Missions — Acts 1

0:05 Well, morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you for allowing me to come back up here and speak to you after I was so long the last time I had the platform. So I want to apologize for going over, and I hope no one's lunch was burned last time I spoke. Promise I will not go over today. Let's pray.

0:30 Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much that you love us. You've displayed that through sending your one and only son, the Lord Jesus, to, live on this earth, to teach us of your love, to show us his power, and to teach us the truth. We thank you also that he became the sacrifice that you intended him to be. That he was obedient to come to this earth from the glory of heaven, and then he was obedient to even die. And yet he even died the most gruesome death known to man by being crucified on the cross two thousand years ago.

1:10 We wanna give him glory in our lives, Lord. I especially pray that today, the Lord Jesus would be lifted up. We got... We especially thank you for the word and your Holy Spirit to continue on. The Lord Jesus said that it would be better for us if he would return to heaven, that your Holy Spirit would come and teach us all the things that he taught the disciples.

1:32 And that we would be able to do even more things than he did, was able to accomplish here during those thirty three or so years here on earth. And father, I thank you that that has proven true that over the decades, over the centuries, even the millennium that have taken place since the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, The truth of your word has gone forth in our Jerusalem, in our Judea, in the land we might call Samaria, and the outermost parts of the earth. Father, even today, there are people all over this world that are proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ in thousands of languages. And it all started in a manger in Bethlehem and continued at the Cross Of Calvary and the Garden Tomb. We thank you that the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven at the Mount Of Olives and that he gave us direction just before he ascended.

2:31 I pray that today that the truth of that word and the actions that follow will be clearly presented for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, we're going to be looking at the book of Acts today, so please have that available if you want to turn to the book of Acts. The title of my message today is Responding to God's Call to World Missions.

2:59 Responding to God's Call to World Missions. I did want to open with not only a prayer, but also a personal thanks to this body and to many others who might listen to this message somewhere else who aren't able to be with us today. I would like to thank you from... On behalf of the Ike and Iar family for your prayers both while we were in The Philippines for those two years and since we've been back for these nine months. Many people have said I'm praying for you guys, and I thank you so much.

3:30 I'd also like to thank you for the financial support that you sacrificially gave so that we could be on the field. And that was something that meant a lot to us and we do know that there was great sacrifice made by this body as well as individuals and we are very grateful for that. We also thank you for the encouragement that we received while we were in The Philippines, whether it be just a phone call or a Skype or just an email. But there were many times when we really needed that extra voice from far away when we call home. And it came.

4:08 We've also thank you for the encouragement we've received since we've gotten back. A lot of people have gone out of their way to just welcome us when we did get back and also encourage us along the way. And lastly, we'd like to thank the council, you for the council that you've given us. Many in this body have taken me out to lunch or or just sat down and shared their heart with me or especially since the elders have asked you to, I've had some very abrupt questions asked about what's going on with The Philippines and all that. And it's been amazing to see how the Lord has used the different people of this body to, to bless us and to guide us.

4:52 And I especially wanna commend the elders for their job. They have had a difficult job in dealing with this because they've never had someone that was commended to the Lord's work. They've never had someone that came back on furlough. And they've never had someone that asked if they would reconsider being recommitted. And they've had a lot of load on their shoulders, and I'd like to thank the Lord for them.

5:13 I I would be remiss though in not saying, thanking one more, one more group of people. And that is the people that actually visited us. I mean, actually have people that invested thousands of dollars, not just to come visit us, but to see the Lord's work in Manila. And those people include your very own Joanne Woodhams, who was over there for two weeks of her summer. And if I haven't told you before, summer here is rainy season there.

6:00 I love to show people. I love to tell them about what I witnessed when I was over there, not so much about you guys, I'm talking about what I experienced. All right? And for two years, and you could talk to her kids who are sitting right here amongst you. And then the second group that came over were our mother and father, Mr.

6:17 Carl and Lois, Mrs. Lois Reeder. They came over for six weeks, and we had so many plans to show them The Philippines, which we at that time hadn't even seen ourselves. However, if you didn't hear, Mr. Reeder got sick with pneumonia on the third day there.

