i love creating opportunities to have our girls help us in this MPD* journey.
a little later than we’d like, but we’re finally getting our Christmas cards out today. here’s a video of the girls helping us stuff envelopes this morning.
- – - – - – - – - - *MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife.
deb and i are creative people. if there’s a project that needs to be done, then it has to be done with creativity and WOW.
when we were in Little Rock this past summer they had some kids of staff members come share their experience in moving to Little Rock and their adjustment to life there. every one of them mentioned that during their family’s fundraising process their parents made some kind of chart for the whole family to see how much progress they’d made.
but for the Laras, we didn’t want to simply do some “boring” thermometer. we liked the idea a family had of making a large magnet of a map from their home to Little Rock that they stuck on their fridge and had a little car magnet that traveled down the road.
but we wanted something even BIGGER. so we figured, “hey, we’re not going to stay in this house forever. why not go crazy and make a HUMONGOUS map on the living room wall.”
so that’s what we did. we announced to the girls that they were going to write on the walls, through a projection of the US on the wall, handed out pencils, and then let them go at it. after we’d put them to bed, mom and dad stayed up outlining it in Sharpie markers, and then we colored in the highway to Arkansas with them in the morning.
i saw this today. and i consider myself pretty “connected” to the social media scene. but there’s still a lot i haven’t been a part of, or simply don’t “get”.
and then i started thinking how i’ve kinda been neglecting my social media “skillz” because of how busy we are with MPD* and family. and then i started to wonder, “can we really afford to let our social media presence take a back burner if it’s turning out to be such an important aspect of the culture we live in?”
what are people saying about YOU?
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*MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife
so i talked with my MPD* coach this afternoon and told him that i felt like we were getting to a spot where the “honeymoon” phase of fundraising was coming to a close.
right after New Staff Training we were all fired up, excited to make appointments, and confident with the tools that we’d be given.
now after 3 weeks…we’re juggling a 40hr work week, kids determined to live in a messy house, and people forgetting or rescheduling the appointments they’d previously set with us.
but through it all God is faithful. i have a job that i’m thankful for and enjoy doing. we’ve been blessed with a babysitter who not only watches kids, but cleans as well. and deb have enjoyed getting to spend unexpected time together when our schedule is suddenly “freed up”.
plus, after FOUR appointments this week that were cancelled, rescheduled, or simply forgotten we were blessed with another couple who have partnered with us for $100/month.
that’s exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.
thanks God, you rock! :)
- – - – - – - – - - *MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife
abe: “i think i’m falling in love with you again.”
deb: “oh, really? what do you mean?”
abe: “i think it has to do with all the time we’re being forced to spend with each other through this process. and even though the time we’re spending together is spent doing the SAME thing over and over again. it’s just nice to be able to be with you.
we don’t have kids pulling on us, we’re having interactions with other adults and it’s just nice.
it’s nice to be able to be working on this project together”
deb: “that’s nice”
that was a snippet of conversation deb and i shared this past tuesday as we drove home from yakima.
we also happened to be driving separate cars home, and we talked on the phone the WHOLE way home. (45 min) we haven’t had a 1 on 1 uninterrupted conversation like that in years. i might even say since our college days when we’d go for long walks or talk on the phone for hours.
i’m looking forward to not having any appointments this weekend – our kids could use some dedicated uninterrupted “mom and dad” time.
we’re two weeks into this process, and from my post last week , you can tell it’s thrown our “normal” routine schedule into a tail spin. that particular tuesday, we had just gotten done with two appointments with great friends and i had been gone from home since 6:20am and returned home around 10:50pm.
but through this challenging/exhausting MPD* process, i’ve been pleasantly surprised to find myself falling in love with my wife all over again.
