Giving thanks for TWENTY YEARS!

November 22, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving, friends, 

We join with you in giving thanks to our Lord for the many blessings of this year.  We are also giving thanks to Him for TWENTY YEARS of service to Him through The Mission Foundation and for His provision of financial support through friends like you!

We know that you are very familiar with our work, but please reflect briefly with us on twenty years of work: 

• Louisiana Legislature:  Since June of 1993, I have been privileged to serve the men and women of the Louisiana House of Representatives and the Senate.  When the upcoming session begins, the Louisiana Legislators’ Bible Study / Prayer Breakfast, which meets weekly during the session, will be in its 15^th year.  Please pray for God’s guiding and protecting Hand over this ministry. 
• The Gathering of Men:  We launched the downtown luncheon in October of 1993, and twenty years later men from all denominations continue to come together for weekly Bible study and prayer.  What a joy it has been to serve the men of our city with my dear friend Tyler Lafauci and other brothers here in Baton Rouge.
• International Ministry:  For the past eleven years, Becky and I have been blessed with many opportunities to serve our Lord’s Church in other countries, including India, El Salvador, Peru, Dominican Republic, Albania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, United Kingdom, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, and a country in East Asia.  Bec has used her teaching gift, her ability to disciple women, and her organizational skills in a number of different ministry contexts, while I have had the opportunity to do interim pastoral work, begin new men’s ministries, teach in seminaries and Bible colleges, and work alongside national Christian leaders in the development of training programs in expository preaching.           
• Monday Morning for Men in Ruston:  A little over a year ago, I was blessed to work with Jeff Peshoff and our son Jake in the establishment of a weekly meeting for men that meets at First National Bank of Ruston.  Those who have participated are members of a number of churches – Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Independent.      

We want to give special mention to our recent opportunity to serve at First Methodist Church of Shreveport, a city-center church that continues to thrive and impact the heart of Shreveport through its outreaches and projects and through its collaboration with other churches and ministries.  Through the invitation of Rev. Jonathan Beck, I was the guest speaker for their annual Fall Banquet and for their weekly business luncheon.  Bec and I greatly enjoyed our time with the people of First Methodist.  There were also a number of long-time friends from North Louisiana who attended the meetings, including some legislators and one who previously served in the legislature.  We give thanks to God for allowing us to serve at First Methodist!

In closing, we are in great need of a very strong response to our appeal regarding year-end giving.  Our ministry is highly dependent upon these special gifts.  Would you please prayerfully consider how the Lord might have you participate financially in our work with The Mission Foundation?   We would be extremely grateful for whatever you may feel led to do.  

Giving thanks to our Savior for His blessing over the past twenty years!

Rod and Bec

Thanksgiving for Jonathan and Margaret Lamb's 10 Years of Service with Langham Preaching: Blessings to them in their future service to our Lord!

Dear Jonathan and Margaret,

What a blessed ten years! We give thanks
to God for all that He has done through
you during that decade.

It all got off to a wonderful start at our
First International Consultation at High
Lea Conference Center. There was such
great enthusiasm and anticipation of what
God was going to do through this new
effort to establish expository preaching
movements in countries throughout the
world. It was a very exciting time. And
none of us who were there will ever forget
how the excitement was suddenly taken to
another level when the fire alarm sounded
in the middle of the night twice! – and we
all (including Uncle John in his pajamas!)
came pouring out of the buildings! By the
end of the week, we were off and running,
and the exhilaration has never ended!

Since that blessed beginning, expository
preaching movements have indeed been
established in many places. In the process
of leading this work, the two of you have
encouraged and lovingly served so many
of us. What a joy it has been to labor with
you! We give thanks to God that He has
allowed us to know your gentle and kind
manner.We certainly admire your excellent
gifts for service, but we are most thankful
for your gracious way of relating to all
people.

We pray that the Lord will guide, protect,
and strengthen you as you take your next
steps in His service. We pray that the Holy
Spirit will encourage you day and night.

With much love to both of you!

Rod and Becky Wood, Facilitator

Teaching at Ukraine Biblical Seminary near Kiev

FIRST METHODIST, SHREVEPORT, FALL BANQUET, NOVEMBER 12th

LSU Fraternity Outreach - A Blessed Evening! 

FORTY-ONE indicate desire to trust in Christ as Savior and Lord

Members of Five Fraternities met at the Kappa Alpha House

Thank you for all of your prayers and for your encouraging notes about the LSU fraternity outreach on Wednesday night.  What a blessed evening it was!

103 filled out comment cards, and FORTY-ONE indicated the following:  "Tonight I realize my need to put my complete trust in Christ and what He has done for me on the cross and to follow Him as Lord of my life."

Campus Director Darin Travis and the CRU (Campus Crusade) staff men did a wonderful job of organizing the event.  It was also evident that, over some period of time, they had established solid credibility with the fraternity men which enabled them to be very effective in their recruitment to this somewhat unique outreach meeting.  I give thanks to our Lord for their good work at my alma mater.

Also, the panel members, Jason Greene, Eric Danos, Ben Heroman, and Dr. Bill Russell were excellent both in content and in their manner of presentation.  I wish that there was a video of the evening.  I can assure you that you would have been quite moved by the substance of their comments about their experiences in business, the winsomeness and humility with which they shared words of wisdom, and their honesty, even vulnerability, in discussing their own spiritual discoveries and development.  The 103 young men in the room hardly moved.  They sat in rapt attention.  It was just that impactful!

