fUEL dIRECTOR

January and February Updates

2006-02-18T21:32:00.000-06:00

January

Fun at the Campground
With the beautiful weather here in January, we tried our hand at fishing at the campground just before leaving.

Diamond, our dog, loved playing in the river behind the campground.

Beach Rental House
January 9th we moved from the RV park into a winter beach rental. We were taking a huge leap of faith to do this because this meant we not only still had an RV payment but a house payment now as well. The beach winter rental was actually cheaper than renting an apartment and it was fully furnished and had a beautiful view of the beach! We are renting the beach house through May 15th. On our way to "moving" to the beach rental, the RV slipped into a large ditch and damaged the back end of the coach. We thank the Lord that no one was hurt.

Our kids had fun digging a gigantic hole in their sand front yard with one of their new missionary friends!

Alyzsa has been having a blast with her cousin and a new friend she met who is also a missionary.

What about the RV? !!!!!!!!
On Monday we moved into the beach rental, and by the weekend, a friend, Brad Carignan, who we hadn't seen for twelve years came to visit with his family. Because we had moved into the beach rental house, we actually were able to house his family of five for a few days of rest and relaxation. The Carignans had been missionaries in Israel and Wales for the past five years. They felt like God had called them back to the US to stir up the youth in America and to start the ministry Save Our Souls (SOS). To make a long story short, after prayer and late night vision sharing, the Lord has brought our families and ministries together in a partnership to reach the youth in America as well as the unreached in the nations. The vision for the RV just expanded! Brad and Josie Carignan will be leasing the RV for the next two years! Please check out their website for the complete RV miracle story at SOS.

AIMS Annual Staff Retreat
Right after all of this exciting news came about with the RV, we held AIMS' annual staff meeting at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA.Since the second week of December, Dan had been spending many hours at the AIMS office in Virginia Beach meeting with the Executive Team and International Team putting plans together to reach five to eight "epicenters" of the world. Through these epicenters, we believe that many of the remaining unreached people groups will be reached and eventaully we will see closure to the Great Commission..."and then the end will come." During the staff retreat, the plan for the epicenters was unfolded.

It was a great time of bonding with our new staff.

Even the kids had a blast! We want to especially thank Andrea Sauer for flying all the way from Chicago,IL, with her three children to watch all of the staff children at the waterpark! Thank you Andrea!!! We love you!!!!

After the retreat, we took Andrea and the kids to the beach even though it was a bit chilly.

February
Oklahoma
We spent Christmas in Oklahoma the first week of February with Dan's family. Dan's brother and family were back from Russia for a couple weeks. Dan and his brother will be doing a Pastors' Conference together in Russia in October. Dan had several meetings while we were in Tulsa with supporters and potential supporters of the ministry, including three churches with several thousand members. One of these churches is praying about adopting one of the remaining 31 unreached people groups in Tanzania. Another notable missions ministry has asked us to work on a strategic plan with them to reach Sudan. A ministry we helped start over ten years ago is getting behind us with monthly support. They donated two portable speaker boxes that will be used in the pastors conferences in Tanzania. Thank you Steve Goley and Big World Ventures..

California
Dan flew his mother to California to see her father who is 95 and not doing too well. It was great for Dan to be able to spend this time with his mother and grandfather. His grandfather was a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators since the 1930's.Dan was given opportunity to share at a local Christian High School chapel while he was there as well. He challenged the youth to dream with God and that they can change the world.

Kansas
Maria and the kids borrowed a car and drove to Kansas to visit her family while Dan was in California. It's always great spending time with our family. Our families have really been a great encouragement to us during this time of trantision through theirs prayers, words of encouragement, and finances. We love our families!

Thank You
We want to thank all of you who have stepped out in faith with us over the past couple of months and have supported us financially. God is meeting our needs. We have about 1/3 of our monthly support raised and believe that God is still speaking to some of you to join our support team and commit to a monthly support amount. Several have given one time gifts and this has been a large source of our income for the past two months. God is faithful and will provide. If you would like to join our support team, you can donate by one of the following ways below.

Give Online and go to AIMS.ORG., click on “Donate to AIMS Online,” and type “Dan and Maria Crosby” on the space designated “Payment For.”

Make checks payable to “AIMS,”
designate to “Dan and Maria Crosby,” mail to AIMS, PO Box 64534, Virginia Beach, VA 23467-4534 OR

Year at a Glance

2006-01-02T21:45:00.000-06:00

India
We held another conference for pastors in India with several hundred in attendance. We trained them in reaching their own unreached as well as trained them in a cell based structure called G12. The Indian church is getting serious about reaching its unreached!

Brazil
We took two short-term trips to Brazil this year. The first was to hold an Encounter for one of the local churches that we work closely with. Dan even celebrated his 40th birthday in Brazil! (See the Director's Blogger in February for photos!) The second trip consisted of a Re-Encounter with the same church. Fuel International has been working in Brazil for the past few years, primarily since we began preparing to send the Staub family there as mid-term missionaries. The Staubs returned this summer for furlough and then in August they returned to the field with a refreshed vision to reach the unreached in Brazil. They have been partnering together with several churches and missions organizations in order to utilize a water filtration project to meet the felt needs of the people and to share the love of Jesus. Go to Staub Family to see photos and stories firsthand how God is using the Staub family in Brazil.

Tanzania
We sent our first mid-term team to Tanzania in January to participate in a 10 week internship. Our family joined the team for the last three weeks. The team did an incredible job. They even learned how to kill and cook a goat!

(Check out the March and April Director's Blog for more details!)

Then in the summer, we sent another short-term team to do medical clinics, construction work, and children's ministry. After planning and preparing since the fall of 2003, on September 17, we finally sent out our first mid-term team to East Africa for three years.

This team has been sent to Tanzania for just three short years for the purpose of training up national pastors to adopt and reach the remaining 31 unreached people groups in Tanzania. By the end of three years, it is our goal to have a church planting movement among each unreached people group. We are looking for 31 churches outside of Tanzania who would be willing to commit to adopting one of these 31 remaining unreached people groups in Tanzania. You can read the miraculous story of how one local church partnered together with other churches and organizations and started a church plant amongst the most difficult unreached people group in Tanzania over a four year time period at the Tanzania Story. God can take an ordinary church like yours and reach an unreached people group!

Ghana
Our family spent a short amount of time in Ghana in the spring...just long enough for Maria to end up in the hospital. Thank you for all of your prayers for her. She quickly recovered. It was a pleasure to spend time with our great pastor friends there and to see the progress of the Fuel Ghana Team. You've done an awesome work team!

