October 27 2024 Jim & Joan Hanson Missionary Reprot

Faith Bible Church

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Well, first of all, thank you for all being here today we appreciate you spending the morning with us

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We have The Hansons here today with us. So we're blessed to have them here as well

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We're just gonna start with some quick announcements. We have prayer meeting tonight at 6 p .m.

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So just come back and we'll have that At at the building we have our praise and worship night on the 31st of this month that's you know, everybody knows that day is

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Halloween, but we're gonna do our Celebration of the Reformation of the gospel that day in the fellowship hall in the back

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Today we have All month. It's been our missionaries of the month or Jim and John Hanson here

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Who are with us? They serve with BMW and they do a deaf and blind ministry in LA so just pray for them as as they prepare to retire from that ministry and So we'll just start today in a word of prayer

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Dear Lord, thank you for today Thank you for allowing us to gather here this morning

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Lord and we just pray that as we worship in song Lord and in your word

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Lord that you would just prepare our hearts Lord to To just receive what you have for us this morning

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Lord and Lord We just pray that we could take what we get from today Lord and and be able to apply that in our lives

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And the people that we meet throughout the week Lord, and we love you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen I'd like to good morning and like to piggyback on to that with just a couple additional announcements

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I want to also mention ladies T the first Saturday of December so ladies mark your calendars for that and another

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Just item to look forward to we're getting the outside of the church painted Yay, it's kind of we knew that that was coming sometime after the re -roof

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And so starting on the 9th, it'll be done by the 20th So praise God for the means and ability to do that.

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And so look forward to Seeing a refresh on the church that has been here since just before 1950 and thereabouts late 40s, so God has been faithful to faith

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Bible Church. Has he not? Amen So this morning our first song is is behold our

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God and this text was taken from Isaiah 40 And one of the familiar verses from 40

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It's the last verse in chapter 40, but those who wait on the

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Lord shall renew their strength They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary They shall walk and not faint and isn't that an encouragement for the times that we live?

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To to hold on to that and to behold our God Let's stand together as we sing behold our

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God Let's Turn in God's Word to 2nd

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Timothy 2 verses 11 through 13 This is a faithful saying

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For if we died with him We shall also live with him if we endure

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We shall also reign with him if we deny him.

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He will also deny us if We are faithless He remains faithful He can't deny himself

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Dear father. Thank you so much for your word And we know that it does not return void

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Help us to live it and grow in you through it in Jesus name Amen Our next song is

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Oh Lord, my rock and my Redeemer stand together worship our

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Lord and song and praise and as I've said before this is just a Precursor a rehearsal for when we get to heaven and it's gonna be so much more glorious and you don't have to listen to me

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Give a message and share about their ministry this morning

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And he already baited me a couple hours ago about what's next and I'm anxious to hear that I've been aware of the

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Hanson's over 20 years probably now at least and I've always been appreciative of their ministry and You know, we see it from looking from the outside looking in we see the challenges of it all and I'm sure as they are

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Going to speak today and reflect back on that There are numerous blessings in the midst of it even in the challenge and the difficulty of it so I appreciate them very much in their ministry and where God has brought them in this lifetime and they've been a

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Just a an encouragement to many so I think you're gonna enjoy brother Jim. Can you come forward?

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This morning and share with us and and Joe You can't see

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First let me tell you that all communications with deafblind is done tactful

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Can't hear you can't see so They need their other sense to that would be the most conducive to give information

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They need to use their touch And When you think of the brains

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Computer God gave your brain five input devices Take your computer at home.

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You have a keyboard. You have a mouse. You might have a pen you might have Boy, you have different input devices, but the brain has five input devices and The brain is lazy, so it uses the easiest

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Form and we're different. So some of us the easiest form is our ears.

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We're auditory We pick up information from hearing others are visual so they pick up easily

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Sight when you lose those two you only have three left and One is smell and you can pick up some information from spell

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You're not going to get a lot of real clear communication and you have taste and Again, you can pick up some information

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So the third of the other one is touch It's not the brain becomes more

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Touch becomes better. It's that the brain becomes more focused by pulling information from that And so that's why they can use

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Braille. That's why they feel things and so If they were born

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With Usher syndrome, which is the number one cause of deaf blindness in the world. They were hard of hearing or deaf somewhere

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They've lost their sight but for good portion of their life they were

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That would become their first language American Sign Language, which isn't

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English. It's closer to French or a Latin language Because how it came to this country and how it was developed than English so you can speak

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French through Spanish or something like that. You probably have a better understanding of American Sign Language that English -speaking people who try to Make it

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English So Now And so So you spell it and it's letter -by -letter

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Well, but it's another form there are things we knew person who used

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But There are other forms, but it's all by touch it's all and so that's how we learn.

