Commissioned to GO!!!

Wow, it's amazing! In just 38 hours we will be in the air, flying to Bangkok, Thailand. And from there, traveling by train to our first outreach destination, Chang Mai (in northern Thailand). The base leaders prayed for us the other night and commissioned us (in the name of Jesus) to "GO and make disicples". We received many words of encouragement and support.

We are sorry we have not been able to load the video of us walking the high wire; we need help with this blogging business. But be sure to take another look at the August 17th posting. We've added some snapshots of our week on the ropes course.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers. We especially ask for increased prayer covering throughout September and October while we are overseas, ministering in nations whose languages we do not know and whose governments are not always appreciative of "westerners."

We send our love to you all. May you be blessed during the autumn season. We hope to continue to communicate via email and this blog while we visit Thailand and Myanmar, but we cannot promise that all our postings will get to you. Please keep in touch if you can, we (especially Doris) will need the reassurance that all is well at home.

With love we sign off for now,

Art & Doris

The Ropes Course

Good Morning! Well we promised in our newsletter to have a video of us walking the high wire on the campus ropes course but we are having trouble getting it to down load. We hope to succeed soon so in the mean time you will have to just take our word for it. Doris was amazing!

Here are a few snapshots.

Half way there

Hi everybody. It has been a while since we posted an update, and we're sorry for that. It seems like we have many things that are vying for our time and we find it hard to keep up with the blog. Since we last posted we have had three weeks of school. They call this "lecture phase" but it really involves much more than that. There is lecture time, but along with the lecture there is often significant time allowed for responding and ministry to the application points of the lecture. We also have extended worship time (1 hour) three times a week, we have prayer/intercession twice a week. The class is divided into small groups and each small group meets twice a week. Plus, we have "one on one" times with a staff member once a week--all in order to process what we are learning. Last week we went to the Salem Art Festival and mingled, looking for opportunities to share our faith. That was a stretch for many of us, since cold evangelism is not something any of us are used to, and none of us are really comfortable with.

Each week introduces a new area of teaching. We have had: Hearing God; Kingdom Dynamics; A Lifestyle of Repentance; Plumbline; and Relationships. This week we are talking about "God". Sometimes it is easy to just assume that we know all we need to know about God, but in reality God is so big and awesome that there is really no such thing as knowing Him as well as He wants to be known. We have been challenged already that the real issue is letting God know us. Ever since the fall of man we have been hiding from God whose greatest desire is to be known in all of his goodness, but we hide. One of the highlights of the time here for both of us is a growing awareness of God the Redeemer, the one who can take every area of our life (or any one's life) and redeem it. His passion is to restore our lives, to work in every circumstance, past, present and future, to bring healing. Hallelujah!

If you recieved our newsletter you know that we are headed to Thailand for our "outreach" and we are praying that God will open a way for us to spend some time in Burma (Myanmar) as well. We will be working in the northern part of Thailand out of a city called Chang Mai. This is near the Burmese border so even if we cannot get into Burma we will be working with refugees and immigrants from Burma.

One news note is that William P. Young, author of "The Shack", is speaking on campus today and tomorrow. He is not speaking in our school but we will get to hear him Tuesday evening. If you have not heard of the his book, you need to check it out. The Shack is a novel that will awaken all kinds of things in your heart and mind. We have read it a couple of times and each time it challenges our minds and touches the depths of our hearts.

Getting down to Business with God

Hi Everyone!



Well, we've just finished two weeks at YWAM Salem. The first week was filled with all sorts of activities geared to helping us get to know one another, both staff and fellow-students. Then this past week we buckled down to learning about "Hearing the Voice of God." I was amazed at the various ways God chose to speak to me (Doris) personally. And the others in our class can testify the same--God was speaking to each of us, specifially what we needed to hear. We were encouraged to ask Him specific questions, and I for one, was amazed at His answers.



We do a lot of journaling, small group and one-on-one processing of the material we are studying each week. Another activity we are all involved in is AOS (acts of service); better known by some as work duty. Arthur is on the supper clean-up crew. By the time he is done each evening he looks like one tired dog, but I'll let him tell you more on that, if he wants to. My duty is in the area of hospitality. My job is two-fold: preparing, setting up and cleaning up for the mid-morning snack break for the CDTS students and staff, then also in the afternoons I bake, make up beds and rooms and welcome packs for guests who are staying overnight on campus. This past week I did gobs of baking. Next week I expect to do more bed-making, laundry etc. because all the guest beds on the base will be filled because of a wedding that is taking place here next Saturday.



In just this short time we've already come to love our staff and fellow students. Each one has such a unique story and already made such a wonderful impact on our lives. We still don't know where (to what country) our class will go on "outreach." We have been praying and on Tuesday morning will again spend the morning in intercession, seeking God's will for us.

We have finally arrived! Pretty impressive, eh! Arrived really only means that we are now in Salem, OR and today was the first day of our CDTS. We already have homework and we already got the afternoon off. Wow.

