Pouring Myself Out to God

I had some crazy turn of events happen, that just don't happen normally to me, and it put me back a few years into an old sinful, addictive nature. The only explanation I could come up with is that it was a direct attack on me by Satan. I really haven't studied the whole demon possesion, and probably nobody really knows anyhow, but I do consider this to be an unseen spiritual war that I was caught up in.

I considered Jesus' teachings in Mark 9:28,29:

28And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?

29And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

So Ry and me did a week fast. And wow it's amazing how fasting short circuits sins. The flesh becomes weak and does not even desire most sins. God still allowed me strength to work hard at the day job, and able to study homework for math and astronomy class.

Not only that, but during that week at work, there was a very large customer at my job, who's order had a mistake that was going to end up putting the customer out of business. The order had a 4 week lead time, which they waited for the wrong order to come to them. Which, considering the industry they were in would put them out of business, unless they were to be able to have the correct product in a matter of two days--but it's a custom item with a four week lead time. I went home pretty shook up about the customer would now go out of business due to the mistake. I had small-group after work, so Ry and John were praying for me about this issue. I also lost some sleep, thinking through all the details. Finally, I was able to surrender the situation to our sovereign God, that this customer's future is in His hands; to which I promptly fell asleep.

The next morning, driving to work, I was praying the situation to God. Amazingly, the manufacturer empthazied with the situation, the order was able to be made in one day and ship out next day air to the customer--Amazing! From that situation, my field members were praising me like crazy, to which I need to be very careful to allow pride to go to my head, when it was all God's glory. I did nothing but surrender like a wus to God's almighty strength. I do not want to be like Moses whom stole God's glory for water coming from the rock.

Another revelation hit me during the fast. I considered Jesus' quoting of Deuteronomy to Satan:

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

This quote hit me with new and fresh meaning. I marveled in wonder at this profound mystery. People make excuses to eat three meals a day, perhaps it's unhealthy, etc.. But it hit me that food is the least important nourishment for us. My soul needs God's word to live. Only God has the power to kill me or make me sick. I need to eat Bible as if I will die of malnourishment. The meaning of food, it's just a symbol of true reality. The true reality is that my soul needs to be fed spiritual food: living water and bread of heaven.

Consider Psalm 63:

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you on my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night.

Do I want to praise food with joyful lips? Or do I want to praise God with joyful lips that eat true fat and rich food? I'm not talking about McDonald's, I'm talking about being extreme, radical Christian that wants transformation into the health of likeness of Jesus. Fasting is just one way to desire to see God's hand powerfully like a rabid maniac who is soldout for Christ.

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"I can do all things through God who strengthens me"

Rick Hoyt
Rick was born in 1962 as a spastic quadriplegic, cerebral palsy, non-speaking person. The ability of his mind and person have always been strong, and his family have been hearty supporters of his quest for independence and inclusion in community activities, sports, school and the workplace. Rick is a graduate of Boston University.

Dick Hoyt
Dick has recently retired as a lieutenant colonel in the air nation guard. He has served his country for over thirty-five years. Dick is a friend of the "Presidents Council on Fitness".




"I can do all things through God who strengthens me."

Phillipians 4:13

Do we really believe what the Bible says?

My Thank You Letter to Supporters

I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 15:16 ESV


July, 2008






I hope you are doing well. I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your support and prayers and thoughts for me, and my teammates and the people of Nigeria who we served in April. I believe the time and energy that you gave from your heart to us was exactly what God wanted for work in Nigeria—thank you from the bottom of my heart! The trip could not have been more successful and fulfilling! I believe God answered prayers in many powerful and clear ways, which I included later. I also wanted to write about the trip, some of the living experiences, the people, and how we relied on God. I know God could just snap His fingers and make all the problems of the world go away instantly, but He does not work that way, He wants to work through you and me to serve the world's needs.




So first of all the trip was amazing to me. It truly culture shocked me to be outside of the American comforts. The food was hard to eat, and I could not eat much during the beginning of the trip, and lost a lot of weight. We ate a lot of fish head spaghetti and the toughest chicken ever. I mostly ate fruit and a ton of water and juice so I would not dehydrate from the heat! We did not know what the food was some of the time. Thank fully, Becky, was a great server to us, she made us egg sandwiches, corn beef sandwiches, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which tasted like we were home again. Toward the end of the trip I figured out where I could buy the old fashioned glass bottled Coke and Pringles Potato Chips, so I ended up putting my weight back on again in the last few days before returning home!

