In April we headed south to see friends and supporters, traveling through 10 states and driving over 3,000 miles.  It was well worth it though, and it was great to reconnect with so many who support us and pray for us faithfully.  We especially enjoyed stopping at AIM Headquarters in Georgia – what a privilege to work alongside the folks there.

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to our home base with only 2 1/2 weeks before  moving-out day, and fit in church visits in New York State and another city in Connecticut, as well as a 2-day visit to see supporters and friends over in Poughkeepsie, New York, where we used to live.  We were packed up and moved out of Fairfield on May 31st, and Kevin’s parents welcomed us (and our piles of stuff) warmly.  And yes, we continued to homeschool through all of this.   -C

 

In a world of pluralism and relativism and even more so now, a growing narcissistic society, one can get depressed wondering if ultimate truth or commitment to belief still exists. I have always had a fascination with extreme Islamic terrorists and those that have done atrocious things in the name of their religion. Their conviction led them to do things—yes, horrible things, but extreme things, sacrificial things and sometimes selfless things. The fact remains they believe. They believe so strongly they give up everything, travel thousands of miles, train, pray, fight and kill because of this belief. I am not saying we need to become militant or violent by any means. But possibly we can learn something.

I recently read an article in the Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/) which sparked some new consideration. I warn you it is disturbing but if nothing else it will help you understand this group of dedicated individuals. In a nutshell it explains that according to a particular vein of Muslim eschatology, they believe Jesus will indeed return, but only when a war with the “west” is waged on the plane of Dabiq near Aleppo in Syria. They believe so strongly in fact they will do anything to provoke it.

All Muslims acknowledge that God is the only one who knows the future. But they also agree that he has offered us a peek at it, in the Koran and in narrations of the Prophet. The Islamic State differs from nearly every other current jihadist movement in believing that it is written into God’s script as a central character. It is in this casting that the Islamic State is most boldly distinctive from its predecessors, and clearest in the religious nature of its mission. (from part 3 of article).

And Jesus, the second most revered prophet in Islam, will lead the Muslims to victory over the earth. Is this a majority view of Muslim believers, no, but it is strong, powerful and motivating. As you read the article and reflect on our own beliefs, messianic and eschatological may we be convicted of our own failure and see how our faith has been corrupted and compromised with societies we live in.

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How often have you waited for someone to come and they were late? It becomes so frustrating, exasperating really. All our plans and hopes are often based on the other person getting there on time, and when they don’t arrive on time we are instantly annoyed. Worse still, the longer they take to arrive the more we become angry until finally we write them off, we give up and go about our business.

What about Jesus’ return? What about the signs of the end of the times. We love them, we hate them. Usually we get all worked up and excited but sadly, within a few days we lose that immediate urgency and fall back into old patterns of thinking. For me the problem has always been the vagueness of the ‘when’. It seems everyone interprets the end times differently. Some think it is upon us now, while others believe certain events are yet to come while still others think we will be gone when Jesus returns. Over Christmas I was stuck on the idea, no, the fact that Jesus will come back and he will disperse once and for all the curse of sin and rain down with justice over all the works of Satan. The lies will be exposed, those who have done evil we be punished and those who remained faithful will be rewarded. What a glorious, terrible day that will be.  That being said, I began to ask myself, is there ANY clear indicator of WHEN he will come? Because of the controversies and debates for years I have refused to look at proposed signs and in fact ignored the proximity of his return, much to my loss, loss of expectancy, loss of hope, loss of excitement. And then God started to show me something through a series of scriptures which started my mind racing and heart pounding.

It began in Mathew 24:14 where it reads, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Looking at this verse we can take it in a general way and not be moved. It sounds nice and of course, the end will come. But looking closer, ‘whole world’ is actually pretty clear. By ‘nations’, the writer was not referring to our governmental lines and divisions but rather peoples, people groups.

The second scripture that penetrated my apathy is Revelation 7:9. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” Here in John’s account he is incredibly clear that a representative from every nation, tribe, people and language’ will be present. But you ask, what does this mean for the end times? It means, not UNTIL everyone has heard the end will not come. Let me repeat, until EVERYONE has heard the gospel of the kingdom of God coming to earth, Jesus Christ will NOT come back.