6:31 And he was basically held at home for the next four and a half weeks. So all the plans we had were gone. We didn't, we didn't do any of those special trips. We never did. We never did.

6:43 But on the other hand, I think they got to invest a lot of time and love into their grandkids and into us. And it was a pleasure having them. And boy, those six weeks just flew by. We also had some special guests that we didn't invite, but they showed up on their agenda. And that was folks from CMML.

7:01 The President and his wife, Mr. Robert Dad and his wife Helen, were touring all of Asia. And they stayed in The Philippines. And we had them over for a meal one night. And what an encouraging man Robert Dadd is.

7:14 And if you ever get a chance to be in New Jersey and want to stop by and see him, I hope that someday they do the route here and visit the elders and encourage you here. That's one of the things that we recall from our missionary orientation program that CMML really would like to have more of an encouraging ministry to elders. So I encourage the elders we have here, give them a ring. Alright? They also, as I said, go around the world and encourage the missionaries.

7:38 The other two folks had a little bit of a personal agenda because Phil and Mary Parsons, who are now the administrative coordinators for the actual building that CMML is housed in and the offices, they were in The Philippines for twenty years. Phil Parsons was the principal of the high school for about seventeen of those. And he and Mary raised a family of missionary kids. And guess what happened? They stayed there.

8:04 All right? So they have a daughter that is a volleyball coach at Faith Academy, son-in-law who's a basketball coach, and they have grandchildren that are still popping out. I don't know how many kids they have now. They had one since we got back. So that was Phil and Mary Parsons, and they spent some time with us too.

8:23 What is going on right now in this body is really amazing. And I say this body because I hope that everybody knows that the Lord commended us to The Philippines three years ago. But if you don't, if you're new here, that's something that was actually very exciting, not just for the Eichner family, but for many people in this body. And since we've gotten, since we returned back on, wow, it's been nine months ago today. Nine months ago today, we came back to church on that Sunday on June 3.

8:53 Wow, that's gone gone fast. Well, we've been praying ever since then, and a lot of you have too. In fact, we've been praying since about two years ago. After being in The Philippines for about a year, it seemed pretty obvious to us that we needed to stay. And we had a lot of work to do and two years was just not going to be enough.

9:11 So we've been praying about it. We've been seeking the Lord. And people said, well Todd, can you share, can you share with the body what it's like to truly seek the Lord from your perspective? Now this may be different for you, but there were about five different categories that I'd like to stress today about what what process we might do to seek the Lord. The first one is to pray.

9:59 I mean what we went through was easy compared to what they went through. And lastly, to be sensitive to the Lord's leading. First of all, what we've been praying for is for the future of our family. And we've been beseeching God to clearly reveal His will. We've also been praying that the Lord would give us the strength to commit to doing whatever that will would be.

10:26 And that's where, it leads, I think, into another idea. We're praying for Westlake Bible Fellowship. There have been a lot of positive changes that have taken place since we left three years ago. A lot of them. Growth in numbers, growth in spiritual maturity.

10:40 There's also been dissension. There's also been pain and bitterness. And I think that comes whenever Satan sees things happening good, he's gonna throw some darts. He's gonna throw some grenades. And he doesn't stick around for the damage.

10:57 And right now I think that Westlake Bible Fellowship is dealing with that. But the Lord is greater than our enemy. And I need to ditto what Denzel said, and that was we need to be praying for each other. This is a body action, especially as the idea of appointing deacons will have a very positive impact on this assembly. I've seen it in other assemblies where they do have deacons, and I think it'll be a great blessing.

11:24 But the process is another form of growth. Another growth pain will probably be taking place here. We've also been praying for other missionaries. And that was something Miriam pointed out to me. Todd, you know you really never knew what the missionary prayer handbook was until the Lord spoke to you back in July 2009.

11:47 Guilty. Guilty. I mean, we got a box sitting on that table that I thought would just go. You know, there's about six or seven of them still sitting in there. And what is that?

