Sermon outline: This is an abbreviated outline with the complete sermon downloadable at the bottom of the post. When God saw that man needed companionship, His original design for that need was to establish the institution of the home.

While traveling on deputation, my wife and I learned much about what works and what doesn’t. Below are fifteen tips for missionary wives that helped our time on deputation:

I wonder what my spirit would have been like as a fourteen year old boy if I had been abducted by invading conquerors and taken seven hundred miles from home to serve in a foreign country.

Some of the best Christians in the world are wives of missionaries. They live without things that most American women take for granted.

I am an advocate of setting goals before the beginning of a new year. Philippians 3:13 encourages us to be constantly, “Reaching forth unto those things which are before.”

The ministry, by definition, is about people. While it is true that we oftentimes (of necessity) get encumbered with details of work and administrative tasks, ultimately, the ministry is about people.

One of the things that I like about our calendar system is that every 24 hours we get a brand new day that affords us the opportunity of a fresh start. Here we are in 2011.

Once each year we have a special night at our church called “Vision Night.” This is usually New Year’s Eve or the first Sunday of a new year, and it is one of my favorite church services of the year.

Everybody has a worldview! From the pigmy tribes in the Congo to the cufflink staffer in the White House, everybody has a philosophy of how they view the world.

Last week, Terrie and I celebrated thirty years of marriage. It’s hard to believe that something that seemed too wonderful to be true on our wedding day is even better now!