Michael & Stacy Creech connecting you to tribal missions Words of Life
I was intrigued at the Perspectives class I attended. Andrew Minch was tonight’s instructor, and towards the end of the class he pulled out a simple piece of cardboard. It had two folds, and on one end was fastened a single nail with a clip.
He explained that God was so consumed with expanding his gospel, he had even used a simple piece of cardboard… something that to us seemed like trash. He then produced a small 75rpm record and placed it on one section on the cardboard. Next he bent the end with the nail over and placed it on to the record. He then used a simple pen (any stick or nail would also work) to turn the record. As the sound reverberated in the cardboard the record became audible, and explained how this simple device was used to preach gospel truth to many over the world. “What a nifty contraption” I thought to myself.
His next statement changed everything.
“Why do you think this was invented? To preach gospel truth? NO! It was invented because there was not enough people willing to go!”
Oh friends, are we willing to stand by silently while inanimate object begin to declare the words of life? Are you willing to be replaced by a piece of cardboard? An mp3 player? A video? Our Lord has given to us such a great ministry to declare life to a dead world, and in the absence of laborers we are forced to send technology in our stead, instead of to our aid.
Imagine the embarrassment if after last year’s tragic tsunami in Japan the United States sent a device such as this over proclaiming “Our best wishes go out to you, we will send money.” It would be as if to say: “We care enough about you to help, but not enough to come help. Not enough to suffer with you, not enough to live with you, not enough to be with you.
As Christians we are to be a people known by our love, not by our savy.
“Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”” -Matthew 9:37,38
Long Lost Friends
Alright they weren’t really long lost, but I was caught off guard when I saw some students walking past our porch this morning. Not caught off guard by the fact that they were here again. I was aware that the semester was starting up. What I was surprised about was how much I had missed them!
I mean, I like our students a lot, but I think, up until that moment, I’d almost forgotten how great it is to have them around. And not just because they’re a bunch of cool people (which they are!), but because they represent one of my greatest passions – missions!
It’s amazing how God can use even the smallest thing to reignite our desire and redirect our focus. At the sight of those students, almost immediately I was flooded with an excitement for this semester. I’d been somewhat dreading the busyness that was about to begin, and that dread was swept away in a heartbeat. This is why we’re here! To be a part of serving those who will, in turn, go out and serve the Lord, all over our country and the world! I was reminded of how blessed I am to be here.
There is a new group of freshman starting up, and we’re excited for the opportunity to get to know them and watch them grow in their relationships with the Lord.
Michael is going to be taking a Perspectives class (about world missions) this semester, and I think it’s going to be encouraging to both of us. To be able to study how God has worked in missions throughout the years? What better way to fuel our passion for our ministry!
All that to say, we’re looking forward to this semester, eager to see what God will do, and grateful to be a part of it.
~Stacy
Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
When Feelings Fail
Have you ever thought about how much of your life is driven by feelings? I hadn’t…until recently.
I’ve prided myself for quite some time, on knowing the truth about feelings. I know that I often-times can’t trust them. I’ve winced when I heard the phrase, “Just follow your heart and you’ll do fine.” In my head, I’ve completely disagreed with the idea that feelings should have such a strong hold over my thoughts and actions, and yet…
And yet, more often then not, I’m living based off of my emotions rather than based off of truth. And not even noticing it.
I think that when life is going well, this is easy to slip into. It is for me. I had honestly never even considered how emotionally driven I was until the last few months.
Let me just pause for a moment to clarify something. I’m not saying emotions are bad. I think emotions are a God-given, powerful, wonderful tool that He can use in an amazing way in our lives. What I’m talking about are the times when our emotions supersede truth. When God says, “I have you. You can rest.” and my feelings tell me “I’m alone!! I have to do something!” And when instead of trusting God, and His words, I trust in my feelings and my thoughts. That’s when they are dangerous.
I say all this because I have been struggling with faith vs. feeling lately. There are a couple things going on in life right now that leave me with the feeling that all is not right with the world. And it’s not. Suffering, pain and hurt aren’t right. God never intended them to be right. But He never intended for me to be beaten by them either. Christ overcame, and in Christ I can overcome.
That doesn’t mean that I won’t experience those things at all. You don’t have to look far to see that everyone suffers to one degree or another. Yet some people seem to rise above the pain and emerge triumphant, while others sink and wallow in it. In my opinion, the difference is found in the faith vs. feeling arena.
Those who are unable to look beyond their feelings about the hardships that have come, are overcome. Those who choose to hope, choose to have faith, are the over-comers.
Believers whose eyes are firmly fixed on God, rather than the ever-changing events of life, and the feelings which spring from them, are the ones who have truly found joy. Not necessarily happiness, but joy.
