Preparing for Missions

Hello, we are the Myers family exploring the call to missions in our lives. Keith, Deb, Boyden and Baillie...Myers family call, "AhhhOoooAhhh!" I am a Pastor of a small country Baptist Church and an elementary school teacher. My wife, Deb, works with dislocated workers and at-risk youth. Our two children have just moved on to 6th and 7th grade. We are a family who loves the Lord and believe in Acts 4:12 "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The theology that we are learning to develop is the "Palm Tree Theology", deeply rooted into the Word of God, and remain flexible to the call.
Over the past 10 years we have been involved in local, state-side and global missions. Last year Deb and I traveled to Bolivia, South American for our first experience of cross-seas missions. On June 11, we will travel back to Bolivia as an entire family for a 23 day journey into exploring cross-seas missions full-time. We have been blessed by the people of God both financially and prayerfully. In this call, we have also been faced with opposition, but we do not sweat the small stuff, nor do we give satan a foothold in the ministry that the Lord has called, prepared and sent us into.
Acts 1:8 reads, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." and Matthew 28:18-20 says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
So, there they are; scriptures to ALL of those who have called upon the name of Jesus and have asked Him to be their Lord. I can't go on as a Christian and not answer the call of these scriptures. Waiting on the Lord was not meant to be like waiting for a bus to come and pick me up; while waiting for the return of a promise there is work to be done!
I have decided to begin a blog about the explorations of missions and the call of God in mine and my family's life. One of the first questions I have asked myself is why missions? I have answered this by the above scriptures. I believe that as a believer of Christ, my life questions can be found in the Word of God. He did not ask those who wanted to follow Him to go forth; He commanded them to go. Missions is not an option as a follower of Christ, EVERYONE who has called out to Jesus has received the same command--GO. When we begin to separate the call into compartments it is like going to a buffet and choosing just the things that we want or what works best for us, but this is far from the Christian life. In this journey into missions I have learned that if we have breath, then we are called to go forth into the world. The awesome thing about it is that He provided all of the needs that I have had and He will continue to meet those daily. When looking into the Scriptures I read about His mighty promises like never leaving nor forsaking me, giving me power to do good works, preparing the work ahead of time, providing the words when I am out of thoughts, and the list just goes on and on. Bottom line, He is already doing all the work and has graciously asked me to join His business in advancing the kingdom of God. We know that where ever we are, whether it be in our local church, community or another country we are trying are best to remain faithful to the call of God in our lives.
This is the beginning of a 23 day journey to Bolivia that I am both excited and nervous about, but I am learning to lean, I'm learning to lean, I'm learning to lean on Jesus.