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There's a many different ways Where you put your fingers here

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They can feel the vocal cords And you'd speak and they can basically read your lips with their hands

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So there's a lot of different ways for us There's Braille And so there's many different ways but for us it was whatever way they used

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We had to learn that way or develop a way to use that So hopefully you understand that we understand it's a lot of information

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But it gives you a visual idea of how you do that when we would have services

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I would voice and sign at the same time. I'm trying to speak two languages at the same time.

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I mess up with both It's not like I would voice and then sign I said

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I'm doing both at the same time So I would mess it up I try to mess up more in voice than sign language

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Because it's a downturn And they really don't care what I say But the hearing people do

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So So anyway that's what happens I want to correct something The word

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Retirement came up And so let me make it clear We're not retired

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We're retired That's right The Lord has brought us to a close of something

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And he's moving us on to something else I'm going to explain all of that And what

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I'm going to do now But I just wanted to clarify That point

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That we are not retiring This church And a few others

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Have been supporting us all this year We would much appreciate

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If that continues But if it doesn't The Lord has something else to provide for us And he never failed to provide for us

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He never will fail to provide for us So we're not worried about that We're not concerned about that But Retirement for me

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Retirement for Joan Is when we step into glory And that is the place of our rest

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Although we all know that we're going to rest in heaven We're saved We don't have to talk about that We have to rest

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So The Lord has something for us I don't know if that's true or whatever it is

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It will be different in here But it will be much better So we're looking forward to that day

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When he comes, when he's given us good health When we continue So we're

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Looking forward to that And normally when

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I Get up to speak and I've had the opportunity To preach here before, and I love preaching I'm an

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Expository preacher I believe that's the It's the best way for me because Then you get

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God's word, not my opinion If I go any other way You're going to get more of my opinion than God's word

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My opinion is worth what you take away You didn't pay anything to get in here

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Then my opinion is worth nothing But God's word is worth everything So I'm going to proclaim

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God's word And So normally I'm an expository preacher

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I have an outline Keeping it on track, normally And that outline

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Allows me to be Extemporaneous in my preaching

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So things come to me In fact, as I was sitting in the Sunday school class And as I've talked to you here

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I've had all sorts of Ideas and things I would Want to share and bring into a message

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And bring into what the Lord Even wants to do here right now But I can't do that Because If I was to Preach an expository message

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Trying to do this Or an extemporaneous Do it in an extemporaneous form

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Where I pull in the thoughts And ideas that the Lord would give me In the middle of the message One of the things

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I love is when I'm preaching I have an outline, I have notes And I have an illustration

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Maybe or something And there's sometimes the things I meant to say I never say And things

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I never meant to say come out Not just take that as the Holy Spirit Leading through the message

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I love it, it's fun I'm glad to be able to Proclaim His word

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Let Him do what's needed in your heart I have no idea what you need There's a person here who

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I I know that you need God's word I don't know Even if I know you personally

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And I know what I think you need, I don't really want to teach you But if the Holy Spirit does, He's the true teacher here

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He's going to teach us But today What I'm going to do

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Is I'm going to read Every once in a while I'm going to read to you

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About God's faithfulness On His way I'm going to do it in this form Which I don't like Because I have to keep on track

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Otherwise you will be Buried I've condensed this down You will

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I'm sure you're going to have questions We're going to stay around after If you have questions you can ask us Any questions you want

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I will answer every question Most of the time it's I don't know So But in spite of that I Condensed it down The best

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I can My wife can condense a lot into one page I have about six

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Or more Part of this, a very small part of this I put a report on And it's 15 pages long

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So You're getting a condensed form Of what God has been doing

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But I wanted to show you God's faithfulness on His way And I think this comes out

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In it as a reading But I want to also start off with this What God has done in our life

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In the last Well in the 48 years Of our life together As a dating couple and as a husband and wife

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And especially in the last two years And then really in the last Six weeks

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Will seem utterly amazing And you'll think It's a story like Paul on the road to Damascus Or Moses before the burning bush

