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Until next time, still awestruck by God’s amazing love,
jon cardwell & family
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Vayahiy!

(And It Came to Pass… June 25, 2005)

“The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and a good report makes the bones healthy” (Proverbs 15:30, NKJV).

reflecting on our visit…

It was a month ago today, May 25^th, that Joel Caldwell and Matt Zeigler (Arctic Barnabas Ministries) flew Rodney Sawyer, Lisa, Rachel, and I out to Scammon Bay. I remember as vividly as if it was yesterday, flying over the Kuskokwim River and seeing small villages, villages smaller than Scammon Bay, pop up here and there in the middle of the tundra. I remember wondering how often (or how seldom) anyone got in there to pray with the people of those villages; to share the testimony of Jesus with them; to encourage them with God’s word. Flying out of Scammon Bay to Anchorage two days later, I wondered if saints from Scammon Bay, or Hooper Bay, or Bethel or any other village in Western Alaska, would be so filled with the Spirit of Christ that he or she would go and be a light to those villages, allowing the Scripture to live in them, as it is written, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:1).

O, to witness that! Yet, we know that we don’t need to struggle with it or worry about it. We just need to be single-minded: submissive to our heavenly Father’s will, through our Lord Jesus Messiah, by the power of His Spirit. If we maintain that, there is joy in every phase of this missionary journey. It means that every pastor we contact about Scammon Bay, every family we share photos with, every person that we meet, if only for a single moment to pray, is an opportunity to please God.

I must admit that Lisa and I have had moments when we bordered on anxiety over the thought that Scammon Bay Covenant Church will be without a pastor until we get up there. Thank God we haven’t had our moments at the same time so that we could encourage one another not to sin… because worry is sin. We are commanded to be anxious for nothing (Philippians 4:6) and to cast our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:7), not to mention Jesus’ own teaching on the mount (Matthew 6:25-34). Regardless of the outcome or the visible results, what’s important is staying rightly related with God in Christ. We pray that we get up there sooner than later, but whatever the result, or whenever the outcome, our outlook is becoming more like William Borden’s when he wrote in His Bible: “No Reserves; No Retreats; No Regrets.”

ecc annual meeting…

I’m new to the Evangelical Covenant Church. In fact, I’m new to any denominational association. My training and discipleship has been primarily through Calvary Chapel, a non-denominational group of church affiliates. And although I was pastor of First Filipino Methodist Church a few years back, it was an independent congregation, tied only to the Methodist denomination in some of her liturgy and most of her doctrinal affirmations. It’s not that I don’t know about the doctrines or liturgies of denominational churches. I do know the histories, liturgies, and doctrinal leanings of most denominations. This is the first time, however, that I’ve had the opportunity to work within a network whose government extends beyond the local church and her board.

Because I haven’t worked within a denomination, I’ve been researching the Evangelical Covenant Church ever since Joel Caldwell (Director, Arctic Barnabas Ministries) put me in touch with Rodney Sawyer (Field Director, ECC Alaska) early this year. It’s been a joyful discovery ever since. Everyone we’ve met has been awesome… but I knew that the Covenant had to have something special because an old friend of ours from the Philippine mission field, Al Tizon, has been the senior pastor at Berkeley Covenant Church for several years now. Al and I are astonished beyond words when we consider that the Lord has brought us both to the Covenant Church.

Another joy from this recent ECC research has been staying current with the 120^th Annual Meeting in Keystone, Colorado via the Internet: the celebration of our Lord; the fellowship of the saints; the worldwide missions emphasis. There was a great deal poured into those 3.5 days between June 21-24.

Particularly noteworthy for me was the 2^nd evening worship service held on June 22^nd. Stan Friedman wrote an excellent article about it, entitled “Must Challenge Barriers to Reach World” (click here to read the article). David Gibbons, lead pastor of the multi-ethnic, multi-campus Newsong Community Church in Irvine (and Los Angeles and North Orange County) inspired covenanters with the Biblical truth of leading from our weaknesses rather than from our strengths (2 Corinthians 12:10). Pastor Dave suggested that there are seven barriers that the church must break through to be effective in reaching others: Comfort, Conflict, Culture, Cash flow, Control, Church/Christianity, and Centralization. His perspectives on these issues reminded me of an article I had written for the King Cove Bible Chapel website in the autumn of 2003: “The Living Logos” (click here to read the article). Using John 21 as the text for my article, I presented the topsy-turvy logic of God as He commands a fisherman to be a shepherd. Although he didn’t come right out and say it in this way, between the lines I heard Pastor Dave tell us that our approach to missions (and basically our personal Christianity) is a call to be Biblical, not business minded; to be reconciled to others, not merely responsive; to be filled with Christ’s compassion in order to carry out His commission… and if Pastor Dave didn’t say it, or even imply it, then praise God, it must have been the Lord!

new article…

“The Sign of Jonah” actually isn’t a new article. Originally written in February as a supplemental booklet for a Bible study, the web article has been edited and expanded because I could not include the calendars, diagrams, photos, and illustrations that were in the original booklet. Here is a sample of the article’s beginning:

THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS?

