Our Call - The Sweaters

On Christmas Eve of 2003, a friend gave us two Christmas gifts. They were alpaca sweaters from Peru. She proceeded to tell us that in 1993, ten years prior, she did a missions trip to Peru. While she was there, the Lord spoke to her and told her to buy these two sweaters and to wait until He told her who to give them to and when. She waited ten years. The Lord spoke and told her to give them to us Bill and Lena Shrader.

As I stared at my sweater, our friend said, “There’s a message from God in those sweaters.”

I said, “What is it?”

She said, “That’s for you to find out.” (Note: never trust a prophet who does your homework for you. When the going gets tough, you need to know you got your orders from God.)

I took up the challenge and took my sweater to our bedroom, where I do my morning devotions. I would lay the sweater out on the bed and kneel with my forehead on the sweater. I cried out, “God, what’s the message?!” I cried that out, over and over.

In the second month, I changed the prayer to, “If you want us to go to Peru, just say the word. IF you want us to go to Peru, just say the word.”

By the time we reached the third month, my heart had started to change. After 20 years of working with college students, my heart was starting to change. In the third month, I took the word “if” off of my prayers and started praying, “Just say the word.”

By the fourth month, God had spoken so dramatically that I knew I was in disobedience praying about it anymore. The time for prayer had past. It was time for action. I picked up my sweater and said, “Father, I’m going to Peru!” But there was still some fear in my heart, so I added, “And if this turns out to be a big mistake, you’re going to have to stop me.” Even as I said it, I knew it was no mistake.

P.S. People ask us if the sweaters fit. The answer is a resounding Yes.

Answered Prayers

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. I've had two all-nighters in the past week, working on a paper for a doctoral class. I'm grateful to the Lord for giving me clarity of thought and the motivation to press through my sleepiness. That is a gift from the Spirit that I believe has come my way because friends are praying. Thanks!

We've been in a quandary over whether we should sell or rent our house. I asked many of my missionary friends for their input. Many said to rent. Most said, "It depends on if you know the renters." Finally, one friend wrote from overseas and suggested that we rent for the first year and see if it works. That advice had the ring of wisdom to it, so now I feel good about renting the house. I guess that our new prayer request should be for the right renters.

I thank the Lord for giving us peace each step of the way.

Prayer Request - Stop & Listen - May 18, 2006

Colton is playing soccer this Spring. After a recent game, I asked him why he stopped short of kicking the ball.

He said, "The coach told us to stop and think!"

I explained that the coach did not mean for Colton to stop running every time he got to the ball; rather, to think about the play before wildly kicking the ball.

That's good advice and Lena and I are having a hard time following it. We need the Holy Spirit's help to know how to live a normal life while preparing to move overseas. I remember when we moved across town five years ago. It took months to quit obsessing about the house and the move. That's where we are now, only with a much bigger move. Please pray for us, that the Holy Spirit would help us to "stop and listen." We long to be quiet and listen to the Lord's voice--to know the peace that transcends understanding (Philippians 4:7).

Prayer Requests - May 14, 2006

1) For my parents: In my last news update, I asked everyone to pray for my father’s health. He has less than 20% of his heart capacity and severe emphazema. He had contracted pneumonia and was close to death. After everyone started praying, he turned the corner and is still with us. Praise the Lord! Thanks to all of you who prayed and sent emails asking about him. He is now at home, where a hospice nurse checks in on him. I’m grateful for the time I’ve been able to spend with him during his illness—especially given our impending departure from the states. That departure is an ever present part of our consciousness—like a loud clock ticking in the room. That leads to the next few requests…

2) That God would give our families comfort and assurance as our departure date draws nearer.

3) Wisdom concerning whether to sell or rent our home.

4) God’s help and wisdom in packing. What to take and what to leave?

5) That we would raise our budget before our target date of August 29.

6) Inspiration and stamina as I read and write papers for the doctor of ministry degree. Our August 29 departure target and itineration are putting the squeeze on my study time.

7) For the upcoming presidential elections in Peru. The front runner, Ollanta Humala, is a socialist. If he wins, most of the Andean region will be socialist. Humala’s opponent, Alan Garcia, was previously president from 1985-90, when he was overthrown. Whoever becomes president, please pray that it will be a person of righteous wisdom, humility and godliness.