I slept okay, but it was very hot at night and the power was not reliable, so my fan would not always be cooling me. I slept in a mosquito net at night, but I would still wake up with mosquito and bed-bug bites. Later on in the trip, I found that sleeping with Bug Repellent sprayed on me worked very well. So after a long day and a cold shower I would spray myself down with Off Mosquito Repellent for bed time. I also sprayed the bed, bed net, and the underneath of the doors. All the bugs and spiders in Africa were like nothing I've ever seen in the US!

Everybody in Nigeria seemed to be very pleased to see white people. We went to a non-tourist place in Nigeria, a city called Owerri, which is considered eastern Nigeria and is in the Ibo speaking states. When we walked through the streets and marketplaces, the locals would greet us and seemed very happy to see us. They would call to us from far away, “Onocha,” which is Ibo for “white man,” and they seemed so grateful when we would give them attention or wave to them. In fact some of the times in the marketplaces, there were so many crowds of people yelling “onocha” that I was getting a little uncomfortable of having so much attention.

People were very easy to talk to. If people asked me why I was in Owerri, I would tell them that I was a missionary, and they would instantly be interested, and then it would be very easy to talk about God. The people there were so open about God, it was a very Christian area, so I believe that people were blessed, as much as I was, to have conversations and interactions with them. I'm not the type of hardcore evangelist that convicts people of their sins, asks them to make a decision on the spot to convert to Christianity, and then have them pray the “prayer of salvation.” I believe God does the work in the heart and I don't do anything. Maybe I need to work on that, but, I try and live like God is real, and that a relationship with God is pure joy, and my joy in God is an overflow into the people I interact with. So, I brought your love and prayers and support to the people of Nigeria, and I pray that the connections I made will have eternal benefits, and I thank you again for your prayers and support!

The whole time was not all pleasurable. There were a few times when I was fearful of how outcomes would turn out. For example when a military personal fired off his AK-47 automatic weapon in a traffic jam to get cars moving; or when we were kicked out of a Muslim market during prayer to Mecca; or when oncoming motorcycles would swerve out of our way at top speeds on the highways. Another uncomfortable time was when Kerry was exchanging money at a Bank, Rylan and me waited outside to watch his camera. It was too hot to sit in the car so we got out and sat on the bumper of the car. It was typical for all the banks to have security guards with AK-47's in Owerri. And after a few moments of enjoying the African sun a nicely dressed banker and the security guard approached us and explained to us that it is not good for their business for us to be in the open. We were escorted inside the front door of the bank to wait. Kerry finally finished up and was surprised to see that we abandoned his camera at the car. I explained that the nice man with an AK-47 relieved us of our duties!

I learned a lot about God on this trip. I seen God answer prayers in mighty ways, powerfully and clearly. I have a new respect for prayer and how important it is. First and foremost the more we pray the more we develop a relationship with God—How important and joyful it is to know God! And because you stepped out in faith and supported me and my team, my faith has been built up and you have encouraged me. I truly have no doubts that God is extremely sovereign and answers prayers. I thank you deeply for supporting my small service to Owerri, God and you has blessed me deeply.

Sincerely,

Don Tjader




Answered Prayer List


When we first flew into Lagos Airport, and it was the first hour we were in Nigeria, Ivy gave a few of us some words of wisdom. She explained that mission work is a battlefield and that we have to be praying and seeking God's power at all times, otherwise Satan is going to tear us up. Those words of wisdom hit me so very powerfully, and I knew from that moment on that I was going to have to get more serious in my faith from here on out! I will share a few of those times and I pray that they will bless you, as you have blessed me by praying for me.


The Largest Traffic Jam I Ever Saw

So it was the first night we arrived in Nigeria, and we drove from Port Harcourt Airport to Owerri city, which is the city we worked and stayed in the most. Our team was split into two and we were chauffeured in two vans. The people in my van were: Ivy, Martha, Delores, Desi, Kerry, Perry's son Ryan, and Ivy's friend, three Nigerian's in the front seat, and myself. The rest of our team was in another van, whom also had an accident, but here is the story of the accident I was in.

