A Month of Milestones
“Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come…Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!”
Revelation 19: 7, 9
Hello dear friends,
Spring has fully sprung here in NC. This is the time of year when schedules really start to get crazy, and ours is no exception. We are traveling to Florida the last week of May and have several trainings, trips, and even a youth camp across June, July, and August. But now is the time to pause, look back at the past month, and be thankful.
April was a month of milestones for the Mull family, which has left us reminiscing and trying to hold fast to the fleeting moments of today. Among these milestones was our two year anniversary as Wycliffe missionaries! The amount of blessings God has given us in the last 24 months is staggering. April also marked a year of being proud owners of our fifth-wheel home and even prouder parents of our precious little boy. Malachi turned one and figured out walking this month so we have crossed into the land of toddlerhood.
Another milestone was Malachi’s first Good Friday and Easter sunrise services. To celebrate Good Friday our little Baptist church family joined a local Missionary Baptist church service. The service consisted of three hours filled with fantastic gospel music praising Jesus, and seven different preachers from local churches who came to testify to the goodness of our Lord. It was a spectacular time, and Malachi remained quite content… so long as we bribed him with snacks. Anna was privileged to participate in leading some of the worship, and both of us loved the expressive and rich worship culture of the Missionary Baptist church. On Easter Sunday we celebrated a baptism! What a beautiful thing to witness a daughter of God symbolically undergo death and resurrection on the day we remember the first and greatest resurrection. Thank you, Jesus!
On the training side, things are staying busy. Philip has taken some technical classes and continues to learn alongside his fellow trainees in the hangar. Anna has been adjusting to her role on the Staff Care and Development team as a speech therapist. She has gotten to connect with the larger team (spread across the US) over zoom and is working with her manager and supervisor to find her lane and best serve the students needing therapy. God is continuing to provide opportunities for ministry and growth. Thank you for your part in this ministry. Your prayers and support–even reading this newsletter–are an encouragement and a blessing to our family.
Taste and See
A few weeks ago I had the chance to read Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God and discuss it with some dear friends. In the final chapter, Keller points out that Jesus often uses a feast as an illustration of salvation and the kingdom of God. The gospel itself, Keller says, must be regularly internalized and partaken in–literally feasted upon–to continually reshape our perspective and prevent us from falling into old, worldly patterns. Throughout the Old Testament, we can see God establishing literal feasts for Israel. These were like national parties, which served to point both the nation of Israel and all readers of scripture to Jesus and His plan for redemption. The kingdom of God is as much in the physical as in the spiritual. The most moving part of this illustration is that a feast is not simply nourishing, it is exceedingly enjoyable! It isn’t something to be philosophised, but something to be experienced! “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” Psalm 34:8 says.
Having access to the Bible in one’s own language is vital to feasting on the gospel, not only to understand but to experience it. Right now, there are almost 30 million people who have zero access to scripture in their own language, but God is on the move. Bible translators all over the world are working toward this goal, that all may have access to the substance of scripture in a language they clearly understand.
To read more about the feasts that point to Jesus and the impact of the translated scripture, click here.
Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
Praise God with us for two years as Wycliffe missionaries
Praise God with us for the first wonderful year of Malachi’s life
Please pray for our trip to Florida, for smooth travels, quality time with family, and good connections with ministry partners
Please pray for the ministry of Bible translation and the efforts of those at JAARS and Wycliffe to bring the gospel to hungry people