I hope and pray that anyone who reads this finds that joy…just as I pray to have it myself. Christ came into this world, was born into this dirty, dingy place, to bring hope, salvation and joy. I have been forgetting what Christmas is about…wondering how we can have a good Christmas when everything isn’t alright, and when everything isn’t as I want it.
In writing this, I’m reminded of how we can have a good Christmas despite my feelings. By looking up and remembering who Christmas is really about! I celebrate Him, not me!! It’s about Him, not me!! Even if life never “felt” right again, He is good, He is right, and He can give me joy, despite my circumstances.
~Stacy
“C is for Cookie…”
Recently we had a group of students over for our, might-become-traditional, semester cookie contest! We had a blast last time, and a few people asked if we could do it again. Our answer? Of course!! Here’s a brief explanation of this wondrously hilarious exercise in baking.
Contestants are paired into teams of two and given all the normal ingredients necessary to make cookies. However, there are also four secret ingredients that are revealed before they can begin to mix. They are required to choose at least two of these ingredients and incorporate them in a… hopefully pleasing way… into their cookies.
Michael and I are the judges, and the winners get… a hearty round of congratulations, the respect of their peers and a plateful of cookies. If they want them.
Actually, to us, the best part is watching a roomful of college students laugh, joke, create, make a mess, and have fun together. Being able to give them a place to relax and forget about the tests and papers, or discuss theology over a cookie is a blessing to us.
Oh, as a side note, last semester’s secret ingredients were: cayenne, ginger, bacon, carrots, and I forgot the last one. This semester we did cloves, apples, oranges and…drum roll please… potato chips!!
What should we do next semester? Any ideas?
Sorry, these pictures are all from last time. Our camera wasn’t working this year. Boo!
Fall Semester Pictures!
Here are a handful of pictures from our family, and around the school in the last couple of months. Enjoy!
Please Save My Daughter
“Please Save My Daughter”
Caked with a mixture of sweat and grime and nearing exhaustion, Wasi stumbled into the neighboring Hewa village, dragging his 16-year-old daughter, Tino, behind him. They collapsed in a heap as villagers and missionaries came running. Muddy rivers of tears streaked down Wasi’s face as he looked up and implored those standing above him,
“Please save my daughter! Please save her! They want to chop her up with an axe!”
Wasi’s fears were not unfounded. Six others from his village had already met the same brutal end. Why? Because of the tragic beliefs and traditions handed down by his Hewa ancestors.
For centuries, the Hewa people of Papua New Guinea have believed that sickness and death are caused by evil spirits. But the deadliest of all these spirits are the ones that inhabit women or children, making them a witch. So when someone dies, the tribal men sit around the fire and quiz each other to find “evidence” of the witch’s identity that caused the death. The two biggest “proofs” of guilt are if someone dreams about you or if you are mentioned in someone’s dying words. Since a Hewa man had recently died and in his final breaths had whispered Tino’s name, she had been declared a witch and marked for death.
Now it was only a matter of time before a raiding party of young men came to hunt her down.
But Wasi had come to the right place. Running through the jungle earlier, blind with fear, clutching his daughter’s arm, all he could think of was, “Go to the village that is different now. The Big Message has changed them. They will care. They will help.”
And they did.
Word went out quickly that another Hewa girl was in danger and needed safe haven. It had to be somewhere far enough away so that no Hewa people had ever hiked there before and never would – out of fear of the unknown evil spirits at that distance.
Then began the long waiting – and praying. And word came back. A believing family in another tribe on the other side of the mountains would adopt Tino as their own daughter. She would be safe there. The missionaries could take her immediately.
Once again, tears covered Wasi’s face, but this time, out of joy. No angry, misguided axes, which had swung in their Hewa mountains for centuries, would swing against his daughter today. Instead, he had witnessed something new. The strangling cord of tradition had been chopped – by people believing a different message. A message of life.
Wasi waved until the helicopter and its precious cargo was just a speck in the distance and then turned for his own long journey home. But this time as he traveled, all he could think of was, “The Big Message is powerful. When will it come to my village?”
Lifesaving faith is cutting a path there now.
The believers who helped save Tino are steadily wielding the truth of the Gospel throughout their Hewa mountains. Wasi’s village is next to hear.
What are you wielding today?
~ Posted on June 7th by Debbie Burgett ~
Praise the Lord for His great work in the Hewa people’s lives! Please pray for those tribes that are still trapped in horrible bondage and fear, and pray for the many students here who are burdened for them! It’s exciting to read these stories and know that we are part of sending out another generation of missionaries to those who are lost.
-Stacy
Time, like a river.
“Time is like a river,” he continued. “It flows along like water, from the future to the present and into the past. But there is a bend in the river. We know the water is coming, but we can’t see it or know it. All we know is that it is coming. The present is now- the days we live today. This is God’s gift to us. It is meant to be enjoyed and lived to the fullest. The present will flow by us. of course, and become the past. That is the way of the river, and that is the way of time.”
