John Simons

Mission Trip - Excitement is Building

We are 23 days from heading to Paraguay.  23 days from today, Josh and I will be on a plane over the Carribean Sea, on our way to Sao Paolo, Brazil, where we will catch a connecting flight to Paraguay.  The excitement is starting to build.  We spend some time tonight reviewing information about the country and about sharing our faith.  We also spent some time praying for the other folks we are traveling with and the people that we will be meeting.

Tonight, I also had the chance to chat online with one of the other guys going on the trip.  That really has built my excitement level.  I got to hear from someone who has been on similar trips in the past just how great the experience can be.  I am looking forward to being stretched in my faith and seeing God challenge and amaze me.

Please pray for the group, and for Josh and I in particular.  I will post a prayer calendar in a few days.

Tags: Faith, Family, Missions, Paraguay, prayer

Mission Trip Prayer Request - Finances

In signing up for this mission trip, we decided to step out in faith.  We did not have enough funds in our budget to just pay for the trips.  Instead we decide that we would pay for part of the trip, but would raise funds from our church, family and friends for the balance.  Our church was very generous and chipped in a major gift.  In addition, we have had several friends and family members make generous gifts.  Because this is two trips that we are doing, we are still around $1500 short of our goal.

I fully expect that the funds will come in.  Josh is just getting ready to send a few letters out.  In addition, I have still not heard back from several people to whom I sent letters.  While I don’t expect a 100% response, some of the people who I have not heard from are people that I expect will be willing to chip in.

Finally, on Sunday, I am scheduled to talk about the trip in front of the church.  The church will allow members who want to contribute to designate a gift toward the mission trip.

If anyone is reading and did not receive a letter, but would like to contribute, it is easy to do.  You can mail a check payable to Christ Community Church.  A couple of posts ago, I posted about the new church website.  You can get the address from there.

Please pray that all of the finances will be taken care of.  I hope that this experience will teach Josh and me about generosity, and about God’s provision.  Pray that there will be no stress about the cost of the trip.

Thanks for praying.

Tags: Faith, mission trip, Paraguay, prayer

Intentionality - Teaching My Girls How to Date

The other day, I blogged about my efforts to be intentional in helping my son become a man. The same applies to my girls. However, as they are younger, the issues are little more basic. The girls are 10 ½ and 7. Naturally, at those ages it is time to teach them about dating, right?

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Tags: Dating, Faith, Family, fatherhood, Girls, intentionality, parenthood

The Word for the Day - Intentionality

Actually, it is the word for the month. It is a theme that seems to keep coming up for me.

As a parent with a son turning 13 next month, the need to be intentional as I try to teach him values, the importance of character and faith, and so many other things that he needs to learn drives home the importance of being intentional as a parent.

As a husband, knowing others who are struggling in their marriage, and having my family just return from a short vacation that I could not join them on, reminds me that I must be intentional in truly loving my wife.

As a friend, hearing that a friend is struggling, and cannot find meaning in life, or a reason to continue, makes it clear that I must be intentional in loving my friends, and in pointing them to the only true source of meaning and value.

As part of a small, young church, we have recently been discussing the need to be intentional in many areas, including inviting others to visit our church, in making sure that our events are accessible, inviting, welcoming, and worth attending. As we plan for the future, we must be intentional. This is very similar in practice to the current buzzword in church: “missional.”

Even in my vocation, I must be intentional. Intentional in getting projects done, and intentional in sending bills and managing the business.

More on each of these in the coming days.

Tags: Faith, Family, intentional, missional

Eschatalogue - Does it Matter?

So, the first question for this series is whether it really matters what the Bible teaches about Jesus coming back, and the end of the age. To be honest, for a long time, I did not think that it mattered. My focus was on other issues, mostly my daily life, rather than the end of time. Back in high school, I went to a church with a dispensational theology — I will define that term in due course. This church put a heavy emphasis on the second coming and particularly on the concept of rapture. While I thought that the rapture sounded cool, I still wasn’t convinced that I needed to spend a lot of time on the subject.
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Tags: doctrine, eschatology, Faith