On December 21st we flew to North Carolina to spend Christmas with Heather’s mom, step-dad, and most of her siblings. This was a special year as well because Heather’s brother Nathan and his wife Cate welcomed Vera Isabella into the world in August. It was so much fun to have a baby around the house and we all had a blast spoiling her.

We had a wonderful week together celebrating Christmas, watching Christmas vacation, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family, taking turns cooking meals (we have some talented cooks in the family!), going on walks on the beach, sharing our life stories, exploring the beautiful nature of North Carolina, and playing the classic back yard game of Corn Hole. We are blessed to have so many wonderful family members. The picture below is missing our sister in law Cate who was taking the picture.

We left North Carolina on December 28th and on December 30th we flew to Guatemala to be a part of the mission team from our church FBC Waco. Our church partners with the orphanage Fundacion Salvacion (http://www.fundacionsalvacion.net/index.php/P%C3%A1gina_Principal). This was a very difficult year for this trip because the day before our arrival, the founder, Sandra, was killed in a car accident. This was not only incredibly difficult for Sandra’s family but the entire orphanage including the staff and kids. Sandra was the heart and soul of the orphanage so this was a devastating loss.This was the 10th year FBC Waco has sent a team and many of the team members, including the team leaders were incredibly close to Sandra. We welcome your prayers for the orphanage and their leadership as they try to figure out how to move forward in the coming year.

Yet, in the midst of heartbreak and brokenness, God was present and I believed used our team to help bring some stability in the midst of difficult circumstances. We spent lot’s of time with the 100+ kids playing games, teaching them bible stories, running a medical clinic, and much more. The picture to the right is of me and my little buddy Nelson Jose.

This trip was a unique experience for us because this was the first time in 6 or 7 years that Heather and I have been on a trip in which we were not the leaders. It was refreshing to just be able to participate and not have to be concerned with all that goes in to leading a team. It was also a unique experience because this trip is part of Heather’s Masters of Social Work research project.

Guatemala is a beautiful country with such wonderful people. The children of this orphanage were testaments of the amazing woman that Sandra was and her legacy lives on through them. I’ve never witnessed adults and children love each other so selflessly and the kids were the best behaved kids I’ve ever seen. In addition to the wonderful people we saw some absolutely incredible sites as well. This picture is at some Mayan ruins above 15 minutes from the orphanage. We took all the kids there, ordered pizza, flew kites, climbed the ruins, and played games. It was a pretty memorable day to say the least. If you’d like to see all of our pictures from Guatemala, click this link: http://chadmustain.shutterfly.com/

On Monday our spring semester begins. I addition to my seminary classes I will continue my extended unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (the course runs until the end of March) and I will be back on call at Hillcrest Hospital on Sunday nights. Heather will be working 40 hours a week at FBC Waco t0 complete her social work internship and she is excited about graduating with her Masters of Social Work in May.

We welcome your prayers as we embark on another busy semester.

Blessings,

Chad and Heather

Dearest Family and Friends-

“By God’s grace we are doing well.” This is a saying our good friend and ministry partner from Ghana, Vincent Asamoah, lives by and has modeled for us. It is our hope that we will all live each day with the awareness that it is a gift of God’s grace.

2011 has been an action packed and busy year full of family, friends, church, laughter, travel, work, many changes in hairstyles, and of course graduate school. We are grateful for our many blessings and opportunities, recognizing this past year has been difficult for so many in our world.

It feels like there is so much to try and pack in in such a short amount of space but here it goes! I have continued with my enjoyment of running as I ran one half marathon and two full marathons this year. In April I ran the Go! St. Louis Marathon with my brother-in-law Caleb and in November I ran the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon.

May and June brought lots of travel as we traveled for nearly a month straight. As soon as I took my last final, we were on a flight to Birmingham for a good friend’s wedding. And since we were in the “neighborhood”, we visited dear friends of ours from our time at AIM in both Chattanooga and Gainesville.

At the end of May we led our second trip for Baylor to Kumasi, Ghana. It was such an incredible experience to see the kids and staff from All Nations Charity Home again. We are honored to participate in God’s transforming work in Ghana. Transformation is a two way street and we are continually blessed through the ministry of Vincent, our other friends, and of course the kids. They have impacted and transformed our lives in more ways than we could ever share.

We ended our summer travels with a trip out to Colorado to visit family and friends. This photo was taken in the approximate location where we were married in August 2008.

Throughout the rest of the summer Heather worked and took classes as I led worship for Baylor’s freshman and transfer student’s “Line Camp” experiences. Speaking of Baylor, how about those Baylor Bears and Heisman Trophy winner RGIII! It’s good to be a Baylor Bear!