We finally got to Owerri after about 20 hours of travel, and there was the largest traffic jam I ever saw, bumper to bumper. We were so close to home, and yet so far just inching along in traffic. There was a policeman in the streets trying to move traffic with an AK-47. He was only a lane away from our van, our windows were open, and he popped off a shot into the sky with his assault rifle to get traffic moving. The sound was so loud we all jumped out of our socks! Minutes later, somebody tried to switch lanes by trying to cut in front of us. Our driver was faster, and our cars collided, he had hit our front right fender. I saw the driver, who hit us, roll down his window and pound the side of our van in anger as hard as he could with the palm of his hand. Some of us ducked down not knowing where or what the pounding was coming from. He proceeded to get out of his vehicle and come around to the front of the vehicles. Our driver got out of the van and left us there, and the two drivers proceeded to yell at each other over the accident. Other locals came out of the woodwork, which was probably good because I saw them holding the two driver's back from possibly fighting each other. Our group in the car became scared and instantly started praying over the situation for safety. I was scared over the lack of control over the situation, considering traffic was not moving at all, now that we have stopped, and also that I am in another continent very far away from home, and also that we had become the spotlight of all the locals on the sidewalks. But, I realized that all my family, friends and even coworkers at home were bathing me with prayers. I also realized that God is sovereign over life and death and that I have nothing to fear in this world. Instantly, peace came over me and my faith increased greatly! Thank you for praying for me, it has impacted me tremendously. Finally the driver's ran out of steam yelling at each other over the accident, our driver came back and we were on our way again, and finally arrived at the retreat center where we slept. Our van had a nice ding in the fender too.



1,000's of Books

One of the longest on going prayers that Rylan, my roommate, and me, for about 4 months had prayed everyday for, and many many others prayed for, is the release of the library books from port. I even put it in my initial support letter to everybody to pray for the release of the books, preceding our trip. I was a little discouraged the first day of work, thinking that we would be arriving at an empty library with no library books. But to my surprise, there were already thousands of books waiting! They were from other donors: local and the U.S., and also included Fyne's personal books. I was amazed and saw it as God answering prayer in a mysterious way. I also knew from my aunt Sue, whom has library experience, before hand that even if the books were there, there would be no way for us to database 12,000+ books in a week. So the couple thousand already there were perfect for us to test the system and make sure the new system was left in capable hands. I was amazed and filled with joy over the matter. Just recently, in May 08, were the books finally released and arrived at the library, which was after we came home from Africa.



The Luck of St. Augustine or God's Divine Providence?

So, our leader, Perry, gives us a goal to bar code 30 library books early on in the trip. There were many hurdles to overcome of system crash here, hardware fried there, power outages, etc, etc, etc. A couple of days go by, and there is seemingly nothing library-ish getting done. We are not able to even get a computer running in the library, nor our fancy laptops running successfully with the library software . It was the Weds into the first week, the week is half over, and that's all we were planning to be at the library was a week, so I felt we were losing time before moving on to the orphanage the second week. I felt that we are still at square one still. I felt like precious time was being lost and our mission was failing, because we can't even setup the library software.

I broke away and found some alone time in a room that is planned to be the future internet cafe. I cried out to God in prayer for what his plans are for us, asking what He has us there for and to give answers. After about an hour or two I felt exhausted from prayer and hoped God would speak to me through Scripture. I realized that the Seminary (St. Augustine's Advanced Institute of Christian Studies) was named after the African church father from the 4th century AD, whom I recently read his book called, The Confessions. One of the stories Augustine tells is that he was having an issue that he needed answered by God, and by providence his Bible fell open to the perfect verse that had his answer to prayer. So, I thought to myself, what do I have to lose? I might as well have a go at flinging the Bible open to the “miracle” verse. And I never do this by the way—actually, maybe I have when I was a kid, but it did not work in the past! Rylan's Bible happened to be in the room with me, so I flung open his Bible, and quickly threw my index finger on a verse in the middle of the page, and I landed on Nehemiah 7:5, which states:

“Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy.”

The verse isn't perfect, but it spoke volumes to me! The verse struck me that we were going about it all wrong, or at least I was. Instead of trying to build the library ourself, we needed to be serving the people, to be able to empower the people to build this library themselves. Of course the verse is not exactly perfect in saying that, but my whole frame of mind shifted and I had a “duh” moment. And this was told to me in the past by my Aunt Sue, whom was a librarian, so sometimes it takes me awhile! The last day I saw Duane building the how-to manual for Nelly the librarian, on how to scan books and barcode them, and I realized that my Augustinian moment had been fulfilled! And I marveled at the glory of God!





Nelly the Librarian

It took us the first week to setup stable electricity in the room, with lights, fans, a library computer and printer. We also had a 40 yard network cable to pipe the college's network and Internet from the third floor server room, down to the first floor library. I had my Augustinian moment, somewhere in the mix of that. Finally we got to the point where we were ready to start scanning the books into the computer. None of us were librarians so I thought it would be really cool to categorize the books into the Library of Congress system. I considered that the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world--maybe they have it all figured out? Well, God sent the school's librarian, Nelly, I had no idea she was coming! Nelly struck down my “cool” idea of the library being categorized under the Library of Congress. She said no way, the Library of Congress system is for larger libraries, and she explained that the Dewey Decimal System is the best category system for the books. I was amazed at God's perfect timing of Nelly's arrival and my faith was increased again!



