Well it’s been a busy few months since I last wrote for my blog.  It’s easy to put off and get out of the habit.  So, now I’m going to jump back in and begin writing again.  What have I been doing since my last post?  Let’s see…a trip to Tanzania, new Children’s Building planning, Capital Campaign for CM building, and coaching my son’s youth football team. Oh, and Sunday keeps on coming every week!

First, I thought I would share about our trip to Tanzania along with some general thoughts about missions.  We took a team of 3 women and 2 men to Tanzania for the purpose of presenting a VBS program to missionary children.  AIM, African Inland Missions, is the group who extended the invitation to our team and provided housing for our team.  AIM has missionaries that serve in several different areas throughout Tanzania.  Each year AIM hosts a missionary conference as a way to connect and encourage the missionaries throughout the country.

We looked at this as an opportunity to provide a much needed service to the missionaries and at the same time expand the influence of our CM beyond our community.  I think with those goals in mind we achieved both.  Another goal was to expand the life-experience of some key members of our Children’s Ministry Team and hopefully give them fresh eyes for ministry.  The ladies that traveled with me are key leaders here at Desert View and they were great on our trip. I know that this experience has influenced the way they view our role in both the community we live in and the world we are trying to reach.

Being among people who have given their lives to sharing the gospel with unreached people groups is truly a stretching experience.   Every time I’ve visited a place like Tanzania I am reminded of how spoiled we are and how much sacrifice these missionaries have made to reach others.  Suddenly, the things that seem so important – CM budgets, staff shortages, etc – don’t seem to be that much of an obstacle.  When you are in a place that the electricity may or may not continue working and where you are staying is patrolled by armed guards you get a fresh perspective.

So what about missions in general?  One of our 2010 goals here at Desert View is to refocus our mission efforts.  We have a couple of local mission efforts we support and we have a couple of global mission efforts we support.  It has been said that you must give up some good things to accomplish great things.  That is the view we are taking as we move forward with our mission planning.  What questions are you asking about missions?  What experiences are you seeking as a team?  Have you given thought to how you can engage families in local mission efforts?

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