Mexico
We had a strong youth team in Mexico this year. The team did drama evangelism along with work projects. We worked with a great church in Veracruz that has incredible follow-up on those that make commitments to Jesus Christ. This was personally one of the best trips ever for our family. Even Seth and Alyzsa were able to get involved in the outreaches!

Stateside
Many of you have been reading the Director's Blogger over the past few months. Basically, to summarize quickly, we loaded our family up into a 40' RV and pulled our car, office supplies, and other necessities in a 24' trailer behind us. Our goal was to find 31 churches that would say "yes" to taking the challenge of adopting one of the remaining 31 unreached people groups in Tanzania.

Within the first month of this journey, God totally changed the avenue by which we were going to find these 31 churches. Dan was offered the presidency of a well known missions organization, AIMS. This was a very difficult decision as Dan had been Missions Pastor of Living Stones Fellowship in Indiana for nine years and had no intention of leaving. At the same time, though, we continually prayed for God to "expand our territory." By accepting the presidency, this would allow us to serve a great hero of the faith in missions and to expand our influence into many nations. After much prayer, Dan humbly accepted the presidency. Living Stones Fellowship blessed this move and has officially “planted” our family into AIMS and has released Fuel International to operate under AIMS’ covering from Virginia Beach as well. This totally rearranged our family's plans. We were not expecting this change...BUT God. So we are now living in our RV in a campround in Virginia Beach and are strategizing with a great team of people on how to reach not only Tanzania but many nations.

Fuel Staff
The majority of the Fuel staff will remain at Living Stones Fellowship to carry on the vision of missions. Congratulations to Matt and Christy Inama as they are now the new Directors of Missions and Evanglism at Living Stones Fellowship and are going to do an awesome job! Mike and Andrea Sauer and Amy Brailey are remaining at Living Stones Fellowship to help support the mission endeavors there as well. Congratulations to Joel Gratcyk as he has just proposed and will be getting married soon. He plans to further his education and will be moving accordingly. We're going to miss our staff. We had an incredible team!

Raising Support
We need your prayer support and we need your financial support. With this move to Virginia Beach, we have to raise our full support for personal and ministry expenses. We need you to pray and ask the Lord if you are to join our support team. This transition has taken place so quickly that we only have had a couple months to raise support. We have raised only 15% of our monthyly support. Here's how you can give.

Donations or Correspondence by Mail:
AIMS
PO Box 64534
Virginia Beach, VA 23467-4534
Make checks payable to:
“AIMS” and designate to “Dan and Maria Crosby”
Give Online
Go to www.aims.org and click on “Donate to AIMS Online”, type “Dan and Maria Crosby” on the space designated “Payment For”

2006 Trips
We're in the process of planning 2006 trips. There will be several stateside options this year. As soon as we have 2006 Trip Information, you will receive another e-page. We look forward to seeing you in 2006!

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

2005-12-16T12:25:00.000-06:00

We pray that you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We pray that the Lord would bless you and bless you indeed, that His hand would be upon you and your family in 2006, that He would expand your your area of influence, and that He would keep you from evil. (1 Chronicles 4:10 paraphrased)

Thank you for all of your love and prayers.

Dan, Maria, Seth (age 8), and Alyzsa (age 6 on Christmas Day)

Twenty States in 10 Weeks...Now What?

2005-12-13T08:24:00.000-06:00

In just ten short weeks, we have traveled to or through 20 states in the US. Some have been by RV and some by plane. As we're on a journey to see the 31 remaining Priority People Groups in Tanzania adopted by US churches, we've been able to connect with many old friends and relationships and spend time with family. Here are some snapshots of the places we've been in November and December. Since Dan has become the president of AIMS (www.aims.org), we have also been on a campaign to raise our own personal finances as well as our ministry budget.

Tulsa, OK...
We spent Thanksgiving with Dan's mother and his sister and family. It was great for the kids to get reacquainted with their cousins. Alyza also celebrated her 6th birthday early with family since her birthday is on Christmas Day and we will be in Virginia Beach.

Dan cutting the Thanksgiving Turkey!

Touring the famous Rhema lights at Rhema Bible Training Center

Alyzsa and cousin Jacob

Alyzsa and cousin Hannah hanging out with our Golden Retriever "Diamond"

Cookie decorating time!

Father like daughter

Seth helping Alyzsa read her birthday cards

Seth and Nana (Dan's Mother) decorating for Christmas

Seattle, Washington
Our family flew out to Seattle to visit friends. We had saved up some vouchers from another trip and were able to fly for free! We intentionally went to Seattle to visit some good friends of ours from Indiana...the Davis family. They have been a huge support to our family and Fuel International and our mission endeavors.

Night life in Seattle with the Davis family

Alyzsa and Mari Davis couldn't pass up playing their favorite game together..Strawberry Shortcake

Eating pizza with the Davis boys..mmmmmm goooooooood

It was fun staying with Maria's maid of honor, Diane, and her family. Our kids enjoyed playing with their kids. Diane and her husband Dan met on the mission field in Albania. Dan is now a university professor and Diane a nurse.

Gas Park overlooking Seattle

Want some fish for dinner?

Ever try making music out of a saw before...AMAZING!

Los Angeles, CA
From Seattle, we flew to Los Angeles, CA, to visit Dan's Grandfather who is now 95. Dan's grandfather and grandmother were missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators for 30 years and helped translate the New Testament into the Mexico Indian Zapateco language. He has given us a great heritage. We asked G-Pa to pray over Seth and Alyzsa and bless them while we were there. (Anyone who donates $50 or more to us during the month of December will receive a free book written by G-Pa (Otis Leal) about his life in the Indian Village. The book is entitled Mary after Dan's Grandmother.)

Seth pushing G-Pa around

Three generations of missionaries watching the Tanzania Story video together

Dan is sharing the Tanzania story with G-Pa

We met with one of Dan's high school teachers, Mr. Kendricks, who is now principal of Hillcrest Christian School. Please pray for the school as they are in the process of buying new land to build and selling their old property. We saw the new property and will be a great step forward for the school. Thanks to Mr. Kendricks, the kids had some spending money for Disneyland!

It was great to see you Mr. Kendricks!

Tulsa Again

We returned to Tulsa and held a home meeting to share vision and raise support. It was great rekindling friendships again.

Dan sharing about our move to AIMS

Aaron and Blair are graduates from ORU and Aaron has been to Africa with us as a youth with our home church in Indiana

Jason, shown with his little girl Jayden,was apart of the Acquire the Fire when we managed it years ago with Teen Mania Ministries

Virginia at last

We left for Virginia Beach with a weekend Prayer Summit with AIMS staff near Williamsburg. The kids just had to do something with the snow before they got to warm Virginia Beach and might not see much all winter.

Now What?

