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Beth
 My Reading Class at Christian Heritage
School has come to a close for the year. What a blessing
those children are in my life! I am excited to see how God
continues to build upon the foundation of Truth laid in
their lives. It’s encouraging to know that day-in and
day-out discipleship of a generation is what affects
transformation in a nation. I look forward to seeing how
God uses my 10 students as leaders for His kingdom in our
own country and hopefully many others as well! It has been
a joy to see them transition from first learning phonograms
to really reading. J
I am also wrapping up my Teachers for
the Nations class. This Thursday is the school graduation;
and for the past 2 days, the students have been presenting
our independent projects. One of our principles is
individuality, and it has been wonderful to see the
diversity of gifts and talents God has given each of us.
The assignment was to creatively express Providential
History (which we’ve been studying all year). I chose to
write a children’s book of a mother explaining America’s
providential history to her daughter after the family’s
fourth of July celebration. I was encouraged when after I
read the book to my class, many wanted a copy to read to
their own children or classes.
Other projects included a rap, a poem,
a song and dance number, timeline presentations, drawings,
and even a website. Please check out:
www.myspace.com/providentialeducation
My friend Joshua Vaughn did this
website for his project, and it’s awesome! It’s filled with
pictures, quotes, and information about Providential history
and education which we’ve been studying this year.
On a different note, I am enjoying my
life slowing down a bit these days. It’s nice to wake up in
the mornings and remember that I’m only a student today…not
a student and a teacher
J. I’ve been enjoying longer quiet times, resting in
the Lord, and just being refreshed in His presence. I
recommend the book I’ve been reading to all ladies:
Captivating by: John and Stasi Eldredge. It’s very
encouraging and inspiring about our identity as women and
God’s intimate, personal pursuit of each of us.
We are looking forward to the staff
conference
this weekend in Dallas. We spend the weekend at the Hilton
hotel with YWAM Tyler leaders sharing about their year’s
ministry, worship, fellowship, and relaxation.
When we return, I’m planning on working
as a nanny this summer with a local nanny service a friend
recommended to me. The baby and I are doing well
J. We heard the
baby’s heartbeat a few weeks ago! Wow, that was exciting.
I am currently 15 weeks along (about 3 ½ months), due on
November 13th. I feel like God has been very
gracious to me with this pregnancy. It has been very
smooth. Of course, I do snack throughout the day and enjoy
taking naps, but I really haven’t been sick much at all and
did not have to miss any days of school. (Sadly, I did
throw up one morning…I was hoping to go the whole pregnancy
without doing that…but alas
J).
Jason
As we are closing in on the end of May,
I marvel at how quickly the year has gone by! School of the
Bible has one more month of classes before we send them out
to preach and teach the gospel. The students have expressed
their gratitude and excitement over what they have learned
this year. Remember, our goal is to train people to go and
actually disciple nations with the truth of
God and the gospel of His Kingdom.
We have just spent two weeks discussing
Civil Government. If God has something to say about us
governing ourselves, our families and our churches, does He
have something to say about how a nation should govern
itself? Or should that be left up to the world to figure
out?
Of course, we believe that He does want
to give us wisdom in how we should govern our nations. I
believe that right now and in the time to come, the world is
going to be looking to the Church for wisdom in Civil
Government, especially in nations where so many are being
saved on a regular basis that there exists a huge lack of
leadership. The only way that nations can enjoy liberty is
if the people are able to govern themselves according to the
truth of the Bible. In fact, that is how America was able
to form a government of liberty. At our founding, so many
governed themselves according to Scripture that the founders
could create a Constitution based upon the gospel that
allowed for freedom.
Listen to what Patrick Henry said
concerning our nation’s founding,
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly
or too often that this great nation was founded, not by
religionists [pluralism], but by Christians; not on
religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very
reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum,
prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
Also, James Madison, the Chief
Architect of the Constitution said this,
“We have staked the whole future of
American civilization, not upon the power of government, far
from it. We have staked the future of all of our political
institutions upon the capacity of mankind for
self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to
govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves
according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
Wow, what a statement!!! We cannot
expect nations to enjoy external liberty until they are free
internally. They must know the truth of God, His love and
sacrifice for them, and His expectations for their lives.
And the truth is what will set them free. The power of the
Holy Spirit will transform them, starting first with the
individual, and then the family, the community and
ultimately the nation.
We are also discussing Biblical
Economics. Again, what does God say about economics? The
Bible has a lot to say about money, private property, and so
on. The nations that respect these principles are blessed,
even if they are not Christian. Look at Japan, for
instance. They are less than one percent Christian yet they
are doing well economically. That is because they operate
on some principles that are true even though Jesus’ name
isn’t attached to it. Now, we need more missionaries to go
there so that they can be totally transformed and liberated
by the gospel.
Speaking of Japan, I would like to
introduce you to three of our SOTB students. These guys are
in my small group this year.
First is Mariano Castro. He is not
from Japan but has a calling to go to Japan
and minister there. He is from Costa Rica and attended the
Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Nicaragua. He also
attended a Bible School for the Nations (BSN), which is a
mini School of the Bible. He decided to come here to Tyler
to get the full year of training. He is preparing to go on
outreach to Brazil at the end of June.
 Next
is John Mark Kauffman. He is from Ohio and attended DTS in
El Paso/Juarez and also served on staff there. He plans to
join us here next year and staff next year’s SOTB. He will
be getting married in the fall and we look forward to having
him here with us! John Mark will be going to Thailand for
his outreach.
Finally, there’s Micah Sewell. He’s
from South Carolina and married his wife
Beth who is from New Hampshire. They plan to go to
southeast Asia in the future to minister and teach the
gospel. 3,000 people a day are being saved in a large
country in Asia and there is a great need for leadership
training. For the more immediate future, they will join us
next year on staff with SOTB to teach and get a better
understanding of the material. Micah and his wife Beth will
be going to Thailand as well for their outreach.
I remember feeling called to teach and
train missionaries back when I was a student at Christ For
The Nations from ’97-’99. I did not quite understand how
strategic that it is right now to raise up leaders and
missionaries that can train other leaders in the world. The
church is growing so quickly right now, faster than at any
other time in history. The need for leaders that know the
Word is greater now than ever before. In some places, the
person that owns a Bible is the pastor.
What a privilege it is to be able to
invest and impart to these students so that they can go and
do the same, multiplying the Kingdom of God to the nations.
Until next time,
Jason and Beth
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