Shaykh Sanders!

What percentage of Kentuckians, during their lifetime, do you think will hear the gospel in a way that they can understand it, and have a born-again friend? Of course, we can only guess but most people to whom I have asked that question say around 90%. I agree. Kentucky has the 2nd highest percentage of evangelicals in the US with 49% (Tennessee 51%), though certainly not all who claim "evangelical" status are born-again believers.

I've asked that same question to 5 career missionaries in Saudi Arabia. Three of them guessed that "1%" of Saudi Arabs will hear the gospel in a way that they can understand it, and have a born-again friend during their lifetime. Two of them said "single digits", so less than 10%. This is the tragedy of the unreached, most of whom live in the 10/40 Window. Jesus is not receiving the worship that He deserves among them. All Arab people groups are unreached since less than 3% of their population considers themselves to be "evangelical", except Egyptian Arabs at 4%.

For the past year, I have been using the app HabitShare to hold myself accountable to form several habits. For example, one habit is "less than 20 minutes a day on Youtube and none after 9 pm". Every evening I rate myself "red" (failed) or "green" (succeeded) for my 8-10 habits. If I were able to share my habits with friends, I would be more motivated to succeed! Would you try using HabitShare by downloading the app, creating a habit or two, sharing them with me at kizfam@gmail.com, and rating yourself daily for a week or so? I'll share a few of mine with you too. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" ~ Proverbs 27:17

Just before we finalized buying the home near our kids' homeschool co-op, someone told us about the possibility of a low-rent home in the same area, possibly available in a few months. Pray that God's will be done regarding this rental home. Also pray for my visit to friends in Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon in late November and early December.

Listening & Moving

When I served with a sports ministry for 8 years, many times I would walk into one of the 30 schools I served, ready to challenge the coaches & teachers to take their ministry to the next level. Yet after sitting down with a coach for a few minutes, I would realize that he needed someone to encourage and listen to him. By nature, I am a good challenger. I can have a wonderful plan for your life! I'm realizing more and more that my role is to be an active listener, a good friend, and then challenging them will naturally come out of me later. It was a joy to listen to, encourage, and challenge approximately 45 men during my 10 days in Egypt last month. Please ask God to give grace to me and my Egyptian tech partner as we fix problems related to the chatbot that trains parents biblically.

This was my 3rd trip to the Middle East after moving from Jordan to our home state. Since trips are going well and our younger children are settling into the homeschool community, we think we should purchase a home here in our city. I can see us growing old in that home, as long as the wifi keeps me connected to the Arab world and I can keep going back there every 3 months! 

Naz, Amm, Alex, & Cairo

It has been a great trip so far. I spent two days with my good buddy Noy Castillo in NYC prayer walking and encouraging missional families there with the biblical principles of Shepherding A Child's Heart. They now are reading the book and sharing one thing they want to obey from each chapter with each other via Whatsapp. I then spent two days in Nazareth, Israel visiting pastors and leaders for the second time. Then I spent six days in Amman, Jordan seeing both old friends and making new ones.

I'm writing this on a flight to Alexandria, Egypt. We lived there in 2010 and were part of the homeschool co-op group of Egyptian families. In God's gracious timing, they will have their annual retreat on two of the four days I am there! I will also attend a half-day of training in biblical counseling in Cairo. Finally, the country director of Cru has invited me to attend their 3-day staff retreat. Pray that "as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another" as I spend time with these young dads.

Only 25% of my conversations in Nazareth & Amman were in Arabic because they know English better than I know Arabic. However, in Egypt, I anticipate that it will be more than 50%. Please pray that God gives me the ability to understand, express myself clearly, and not tire easily.

Finally, please pray for my wife to manage homeschooling, teaching/coaching at the classical school, serving in our refugee community, & now a bedbug infestation, all while I am not there.

Preparation

This month is the Islamic holiday of Eid Al Adha, a celebration of Abraham's deep trust in God. During this time is the pilgrimage to Mecca. Watch the video here and join our family and thousands of other believers around the world who will be praying and fasting for Muslims during this time.

August is a month of preparation for our family. Kendra is preparing to get married to Trenton at the end of this month. Sam has worked all summer on his campus and is preparing for his cross-country season. Anna is preparing to take classes and be on the rowing team at the local university. Max is working at McD's and preparing to enlist in the Air Force. Please pray for some lab results related to his military medical process. Heidi, Petra, Henry, and Nehemiah are preparing to attend a classical school three days a week while homeschooling two days a week. My wife is preparing to coach cross country at the classical school and will be an assistant teacher two days a week. I am preparing for my next trip to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt at the end of this month.

Since 150 of you opened the link from last month's e-newsletter regarding smaller, private churches but only two of you actually commented on each point, I assume that it was too long. See the much shorter version here.