God is the God of the Floodgates of Heaven

So last year, back around September 2007, our church did a 10,000 book drive, and we ended up acquiring about 12,000+ books. They were shipped out across the Atlantic but, were stuck in Port Harcourt, Nigeria for about 5 months! Also what was packed with the books were the book shelves. Pretty much we arrived in Nigeria to build a library, but the library books and shelves were not available to us the whole trip. Our fearless leader, Perry, kept going down to Port Harcourt to try and get the library books released almost every single day during our trip. One of the many requirements the Port Authority needed to do before they could release the books was do an inspection of the crate. It was raining that day and they refused to do an inspection and turned Perry and Duane away.. The only thing Duane and Perry knew to do was to bow their heads in prayer in the public. Duane had the faith to throw his rain coat away from himself and said, “I will not be needing this.” And moments later the rain stopped! So they went back to the Crate Inspector and told him the rain had stopped. This inspector at the port happened to be Muslim, and he was surprised at the changed weather and responded, “you must be men of God!” And they commenced to do the inspection of the crate. This story has been cherished, and shared many times, and is sweet to us among our whole group and has blessed us tremendously. Every time we gather together again as a group for post-mission trip gatherings we seem to always marvel at God stopping the rain that day. I wonder how much people recognized that God revealed Himself and were changed. As you can see in the picture below, answered prayer in action, as the sky is becoming clear and God closes the floodgates of heaven.





These are just a few of the answered prayers that I've seen and heard from the others. There were many more prayers answered corporately and individually. The turn of events that came to pass in Nigeria just seems way to providential then to be waved away as coincidence. That's how I love to live my life! God's will for us--what a wild adventure--He takes us on a wild journey when we rely on God's will for our lives! Thank you for your prayers and thoughts for me, I will never forget it!


For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

Aerospace engineer wants to bring Mars to cars - Campus News

Aerospace engineer wants to bring Mars to cars - Campus News

Mission Trip Q/A's

Here is an email that was sent to all the missioners from Gail Pazdur at church. I hope it blesses you.



1. What was the biggest highlight of your trip?



All the answered prayer!





2. What was the hardest thing you faced on your trip?



The orphanage, looking into the eyes of Chenendu, and his soul spoke of hopelessness.





3. What did that hard experience teach you?



How important kids need to be loved, and held, and played with, etc..





4. What things surprised you the most?



Nigerians eat rotten meat because they don't rely on refrigeration.





5. Do you feel like you were prepared for your trip?



Yeah--I used a travel checklist and checked it twice. I think half of my personals-type of stuff was stolen: lotion, deoderant, and a few minor things. I was able to borrow and buy replacements later.






6. If you could do it all over again, what would you change?



I would try and talk to more people.





7. Do you have any regrets?



I think I could have been more bold with my faith.





8. What was the food like?



Really bad tasting (chicken, rice, spaghetti, fish, etc), except for the fruit (pineapples, mangos, watermellon, etc)





9. Where did you sleep?



In a mosquito net, in a room on a Catholic retreat center.





10.Tell me about the people you met and ministered to.



There was a guy that approached me in the first church we visited, Holy Ghost Tabernacle. He seemed to want to soak in everything I was saying. So I kept preaching from what God put in my heart to say to him. I remember saying that I have nothing to give except what God overflows through me to others. He seemed to be wide-eyed and want to hear more.

Two security guards at the Owerri airport to get into the waiting area for the plane, asked me for a bribe before they gave me back my carry-on luggage. I explained to them that I was a missionary that lives on faith, so all I have to give is faith from the almighty God which is worth more then pure gold. They did a "thumbs up" to me and seem to enjoy my preaching and let me proceed to the other side. They gave me my bag and didn't even check it or anything.





11.Did you connect with anyone that you might keep in touch with?



The librarian, Nelly, I gave her my email address in case she needs me to figure something out with the library software.





12.Did you get a chance to share your faith?



Yeah many times, because people were so amazed to see white people, probably because there is no tourism so no white people go through the area. I tried to tell people that I was a missionary, and right away people would want to know more. I ran into a person named Peter in the marketplace, I told him a little bit about what I was there for, and he said he was going to start going to church.





13.Does your view of the world and your life look any differently now?