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It's something that you will never You couldn't aspire to You couldn't imagine It's just such an amazing thing

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And that's what missionaries are We're so special We are spiritual giants

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So far above No We're just people And this is going to come out

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But I want you to understand That a lot of what we're sharing We're sharing because we look back We had no clue

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What was happening And most of the time You don't have a clue

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What God is doing But if you look back And every once in a while just stop and look back

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Where you're at and how you got there And think through the process You're going to know

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God has been so good God has been so He's been so faithful So let's

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God's faithfulness comes Before we begin Father Thank you so much for this opportunity

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I'm so excited to share this With these folks They've been so faithful Not always knowing what to pray

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Or how to pray But faithful to pray Faithful to support us

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Faithful to allow us To do what you call us to do We appreciate that So much

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And we miss the opportunities Of keeping them better Aware of what's going on In private letters and private

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Communities but we haven't been able to hear It personally And we learned something through that two years of Craziness that went on Where we were told we couldn't gather together

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And we shouldn't gather together How important it is to us To gather together So thank you for This opportunity

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Thank you for your word Thank you that the true teacher is here present with us today And he will impart exactly what

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Each of us needs into our lives The Holy Spirit will lead the teaching I'm just going to do

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The presentation of what he's going to Continue to share How we need to do it clearly How we need to be well understood

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And how we need to glorify The name of Jesus Christ Thank you So this morning

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I want to start with a passage that we already read 2 Timothy Chapter 2 verses 11 -13

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By the way, I have my Bible open But I'm not going to be turning the passage If I take the time to turn it will be a lot longer

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So when I read the passage I will tell you So if you don't see me turning my Bible That's okay

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So 2 Timothy Chapter 2 verses 11 -13 The statement is trustworthy

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For if we die with him We will also live with him If we endure

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We will also break with him If we deny him He will also deny us

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If we are faithless He remains faithful For he cannot deny himself

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And it is on that verse And I love that they have it up there It is on that verse

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Verse 13 that our time will be focused God Is faithful That never changes

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In this time of sharing I'm going to introduce ourselves

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And then give you a quick history Of our past 48 years together I'm going to introduce

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The past 48 years Lost the line It's on here

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But I just lost it Then give you a quick history Of our past 48 years together With a focus on the past 2 years

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Of ministry All of this is going to be done From a biblical perspective

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And I'm going to be reading Verses that we believe give a clear Give clear promises

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And directions from God To all of us So I'm going to be making very few

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Comments on these verses It is our desire That you follow the example of the

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Koreans Luke wrote about in Acts 17 Now these people Were more noble minded than Those of Thessalonica For they received the word with great eagerness

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Examining the scriptures daily To see whether these things Were so So check us out

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And see if we're right So write down the references

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Go back home Read it I have no problem with you doing that And by the way if you find out

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I was wrong Let me know so I don't keep doing it We met in 1976 1977

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School year At Sacramento Bible Institute I came to school in the fall of 76

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At the age of 23 I chose The life verse at that time Psalm 37 5

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Commit thy way unto the Lord Trust also in Him And He shall bring you to pass

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Joan came to school In the spring of 97 Or 1977

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In the spring of 1977 At the age of 17 I really shouldn't just read this

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And not try to do it by memory at all She chose as her Life verse is Proverbs 3 5 and 6

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Trust in the Lord with all thy heart And lean not unto thy own understanding

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In all thy ways Acknowledge Him and He Shall direct thy paths Joan and I became friends

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And we started dating The following year I know if you do the math you're six years younger than I am

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In 1982 Or We graduated in May of 1980 And in September of that year

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We were married We had our first child In 1982

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Our second was born in 1984 Both were girls Then in 1986

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Our first boy was born And I started what is now the Masters University To finish my degree

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In Christian Education I graduated In 1988 In 1989 our fourth child

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And our final child was born Our second boy During my years at SDI And following Joan and I have always been involved in ministry

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In a local church At first it was as lay people And then in 1986

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I became a part time senior high youth pastor At San Antonio Baptist Church I stepped down From this position in 1989

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And we started serving In ministries within the church That needed help Again as lay people

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In 1990 God started the process of making it clear Why he had moved us

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To Southern California We became aware of a need In the ministry of Grace Bible Deaf Church They needed a

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Bible teacher On Sunday mornings For their worship service So I offered myself