On August 2^nd we celebrated our three-year wedding anniversary with a short getaway to Houston. We continued our tradition of releasing the number of balloons equivalent to our years of marriage. The balloons signify our remembrance of the past year and by God’s grace, the new beginning of continued life, love, and happiness together.

In August we also began our third year of seminary and Heather began her final year of her Masters of Social Work program. As part of her program Heather has a 9-month internship at our new church home, First Baptist Church Waco. God is doing amazing things in and through Heather as she loves the opportunity to come along side individuals, families and communities in leading them in holistic life transformation. In September Heather did a phenomenal job directing Baylor’s “Be the Change Missions Conference” for the third and final year.

I continue to work as a resident chaplain for Baylor. In the spring I was offered the opportunity to move to a larger and more challenging residential community (which included a larger apartment!). I love the chance to invest in the lives of students and to walk with them through some incredibly difficult times. I am also in the midst of a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) course at our local hospital, Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center. This hospital chaplaincy experience has, hands down, been the most difficult and most rewarding educational and ministerial opportunity of my life.

As always, Christmas break will be busy for us. We’ll spend a few days in Dallas with my family and then head off to North Carolina to spend Christmas with some of Heather’s family. Over New Year’s we are thrilled to participate on a mission trip to Guatemala with our church. This trip is also part of Heather’s research project and internship at FBC Waco.

Toward the end of May we look forward to returning to Kumasi, Ghana for our third year. A part of my Masters of Divinity program includes the opportunity to mentor at a church or organization. We have decided to serve in Bend, Oregon for the summer where I will do my mentorship at a church we have a previous relationship with. This brings an excitement for us as we look forward to spending the summer with a wonderful church community in a beautiful part of the country we have not yet explored.

Well, I guess that is the long and short of our past year. By God’s grace we await with great anticipation another year of participating in God’s redeeming work all over the world.

Grace and Peace to you and yours,

Chad and Heather Mustain

Since my last post in August, I had staff training with our new North Village staff. If you remember a while back I mentioned that we moved to the North Village residential community and I am now serving as the chaplain there. I took the new position for a variety of reasons, many of which I new would challenge me and cause me to grow. While the semester has been good, it has been as challenging and growth filled as I imagined that it would be.

Heather did an absolutely phenomenal job directing the “Be the Change Missions Conference.” This was the third time she directed it and it was truly the best of the three that she oversaw. All of our speakers and practitioners did a wonderful job and all of the events were attended much better than in years past. The key note speaker was a pastor from Bend, Oregon named Ken Wytsma. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to spend a week with him and one of the associate pastors because I will be doing my mentoring this summer at the church they lead. We are excited to be part of a vibrant church community in the midst a beautiful part of the country that we have not yet been to.

One of the courses I am taking this year is called Clinical Pastoral Education. One component of the course is classroom time at the hospital and individual supervision. The largest and most challenging part of the course is that I am on call at Hillcrest Hospital one evening a week from 7pm to 7am. To give you just a brief snapshot of what this is like, while on duty I am physically present at the hospital, I do rounds, respond to trauma calls, and help lead the process with the family when there is a death. This has by far been the most incredible experience of my life. It is far more difficult than I ever could have imagined and yet I feel I have grown more in these two months than I have in my entire life. One area of ministry I am exploring is hospital or hospice chaplaincy and this has given me a clear picture of what that would be like. This course goes until April so I have a lot of learning ahead of me.

We have a lot of exciting opportunities we are looking forward to over the next month or two. On November 13th we’ll go down to San Antonio, TX as I am running the Rock and Roll San Antonio Marathon. This will be my second marathon and I am thrilled that Heather is able to attend this one to support me. The following weekend some of my family is coming down to attend the Baylor/OU game with us. We’ll be spending Thanksgiving in Dallas and OKC with my family and for Christmas we’ll be traveling to North Carolina to spend it with Heather’s mom, step-dad, and several of her siblings. We are also excited to have the opportunity to travel to Guatemala over New Year’s to take part in a mission trip with our new church First Baptist Church Waco.

As part of Heather’s masters of social work program, she is doing her primary internship at FBC Waco. As a result, we transitioned to attending church there and it has been such a blessing. I have even joined the choir, which has been a great experience for me. The lead pastor, Matt Snowden, is truly one of the most amazing pastors I have had the privilege of learning from. He has been an incredible mentor for Heather and she is having a wonderful experience putting her social work skills into practice in a church environment. In the spring semester Heather will be working 40 hours a week at FBC Waco and part of her research and work includes the trip to Guatemala we’ll be going on.

We’ll, I think that is the long and the short of what we’ve been up to over the past two months. When we have time, we still enjoy spending time with our friends, going to the movies (we went to a drive in!), and I still love to play disc golf. Please keep us in your prayers as we attempt to finish our time well (we still have about a year and a half). We feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity in seminary but I think we are both ready for the next season of life, including starting a family of our own. Gulp. I never thought I’d write that!

