Five For Togo

We have truly been blessed over the last week by friends’ giving to us for our survey trip. I”ll have to add it up tomorrow in my office, but we are even closer to having our expenses covered.

I have to admit that depending on people for money is a bit humbling. I think we have deep within us the desire to provide for ourselves and our families.  But then again Jesus said

So do not worry saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” for the pagans run after these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

I feel caught in the middle of trying to make money appear vs. waiting on God to provide it.  Is there a middle ground? Or should we always just wait on God and let Him do the work? Some have taken this stance and stayed with it over long periods of time.  When we have a finanical need, maybe we should see it as an opportunity to grow spiritually, more dependence on God and less on our talents, persuasive speaking, or even…dare I say it, hard work.

We know that work is good, but a faith in my “hard work” or “good-paying job” over God can be idolatrous.  For we know that “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Racism in America is always a hot topic. The fact that our nation had its economic start primarily on the back of slaves is a sinful fact that continues to follow us today.

In the past month as our country has debated whether a professor was racially mistreated or not, a dear friend of mine, an African-American unfortunately experienced a blatant racist attack.

As she shared the facts with me, I could not believe what I was hearing could happen in today’s U.S.A. Thankfully this person does not harbor bitterness in her heart and has begun to see the perpetrator  as someone to be pitied more than hated.

Hearing this story was eye-opening to me in understanding the evil in the human heart. Sin can become so deeply embedded in us that we act in ways that are beyond comprehension.

But this story also made me thankful to be in a church where whites and blacks interact and worship in many different settings. Through getting to know each other at more than a superficial level, we are able to take direct aim at racism and work to obliterate it from our futures, even if it remains a painful part of our past!

Our survey trip to Togo is growing closer and closer. We have bought our plane tickets and will be getting shots this week. Hopefully the last of our passports will arrive this week, and then we will send them off again for Visas from Ghana and Togo.

On the evening of Monday, September 14th, we will fly out of Memphis to Amsterdam, and then take another flight from Amsterdam to Accra, Ghana. From Accra, we will have a nine hour drive to Kara, Togo. We will repeat this process in reverse on October 9 and 10. Please pray that all of our travels go well, that our kids and luggage behave, and that God is glorified no matter the inconveniences we encounter.

Our time in Togo will consist of visiting villages, the market, an AIDS clinic, spending time with future teammates, eating new foods, and other unknown adventures.

We were given $300 more dollars at church yesterday. People at Holmes Road are so generous. We only need about $1700 more to cover all of our expenses for the trip.

I am also in discussions with many church leaders about our full-time support on the mission field. Please pray that God will match us up with churches whom we can bless,  and then be blessed by them!

I am in the process of contacting churches to get the word out about our future work in Togo. We will probably need the partnership of several churches to have the financial and prayer support we need to do this work. Fundraising is a good humbling experience. People work very hard to make money. The money given to a church is especially valuable because it is often given as a sacrifice by spiritually minded people who have a great sense of God’s grace in their lives.

I believe that our use of that money demands our own hard work and willingness to sacrifice some material things that I might otherwise want. That is why this is a blessing, because we are learning to free ourselves of things that we thought might bring happiness, but often bring captivity.

Please pray for our fundraising efforts, and definitely contact us at 901-486-6558 so we can send you a brochure and dvd that you can give to your missions committee!

Holmes Road Church of Christ had its 50th anniversary over July 4th weekend. Having up grown up there, and now serving as a minister there, it was an especially meaningful weekend to me.

I described to others as a Facebook moment, when people from different periods of my life got together and shared. It was great to see and hear from the McLartys, Ross Cochran, Joe and Vicki Bright, Steve and Gretchen Mahoney,  and too many others to list.

It became clear to me over the weekend that God has blessed Holmes Road in spiritual depth, even it has not always been apparent in numerical growth.

After some feedback from the team, and more prayer and discussion, we have decided to lengthen our survey trip and take our whole family to see Togo.  We plan to be in Kara now for 2-3 weeks beginning the middle of September.

We feel that this extra time will allow us to spend more time with our future teammates and the people of Togo. All of our children will have the opportunity to experience life there as well.

Due to this decision, we now need about $3000 more dollars to go with the $5000 we have already raised.  We need to raise this money in the next month and a half in order to buy plane tickets. If you would like to give to this effort, please make checks out to Holmes Road Church of Christ, 1187 E. Holmes Rd., Memphis, TN, 38116. On the memo line, put Richardson mission.

Thank you for your continued prayers!

My wife, Beth, has a new blog. Bethannrichardson.wordpress.com

On Saturday, Cherle and I returned for a second study with the young women. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they had just gone to the mall, believing that we were to meet at 11:00 instead of 1:00.

There were two young people present, a brother and sister to the others.  So we asked them if they would like to study. They said yes, and then pulled Tiffany out of a back bedroom. Tiffany had been present at the first study as well.

I had been praying about what to study as a follow up to Deut. 6:4-9.  I did not take time to research this from other’s suggestions, so I decided on the story of the woman at the well.

We went through the “thanks” and “needs” first. Tiffany mentioned her need for a job again, and I was able to get her the number for Hopeworks, who provides job skills training. The young man mentioned needing a ride home, which I was able to give him after the study. He also menti0ned recently getting out of jail for the second time, which made me a little nervous about giving a ride, and also requested money for getting an i.d. to get a job.  This is the second request for money from this group that Cherle and I have met. We want to make sure that giving them money does not become a hindrance.

After reading the woman at the well, the group latched onto the point that the woman did not immediately give Jesus water because she was worried about their racial differences. It was not a point that I would have brought up, but in believing that the Spirit is working, I let them ponder that application.

We finished the “I will” statements, had a prayer, and then talked a little before leaving. We waved to the “missing” women as we were leaving. They were across the street after returning to the mall.

At these apartments, you can sense the need for God’s work. There also seems to be a willingness to study out of people’s realization that they need help. Cherle and I have discussed trying to bring these people to church against the idea of trying to start a church at their apartment. I think the latter is the better option, but it is foreign to our way of thinking about evangelism.