The Salem YWAM Base is on 35 beautiful acres SE of Salem. It is a gorgeous time of year with all the Rhody's in full bloom and everything green and growing. This beauty comes at a price, rain almost every day and my (Art's) allergies are in high gear.

We have been traveling since May 5 and it is good to settle down for awhile. We have a beautiful room and it's much larger than we expected, Praise God! (see pic) We do share a bathroom with a couple who has a 2 year old but it seems to be going well. We eat with all the others on base in cafeteria. It is definitely food designed to keep the young people, who are the majority here, happy.

An update on our travels. We covered around 2500 miles starting with a trip to Alberta, Canada going as far north as a little town called Boyle where Doris' brother and his wife have a small business. We visited family and friends from 35 years ago. Doris was able to enjoy Mother's Day with her mother for the first time in 20+ years. It was a great time. We then were able to spend a few days with our middle son, Steven and our newest grandchild, Noah. who was only two weeks old at the time. That was awesome! We returned to Kellogg for a couple of days to repack for School. Brian Larsen, a fellow CDTS student, brought a couple of boxes for us because our car was stuffed. I (Art) had the privilege of preaching at Lakeview Missionary Church in Moses Lake, the church I grew up in. We enjoyed a great potluck there that was put on because my dad and mom made the trip over from Pinehurst to be with us in Moses Lake, their first visit back in 4+ years. We journeyed on to Seattle where we spent the evening with my sister, Patty, and Dave and Sharon Passey. He was the pastor who married us 36 years ago, June 17. We took a quick trip up to Abbotsford, B.C. to see our oldest son and his family (We were able to see all four of our children and all 7 of our grandchildren in the last month, really cool!). We then made the final leg of our journey traveling to Tacoma, then Eatonville and on to Battleground visiting friends and enjoying their hospitality before arriving in Salem on June 8. A busy and enjoyable month.

Whew! That's Over! Now What?

The "moving sale" was a lot of work, but it really paid off. God blessed our efforts more than we could have imagined. Thank you to any and all of you who helped us out: with setting up, with pricing, with manning the cash table, with buying stuff, with loading stuff into people's vehicles, etc. Because of all your help the "clean up" was very simple. We are profoundly grateful.

Now that we have parted with all the "extras" we had been holding onto, we can get busy packing our belongings into boxes, preparing them for storage. That's where they will sit until we return from our training in Salem, Oregon in mid-December.

May 4th will be our last Sunday at the United Church of Kellogg. They will be "commissioning" us, sending us out, with quite a bit of fanfare, I learned today. We'd like to invite you to come and be a part of that big day. The Sunday morning service will have a special time of prayer and "commissioning." The church is also planning an evening supper and party, starting at 5:30pm. We'd love to have you join us on this special day.

Our plans for May are to go to Alberta and visit Doris' family, and some friends from Bible College. Then, on our way to Oregon we'll swing down through Great Falls, Montana to welcome the newest member of the family. (Steven and Christel are expecting their second baby in May).

Classes begin for us in Salem on June 9th. It feels so strange to read the list of items they recommend students bring with them. It seems so short. How in the world do you narrow your belongings down to 18 items each when we've gotten so used to being surrounded by "the comforts and conveniences" we've grown accustomed to? With God's help, is all I can figure.

Yippee!! We're In!

We've received our "acceptance" packet to CDTS at the Salem, Oregon YWAM base. School begins June 9, 2008. So we've been fine-tuning our schedule for the next few months.

Lord willing, things will go somewhat like this: We will have a "moving sale" the first weekend in May. May 4th is scheduled to be Arthur's last Sunday in the pulpit of the church here in Kellogg. Then, that following week we will get our things into storage and head up to Alberta, where we hope to be at Mom and Dad's in Red Deer by Mother's Day. I'm very excited about that!

Arthur and I are spending much time in prayer and conversation, seeking God, and clarifying in our own hearts and minds this new direction. This is truly a new and awesome journey for us; we've not been down this road before. True, we've been in Christian ministry for many years, but always in the context of "pastoring." This new direction is that of being "missionaries." And WOW, it's stretching us, stretching our trust in our Heavenly Father and His provision, stretching our view of ourselves and who He has called us to be in these present times.

We love God, and we live to partner with Him and fit into His purposes, so the whole thing is exciting beyond words. But I have to admit to a bit of "shaking in my boots" as well. Please pray for us. We want to be, and do, all God has in mind for us.

Regarding the mountain of "stuff" that I've been sorting through: well, I feel like I'm making decent headway. I wish so badly that all the kids could come and look through things and take anything that has meaning to them. Yesterday I came across boxes of school papers, letters and cards the kids had given me years ago (throughout their growing-up years). What a precious (and emotional) time I had with all that stuff. And now I need to get back at it. All around me here in the study are piles of boxes, stacks of photos, and literally hundreds of books and notebooks yet to go through.