Leaving everything

I drive hundreds of miles every weekend, which provides a lot of time to daydream. My daydreams are very predictable, depending on the season. Since this is Spring, I’ve been dreaming about camping. I love camping. We have a pop-up camper that is the focal point of many dreams. There’s nothing as wonderful as laying in the pop-up’s bed, feeling the night breeze and listening to crickets. We knew when we got the call to Peru that we’d have to give up many of the things we cherish. Obviously, the daily relationships with friends and family are the most costly. The good news is that using an internet phone service, we’ll be able to have a phone number in Ohio that will ring directly in Peru. So, we’ll only be a phone call away…more or less. Emotionally the thought of leaving close relationships behind is overwhelming, so we don’t dwell on it by choice. Nonetheless, our subconscious emotions have a way of breaking through our defenses. For me, this happens when I’m driving and see somebody’s new camper or a great place to camp. Then it gets me—we won’t be camping anymore. Aaaahhhhh! My subconscious goes into overload and I see myself trying to fit our camper in the overhead baggage compartment of the plane. The flight attendant says, “I’m sorry, Sir, but you’ll have to leave that behind.”

I say, “Of course I’ll have to leave it behind, anybody can see that. I just brought it on so I could say goodbye.”

The scene ends with some brutish baggage handlers ripping the camper from my steely grip, while the captain and flight attendant hold me back. With my arms stretched out, reaching for the camper, I say, “Goodbye sweet breezes…Goodbye pitter-patter of the rain of the aluminum roof…goodbye…”

In Luke, chapter 5, Jesus calls out to Peter, Andrew, James and John and says, “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Luke 5:11 says, “When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.” (NASB)

He’s worth it.

Above is a picture of the camper from a XA trip back in September, 2004. Lena is holding Abi, who was one month old. The other people are XA alumni from Wilmington College (Shannon Treadway and Katrina Frazee). Tara Lydy (XA staffer at Wilmington) is preparing the teaching skit for that smoky Sunday morning.

This is a picture of Hannah, reading in the camper at Table Rock Lake. We'll be selling the camper this summer. If you're interested, send me an email at billshrader@earthlink.net.

The raven brought beans

I preached this past weekend at Willow Bend Church in Clarksville, TN, which is pastored by my good friend Buster Gilliam and his wife, Sandy. Buster was my next-door neighbor at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, while we both were working on our Masters of Divinity degrees.

Buster was an incredible blessing to me. I moved to Louisville after living in Boston for 3 ½ years. I went to Boston in the fall of 1985 to attend Gordon-Conwell Seminary and to help plant a church (http://www.bostonworshipcenter.org/). Boston was a struggle for me, given the high cost of living, crazy traffic, cold weather, a failed romantic relationship and the difficulties of a life spread too thin. There is a silver lining to the Boston cloud in my life, I made some really wonderful friends, learned how to drive in the city, matured in my faith, and ate some great food. Nonetheless, by the time I left Boston, I was worn out spiritually, physically and financially. I showed up in Louisville feeling like a wrung-out rag.

I transferred to Southern Baptist Seminary to finish my Master’s degree. I lost my wallet in the parking lot, where it was picked up by Buster Gilliam. Buster had recently retired from the Army. He took the wallet to the administration building and found out the owner was his neighbor—so he brought the wallet home. That was a fateful day for both of us. Buster is a great cook and loved to make pinto beans with ham hocks. I would make rice, and the two of us would eat all week. Those beans, and the great conversations we had while eating them, soothed my soul like a healing balm.

Buster went on to get his Doctor of Ministry degree and planted a great church in Clarksville, Tennessee (http://www.willowbend.org/). When I was preaching in the area, I stopped by and saw Buster for the first time in over a decade. I asked the Lord to give me a scriptural picture of how He had used Buster to minister to me. The Lord gave me the picture of Elijah being fed by the Ravens. In 1 Kings 17:1-6, God provides for the prophet Elijah during a horrible draught by commanding ravens to bring him food. Verses 5 and 6 say, “So Elijah did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” (NIV) This is a great example of God’s miraculous provision for a guy in a tough situation. It is also an excellent example of how my friendship with Buster was healing for me.

I’ve been studying Emotional Intelligence for my doctoral project. Daniel Goleman says in his book entitled, Emotional Intelligence, that one friend can make the difference between a life of wisdom and contentedness and a life of discontent, marked by destructive decisions. When I needed a friend who would help me stay on the path of wisdom and contentedness, the Lord sent Buster—like a raven with beans.