- – - – - – - – - - *MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife
we had a fabulous time at New Staff Training last week in Orlando. we covered some really valuable information and got to know a little better what we are actually getting our selves into. but what i enjoyed the most from our week away was all of the incredible people we met. not only did we have fabulous instructors, but the other participants from the various ministries of Campus Crusade are all top notch people. we made some great new friends, it's hard not to when you spend 10 hours or more for 10 days together.
so we've made it home and have hit the ground running. in fact, we may have started running a little too fast.
deb and i are both pretty competitive people. so when a challenge was given during our training of who could be the first person to get 3 appointments for the following week to share our ministry, we were on it. we each got our three, and i even got a fourth. deb won a handcrafted pen for being the first female to get her 3 appointments by 7:31pm. and i won some books for going above and beyond the assignment of getting three appointments.
but we weren't very strategic in our calendar planning. as it stood when we left training, we had appointments on tuesday, thursday, friday, and saturday of this week. and since i have a leaders meeting at church on wednesday, that meant one or both of us was busy every night of the week from tuesday-saturday.
so it was kinda a relief for us when yesterday our appointment for thursday rescheduled for friday. it's easier to ask a babysitter to come earlier or stay later, than it is to find a babysitter for another night of the week entirely.
Campus Crusade has various goals per week/month that they'd like New Staff to aim for in order to eventually report to their assignment in a timely manner. these goals are adjusted according to a person's work schedule at an outside job. so for me working 40hrs/week at Efcom, plus some more hours towards church related activities, we have goals set on the low end.
well as competitive as we are, and as much as we sense the urgency of the work we'll be doing, we've overachieved our goals for the first two weeks. which is great because it eventually gets us closer to our goal of reporting to work in Little Rock. but it's not so great being away from our family every night of the week.
i think the people at Campus Crusade have set their goals for us very reasonable, probably because they've seen thousands of families go before us and are aware of what drain it can take on time, family, and body. if we can taper back slightly and coordinate our schedule even better, we'll be better off in the long run. doing that i think we'll be able to reach our goals and maybe even overachieve every once in a while, and still have a healthy, sane family when we finally move.
keep us, our kids, and our health in your prayers. thanks.
as i sit and look at the picture above of our fellow New Staff Training attendees, my eyes are welling up with tears. these people are heroes to me.
only 14 others in the picture above will eventually be joining deborah and i on the staff of FamilyLife in Little Rock, AR. the others are all joining other ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ. some are going to join Campus Ministry, reaching young adults at various colleges around the country. some are headed to Student Venture, to reach High School students with God’s love and hope. still other are bound for Athletes in Action, specifically targeting athletes in college. there’s a few with a heart for Here’s Life Inner City, reaching the poor with the gospel of Jesus Christ. and a couple of them are called to Military Ministry. and still others are being sent to work with The JESUS Film Project®, Keynote, or other International assignments.
you see happy, smiling, young faces.*
i know the men and women who have been called by God to set apart their lives for a greater work of full time ministry. they come from all walks of life. there are students right out of college, former military, pastors, video production engineers, IRS agents, teachers, people from office jobs or manual labor. some have been married for years and have grown children, others have young children, and there are even two couples here that just got married 19 days ago!
these men and women have chosen to leave their friends and loved ones, pack up their families sometimes to a place unknown, and trust fully on God for their lives. these heroes have accepted the task of raising their support not because it’s fun, attractive, or easy to do so. no, they’re here at New Staff Training because each one of them has felt a call from God to do what He’s called them to do (and oh, if you could hear all of the stories i’ve heard). they have a passion for their particular area of ministry. and they have a sense of urgency to their work. the time is short, and we must begin doing the work He’s called us to do while there’s still time.
they are my heroes…my co-laborers…and my friends.
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* picture intentionally blurred and darkened for various reasons. email me or call me if you’d like to know why.
this is pretty much the scene a couple times a week when i’m leaving for work. but this morning it was especially hard to go since i’ll be leaving for 10 days.
we’re heading out to New Staff Training with Campus Crusade for Christ in Orlando, Fl. just like with our trip to Little Rock this past june we’ve been waiting and anticipating for this week for a long time.
we’re so excited about what God is about to do, for all we’re going to learn, and the new friends we’ll be making.
and we also know that people have invested in us and are looking forward to hearing great things from us.
here we go!