Yeah, coming back to work I deal with a lot of angry people, and I feel less empathetic to the American grumblings that my clients have now. I'm still responsible and will do anything, but the client's anger has less impact on my emotions seemingly.





14.Do you see Jesus any differently now?



Not sure.





15.Did you see anything gross?



Millipedes, centipedes, spiders, all mega sizes; a snake getting killed by a flip-flop, rotting meat in the market, with a decapitated cow heads.





16.Did you get sick?



little bit stomach upset, but I stayed medicated the whole time and felt fine.





17.What was the scariest thing you experienced?



Probably the no speed limit and the particular time instead of crashing head on with a motorcycle, he swerved out of our way of our van at the last second. My heart dropped into my stomach when that happened. Also, there was a traffic jam and a military guy shot off his AK-47 a few feet away from our van, our window was open so everybody jumped out of they're socks.

Probably the scariest group experience was when we were stuck in the worse traffic jam I ever saw in my life. We ended up having a car accident because somebody tried to cut us off, but our driver was quicker. The person that hit us got out of his car and started hitting the side of our van with the palm of his hand as hard as he could. Then he proceeded around to the front of the cars, and our driver got out of the car and left the door open. They were yelling at each other, and some locals came out of the woodwork and stopped them from fist-fighting. Our group gathered in prayer in the van. I was very nervous at first but knew that God is completely in control and knew many many people were praying for us at home and instant peace came over me in the craziness of that situation!





18.What was the weirdest thing you ate?



Rotten meat in spaghetti sauce with fish bones in it.





19.What was the church you worked with like?



They were all the same, just bouncing off the walls in worship.





20.How was their form of worship different from ours?



God has given them much strength, so I saw how to worship God and dance with all my strength.





21.Did you get a chance to meet anyone's practical needs?



I don't think so, except everything we brought in the trunks. When I left, I left some nice "preachin clothes" with Pastor Ike.





22.Was there ever a time that you really felt like God was directing you?



Yeah, the craziest thing that happened, and I never do this by the way, but it actually seemingly worked.

First of all, I read the Confessions of Augustine last year. And the the college happens to be named after St. Augustine. One of the things Augustine did once was when his Bible fell open to a perfect verse for his situation and he considered it God's answer for him.

So anyhow the second day of being in the library I had a moment of discourgement where I thought there would be no way to get the library wired up with electricity to power a computer, let alone internet and networking. So I new only God could make possibilities reality, so I kind of did an "St. Augustine" and I saw Rylan's Bible in front of me, so I flung it open hoping it would land on a miracle verse. And it did believe it or not! :)






23.What was the funniest thing you experienced?


One of the culture's ongoing jokes is that you don't want to eat the "404". If I understand the joke's history, supposedly there is a road called the 404 where people drive very fast. So likewise, if you eat the 404 food, it's going to go through you very fast.


24.How did you work out any differences you had with your team?



Rylan and me have typical roommate squabbles and Duane was a helpful mediator to get ourselves out of God's way :)


25.What was it like in the evenings? What did you do?


Every once in awhile we would get an extra hour of downtime in the evenings. Ussually I would go for a walk with God around the Catholic Monastary grounds. I totally believe in Psalm 19 that God reveals himself in nature, so I was enjoying the African wild life. Everynight I would try and read my Bible in a year plan that I am following. Also, at bed time I would lay awake in amazement and thankfulness to God just for being in Africa.


26.What were your worship times with your team like?


We always prayed together everyday.


28.Did you pack enough stuff?



Yeah, some of my stuff was stolen in customs: deoderant, lotion, and a few other minor things.


30.What was the weather like?



Very hot and very humid.




32.Would you ever want to go back?


Yeah, it was worth it. It's good to be home too.


33.Do you think you would consider being a full-time missionary?


Yes, I think about frontier missions a lot, the parts left that have not had exposure to the gospel yet.


34.What was the biggest thing you saw God do?



God is the God of the floodgates of heaven. When the rain stopped and port authority was able to do inspection.


35.Do you think you'll go on a short term mission trip again?


Yeah definatelly.


36.What's going to be the toughest thing about being home now?


Studying for my final exam in college, I missed 3 weeks of class!


37.Do you think anything will change with your friends that weren't on the trip?


I don't think so, maybe that they are jealous of me ;)


38.Do you think you have changed in any way? How?


Think I am more calmer and relaxed, seeing God's sovereignty over all things helps me sleep at night. :)


39.Is there anything you smelled on your trip that you'll never forget?


Rotting cow meat in the African sun.


40.Are you tired?


Jet laggy and groggy.


41.Has this changed anything in your relationship with Jesus?