Longing for Narnia, Heaven & Lima

The Chronicles of Narnia have a permanent spot on my list of favorite books and they've won over my kids as well. On our recent trip to Texas and Georgia, we listened to the Focus on the Family audio CD's of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In the book, the characters are admiring a painting of a sailing ship that looks like the ships of Narnia. Suddenly, waves on the painting begin to swell, the kids get sucked into the painting and back into Narnia. The audio CD has great sound effects and listening to the story again sent shivers through my body. I paused the CD and asked the kids, "Where do you want to be right now?"

They answered, "Narnia!"

I agreed. Having read the books countless times, it only takes a few sentences before I'm wishing I was back in Narnia--having a great adventure. Lewis was trying to communicate with our emotions, to help us yearn for heaven by touching that place in our hearts that yearns for beauty, adventure, camaraderie and justice. I often pray that the Lord will help me to yearn for heaven more than I yearn for the things of this world. It's so easy to feel like this world is two dimensional, when compared to the way I envision Narnia. Heaven has got to be 100 times better, but I don't often imagine it that way. Sometimes our imaginations need a little help. With this in mind, I sometimes take my yearning for Narnia and intentionally dream about Heaven. It helps to keep things in perspective. For example, driving an old mini-van (which Lena calls our “Kleenex box on springs,” doesn’t seem so bad, when I know that my final destination is heaven. Of course, Narnia is fantasy, so it wouldn’t be healthy to spend a lot of time yearning for it. But heaven is real, and it is healthy to yearn for it with that same kind of exhilaration I felt when the kids got sucked into the picture. When we exhibit excitement and anticipation about going to heaven, it shows that we're living out our faith with the right kind of priorities. The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV), "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

Glory is good. I can't wait.

I do another version of this regarding Peru. I often dream about what our lives will be like there. Sometimes my dreams are realistic, sometimes they're ridiculous fantasy. An example of the latter is when I'm riding my scooter. I have a Honda Scooter that I ride when the weather is great--usually to the grocery store with Hannah’s or Colton's arms wrapped around me. Now, a 45 year old man, riding a scooter to buy milk and cereal is not the picture of adventure. But it's all about adventure in my imagination. When I'm riding and the air is fresh, I dream about living in Lima and my heart connects with the great adventure that awaits us. I'm filled with faith building anticipation. Ironically, the air in Lima is not fresh. Lima is infamous for choking smog and high humidity. That doesn't matter, I still like to dream about it. The Lord who called us to Peru is good. In spite of Lima’s smog, I know that God has good things in store for us. So I nurture the expectation of positive adventure. I don't feed this expectation without an understanding of the difficulties that lie ahead--that would be to set myself up for a huge disappointment. But I'm also not going to spend my time worrying about the difficulties that lie ahead. The move over-seas is so costly in terms of the separation we’ll experience from family and friends, if I focus on the hardships all the time, it would be overwhelming. So I nurture the spirit of adventure and combine it with the gift of faith--believing that God has good things in store for us. One of the best ways for me to do this is by riding my scooter to the grocery store.

Jere 29:11 (NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Galveston, O Galveston!

Last week, on Palm Sunday, we had the joy of presenting our Peru call and preaching at Cathedral in the Pines in Beaumont, Texas. Afterward, we spent three days on the beach near Galveston, TX, with John and Tami Flick (previous XA pastors at Western Michigan University). We had a wonderful time. When we first arrived on the beach, Willy immediately stripped off his clothing and ran in the waves. I tried to get him to at least put his underwear on, but he refused. The pics are hysterical, but unsuitable for public posting. Instead of Willy's wild romp, here's a self-portrait of me and Abi on the beach.

After Galveston, we drove to Atlanta, GA and spent two days with my sister's family. We called it the farewell tour, since we will not likely see them again before we leave the country. While in Atlanta, we visited the Coke Museum and drank coke products from around the world. They had "Lilt," my favorite pop from England. Unfortunately, they did not have samples of Inka Cola--the #1 soft drink in Peru.

Willy's Wisdom

Willy says the funniest things. Today he said, “Jesus is the miracle of the God…and that’s why we have to be nice to everyone."

Our Call -- The Pregnancy Prophecy

When we tell the Story of our calling to Peru, we usually begin with the sweaters we received on Christmas Eve 2003. (stay tuned for "the Sweaters" post -- coming soon to a blog near you!) But the story really begins on Dec. 23rd, 2003 at about 10:30 pm. We'd just had my family over to celebrate Christmas, but what was on my mind was the question of whether or not Lena was pregnant. We hadn't told anyone about our suspicions. I was certain of it--so certain that I'd bought Lena a pregnancy test strip, which came back negative. I didn't believe the negative report, so a few days later I bought another one. After my family left for the evening, Lena tried the second test strip. This time it was positive. As we looked at the positive test strip, we both said, "The prophecy is true!"

