From: Adam Waller [MyAllForChrist@CadLinx.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 8:52 PM
To: Adam Waller (Adam Waller)
Subject: Prayer Update 2/7/06 Touch and Go
Tuesday, February 7th, 2006
Dear Family
and Friends,
I usually
like to spend more time in writing my updates, (often four to six hours), but
with our family leaving tomorrow to spend two weeks in China, this one might
have to be finished a little quicker. (I will explain more about our
After
finally finishing our packing the night before, our family left from
We were all
looking forward to our return to
Privileged
to stay in the same home at IBLP Headquarters that our family had stayed at on
our return from Mongolia, we enjoyed some final visits with friends and a short
but good night's rest before heading to the airport early in the morning.
Even at the
airport we saw the Lord's hand prospering our way as we began the 30 hour
journey to
As we
prepared to board the aircraft, I thought back to another divine appointment
that had taken place the day before. While our family was at Headquarters, I
had the opportunity to spend a couple hours talking with Phil Garvin. With a
heart to share Christ with those he meets in daily activities, Mr. Garvin is
sharing the Gospel and leading people to the Lord almost every day.
When
teaching others how to share their faith, one of his favorite questions in
reference to evangelism is: "Do you feel that you are a seed sower?"
"God doesn't call us to be seed sowers, He calls us to be fishermen.
Fishermen go out expecting to catch fish." Together we prayed that the
Lord might even give me the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ
with someone on the plane the next day.
Knowing
that all of our seats were booked together, I had to smile as I saw God's
divine hand at work. My seat was on the end by the window, and next to me was
an empty chair. As the boarding continued, I was joined by a Chinese man about
my age who seemed very friendly. As the flight got underway, our conversation
deepened beyond basic introductions.
Six years
ago, my friend had left
Asking
about his church background, I was surprised to learn that he had visited
church a few times in
As our
conversation moved on to other topics, I began sharing with him about my twin
brother Isaac. He laughed as I shared some of the interesting things we have
done together as twins, and then listened as I shared about Isaac's service in
Oklahoma City, and then with our family in Mongolia. His interest deepened as I
shared about Isaac's unexpected illness, and the race for life in those final
hours.
Deeply
touched as I shared of Isaac's death, he reached across and took my hand.
"I am so sorry!" With his own mother in the final stages of cancer,
the reality of death could not have been far from his mind. He looked down
again at the tract that I had given him as I shared the confidence that we have
as Christians. We will see our brother again because he had taken the free gift
of Salvation through Jesus Christ. "Yes, I will really think about
it." He told me.
I was so
encouraged to see how through the testimony of Isaac's life, he had gone from a
polite understanding to a serious interest in the plan of Salvation. He asked
if there were any Christian churches in
Arriving in
In
preparation for our return, our Mongolian staff had graciously worked to clean
our apartments, and Dorjbat and his crew worked long hours to finish the
remodeling work and move furniture back into the rooms. Only those who have
lived in our CTI apartments can fully appreciate the transformation from
mismatched wallpaper and years of coal smoke into nicely painted walls and
trim.
Grateful
for a few days rest before work started on Monday, our family began to make the
adjustments back into our home in
Tim, Angie
and Erin returned a week later, bringing our team back up to full strength
after several months apart. The opportunities before us are sometimes
overwhelming, but the God that has given us a Great Commission has also
promised us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The times that I get
overwhelmed are the times that I try to carry the burden myself.
Almost
every day we are getting requests for character trainings, and our schedule is
rapidly filling up. Tim has given me responsibility for the character
training side of our operations here, overseeing the translation work and
scheduling character trainings. I nearly missed lunch the last couple days as I
met with inquirers that wanted to schedule more trainings.
Like Moses
as he took on the responsibilities of leading God's people, the Lord has given
me grace to match the task before me. God never promised that it would be easy,
but He did promise that we would always have the grace to do His will. I am so
grateful for the joy and peace that this grace provides, and for the team that
God has raised up to assist in the work.