11:57 It's a little book that's put out every year by Sibam L and MSC Canada, which has a picture and a description of every single assembly missionary in North America. Every single assembly missionary in North America. It also tells you, has a picture of their family, tells you what their ministry is, tells about the country, tells about the spiritual needs there. And they've broken it up so that every day of the month, you can be praying for, I don't know, between eight and fifteen missionaries and their families. And when I had the privilege of going over to CMML, they meet as a staff to go through that every day.

12:37 And so we decided we were gonna try to do that as a family. It's been a little hard to do it every night in our devotion time. But the Lord has given us a relationship with these people over the last three years since we started it. Where we can say, hey, you know what? We know they had a baby.

12:51 We read that in the Missions Magazine. So we gotta add that in. And so Heidi, that was kinda, was it Heidi or Katrina? Was that your job? Don't remember.

12:57 One of the girls, that was their job was to write it in and try to update us. Okay? Well, what's the other publication they sent out? They sent out a missions magazine. And it's a monthly magazine.

13:07 And it features missionaries and their lives all around the world through CMML. The most recent publication focused on India. And Mr. And Mrs. Parson were invited there for Phil to speak at a conference in India and it talked about what's going on there.

13:25 And there's been you know, focus on Africa. We even had one that focused on The Philippines recently. So I... I've been... We've been praying about that through these publications for other missionaries just to try to keep our heart focused on what the Lord might be speaking to us.

13:59 What? You're always taught whatever we read here, but parallel to what's in our life. What is this, you know? So they get sick of that. But isn't that interesting how the Lord can sometimes speak to you when you're reading scripture and they'll speak to you exactly what's in your life right now?

14:13 And when we got to the point of the commendation aspect of Acts, boy, was riveted to that. Like what happened to Paul? We're actually gonna study that in a little bit here. Submitting to the elders. Wow.

14:26 Does anyone here admit that they have a problem with submission? No hands up. Wow. Well, I know I do. You know, I know I do.

14:34 Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, submit to your wives. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, giving Himself up for her. Or how about submitting to governing authorities or submitting slaves, be submissive to your masters, even if they're unworthy of that. Wow, all life is, is looking at relationships.

14:57 And there's always going to be someone who has authority. And there's always going to be someone else who has to do what? Submit. I think we could probably all quickly raise our hand and say, who wants to be in charge? And that's probably what God is always dealing with us.

15:12 But what is the greatest praise the Lord gives Jesus in the scriptures? We just spoke about it this morning. That the Lord Jesus was obedient to come to this earth. He was obedient unto death, even death on the cross. And because of that, what does it say?

15:30 His name is so highly exalted that every knee shall bow, whether it be in heaven or earth or under the earth. That was the ultimate display of submission. The Lord has really convicted us as we stepped under the authority of two gentlemen in The Philippines who are younger than us and who are very much younger spiritually than us. But the Lord pointed them elders to that assembly and we submitted to them. And when we came back here, it was because the elders said we want you back here.

16:02 I don't know if you heard this, but we asked if we could stay. It's not that we don't love you guys, but we asked if we could stay. We asked if our two years could be extended. And they said, well, we want you back here. And we said, could we come back for a semester?

16:15 So I can be back at Faith Academy in January for the second semester and keep going what we're doing? And the answer was no. We've been praying about this. We want you to come back. And we want you come back for a year at least.

16:26 And we will pray with you. And we will take your your your interest to the body. And we will all pray for you and seek God's direction. Now what does this have to do with scripture? I sure hope it has everything to do with scripture.

16:41 Let's open up our Bibles to Acts one eight to start with. For for us to truly be sensitive to the Lord's leading in our life, we need to look at scripture. And as you sense the Lord's leading in your life, we're encouraged, commanded even to go to scripture. In acts one eight, we have the command from Jesus to carry out world missions. Jesus was speaking to his disciples and he said, verse eight, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.

17:51 But when it came down to going into other worlds, this is the first account we have. And it's in Acts chapter 13 verses two through four. And while they were ministering to the Lord, those would be the leaders of the church in Antioch, Northern Syria. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

18:23 So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there, they sailed to Cyprus. Thus began an incredible journey that lasted two years. And as Roger pointed out a few weeks ago, that was 40% of the leadership team at the Church of Antioch that just got sent out by the Holy Spirit. Does that mean the church collapsed?