Smaller, Private Churches

The boys getting rich on the 4th of July with an Iraqi friend in the neighborhood :-)

I enjoyed visiting with both old friends and new friends in Jordan last month. We talked about parenting, online evangelism, immigration, exercise, counseling, church planting, and a dozen other things. When talking about planting smaller, private churches in Egypt and Jordan, the issue of authority came up a few times, such as: Who has the authority to plant a church? Serve communion? Baptize new believers? I have sent my Google Form regarding smaller, private churches to several of them. I am getting feedback before I have it translated into Arabic. If you want to speak my luuuuv language, read the overseas version or the American version and give me your feedback too. Please pray for these ongoing conversations about church planting.

After giving a missionary in Beirut the Arabic version of the parenting book Shepherding A Child's Heart, he later wrote, "Some of the believers here are looking forward to studying through it and were excited to see the book is in Arabic, as was my wife!" A Sudanese seminary student in Lebanon told me that he taught the principles of the book to parents when he visited Sudan. Pray for many other leaders/fathers who have received either a hard copy or the link to the online version in Arabic. Pray that they will read it, obey the biblical principles themselves, and help other parents do the same.

Lebanon Then Egypt

My time in Lebanon and Egypt has been fruitful, as long as I remind myself to measure my own fruitfulness by the depth of relationships and conversations I have. Please pray for an Arab brother who has an excellent evangelistic ministry. He and his wife seem to have allowed their parents' past physical abuse to cause them to neglect biblical discipline of their own children, who are very defiant. Before sitting down with them, I asked them to read chapter 4 of the book Shepherding A Child's Heart which is entitled "You're In Charge". The jist of the chapter is that Christian parents represent God's authority in the life of a child. Neglecting that position of authority, or abusing it by confusing biblical discipline with sinful punishment, misrepresents God's authority in the eyes of a child. All of us parents have leaned toward one of these two extremes. The gospel promises us forgiveness, which actually motivates us to be more like Jesus, full of both grace and truth.

Now I am in Jordan, where our family had been living for the past 2 years. Please pray for more conversations here about biblical parenting and reproducible church planting.

Settling & Traveling

We are now settled into our apartment in our home state. A big 'ole THANKS to so many of you who donated home furnishings. A special thanks to Greg and Josh who spent time helping with repairs.

Anna graduates from high school this month. For the past 2 years, she has lived with some friends who have been surrogate parents more than merely hosts to Anna. We are very grateful for the time and energy that they have invested in loving our daughter. Anna will attend the local university in the fall to study equine business and join the rowing team.

I will visit leaders and friends in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel this month. A special thanks to Alex for allowing me to use one of his Delta buddy passes to fly stand-by. Please ask God to use me to both challenge and encourage these men as we discuss training parents and reproducible church planting. Please also pray for my wife and the kids as I will be away for almost one month.

Grateful For Donors Who Give Sacrificially

One of my favorite things to do is take our younger kids to visit those of you who have supported us financially over the years. Let me tell you about 3 visits this past week...


1) Last weekend we watched a parade with a retired teacher who served with FCA and his wife. How did he know each of the younger kids' names (as well as the older kids)? Because he prays for our family and many others at 5 am!


2) Last weekend we also visited a young couple with young kids who have supported us for several years. During these years, they themselves have been trying to live and serve among the unreached but it has just not yet worked out. Until God opens that door, he works hard and applies for overseas jobs, she raises young kids, they serve in their local church, and they engage internationals & refugees in gospel conversation.


3) Without the kids, I visited a farmer who works 16-hour days during some months of the year. He wants to cut back on production so that he can spend more time with his family. I also visited a carpenter but only for a few minutes because he and his co-workers were under a deadline. Men like these challenge me to work hard in ministry since they give their hard-earned money to support us.


In preparation for my next trip to the Middle East in May, please tell me if you know anyone who works for an airline and might be willing to donate one of their standby buddy passes. Expenses here.


Please pray for my wife and me as we work through some challenges such as how best to train and educate our 4 youngest children. Reasons why we are stateside indefinitely here. 

North African Christian Parents

We recently arrived in our home state. It has been great to be with family, especially our older kids! I arrived two weeks after my family from a conference for ministry in the Arab world, in particularly ministry in North Africa. My goal for attending the conference was to begin as many friendships as possible with leaders who have influence in the lives of Arab Christian parents. I was able to talk individually with 50+ leaders for at least 30 minutes each and give them a copy of the Arabic version of Shepherding A Child's Heart.