We have "settled in" for the winter in our RV at an RV Park on the southern border of Virginia Beach. Our move to Virginia Beach has been sped up do to some staff changes at AIMS. We will be spending Christmas here. Dan and the AIMS staff are defining several "epicenters" in the world which AIMS will be targeting over the next few years in order to reach the remaining unreached people groups in these regions of the world. It's exciting to be a part of 20+ staff who are dedicated,committed,and have given up everything to focus in on bringing closure to the Great Commission by reaching the remaining unreached people groups in the world. It is an honor to serve at AIMS. We will still be doing a lot of traveling after the first of the year stateside and overseas.

Home for the winter

Our front yard

We need your prayer support and we need your financial support. Starting January, we will be living totally on donations from friends and family and churches like you.

Donations or Correspondence by Mail:
AIMS
PO Box 64534
Virginia Beach, VA 23467-4534
Make checks payable to:
“AIMS” and designate to “Dan and Maria Crosby”
Give Online
Go to www.aims.org and click on “Donate to AIMS Online”, type “Dan and Maria Crosby” on the space designated “Payment For”

Phone: 757-226-5850
Cell: 1-219-313-7269
Fax: 757-226-5851
E-mail: dcrosby@aims-usa.org
mcrosby@aims-usa.org

South American Trip..By Plane..Not RV!

2005-11-19T07:41:00.000-06:00

On behalf of Living Stones Fellowship, Dan spent a week in Brazil holding a leadership conference, a Re-Encounter Weekend, for those of you familiar with G-12 cell-based churches. Dan had an awesome opportunity to be with the Spinos family of Fruit of the Vine Ministries. They had a powerful weekend with their team of leaders at the Re-Encounter Weekend. These leaders really bonded together and God broke through by the power of his Holy Spirit. God used Dan in the prophetic in a mighty way and peoples lives were radically challenged and changed. The testimonies were awesome - One lady in her mid fifties came up after the training and said that she has always felt in her heart that she was to be a missionary to Africa!!! She had never spoken it out and that day she said, "I am going to be a missionary to Africa!!!" I think we may have another missionary to lead her church in adopting one of the 31 in Tanzania!!!!

Sunday night, after a very full weekend, God showed up again as Dan ministered to the congregation about following God's dream. The alters were full and one got saved while many others were set free to run in the dream God had given to them. Dan asked how many felt like God was pulling on them to be a missionary and about 15 people raised their hands to follow after the call to go to the nations - God is raising up Brazil to go to the nations!!!!!! the great thing is that those of you who support us in prayer and with your finances are a part of this harvest!!!!

Staubs are doing great! God has opened great doors of opportunity here in Brazil through the Staubs. Ten water filters have been placed in areas in which they will begin to open doors. Pastor Moses (pictured with Greg the filter and myself) is a missions pastor of an AG church here who is so excited about using these filters to reach the Priority People of Brazil. They are in the process of training many Brazilians to go out to the unreached.

Check out the Staub family blog to see more great photos of the Brazil trip at Staub Family

Moving to Virginia Beach

2005-11-09T19:45:00.000-06:00

Moving to Virginia Beach
As we stepped out into a new venture of faith and took to the road, a huge door opened up for us. Dan has been offered the presidency of AIMS. Dr. Foltz, Dan's mentor in missions, has been looking for a succssor for several months now. During our stay in Virginia Beach, the Lord led Dr. Foltz and Dan in a conversation about what the qualifications were for the presidency. To make a long story short, Dr. Foltz, the Executive AIMS team, and the AIMS board, believed that Dan was a fit for the position. So our family will be moving to Virginia Beach the first of January.

This means our family will be raising full support like a missionary beginning in January. If you would like to financially support us, please contact us at mcrosby@aims-usa.org or dcrosby@aims-usa.org and we will tell you how you can donate. We need you on our team!

Planted into AIMS
Dan has been the Missions Pastor of Living Stones Fellowship for nine years. It has been a wonderful time of healing, maturing, and visioneering. As Missions Pastor of Living Stones Fellowship and President of Fuel International, several short-term misson teams have been sent out to several countries, an unreached people group has been adopted with an indigenous church planted established, and a mid-term team has been sent out to reach the rest of Tanzania in the next three years. The church planted us into AIMS on Sunday, November 6. Dr. Foltz joined for this celebration.

The church then had a reception in the afternoon before we left town.

Pastor from India
It was nice to have Pastor Honoch from India spend the week with us in Crown Point. He is doing a great work amongst the unreached in India. Pastor Honoch had never seen a house on wheels before!

Back to Crown Point

2005-11-03T19:13:00.000-06:00

After spending time with friends on the east coast and Florida, we visited friends traveling north back to Crown Point, Indiana.

Atlanta, GA
We spent time with Russ and Tiffany Briscoe. Russ helped put together the first and only Fuel worship CD. Russ and Tiffany have two children, Cloe and Nathan. We spent the evening catching up from the past few years. Both kids are muscially talented just like Russ!

Huntsville, AL
Traveling a few more hours north, we met up with our great friends Rick and Cathy Mills. We met Rick before we were married and led a Teen Mania Mission trip together to Mexico. We had a blast with Rick and Cathy and their two teenage daughters Natalie and Haley. Rick is the coolest youth pastor anybody could ever with to have. The Mills live on a Bible campus and we took the time to share the Tanzania story with some of the college kids.

Indianapolis, IN
Finally, we entered the great state of Indiana again. Former Fuel board members, Dick and Denise Trump, recently moved to Indianapolis. We caught up on news and visited their Saturday night church. Denise has been playing keyboard at their 3,000 member church. The church had been looking for a keyboardist for four years! Our kids enjoyed playing with their adopted Chinese daughter Emma.

Kankakee, IL
The final leg of our journey, Dan was asked to share on a local Christian radio station, Shine 89.7. Thanks to John Staub, our missionary in Brazil, Dan was invited to share about Fuel International and to explain why we're traveling around in an RV all over the country. It was great to share once again about reaching unreached people groups. We look forward to a long lasting relationship with Shine 89.7.

Touring the East Coast

2005-10-23T13:47:00.000-05:00

Virginia Beach
Before leaving Virginia Beach, we had the pleasure of attending our nephew’s baby dedication. Peter is a beautiful, happy five month old. This is Maria’s brother Mark and Sveta’s third child. We spent some time on the beach before leaving town as well. Seth and Alyzsa are just months apart from their cousins David and Esther Marie.

North Carolina
After leaving Virginia Beach, we met up with Richard and Sandy Sunderland in Asheboro, North Carolina. The Sunderlands have been faithful prayer and financial supporters of Fuel International and just recently moved to North Carolina from Crown Point. Sandy took us to the famous North Carolina Zoo for a school field trip. We had a blast! We spent time praying together and discussing how we can build the financial base for doing Kingdom work. We had a great time.

