Pics from Palm Island

Okay, here are a few pics from the time on the beach at Palm Island, Florida. I was there last month for ministry in that area and took some time to head down to the beach. I wrote about this in the February issue of the newsletter which I believe will be sent tomorrow. Thought you might like to see a few pics.



Clockwise from top left: a Lion Paw, Junonia, and some sort of Cowry. All are about 3 inches. And all three of these are pretty rare to find on that beach.



The Junonia!!



All the great solitude on the beach. I love it!

Long time gone!

Sorry about taking so long to update things. It has been crazy on this
end. I am grateful for the way God has blessed the ministry over the
years. In the past couple of years I have been gone more than I am home.
I average being home about 10 days a month. Last fall I began to pray
for wisdom on how to manage things better. I was wore out! I felt that
God was clearly at work and that I needed to adjust the way I was
operating the ministry to fit with what He is doing.

I've had an administrative assistant, Jackie, for a few years now. She
works out of her home in Arizona of all places. With the internet and
cell phones, it is not difficult to communicate. She has been a great
help to me. But I don't think I have utilized her help the way I should.
So I have been evaluating everything I am currently doing (or not
getting done!) and asking myself the question "Can Jackie do this for
me?" I am encouraged by the progress I am making in this area and Jackie
is quick to step up to the plate to take care of whatever I give to her.
It has already been a great help.

I will be delegating more of the web ministry to a contract worker so we
can move forward with online donations, etc. Also, I will be bringing on
staff someone local to help with a few task like banking, copying
checks, etc., that need to be taken care of when I am gone. Overall, the
plan is to delegate everything that someone else can do to focus my
energies on the few things that only I can do - like songwriting,
writing, producing a new CD, message preparations, keeping in touch with
Pastors, etc. All in all I am very encouraged.

In the mean time with all of this going on, I have been very busy taking
care of all the things that need to happen for the many Canadian events
I will be doing this year, which begin next month with the Mission Fest
in Edmonton, Alberta. We are now having CDs duplicated in Canada and
stored in Canada for all the Canadian events. That also meant that all
of the artwork for the CD had to be redone to reflect the duplicating in
Canada. We've also developed a system for handling the currency exchange
for donations from Canada and are creating a receipt specifically for
Canadian donations. It is like setting up a foreign office. Crazy! But
so exciting to see what God is doing.

And there is so much more. All that to explain why I have not taken time
to update the blog. I'll try to do better in the future.

Have a great day!

Divine Appointments

I had a great adventure getting to the event in Norwich, NY last Friday. I woke at 3:00 AM to leave for the airport by 3:30 AM. I said a quick prayer “Lord, today help me to be aware of divine appointments.” I don’t normally pray that but would soon learn that God had an interesting day planned for me.

The first strange event happened just as I was about to enter I-65 south of Nashville. A police car blew past me with lights flashing just as I was about to merge onto the highway. I was hoping the highway was not shut down for a wreck. About a mile later, there was the police car with lights flashing, completely blocking the highway. There was one car in front of me and he went around the police car onto the shoulder of the road. I followed. That was when I saw that a car had been driving the wrong direction on the highway and was now stopped in front of the police car. Crazy! If I had been there a minute earlier I may have found myself face to face with that guy.

Then in the airport in Nashville, my flight was delayed several hours due to the snowstorm in Chicago where my flight was connecting. As I waited in line to board the plane I met Paul, a 16 year old kid from Maryville, TN who was also flying to Albany. He was traveling alone and was concerned about the flight delays and cancellations. The bells went off in my head as I realized this was a divine appointment. I told him that if he would stick with me, I would help him get to Albany. And we were off.

When we arrived in Chicago, the airport was a snowy mess. Our plane sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes and we watched our connecting flight depart without us to Albany. Finally able to unload, we managed to get signed up for a stand-by flight to Baltimore which would then connect to Albany.

At this point we picked up the third member of our ragamuffin band, David. David is a college student at Kentucky Wesleyan University and is an award winning football player there. He recently had surgery to repair a damaged knee and was traveling alone, leg extended as he sat in a wheelchair. He was also from the Nashville flight and was trying to get to Albany. So we added him to our group and waited for the flight to Baltimore.

We finally got to Baltimore only to find the snow storm had followed us east. We were now stranded in Baltimore trying to get a stand-by flight to Albany. For hours we waited and were finally dismayed to hear that all flights to Albany had been cancelled. We were now stranded in Baltimore.

At this point it is beginning to feel like we are caught in a Christmas movie, some sort of combination of Band of Brothers meets Nester the Long Eared Donkey and the misfits trying to get to Bethlehem!

There were no flight options going out on Saturday and the flights going on Sunday would not get me to Albany in time for the event. So the only option I had was to get a hotel, then get a one-way rental car and drive to Albany 6 hours on Saturday. So we got Paul and David’s parents on the phone, got permission for them to stay in the hotel, and the three of us crashed at the hotel around 11:00 PM. We were exhausted to say the least. I said a prayer for each of the guys and then made my way to the lobby to book the rental car.

