On The Rhoads

I’d love to do acting some day. But it would have to be a role that I could relate to and really wanted to do. I don’t think I could be fake if I wanted to. My wife especially, can take one look at me and know what I’m thinking.

We’ll I have had some good confirmation that I’m in the right place here at MAF. First, Susan and I were asked to do our presentation for the Ministry Partnership Seminar a couple of weeks ago. That’s where the new missionaries learn how we do fund raising.

We updated our presentation to reflect the fact that I’ve been here doing real work for more than 6 months now. We received very positive feedback on our presentation. People said it was obvious we were excited about what we’re doing.

Then just last week, our director and some other guys on our team were in town for meetings. Two or three people said they appreciated my passion.

I just now got done with a meeting with a guy who is going to be representing us and helping educational institutions in the Arab world to do distance education. I got to tell him about my current project and about my vision for using cell phones for mobile learning. And I realize how excited I really am about this work.

It’s fantastic to have the actual work I’m doing matter for the Kingdom. But please pray that I’ll continue to grow in my passion for Christ Himself.

I just got this email from the MAF International President and I wanted to share it. Our family has certainly found this to be true. In one of the sermons I preach, I say, “If you are born again, you should never be bored again”!

Dear MAF Family,

It’s a beautiful warm (as opposed to hot!) summer day here in the south of England.  After living for 27 years in the tropics, Mikel Ann and I are still amazed that the sky can be blue with the sun shining brightly and yet the temperature remains comfortable!

I’m just finishing reading Just Courage by Gary Haugen.  Gary is the President and CEO of the International Justice Mission, a leading Christian mission working in human rights around the world.  Gary’s opening illustration really struck me and I want to pass it on to you.

As a 10 year old boy Gary joined his father and two older brothers on an adventure trip to climb a large mountain in the Pacific northwest of the US.  When they arrived at the nature reserve and visitor center at the foot of the climb the prospect of scaling that huge mountain was too much for the 10 year old.  After much begging he was able to persuade his father to allow him to stay at the visitor center all day long while his father and two brothers climbed the mountain.  Eight hours in the visitor center became very long and boring.  The ‘loop’ videos describing the history of the mountain lost their excitement.  Once he had read all the history and seen all the pictures multiple times, the visitor center lost all its appeal.  He began to wonder if he had made the wrong decision by not joining the climb.  His doubts were confirmed when his father and brothers returned, excitedly relating the story of their journey up the mountain.  Young Gary realized that he had missed an opportunity of a lifetime to be on an adventure with his father and brothers.

The spiritual application of this story is clear.  God calls us to go on the adventure with Him.  The adventure includes risk, pain, great effort and personal sacrifice.  Because of this, many people, in fact the vast majority of Christians, choose the comfort and security of the visitor center over the challenges of the adventure.  Few choose the adventure.  Few are willing to take the risks and make the sacrifices of the adventure with the Father.  And yet the rewards of scaling the mountain with Him are beyond all we could ever ask or think.

As I meditated on this truth I was blessed to think that I have the privilege of leading an organization full of people who have said ‘yes’ to the adventure!  You have sacrificed much to be where you are.  There is risk.  There is hardship.  And yet nothing compares to being on the ascent with the Father!  He has called you.  He will sustain you.  He will see you through to the top.

I wish there was some way I could express my appreciation and admiration for each one of you.  You have made the choice that most followers of Jesus are unwilling to make.  You have left all to serve Him in the remotest parts of the earth!  May God grant you a great adventure as you follow Him where you serve.

Yours in the adventure,
Ron

God is doing exciting things these days! M and her baby have been here for a week now. Things are going very well. Please continue to remember us all in your prayers. Susan needs some introvert time.

David just left for a missions trip to Salt Lake City, Utah with our church youth group. Please pray for safe travel and that God will work through them and in them.

I’ll be attending a conference in October in AZ. We’ll be combing that with a deputation trip. And I’ll be recruiting for MAF at Urbana 09 between Christmas and New Years. I have *lots* of work to do to make these trips as effective as possible. Please pray that all the details will come together. And we’re thankful that by working Urbana, we’ll be able to go back to Chicago for Christmas.