So whatever the timing of Christ’s return will be, his return cannot happen unless and until everyone has heard of Him and what he has done. I love this because it is so simple, whatever role you can play, be it sharing with neighbors or preaching in front of a crowd, from working cross culturally to cross town, each step in verbally explaining, physically living out His gospel, love and reconciliation is a step closer to His return. If you are not anxious for Jesus to come back, that is fine, sit back, relax, do nothing. But if you know Christ, if your relationship with him has proved him faithful, kind, grace-full, healing and loving, if you are longing for his physical, earthly return, we have work to do. This is why I have been shocked by the article I mentioned in the beginning. Some of our neighbors with their belief in Muhammad are anxious for Christ to return. So much so in fact that they are giving up everything to in effect force world powers and God to act.

What are we as Christ’s followers doing to speed his return according to our end time beliefs?

So back to the opening thought: What if the person wasn’t arriving because you hadn’t done something? What if His return was somehow interconnected with your doing something? What if we could play an integral part not in bringing the world to war but to a restored relationship with our Creator? What if you, by how you live, what you say, what you sacrifice and do in your community, in your family could be part of God’s objective reality and Christ’s most certain return?

Let us hasten the day!

(2 Peter 3:12)

-K

(For more on ISIS and their growth, allure and expression a good read is the April 2016  “Wired” article, #jihad by Brendan Koerner)

 

Most Christmas times we would travel to Lake Malawi and meet up with another missionary family to celebrate and enjoy Christmas together. One thing we enjoyed the most was playing with our collective 5 boys in the lake, including snorkeling along a rocky point where there are a lot of cichlids.

Most years we would all swim along the shore 1/2mile and hang out a few hours at a particular peninsula, jumping off the rocks and snorkeling. This one time I was swimming ahead with one of the teenagers when some guys from the shore caught our attention. As we got closer we could hear them more yelling something, finally it became clear, they were yelling “Crocodiles!”. Now, let me explain: for years we had been coming to this particular spot and we had never seen crocodiles; even the locals said there were no crocodiles, never. As we continued down the shore the men became more agitated, continuing to strongly recommend we get out of the water. But we didn’t see any crocodiles. When we finally got out, walked along the shore and looked to where they were pointed, not 20 yards from shore, there he was, a small crocodile sunning itself on a rock—a rock we would have swam past in just a few minutes had we stayed in the water. Although that crocodile may have been small (6-7ft) it was probably not alone.

Needless to say we thanked the men who had so adamantly warned us of the impending danger and started our walk home. That Christmas we didn’t get out to that peninsula and each venture into the water was a tad apprehensive but with one focused lookout, closely paying attention to the water, we still had a lot of fun.

I remembered this story a few days ago in the middle of the night as I thought of the dangers we as men “fall into”. We seem to be taken by surprise when we are tempted to gamble or lust. We repeatedly say we are sorry, yet fail to recognize the signs, nor do we listen to the warnings that we are often, actually swimming in very dangerous waters.

The verse I think of is 1 Peter 5:8, “Be alert and of sober mind. The enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”. But look further, it goes on to say, “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” Peter didn’t say, ‘Be careful and go on to immediate victory’, nor did he say, ‘be careful and you can launch a full frontal attack on the devil’. What he said was, be very careful and even if you are attacked stand firm and don’t give up or give in, no matter how it may hurt or pain you.

Some days we just aren’t real aware are we; some days we are tired or things are going well and we think we are (temporarily) invincible. Let us be sober. Interesting the verse prior to 8 tells us to “cast all our anxiety on him because he cares for you (us).” The assumption is we all have anxiety and the devil, our enemy is just waiting to take advantage of our lack of attention when we worry. Before we even enter the fray let us speak with our Father, cast all our cares upon him—because he cares for us.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. -K

Renamo returned to war with attacks Thursday and Friday on the N1, the main north-south road, in Sofala province. Eight cars were shot at; six people were injured but there were no fatalities.