We also celebrated our Gold Retriever, Diamond’s, 1st birthday with a big bone celebration!

Next, we met with Ryan Voyles and his fiancé Jessey. Ryan is station in Jacksonville, NC, and will be leaving for Iraq in a couple weeks for one last six month term. Please pray for him as he is in Iraq. It was a pleasure being able to spend some time with them. Dan is honored to be asked to marry them in June of 2006.

South Carolina
As we continued our travels through South Carolina, we had lunch with Bert Midyette and his wife Joanne. Maria’s parents attended Rhema Bible Training Center with Bert Midyette when Maria was in sixth grade. It had literally been 22 years since Maria and Bert had seen each other. The Midyettes have recently become supporters of the ministry and it was good to share the Tanzania Story face to face. The Midyettes have their own ministry with children in schools and in churches, sharing character truths through magic and illusionary shows.

Jacksonville, FL
We traveled on down to Jacksonville, FL, to increase our partnership with Calvary International, a mission sending organization that has partnered with us in order to service or mid-term missionaries. We were invited to attend the Founder’s Banquet and to spend time with the legends of the ministry. We have several meetings lined up here with the president and others so that we can work even closer with Calvary on international projects to see closure of the Great Commission together.

Want to Adopt an Unreached People Group?

We are praying for 31 churches this year to adopt one of the unreached people groups in Tanzania. It is very feasible. Our local church adopted the Somalis of Tanzania in 1999 and have already established a church that is thriving and getting ready to replant itself. The Somalis were considered the most difficult to reach. We have a plan of how to reach the remaining 31 in just three years…but…we need 31 more churches to partner with us. Please contact us if you are interested in finding out how your church can adopt one of the remaining 31 unreached people groups. Imagine an entire nation being reached in just 3 years!!! You can be part of this. You can reach us via e-mail at dan@fuel.org or maria@fuel.org. You can reach us by phone at 1-219-313-7269.

Advancing the Kingdom

2005-10-05T16:56:00.000-05:00

Sharing the Vision and Developing Partnerships

Dan has been meeting with Dr. Foltz and other staff at AIMS. He has participated in stategy and partnership meetings for the past several days.

Dan was also honored to share his strategy for reaching the unreached with classes at Regent University.

We have been able to spend time with other world changing families. It's always great to be able to talk with others who have a vision for reaching nations...and the world. We had the pleasure of attending church with the missions pastor of Bethel Assembly of God, a 3,500 member church in Hampton, VA, and spending the afternoon with his family.

We just happened to attend Wave Church in Virginia Beach on the day of their new live praise and worship cd recording. Talk about excitement in the house! Their Senior Pastor and worship Pastor come from Hillsong Church in Australia.

Home School on the Road
This journey has been wonderful for home school. In addition to computer subjects and life pacs, Seth and Alyzsa have been enjoying their weekly field trips. We were invited to go to the Virginia Beach Aquarium with another missionary family. Our kids have never been around as many world changer kids as they have been in the past couple of weeks. It's been great watching them develop new friendships with kids that have also traveled the world and have a heart to reach nations.

We took time to tour famous Jamestown and Yorktown, Virginia. Seth even got some hands on experience at being a blacksmith!

What is the reason behind this journey?
Why rent out our new house, sell all of our furniture, and load up in a 40’ RV? We have a story to tell and a nation to reach.

If you would like us to share the Tanzania Story in your church, you can reach us by e-mail at dan [@] fuel.org or Maria Crosby at maria [@] fuel.org. Take out the "[]" before you send the email. Check out our revised itinerary to see when we will be in your area. For more information take a look at the full Tanzania Story online.

2005
Virginia Beach, VA Oct 7-14, 2005
Raleigh, North Carolina Oct 14-17, 2005
Orlando, FL Oct 17-21, 2005
Jacksonville, FL Oct 21-24, 2005
Atlanta, GA Oct 24-25
Huntsville, AL Oct 25-26
Crown Point, IN Oct 28-Oct 31, 2005
Brazil, SA Nov 1-9, 2005
Crown Point, IN Nov 10-13, 2005
Tulsa, OK Nov 14-25, 2005
Seattle, WA Nov 25-27, 2005
Tulsa, OK Nov 28-30, 2005
Crown Point, IN Dec 1-3, 2005
Tulsa, OK Dec 3-31, 2005

2006
January-February Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada)
March-April West coast (California, Oregon, Washington)
May-June Midwest (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma)
July-August Northern US (Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakotas, Michigan, New York)
September-October Eastern coast (Penn, Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia, Florida)

Traveling by RV

2005-09-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

On the Road

Our family has taken to the road. We are sharing the story of how God has changed an unreached people group through short-term missions with our local church partnered together with overseas pastors. If you would like to book us in your church, please contact Dan Crosby at dan@fuel.org or Maria Crosby at maria@fuel.org. Check out our itinerary to see when we will be in your area.

2005
Virginia Beach, VA Sept 20-Oct 3,2005
East Coast Oct 4-Oct 19,2005
Jacksonville, FL Oct 20-26, 2005
Crown Point, IN Oct 28-Oct 31, 2005
Brazil, SA Nov 1-9, 2005
Crown Point, IN Nov 10-13, 2005
Tulsa, OK Nov 14-25, 2005
Seattle, WA Nov 25-27, 2005
Tulsa, OK Nov 28-30, 2005
Crown Point, IN Dec 1-3, 2005
Tanzania, EA Dec 3-15, 2005
Tulsa, OK Dec 16-31, 2005

2006
January-February Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada)
March-April West coast (California, Oregon, Washington)
May-June Midwest (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma)
July-August Northern US (Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakotas, Michigan, New York)
September-October Eastern coast (Penn, Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia, Florida)

Here are some photos of our journey to Virginia Beach.

Dan driving with the companionship of our 11th month old Golden Retriever "Diamond"

Dan using a little remaining packaging tape to tape the mirror that we broke off while driving through a toll booth!

Alyzsa working on homeschool

Seth working on computer homeschool

Alyzsa with our 14 year old family cat "Princess"

Quickie home school field trip to Ft. Necessity in Pennsylvania

Seth with his cousin David

Alyzsa and her cousin Esther

Family time around the campfire

Spending time with President and founder of AIMS, and long-term missions mentor, Dr. Howard and Pat Foltz

Mexico Journey July 14-29, 2005

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Veracruz Mexico Week of July 14-21

Traveling to Veracruz
We departed the church around 3:30 in the morning on July 14th. Our family is getting use to traveling and we just make ourselves comfortable wherever we are at. The sights were beautiful from the airplane.