18:46 No. It continued to grow and we have record of it and its growth throughout the book of Acts. But did the gospel go out? Yes. It went out powerfully.

18:56 That many churches were formed in that two year ministry. But as I was teasing Roger later on, what he forgot to talk about was the fact that Paul was persecuted nearly everywhere he went. In fact, one place, they stoned him and thought he was dead. They left him for dead. The people throwing the stones walked away.

19:20 And yet, it said, he rose up and he was healthy enough to go back in the city and encourage the brethren before they went to the next town. So persecution comes with presentation of the gospel. It is not a holiday paradise. It's not an agenda where you go out into the tropics and enjoy a suntan. There is suffering.

19:44 And those people that you read about in the CMML Magazine are suffering. And the people that they're ministering to are suffering. I was just reading a magazine just yesterday called the American Family Association Journal. They said that Christian persecution is now greater than any time in recorded history. And that would beat even what went on under Nero when you look at it worldwide.

20:11 We may think we're exempt here in The United States. But I work in the public schools and I do see things changing. I'm not saying I'm being persecuted by working in the public schools. Jim, we don't experience it, do we? Nothing.

20:25 Not yet. Not yet. Let's compare what happened here. The Antioch Church responded to the command of Jesus and then also the Holy Spirit in this passage to carry out world missions by sending out Paul and Barnabas. Likewise, Westlake Bible Fellowship sent us out.

20:46 Let's turn over to Acts 14 verses 26 to 28. We have a continuation of this mission cause from the Church of Antioch. Starting at verse 26, the Antioch church continued to send out... I'm sorry. Start here.

21:10 From there, they sailed to Antioch from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished. When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they spent a long time with the disciples. So that happened in Acts fourteen twenty six twenty eight. Now in modern culture, we call that a furlough.

21:51 And go from church to church to church to church speaking about what your ministry was and asking them to sponsor you. We don't do that in the assemblies. For those that are new to the assemblies, we don't do that because it's not in scripture. It's not in scripture. Nowhere will you find a believer going to, someone else and asking to support themselves.

22:10 You do see it quite often where a believer will go to another church and say, could you raise money for them? You'll see that often. Paul did that. In fact, that was one of the things that Paul had to do during this first furlough. He had to take money to another place.

22:23 And when he went over to Jerusalem to deliver that money, there were some issues there. Anyway. So this would be called the first furlough. At that time, did Paul know that he was gonna continue on? I don't know.

22:35 I don't know. But we do get a little bit of a clue when we read on here. But just before I go on, I wanted to point out that this action of Paul coming home on furlough led then to a little division. But this wasn't a division between the church and Paul. It was between the missionaries themselves.

23:00 And in our training, we were told that there were really three things that take people off the mission field. One is health. One is health. That's probably the biggie. Two would be actually financial lack of support.

23:16 I have not heard that. Not that it hasn't happened in the assemblies, but I've never heard that from an assembly missionary. I mean even, the gentleman, Herman Lum, remember when he got up here right before he died and he said, you know what, in such and such a year, I was commended to do the Lord's work here in The United States and my my commending, assembly said, they couldn't promise me any any money though? He said, they've kept their promise. I haven't received a penny from them.

23:42 But that was decades later that he was saying this to us, wasn't it? And he ministered to us many times. And he's got a really nice place in heaven, I gotta think. You know, that man left so many believers behind. So all I can say is that when it came down to taking care of the missionaries, they were supported.

24:03 Paul and Barnabas were supported. But when it came to this part, they had a little conflict. That was the third area that we were trained in. They said it's health, it's financial lack of support, and third it's inter relational issues. Inter relational issues.

24:22 You can't get along with people at home. Guess what you gotta do when you get on the field? You're not gonna get along with them. Especially when you deal with about 90% type A personalities because guess what most missionaries are like? They're they're very determined people.

24:39 They're not gonna let other stuff get in the way to do what they think God's called them to do. And so those interpersonal relationships, people say, I'm done with this. I'm going back. And I'm I'm done serving you lord in this capacity. I'm gonna do something else.

