The "Window"

Last Sunday I started my official itineration cycle, which involves me traveling to other churches and presenting my missions project to the congregation. If the church has already been supporting me financially, it serves as an update/report. If they don't support me, it gives me a chance to make my plea for future support.

My first church was Carney AG in Baltimore, which has been supporting me for the past three years. Since they are currently looking for a pastor, I wasn't sure what sort of opportunity I would have. But I was thrilled to have the chance to preach for about 30 minutes; I've built a decent rapport with the folks there over the years, so it was a fun chance to see them again.

This morning was my first "window" in a service at "Church at the Mall" in Annapolis, MD. The window is a concept that many pastors prefer, because they reserve Sunday mornings as their chance to preach. Instead they offer missionaries 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes to introduce their ministry and make their official plea. It's sort of an extended-length commercial. Most missionaries have a hard time fitting everything--their call, experience, job description, funny stories, tear-jerker stories, and a request for financial support--all in three to ten minutes. But its becoming the standard trend in churches, so we have to adapt.

I always enjoy "Church at the Mall" since it meets in a movie theater at the mall. Such a unique concept! Today, I was privileged to meet two different families, both first time visitors, one vacationing in the area and the other recent arrivals at the navy base. We had a little fellowship time over burgers in the mall food court, before I headed home for a Sunday afternoon family get-together.

I am an Aunt (again)

Here are some pictures, folks, of my newest niece:
Ellie May Rainey, born on July 23, 2007, weighed 8 lbs and was 18 inches long. Under the hat is the longest, thickest black hair I've ever seen on an infant's head! She looked like a little Eskimo baby. So far, we think she resembles Corie's side of the family.

A big part of the celebration yesterday focused on Sydney's reaction to her new baby sister (pictured here with my mother):
We're all excited about this precious new addition to the Rainey family, and we're proud of Ben and Corie!

Don't forget to click the link to my brother's blog under "Church Planter Ben Rainey" to the left, and you can see video that he posted.

Something to Think About

Lately, I've been thinking about Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken," which is one of my all-time favorites. I had to memorize it in 10th or 11th grade, and I can still quote it. I think it is the most powerful expression of Art to capture the significance of our life choices.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Riding Around in my Automobile

Missionary programs differ, but the majority of them bring their missionaries home every 4 years or so to visit churches and present reports. In the Assemblies of God, we raise our support individually (meaning we depend on personal promises and gifts). Doing that type of traveling to churches means we’ll put an average of 30,000 miles on our cars in one year of fund-raising.

When we get back to the US, every missionary is shopping for:
· A reliable car – I don’t want to be stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the nowhere.
· A car with low mileage – that makes sense considering how many miles I’ll add.
· A cheap car – missionaries aren’t wealthy folks obviously.

This week has been my first foray into buying a car in the US. Prior to this, the cars I owned were either given to me or were cheap "college kid" cars, paid for from my own savings. In order to find a good reliable car that will meet my needs for the next year, I began my latest “new experience:” getting an auto loan.

I appreciate our Assemblies of God Credit Union, which fast-tracked my loan request and approved me immediately to borrow enough to pay for a 2004 Honda Accord (pictured here). They are good to the missionaries!

Another missionary had recommended a man in Wichita who rebuilds cars and sells them to missionaries at a discount. He has a real heart for missions, and this is something (as a used-car dealer) that he can do to help us. When I called him, he gave me a sweet deal: the car I bought (a few thousand dollars less than the blue book value), plus he'll rebuy it--guaranteed--from me when I finish my itineration at a great percentage. He only had a limited selection available, but he told me about this one that met my needs and my budget.

I drove out to Wichita this morning (five hours!), and he met me at the Wichita airport, where I exchanged a rental car for my very own Honda Accord. I got to play around a bit with it, while I drove back (four hours! different route), and I'm really satisfied. I really thank the Lord for providing the loan and the dealer that could give me such a blessing!

Vision and Duty

I Sam. 3: 1-21 records the “call of Samuel,” one of the more well-known stories of the Old Testament. On Thursday night, we had the privilege of hearing our Assemblies of God General Superintendent, Thomas Trask, preach on this passage. Since he has just announced his resignation, it was one of the last times he’ll address the missionary body in his current role.

He preached on Vision and Duty. Samuel, in these verses, is mentioned first as a boy who “ministered before the Lord” even though verse seven says that Samuel “did not yet know the Lord.” In other words, he was performing duty in a righteous manner, which is good, but God had a higher level for Samuel to reach—one of vision. Verse 1 also tells us that in those days, God rarely spoke by vision to the people, so Samuel was called to a special level of spiritual maturity by receiving the vision of the Lord directly.

Brother Trask challenged us not only to be people of duty, but to go higher and be people of vision. Vision requires greater risk and responsibility; poor Samuel had to tell his own mentor that God was going to judge him and his family. But in the vision, there is greater intimacy with God. We know that we are in true communion with him, and it produces a much greater future than mere duty ever can.

I felt personally convicted that I had, for a long time, been acting out of “duty,” but not necessarily out of “vision” for what God could do in my life and ministry. I was one of the first people to respond to the altar call and many missionaries followed. As I responded “yes” to God, I felt that He spoke very specifically to me about following Him to a higher level (yes, including risk and responsibility) but for a far greater future.

Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

As the old Girls Scouts song goes, "Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other, gold." While I've enjoyed making new friends this past weekend at the Re-Entry program, now we are in the School of Missions program, where all the returning missionaries come for two weeks of training and renewal, and I get to see old friends. There are at least 500 missionaries swarming this campus (not including their children!); we represent only a portion of the 2,700 missionary adults of the American Assemblies of God serving around the world. In the crowds of missionaries at mealtimes and in our sessions, I'm seeing more and more familiar faces: people I went to college with, people from my district, people from Africa, Europe, and the Middle East where I've worked, etc.

Last night when I walked into the dining hall, which was decorated for a formal welcome banquet, I heard my name being called, "Ariel! Ariel!" When I turned around, there were Mark and Kathy Daniels, my surrogate family during my first year in Israel. I babysat their children, used their internet, and practically lived at their house. My mother even stenciled their living room when she visited me.

I hadn't seen the Daniels since 1997, when I drove down to Nags Head, NC to visit them before they headed out to India to continue their missions career. Although over the years, we've exchanged newsletters and Christmas cards, I've never had the chance to catch up with them. Unfortunately, we didn't have much of a chance last night, either, but we will definitely make time later this week (because they want to show me pictures of their grandchildren!).

That's just one of the families I've seen--there are so many more. I'm so blessed to have worked with so many great missionaries over the years.

Photos

Lately I haven't published any photos, and I am a firm believer that you all really love to see the pictures of what's going on in my life!

First up, my niece Olivia discovers "the beach." My niece Sydney shows off her swimming skills for her mom and the rest of us, admiring her from the beach chairs.
The School of Missions and Re-Entry programs for the AG missionaries is being hosted by Evangel University, and this is a picture of the middle of campus. It's a truly beautiful campus with new, state-of-the-art buildings. I'm enjoying it!

Fitting Back In

Our Re-Entry program continues. We have sessions in the morning, then we break into small groups to discuss the sessions, and in the afternoons, we have personal appointments with our group leaders so that we can discuss any personal/private things with them. I had my appointment yesterday and was very encouraged by their counsel.

We have free time in the afternoon and evenings, which has given us opportunity to get out to Starbucks and the mall (major sales!). Yesterday was an organized bowling trip, and I'm sorry to say that I wasn't able to keep up my French bowling record. One of the girls on my team put us all to shame with her strikes and spares, even with her intense jet lag from arriving just this week from Pakistan!

We went to see Ratatouille afterward, which was cute. I thought it would be "frenchier" but it wasn't. I liked it overall.

Today in our session, we got to telling funny stories of how we've been making fools of ourselves, being back in the States but still acting like we're overseas. I heard comments about people who'd never used debit cards before, folks who couldn't figure out how to pump gas with the credit card reader, and a hilarious story from one of the missionary men about standing way too close to some Arkansas cowboys (who clearly thought he was a little too "friendly"). We had a good time laughing at each other and ourselves.

Re-Entry

My day started at 4:00 am and it's nearly 11:00 pm here in Springfield (which makes it midnight at home!). I'm practically falling asleep at the keyboard. I flew this morning to Saint Louis, drove a rental car for three hours to Springfield, and have now had a few sessions already of the program called, "Re-Entry."

First launched in 2000, the Re-Entry program is a few days to welcome returning missionaries to the States, giving us a chance to fellowship/"vent" with other missionaries before we go rushing off into the hectic schedule of raising our funds.

Why is this necessary? For one thing, most of us (like me) just arrived within the past few weeks. We're still having trouble remembering that we're not in France, Russia, Azerbaijan, etc. anymore. For me, I'm still having trouble remembering not to press the clutch in a car that's automatic! I keep reaching for the gearshift that's not there, too.

When I walk into stores, I expect the workers to greet me with a "hello" or at the very least, a head nod, and I keep stopping to greet them. But this isn't France, and the American workers probably think I'm crazy!

I keep forgetting to add tax to the price of what I'm buying. In France, its already included. When you buy something that's 4.99, you pay 4.99, not 5.25.

Tonight we were split into small groups of people from all over the world. In my group, we have three couples and one other single; some have kids, some don't, some are working in Africa, others in Asia and Europe; some are leaving the mission field and this is their final step. We are church planters, Bible school teachers, evangelists and folks still struggling to learn the language. We took about an hour to discuss a highlight from our term, as well as the biggest difficulty. I think in the next few days, as the sessions continue, we will have even more opportunities to share and support one another.

Time marches on

I feel like I've been so busy since I got home, and I have a sinking feeling that life is only going to get faster once I start traveling full-time.

Saturday's event was a great chance for me to catch up with the other missionaries from my area, as well as eat some great food! Two other couples had only just arrived in the US, so we were the most recent arrivals. Others there were at the end of their fund-raising cycle, which is always exciting. I really enjoyed spending time with them, and I'm sure I'll see them again at various events over the next year.

This week's main activity was cleaning my grandmother's pool, patio, and garden areas. We always host our extended family on the fourth of July, so we had a lot of work to do to get that ready. After the recent deaths of some of my family members, I think we were all a bit worried about the party yesterday. I know I spent the day trying to make sure I didn't say anything offensive. But we all had a great time, with only one regret: it stormed just before 9:00 pm, which canceled the fireworks plans. Oh well.

Today I've got to pack for my two week trip to Springfield, Missouri, where I will have my "debriefing" and some training sessions. Again, I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and I know that the training sessions will be encouraging! Later this afternoon, I have an appointment to get my picture taken for my new prayer cards (my old ones still say "Senegal" on them), and its kind of fun to think about how much weight I've lost since my last photos! Of course, after yesterday's feast, I've got to cut back if I want to keep the weight off! Can I get an "Amen" from anybody else?