Drama outreach
We brought a team of youth pumped up and ready to do dramas, sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the Mexicans. Seth and Alyzsa are actually in the dramas this year. They each play the role of a poor child that ends up leading others to Jesus. They are so excited to be hanging out with the big kids! They have grown so much spiritually from this trip already!

Consolidation
We have been working with a great church here in Veracruz over the past few years. It is a cell based church of about a thousand people. They have established an excellent system of consolidation so that 50% of the people that make a commitment to Jesus will remain within the church one year from conversion. Many of their leaders go to the drama sites, help set up the site, translate for our team, and lead many one on one conversions with those watching the dramas. At each drama site, there are usually fifty to a couple hundred in attendance. There are many salvations and often healings of various kinds as the team prays with the people afterward in small groups.

Ministering to the People
We send our team members out with the Mexicans to invite people to the drama. After the drama is over, our team splits up for altar ministry and children’s ministry. Altar ministry prays with people for salvation and for healing. The children’s ministry team prays for the children, plays ball with them, does face paint, and gives away stickers, candy, and balloons. Seth and Alyzsa have had a blast with the kids!

Miracles!

The team performed the dramas in a nearby mall. They prayed for one little boy who had braces on his legs. After praying for him, he was able to jump and run! His mother said that he had never done that before! The team pulled together money to buy the little boys real tennis shoes instead of his brace shoes. The boy almost appeared to be in shock at what was happening to him.

The Paint Crew
In addition to drama, the team has been painting some classrooms where classes are for the School of Leaders. The team had great fun painting the rooms…and each other! Seth and Alyzsa could hardly wait to join in!

Making Friends
Wherever we go, Seth and Alyzsa make friends. It doesn’t matter what language is spoken, friendship and play can be understood in any culture. The second photo is of the son of one of Maria’s friends from college. Who would have ever imagined that our kids would be playing together in Mexico some day!

At the Beach
Of course, no trip is complete without some fun and relaxation. We took the team to the beach for the afternoon just before hurricane Emily was thought to possibly arrive. It remained beautiful all week though as Emily remained north of us. (Thank you for all of you who were praying for our safety with the hurricane warnings.)

Pray for health
Well, this trip Dan has been sick. He started out with a bad cold at training and just as it was ending, he came down with some nasty intestinal infection. Now that he is recovering, Seth is not feeling good. Please pray for his quick recover and that the rest of the team will not get sick.

West African Journey, Aril 16-22

2005-04-29T08:37:00.000-05:00

Rushing Water

Just after writing the last update on April 15, upon returning from the internet café, we had a major rain storm in Tanzania. Our taxi could not even take us all the way back to our guest house as the road had turned into a river! The only way to return was to get out and walk the last block in the dark and rain. The water was rushing fast, and we needed to cross to the other side of the road. Our friend Neal was with us, who was about 6’6”. Dan hung onto Neal as Neal tried to cross a section of the road. Neal quickly sank to his waste in rushing water so Dan yanked him back up out of the water! There was no way that we would be able to cross there. A little ways further, we tried again, and the rushing water was only a couple feet deep. There were a couple people on the other side of the road that we tossed the kids to, and we all made it safely! What an experience! Shortly thereafter, Seth went running down the wet cement porch and ran into a standing pot. He hit so hard that it knocked him to the ground. He had a giant egg-sized knot on his head! What a night…just as we were trying to finish packing and getting ready to leave around 5am for our flight to Ghana.

Arriving in Ghana
We arrived safely in Ghana, West Africa, on Saturday, April 16 after about 9 hours of travel.

We were greeted by one of the pastors here. We then had a 5 hour journey on a very bumpy road to Kumasi by van, arriving about midnight. The next morning we attended Family Chapel International, a lively church with over a 1000 members. Everyone was dressed so colorfully and there wasn’t a stiff bone in the place! A choir of 50+ people and a full live band led the congregation into praise and worship. People love Jesus here.

Ghanaian Hospital Experience
During our stay in Ghana, Maria experienced more sickness. The Pastor called a doctor from the church, and he came immediately to the guest house to check on Maria. He suggested she received some tests at the hospital. There were lines of people everywhere waiting to see the doctors. But because we had come in with a doctor who worked at the hospital, he received special permission for Maria to see one of the head doctors immediately. After blood work was done, the doctor believed Maria had some sort of an infection but still could not pinpoint exactly what. She was admitted for the afternoon to receive antibiotics by IV to help boost her system. The conditions in the hospital were very different than from the US. The temperature was probably 85-90 degrees with a couple of ceiling fans. The recovery room consisted of several beds with several patients recovering from such illnesses as malaria…pneumonia…and who knows what else all in the same room. The head doctor wanted to keep Maria overnight, but seeing the conditions of the hospital and concern of her receiving a secondary infection, Dan insisted that she be released. Maria recovered over the next couple of days. She was very thankful to have such good care from the doctors but hopes to have to never return to the hospital here again.

Final Ministry and Fuel International Ghana Performs!
Dan has been meeting with the large pastoral staff of the church here discussing cell based ministry which will be implemented here soon. The pastoral staff of Family Chapel International are ready to launch this plan soon which will reach hundreds more people in the community in a shorter amount of time with better discipleship and follow-up than ever before.

Dan also started off the Mid-Year Conference for pastors all over the region here on Sunday morning.

During the service the Fuel International Ghana drama team performed a powerful song to “You Saved Me.” In 1998, our summer team trained up a group of Ghanaian youth to perform their own dramas in their own community. We left them a speaker box to get started. The team is going strong today with many new members. Just recently the team won the Ashanti Region Geography Award for the best drama with nine churches participating in the area. They have done a fabulous job at keeping the vision of evangelism by doing outreach in local schools, marketplaces and churches. We are so proud of Fuel International Ghana. Hopefully we will have other drama teams trained up throughout the nations like this one.

Thank you!
Thank you for all of your prayers over the past five weeks. It has been a very profitable journey. Many memories have been made and we are anticipating the great fruit that will come from the many seeds that have been planted over the last few weeks.

We arrived back in the USA on Tuesday, April 26th!

Fueling the Nations Together,

Dan, Maria, Seth, and Alyzsa

East African Journey April 4-15

2005-04-21T08:18:00.000-05:00

Finalizing the Internship
The past couple of weeks we wrapped up the internship program including evaluations for each team member. The team members have either gone to another country for tourism or weddings or are on their way back to the states now. We are so very proud of our team here. It was a challenging three months, but they grew so much and several are ready to return soon for a longer period of time.