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As a possible teacher If they desired They asked me to come

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And after preaching in September of that year I was asked to come on a regular basis We accepted this

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And for the next three years We were there Almost every Sunday as a family

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After three months Of being there They started calling me pastor And that became my role

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Now I'll give you a little side note here To understand If you only had self training

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In sign language I had none So I didn't go into this because I got a call

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From Deaf Ministries Or because I thought We always wanted to do this

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Or I even knew what I was doing It was all God Just all God And we were just taking one step at a time

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In 1993 There was a need for more help And Commission on Compassion Also known as COC Which are the initials

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I'll use in the future It's the 35 unit apartment complex For independent living of DeafBlind That was the main ministry

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Of Biblical Ministries worldwide In Los Angeles It was on the property

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Of COC That Grace Bible Deaf Church met Our family was asked to move there

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To assist in any way we could Which we did in July of that year

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In 1994 Joan and I joined Biblical Ministries worldwide And became missionaries

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It was in this process In the following months

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That we became aware of what we believed As an absolute truth of the word of God All believers

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In Jesus Christ Have received a call from God To ministry Every Once When we joined the mission

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We were asked to present our call To ministry, our call to mission I had none

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So as we were getting ready to come to Before the board and I was supposed to tell them What my call to ministry was

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Why are you here? How do you know God wants you to do this? And I'm trying to figure it out

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I've been doing it for three years But you know How do I know? So 1

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Corinthians 1 .26 -30 I read it the day before that morning I can't remember

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But these are what those verses say For consider your calling

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Brothers and sisters There were not many Wise according to the flesh

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Not many mighty Not many noble But God has chosen The foolish things of the world to shame the wise

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And God has chosen the weak things of the world To shame the things which are strong And the insignificant things of the world

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And the despised God has chosen The things that are not

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So that He may nullify The things that are So that no human may pose before God But it is due to Him That you are in Christ Jesus Who came to us

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Wisdom from God And righteousness and sanctification And redemption And I read those verses and I said

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Oh, that's me Weak, foolish, nothing You're right

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God has used me Go ahead So I read those verses and that is the call And I think that's the call to every one of us

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And you may not think you're qualified You may not think you can do it You may think you are an option

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In all these things But whatever God's got for you He's prepared you for it or will prepare you for it

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And don't worry about it He opens the door, go through it Just go through it and see what happens

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We have all been sent By Jesus Christ to make disciples A missionary message

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Is preached from Matthew 28 19 -20 It says go

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But it's not saying go It says as you're going Therefore make disciples of all nations

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Baptizing them in the name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Teaching them to follow

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All that I commanded you And behold I am with you always to the end of the age And we're all going

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Some place, doing something I love talking to Teenagers You know, about the

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Lord And sharing about their Opportunities for ministry You know, I cannot walk onto the school campus

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And share the Lord I can't That's their mission Their neighbor

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Their friends, their family We all have a mission today My son -in -law joined the army God needs missionaries in the army

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He needs missionaries in everything So He didn't send you to the death of that blind

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I get that, but he sent you someplace Just answer the call Make disciples

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We are all foreign Missionaries as ambassadors of Christ And citizens of heaven Those of us that have been in the church a long time

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Have heard the difference Between home missions and foreign missions There is no difference 2

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Corinthians 5 .20 Therefore we are ambassadors For Christ As though God were making an appeal through us

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We beg you on behalf of Christ Be reconciled to God You're an ambassador of Christ You're representing him

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That's why you're here Otherwise, he would have saved you And taken you home There was no need for you

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But he had a need for you To be an ambassador, a representative You're here to represent him

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So you're an ambassador Well, usually ambassadors are from foreign places Ephesians 2 .19

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So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners But you are fellow citizens With the saints

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And are of God's household Okay, we're citizens Of where?

