Rainey Days

Last Sunday I started my official itineration cycle, which involves me traveling to other churches and presenting my missions project to the congregation. If the church has already been supporting me financially, it serves as an update/report. If they don't support me, it gives me a chance to make my plea for future support. My first church was Carney AG in Baltimore, which has been supporting me for the past three years. Since they are currently looking for a pastor, I wasn't sure what sort of opportunity I would have. But I was thrilled to have the chance to preach for about 30 minutes; I've built a decent rapport with the folks there over the years, so it was a fun chance to see them again. This morning was my first "window" in a service at "Church at the Mall" in Annapolis, MD. The window is a concept that many pastors prefer, because they reserve Sunday mornings as their chance to preach. Instead they offer missionaries 3 minutes, 5 minutes...

Here are some pictures, folks, of my newest niece: Ellie May Rainey, born on July 23, 2007, weighed 8 lbs and was 18 inches long. Under the hat is the longest, thickest black hair I've ever seen on an infant's head! She looked like a little Eskimo baby. So far, we think she resembles Corie's side of the family. A big part of the celebration yesterday focused on Sydney's reaction to her new baby sister (pictured here with my mother): We're all excited about this precious new addition to the Rainey family, and we're proud of Ben and Corie! Don't forget to click the link to my brother's blog under "Church Planter Ben Rainey" to the left, and you can see video that he posted.

Lately, I've been thinking about Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken," which is one of my all-time favorites. I had to memorize it in 10th or 11th grade, and I can still quote it. I think it is the most powerful expression of Art to capture the significance of our life choices. TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And th...

Missionary programs differ, but the majority of them bring their missionaries home every 4 years or so to visit churches and present reports. In the Assemblies of God, we raise our support individually (meaning we depend on personal promises and gifts). Doing that type of traveling to churches means we’ll put an average of 30,000 miles on our cars in one year of fund-raising. When we get back to the US, every missionary is shopping for: · A reliable car – I don’t want to be stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the nowhere. · A car with low mileage – that makes sense considering how many miles I’ll add. · A cheap car – missionaries aren’t wealthy folks obviously. This week has been my first foray into buying a car in the US. Prior to this, the cars I owned were either given to me or were cheap "college kid" cars, paid for from my own savings. In order to find a good reliable car that will meet my needs for the next year, I began my late...

I Sam. 3: 1-21 records the “call of Samuel,” one of the more well-known stories of the Old Testament. On Thursday night, we had the privilege of hearing our Assemblies of God General Superintendent, Thomas Trask, preach on this passage. Since he has just announced his resignation, it was one of the last times he’ll address the missionary body in his current role. He preached on Vision and Duty. Samuel, in these verses, is mentioned first as a boy who “ministered before the Lord” even though verse seven says that Samuel “did not yet know the Lord.” In other words, he was performing duty in a righteous manner, which is good, but God had a higher level for Samuel to reach—one of vision. Verse 1 also tells us that in those days, God rarely spoke by vision to the people, so Samuel was called to a special level of spiritual maturity by receiving the vision of the Lord directly. Brother Trask challenged us not only to be people of duty, but to go higher and be people of vision. Vision r...

As the old Girls Scouts song goes, "Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other, gold." While I've enjoyed making new friends this past weekend at the Re-Entry program, now we are in the School of Missions program, where all the returning missionaries come for two weeks of training and renewal, and I get to see old friends. There are at least 500 missionaries swarming this campus (not including their children!); we represent only a portion of the 2,700 missionary adults of the American Assemblies of God serving around the world. In the crowds of missionaries at mealtimes and in our sessions, I'm seeing more and more familiar faces: people I went to college with, people from my district, people from Africa, Europe, and the Middle East where I've worked, etc. Last night when I walked into the dining hall, which was decorated for a formal welcome banquet, I heard my name being called, "Ariel! Ariel!" When I turned around, there were Mar...

Lately I haven't published any photos, and I am a firm believer that you all really love to see the pictures of what's going on in my life! First up, my niece Olivia discovers "the beach." My niece Sydney shows off her swimming skills for her mom and the rest of us, admiring her from the beach chairs. The School of Missions and Re-Entry programs for the AG missionaries is being hosted by Evangel University, and this is a picture of the middle of campus. It's a truly beautiful campus with new, state-of-the-art buildings. I'm enjoying it!

Our Re-Entry program continues. We have sessions in the morning, then we break into small groups to discuss the sessions, and in the afternoons, we have personal appointments with our group leaders so that we can discuss any personal/private things with them. I had my appointment yesterday and was very encouraged by their counsel. We have free time in the afternoon and evenings, which has given us opportunity to get out to Starbucks and the mall (major sales!). Yesterday was an organized bowling trip, and I'm sorry to say that I wasn't able to keep up my French bowling record. One of the girls on my team put us all to shame with her strikes and spares, even with her intense jet lag from arriving just this week from Pakistan! We went to see Ratatouille afterward, which was cute. I thought it would be "frenchier" but it wasn't. I liked it overall. Today in our session, we got to telling funny stories of how we've been making fools of ourselves, being back ...

My day started at 4:00 am and it's nearly 11:00 pm here in Springfield (which makes it midnight at home!). I'm practically falling asleep at the keyboard. I flew this morning to Saint Louis, drove a rental car for three hours to Springfield, and have now had a few sessions already of the program called, "Re-Entry." First launched in 2000, the Re-Entry program is a few days to welcome returning missionaries to the States, giving us a chance to fellowship/"vent" with other missionaries before we go rushing off into the hectic schedule of raising our funds. Why is this necessary? For one thing, most of us (like me) just arrived within the past few weeks. We're still having trouble remembering that we're not in France, Russia, Azerbaijan, etc. anymore. For me, I'm still having trouble remembering not to press the clutch in a car that's automatic! I keep reaching for the gearshift that's not there, too. When I walk into stores, I expect ...

I feel like I've been so busy since I got home, and I have a sinking feeling that life is only going to get faster once I start traveling full-time. Saturday's event was a great chance for me to catch up with the other missionaries from my area, as well as eat some great food! Two other couples had only just arrived in the US, so we were the most recent arrivals. Others there were at the end of their fund-raising cycle, which is always exciting. I really enjoyed spending time with them, and I'm sure I'll see them again at various events over the next year. This week's main activity was cleaning my grandmother's pool, patio, and garden areas. We always host our extended family on the fourth of July, so we had a lot of work to do to get that ready. After the recent deaths of some of my family members, I think we were all a bit worried about the party yesterday. I know I spent the day trying to make sure I didn't say anything offensive. But we all had ...