If for some reason you find yourself passing through Waco, let us know because we’d love to see you!

Blessings,
Chad and Heather

As many of you know, we borrowed an idea from Rob Bell about releasing balloons to signify releasing the past and moving forward. We decided that for each anniversary we would release that number of balloons as we move forward in our relationship. This year we released three balloons.

It was a nice (but hot!) night in Houston. We found a great park to release the balloons at. Here the balloons are headed off into the distance.

I love baseball and this was the 2nd game I have been to at Minute Maid Park known as “the Juice Box.”

Here we are, the happy couple.
Heather looked as beautiful this night (and always) as she did the day we got married.

Peace,

Chad

Through my time serving as the worship leader for Baylor’s Line Camp I had the opportunity to share with several different students our dating story and my “tips” for marriage. A few things that I ultimately shared in a nut shell is that marriage takes two people who are committed to moment by moment, day by day continually choose the other. Second, you have to always believe the best in one another. Third, you have to live selflessly and do whatever it takes as it long as it takes to grow and learn as an individual and to be patient with your spouse as they grow and learn as well. Finally, I think you need godly community (family, friends, mentors etc.) in your life and marriage to share life with and to speak truth to you.

Music is such a huge part of my life so naturally as I am reflecting on our marriage ceremony and the past three years of marriage together, I remember two of my favorite songs that we incorporated into our ceremony.

This is the song that the bridesmaids walked walked down the isle to:

And this is the song that my wonderful bride walked down the isle to:

We are getting away for just a quick 24 hour trip to Houston. The highlight of the trip (for me anyway) is catching an Astros game at the “Juice Box” Minute Maid Park. As many of you know, baseball and particularly baseball stadiums are one of my favorite things in the world. This will be my second game there. We are also excited to try a new (to us) restaurant with lot’s of vegetarian options.

So yeah, here’s to you Heather, my love, and hoping for many, many more years to come.

Grateful,

Chad and Heather

I have been auditing Greek 1 and 2 to prepare for my Greek readings class in 1 and 2 Thessalonians this fall. I wrap up class on Thursday. I’ve also been busy over the last three weeks leading worship for Baylor’s Line Camp for freshman and transfer students. Line Camp is a place for new students to make friends, learn about the traditions of Baylor, and overall just have a great time in preparation for attending Baylor in the fall. Part of the Line Camp experience is going to Independence, TX where Baylor started. This picture is of the columns from one of the original buildings. In a moving ceremony of worship, prayer, and reflection the students pass through the columns and this signifies their initiation into the Baylor Line.

This is our last week of summer before all of the craziness of of the fall semester kicks in. Next Monday is the start of fall training for me with Community Living and Learning and with Resident Chaplains. It is a good but intense time of bonding, learning, planning, and preparation for the fall semester.

The “Be the Change” missions conference (http://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=53955) that Heather is responsible for is just around the corner as well. This year’s theme is addressing both local and global injustices and challenging participants to figure out how they can engage injustice. They are doing a witty little play on words with engaging in justice/engaging injustice. If you are in the area, this is a free conference that you should definitely consider attending.

Tuesday is our three year wedding anniversary. The past two years we were fortunate to be able to go on vacation to celebrate. This year, we are just going to spend the day together here in Waco or maybe pop down to Austin. While marriage is by no means a cake walk, we feel incredibly blessed to have a healthy and strong marriage and we look forward to many more years together.

Grace and Peace,

Chad and Heather

We are blessed with a great friend group of married couples and they helped us move on Friday. Our apartment is on the far left under the small archways. This apartment is a little bit larger than the place we have lived the last two years. We are grateful that with my position as a resident chaplain, Baylor provides housing as part of my compensation.

So, here is a series of pictures as if you are walking through the front door. We actually have two entrances to our apartment, which is kind of cool.

This is the front door and there is an iron bench just to the right of the door.

This is looking into the apartment from the front door. It has a kitchen/living room combination with the kitchen to the right and the living room to the left.

The kitchen.

The living room.

Our long, awkward hallway. The bathroom is to the right, our bedroom is on the left, our laundry room is at the end on the left and the door at the end of the hallway goes into the lobby of our building.

The bathroom.

Our bedroom. This picture is taken from the walk-in closet. For the first time in two years we have a bedroom door as well which is awesome!

So yeah, that is our new home. This weekend we are headed up to Norman/OKC for a family friend’s wedding. It will be neat to see a lot of people I have not seen in several years (and for Heather to meet them for the first time) and to spend time with my family as everyone is going and we are all staying at Joy and Caleb’s house.