Right now, Susan and I are preparing to help with the Ministry Partnership (fund raising) Seminar next week.  And I’m trying really hard to get the 1st version of our new product (a system to create digital libraries) out next week.

And did I mention we’re working on starting a church too ?! We discovered Cowboy Churches while on deputation. It’s just what it sounds like. And there’s an obvious need for one in this area. We have a good friend who has been a pastor  and now runs a youth horse ranch ministry here (http://www.blazinghope.com). He and I are starting to meet weekly to pray and to plan. God willing, Blazing Hope Cowboy Church will launch next Easter.

Thanks for praying!

What an amazing journey!  And what a GREAT God we serve!  Just two years ago we began the application process with Mission Aviation Fellowship.  As we have trusted God, he has led us and blessed us beyond measure.  We can not get over what a blessing it is to get to serve God through the ministry of Mission Aviation Fellowship.  It seemed a little crazy for Brad to quit his job and sell our house in a downturned economy, but God can do anything.  We reached out initial support goal this fall and have moved to MAF’s home office in Nampa, ID.

We had people praying for us for months about our housing and finding a new church home.  We just wanted to be where God could use us the most.

We thought we would have to rent a house, but the downturn in the economy meant a great opportunity for us.  Housing prices here are at their lowest in years.  We looked for a house for about a week and were ready to make an offer on one when our realtor attended a lunch sponsored by a local builder.  Our realtor told the builder about us and explained that our budget would not allow us to purchase one of his houses.  They discussed our needs and our realtor left the lunch.  Three hours later, our realtor got a call.  They said, “Show them this house.”  Our realtor pulled up the listing on his computer and reminded them of our budget.  They said, “Show them the house and put in a low offer.”

The builder had done a custom job for someone that fell through.  He had a BEAUTIFUL: home that had been sitting empty for a year after completion and he was willing to let us buy it for what our budget allowed, which was WAY below the market value, even in a slow market.  God clearly answered the prayers about directing us to the house he wanted us in.  And He blessed us with a home more incredible than we could ever imagine.  We moved in December 20^th.  We go to bed every night wondering when someone is going to knock on the door and tell us to get out because this couldn’t possibly be our house!

Our new house is very close to the site where our new church is building a new building.  We had people praying for us to find a new church home quickly and it happened.  We are very excited to be a part of this body.  Between friends from MAF and our new church, we had over 30 people come to help unload the moving truck that had been in storage since we left Illinois.  It was completely emptied in only ONE hour.

We also asked for people to pray for friends for our kids.  God has covered every detail.  The house across the street has a Christian family with a ten year old boy and they just moved here in September.  We also have MANY new friends both at church and through MAF.  Sarah has a little playmate who has been over several times already.

We want to thank you for praying for us and encourage you with the news of how God has answered your prayers.  Here are our current needs to lay before God:

1. Brad’s work:  How exciting it is to be working as part of the learning technologies team!  Here is Brad’s technical update on his work:

I’m working on two main projects right now. The first one is our DEViewer program. It’s a program for presenting training that has a very simple user interface. I’m trying to make it available to a wider audience by getting it to work in another web browser (Firefox). The current program only works in Internet Explorer and so limits its use to machines running Microsoft Windows. After my update is released it will be able to run on computers running other operating systems, such as Linux and the Macintosh.

The other project I’m actively working on is called Flash Lit (pronounced Flash Light). It’s a program I’m starting from scratch that is a kind of digital card catalog. It’s an index for digital libraries. For example, we have a missionary in Thailand who is building a library of theological resources in the Thai language. Whereas we might not be able to freely distribute all of the resources (many we can), Flash Lit will make the availability of these resources know and at least provide information on where the resources can be found. A neat feature of Flash Lit is that it can be given to other people to develop indexes and then all of these separate indexes can be aggregated automatically. So our missionary may have the master index that brings in information from other people all over the country.

I’d love to talk to anyone who’s interested in hearing more.

1. Susan’s Trip:  Jan 4 will be one year since my dad went home to be with the Lord.  I got a bargain ticket (yeah southwest!) and am going to fly back to Illinois on New Years Day to be with Mom for a week.  Please pray for God’s comfort and peace at this time.  Pray for Brad as he is home with the kids by himself.  Thank God for our new friends who will watch the kids while Brad is at work.