24:56 Well, we know that Paul and Silas had their Paul and Barnabas rather had their little issue as we read. So let's take a peek at that. It's in Acts 15 verses 36 to 40. And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are. And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them also.

25:29 But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and not had gone on with them to the works. See, when Paul and Barnabas left the first time, they took a guy named John Mark. Happened to be related to Barnabas. And they made it to Cyprus, they made it to a few other spots, but once they got to the coast, he said, this is not for me. I don't know what happened.

25:51 But he said, I'm going back. And he left them. And it was just the two of them from then on. And so Paul's, well, let's put it this way. He's got a little grudge here.

25:59 He says, don't want Mark because he did this to us before and I don't think he's ready for this. And so, it says here in verse 39, there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another. And Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. Now Cyprus was Barnabas' home country. So even Barnabas did not go out into all the world at that point.

26:20 He went back home. Verse 40, But Paul chose Silas and departed, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. We have an example here where the Antioch Church continued to send out missionaries. The furlough was over for Paul, and they sent him out again, but this time they even sent out more missionaries. Silas joined him.

27:20 At that point, I'd never heard a break... Been involved with a breaking of bread. And I was so humbled and amazed. I felt like I felt like probably some of these rookie basketball players do when they get selected to the All Star team. I mean I just felt like it was a Christian All Star team.

27:36 I had never seen so much spiritual maturity. And what's this thing with the ladies with the hat thing? Mean that you know, that was baffling to me. And over the weeks and months, I had all that explained to me that, well, this is what scripture teaches. I never had heard anyone explain to me this is what scripture teaches us, that's why we do that.

27:51 It was amazing. And yet, I know that in the last eighteen years, we've encouraged each other a lot. We've had a lot of ministry locally, but no one went out. And I remember talking to people and said, wonder when the Lord's gonna send someone out. And I didn't know it was gonna be us.

28:13 That's what happened to a guy by the name of William Carey too, by the way. And that ministry to Indian, India is still going on. He thought the Lord was speaking to him to get someone else to go out. Didn't know it was gonna be him. I hope that this church, similar to the church in Antioch, won't just stop by commending the Eichenhaus, but instead will pray the Lord will continue to send out missionaries just like they sent out Silas.

28:44 Let's go on to take a peek at what happened. But before I I go there, I wanna point out one other thing. Just a couple verses later, let's stay right here. Sixteen one, please. It says, Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra.

29:00 These are places he'd been on this first trip. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer but his father was a Greek. And he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him. Now listen to this.

29:17 Here Paul's come back just two years, two years he was in his ministry. He went back home for a period of time. I don't actually, I haven't heard how long that first furlough was. Said some time is all we get. He spent some time there.

29:33 But when he goes back, this church has grown so much that they've now got people like Timothy there that impressed Paul so much, he says, can you commend him to the Lord's work? And so here's a church that was planted that's now sending out missionaries. That can't be more than a couple years old. That's what I'm saying. In timeline of life, the Westlake Bible Fellowship is around for forty plus years and we're the first world missionaries sent out?

30:01 I think we need to be challenged by that. Is God big enough to do that? That's the challenge I think we come down to. And so Timothy went out and we can read about that all throughout scripture. Alright.

30:16 Let's conclude this section please with Acts 18. Acts 18 and verse 22. This is called hit and run. This is the second furlough that we have after the second missionary journey, and it's a hit and run. Verse 22 of chapter 18 in Acts.

30:38 And when Paul had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and went down to Antioch. Verse 23. And having spent some time there, again, don't know how long, he departed and passed successfully through the Galatian region in Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. That was Paul's furlough and also his third commendation. Is it different than the first one?

31:03 Very much. Is it different from the second one? Very much. Did he have any more? We have no record of it.

31:28 And that is where he met his demise according to history. But see Paul did return. He returned to his commanding assembly to report the Lord's work before returning to the field. We've had the privilege of doing that in these past nine months. And we know that if the Lord does choose to recommend us, that we would continue to report in.

