I’m back from Lubbock after making a presentation to the Adventures In Missions students and taking a side trip to San Angelo, Texas to see family and visit the Southgate Church of Christ. I came away very impressed by this current crop of AIMers and also was able to talk to SIBI about their new degree program and what I’d need to do in that regard. It was a very productive trip, and we’ll be praying plenty that we are blessed with a team of missionary apprentices to work in Troy.

The AIM class this year is about 65 students. There seemed to be a good bit of interest after the presentation, and I was impressed with the thoughtful questions they asked in our Q&A that evening and over the next couple of days as I spoke with individual students. I don’t know if I was that thoughtful when I was in their shoes…too far back to recall! One of the cool things to me was how many of the current class grew up in mission fields where AIMers have worked and served, or were from mission fields in which some of my past classmates now serve. The classes are becoming far more international, with students from the US, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and elsewhere. It’s the II Timothy 2:2 Principle at work, and it is a thrill to witness.

Friday evening I drove to San Angelo.  It was funny when I realized I was driving down a West Texas highway in a South Korean car, drinking an African coffee made by a Seattle-based company, listening to the BBC on a radio receiving its signal from 22,000 miles in space…the world has changed so much since the days of chasing horned toads in the Ackerly sands 30 years ago.  It was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me in some ways.  Maybe because I turned 38 on the plane ride down, and maybe because it always shocks me how much just driving the West Texas plains just feels “right” to me…it’s home, and always will be, even when the Lord leads me to serve elsewhere.  It’s interesting to me how no matter where we are all from, we are so tied to the geography of our childhood.  But, I digress.

I got to spend the weekend with my mother and step-father.  We had a good time, and got to go fishing Saturday.  It was a nice break from so much hectic activity that has been the month of October.  I only caught a stick, but I didn’t care.  It was a nice day by the water, and it finished in a beautiful display of what makes the West Texas vistas so special to me, as you can see below.  The panoramic shots were made with an iphone since I forgot my real camera.  They’re not bad, but they don’t do the skies justice.

Sunday was Mission Sunday at the Southgate Church of Christ in San Angelo.  This is the congregation I grew up in (back then called Colorado & Jackson St. Church of Christ), and they are currently supporters of our family in Troy, and of the Sanctify My Heart radio program.  God does incredible work through them, and this Sunday they raised (with no begging or fanfare, just a humble reminder that it was that day) even more than last year, which was more than ever before then.  Is that not incredible, especially in this financial climate?  It reminds me of the old saying “good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise” to which I always reply, “If the good Lord’s willing, don’t you worry about the creek.”  In the words of Abraham on the mountain in Genesis 22, the Lord provides.  I spoke there Sunday night, and it was so good to see so many of our church family there, I just wish I’d gotten to visit with more.  I never get to see even 1/2 the people I want to.

I’ll close by simply asking for prayer again for our getting an AIM team this year.  If the good Lord’s willing…we won’t pay any mind to the creek.

God bless,
James

Update – Si, there was Tex-Mex involved.