Yeah I want to be more hardcore and seeking God harder now.


42.What were some of the ways you ministered on your trip?


I would try and tell people how awesome God is that seems to be the easiest way and that's the only way I've seen God move is when people are awestruck at God. I would also ask to pray for people and then lay hands on them.


43.Did you get to share your story of how you met Jesus with anyone?


No not really, I met Jesus when I was 5 and barely remember, so I share more exciting stories with people. :)


44.Did you get any ideas of how you could minister here at home?


I noticed how much this trip really pulled together my family, friends and coworkers, and how it has built everybody's faith including mine. Just simply amazing to me.


45.Was there anything you saw that just broke your heart?


Chenendu at the Motherless Babies Home broke my heart. When I looked deep into his soul all I could see was a lack of hope and purposeless. I noticed also that he was bullied by a few of the others. The others seem to be surviving, but Chenendu just seemed like he was barely hanging on. When I was at the orphanage I always watched out for him and made sure he was with me. I wish I could adopt him.


46.Did you give anything away?



I left all my clothes and a pair of boots with friends at the college. I gave my nicer clothes to Pastor Ike, and told him, "here's some preachin clothes for ya!"



47.Is there anything you HAVE to do this week after experiencing what you did?


I have to write my thank you letters including some highlights for all the supporters. I need to make a scrap book to so I can present everything in a logical order, instead of me giving anecdotal stories here and there.


48.Was there ever a time you felt completely out of control in a situation?


No not really. There were times, like when we were swerving out of the way of oncoming cars, or when we got into an accident and I thought the drivers were going to fight each other. But I remembered that so many people were praying for me and that God is sovereign over life and death, and so I feel peace.


49.What's the number one thing you are thankful for?


My Salvation is the easy answer. The trip was very worth it. Seeing God's glory and priveleges of seeing God in action and answering prayer is just awesome.


50.Did you catch yourself praising God for stuff? Like what?


In Calabar we went to one of the slave ports and found out that John Newton pulled his boat into Calabar to buy slaves during the slave trade. I was praising God to find out where the sound of Amazing Grace hymn was born, and then later John Newton became a Christian and wrote the lyrics. The tour guide also talked about President Lincoln, so I gave him a $5 with Lincoln on it. He seemed very appreciative.

Latest Nigerian Mission Trip Support Letter

Serve by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:11


Grace to you in Christ's name. I am writing to you about a mission trip which I've felt called to go on. For the past six months I've been feeling passionate about going to a third world country to serve, and I have been preparing my heart by seeking God through prayer and reading Scripture. The Lord recently opened a door for me to go to Owerri, Nigeria (Southeastern Nigeria) which is in West Africa.

A team of 15 people are going, people from The Chapel and Moody Church. Last year our church ran a large book drive and 11,000 books were donated, so one of the main projects we will be working on is building shelves for a seminary library to hold these books. We also intend to serve the local orphanage with fixing, teaching, and games. And lastly we hope to serve a need through medicine: vitamins, aspirin, etc..



If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Isaiah 58:10-11



I expect this trip will have a significant impact on my life. For one, my American lifestyle of privileges, freedoms and comforts will be suspended; but ultimately, I can not wait to see God revealing himself in powerful ways, which will transform my life, and others, eternally! The area where I am going to has vast needs: some people will not eat the entire day; others are extremely malnourished and wear tattered clothes; and even others, mostly children and women, suffer from AIDS. I look forward to meeting new Christians and worship the Almighty God together, united in Christ. How I can not wait to meet brothers and sisters from Africa, and sing praises in the churches there, and talk about how powerful God is!


And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
2 Corinithians 9:8


If you feel called to partner with us here are a few ways:

Prayer will be the greatest, most important way. There will be some risks, an obvious one being that there are military road blocks, whom do searches and are known to ask for bribes. Also, about 200 miles north of Owerri, freedom of religion diminishes to nothing. Our prayer requests are for safety, of course, but also for courage in times of fear, diligence in our work, godliness to be examples of Christ, blessings for Nigerians and our team. Another important prayer request is for the 11,000 books to be released from custody at the port due to regime changes in government.

If you feel led to partner with us by making a financial contribution to this cause you can simply write a check payable to Global Christian Ministries, and in the memo put “Nigeria Missions – Don Tjader”, mail to: PO Box 6733, Libertyville, IL 60048. I'm paying for my own travel costs, so any and all proceeds will go directly to other costs and resources to help us serve the needs of Owerri people.

Thank you for your time reading this letter and partnering with us. Your prayers are extremely important and precious to me and my team--I truly appreciate them deeply. I believe with all my heart God will bless you abundantly. Grace be with you always.

