not, we tend to try to seize control.

Control needs to be yeilded to Him all of the time. I know this, so why do I still struggle with the action of giving up my will and need to oversee things to assure they turn out right?

My solutions would more often than not, interfere with God's answers. I need to do my job, pray, and allow the Lord to reveal Himself in the seeming impossibilities of life. This is when people get dearly blessed!

It won't be long before I return to Peru with a team of 22. I also have teams going to Chile, Panama, North Africa and South Asia. The tasks before us are God sized. We must each trust Him for the solutions. Each of us have to be faithful in the trenches and then we can see His glory unfold. Not because of our work, but because of His plan.

Many lives will be changed this summer. I cannot believe the time is nearly here, again. Praise God for His provision, and brent?...stay out of the way!

dad