Like many people I know here in the Bible belt of America, I was raised in church. I was taught right and wrong, the ten commandments, along with all of the other do’s and don’ts that come with our packaged version of Christianity. There was also much emphasis put on spending a certain amount of time in prayer and reading a certain amount of chapters in the Bible every day. This religious type of upbringing was not necessarily bad, but it eventually led me to a legalistic pattern of living and thinking.

Because of the way I saw my relationship with God, it led me to believe that If I messed up, he was displeased with me and wouldn’t allow me into His kingdom until I said the “magic” prayer of repentance. Only then would I be able to make it into heaven. This way of thinking brought a lot of fear into my life as a young teen. I constantly wondered if my relationship with God, which was measured up in prayer and Bible reading time, was good enough to get me into heaven. I feared being “left behind” when God came back for his children, and it affected me in many ways.

Flash forward to my first marriage and I’ve carried this legalistic lifestyle into mine and my spouses life, and yet I would still somehow justify my own sin. I had become comfortable with my own struggles, yet openly was displeased with others who lived a life with open sin. I figured that my secret sin was better than their open sin, and that it was somehow not as bad as someone who was a professing homosexual, or who had pictures of them drinking on Facebook. This allowed me to not only justify my sin, but overlook many areas of a faltering love walk with those around me.

My marriage ended with me thinking that I was the victim, and to all of those witnessing the circumstances of my divorce, that statement would hold true; however, I failed to see that my legalism and lack of ability to show love was doing more damage than imagined. Through the divorce, God opened my eyes to the concept of his grace and mercy. I found myself in a situation where I had been truly wronged by my ex-wife, and by all accounts was spiritually released from that marriage, but God showed me a grace and mercy I had never seen that I wanted to exercise myself. He showed me that his love was so great that he was willing to lay down his life so that he might even have a chance to have a relationship with me. His love was reckless and it didn’t show favoritism.

I was compelled to live with this kind of love towards others, and would pursue a life that led me down this path. Since my revelation of his great love, and how he wasn’t counting how many chapters I read in the Bible every day, or how many minutes I prayed to him, it has caused me to live in relationship with the Father. I don’t look at our relationship as a duty, but as a true relationship with someone I love. Because of this, I’ve seen him move me towards people who were unlovable and discarded by the legalistic Biblical standards. This has allowed me to be a vessel for God's love and bring others to Christ that I would have never even befriended before my transformation.

Thank you for your partnership and support!

Our team will be formed and trained over a 4 month period using what is known as T4T/Four Fields of Kingdom Growth methodology. Our expedition team (often called Luke 10 teams) will be trained, both here in US and in the Mid-South Region, to look to the Holy Spirit’s leading as we enter empty fields through prayer, houses of peace, and persons of peace; as we evangelize sowing fields using our personal testimonies, God's Story (Creation to Christ), and e-folds; and as we disciple new believers amongst growing fields conducting 3/3rd's bible study fellowships … fully expecting God’s harvest fields to produce abundant lasting fruit - church's established at multiplicative rates unimaginable.

Leaders on this team will be Mike and Mary Wagner with Edward and Emily Kissel assisting.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1) The country that the Mid-South Region represents should never be linked to information about the Mid-South Region (MSR).

2) ADDITIONALLY, we ask that the information contained herein not be posted on any social media site by anyone connected to this expedition team.