Six years prior, we received a prophecy that we'd have four kids. We had previously said that we were only planning on two kids...three at the most. Will (our third child) was a surprise. Abigail (the fourth) was a total shock! As we stared at the postitive reading (a little blue plus sign), we could feel God's hand on our lives. He didn't ask our permission to have another child--we'd already surrendered our lives to him. At that moment, a fourth child seemed like an incredible addition to our already stretched organizational capacities. But it didn't matter. We knew in our hearts that God was in control. We came to realize that the fulfillment of this prophecy was part of God's plan for revealing to us just how much He was in control. The next day we received two sweaters and a message from God. The pregnancy test strip (and the prophecy it fulfilled) prepared our hearts.

Potatoes come from Peru

The potato has its origin in Peru and the Peruvians are very proud of that. Recently, Chile tried to hone in on the potato action, which generated the following press release for world-wide publication (from "livinginPeru.com"):

The Universidad Austral de Chile ratified their purpose to inscribe the potatoes cultivated in the Southern part of that country as national patrimony. The Minister of Foreign Affaires of Peru explained that the origin of the potato is in Peru were it is possible to find more than 4 thousands types potatoes, the Department of Agriculture of the US studied the DNA of 261 types of wild potatoes and 98 types of cultivatable potatoes and determined that the origin was in Peru!

God answers prayers

I visited my father today. He's been in a nursing home for a week, after spending 10 days in the hospital. His recovery is amazing. Ten days ago, I was preparing myself for what I thought was his inevitable demise. Today, he was sitting in a reading chair, fully dressed, working on a Sodoku puzzle. God has blessed me. My daily visits to my father in the hospital and nursing home have provided opportunities for meaningful discussions. There was a famous book out a few years ago, titled "Tuesdays with Morrie." It was about a reporters discussions with his dyeing professor. My dad's name is Morris, and my frequent visits to him in the hospital environment have brought that book to mind. But it separates dramatically from the book, since my dad is on the mend. I praise God for this wonderful news, and I thank all of those who prayed with me. Thank you!

Another area where God has answered our prayers is in regard to Lena's spiritual friends. She shared that very few women ask her the types of spiritual questions that encourage personal growth. She's famous for asking friends about their spiritual lives or what the Lord is saying to them, but very few do the same for her. We prayed about it and the next day, Lena had deep conversations with three friends! Two were friends she hadn't spoken with in a long time, who called out of the blue. It's important to journal about these occurrences, otherwise they are quickly forgotten. God answers prayers. We must do the work of remembering them and rejoicing in His faithfulness and love. What a shame to be sad and think that God doesn't care, when He is actually working overtime to show us his love!

Prayer Requests and Thoughts from Bill & Lena - Missionaries to Peru

Bienvenidos! (Welcome!)

Thanks for checking out our blog, where we periodically update our prayer requests and fill friends in on our progress. The call to Peru and our progress in raising the support needed to go has been a wonderful adventure. We've loved speaking in churches and home fellowship groups. We've met the most wonderful people and been blessed to see individuals touched as we prayed with them at the altar. God is so gracious to allow us to play on His team. We're feeling some strong feelings of gratitude!

Here's our first list of prayer requests. Thanks for joining us in conversation with our Savior.

1) My father, Morris (81), has emphysema and congestive heart failure. Recently, both my parents contracted the flu. Dad developed pneumonia and had to be rushed to the hospital. This past two weeks have been a frightening roller-coaster ride. Both of my parents are recovering, but could definitely use prayer.

2) My Doctor of Ministry classes. I’ve been approved for my final project with the title, “Select Components of Emotional Intelligence in Collegiate Discipleship.” As you can see, it’s going to be a bone chilling tale of drama and suspense. As dry as the title sounds, the topic is actually very interesting. I’m looking forward to doing the work. My struggle is getting the reading and writing done, while on the road. Please pray that God would grant me stamina and focus. My hope is to finish the class-work and begin writing the final project before we leave the country at the end of August.

3) That our budget would be fully raised prior to our end-of-August departure. For that to happen, we need churches where we’ve already done our presentation to partner with us. We also need to fill out our schedule with church services, home fellowship groups and private presentations. Sunday evenings and mid-week presentations are the hardest to fill.

4) That God would be glorified as people continue to get saved and refreshed in our services.

Thanks,

Bill