Bryan and Christi Wiehoff

The New Year

2010-01-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

We are seriously hyped up about 2010!! Overall, the package inlcudes a new baby, intercultural training, selling all of our possessions, "retiring" from our current jobs (which Bryan is MOST enthused about) & heading down south for language school in Guatemala!!
Our Goal:
We are just praying & hoping this actually happens by this summer. It has been a year since we started raising support for Honduras & we currently have over 70% of the funding. Our goal is to have ALL of it in by summer so we can venture down to Central America. Our spirits groan & ache so often because we feel like we're drifting rather than soaring toward the vision. Nevertheless, we have been incredibly blessed and amazed at how the Lord's timing for everything in the last year could not have been designated any more perfectly at our own will!! Also, we have experienced the blessing of developing a family and team of supporters & partners in ministry. This was something that originally seemed so impossible and distant to our logical comprehension, and when it actually started happening, we were awestruck. How right we were of how out of reach it is in all of man's potential, but at the will of our Lord, as the old saying goes, "Nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37). And I must say, this has been exciting to experience!
Baby Prep:
As of today, we have one month to the baby's due date (Feb. 9)! The few things lacking still are finalizing 6 weeks worth of Maternity Leave lesson plans for my sub at school, finding a pediatrician, making a birth plan, buying a stroller, attending a parent education birth class, and prewashing all those baby clothes before she's supposedly allowed to wear them. Most of these things would not so much have crossed my mind if I didn't live in the days of Google. I've realized through the pregnancy I'm not much of a planner and I'd rather things just happen without much expectation beforehand!! One reason I scheduled the birth class 2 weeks before my due date was in hopes that the baby would come early and I wouldn't have to spend an entire Saturday at the hospital talking about 8 hours worth of labor/delivery stuff. I'd rather be surprised with it all!! Of course, another aspect to not being much of a planner throughout all this probably has to do with the fact that we are in a weird transition of life right now. We can't fix up a nursery because we just expect to leave soon anyhow. So, we have a corner of our bedroom set up with a pack n play that will be her crib for the next 6 months and that's really about it! Not so much "nesting" going on around here, but hopefully once we get to Guatemala this summer, we'll have more the opportunity.
I had my 35 week checkup this week and the baby has already positioned herself head down in the pelvis!! Now all she can do is descend!!! YIKES!
One little inconvenience as of late:
When I was in the 5th grade, I was playing basketball and injured my right thumb (yes, of course, I'm right-handed). Back then, I just figured I jammed it. But I come to find out this week at the orthopedic that apparently, a piece of the bone at the joint of my thumb had broken off and for the last 18 years has been calcifying outside of the normal bone structure, thus causing all the pain & problems I've experienced with it over the years. But in the last 2 weeks, it has flared up - extremely tender to the touch, intensely painful at any movement, unbendable, and seriously swollen. So, the doc said instead of reconstructive surgery at this point, splinting it up for 3-4 weeks should allow it to heal & get back to normal (just until it decided to flare up again at some point). Let's hope & pray it will recover quickly because so far it has kept me from accomplishing so many things that I need to be doing right now!! And plus, I think I'm really going to need both hands for the baby when she arrives!!

Oswald Chambers' The Key to the Missionary's Work and the Master's Orders

2009-01-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ’All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .’ —Matthew 28:18-19
The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost.
1. GO on the basis of Christ's AUTHORITY, the revealed Truth of His sovereignty, not on the basis that if we don't go, the lost will not be saved.
2. To go - means to live
2. Jesus does not say, "Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.."
3. He says, "You shall be witnesses to me [in all these places].."
4. It is a matter of BEing, not GOing
5. The way we keep going is through abiding in Christ. "Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings."
He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world —1 John 2:2
The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God.
A missionary is someone
1. who is immersed in the truth of that revelation,
2. whose message is for the whole world,
3. and who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master.
Paul did not say, "Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me," but, ". . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" ( 1 Corinthians 9:16 ). And this is the gospel— "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest —Matthew 9:38
The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer.
1. The key is not of work, nor of common sense, medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer.
2. The key to the missionary's task is not in a particular place - it is generally in the world,
into His harvest.
3. No Christian has a special work to do.
4. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, "a servant [who] is not greater than his master" (John 13:16 ), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do.
5. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. "Pray the Lord of the harvest," and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer."

Abbreviated/Organized from Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest (October 14-16)

Service to the Lord, seen as His (nature of) Revelation and My (nature of) Response

2009-01-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

Recent circumstances have me reflecting upon the nature and meaning of Service. These are a few excerpts from Oswald Chambers.

"The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any particular way. My contact with the nature of God will shape my understanding of His call and will help me realize what I truly desire to do for Him. The call of God is an expression of His nature; the service which results in my life is suited to me and is an expression of my nature..."

"...Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and then I serve Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and out of devotion to Him service becomes my everyday way of life."

Mission Focus

2009-01-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

A Taste of Honduras

2009-01-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

2008-12-07T21:01:00.000-08:00

2008-12-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

2008-11-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

2008-11-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

CAM Orientation

2008-11-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

Bryan and I are now officially CAM appointees. Last week was full of all sorts of interviewing, psych tests/results, counseling, seminars, presentations, lots of food, and fellowship. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. No, not really! Although, it was pretty exhausting. We were forewarned that orientation is pretty intense. Now we know!
But amidst the exhaustion, we had the best fellowship. We were privileged to have CAMers in from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Uruguay to share their fields and their stories with us. We got to enjoy the whole CAM staff/team throughout the week and we even had some CAM board members join us for the celebration dinner where we were hailed in as official appointees!
So, now the real journey begins!

September 29, 2008

2008-09-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm finally being forced to write my first entry. Being bed-ridden from a stiff neck will do it for me apparently! Yesterday I was getting ready for church and was looking for my shoes in the closet (which was more difficult than usual because the day before Bryan and I had thrown practically every piece of clothing we own in there due to the fact that my mom and my 2 aunts were visiting our new apartment, the place had to look nice of course!) Anyhow, as I was leaning forward something suddenly went wrong in my neck. I felt something move forward and then everything went stiff and the spasms kicked in upon that. This is not the first time that it's happened to me, maybe the 4th. So, I knew what I was in for: 2-3 days of motionless bed rest.

Besides this little episode things are great. Bryan and I are most looking forward to our upcoming orientation we have with CAM in November. It is supposed to be a pretty intense time of personal interviewing, training, hearing about all of CAM's fields of service. For us, it is the point we have been waiting for where the process to the mission field becomes officially REAL! And a part of that REAL process is raising support, an aspect of missions that sometimes freaks me out, but also an aspect that "they" say is one of the best! I definitely look forward to the relational side of it anyhow.

The school year is off to a pretty good start for me. I enjoy my students more and more as the days pass. Bryan is taking his second Spanish class which is going pretty well. I should be speaking a lot more with him than I do, but our Spanish conversation for now is limited to our outings to Fiesta and Gloria's. We have enjoyed having our cheap knock-off vespa type scooter so far. Bryan uses it for main transportation because it takes 1 gallon and lasts for ever. I only hop on for fun when we go to Crooked Tree Coffee House or Whole Foods. The only problem with it is that the Dallas driver has no eye for a scooter. They pull out right in front of you no matter what and some of those Dallas drivers, in our experiences, even hit and run, leaving you to do deal with the medical bills and physical consequences on your own. Anyhow, having one is still pretty fun, but I don't recommend it to those of you who are thinking about getting one and have not plunged into the commitment as of yet. Not worth it (not until the city sees the need for putting out ample road signs that are warnings for scooters).

2008-09-28T21:06:00.000-07:00