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Philippians 3 .20 For our citizenship is in heaven From which we also

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Eagerly wait for a Savior The Lord Jesus Christ This is not your home Now that was hard for me to understand for a long time

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Because I was an American And I lived in a Christian nation It's not a

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Christian nation It really never has been There's been a lot of things That came from God's word

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In Christianity In the beginning of this nation But really Those forefathers and old believers

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Most of them were not We've not Been in a Christian nation

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But if you can't understand that you're a citizen of heaven And you don't belong in this world And you don't feel like a foreigner in this day and age

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Whatever they're doing out there Doesn't make any sense to me And it doesn't feel like home So I don't belong

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But I do as a representative of Christ And a citizen of heaven So we believe this is a clear indication

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That we're all missionaries So don't look at me in any special way because I'm not For the next 14 years

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We focused on developing and building The ministry of commission of compassion And grace by the death church

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We had many times of encouragement And many times of discouragement

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In the ministry We saw all Four of our children raised to adulthood And become well prepared to leave our home

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And be responsible for those We had the opportunity to be used

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In the lives of many deafblind Deaf Their families, workers, students

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And co -workers On this side of heaven We don't know all that God has done

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Through those using us We have no clue In 2008

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The focus of our ministry Had entered a new dimension We started making a concerted effort

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To recruit the next group of workers For the ministries God had given us We did that Through making the need known

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Wherever God took us And by going through every open door God gave us This also became

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The focus of our co -workers In the ministry And we continued this for the next 14 years

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Experiencing some encouraging responses During that time But in reality

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No real achievements In obtaining any new co -workers We also spent that time

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In preparing for the next group of workers And also sought to build a ministry This time was made

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In less prayer Requesting God To provide the team members To continue with the work

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Also as a team We continued to get older A process

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We couldn't seem to stop This brings us to 2022

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This comes to the Decision to close

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The Ministries of Commission on Compassion In place of that church The decision

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Was made after prayerful Consideration by the Board of Biblical Ministries Worldwide I want to make it very clear

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It was a decision that was very Hard for them to make It was not easy

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The decision was accepted By the team of workers at COC And Grace Robbins Deaf Church But I also want to make it

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Clear that it was a decision That we could not have made ourselves It was a decision

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That we did not like But it was a decision

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That we realized was right It was a decision That we supported

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The process Of closure really had begun A couple of years previously

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Well I'm sorry The plan for the process Of closure was to give the residents

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Time to find new housing It was believed it could take From two years at the minimum

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To five or more years Possibly Most of these people

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Needed low income housing Needed to come from Subsidized housing probably And the waiting list in Los Angeles In Los Angeles County In that area

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Is way longer than five years And most of them Had no

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Their name was not any less So it was starting from the beginning The process of closure really began

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A couple of years earlier We stopped accepting new residents When the apartment became vacated

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And that was due to the fact That we had no new missionary staff Coming on board And we did not want to continue

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Accepting new residents until we knew There would be workers to continue to minister It just seemed

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The right thing to do The announcement for the closure Happened on September 17 2022

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Now that's an important date As you will come to understand Not much happened

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In the remainder of that year 2023 Was a very busy year

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The first resident Relocated with the help Of his family It required a one day ground trip

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Flight by me To Portland, Oregon to assist him I flew up with him

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And dropped him off At the airport with his sister Who was taking him to the place Where he was going to go live

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And I got off the plane And flew home Then something amazing happened

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The Lord relocated Our senior missionaries To a new residence This was

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Muriel Herson and Diane Grubb We assumed That they would be the last staff

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To leave UTOC And they wound up being the first In fact when the announcement was given Muriel physically could not

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She had retired She was not continuing on With any duties But in her mind she could still do everything

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And wanted to do everything So when the announcement was given She said well that's fine We'll just go someplace else and start over again

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That was her attitude So we knew that was going to be a tough go

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For her to leave And then the Lord just took them away As the first staff Muriel had been there since 1977

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And he had come in 1990 So a very long time Another amazing thing

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Happened in that we learned About a new facility in New Mexico For the independent living

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Of Deaf and DeafBlind We had said for years we were the only one in the country And we were, but now the

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Lord Was opening up another place Not as an industry, it's a business It's low income housing

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But it's dedicated to Independent living of Deaf and DeafBlind They had started

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Planning for this facility About the same time That we had started

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Praying for and recruiting For new oral workers 14 years previously

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After a very interesting And labor intensive process We assisted 9 of our residents

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From 5 departments to relocate To POP That's the name of this place

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POP In Albuquerque It was absolutely the work of God Also a few other residents

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Moved to be closer to family And we were amazed at what God Did this year We couldn't even imagine

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That it would become more amazing In the future Our imagination is very limited

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It also became apparent That this closure was God's decision And that It was under His control

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It was also clear to John and I That God had been Answering our prayer for co -workers

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We had just been Having a real hard time Accepting the answer Sometimes God answers no

