I told them I was there to not only support and encourage them - but also to learn from them. And just observing their interaction and desire to help and come along side their missionaries was really stimulating and encouraging to me. It's estimated by many mission's writers that a healthy support ratio of support team members back home to missionaries on the field is about 8:1. Eight praying, encouraging, willing to work on behalf of their missionaries team members, from the missionaries home church! It's clearly a challenge to keep such a team healthy and vibrant and effective as the months pass. And that's part of the Shepherd's Staff vision - to offer help to sending churches in maintaining the health of their support teams - which in turn maintains the health of their missionary. And that's part of my new job responsibilities now.

What a joy to serve those who are serving as senders as well as those who are sent!

This evening I'm meeting with another Shepherd's Staff missionary family serving in Israel and sent out from Shoreline Calvary Chapel up in Morro Bay, CA. They are home just for a couple of weeks. Please pray for them that the Lord would meet all their needs for their family and their ministry.

Thank you all for continuing as part of MY prayer support team :-) I really need it!

In His Arm's,

Pat

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

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

In His Arm's,

Pat

In His Arm's,

Pat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In His Arm's,

Pat

As of today, my speaking schedule is as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

In His Arm's,

Pat

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

In His Arm's,

Pat

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

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

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

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

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

In His Arm's,

Pat

From HB I then headed up to the San Fernando Valley to spend some time with another Calvary Pastor in Encino. David Cuff has been pastoring the church there for 13 years. We had a great time of fellowship, sharing ministry joys and sorrows, and prayer.

I have written in past posts of my desire to be an encouragement to other pastors in this new season of my life. After more than 32 years in full time pastoral ministry there are a lot of stories to share - and not much that I haven't experienced in church life. So it's such a blessing to connect with other brothers in the "trenches" and watch God at work!

Then after Encino I drove a little further north to have dinner with my daughter and son-in-law in Valencia. Got home around 11:00 pretty tired but grateful for a good day full of ministry and serving. Thanks for praying!

In His Arm's,

Pat