I'll conclude with the thoughts that Darin Travis shared in a letter yesterday:

• We were hoping the Lord would use the night to work in those young men's hearts.  I believe that He did.  I assume that most of you read the last question on the response card.  The Gospel was shared, they were quiet, then invited to pray:  41 of the 103 indicated that they made that decision to follow Christ. Pretty incredible!

Please pray not only for the 41 but for all 103 of these young men and for Darin Travis and the CRU staff as they are already beginning to do the follow-up work.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

Rodney

LSU  

Fraternity Outreach Tonight 

Businessmen's Panel Discussion 

Tonight I will be moderating a businessmen's panel discussion at the Kappa Alpha Fraternity House.   Men from a number of fraternities will be in attendance.  A couple of fraternities have made attendance at this meeting mandatory for all of their freshmen.  About 100 are expected to participate.  

Four men will serve on the panel:  Ben Heroman, Jason Greene, Eric Danos, and Dr. William Russell.  Each of them will address topics of vital importance to these young men as they will soon be launching their own careers.  This will be followed by a Q&A period at the end of which I have been asked to present the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.  PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO PRAY FOR THE SALVATION OF THESE YOUNG MEN.  

Bec and I drove over to the campus earlier today and took the pictures below.  I also had the opportunity to do something I have wanted to do for a long time.  As we visited my fraternity (Theta Xi  - on the right in the pictures below), the Lord walked me right into a group of Theta Xi's who listened very respectfully as I told them about what the Lord did in my life when I lived there in that house.  I also invited them to come over to the KA house tonight for the panel discussion.  One young man said that he would definitely be there.  Please pray that he and others will come.  

I am very grateful to Campus Crusade director Darin Travis and his team for inviting me to be part of this outreach.  It is interesting that recently I had been so full of desire to share Christ with the fellows on fraternity row that I had actually been thinking of just going over there and introducing myself and engaging with them.  What a joy to know that the Lord was planning to open this door of opportunity for me.  

Please see the pictures below.

KA House and Theta Xi House

Bec and I in front of the KA House

 A little gathering of polite listeners out on the patio of the Theta Xi House at lunch today

Pointing to the upstairs room where I lived for two years

"When your memories of the past are more precious to you than your dreams of the future, that's when you begin to die." - Jim Downing, former Chief Operation Officer for the Navigators, soon to be 100 years old!

Dear friends,

It’s not every day that one has the opportunity to run the hills of Hebron with Caleb!

 Friday afternoon at about four o’clock, having just arrived in Ruston, Becky and I stopped at Green Clinic where, as some of you know, our son Jake has worked as a physician for almost five years.  To our surprise our very dear, long-time friends Polly and Wayne Smith were there.  With them was the guest speaker for the weekend conference that Wayne had organized – Mr. Jim Downing. 

Mr. Jim, who had already spoken to an early-morning men’s group, had taken a fall and could not move his left leg and therefore had to use a wheelchair.  Also, he had been traveling extensively (This being his fourth state in four consecutive weeks to speak!), and apparently he had contracted a virus which was causing fever, nausea, and weakness.  We were thankful that the x-rays showed no fracture.  Also, Jake cleansed and re-wrapped his left foot which is in poor condition due to diabetes and gave him some medicine for nausea. 

About thirty minutes before the conference was to begin it became apparent to Mr. Jim that he should not speak but instead seek to get as much rest as possible with the plan of meeting with the men on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.  When the crowd of men came into the Smith home that morning, Mr. Jim was sitting in front of the fireplace in his wheelchair waiting for them! (I have been told that he’s always the first to arrive.)

What a clear mind!  Amazing!  What expectation that lives would be impacted!  Not only did he speak but he engaged in an extensive and very helpful Q&A time with the men.

At noon, when the conference was over, three of us had to lift Mr. Jim into his bed.  Although he was scheduled to speak at Monday Morning for Men at 6 a.m. and then again in Shreveport on Monday evening, it seemed that it was probably best to make proper travel arrangements for his return to Colorado Springs where he could give further attention to his hip injury.

But this was his Caleb-like report:  “This is what I came to do!”  So on Monday Morning, when I arrived at First National Bank’s community conference room just before six o’clock, there was Mr. Jim at the front in his wheelchair with his microphone on, waiting for the men!  For the next hour and a half men were blessed to interact with this aged warrior.  How invigorating it was to watch him sprinting down the home stretch!      

Later that morning an MRI was done of Mr. Jim’s hip, and then – he was off to Shreveport!  His answer to concerns:  “A car-ride is refreshing to me!”  How did it go?  Well, here is the most recent word I have received from Wayne Smith:  “He flew back to Colorado Springs in good spirits! Had a great evening in Shreveport at Broadmoor Baptist church on Monday with 30 + guys. A survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack now living in Shreveport made a special trip to visit with him before the program. They had a great time of reminiscing.”  (Mr. Jim is the oldest living survivor of Pearl Harbor.)  

One day the most glorious reminiscing will begin!  It will be the reminiscing of those who never quit dreaming and doing all the way to the end!  Forever and ever men and women will be saying to one another, “Do you remember when . . . ?”  And not one deed done for the Kingdom will ever grow dim in their minds!

I close with the ‘Prayer of an Old Man’:  “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.” (Psalm 71:18). 

                                                                                    Let’s run the hills!

                                                                                    Rod (for Bec and me)