Missions...

I've had a good day meeting with and writing a bunch of missionaries. Had lunch with Bill Davis from New Tribes in the Philippines. Bill and his wife Donna have been serving the people of Palawan for about a quarter of a century! They have been translating the New Testament into the language of a Palawan tribe that up til now has never had a written copy of Gods Word in their own tongue! What a life's work! Please keep them and the people of Palawan in prayer as Islamic extremists are making serious inroads in the province.

This evening has been spent writing to some of the missionaries with Shepherd's Staff. It's hard to describe both the joy and the burden for these families as they serve the Lord in radically different places and cultures. In particular, could you pray for the teenage daughter of Ed and Kelli Compean who are church planting in Kenya, East Africa. Haley has been diagnosed with a small brain tumor. Here is a link to their blog

I also continue to be so thankful for all of you who have been praying for me thru this time of transition. Great is His Faithfulness!

In His Arm's,

Pat

Shepherd's Staff

Getting down to business

Today began a day of missions mindedness. From my devotions in the morning to reading about serving as senders, to compiling my contact lists and emailing several of our Shepherd's Staff missionaries and going over outlines for a meeting next Monday - and getting a haircut:-) the day zipped by. It's late now but I just wanted to give God the glory for a good day. He used it and blessed it - great to be along for the ride!

In His Arm's,

Pat

Back Home - New Ministry

After nearly 13 days on the road, it sure is good to be back home. I had a great trip visiting my family in the Chicago area. My mom is 88, still with a great sense of humor, even tho her memory is starting to fade. She's never seen any of her great-grandchildren and I'm hoping to bring almost 6 year old Kaylee for a visit sometime this spring or early summer.

Chicago was being swept by Obama-mania. Nearly every news story seemed to have a tie in to the new president elect. And tho I find it difficult, the Word still exhorts me to pray for those in authority. As Christians we must take the higher, nobler ground and not succumb to fear or anxiety or bitterness. God's love in Jesus is still the answer for our messed up world!

From Chicago I flew to Albuquerque where on Mon. and Tues. the board and regional mission facilitators of Shepherd's Staff met to pray and seek the Lord for the course He would have for the ministry in the year ahead. I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure it was all real. I've been welcomed into a great ministry and find myself part of team of folks I've mostly known for years - some for decades! Pastor Jeff Jackson who developed the core concepts of the ministry and serves on the board was my first assistant pastor in the mid '80's. He and his wife Helen and their kids were the first missionaries Calvary Escondido sent out to the Philippines and have been my dear friends for a long, long time.

Also serving on the board are my long time friends Jim VanderSpek and Dr. Nick Yphantides.

Other board members are Pastor Dain Wadley from the Calvary Chapel in Poway, Pastor Joe Paskewich who pastors a Calvary in Connecticut, Pastor Jeff Fadness who is pastoring a Calvary in Pocatello, Idaho after 12 years pastoring a church in Russia, and Ron Clipp who is the present director of Shepherd's Staff. Unable to attend were Pastor John Michaels of CC Spring Valley in Las Vegas who has pored his life into missions and missionaries around the world for nearly a quarter of a century, and my friend Trip Kimball who spent many years ministering in the Philippines - most recently as director of the Calvary Chapel Training Center and the Rainbow Orphanage in Dumaguete. Just an absolutely great group of men who love Jesus and love missions.

I'll be working alongside Bryon Mondok who used to be the mission's pastor of CC Jupiter in Florida. Bryon will be responsible for the missionaries serviced by Shepherd's Staff east of the Mississippi and I'll be responsible for those in the western US. We'll both be assisted by a gifted team of resource pastor's who will help with training, teaching and representing the ministry at various pastor's and leader's conferences around the country.

My new job will include building relationship with 43 missionaries and about 30 sending churches. I'll have many opportunities to teach and offer specific training to help both missionaries prepare for the field and their churches to help care for them. I think my plate will be full! And I'm so blessed the Lord would give me this opportunity to meet so many new people who are serving Him radically and be of assistance to them.

Thanks for your continuing prayer for my health - I'm doing better! And please pray for these missionaries I'll be serving. From time to time I'll include stories and links about their ministries - I'm sure you'll be blessed and challenged!

In His Arm's,

Pat

Albuquerque

God is surely doing a new thing as doors are opening for a much more involved work serving missionaries and their sending churches who are using the services of Shepherd's Staff. We had a great day of meetings today in Albuquerque. My responsibilities could include ministry to more than 40 missionaries from all over the world. I'll know more specifics after the SS board meets tomorrow.

As of today, my speaking schedule is as follows:

Dec.1 Refuge Calvary Chapel in Huntington Beach - sharing with some of their mission support teams.