First-hand Reports
Last week we traveled as a family some more to meet with long-term relationships. We met with Pastors and heads of Ministry working in this nation. We were encouraged to see the growth in churches and the influence that the Lord has enabled us to have throughout this nation. One Pastor we began working with in 1999 had only 20 some people in his church amongst a 99.9% Muslim region. We sent a medical team to work with him for outreach a couple years back. He has also partnered with us to reach the unreached, sowing time and money into this. His church now has 500 people in it! We also took the time to discuss with these Pastors our plans for the future. Again, we were very encouraged as we enfolded the vision that was in our hearts. One key strategist that has been working in this nation for years said our plan looked “excellent.”

Sickness in the Family
As we began these week long travels, Seth and Maria both came down with fevers. Dan broke out with a painful rash on his chest, and Alyzsa had a bite on her face that turned into a sore. None of us were feeling our best. After day two of travel, we decided to get checked out by a local doctor. Seth was diagnosed with tonsillitis again, Maria with intestinal infection, and Dan with a virus causing rash. Maria only got worse after taking the prescribed medicine, so we took her to the hospital at the next destination. There she was told that she had been prescribed way too much medicine and that’s why she had gotten so sick. Dan decided to take the family to a nice hotel nearby so that we could all heal up a bit. We had some great family time. We all really needed this recovery before heading into the final leg of our
journey.

Seth and Alyzsa Learning the Ropes
Thank you for all of your prayers. The kids have done extremely well. We are so proud of them. Both Seth and Alyzsa are working hard on their school work , learning a little Swahili, building relationships with children from a variety of ethno, are experiencing the African culture with its food, odors, and all with great attitudes, and have been a joy to be around. Seth especially enjoyed learning to bargain in the souvenir markets with Dad. Alyzsa enjoyed shopping for her African dresses too.

On to West Africa
Early tomorrow we fly to the other side of Africa. Stay tuned for our next blogger on our West African Journey!

East African Journey: April 1-3

2005-04-05T02:41:00.000-05:00

Traveling to the Refugee Camp:

Part of our team took a road trip about 5 hours away to visit the refugee camp that is made up of an unreached people group that we have been working with for the past five years. Through our short term trips, we have been building relationship with these people, and in the summer of 2003, over a 100 people came to know Jesus. Since then, an indigenous church has been planted, a church built, and a missionary pastor established. It was great to meet with the Pastor and his wife and see that the church is growing. We were able to share vision with the church and the leadership and leave some supplies for the Sunday School, which were donated by Seth and Alyzsa’s classmates. The Pastor’s wife was very happy to receive these supplies. The partnering pastors that “adopted” this people group four years ago, have agreed to help the Pastor build a home. Right now the Pastor and his wife live in the back 1/3 of the church. Our vision is to see this church train up its people to send out its own missionaries in order to start a church planting movement within this people group.

Before returning, Dan preached in one of our partnering churches. Because of our 24/7 prayer back home in the states, this encouraged this church to begin special prayer until their new president is elected in November. It was encouraging to see how we have influence even when we didn’t plan it!

Thank you for all of your prayers. It’s been great being here with our team and helping formulate what will take place when the team returns for three years.

East African Journey: March 28-31

2005-03-31T01:31:00.000-06:00

Learning the Ropes:
This week we got to “learn the ropes” of our 3 month team. How fun! Maria and Alyzsa started out the week by going to town with the women. Now, going to town doesn’t mean hop in the car, put on your seatbelts, turn on your favorite music and drive to town. Going to town means walking about a half mile on a dirt road to the dola dola (15 passenger van) stop. This road is usually quite busy with many other walkers. Next, we hopped in the jam packed dola dola and rode about 10 minutes to the center of town. Once at the center of town, we got off and walked a half block to the fruit and vegetable market. Many vendors have the same vegetables on display, and we bargain for the best price. Our ladies carry a big basket that they fill up with the fruit and vegetables. From there, we walk to the small duca (grocery store). At the duca, we find canned goods, frozen meat, and boxed milk. Everyone is so helpful. You pile your goods up on the counter, and the store help take your items to the taxi. By this time a taxi is needed as there is no way for the ladies to carry everything in their basket. The next stop is the fresh bread store…talk about a beautiful aroma! If time permits, we sit at a local café and have something cold to drink and eat a light snack. It normally takes 45 minutes to an hour to get any sort of hot snack. So don’t plan to be in a hurry! Monday is the big “shopping” day for the rest of the week. After our shopping spree, it’s time to rush back by taxi to the house for the 2:00-4:00 internship class.

Now the guys run other errands like buying phone cards, getting weekly money out of the ATM, buying cases of bottled water, and spending time with the local Somalis. Dan and Seth spent time with the guys at a local Somali restaurant and had authentic Somali food. Later in the week, we spent more personal time with the Somalis. Dan made fresh salsa and he and Seth shared it with the Somali restaurant owner and his cooks. They really liked it! Maria and Alyzsa took the dola dola into town and spend time with the Somali women. The women and their little girl really enjoyed the jolly ranchers we gave to them. It’s all about building relationships.

Internship Intensifies
This week during the internship class we have been discussing what the strategy is for the three year team. I think we have all cried, raised our voices, prayed intensely, fasted, laughed, and did everything else you could imagine as we have spent hours and hours working through the plan individually and together as a team. It’s a big vision…but we have a big God!

Seth and Alyzsa
The kids have been keeping up with their school work, playing computer games, spending time with our house help (it’s cultural to have help with house chores) and taking care of four little month old puppies here at our guest house. Alyzsa has especially enjoyed these puppies.

East African Journey: March 25-26

2005-03-27T14:04:00.000-06:00

Living with the Maasai
We awoke to some hot Chai, a favorite drink of the Maasai (tea, milk, and spices). The Maasai are a beautiful people…yet very different from us. What a day we were in for!

Seth experienced the life of a young Maasai boy by helping to herd the cows and the goats. He and Dan also received a lesson on how to throw a Maasai spear.

Alyzsa enjoyed playing coloring, blowing bubbles, and playing jump rope with the children. She also enjoyed the baby animals. The toys and candy were donated by Seth and Alyzsa’s classmates. Even the adults wanted candy from Seth!

Dan learned how to kill and skin a goat. We all partook in the goat for lunch. Even the adults liked the candy! For lunch our entire team was invited to eat the goat. We went off into the bushes and were divided into two eating groups. The goat had been roasted on a stick over the fire. One member of the Maasai each cut slices off the goat and gave it us our portion piece by piece until the entire goat was eaten. There is no means of storing leftovers. What an experience!

After lunch we had church with this family and surrounding neighbors. Several made commitments to Jesus for the first time while others asked for a fresh experience from the Holy Spirit. Dan also took the opportunity to explain the cell method of church planting with the leaders as they met on the ground.