1. Financial Support:  Praise God for providing for the financial needs of our ministry!  Pray for our ministry support to be maintained and grow a little to cover rising costs.

Thank you again for your prayer support.  Without you, our ministry would not be effective.  We can’t wait to see what God does next!

Happy New Year!

Love,

Brad and Susan

I just got this email from from the president of MAF International, Ron Pritz. He makes a great point that “sacrafice is suffering chosen.”  Please join us in praying for the family of our lost pilot.

Dear MAF Family,

Greetings in the Name of the One Who sacrificed His own Son for our sake.

As I write this letter the word “sacrifice” stands out.  You are all aware that yesterday, on our world-wide Day of Prayer, our brother Hadleigh Smith, a young single pilot, and his aircraft were lost while on a routine flight in northern Australia.  Today the search and rescue effort discovered debris from his airplane on the shoreline, indicating that the aircraft had crashed at sea.  The tragedy and loss impacts us all, some far more than others.  The grief will be intense for Hadleigh’s family in Australia.  His “immediate” MAF family in Arnhem Land will suffer the loss plus the trauma that comes with any fatal accident in a program.  The rest of us will grieve with them and support them on our knees before the Lord.

Sacrifice is suffering chosen.  Many people in the world suffer.  But what distinguishes suffering from sacrifice is that sacrifice is suffering chosen by the one who will have to actually endure it.  This is exactly what our Savior did for us.  He chose to “make Himself nothing . . . and (become) obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:7-8). The Apostle Paul puts the believer’s sacrifice in a new light.  In Philippians 1:29 he says, “It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ . . . to suffer for Him.”  Somehow, in God’s economy, the sacrifice (intentional suffering) of His saints is a “grant” –  a positive thing, something of great value to the one who suffers.  This is not very evident when we lose a brother, as we have this week.  But in an economy absolutely reversed from the world, in God’s economy, there is no greater love!

Just as Christ has sacrificed Himself for us, each of you, including Hadleigh, has chosen to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel.  Thank you for being willing to take less than you could have so that others might have the chance to hear of the sacrifice of Jesus.

In just a few hours I will be flying out of London for Gove, north Australia.  My desire is to be with Bill Harding and the team and in some way come along side them to help bear the incredible burden they are carrying at this time.  I covet your prayers for all of these dear people along with Hadleigh’s family at this time.  Thank you.

In Him,

Ron

From one of our Learning Technologies partners in Kenya:

We had a great time with Mike, though we could not meet on Friday, for fear of fresh wave of rioting after another MP was shot. The church in Kenya has never been praying like the way it has been lately and we thank God for answering our prayers. My family members are all fine and I thank God. Please pass my regards to all MAF staff that know me.

I was interviewed on the Missionary Talks Podcast.

Countries of Service: 52 (includes Learning Technologies)

1 *****

2 Angola

3 Australia: Arnhem Land

4 Bangladesh

5 Brazil (affiliate)

6 Burundi

7 Cambodia

8 Central African Republic

9 Chad

10 China: Mongolia & Learning Technologies

11 Costa Rica (Learning Technologies exclusively)

12 DRC

13 East Timor

14 Ecuador

15 Ethiopia (affiliate)

16 Guatemala (affiliate)

17 Haiti

18 Indonesia: Kalimantan, Papua, Sumatra

19 ******

20 Kenya

21 *******

22 Laos

23 Lesotho

24 Madagascar

25 Malawi

26 Mali (well digging only)

26 *****

27-29 Middle East — 3 countries (Learning Technologies exclusively)

30 ****

31 Namibia

32 North Africa (Learning Technologies exclusively)

33 Papua New Guinea

34 Mexico (affiliate)

35 Mozambique

36 Romania (Learning Technologies exclusively)

37 Russia (Learning Technologies exclusively)

38 Rwanda

39 *****

40 Somalia

41 South Africa

42 Sudan

43 Suriname (affiliate)

44 Swaziland

45 Tanzania

46 Thailand

47 Tajikistan (Learning Technologies, in research & development)

48 Uganda (Learning Technologies exclusively)

49 Ukraine (Learning Technologies exclusively)

50 USA (Learning Technologies & logistics)

51 Zambia

52 Zimbabwe

Update: Removed closed access countries from the list.