Dec 13, sharing at a men's breakfast at Calvary Chapel of El Centro

Dec. 14, sharing at both services at Calvary Chapel Escondido - Yeah!!!

In between the speaking opportunities will be establishing contacts and setting up meetings with the pastor's and/or mission boards of those churches in the western US who have missionaries from their churches out in the foreign mission field. Lots to do!

It will be really good to get back home on Wednesday after 12 days on the road. Thanks for all your prayers, I'm getting thru this trip pretty well physically.

In His Arm's,

Pat

Technical difficulties

The churches website has been moving this past week to a new server which has resulted in some challenges getting my blog back up and running. Thanks to Miles for his time working on it. Should be back to normal soon - thanks for your patience.

My visit with my family in the Chicago area is going well. Tomorrow I head back west to Albuquerque for the Shepherd's Staff meetings. Love and miss you all!

In His Arm's,

Pat

Back in my hometown

Been visiting my family in the Chicago area since Friday. Temps are about the inside of my refrigerator and the 'Windy City' has been just that!

It's been good for me to reconnect with my siblings. I have two younger brothers and a sister here along with their families. Seems like all us brothers have gone thru some pretty serious health challenges the past several years. Weird that so much of our conversation revolves around medical procedures and doctors and medicines. It wasn't too long ago that we thought, "That's all older folks seem to talk about!" Now we're the ones talking!

Today, my brother Mike and I drove into downtown Chicago, visited the Chicago Historical Society and had lunch at Grumps near Lincoln Park.

As we drove past the areas I lived and worked and partied in from '68-'71 before hitch hiking out to Southern California and giving my heart to Jesus, I was just so amazed at God's hand and purpose directing me back then. We drove past Moody Bible Institute and I thought of the two students there that helped me get out to the West Coast in Oct. of '71 to find the Jesus People.

I remembered many of the crazy things I did and was so thankful for the mercy of God in seeing me thru my blindness and rebellion. Nearly 40 years have passed and a whole other life has been lived. A really wonderful blessed life I might add. Though I always missed my family here in the mid west, God was gracious in giving me an additional family in California full of fathers, mothers, sister, and brothers - a hundredfold for sure!

Let's be sure to take some time this week to give thanks for all the Lord has seen us thru! And let's expect Him to continue to do great and mighty things - that we can't even imagine!

In His Arm's,

Pat

Chicago bound

It's packing time again! Tomorrow morning I fly back to the midwest to visit with my family in the Chicago area for a week. Haven't seen my little brother (at 51 not so little) in many years. I also have another brother and a sister and my mom whom I'll be seeing a lot of along with a bunch of nieces and nephews.

I hope to meet with a couple of Calvary pastors back there as well before heading back west to Albuquerque for some Shepherd's Staff meetings. I'll be back in town a week before Thanksgiving.

The Lord is so good to us! Even tho the recent elections were discouraging to many, the basic core of who we are and what we are called to do has not changed. Another pastor friend of mine sent me this yesterday:

1. THE BIBLE will still have ALL the answers.

2. PRAYER will still work.
3. THE HOLY SPIRIT will still move.
4. GOD will still inhabit the praises of HIS people.
5. There will still be GOD-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to GOD.
7. GOD will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room AT THE CROSS.
9. JESUS will still love you.

10. JESUS will still save the lost.

Therefore let's gird up our minds and hearts and press on to know, love and honor our Lord in all we say and do - and let's keep loving the lost all around us.

In His Arm's,

Pat

VOTE

A pivotal week ahead for our city, state, and country. Be sure to vote on Tuesday - and vote for righteousness and truth. To the best of your ability, vote guided by the Word of God. You've studied the issues and heard from the candidates and now it's time to exercise your civic and godly duty. The divisions in our country are becoming more and more extreme. It is my conviction that either one holds to Biblical absolutes or they succumb to the whims and desires and agendas of those who have chosen not to retain God in their hearts or minds. There really is no "middle ground" here. "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Proverbs 14:34.

Pray for our land. Pray for one another. And no matter the outcome, be strong and courageous and stand for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the Truth and authority of God's Word. We may soon find ourselves as outcasts, rejected, ridiculed, resisted and restrained because of what we believe and the public way we stand upon what we believe. If our country continues to choose unrighteousness and giving it's stamp of approval to all forms of ungodliness and wickedness - then persecution of true believers will be upon us here in what once was "One nation under God."

I do look forward to the election outcome. Whoever and whatever wins or looses will still require us to live sold out lives for Jesus. Let's not be too elated or too discouraged. Let's press on to know the Lord and be a strong witness of His love to a desperate, needy world.

In His Arm's,

Pat