Traditionally, many people accept and observe “Palm Sunday” as the Lord’s Triumphal Entry, that He was crucified on “Good Friday” five days later, and that He was resurrected on “Easter” Sunday, only a day and a half after that. The difficulty with this traditional view is that it attempts to squeeze three days and three nights into a 48-hour period. Jesus said that He would be buried for three days and nights. When the religious leaders desired to see a sign from the Lord to authenticate His ministry as the Messiah, He responded, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40).

Nowhere in Scripture is Sunday mentioned as the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Nowhere in Scripture does it specify that Friday was the day the Lord was crucified. I believe these conjectures come from a misunderstanding of the Jewish Sabbaths and Hebrew Scriptures.

don’t worry, be happy…

If you find what I have to present hard to follow… or even hard to swallow, that’s okay. You can outright disagree with me if you’re so inclined. It won’t bother me in the least— and you won’t be any less saved by not believing it, nor will you be more sanctified by knowing it. AND, I won’t love you any less, no matter what your stance. I’m only writing this so that we can look at Scripture through a more discerning lens, and hopefully, draw nearer to our Lord because we can be certain that if He left us His holy Word so that we can learn to worship Him properly, then we can trust that He left it complete and without error.

[Read the rest of the article]

vayahiy.com

The Vayahiy website has been updated several times in the past month. We pray that it becomes a source of edification and encouragement to the body of Christ. We also hope that our website becomes an informative resource to the saints in Scammon Bay as well as our mission partners. If you have any input as to what we can do to make our site better, please let us know. You can email me at: jon@vayahiy.com

We’d like to acknowledge ForMinistry.com for making our website possible. If you have a ministry, or know of someone who has a ministry, and desire to have a website, it’s pretty easy (and free) if you check out http://www.ForMinistry.com. The designs are terrific and the templates are easy to manage, especially if you don’t have the time to try to learn how to make a website from scratch.

Just a few updates of note:

· “The Sign of Jonah”: A new article exploring whether Jesus was crucified on Friday or actually on Wednesday; and why it is important to reconcile the sign of Jesus’ resurrection [go to http://www.vayahiy.com/Articles004.dsp]

· Resource Spotlight: Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest [go to http://www.vayahiy.com/Resources.dsp]

· Vayahiy Publications: Online booklets and other publications have been made available in MS Word format (we hope to make them available in other formats in the future, i.e., Abode *.pdf [go to http://www.vayahiy.com/Resources.dsp]

· Missionary Spotlight: Gayle D. Erwin, author of The Jesus Style is the featured missionary for our premier spotlight [go to http://www.vayahiy.com/Missions.dsp]

· Vayahiy Links: We have so many new links that you’ll just have to have fun surfing to find out which ones are new [go to http://www.vayahiy.com/Links.dsp]

Until next time, still awestruck by God’s amazing love,

jon & family

VAYAHIY! (And It Came to Pass... June 2, 2005)

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country" (Proverbs 25:25).

It's taken 8 months in California before we could hear exactly what God wanted to do with us and through us. We heard His voice clearly as Scammon Bay Covenant Church has invited us to pastor their congregation in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska.

When Dr. Roger Holmberg asked us to work with him in Alaska missions, our hearts stirred within us to return to the northern frontier. As we were wrestling with the prospect of going to Anchorage, I got so sick that I had to go to the VA hospital for tests. I couldn’t eat more than soda crackers and water. It turned out to be an awesome time of prayer and meditation upon God’s word… and my ailments continued until Rodney Sawyer, field director for Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska, made arrangements to fly down to California with his wife, Nancy, to speak with Lisa and I about ministering in Scammon Bay. Although a few minor tests are still being run, I haven’t had any trouble with my stomach since. And the rest is as they say— history.

This opportunity presents many exciting challenges and awesome possibilities. One of the things that I’m most excited about is having the opportunity to serve as a missionary pastor. Because of its remote location and extreme living conditions, we will have to solicit support in order to go, as well as for our continued ministry once we get there. But that’s one of the best things about this particular ministry: having the opportunity to partner with others in God’s work. Although I had been actively involved with missions for most of my Christian walk, after 20 years it’s finally sinking in! The sending church gets to be involved with what God is doing in the mission church and the mission church gets to be involved with what God is doing in the sending church.

We are praying for God’s guidance, opportunity, and provision as we look forward to the next phase of our journey, making connections and establishing partnerships.

More details about our mission to Scammon Bay (including some links to photos) can be found at: www.vayahiy.com/Missions.dsp

If you would like to pray more specifically and knowledgably for us, we have posted our prayer requests at: www.vayahiy.com/SBCCMission04.dsp

Awestruck by God's amazing love,

Jon & family