Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34

Tomorrow will come because God is faithful. What He sends with it only He knows. I certainly don’t know what tomorrow will bring but I know my aim, to honor Him in whatever it is! My preboarding, negative covid test results just landed, so that’s another step in the right direction. There is one potential cloud, but I’m not going into that until… tomorrow. Hopefully it will be an uneventful travel day. I haven’t had one of those in quite some time. I’m totally in favor of easy. God seems to have higher purposes. Okay then.

I anticipate meeting Scott Hatton, pastor from Iowa who is in the process of joining the staff of Training Leaders International (TLI), and Jonathan Worthington, Vice President of Theological Education with TLI, at MSP early tomorrow afternoon to begin our travel. Lord willing, all the way to our training site at Abaana’s Hope outside Gulu, Uganda. Next week we plan to grow in understanding and communicating the apocalyptic literature of the Bible. We will be looking specifically at passages from Revelation. Plenty of challenges there. Thank God His Spirit is our teacher!

I have enjoyed preparing with Scott and Jonathan. I am very confident the guys in Uganda will love them and they will be great teammates. At the same time, this will be the first trip to Gulu without one of my guys from the St Croix Valley LEAD Team since my first trip eight years ago! Truthfully, it feels like I am already in foreign territory without my close friends. A major reason for the makeup of this team is that Larry Szyman, Stu Dix, and I are hopeful we can all make the trip to Uganda in May for the final course with this cohort, and their graduation! Oh, God, may it be!

I wanted to write this to invite your prayers. Specifically, the logistics of our travel, and that our study with the men in Gulu will be empowered by the Spirit of God and fruitful in His Church. We each have personal matters to deal with and families we will leave behind. There are the obvious challenges like the time difference and food (although the team there makes that so much easier). The weather forecast in the Gulu area during our stay has high temperatures in the mid 90’s, so that’s a bit different than Minnesota! Some of you might remember I lost much of the use of the fingers of my right hand a few months ago. I’ve had a steroid injection in my neck and physical therapy. I’ve regained some use, perhaps 60% and can accomplish most tasks (like typing this) with some adjustment. 

I’m humbled again by the privilege of representing Jesus, and all those who pray and give to see this work take place. I anticipate, with great joy, the day we will all be together, finally and fully at home with our King. 

We will be working on memorizing a sweet passage you may want to memorize with us. 

Revelation 5:9-10  And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on earth.”

Until then, may God keep us faithful to His calling. And, bless us with His presence.

Keep lookin’ up,

Mike Evans

mike.evans@trainingleaders.org