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And that's why it didn't happen This current year of 2024 We began with 10 occupied

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Departments and 16 residents Including us The properties were put

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On the market about February Again, another interesting Process to go through And soon after this

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God moved 2 more of our team To a new location Leaving only 3 team members on site

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Bob and Val were still in the area So they would come and help us When we had a need

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And then the properties sold On June 25th of this year The sale was completed

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And so The process began It was completed on June 25th

46:35

For the apartment complexes So all of the apartments That were sold Soon after this

46:43

The Lord took one of the residents That had been in hospitals And our care

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Provider facilities Since November 29th Of 2023 Until he terminated it

46:56

I had accepted the power of Attorney for this guy He asked me to do that And went into the hospital In November And I had a lot of responsibilities

47:06

And I was trying to help Through this process And it seemed like it was A long term thing And the

47:15

Lord started Working on that And one day I got a call From the sheriffs

47:20

And he was gone And the Lord took him And that responsibility

47:26

And that need Was over Another amazing answer

47:34

To prayer That was totally unexpected Next the Lord provided our next team member

47:40

A new housing situation This left only Joel and I To care for the property And the remaining residents

47:47

In the middle of July The new owner had a meeting With the remaining residents He made it very clear

47:54

That it was his desire for all of us To leave as soon as possible In the contract

48:02

For the sale of the property BMW leased our apartment At market rate for the next six months

48:08

Making it possible For us to stay there Until the end of the year To assist the remaining residents

48:15

The new owner as needed And to close out the business of C .O .C. Grace Bible Deaf Church Had already been closed out

48:24

And those that were desiring To continue in worship Met in our apartment For the

48:29

Zoom service that I did For Bileo Bible Church Have been doing and continue to do

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Since 2020 We were totally willing to do

48:40

What was necessary to minister to those in need The new owners made it very clear

48:45

They didn't want our help Five of the residents In three apartments Made it very clear

48:50

They did not want our help That left five residents In three apartments

48:56

That wanted our assistance And it left us Within one day of that meeting

49:03

That meeting with the new owner God opened opportunities For four of those five residents

49:10

That wanted our help To move to new locations The first couple moved to Pasadena About five minutes from C .O

49:17

.C. Our co -worker Bob and myself Rented a truck and assisted them In that move on August 15th

49:25

The second couple Found a place in Gerson, Oregon Outside of Portland Another friend of mine

49:32

From our home church And I assisted them in that move on August 19th

49:37

To the 21st I was driving their things for them There Dropping off the truck

49:43

The one -way truck Ubering to the airport and flying home That left one more resident

49:50

Who had no place And it left us The last resident

49:56

Wanted to relocate their family In Milwaukee, Wisconsin Now, I had also accepted

50:02

Many years ago General Powell turned me for help And he needed a lot of care And help

50:08

And I had been providing that for a long time Relocating him

50:15

Within days Of our completing the move to Oregon The Lord opened a place for him

50:20

In Milwaukee It was going to be a long process Of helping the family

50:26

Getting this person sent out to Wisconsin Or so we thought In fact

50:32

God went before us And just a quick Story of this I was going to have to settle

50:39

Doctors and insurance And just a myriad of things

50:44

In Milwaukee And I knew nothing about Milwaukee or Wisconsin And their systems and their laws

50:49

And anybody who's on Medicare And dealing with all that Didn't know it was a problem

50:56

And So I was going to have to help them with all that And I was thinking

51:02

This is going to take forever My birthday is on the 17th of September And my anniversary is on the 28th

51:09

And I know I'm not going to be there with my wife Because I'm going to be in Milwaukee So He thought it was

51:19

This long process In fact, God went before us And got everything established He was moved to a care providing facility

51:27

That would provide all the setup For healthcare and assistance Everything I thought

51:32

I was going to have to do Everything All the doctors, all the medications

51:40

All the Everybody People to help him and assist him Everything So what we expected to be at least a two week

51:50

Adventure in Milwaukee Turned into a five day trip that was relatively easy I helped him

51:57

And his family With a couple of things When I got there He was settled in his new residence

52:03

Had the opportunity to go visit My brother and his family For a day in Madison, Wisconsin About two hours from Milwaukee And from home

52:12

The trip began on 9 -11 By the way, if you want to fly 9 -11 is a good day because flights are cheap

52:23

And ended on 9 -16 The day before my birthday Exactly two years to the day

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Since the announcement Of the closure of the residence of Segal City We announced on September 17, 2022

