The Mission Foundation

March 28, 2014

Our dear friends, we’re off to a great start in my 21^st year at the Louisiana State Capitol!  I give thanks to our Lord that I was asked to lead in a prayer for unity at the Louisiana Black Caucus Prayer Breakfast.   There was a great crowd and a wonderful spirit at that prayer breakfast.  This Monday, March 31^st, I will be opening the House of Representatives in prayer.  Also, the weekly LA Legislators’ Bible Study Prayer Breakfast (which I have led since 2000) has been very well attended by both the House and Senate.  Here are some notes from our last two meetings:

“How Can We Who Are So Diverse Be Truly Unified?”

“In our diversity, let there be unity!”  That was last week’s theme.  We focused on the reasons for which our unity is of paramount importance to all of us.  Often it is said that we must be unified in order to accomplish greater things.  However, as we have seen, there are much more important reasons:

• We were made in the image of the Holy Three-In-One.  God, the Eternal Community, who lives in the perfect unity of love within Himself, said, “Let Us make man in our own image, after our own likeness” (Genesis 1:26).  He designed us to live as a holy community, being united in love, even as He is united within Himself in love. 
• But we foolishly broke our bond of love with God and with one another and chose to go our own self-focused way (Genesis 3; Isaiah 53:6).  In His unconditional love, our Lord Jesus died to restore our unity with God and with one another forever. (Romans 5:8, 18; Eph. 4:15)
• On the night before He was crucified, Jesus prayed for our unity, saying that our oneness would be our testimony to the world that God actually sent Him and that God truly does love us in the same way that He loves His own Son.  Jesus prayed, “I do not ask for these (disciples) only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that you have sent Me.  The glory that You have given to Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent me and loved them even as You have loved Me.”  (John 17:20-22) 

• Our Christ, Whom we all follow, has blessed us with the privilege of sharing in a beautiful seven-fold oneness:  “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”  (Ephesians 4:4-6)

But now we must ask, “How do we do this?  How can we who are so diverse be truly unified?

  I.  We must be HUMBLE LISTENERS: We must listen to one another with the ears of humility that Christ will give us.     

o        James 1:19 “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

o        Proverbs 12:15 “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

o        Proverbs 18:13  “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”

By listening we not only learn; we not only become aware of our blind-spots; we also are communicating loving respect for one another. 

 II.  We must be MERCIFUL:  We must extend the same mercy to one another that we have received from our Lord.   

o        Matthew 5:7  “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

o        Luke 6:36  “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

o        James 2:13  “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

o        Ephesians 4:32  “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

III.  We must develop KALEIDOSCOPIC VISION:  Each of us must have eyes like a kaleidoscope whose mirrors are set at perfect angles so that it becomes kalos + eidos + skopeo, an “observer of beautiful forms.”  We must learn to look at one another with the eyes that Christ will give us.  We must allow Him to grant us the ability to marvel at the ever-changing shapes and colors of the humans around us.  1 Corinthians 12 teaches us that there are “varieties of gifts” and “varieties of service” and that we who are “one body” cannot say to another part of the body, “I have no need of you.”  Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that every believer is God’s poiema, His “work of art.”  

Please pray for an ever-growing unity among our legislators and in our churches and in The Church (even as our Lord Jesus prayed). Please pray against any influences that would cause division.  Thank you again for making it possible for Bec and me to do the work to which He has called us.

In the Savior,

Rod and Bec       

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