The Rekows

This past Earth Day gave me an excellent excuse to brighten up our deck. I carefully selected vibrant flowers that promised to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. We also filled our birdfeeders with songbird variety birdseed. Sadly, the birdseed only lasted a few days because a squirrel was determined to work on “his song” leaving only crumbs for the birds.

What can be learned by watching a pesky squirrel and caring for Earth Day flowers?

As much as I must have looked like “that crazy neighbor”, I tried my best to shoo that squirrel away from the birdfeeder. That creature was determined! I had made his search for food so easy, so why wouldn’t he take advantage of it? He was persistent and focused no matter what I did to distract him. One day, that silly squirrel stretched himself from the tree trunk to the birdfeeder to nibble away at his personal lunch buffet.

Then it hit me…
• Sometimes I need to take a risk and stretch out of what’s comfortable and step into what God is providing for me.
• Do I let distractions change my focus? If so, why?
• It may be that what we need is right there in front of us if we just wait.
• Determination, persistence and focus all require practice and discipline.

I do not have a green thumb, finger or toe, so it was risky for me to even invest in purchasing flowers. I figure if someone else buys them for me as a gift, then they will most likely never see what happens to them after a few days under my care. I usually end up watering too much and drown them. I was determined to keep these Earth Day flowers alive at least until Mother’s Day. On recent stormy nights I have even taken down my hanging flower baskets out from the rain in hopes that I would keep them alive for just one more day. One thing I do enjoy is pruning plants – in fact, I am pretty sure I am addicted to pruning. I am not sure why I get such satisfaction in that? I learned once that if you prune off what is dried up, it gives plants more time to work on new growth. Why wouldn’t anyone want to help a plant do that? If you look off of our deck there are faded petals of evidence from my pruning.

Merriam-Webster’s Online dictionary defines this verb:
1. to cut off or cut back parts of for better shape or more fruitful growth
2. to cut away what is unwanted or superfluous

So, I had to ask myself…
• Is there evidence of pruning in my life?
• Do I allow God to prune me for “better shape” and “fruitful growth”?
• Have I let others “drown me” in my pruning process?

Dear God, teach me to be DETERMINED in the midst of distractions and allow You to PRUNE me where You want to see growth. I look forward to the results.

By the way, my Earth Day flowers have survived past Mother’s Day and the squirrel never did sing for me… he must have been mad at me for removing his drive-thru window.

I just wanted to share a few things that God showed me while reading the familiar story of Zacchaeus. It is so much more than that little song I sang as a child. He was a “wee little man”, but has a huge story to tell…

Zacchaeus was a short, rich, tax collector. Not sure what he looked like, but I can just imagine him in an iron-pressed tunic and a snake-skinned briefcase! He tried to see Jesus but couldn’t because of the crowd. He ran to a sycamore tree and climbed it. Jesus looked into that tree and told Zacchaeus to come down quickly because He needed to stay at his house that day. Luke 19:6 reads, “He made haste, came down and received Him joyfully.” The crowds were irritated that Jesus would be a guest in such a sinful man’s home. After spending time with Jesus, Zacchaeus decided to give half of his goods to the poor and give fourfold back to those with whom he had been dishonest. Salvation had come to his house that day. Verse 10 reads, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.”

These are a few thoughts/questions that came to my mind:
• Jesus notices our efforts to seek Him, even from a tree in Zacchaeus’ case.
• What would my response be if Jesus had said, “Anna, I am coming to your house today!”
• Once a stingy, dishonest man, but because of Jesus – he became generous and honest.
• Who in “my crowd” is hindering my view of Jesus?
• What do I need to do to “see” Jesus better? Remove obstacles? Use my time better? Climb a tree?
• How big of a tree am I willing to climb? Will I give up because it is too hard to climb?
• He is a God who both SEEKS and SAVES!

I am so grateful for God’s Word and how He makes it come alive in so many ways. I pray that this story of a little man brings you hope and a new perspective in a big, new way.

Three months from today, Jerauld will be running his first marathon at the 2009 Chicago Marathon.  There are many reasons Jerauld made this decision.  One factor is that we thought this would be a great opportunity to increase people’s awareness of the mission work we do and to ask others to partner with us.  All it would take is 100 people to support us $5 a mile and we could raise our annual work budget.

While we will be trying to raise support for the mission work we do as a family, we will also be partnering with Team World Vision.  Through the Chicago Marathon, they will be striving to raise more than $500,000 for communities in Africa.  We are committing to give 10% of every dollar that comes in during this support raising campaign to World Vision.  No matter what, we will give $500 to their work in Africa by October 11.

We would appreciate it if you would consider giving a special gift to help us raise the money for our annual work budget and to bless children and communities throughout Africa.  E-mail us your contact info and Jerauld will be contacting you personally about this great opportunity.  God bless you as you pray about helping us touch the world.