Often
working on my own, I have not had very much experience in delegating tasks to
others, but these new responsibilities have given me a chance to grow in this
area. It is so neat how the Lord often works through our authorities to allow
us to grow in skills that we would not have thought of ourselves. :-) It
has been a joy to work with David and Rachelle as they oversee the training and
translation operations, respectively.
Moving on
to our present life in
Although
many families, and especially young Christians are faced with the pressure to
drink and other unhealthy practices, our family and staff was blessed to
receive invitations to some very gracious families. Responding kindly as we
blundered through the traditional customs, our hosts took great delight in
answering the phone and telling other friends that they had twelve Americans
visiting their ger. :-)
You will
probably enjoy the pictures section of this update, where some digital photos
will save a few thousand words in describing the food and traditional dress
associated with this holiday. One tradition was to have some of the people take
turns singing a song. Of course they all wanted to hear the Americans sing, so
we sang a few songs together. David, Derrick and I were glad that we had
brought our harmonicas and played a couple songs, much to the enjoyment of our
host family.
Tomorrow
afternoon our family is scheduled to fly to
David has
been coordinating most of the details for this trip, and will be leading the
Children's program. I am scheduled to lead some sessions for the teen-agers,
while Mr. Fahrenbruck from
Please pray
for our family as we prepare for these seminars. We will have an all-day seminar
in
"Touch
and Go", the title of this update, refers to the aviation maneuver of
landing and airplane on a runway, then taking off again. It has reference to
our brief few weeks in
In reality,
we can do a lot of "going", so to speak, but it has to be the Lord to
"touch" the hearts and lives of people that we come in contact with.
Please continue to pray with us that the Lord would use our often brief
contacts with those around us to touch lives for eternity.
Praise
Points:
- We are so grateful for the diligence of our Mongolian
staff as they ran the entire operation in our absence. In addition to the
added responsibilities of remodeling several apartments, they handled
requests for character trainings, the weekly call-in program with the
radio station, and even did some character trainings on their own!
- Praise the Lord for some very good call-in radio
programs in the last couple weeks as Cindy and I discuss the character
quality of sincerity on WindFM. In addition to callers by phone, people
have begun sending questions by text messages for us to talk about. We
have had some very good opportunities to discuss Biblical principles in
dealing with relationships. (Although we don't mention God or the Bible.)
I found it quite encouraging last week as a caller sent a text message in
English with something like the following: "Thanks for the character
program! I can really sense the Holy Spirit! God bless you!" (No, we
didn't read that one on the air.)
- Among the more interesting things in our baggage,
Derrick successfully managed to bring an entire Western Roping Saddle for
some missionary friends. Their dad was having trouble riding the small
wooden Mongolian saddles at their orphanage project outside the city.
Prayer
Requests:
- The Lord has given me the opportunity write an
article in honor of Isaac's life of service to the Lord. Planned for the
website of our homeschooling organization, pray that
the Lord will give wisdom in making the final edits and use this article
to touch the lives of many others.
- Pray for the Waller family and Erin Randall as we
travel to
- We are currently working to get our phone system into
operation again. I carried a donated phone system to
Pictures:
This round
tent-like structure is called a ger. ("Gare") It is the traditional
Mongolian
nomadic home, and still quite common, even in the city.
Nordema, a
student for one of our character classes, invited our family to visit her ger.
The round
tower on the center of the table is built from bricks of fried bread.
It is
stacked taller or shorter, depending on the age of the oldest member
of the
family. On top are little sugar cubes, dried yoghurt and other little
dainties.
Altan-hoyig,
a young man from our church has been working as a missionary
in the
countryside for the past several months. He came to get some
materials
and advice as he prepares to teach our character materials in
his
countryside town, hundreds of miles from
You can see
some more pictures on our family
website.
Interesting
Facts:
Have you
ever wondered what the weather was like in
Thank you
for praying for our family as we serve overseas! I am so grateful that the Holy
Spirit knows just how to encourage us at the right time through your prayers.
In Christ,
- Adam
Adam Waller ~ MyAllForChrist@CadLinx.com
Family
Website ~ http://cadlinx.com/wallerfamily
"And
let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not." - Galatians 6:9
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