God has called my family to GO! (313.8 pounds)

I was fortunate enough to marry my high school sweat heart.  There are so many things that I appreciate about my wife (of 15 years now.)  One thing that I have often times taken for granted is that Ruth and I line up so very closely on things that are very important in our lives as parents and as husband and wife.  One of the things Ruth and I have always seen eye to eye on was God's calling on our lives.  I must pause to say that there have been periods of my life where I let other things get in the way of my pursuit of the Lord's calling, but it was never far from my mind.  For over fifteen years, Ruth and I have known that God wants us serve as full time missionaries on a foreign field.  For almost 15 years, I have been too busy to pursue this calling or making excuses on why we should not go.  For the longest time, I have used the excuse that I should stay here and work and give so that others could go, but the reality is that God has called my family and me to GO!    So, here is my public declaration:

Alexis, Sarah, Ruth and I are going to follow the Lord and become missionaries.  We have been called by God to go to the country of Bangladesh.  It is estimated that over 90% of Bengali people are Muslims and less than 1% are Christians.  My family and I would never have chosen the field of Bangladesh if we were given a choice based on our own desires, but we are willing to give God the preeminence in our lives and we are thrilled to be going to Bangladesh.  I will post more information at another time on what we will be doing in Bangladesh, but in the mean time please pray for us.  Pray for my daughters who are also open to God's calling to go to Bangladesh, but they will be learning about the pain that comes at times with following Christ.  Pray for my wife as she is preparing school supplies for our girls as she will be homeschooling them when we get to the field.  Pray that God would be working in the hearts of people who would partner with us as we get ready to raise support to go to the field.  Most importantly though please pray for the men, women and children of Bangladesh that they would be receptive to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  Lastly, please pray with me as I prepare to talk to the team in my corporate office to tell them all of our plans.  I am scheduled to take them all to lunch on 8/17 where I will be telling them of my families plans.  This will be an especially difficult time for me as I have grown to know these people well and consider them all friends and I love them a great deal.

This information will come as a surprise to some of you and any time you have questions I would love to be able to answer them (574-386-3456.)

After a bad week last week, this week in weight loss was awesome!  I am proud to say that I lost 8 pounds this week!  I am currently at 313.8 pounds and 299.9 is in plain sight!