This week Silas turned four!  A day he has been anxiously waiting to come for almost six months.  He is very excited about being four because 4 is his favorite number and he gets to start preschool in August.  Along with turning four, Silas is enjoying riding his bike and swimming at the pool.  His favorite way to start a story is, “When I was bigger than my dad’s age. . .” or he’ll say,  “All you do is throw the bag to the clown!”  When asked what he wanted to tell the readers, he replied, “Just tell them ‘Hi!’ and tell them about Jesus.”

I trust that you all had a great Resurrection Sunday yesterday. We certainly did. Anna’s parents were here, and family helps to make the holidays better. We started our day by having Silas search the house for his three (yes 3!) Easter baskets. Then we went to an amazing service at Smyrna Assembly, our new church, followed by a wonderful dinner at our house with some traditional Passover foods (matzo ball soup, haroset and leg of lamb).

A part that I particularly enjoyed was having Grandpa and Grandma watch Silas after lunch, while Anna and I went to Six Flags to pick up our season passes that my dad and stepmom were nice enough to purchase for us. Since we were there, we walked around the park to get a feel for it. We were not going to ride anything but when I saw the Superman – Ultimate Flight roller coaster, I couldn’t resist.

While standing in line, I started talking with a group of six 20 year-olds who were in front of me. They were all raised here in Atlanta and came to the park often. During the conversation, one of the guys in the group said something inappropriate to which one of the young ladies replied, “You shouldn’t talk like that on Jesus’ birthday!” I doubled over in laughter. I wanted to be polite, but I was so surprised by the comment that I was laughing before I realized it. She responded with “He did something today, right? Don’t I get credit for that?”

The sad part is I would have expected someone raised in the Bible Belt of America to have a basic knowledge of what happened on Easter. And no, we don’t get credit for knowing something happened on Easter. The Bible tells us that, “if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.” (1 Corinthians 15:14, NKJV)

In other words, if you don’t get the resurrection, you don’t get anything. By the Bible’s own confession, without the resurrection then everything about Jesus (His birth, His life, His ministry, His teachings and even His death) would be empty and useless. When Christ rose from the grave, He validated every other part of His earthly mission, proved Himself to be God and established a living hope, by which we can grab a hold of the grace of God.

Jesus did not just do something on Easter, He did everything! I pray that you understand the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in your life and that you would be bold enough to proclaim that we indeed have a risen Savior.

In the last 8 months I have traveled a lot! I have been in 6 different countries, 20 different states and spent hundreds of hours in planes, trains and automobiles. I realized that I have traveled enough miles to circle the earth once.

As interesting as that is, the exciting part is that I am not doing it alone. Our two interns are globe trotting with me. They have already ministered in the Bahamas and Mexico. Now for their training, we have placed them in another culture for 3 to 5 months to work with local missionaries. Julie is working in an orphanage in Mexico, caring for the children and helping to serve mission teams that stay on the campus. Mitchell is in Czech Republic teaching English at a language school, helping to coordinate youth programs and hockey outreaches.

This is fulfilling a big part of God’s call on our lives to raise up men and women to touch the nations. He is doing amazing things with amazing people and it is such a privilege to be a part of the process.

At first, Silas and Georgia did not get along. He often said, “I want to go back to my Texas home!” Then, when he realized there were so many cool parks nearby, he started to enjoy Georgia a little more. Rain or shine he loves exploring his new surroundings, although he does not like getting his new dinosaur umbrella wet. He has discovered earthworms and giggles with delight watching them squirm. He was very upset to hear that the birds try to eat them and said, “That’s not very nice!” He would also want you to know that “green beans are dangerous to eat”!

We need help. We need a lot if it. One of the biggest needs in our ministry has been a consistent office staff. Anna and I have been doing the brunt of the office work since we joined Sons Of Salvation in 2007. From answering phones, to coordinating teams, to bookkeeping and taxes, we have done it all. It has been a challenge but it has also been a great learning experience. As the ministry has grown, it has become apparent that we need extra help to continue to make everything run effectively.

After much prayer and consideration, we have decided to partner with a ministry called, The Well, that is doing work in inner city Atlanta. Beyond the potential for missions work in a metro area of 5.6 million (40,000 of which are homeless), The Well has agreed to help provide office and bookkeeping support for SOS. This means that in March we will be moving our administrative office to Atlanta. It also means that at the end of February Anna, Silas and I will be moving too.

Honestly, if I had my choice of which of my favorite sports teams to move closer to, it would be the Chicago Bears. Although being near the Atlanta Braves will be nice. I am also looking forward to being near the birth place of Coca Cola (if you have been in my office before, you would understand why). But much more than all of that, I am very excited about what God has in store for our future and the future of SOS. Big things are on the horizon!