I read this the other day, in the book Too Small To Ignore by Dr. Wess Stafford. It is part of a speech given by a village chief to the children of an African village, Nielle (where he grew up).
It was a great reminder to me. While yes, I have to make provisions for the future… I should not live for the future while neglecting the present. This has been some-what difficult for me lately. It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life! Students are now here, and classes already start tomorrow! The last couple of weeks were spent with the student leadership, training our new interns, and getting the kitchen up to full running order. Also added to my plate was a new portion of administrative kitchen responsibilities. I would be lying if I did not admit that there are a few new grey hairs in my beard for over stressing over the future, instead of trusting the Lord in the present.
God, of course, is the creator of time. The fact that he offers me grace to function each new day, should certainly be enough motivation to enjoy, and trust him with it.
-Mike
Blessings
When I listen to music, I find myself often caught by beautiful melodies and harmonies, but the thing that I listen to most closely is the words. Good words, combined with good music, make a powerful and effective communication tool. Unfortunately, bad words with good music can also… but that’s a subject for another day. A song that has been running through my mind is called “Blessings” by Laura Story. The first time I heard it, I cried. And the second time, and so far I’ve only made it through once or twice without it bringing me to tears.
The song is about suffering. An easy subject for most of the world to relate to. I don’t know if suffering just didn’t stand out to me as much when I was young, but with every additional year that I spend on this earth, I seem to see more and more hardship in the lives of those dear to me, and in the world in general. Now, I hesitate to write about suffering at all, as I would say I have not personally experienced the great suffering that I know many others have. But I have hurt with friends. I have cried with loved ones, and many times the thoughts, “This isn’t right! Life shouldn’t be like this!! God why are you allowing this??” have run through my head. I think my thoughts are a little right…and a little wrong. It’s true, this isn’t right! This wasn’t how the world, how life, was supposed to be. But God certainly didn’t ruin it. We did. And without God’s grace this world would be much, much more difficult to live in than it is now! One of the verses in “Blessings” stops me cold. “What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life, is the revealing of a deeper thirst this world can’t satisfy.”
I think that my biggest hang-up in understand or accepting suffering is that I have a skewed view of eternity. I feel like this world, what I can see, hear, taste, touch, smell…this is my life. After this, I get my reward for making it through “life”, by getting to be with Jesus forever. Like I said, skewed. Not that this world isn’t real, and I don’t need to be engaged in it, but eternity, serving God forever, not seeing in part, but wholly, that’s my real life!! This is just training. It’s agonizingly slow sometimes, but ridiculously short in light of eternity. It’s very tempting to be satisfied with the shadow of the real thing, but suffering reminds us that something is incurably wrong with the shadow. It helps us not to get too comfortable.
I’ll be honest, most of the time I’d rather be comfortable. In fact, almost all the time! Suffering frightens me. I am not one of those people that can honestly pray for God to allow suffering into my life so that I can know Him more deeply. What I have become able to pray, as God brings the subject of suffering to my mind, is this. That when it does affect me, I am able to hold tightly to two things: God is good, and He will carry me through it.
I’ll post the song lyrics down here if anyone is interested in reading them.
-Stacy
Blessings- Laura Story
We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things
Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?
We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
And all the while You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe
Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
And what if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise
When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home
Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can’t satisfy?
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?
Family Update
Hello friends. It occurred to me recently that we haven’t given any family updates for a while so I thought I would take a few minutes to catch you up with the latest. Our summer has been great so far. Michael and I are still working, but we’ve been enjoying having more family time! The kids just seem to grow overnight, and we are trying to take advantage of the time we have with them while they are still so young.They, of course, are soaking up the sun and outside play time.
Kelsey is turning into a young lady on us, busy with learning how to ride her bike and use her roller blades. Almost every day she comes to me to show me a “ballet move” that she’s been practicing. She’s preparing for the ballet class she’ll be starting in the fall. Yes, there will be pictures.
Dylan follows pretty much wherever his older sister goes, and wants to do everything she does. This is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. Since he turned three he’s convinced that he is a “big boy” with all the privileges attached to that title. He’s an incredibly tenderhearted kid who is quick to offer to “help”. He’s my snuggler, and I find myself very thankful that he hasn’t grown out of that stage yet.
Riley is our little peanut, who is making up for her lack of size with her emerging personality. She very quickly outgrew the need for snuggles and insists on being up, about and into everything! Although I’m excited about how close she is to walking, I keep wondering how many more things will be accessible to her when that time comes. Her funny faces keep us all in stitches, and she is quite the dancer, despite not being able to walk yet.
Put these three together and you’ll find that there is never a dull moment in our household! Thankfully they adore one another and get along most of the time. All in all, our family has been blessed with a wonderful summer. We’ll be traveling down to Texas next week to get together with friends and family. We’d appreciate your prayers as we travel.
Thanks and hope you are having a great summer of your own!!