Commissioning Day

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, praise his name; porclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Psalm 96:1-3

It's official...we're commissioned. After two years of thinking and planning, and a year and a half of active fundraising, the time has finally come. On Sunday, June 13th, our team was commissioned by our church, First Oostburg Christian Reformed Church, to bring the gospel to Bangkok, Thailand.

While we've always known that there have been countless people supporting us in various ways, it was incredibly powerful to see just how many people came up to the front of church from their pews to lay hands on us and send us on our way. It seemed like there were more people standing with us than stayed in their seats. All of this was just an incredible testament to how our God works in his church to do things we could never do alone. He gives one gift to one person, and a completely different, yet complimentary gift to someone else. Some flip burgers at a fundraiser, some move tables, some organize work shift, some donate money, some talk to friends and get the word out, some write Lakeshore Weekly ads, some drive vans, some decorate their homes, some decorate cookies...and most importantly...lots and lots of people pray.

At our commissioning service, I had the joy of preaching from Psalm 96. What I love about this Psalm is the picture it gives of an all-powerful, all loving King, coming to make everything right again: to take away sin and pain and death. And we have the privelige of being hearlds for this incredible King. We declare to the nations that he is coming. May our King us us to help the people of Thailand know and love our incredible King, Jesus Christ!

Thank you to all who ahve supported us as we prepared. We praise God for you and all you have meant to us.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Philippians 1:3-5