David & Doris Nichols

Finishing Well

On the last day of 2018, I (David) read 1 Kings 3:5-15 and sensed the Lord saying, “Ask what I shall give you.” It did not take me long to come up with an answer.  “Help me to finish well!”  Since few leaders finish well (according to Bobby Clinton), how might I be intentional in order to have a better chance of finishing my life well? Here are a few items on my list that hopefully will be encouraging to you.  Please share with us what might be on your list.

• Continue to be honest and work on my character defects
• Identify and expand relationships with people into which I can pour my life
• Keep short accounts with others
• Be active physically, keep my body in shape and monitor my emotional well-being
• Embrace new challenges and adventures
• Carry on as a life-long learner
• Grow to be a better listener of the Holy Spirit and of others
• Mature in my intimacy with Jesus and my reliance on grace

Much of our ministry in OMF over the years has been focused on helping others finish well—

Filipino church planting co-workers, unbelieving neighbors and struggling pastors; new missionaries, Third Culture Kids, ministry leaders on the field; missionaries in transition.

 As life-long learners, we are grateful who we are becoming. We seek to be faithful in all of our doing. We value your prayers as we consider what we should stop doing and what we might start doing, in ministry, and in our daily life rhythms.

We are grateful for you, and many others who have modeled a life-long service in the body of Christ over the years.  J.I. Packer contends in Finishing Our Course with Joy, that at the end of our life, “so far as our bodily health allows, we should aim to be found running the last lap of the race of our Christian life, as we would say, flat out. The final sprint, so I urge, should be a sprint indeed.”  We say amen and amen!

Thank you for all your praying and encouraging and giving over these 32+ years as we continue to pursue church planting movements among the peoples of East Asia.  We expend our energies and efforts to mobilize, train and support churches and individuals to these ends.

Pray on

• As we travel to San Francisco to lead a large Chinese-American church in a missionary care workshop (Feb 16). We are revising our workshop to improve the flow, expand the biblical basis and explore some case studies.
• From San Francisco, we travel to Denver and our U.S. office to assist in hosting a group of our home assignees for a week of debriefing, catching up, prayer and storytelling.
• Decisions, decisions, decisions. Doris needs to give an answer whether or not she will accept an additional role as course leader for OMF’s international adult learning training, Training of Trainers. Doris has also been asked to fill-in, from the USA, an administrative role for our Philippines field for six months.
• For a new training that will be rolled out in March for those who want to explore their missions calling. As part of the training team, David is developing the Test Your Call module. A few of the resources he used are in the books and links below.
• For supper with Nur and her family this week.  You can read about Nur in our last letter here https://us6.admin.mailchimp.com/campaigns/show?id=1186193

With deep gratefulness,

David and Doris

Financial Update for 2018

God provided us with 86% of our total support need in 2018 and 100% of our basic support need.  If you are interested in partnering with us financially, you can do so at https://partnerhub.omf.org/DDN1

Books and Links

We would be glad to send you (upon request) highlights of the following books we read recently: When Everything is Missions by Denny Splitters and Matthew Ellison, The Missionary Call by David Sills, The Call by Os Guinness and Hearing God by Dallas Willard.   And we also have highlights from JI Packer’s book, Finishing Our Course with Joy.

You might also enjoy the following articles on calling and one on finishing well:

• https://www.alifeoverseas.com/the-cult-of-calling/
• https://www.alifeoverseas.com/the-idolatry-of-missions/
• https://omf.org/blog/2017/07/03/missionary-call/
• https://www.send.org/story/5-myths-of-the-missionary-call
• Myths of Vocation (volume 1-4) http://eepurl.com/dNuGQs
• https://vantagepoint3.org/finishing-well-j-robert-clinton/