31:53 Not only by visiting, which we are doing these nine months here, these twelve months here, thirteen, whatever, but also in reporting in through email, and phone, and Skype, and all these other things that Paul never had a chance to do. People have asked me also, Todd, could you please share your heart? Where are you guys at right now? So here it is. Our heart primarily is to be servants of the Lord.

32:23 And secondly, is to be obedient to him. I think that the Lord has given us a heart for the folks here in Westlake Bible Fellowship. But I also know he's given us a heart for the folks in The Philippines. That's the hard part. You can't be two places at once.

32:46 What is going on here is something that the elders say, you know what, Todd? You're part of it, but we think you should go back. But we would like this to be a decision the body has a lot of say in. And that's what's been happening in our life for the last seven weeks. We have been praying and waiting.

33:09 We've been in contact with people in Philippines to say, what's the status over there? And they can't wait to get us back. There are still hundreds of families that send their children to Faith Academy. And these hundreds of families are ministering to the Lord all over Asia. Kids that I had the privilege of knowing, parents live in Japan, parents live in Vietnam, parents might even live just two hours away and it's too far to commute.

33:44 And so their kids are on boarding. That's one sampling of what the children are at Faith Academy, about 8%. There are about 8% also, or I should say even less than that, a smaller percentage of families that send their children to Faith Academy because they are in non government organizations like World Vision. They're not a ministry. They're not a mission agency, but they are out to help the world.

34:13 The executive chief financial officer of World Vision had his two daughters in my choirs for for those two years. And they are a very godly family. And we were honored at Faith Academy that they chose to send their kids there. They could have sent them to any school in Manila, any school. And there are many international schools that are quite glamorous.

34:35 But they chose to send their kids to Faith Academy. So we were able to minister to this Christian family as well as others that they represent. But 88% of the families that send their kids to Faith Academy are missionaries just like we were. They rely upon the Lord to provide their finances. They pay tuition, which is at the lowest level.

34:56 Faith Academy was established in 1957 to fill that need. Because one of the areas that I didn't mention, health, financial support, and interrelational interrelational conflict. Notice I didn't say lack of education. But that was a huge fact back in 1957 that people would have to take their family off the field because once they got beyond the elementary years, they didn't have a place to send their kids for a good education. And they were basically dooming their children in their future if they didn't stay on the field as missionaries.

35:32 They couldn't find jobs. They were not well educated. So they said, we need to start a school to meet, reach out to all the missionaries, not in a particular denomination, but all of them here in Southeast Asia, and we're going to start it on a hill in The Philippines. But we have to have one special clause. That is every single person that works there has to be a missionary just like us.

35:57 They have to understand that this is all about the Lord. They're not coming here to get paid. This is not a profession as much as it's a ministry. And yet the Lord has provided for now fifty six years. Just had an email from the head of personnel at Faith Academy.

36:15 She's a Canadian lady named Ann Penner. She emailed us over the weekend and said, We still have 15 jobs open. 15 jobs open for next year. And that's what we're praying about. And your position is one of those that we're holding.

36:33 That's an every year experience. Can you imagine anyone here in human resources, can you imagine every year you got 15 spots to fill and you have to school and you know you have to fill them because you have to educate these kids. So that's the life. We're also praying that the Lord would return us to the ministry to the Filipinos at Hillcrest Christian Church. And their affiliated school which meets right in the same building called Lynncrest Christian Academy.

36:59 They have two elders, as I mentioned, and three deacons, and about 60 people. I don't have a clue what their average income is, but I know that only two people in the whole church actually own transportation. And they're scooters. And I know one of them was given to them by another missionary. They live in a ditch, but that you would never know.

37:28 You would never know how poor they are until you go their home. I'm going show you their pictures. We've been encouraged by Faith Academy, by Hillcrest, by Lynncrest. We've been encouraged by other fellow CMML missionaries and those from other assembly mission organizations around the world to get back there, including Dave Harvey, the guy that stood up here in July 2009. We've also been encouraged by you.

38:04 We have enjoyed being here. I guarantee you, the pleasures of life, are better here. My kids are happier here. My family is happier here. Excuse me.

39:05 Thank you. DJ, can you give me mic? Don, would you close us in prayer, please? Thank you.