52:38

We basically finished With the last resident On September 16, 2022

52:45

On the way home, I had this overwhelming sense Of release And the realization

52:51

That we were finished Thinking back on what God had done

52:56

And I realized that God had cared More for these people Than we did

53:03

Every one of them That we assisted That asked for it and we helped

53:08

Every one of them Moved to a better location than we left At Segal City The believers were able

53:16

To move to a location where they now Had new opportunities to minister To others and many against them

53:23

We sent out the shares To the duck I said,

53:30

God get it Now what happened with the Hansons? I gotta tell you,

53:37

I had this overwhelming Sense of release And finish And then I had the thought of God Now what happened to the

53:48

Hansons? When asked what we would do in the future We had been answering we would take a break We called it a sabbatical

53:55

Or a furlough But it's going to be a break From what

54:01

God And it's a break to consider What God has for us in the future Philippians 1 -6 said that We believe it was absolutely true

54:12

For I am confident Of this very thing, that he who began A good work among you

54:17

Will be treated by the day of Christ Jesus Now this is true Of our salvation

54:24

But I'm convinced It's true of every aspect Of our life God finishes

54:31

When he starts And he's not finished with us yet Because as you can see we're still here

54:39

Armed with that truth We press forward following Paul's example In Philippians 3 -13 -14

54:46

Brothers and sisters I do not regard myself as having Taken hold of it yet But one thing

54:51

I do From getting what lies behind And reaching forward to what lies ahead

54:56

I press on for the goal For the prize of the upward Call of God in Christ Jesus So we're pressing forward

55:04

I came home on September 16 My birthday was on the 17th Our 44th wedding anniversary

55:11

Was on the 20th So God gave us four days of rest And then it seemed as if He Stopped focusing on everything

55:21

Else in the world And turned his attention on us Now we know that's not true

55:27

But it sure felt that way In reality We know that his attention

55:34

Is on all this At all the times But what he was doing

55:40

In our situation we had been so Unaware of That It felt

55:47

Really strange and amazing And wonderful Almost like we were standing in front of a burning bush

55:54

As a slight shine of a symbol Into Damascus This would be a time of visiting

56:00

Our Our plan was to take at least a six month break It would be a time of visiting our

56:06

Supporting churches, family, friends Mission home office And exploring ministry opportunities for the future

56:13

Everyone we talked to About this plan felt it was a good idea Joan asked me If we might seek to relocate

56:20

To northwest Area of Arkansas To be near her 87 year old mother

56:27

And to use that as a base of operation Seemed to be a good idea

56:33

To us So we moved in that direction In our search for a place to live The story of what got did

56:40

Between the 21st of September And the 12th of October Would take all of the time of the academic

56:45

This month It is enough to say

56:52

That we had no idea on the 21st Where we were going to live Or how we would get there

56:59

By the 12th of October The Lord had provided a place for us to live Nine minutes from Joan's mom

57:04

Moved our things there by a moving company That picked our belongings up On the 8th of October And placed them in our new home on the 12th

57:12

And the place that God gave us Required a year's lease Or six months And then 12 months

57:19

Over We began our drive to Arkansas On Wednesday night, the 9th

57:27

After completing a request I had accepted from our sending church To teach a three week

57:32

Bible study Covered for the regular teacher That was on vacation And we arrived on the 11th

57:39

These dear people Every week that I went to teach For those three weeks Got a different view of the story

57:47

It started off with We don't know where we're going Or how we're going to get there Now we're going to Arkansas But we don't know where we're going to live

57:54

Well, the Lord provided us a place Our daughter and granddaughter

58:01

Caravan with us on the drive out And our son -in -law flew in on the 12th To drive them home

58:06

Leaving on the 14th and arriving on the 15th We stayed for three days

58:11

Unpacking our things And then left on the 15th to drive back to Southern California Arriving on the 17th

58:17

I had two doctor's appointments on the 18th You know, we made plans That we had to follow through with Part of them were

58:26

The meetings we had up here in Southern California Before we knew what was happening But God knows

58:32

It worked out really well So I had two doctor's appointments on the 18th

58:38

And some business work for CSE We stayed until the 19th Headed up for Northern California We had scheduled meetings

58:44

In the four of our supporting churches On the 20th and 27th Of October The 3rd and 10th of November I need to go back to Southern California Tonight Start back