Renamo action on the road was announced Monday 8 February at a press conference in Beira by Renamo head of mobilization in Sofala, Horacio Calavete. He said Renamo would set up armed road blocks and “control points” on the N1. He said the decision was taken personally by Renamo head Afonso Dhlakama, who is currently living in a Renamo base in Satunjira, Gorongosa, Sofala.

This is just an excerpt from the article, which you can find at:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201602140334.html

 

 

While I go on about all of our journeys, meetings, homeschooling and fun, back in Mozambique the ministry is continuing.  We have been so grateful to a fellow missionary for facilitating Skype meetings with the monitors from time to time, and it is always strange to start speaking Portuguese again, and to give the standard greetings that we gave on a daily basis in Moz but now never say to anyone here.

We have been so encouraged by the steadiness of the TEE program!  On our last furlough, the program was still very young and faltered significantly while we were away.  This time, however, we hear good things from the monitors (and outside observers) about the strength of the program and the number of students attending classes. Praise God!!  This is an amazing answer to prayer.  Perhaps to most Americans, this wouldn’t be a surprise, but in the culture in Nampula it is very difficult to get strong, steady leaders.  And all of this for no salary!   We are beyond thankful that what has been slowly and thoughtfully built is remaining steady. – C

Wow, December is busy over here!  Normally at this time of year, we are attending the kid’s end of term program and packing up the car for our annual trek to Malawi just before the rainy season hits.  Instead, we were schooling, meeting with people, trying to spend time with family, and discussing (seemingly endlessly) our future in the next few months as well as years.  A real shock to me was all the stress around gifts.  In Mozambique, I have to plan months ahead for gifts for the kids and Kevin, having them shipped out.  If they haven’t arrived by early December, they get opened when we return at the end of the month.  In December, I am leisurely wrapping the few gifts!  Here, I was frantically shopping until the day before Christmas.  Of course, it was a real luxury to be able to run out to the stores and actually find something worth giving; that wouldn’t happen at home.

We tried to take advantage of the things to see and do, visiting local “Christmas houses” and taking the train into NYC to see the tree at Rockefeller Center.  

 

However, the best parts about Christmas were attending church at Kevin’s home church (where I also have visited for 25 years now) and being with family for Christmas Day.  We built up a wealth of memories to last us for the many years we will not with with them for the holidays. – C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started homeschooling in November and it has been monotonous, exciting, and frustrating.  All of those things!  It has been frustrating to try to fit in schoolwork and assignments when we are rarely home five days in a row.  I am new to homeschooling and struggle to know how to prepare ahead, and don’t have the time anyway.  We tend to “wing it” an awful lot.  The monotony of homeschooling has been doing the same things over and over and not knowing how to vary the activities to get the kids excited about the material.  I have a feeling that this comes with experience and elementary school level creativity, neither of which I possess.  However, homeschooling has also been very exciting, because we have visited all sorts of historical sites!!  We were able to study the French Indian War and visit the site of Fort Greenville where a major treaty was signed, see where the Declaration of Independence was signed, see the Liberty Bell, visit historical sites in Boston and other places on the east coast like Mystic Seaport, and attend a Revolutionary War reenactment!  We chose a curriculum for this year that puts a focus on American History for this very purpose.  Our third culture kids are learning a lot about their passport country and having a great time on field trips.  I am probably enjoying that part even more than they are, and the proximity of New York City affords us lots of opportunities for lots more historical learning.  Yes, we do math too, and this next few months we will be studying astronomy, taking advantage of several planetariums in our area with free viewings weekly.  -C

I had to post this photo of the kids at the grave of their great great great great (how many, I don’t know) grandfather James Dunwoody.  We studied the French and Indian War back in September, while were were staying for a few weeks in the “Ohio Territory”.  Turns out that our relative was one of the early settlers to the area – he walked in from Virginia and was a cobbler.  The kids were goofing around while we were trying to be all serious about their history, but it made for a funny photo.  In the spring, there are plans afoot to go and see history from Kevin’s side of the family, but I’ll post on that later! – C