We hope to return to do medical work among this boma and to help the Maasai pastor get some more training. It was a great day. We all jumped in out tents early as the rain came and rained most of the night.

“Home” at Last
We broke camp and left early in the morning for our 10 hour journey back home. We felt so honored to have been able to have been a part of this safari. Many of the bomas for hundreds of miles have never even heard of Jesus. On our way back we saw some zebras and monkeys. We ran out of gas twice. Maria had her wallet with all of her credit cards stolen in it. After a 13 hour day of travel, we arrived home dirty and exhausted but glad to have made it back safely. Thank you for all of your prayers. Overall, it was a very successful journey.

East African Journey: March 23-24

2005-03-27T11:17:00.000-06:00

Safari to the Maasai Boma
Today we left for a Maasai boma (village) that was suppose to be 4-5 hours away. We were supposed to leave around 8:30am. Finally at 12:00 noon, our contact arrived. There were a total of 16 of us, eight in each safari landrover. As soon as we were about 15 minutes in the journey, a series of stops began. Our driver also informed us that instead of a 4-5 hours journey, it would be 12 or 13 hours! That meant we would arrive at the village at midnight or 1am! Well, to make a long story short, we took the wrong road through the center of the country, had major vehicle trouble, and had to return to a main city and stay all night in a hotel. We would try the journey again the next day.

Second Attempt
After a nice hotel sleep, shower, and good food, we began our journey again. The road we took was through the center of the country. The roads were totally dirt and being the rainy season, much of the road was filled with pot holes and gushy mud. As many road trips as we have been in other countries, this one beats them all for the longest, bumpiest trip ever! Imagine riding a wooden roller coaster for 10 hours! This comes pretty close to our experience. About halfway to our destination, we found our jeep stuck in a pot hole about 1.5 feet deep with rushing water all around us and pouring rain. This just happened to happen in front of a small boma. We tossed the children out of the window to the next jeep and then the rest of us climbed out as some water was leaking through the left side of the jeep. All of the men and some of the villagers tried to push the jeep out but to no avail. After borrowing a tractor chain from a local farmer, attaching it the other 2nd jeep, and using about 15 men, the jeep was freed! We were all thanking God that we didn’t need to set up tent at that particular boma for the night.

We continued on our journey. We passed the remains of three elephants that had been hit by one passenger bus just the week before! Talk about a stench! We finally arrived just shortly after dark to the boma. We put our tents up in the courtyard of one Maasai family. They were such a kind people. We chatted around the campfire for awhile while our drivers put up the tents. It was a chilly evening, so we shared our blankets with the children as the only way we could really communicate was through gestures. The children loved Alyzsa’s hair. They just kept petting her hair over and over.

East African Journey: March 20-22

2005-03-27T10:51:00.000-06:00

Luggage, Luggage, Luggage
We left home around noon loaded down with 8 large suitcases and bins each weighing 70 pounds each and 6 carry-ons! You’d think as much as we travel we’d know how to pack light. The suitcases were filled with all kinds of items for the team as well as things for our own personal comfort and sanity. Seth and Alyzsa’s classmates donated two bins full of children’s items to give away!

26 Hours of Travel
After about 26 hours of travel, we arrived at our destination.

Seth only slept two hours the entire trip! The rest of us dozed off and on throughout the trip. We arrived on a runway where you have to walk down stairs onto the tarmac and then on into the airport. It was pouring down rain. So we all got soaked. We were greeted at the airport by one of our team members who had been on the field for about 9 weeks in an internship program.

One Big, Happy Family
Seth slept from 10:30pm the night we arrived until 1:00pm the next day. Actually we had to drag him out of bed at 1pm or he might have slept all afternoon! We are 9 hours ahead of our home town time. So it may take us few days to adjust to the new time zone and to the heat. We are staying at a large home that is housing 15 of us. We have our own bedrooms, some have their own bathrooms, and other of us share bathrooms. Seth and Alyzsa are enjoying wearing shorts and flip flops everywhere. We met with one of the pastors and today that our team has hooked up with.

Feb 28-March 8 India Trip

2005-03-11T09:21:00.000-06:00

Our recent trip to India was a huge success. We shared much vision about a cell church planting model and also held an Encounter for 500+ Pastors and leaders from one state in India. We saw many incredible things happen in many peoples. Many lives were totally changed. It is amazing when you totally submit to the Lord and the Holy Spirit and watch what they do. We started out with a very somber crowd with not much expression, and ended up with excitement, passion and vision flowing in the house. God really did show up and expanded many Pastors' vision to reach their cities, villages and spheres of influence. One pastor had a vision a couple years ago for six churches and God answered him. At the beginning of the conference, God gave him more vision and he asked for twenty churches. Towards the end of the conference, God ignited his vision to ask for 100 multiplying churches to be birthed! Our team did a fantastic job together and we had a great time spending the majority of our time ministering at the conference and in various meetings. We came away with a few key Pastors that we look forward to really spending time with in the next few years and partnering with them in the cell church planting model with an emphasis on reaching those who have never heard the message in a relevant manner. All in all, I think our time can be summed up in what one associate Pastor said,” It expanded my vision and fueled my passion.” We are very excited to fulfill prophesy and dreams and visions of our team and attendees of this conference and see the nation of India transformed in the coming years. Thank your for all of your support and prayers as we couldn’t do it without you.

Team Member

2/10-12 Final Days

2005-02-13T12:57:00.000-06:00

The last couple of days we spent time with our friends talking, site seeing and souveneir shopping. The kids enjoyed walking on The Equator. It was extremely hot and the sun was so bright that it was difficult taking a photo.

At last it was time to go, and to travel back via four airplanes and five airports before arriving home. The kids had school work to do and managaged to get it done before arriving in Chicago. Thank you for all of your prayers. It was a very profitable trip. We look forward to returning in October. Perhaps you should consider going next time!

2/9/05 On the Amazon

2005-02-09T12:50:00.000-06:00

Today we woke up early and took a day's journey on the Amazon. There were several families represented on the boat.

As soon as we got on the boat, everyone began to hang up their hammocks. There weren't really any chairs on the boat. You either sit or lay down in a hammock or stand. The kids really enjoyed the hammocks.

Due to a heavy rain storm, we sat on the boat for quite awhile before departing. We stopped at two locations to wait for the tide to rise before going to the village of our destination. The village was a nice size and we watched the town celebrate "Carnival." We actually met the mayor of the town who was celebrating as well.

Some of us enjoyed cooling off by swimming in the Amazon. We'd like to return in the future and spend more time in with the River People.