Sincerely,

Don Tjader


Prayer Requests:


 My African Visa will be processed in time.
 That our team will stay healthy. (Yellow Fever, Malaria, Typhoid)
 The books are released from custody in time.
 That my school grades don't slip due to being gone for 15 days.
 The Chapel's kids group fund raised for kids in Nigeria, so pray that we find God's perfect will to use that money.
 That our leadership decides on library software.
 That we see God's hand, clearly and powerfully!

Math is Withdrawn

Bye-bye Math 108, intermediate alegebra, I just now officially dropped out. I love math and I seemingly have a knack for it since I didn't do any homework and am still passing. It's just so wrong, to realize my calling from God, and to just float through this class. That's how I got myself through highschool 14 years ago. That was my old nature, my new nature is to make my calling and election sure. One of the ways is by actually doing my homework, practicing it and mastering it the best I can, as an act of worship for God.


I took much on myself this semester, and this past week my relationship with God has suffered. I had several external confirmations from family and friends that dropping the class would not be so bad. So I finally got through my knucklehead self, and accepted dropping this class, and a huge weight has been off my shoulders now. I've been praising God and have more time to spend in worship and renew myself.


My teacher will be surprised to find out, but I will write her a letter tonight explaining myself to her. I may go to the school on Monday night and hand it to her. We deleloped a really good relationship, Sonia is such an awesome teacher and Christian. I look forward to retaking the class again with her, and the other classes she teaches (Advanced Alegebra, Statistics and Finite Math).


I look forward to taking Geometry this summer, that should be really hard since it is accelerated. So I'm definatelly only taking one class for sure for summer. The fall semester I may only retake Math 108, just seems like there is not enough time in the day anymore to be able to take two classes at one time. I pray to God for streamlining my time more.


My Public speech class is very helpful. This class was a step of faith for me, and I am seeing the fruit for taking this class. Communication is such a key quality to have and know and understand. The great commision is to take the gospel into the world, clearly and powerfully, and not chicken pecking or scatter-brained. And what is the gospel except for the greatest news of all time. If I don't know how to communicate to people, who will listen or care? I want to be persuasive and exciting in my testimony and to make God look good to the non-God knowers. May God bless the knowledge and practice I get from this Public Speech coarse and use it for His kingdom advancement. To Him be honor and glory forever. Amen.

School Update

School is great, it's fun, I look forward to it. It can be boring at times, or in the way of other life things that I want to do. But I do see it as a calling from God to learn accounting/finance. Everything I'm doing right now I feel God specifically has me placed purposefully for eternal values that I am not to forsee. I believe God wired up my brain for math and spreadsheets, so not sure exactly where I will land in distant future, but the journey is exciting as long as I focus on God, seek him for strength, and wait silently when the hard times come.

My math is doing okay, it's pretty hard. I made a commitment that I am unable to keep. I wanted to have all my homework done before class but am not finding the time. I've been doing the absolute minimum to be able to hold a B in the class.


This is the busiest I've ever been in my life, but it's not "business" I feel like my time actually is streamlined to maximum kingdom advancement. Everything I'm doing I feel called to do from God. I'm not wasting time or working in vain.


Okay I wrote all that a few weeks ago. Here is a new update. I'm deciding to drop out of Math class, I think I'm probably holding a C now, but considering I'm going on a mission trip there is no way I will be able to do all the homework. I'm so far behind in math homework it's not even funny. It's not even right that I should be having a C and not do a lick of homework. I'm mostly dropping out because I know God has called me to something math-like--probably accounting. Finance wouldn't be so bad either--I'll let God decide later.

Anyhow I realize that I can't do full time work, part time school, and full time Christian Hedonism, and a short term mission trip. My life seems to be in a tail spin, and as soon as I kept getting external confirmation to withdraw from math class, and then I finally made an internal decision to drop, a huge relief come over me! So praise God, even if it takes me another 14 years to finish school! But I will not stop finding time to praise God, praying, and reading Scritpure. Amen.

Stock Market is going down, down, down...

I haven't traded stocks in quite awhile so decided to jump back into it again.

Last year the market kept going up at a supersonic speed, and all the analysts were screaming that it's not going to last and to get out. But the market just kept going up, up and away.

So I put my trading accounts into money markets and stopped trading. Mostly because I use to work at a website and could watch the market all day. But since then I've had a promotion at work and now I don't have the luxury of playing at work anymore. So now I am trying to just simply trend-trade when the market is close, and watch for good/bad headline news in the finance section at Yahoo.

