Where are we going and how are we getting there?

It is can be funny when you walk down memory lane, old photos, lost notes tucked into books and even old college papers that were outlining your current beliefs that you held tightly too. And you realize, "did I really have hair that long?", man I used "stoked" to much (still do), and did I really quote Puffy Daddy in my English class. It is in the past now and though I was would like to take back some of the things I did at times and what I wrote on occasion, but really it has made me who I am today.

Where did it all go? The hair, the lifestyle, the loneliness of not having someone to share you life with, oh ya I got married, a hair cut and sold my VW bus. So great where are we going now? Well it is hard to say exactly were we are going, but I can say that I do now that the Catalde family is being 'overhauled', by the grace of God daily. After meeting with a few friends recently we realized that we have been stalled for a while, a holding pattern of such. But we are free from that now, or at least we now are trying to move forward. Back to our first passions, Christ and sharing Him.

I wrote a paper in my senior year of college called Missionaries to the Ends of the Earth and it discussed perceived image of missionaries on the BBC. It depicted missionaries as a culture crushing mob that needs to be removed from the earth. Though there have been those who have gone out in vain to reach those who the believed were not a blessed as their race, there have been more that have gone with a humble heart and a passion for the lost. Soap and clothing do not cleanse and cover sin, only the blood of Christ does. I read it again tonight and I brought me back to college where I shaped my view of missions and who I am in Christ, a lost and depraved sinner that has only been redeemed by the Father of Creation. And it is my and now my families goal to spread his love to all those on earth.

Though we would love to enter the mission field tomorrow, we have not been given the open path from God to travel down that road. So the next best thing is to encourage and guide those who are around us to possible go and share the gospel in the place of us. If someday the Lord calls the Catalde family to live overseas to share the gospel we will gladly go, until that day we will encourage and when we can we will visit short term.

What does this all mean? Beth, Matt, Becca and I are praying through and beginning to explore different option in:
1.Encouraging Established Missionaries.
2.Develop Those who are preparing to go to the harvest.
3.Cultivate the passion of missions in the local church.
4.Ourselves travel to help where we can in other mission fields.

By no means are we set on the above agenda, but we are willing to explore where our family goes from here and by what means we pursue the adventure. So please pray for us and we will keep all informed of where we are going.

Tony