Our Fellow Soldiers…

The Shoults are friends we met at a church we helped plant in Magnolia, Texas years ago. They are now missionaries in Mexico. They were in Houston today on their way back to Mexico and I was blessed to get to spend an hour with them.

First, I would like to share an email that I received from Phillip Shoults last year explaining what God was doing for and through them and then I will tell about our conversation today.

Last March I received this email from Phillip.

Brother Matt,

It was good to see you on Facebook. I am not much on social networking but have enjoyed finding and catching up with old friends and believers we have known from our many travels. I will provide you with a brief note of encouragement and say a small thank you for the impact you and your wife have had on Ashley and me over the years. It all started when we were first exploring home schooling and we enrolled Forest & Madeline in the program (PACES) Ted and Johnnie Seago started to help parents, just like us, navigate the early stages of this journey. We learned to endure the challenges and focus on the long term goals and intentions of instilling character first, values then academics. We learned to stand on our own Biblically-based convictions in the face of family scrutiny over our choices to home school and build a stronger family with our central focus on Christ our Savior and Redeemer and living an abundant life in Him. We will enjoy the first fruit of our labor with Forest graduating this May! Praise God.

Coming into to the community of believers at “Grace” in 2003 had a tremendous impact on me. I needed more role models and examples of how I could do a better job supporting our vision for strengthening the family and serving God….. I found it in the wonderful families and Godly men of grace. It was tough leaving TX for Nashville in 2005 and I saw God provide for the move, although I believe that many of my motives were not entirely honorable to Him (namely pursuing money and position/promotion). Ashley and I never forgot the impact of the “model” we experienced at Grace and when we first moved to the Nashville area, we prayed and prayed over finding a community of believers similar to the ones of Grace. Within about 6 months, we were fellowshipping with about 18-20 other believers, meeting from house to house and I was thankful for the experiences we had found back in Conroe.

God really started to work on my heart and in 2007 as I felt him challenge me with a stinging question “….. what is the most important thing in your life? And if it is not me, would you give it up?” It took me 6 months to verbally give him my answer, but I did. I knew that I had made money and my job a higher priority than my spiritual growth, my wife, my kids, etc, etc so I told God he could have everything and told Ashley that we should “get ready for change.” I left LP in October of 2008. That move did not make much sense to a number of people, considering that the economy was tanking and times were getting tough. I kept thinking in my mind, “… what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul, or his children’s soul, or his family… or anything of eternal value for that matter.” God has been so good as I started a small consulting practice, working out of my home, eliminating a 65 mile round trip commute and about 40K of travel miles each year. Wow, breakfast with the family each morning, Bible Study and devotions each morning at 5:00 a.m, time to invest in my wife and children through family devotions and one-on-one discipleship with my kids have all been a real blessing. God has provided and blessed in so many ways and I thank Him daily for it.

Ashley and I are now earnestly praying over an opportunity we are pursuing/considering to move to Mexico and join our dear friends, David and Maria Skinner in helping expand the Gospel of Jesus Christ through from their hub in Oaxtepec, Morelos MX. The last “link” here in TN is to sell our home and make a short transition back to TX, prep then move. We are praying for clarity and confirmation around this decision.

I wanted to say thank you for your obedience to the calling God has placed on your life, to demonstrate to other men (and families) how to embrace the Christian Life and enjoy the fulfillment of serving our Lord and Savior and not ourselves (or man) in everything we do. You, Ted, Dan, Voddie and so many other men were a great example to me of how to accept and joyfully fulfill the calling God has placed on every man who has surrendered His Life to Christ and accepted the responsibility of being the Priest, Prophet, Provider, & Protector of his home. I just wanted to return thanks to you, I already thank my heavenly Father each day! Your wife gave Ashley a book years ago, Created to be His Help Meet and she has been so grateful for that experience. She has done that study in our home for other ladies at least once, bought a case of books and given them as gifts to every sister-in-law, friend and young lady about to be married. Some seed fell on fertile ground, other seed perished. I have been a direct beneficiary of her being impacted by that book and more importantly the Truth in God’s word. Please pass on to your wife that encouragement and testimony from Ashley.

Thanks brother Matt, In Christ…. his humble servant.

Now, speed forward to today. Phillip and Ashley and their children have been in Mexico for 6 months loving and serving the indigenous migrant sugar cane harvesters and their families. They are also preparing a place for short term mission trips to come down. It was exciting to hear about the many creative ways that they are teaching the gospel to these uneducated peoples. The whole family is involved and it thrilled my soul to see how excited the young people of this family are about what God has called their family to. I hope that in the near future we can go down and help them in some way.

For more information on their ministry go to http://www.globalforce-mx.com/Page/Home/1