Finally, the market is trending-down, all the bad news is still there: housing, foreclosures, subprime sharks, USDollar dropping, off retail sales for Christmas, etc.; finally the market is catching up with reality. In my opinion, it just goes to show how far the dollar can be stretched through inflation. And now finally, Paulson, at Goldman Sachs (the most powerful man on earth perhaps), is saying the market needs a correction, and yet at the same time, asking President bush for a stimulus package.

What Henry Paulson says, goes... I have all my accounts in QID. Which is an exchange traded fund that makes money when the Nasdaq 100 (all tech stocks) goes down--and QID goes up twice as fast. The Nas is a very volatile stock as it is, so to multiply it by two makes it a wild roller coaster ride at Six Flags Great America and not for the feint of heart! Very risky and I don't recommend anybody to try this at home.

I love the stock market, and wish I could daytrade, but hence, I believe with all my heart God has put me specifically in the current position I am in at my job. I've grown so much from enduring the challenges and tests of faith God has thrown at me, like a loving Father will do. If I were day trading all day I would be an emasculated wus. So praise God, and pray for me that my faith does not waiver.

Nigerian Mission Trip

1 Peter 4:11 ESV
...Serve by the strength that God supplies—-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Dear friends and family,

Did you know that there are 15 million children orphaned by aids and that about 11 million live in Africa alone?

I have an opportunity in April of this year to join a team of missioners and travel to Nigeria. In the midst of severe poverty, illness and homelessness I believe God does His greatest work. We will be partnering with Global Christian Ministries, Inc. and the purpose of our trip is fivefold.

*First, we will be allowing God to work in our lives through the personal enrichment that comes from this type of mission trip.

*Second, we will be visiting orphans, and encouraging local Christians who are greatly encouraged by our mere presence.

*Third, We will be doing rehab on a seminary that is scheduled to open this Sept. called the Institute of St Augustine’s Advanced School of Christian Studies ( S.I.A.C.S.).

*Fourth, we will be taking a medical team with us to offer free clinics for adults and children

*Lastly, we will be assisting with the efforts to host and teach at an international aids conference for about 300 pastors in western Africa.

Would you consider being part of this trip, first by praying for us to be fortified everyday and be victorious as we subdue the enemy in the Name of the Lord and take captive our loved ones for the Kingdom of God? Secondly, I am also asking for financial support to meet the cost of travel and other expenses while there. All these will cost $2,950 (two thousand, one hundred dollars). Please make your checks payable to Global Christian Ministries address: P.O. Box 6733, Libertyville, IL 60048 with a footnote indicating, for Don Tjader.

Thank you so much for considering my requests! We’ll be leaving on April 11th and arriving home on the April 27th.

Sincerely,

Don

Read the Bible in a year

Okay, so I finally found it!

I was watching a DVD series from John Piper and he held up his Bible with 4 bookmarks in it with the Bible split up into 4ths with a reading plan. Pastor Piper explained how he has used this plan to read the Bible every year for the past 25 years--25 years! Front to cover reading the Bible! Thoughts of inspiration stirred around in my head. 25 years from now I want to say that I've read the Bible every year. Oh how broad a base of Bible knowledge I could have if I've read every single word in the Bible, over and over and over.

I use to mock the Bible year plans, saying that people are not getting deep profound truths from the Bible. Generalizing all, that they are only skimming and not delving down into the infinite wealth that only an infinite author can write. And this may be true to some degree with some people.

But I finally realized why reading the Bible in a year is so important. This is only one of many spiritual Disciplines. One discipline of which needs to be daily, and how important the daily discipline is, and so easy to forget, and may a forgotten day never go by! The benefits of this Spiritual discipline is endless.

Of course I am not going to give up the discipline of plummeting into the infinite worth of Scripture. In fact, my small group, I am a part of, is going to start studying the book of Romans, and we are going to spend, at the least, three years. Also, our goal is to have 4 verses memorized per week. So now, my small group has decided to follow this Bible in a year plan--and we found the perfect plan.

I ask everybody reading my little blog here to follow along with us, as we follow the plan from the Bethlehem Baptist Church's lead with their:

One Year Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan

Click the link and scroll down to the PDF files (Adobe Acrobat Reader), and print them off, and cut the book marks out. I challenge you to put the book marks in the proper spots in your favorite battle Bible, and check mark the the list off as you read along.

This is a great way to get broad knowledge of the whole entire Bible into our cores. After years of investment I promise you this will pay off: including more peace, joy, and content with your life, as it is properly understood in the context of God's sovereignty.