58:58

For a few days at the end of this month To close out again for COC Then we're back to Northern California To complete the meetings

59:06

Our current plan You asked about this Our current plan is to Leave on November 11th

59:14

And then take a leisurely drive Back to Arkansas Which is what

59:21

I recall Almost hard to say In Arkansas All of these plans

59:29

Every one of them have been done He has made his leaving

59:36

Abundantly clear Even though we don't always have A lot of advancements I'm going to say this at this point

59:45

But one of the things I've become aware of As we've been out here talking about this

59:50

And sharing it Is that when God started the ministry of Mission of Compassion This was a part of the plan

01:00:02

It's not that he didn't know Well it failed This was always his

01:00:09

This is a lot of information But it only scratches

01:00:15

The surface of what God has done So many little details And it's a long way

01:00:21

And I can't get started on it Because I don't know how to stop In the beginning of this display

01:00:28

Of God's faithfulness in our lives I share two verses Psalm 37 -5 Commit thy way unto the

01:00:35

Lord Trust also in Him And He shall make it pass Proverbs 3 -5 -6

01:00:41

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart And lead not unto thine own understanding In all thy ways

01:00:48

Acknowledge Him And He shall direct thy path The truth and promise

01:00:55

Of these verses Is not only for me It is for all of us

01:01:01

I also share 1 Timothy 2 -13 If we are faithless

01:01:07

He remains faithful For he cannot deny himself We And especially me

01:01:14

I'm going to put that on hold I mean I'm not always faithful But he has

01:01:24

Just in case you think this has been And well I also share verses that I believe

01:01:33

Prove we're all missionaries I encourage you to realize this truth And be about the ministry of God's people

01:01:41

Just in case you think it's been an easy path That we've been on Let me share with you Joan's explanation for journey

01:01:48

This is not a path We would have chosen But we would not

01:01:54

Have wanted to miss it Joseph Would have probably said

01:02:01

The same thing But he gave a little different perspective When he was speaking to his brothers In Genesis 15 -19 -20

01:02:09

He says But Joseph said to them Do not be afraid They thought he was going to kill them

01:02:15

Because dad's dead And they've done him really bad So Do not be afraid

01:02:21

For I am in God's place As for you You meant evil against me

01:02:26

But God meant it for good In order to bring about this present result To keep many people alive

01:02:33

In spite of our plans The plans of others Even those that would mean us harm

01:02:41

God's plan Overrides them all And it is the best We want to thank you

01:02:50

For your years Of faithful support And prayer for us We're going to keep you updated

01:02:57

As we continue on our journey We seek to faithfully Serve our Lord in whatever way

01:03:04

He desires and we are confident This will be done in ministering to those Who need support It is our desire

01:03:14

To join Paul in saying At the end of our days We have fought the good fight

01:03:20

And we have finished the course Second Timothy 4 -7

01:03:27

Let's pray Father thank you so much For what you do in our lives

01:03:34

And as we're going through it Sometimes it's just hard To see you It's like Job said

01:03:40

I look in front of me and I can't see you I look to the door and it's out It doesn't seem as if you're there

01:03:46

But I know When you're finished I'll come for you

01:03:51

When you finish the course When you finish the race It'll be glorious Our finish line is the same

01:04:02

But our courses are different Help us all to run well To walk the path well

01:04:09

To stay on the course Thank you that we can't Destroy your plan

01:04:14

We're never going to be able to deviate From what your will is But we can be like Job And miss the blessing

01:04:25

Miss the great Work that you want to do And to us

01:04:30

So help us To not do that Help us to be like Job said

01:04:36

To come to the realization Of what you've done And how it's all been in front of you We're in your place

01:04:42

But where are you from? Help us to know that Help us to be faithful to represent you

01:04:48

Thank you for giving us one more day One more opportunity to share our faith To tell people about Jesus Christ That is the greatest need

01:04:58

This world has And we need to be faithful To be Good ambassadors

01:05:04

For your brother Jesus Christ Thank you brother

01:05:23

Thank you Jim and Joan What a blessing it is to have you here today I think we have

01:05:31

As you shared We have a room full of Hansons here today You're on different paths

01:05:37

Different journeys Some of you are at the beginning, front end Some are in the middle and some are on the back half

01:05:43

But God is faithful He will be there with us Every step of the way And when you look back you can see his hand