Let me tell you about one couple from Tunisia at the conference. He is working full-time and studying theology. The mother of his wife was saved when she was young. When she saw me giving someone an Arabic copy of Shepherding, she told me, "My mom raised me and my 3 siblings by that book!" Please pray for more of these North African believing dads and moms to read the book, begin obeying the biblical principles, and share them with other parents in their countries. I will continue these relationships online from here in our home state. For almost two weeks prior to this conference, I was in Egypt, where I was able to meet with approximately 40 leaders and teach on parenting at two churches.

Returning To The US

We were planning to be in the US only for this coming summer 2018. However, we left in late-February with the option to return to Jordan at some point in the future. We are not discouraged :-) We are excited about what God is doing in our family and ministry. Here are the reasons for this indefinite return to the US, in order of priority:

1) I am trying to promote biblical parenting not only in Jordan but in the Arab world. It seems that I spend most of my time online, cultivating relationships with leaders in the region and preparing to visit them. I would like to see if I can do this online from the US, while making four trips a year for 3-4 weeks each trip, visiting 3-4 countries each trip. My biggest concern is being away from my family for so long, though I know that many of you who serve our country in the military are separated for much longer. My wife approves of the travel because we are living in her hometown. I will be intentional about connecting with the family via video chat twice daily. In future years, my wife would accompany me on some trips. We will test this traveling idea for the next 6-9 months and then decide whether or not to return to Jordan. The Jordan Baptist Convention has allowed me to keep my affiliation with them whether we are living in Jordan or America.

2) We, like so many other volunteers in Jordan, were "on hold" regarding our residency visa. I left for Egypt on Feb 10th and would not have returned until after our residency expires on Feb 25. Rather than my wife and kids traveling outside of Jordan for a few days and then returning on a tourist visa for just a couple of months before leaving for the summer anyway, we felt it was better to leave in February. Update 4/1/18: Two families who have lived there for 25+ years have told us that they are leaving also. One noted, “if one’s name is on the ‘person non-gratis’ list, this means they can never return to Jordan and possibly other Middle Eastern countries” as opposed to leaving on our own initiative and coming back for week-long visits.

3) We now have our 4 oldest children living in our home state. If I am traveling, it is better for my wife to be near her extended family and the older kids. We feel that we should be closer to our 4 oldest children during this time.

4) We have a free apartment in my wife's home town because we will invest around 10 hrs a week managing an apartment complex through a Christian organization, serving refugee families mainly from Syria and Iraq. God has answered our prayer to rent our furnished apartment in Jordan to like-minded folks. We still have the option to return at some point in the future if we think it would please God for us to do so.

We are thankful to God for two wonderful options for our family in the future, either to stay in our home state or return to Jordan. Either way, we feel very blessed. Sometimes we spend too much time thinking about “where” we are supposed to be and “when” we are supposed to be there. God is more concerned with “who” we are. He is more concerned with our hearts being satisfied in Him at any time and in any place. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Our failure to do these three things perfectly should lead us to the cross to find mercy and grace, which actually empowers us to want to be more of “who” he wants us to be.

Max Returns to KY

Nee & Max at the Dead Sea before hiking with several other families.

Max finishes his online high school and returns to Kentucky at the end of this month. He will live with my mom in my hometown of Irvine, working at a restaurant for 3 months. Mom will help him to get his required 60 supervised driving hours to get his license. Pray for her! Long-term, Max wants to enlist in the military. The structure would be good for him. We are proud that he wants to serve his country and develop some skills that will benefit him personally. Max is a loyal friend, a well-loved sibling, and thinks a lot about the welfare of others. Please pray for him as he embarks on several transitions over the next 6 months.

Christmas was great, even though we missed our 3 oldest kids in Kentucky. We attended 2 Christmas gatherings, watched older Star Wars movies, and took cookies to families of the kids who are bullies in the park beside our home. They seemed surprised!

Please also pray for residency permission for us and several other families with the Jordan Baptist Convention. The process has become somewhat complicated.

JETS Students

Petra & Heidi have so many opportunities to serve families here by babysitting.

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Merry Christmas! In a few days, I will attend a Christmas gathering at JETS (Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary). I go there every few months to develop relationships with students and discuss with them how we can best promote biblical parenting in their countries, primarily Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan. Since we lived in Sudan for 2 years and I understand their dialect more, I find myself spending most of my time with the Sudanese students. Here are a few of the guys that you can pray for...

1) A from Sudan- A first-year student who is missing his parents and siblings in Khartoum but it is getting better.

2) M from Egypt- A graduate who was recently and suddenly given the responsibility of overseeing the library of the seminary.

3) M&B from Iraq- Refugee brothers who graduated & recently resettled in the West. 

4) Y from Jordan- A recently married graduate who has taken on more ministry responsibilities.

5) M from Egypt- A married student who has been unable to find work for the past 3 months.

6) J from Sudan- A graduate who has returned to Khartoum to teach at an evangelical school.