The Intent of the Heart. We help folks. Some people think we just naturally do good things but Christ is the motivation. I married a lady with a touched heart. She had known Jesus Christ but the Christian thing was new to me. She was already in the habit of giving out because His love had been given to her. It was not long before I was doing the same thing. That was decades ago but we never stopped giving–just like the Lord never stops loving. This is the way it is with the Lord. He touches hearts with his love–giving life and peace as redemption takes hold. Then believers begin to give out of the same love.
Open Doors. You learn, when walking the Lord, to recognize circumstances that have a different ring. Indeed, the Holy Spirit makes ways for us. Often circumstances become open doors. Some of the doors we do not expect. That is how we ended up sending things to Uganda and eventually a container a few years ago. But three years ago we had a short meeting with a lady in the US that led to a trip to a school foundation in the Philippines. We went to help in a specific way, but found other things we could address, so we began to send boxes. The main large room in our home became a crossroads for the preparation of those boxes as Linda sorted, packed, and moved things that she believed would help teachers and children a long distance from Virginia.
House of Another Color. Last fall we transformed the house again. The biggest rooms became sorting stations. The smaller rooms had the stuff. A nearby cottage took the overflow. We needed to send a second batch of boxes, but the batch grew….and grew…and grew. Special boxes were marked with a piece of pink tape, because we were planning to go for a year starting in the Spring of 2012. Each box goes through the same procedure: individually organized and packed; each item listed on paper; boxes are carefully taped; shipping paperwork is filled out; moved and loaded into a trailer. Every time we got 10-12 ready, they were taken to Advancing Native Missions. The picture shows us with the last boxes of the early 2012 batch.
Our Precious Helping Friends. Meet Cris from the Philippines. She and her husband take the boxes from ANM to a Virginia FOREX office near the coast several times each year. Many ANM staff members are friends. Several help us with various things as we bring boxes and load them in the warehouse. John runs the warehouse and has been a great help. Cris prints out paperwork for us and shortens our administrative tasks. She, like us, sends stuff the the Philippines and knows many needy ministries in that area of the world. Yes, the Lord opens doors for us to minister to needs, but along the way there are other believers like John and Cris that help us, because they have the same heart. On this particular occasion, we had completed a 35 box shipment. It takes about two months to get to its destination. It costs about $85 to send a single box.
Real Issues: the People and the Kingdom of God
Our method of ministry was strongly influenced by a few noteworthy mothers and fathers in the faith nearly 40 years ago. We learned to marry spiritual and practical things. When able, we do not separate them. So sending boxes is wonderful, but it is face-on-face that makes any 
acts or works special. The Philippine project began with these things in mind, so we delivered ourselves when we went to encourage and love our friends. Of course, it meant bringing things, too. The result of three trips is a love between us. Here are just three of our friends. Madol, Deo, and Roselle were in our classes but also became our friends. We love them, but they also love and looked after us. They are standing on the new observation deck that came about because of our relationship with the director and our friends. Now the school has things they did not have before, the medical work has supplies that God opened doors to get and send, and these three (among others) can use telescope kits to present the created heavens to children, the community, and other foundation schools.
We will return. There is more to give and more to do. It is, however, a two-way street, because they love us as we love them. Together, we rejoice and what God has done….and look for more to do.
Faith in Jeus Christ that is real is like this. It has feet. It meets real people with real helps. We tell people all the time: let your faith grow so that it marries practical and spiritual things. Don’t flap your gums and do nothing. Likewise, don’t do things and never speak of Him. Rather, out of His love and grace, let love be extended in both practical and spiritual ways.
If you need a little more guidance or spiritual basics on the subject, read James or the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. It is pretty plain what constitutes real faith.