Saturday we drove the 6 hour drive to Albany, paid a total of $30 in tolls along the way, and finally arrived at the Albany airport around 2:00 in the afternoon. Our luggage was waiting. We got a great group shot and then said our good-byes after exchanging phone numbers and addresses.

Here is Paul, David, and myself.

It was a privilege to be used by God in each of their lives, simply expressing the love of God to them, that God was taking care of them along the way. I reminded them repeatedly that it was not me taking care of them, that it was God who was using me to meet their needs. It was really cool.

Then I drove to Norwich and crashed at the hotel. The weather was still bad. We had a good service in the morning and then I headed back to the airport for my flight home.

Another storm moved into Albany and it looked like I might get stranded again. Thankfully I was able to get my flight out to Charlotte to connect to Nashville. Unfortunately, the Nashville leg of the flight was cancelled due to a mechanical issue. So the airline put me up in a hotel and I got the first flight out in the morning. I finally arrived home on Monday around 11:00 AM.

What a crazy weekend. But it was exciting to see how God had planned for me to help those two guys get to Albany. I was able to share the love of God by simply living out what I claim to believe. It was really interesting to see God at work throughout the trip. You never know how God is going to use you when you say “Lord, help me to be aware of divine appointments today.”

Go for it! Have a great day!

Over the Edge Book now available online

I am excited to let you know the new book is now available online at our
website http://www.timothymark.com. You can now download the e-book
version for free, print and mail in an order form, or purchase a book
online through our secure server with PayPal.

I hope the book will be a great encouragement to folks and a tool to
communicate what it means to be a real-deal, follower of Jesus Christ.
Go for it!

Have a great day!

Books delivered today!

I am grateful to have the first printing of the books in house today. They were delivered by a semi truck on my little residential street. I was not expecting that. But I am grateful to have this part of the process behind me. It will be a few days before I have the updates to the website uploaded to begin the ordering process so bear with me on that account. This is obviously a very busy time of year and frankly, adding the launch of the book into the mix has been a bit of a trick. One of the exciting things is the way the ministry is growing. I am finding it very challenging to keep up with things and still take time to rest. I am encouraged by all that I see God doing and know that he is going to direct each step of the way.

I talk often about letting God be in control. The other day a friend of mine said to me "Oh, so you are not in the drivers seat but instead in the trunk of the car."

"No," I replied, "I am hanging off the back bumper just trying to hold on for the ride." That pretty much describes how it feels trying to keep up with God.

Have a great day!

Oh Canada!

It has been really exciting in the offices here lately just watching
what God is doing. One of the most interesting developments is the clear
move of God for ministry into Canada in 2009. Prior to this time, I have
only been into Canada for ministry a handful of times in 20 years of
ministry. Well, this coming year we will likely have 25% of our ministry
events in Canada as far west as Edmonton, Alberta and as far east as
Montreal, Quebec. Who would have thought! And ministries in Vancouver
and Toronto as well have expressed interest as well. The most
interesting aspect of all of this is that I have not made one phone call
asking a church if we could come. It has all been word of mouth.

Last summer I met a lady named Viv while I was ministering at Word of
Life conference center in Schroon Lake, NY. Viv is the director of
Mission Globales in Montreal. (http://www.missionsglobales.org) She
invited me to speak at their conference in November, 2009. That began a
flood of interest through her network in Quebec and across Canada. Then
I was invited to speak at Mission Fest Alberta in February, 2009.
(http://www.mfest.ab.ca/) Both ministries have been influential in
scheduling ministry events in local churches in their regions. As a
result, at this time I already have 14 events on the calendar in Canada
and expect many more to follow before we are finished with the year. I
will have the privilege of speaking through translators for ministry in
French, Haitian, and Chinese churches along with ministry in English
speaking churches as well. What a privilege to be part of what God is
doing in Canada.

I've said for years that I believe God has called me to the church in
America to call the church to be the church he intended her to be. My
friends in Canada told me that God must have meant "North America"
because the church in Canada needs the message as well. They may be right!

I will keep you updated as we move forward.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Update on Book project

We are expecting copies of the new book Over the Edge: Personal Stories
of Adventure and Faith in house in a few days. We are planning to begin
filling orders the beginning of January. We are working behind the
scenes to set up a way for you to order online through our website and
should have that up and running soon. There will also be a form on the
site that you can print out and mail in if that is easier for you. We
will have them available at all the live events going forward as well.

Otherwise it has been a busy month. I am juggling a lot of
responsibilities but it is going well. I am excited about all that God
is doing. The schedule for 2009 is filling in and it looks like it will
be another exciting year of ministry.

Have a great day!

Tim