30/30 Club here I come.

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If I’m completely honest – and right now I am – I seriously doubt that in my 33 years I’ve EVER spent 30 minutes with the Lord for 30 consecutive days.  **Pause for effect.**  That’s right.  You heard me.  I’m a ‘professional’ missionary and I can say with pretty certain certainty (repetition mostest definitely intended) that I’ve not spent 30 consecutive days spending at least 30 minutes with Jesus – in his Word.

That ends now.

In 30 days, I’ll join the elusive 30/30 club.  Just how elusive?  There’s no way to know for sure, but my guess is that it’s pretty daggone elusive.  For lots of reasons I’d wager.  Not the least of which is, it’s hard.  You think joining the 30/30 club (30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the same season) is tough for a major league baseball player?  Try joining the 30/30 club as a follower of Christ in America.

I have no hard facts to fall back on here.  No hard evidence.  Just a hard hunch.  And a hard hard hunch at that.

We’re busy.  We’re lazy.  We like easy.  We hate inconvenience.  We hate hard.

Well, I can’t speak for you or anyone else, so I’ll make it personal.  I’m busy.  I’m lazy.  I LOVE easy.  I despise inconvenience.  I HATE hard.

So this is going to be hard.  But I’m resolved to do it.  I need Jesus.  The Lord knows I’ve tried everything else and it doesn’t satisfy.

This is where I’ve chosen to begin.  In God’s Word.  For at least 30 minutes a day.  For 30 days.

It’s going to be hard.  I’ll want to be lazy.  And for it to be easy.

30/30 Club.

Here I come…

…care to join me?

…care to help keep me on track?

Let’s hear about it in the comments.

East Asia in February

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Amy and I (sans kiddos) will be taking a little hop, skip and a jump over to East Asia next month!  Yep. And we can’t WAIT! Part of Scott’s new role with Cru (that’s hip for Campus Crusade for Christ) is regularly going to visit our missionaries around the world. Ideally, we make visits to each place we have missionaries every 2 years. This isn’t always possible, as you might imagine – and sometimes, we end up visiting a place or two more often than every 2 years.  As far as East Asia is concerned, we are going next month in an effort to continue to bless our missionary friends there.

We’ll share more in an upcoming post, but in the meantime, we invite you to pray for us as we prepare to go – there is lots to do: renew passports, secure travel visas, buy plane tickets, and of course FIND BABYSITTERS for our four rugrats.  They’re such nice, well-behaved rugrats though!

Our deepest desire is that in the coming weeks we meet intimately with Jesus and take with us all the spiritual encouragement and love possible. It’s not often our front line warriors get a visit like this!

Unmistakable!

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Quite the word huh? Unmistakable. So let me ask you a quick question – what’s unmistakable about you? What I mean is – are you a cook? A runner? A reader? A sports nut? What is it that shines so clearly in your life that it’s unmistakable?

Amy, the kids and I spent the last week of December with 1774 students who were asking that very question. They were so eager to give God priority; the place of prominence so that their lives might be “Unmistakable!” for Christ.

We witnessed God use Campus Crusade’s annual Winter Conference, IndyCC, just like he does every year – to capture the hearts of countless college students. Each year, I play a unique role at this influential conference. Perhaps like most people, you have a “behind the scenes” job. It isn’t flashy – but it’s completely necessary. The kind of job that no one thinks about if you do it right, but one that everyone notices if you don’t. My job was to oversee all of the data behind the conference: everything from computers, routers and Access databases to shepherding non-technical people in how to use those types of things. In short, I needed to make sure we captured accurate student data and then massage it into something useful. But here’s the best part of what you and I did together: we leveraged technology and information such that the 1700+ students could come, sit and hear from God – and all without even a thought about logistics or technology. By making it simple and easy for the students to check-in to the conference, we paved the way so that they could listen for God’s voice (in the talks, in their personal Bible reading times, in conversations with their mentors, during the day of outreach, etc.). I wish you could have been beside me as I walked past hundreds of students (on my way to run a query, fix a database problem, whip up a needed spreadsheet, etc.). You couldn’t help but smile, knowing that it was here (and in a small way, because of our work) that they were meeting with God.

You and I are a team and together we have the privilege of seeing God at work. You share in these eternal rewards – in this lasting fruit.

Thanks for journeying with us as we help show our students a clearer picture of who God is and what His Kingdom is all about – as we challenge them to live lives that are unmistakably FOR Jesus Christ!

Serving right there with you,

Scott and Amy

defining .ro

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Some of you may remember Mathisons.ro from years ago – when Amy and I were first married and were preparing to move to other side of the world we purchased a web domain. And as is typical for me, I chose what I thought to be the best available deal out there. Standard site names ending in .com or .org were just too expensive and required an annual fee.  But wait!  What’s this?!?  An ending that you could buy???  One that didn’t require an ongoing financial commitment?  One that we’d own for life???  Amazing.  Sign me up.  And we did.  Mathisons.ro became our web home – well, at least until we started adding kids so fast that we simply didn’t have time to manage a website.

But. Uh. So what’s with the .ro at the end you might ask? Simple! It’s a country ending. You know – like .ca (for Canada) or .uk (for the United Kingdom). Our new site was a ROMANIAN site! Well, at least in name. And ever since I’ve had countless experiences like this:

“What’s your email address sir?” “scott at mathisons dot ro.” “Dot what?” “Dot R O” “I’m sorry?” “Dot R O – it stands for Romania. It was cheap. And I bought it. And my email address is…”

You get the idea.  Anyway, starting today, .ro means something different.  Something new.  Something much more compelling – and packed with meaning.  From now on it will stand for Reaching Out.  Much better don’t you think?

To explain why we’ve chosen Reaching Out over Romania, I must first explain a bit about my new (as of this past August) role with Campus Crusade (Cru).  In our last newsletter I shared a bit about how I am no longer serving specifically in the area of computers, technology and IT.  My new position is much more ‘people-y’.  My job – it sounds funny to call it that since it is so AWESOME – is caring.  Caring for, connecting with, serving, visiting, counseling, helping…the 100+ long-term Cru missionaries that we (‘we’ in this case means the Cru ministry in this part of the U.S.) have sent all over the world.  And I do mean all over the world!  Slovenia.  Germany.  Italy.  Zambia.  New Zealand.  East Asia.  And several other closed countries that I cannot name.  It’s an incredible opportunity for me – and for Amy too – to focus on REACHING OUT.  Not that we haven’t been reaching out over the past 8 years with Crusade, but we are now much more tangibly focused on reaching outside of ourselves; outside of our borders even; to serve, love and care.  It’s exciting!  And we’re excited at what God has in store for us!

www.mathisons.ro — the mathison family . reaching out