A Preview of Heaven...

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Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,

What an amazing time we had in Texas!  For those of you who are new to blog this week, thanks for joining us!  The first thing I want you to see is this video from the end of the service at the missions conference.  Missionaries sang "God is So Good!" in 7 languages.  What a beautiful picture of what heaven will one day be like!


God is So Good! from Daniel Shrader on Vimeo.

This week, I'm going to share the highlights of the missions conference in photos and video.

During the week,  We were fed lots of good food.  One of the ladies said when she returns to China, the nationals will not be shy about telling her she's now fat because she gained 5 pounds during her US visit!

More importantly, we were fed from the Word.  The focus of the week was growing faith in the midst of persecution and suffering.  We were continually reminded of God's faithfulness through the testimonies of those who taught, as well as other missionaries in other places on the mission field.

 Missionaries are real, down to earth people. There is certainly nothing special about them.  And that's how God intends it.  He uses simple people so that there's no confusion about who is doing the work.  We are blessed to be participants in what the Lord is doing. 

Mike Scheer shared a quote from an African theologian who said that it wasn't the missionaries who brought God to Africa, it was God who brought the missionaries.  Missionaries are simply believers who join in the work that God is already doing.  The Lord has called us to join Him in His work, and He get's all the glory. Actually, this is the exact same call he places on the lives of all believers, the only difference between "active missionaries" and regular church members is their job.

On Women's night Meredith got to share about life as a missionary with the ladies of Denton Bible Church.  The theme of the evening was "Same Love, Same Heart, Different Stories".  The ladies who attended got rotated from table to table so they got to interact with missionaries from all around the world, including one right here in the USA!

These are the missionaries and their families who came for the missions conference.  These are men and women who were raised up, equipped, and sent by Denton Bible Church.  They serve with a variety of missions agencies, but they share the tie being part of the DBC family of faith.  This group represent approximately half of the missionaries sent out from DBC over the last 37 years.  In 1976, DBC began with just 15 believers. Since then, it has sent literally hundreds out to the mission field.  It's an incredible testimony to the faithfulness of God.

So you can see their faces, here's the same photo blown up in thirds.

Yep, there we are in the back row!

On Saturday at the missions conference, folks got to attend breakout session with missionaries from the different fields.  Can you explain what you do to a large group of people  in 15 minutes or less?  This was my attempt. 

At the beginning of the service, actively serving missionaries processed in carrying the flags of the 52 nations where DBC currently has ministry partnerships.  It was powerful to see.  You can watch the video below.

Procession of Flags from Daniel Shrader on Vimeo.

At the conclusion of the service, there was a missionary roll call.  Missionaries from across the globe who are a part of the DBC faith family were recognized.  Those present came forward.  Those absent were shown on the screen.  Because some of these families serve in restricted areas,  we can't show you the video online, but it was a powerful time of recognizing that our God is an amazing God who uses simple clay pots to proclaim his greatness and display his glory.

We missed our little one while we were gone, but we're thankful for technologies like Skype that let talk "face to face".

Lily loves books. Even on Skype she wanted to read mommy and daddy a book!

We'd like to say a special thank you to Dan and DeCole Cody who hosted us for our entire two weeks in Texas.  We did a lot of coming and going, and they were super-chill and encouraging the whole time.  

Things you can be praying for this week:

1.  While in Texas we got to interact with some people doing ministry very similar to ours and learn from them.  We know there are area we need to improve in.  Please pray the Lord would guide us as we seek to implement changes in our day to day that would increasingly reflect the goodness of God and greatness of his grace.
2.  Also while we were in Texas, we were given a new strategic planning process to work through as a team as we discuss our long range goals.  Please pray the Lord would bless our planning time over the next month to two.
3.  On the homefront, please pray for Lily.  She's cutting her two year molars, and while she's her normal pleasant self during the day, she's not sleeping well.  She's been up crying multiple times in the middle of the night for most of the last week.  When Meredith went in to get her up yesterday morning, she was crying hard.  Meredith asked if Lily if she could show mommy where it hurt and she opened her mouth WIDE and pointed.  She then said "My top and my bottoms!"  We're keeping the painkillers flowing, but she's still pretty uncomfortable.  At this point, we could all use a good nights sleep.