Making Sense of the Mayhem: The Unifying Principle
We left for church planting in Sweden AD 2000 four children in our baggage with no
church in Sweden to arrive to. We return from that assignment leaving behind an
indigenous Swedish church, a core group of a church in Stockholm, and 11 children in our
return baggage. The first church in Tranås as well as our first four children has entered
adolescence. We continue to change the diapers of infants while we contemplate starting
from scratch in a new location on our next assignment in Sweden.
While stationed in Montgomery this year we are engaging in the community as much as
possible. We are attending two PCA churches (Eastwood and Trinity), and have six kids
enrolled in Christian schools. We are playing on four different basketball teams (one of
which I am coaching). Our children do not have a pause button and do not understand
temporary stay. Life is now, but friends and church and teams are both here and in Sweden
where our recognizable family belongings are stored. This dual location lifestyle can be
confusing and has us feeling like outsiders wherever we are.
It can be difficult to measure results. It seems that we are just getting started in the longterm
vision for Sweden, while our bodies are telling us that we are getting older and time is
running out. Where am I to find the time to both raise 11 kids responsibly and also start
from scratch in a new church plant? Are my family responsibilities altogether separate from
my calling to ministerial vocation?
As we transition away from a ten year investment of our lives in Tranås and attempt to
carry on in our time of Home Ministry Assignment (HMA) in Montgomery, it behooves me
to dig deep in Scripture to find the unifying principle to guide us when the scenery is
changing. Where do I find the Lord’s will for my vocational call, my call to husband and
father, my role in the global Church? Lord, what do you want me to do with all that you
have shown and given me? I no longer fit in a small house, a regular car, a mono-cultural
conversation, and it seems I have no place in just one city.
Then I remember that Jesus has really simplifed all the complications and laws of living
for all men into one summary statement: “ And he answered, „You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your
mind, and your neighbor as yourself‟.” (Luke 10:27). That’s right! There is one law to guide
my calling and decisions. This one law summarizes everything God taught Adam in his
sinless state, Moses with sinful Israel, Jesus with his band of mistake-prone disciples, and
the Apostles with their upstart but faulty Church.
Knowing that this is what God intended for man when no sin was in the way, I can read
the Bible like a good novel. I can read the first pages of the beloved book to get answers of
how to love God and neighbor. God taught Adam that faithful marriage to one woman and
active endeavor to bear a multitude of children is loving God. He shows that fruitful rearing
of those kids is loving my neighbor, for when the children mature they multiply blessing to
society as they in turn keep this one principle in mind and action. God gave the family the
responsibility to “subdue the earth”, to cultivate and preserve the elemental material given
to us in the soil, in water, and the body. Then He gave the framework of six days to get
after it, and one day to pull back to remember and give thanks to the source of all blessing.
Our six days of labor is not merely of contractual employment, but six days to improve our
marriage, our family, and society.
This means that my life as a Great Commission missionary is summed up in loving God
and neighbor. Linda’s domestic routine of cleaning and caring for the young ones also
fulfils the same obligation. Your role in your home town is also guided by the same
principle. Often our time and relational investments seem hidden and impossible to
measure in the now, but that which is done in secret is later shouted from the rooftops!
Speaking of Linda, please pray for her as she recovers from blood clots in her leg that
came soon after the September 16th birth of David Josiah.

Finding Faithful Men
We have for years received faithful men to Sweden who have come to serve the local church and be engaged in community development and sports ministry. This past summer we welcomed Sam Hogan to our MTW Sweden team for the next two years. Sam played baseball at Covenant College and helped take care of our youth programs. As well, Sam mentored Tuscaloosa home school student Billy McLaurine (L). Together they regularly hosted youth baseball players for overnighters in their apartment home. Pray for Billy in his senior year of high school studies.
Pray for Sam as he raises financial and prayer support for Sweden.
Yinka Adewusi (center), originally from Nigeria, is our church’s first missionary as he is sent as a campus minister to South Africa. Yinka has been granted a full tuition scholarship to attend RTS Jackson, but has had trouble getting his visa approved as he must prove strong ties and intention to return to Nigeria after graduation. His dream is for church planting and sports ministry in Kwara State, Nigeria. He is currently in route to Nigeria to establish those necessary ties so that he can arrive at RTS Jackson for the Spring semester. Pray for mercy as he applies again for the student visa to study at RTS.
Room mates Billy, Yinka, and Sam
I know I am to be about the business of “finding faithful men who will be able to teach other also”. However, I would be amiss if I do not remind you of how important Cristin Foster has been to our family and ministry. Cristin came from a home schooling family in Alabama, where her MTW internship to Sweden Fall 2005 was her first cross-cultural test of applying all that she had learned. She passed with flying colors as she diligently worked behind the scenes in cleaning, organizing, childcare, piano, and hospitality. She has been a blessing to Linda in her responsibilities of home-making and the home school. As Cristin has continued to minister to our family and in Sweden she has also found time to get her degree from U. Montevallo and will finish in the Spring. We pray that she will continue to minister with us until a godly husband asks Cristin to come alongside her in his calling. Pray for Cristin and confirmation of God‟s calling for her life.
One of our tasks while in the U.S. is to make arrangements for Swedes to get out from under the secular indoctrination for a period of time through cultural exchange in the U.S. Keep in mind that I was able to finish the Tranås church task because we have Swedish pastors, who were led to the Lord and trained while exchange students in Mississippi. In coming letters I want to introduce to you some young men I have given time to through sports ministry, that I now want to help come to the U.S. to Christian host families in the future. Michael Lindberg (left) turns 16 and has grown up in Stockholm. His father Kenneth, formerly President of the Swedish Baseball Federation, came to faith during our Athletes in Action coaching days in Stockholm (1987). A couple of years ago Kenneth succumbed to cancer. I promised Kenneth’s wife and good friend Geri that I would do anything I could to help mature into a faithful man. Mike inherited his father’s enjoyment of hockey and baseball. Geri and I agree that a period of time in a Christian school and host family in the U.S. would greatly enhance his maturity and love for Jesus. Pray for this to happen Fall 2011.
I met Simon Olefalk in 2006 as I taught baseball at an elementary gym class in Boxholm, a small town outside Tranås known in Sweden for their specialty Christmas cheese. Simon was wiry and had never played sports before, but his eyes lit up as I explained the rules of baseball to the class. Baseball made sense to him. Mainly because of Simon I continued to travel to Boxholm weekly to teach baseball after school. Simon has remained one of our most faithful ANGELS baseball players, traveling an hour by train and foot to practice in Tranås. He was rewarded by being named to the Junior National Team that competed in Slovakia in August. Simon is not a believer but has been open to attending some of our meetings. We hope that time with a Christian host family and church could change his life as it has for other Swedes. Pray that we can find a good school and host family for Simon for Fall 2011.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from our family to yours!!! Gary