2/8/05 Dan's 40th Birthday Party Brazilian Style

2005-02-08T12:42:00.000-06:00

This evening we celebrated Dan's 40th birthday Brazilian style. Amost everyone from the Encounter Weekend attended and watched Dan burst two gigantic balloons. One was filled with floor (traditionally with flour and egg but I recommended we eliminate the egg). The other was filled with candy. After being blindfolded, Dan poked each balloon with a pen and out came the goodies! For refreshements, a special chocolate cake and an "American Sandwich" was served (something very different from a sandwich.) The Brazilians brought gifts even though they were asked not to. The Brazilians are such a graceful people.

"Oi"

2005-02-07T19:31:00.000-06:00

We all enjoyed a day of rest today. We tried to take our laundry to the laundry mat, but it wasn’t going to be done until Friday because of the holiday, Carnival. Carnival is basically the “Holiday of Flesh.” All of the major cities celebrate this holiday. People party in the street for several days, basically doing anything their flesh desires. This holiday is related to Mardi Gras that takes place in the states. We then proceeded to a souvenir shop without spending any money! Now that was a feat!!!

Today was probably the hottest day so far, somewhere in the 90’s. We’re learning a little Portuguese such as “Oi!” which means “Hello,” “Obrigado” which means “Thank you” and “Chow” which means “Good-bye.” We’re mostly depending on friends who have been learning to speak Portuguese the past 11 months to do the conversing for us. It’s been a pleasure spending time with our friends and staying in their home, living like they have been. Tonight we’re suppose to go to some other friends’ home and have a typical South American party. Nothing really starts until around 8 or 9 in the evening. So it will be a late night. Tomorrow we’re supposed to get up early and spend the day on the river visiting some of the indigenous people living on the river. So we probably won’t give an update until Wednesday.

Please Keep Praying for the needs of this church and our safe return home!

Doing it Jesus Style

2005-02-06T12:21:00.000-06:00

The Encounter finished today with each attendee receiving small gifts and letters from family members and conference workers, along with the greatest gift, of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and one young lady receiving deliverance of unforgiveness that had been binding her for years!

We loaded everyone into the bus from the conference with and returned to the church for an evening service. About 95% of the church had attended the Encounter. Everyone was full of joy and was free from a lot of sin and bondage. The church was full of dancing and joy during praise and worship with an amazing amount of freedom in the spirit.

Several of the members shared on stage about what happened to them at the Encounter. Many were sharing with tears of joy in their eyes. Then the director of Fuel gave an encouraging word about the new vision of reaching their city, their state, their nation, and the world. The church was decorated with festive balloons and new banners with the vision written on them were hanging on the walls of the church. At the end of service, fire works were shot off as another banner was brought out that wrote the new vision of the church. This was a big deal launching off the new cellular vision of the church, or as we call it, “Jesus Style”. After church, we went out for to a South American hamburger joint to visit and relax in the South American evening air.

Freedom!!!!!

2005-02-05T23:30:00.000-06:00

Today was a ministry packed day. Pastor Dan, Maria, Matt, and Christy led various sessions. Some sessions were with men and women combined while others were split up according to gender. By the end of tonight everyone had received something special from the Lord, including a couple major deliverances. There are young and old attending the conference, and they are all so willing to hear and receive from the Lord. Several of the young girls received Jesus as their personal Savior. We saw such a wonderful change in the faces of the people as they made declarations before the Lord and those attending of the new life they were going to lead. The Holy Spirit did a great work in these people. All of us have been touched and humbled as well, as we have been allowed to be used by the Lord to bring such freedom and joy to these people.

Encounter Prep!

2005-02-04T21:17:00.000-06:00

We have spent the majority of our time thus far getting ready for the Encounter weekend. This is the first Global Encounter that we have been a part of putting on. Tonight was the first session of the Encounter. Approximately 35 registered and attended, males and females combined. The room was decorated with a head table with a flower bouquet and a large welcome banner made out of balloons. The first evening Fuel International’s Director shared about having a “Fresh Encounter.” The people responded well and started everything off on a good note. All of us slept in the facility on thin mattresses on the floors of a school with limited number of bathrooms to share. It was a great bonding experience!

South America or Bust!!!!!

2005-02-01T18:49:00.000-06:00

We are on our way, the small team of us, traveling to South America. This is going to be a great time as we have the opportunity to help out in the vision of the national church.

We are getting ready to embark upon a history making event!! The 1st encounter of its kind - training the national church in cell church based ministry to begin reaching out to there own people.

We left yesterday and got to the Midwestern airport and the flight was oversold and they paid us to stay a night in flight, meal and hotel vouchers!!!!! Then we get back to the Airport and what ya know they oversold again – gave us more vouchers to take a flight a couple hours latter!!! God is good!!!!

Please Pray for those attending the conference this weekend – that God would truly encounter them and pray for God’s anointing on all the team and the speakers – thanks!

Trip Photos...

2005-01-27T10:05:00.000-06:00

Here are a few photos from the trip so far:

Divine Appointments

2005-01-26T17:27:00.000-06:00

You know how God directs your steps and he fully amazes you? Well that is what he has done here.

A few months ago when we had our team on the ground here, in another city far from here, God put this special couple across our paths. This couple has such a kindred spirit and a desire to see the Priority Peoples reached. Tonight I had the opportunity to take them out for dinner and discuss all that God is doing in our lives and thank them for there great sacrifices to help get our team settled. They have been such a blessing. They are young in age but very mature in the spirit; I know God is going to use them mightily to reach the nations of the world!

Meeting Priority Peoples!!!

2005-01-26T17:13:00.000-06:00

What a day! This was one of those days that had one of those, "Ah" moments!

This afternoon we went out to get ourselves more acclimated with this quaint town nestled right up against the tallest mountain in the nation. As we were out we had the opportunity to eat at a VERY humble establishment (where else could 3 hungry guys eat 3 large platters of food for $5, including tip?) that is owned by one of our very own adopted peoples.

I just love talking and joking with these people, they are so awesome (I know that is what God thinks of them too!) – After a few laughs he allowed me to have a photo with him! This is just the beginning of building relationships with people just like this. I am so excited to see what God has in store for these next several months!!!

Welcome to the Directors Blog!!!

2005-01-26T07:37:00.000-06:00

We have been in Tanzania now since January 22nd and are up and running!!

We hit the ground running with our contacts here on the ground. Sunday morning I had the great opportunity to minister to this thriving passionate church on "Dreaming" and God's dream for them.

We have had meetings with our other national contacts in regards to our work going on among our Priority People group. These pastors are doing a great job here - they have already begun to adopt the model we started a few years ago as they reach out to another Priority People Group (PPG) with a national partnership to do so!!!!!