out of the boat

Today was a pretty significant day on the journey. Today I was privileged to address my colleagues and tell them the big news.

First I read some of Paul’s words to the Philippians from chapter one.

3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And filled with emotion, I told my colleagues that this would be my last year at Covenant. Here are some excerpts of what I said…

As I look around Covenant today, I see biblical, strong and diverse leadership. This gives me great confidence that the present and the future of the Covenant experience is in worthy hands. God has brought many capable new leaders who bring fresh ideas and new energy to the Covenant community. I am assured that His hand still guides His followers to lead our school therefore, I am confident about the future of Covenant.

For months [Sweet] Anna and I have seen God guide circumstances and put people in our path, to the point where we are of one spirit that the Lord is ending one season of ministry while beginning another. It is our belief that God is now calling me to devote all my time, energy and talents to serving Him in another role, as full time Executive Director of Christian Educators Outreach which we call CEO. The idea for CEO was hatched nine years ago to send one missionary from Covenant School to Hungary [Iren of Szeged] to serve as an English teacher bringing the gospel into that school setting. Since then many Covenant students have served on mission trips and longer term service in Hungary, Croatia, Mexico, Ukraine and now in South Africa. Through a network of fellow believers we have seen God keep orphanages afloat, facilitate the purchase of and help lead a Christian camp, place teachers and encourages evangelists, pastors and church planters. God has blessed our efforts. As I have taken pastors on vision trips, they have always encouraged me to use my gifts more on the field where the workers are few…

Thus my passion has grown to walk alongside younger leaders from the Emergent generation who serve on the mission field. Our vision to see our ministry partners empowered to do the social justice God burdens them with as they reach out within their community. This is true in Hungary, Ukraine, Croatia and now South Africa. It is our vision to expand the reach of the Gospel into Central European high schools by placing English teachers: to that end I will work to recruit, place, train and support young men and women. We see the need for better Early Childhood Education in townships in South Africa and God has burdened me to work with our missionaries there to build buildings and insert the gospel into preschools among the poor children in Africa. In Kyiv we have been working with an amazing street kids ministry who are endeavoring to develop a Covenant type school in their city, the list goes on because God is faithful.

Four or so years ago I sent out a praise letter to our donors listing what God was doing through and with CEO. In response to that letter, a friend wrote an email to me that said in effect: “It is clear why God brought you to Charlottesville.” For you see, God worked through Covenant to bear the eternal spiritual fruit that CEO has been part of.

Life, I believe, is like a journey on a train and there are stations along the way, I have been honored and privileged to invest in this station (Covenant). I have seen it grow and change. I have seen leaders develop and grow while making lasting impact on young men and women, this is the clear testimony of our alumni.

Honestly, I have wanted this day to come for a long time. But God would not let me, He kept telling me to wait. I guess [Sweet] Anna and I weren’t ready (probably more me not ready than Sweet Anna). Today we are.

Today, I am confident that God has raised up leaders here at Covenant who will now invest in this station so that Covenant may continue to be God’s school and bring him glory and send out young men and women to build His kingdom. I hope to help some of them serve Him on the foreign field.

And so, this, my 14th year, is my last at Covenant School. We step out on total faith, trusting He who brought us here to take care of us as we participate in developing CEO as we seek to empower the Emerging Generation for Evangelism, Education and Social Justice.

So, here you have it, we are stepping out of the boat in faith and our eyes are on Jesus and as long as we keep them there we will not sink.