Peace,

Chad and Heather

]]> http://themustains.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/our-new-home/feed/ 0 The Mustain's IMG_1060 IMG_1061 IMG_1062 IMG_1065 IMG_1064 IMG_1071 IMG_1068 IMG_1069 http://themustains.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/moving-day/ http://themustains.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/moving-day/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:33:29 +0000 themustains02 http://themustains.wordpress.com/?p=273 Continue reading →]]> Today Heather and I are moving across Baylor’s campus to North Village where I will be serving as the resident chaplain beginning in August. I have had a wonderful experience serving as the resident chaplain of Brooks Flats the past two years and we have loved living in this unique community. However, I am looking forward to the new challenges and opportunities serving at North Village will present. We are also excited to have a different apartment that is a little bit larger (and has a bedroom door!) than the studio style apartment we have lived in the past two years.

The marriage conference we attended two weeks ago was beneficial and was a nice little getaway in a beautiful area of Austin. One of our favorite reasons to go to Austin is the opportunity to eat at Wahoo’s which I have decided is my favorite place to eat in the United States. We even won a set of 8 couples small group books so that was a bonus as well.

Last weekend I lead worship at Valley Ranch Baptist Church and it was a joy to serve there. Larry Parsley is one of the most gifted communicators I have ever heard and just did a phenomenal job with a difficult Old Testament text. It was also wonderful to spend the weekend with my dad, Caleb, Joy, Katelyn, and Katelyn’s boyfriend. We were “roughing it” as my mom left on Saturday for a week long mission trip in New York City. She returns tomorrow and we are looking forward to reports of how their team participated in what God is doing there.

This past week Heather has worked hard helping at Baylor’s freshman orientation and planning for the “Be the Change” missions awareness conference (http://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=53955). This year’s theme is “Engaging Injustice.” Heather and her team of students are working so hard to raise awareness and encourage both Baylor students and community members to engage the injustice that is all around our communities and homes in the U.S. I am especially excited for musical guests Jenny and Tyler (http://jennyandtylermusic.com/). You should definitely check out their website and music. I think they are one of the best music artists around right now. Their lyrics are both challenging and compelling.

I am auditing Greek this summer to prepare for my Greek readings course this fall. I’ve really enjoyed sitting in on the class and being reminded why asking good questions and faithfulness with Scripture text is so important to the Church.

Well, I guess that is about it for now. We don’t have any other big trips planned this summer. We do hope to have a few more weekend getaways with family, friends, and a short getaway for our three year anniversary on August 2nd.

Living and Loving, Life and God!

Chad and Heather

A little later today we are headed down to Austin for a marriage conference that is put on by Family Life (http://www.familylife.com/site/c.dnJHKLNnFoG/b.3082787/k.15CA/FamilyLife.htm). We are grateful that we have the opportunity to attend this conference and invest some intentional time in our marriage. It is hard to believe that August 2nd is our third anniversary. We feel blessed to have a wonderful marriage but we also recognize that marriage is incredibly challenging at times. When we got married, we committed to participating in marriage enrichment activities (conferences, counseling etc) to keep our marriage healthy and to work through areas of needed improvement that we’ve recognized.

Next weekend, I’ll be leading worship at Valley Ranch Baptist Church (http://www.vrbc.net/). I am always excited for the opportunity and it is always an honor to serve along side of my dad (and it is Father’s Day which makes it even more special). My family will all be in town for the weekend to celebrate my dad, with the exception of my mom who will be on a mission trip in New York City with over 200 students and leaders from Valley Ranch. Please be in prayer for their trip as they seek to participate in what God is doing in NYC and that their team would also be transformed.

Finally, I ask you to be in prayer for Lauren Wyman and her family. Lauren is a childhood friend of my sister Joy. Lauren’s husband Kurt was a police officer in upstate New York and he was killed in the line of duty this past week. Lauren went into labor with their second child the same day Kurt was killed. This is heartbreaking news and reminds us all just how precious and fragile life is. If you would like to help the Wyman family financially, please click this link for more information: http://m.uticaod.com/observerdis/pm_29347/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=poD3g4b6.

Grace and Peace,

Chad and Heather

In our conversation the topic naturally gravitated to poverty. This is is something I have been thinking a lot about as Heather and I have been reading and discussing the book “When Helping Hurts.” This is an excellent book that I would highly recommend. It is one of the foremost books available right now helping guide churches and individuals as they seek to participate in the mission of God in the world but in a way that does not hurt the poor or ourselves. Intrigued? I hope so and I hope you’ll consider picking this book up.

In this book they define the nature of poverty as “the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings” (62).

As you can see, this is a much deeper idea and understanding of poverty than just a lack of food, material possessions, or a job etc. So, what then should our response be? The authors suggest a method called “poverty alleviation” which is a “ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation” (78).

Over the past few years Heather and I have been wrestling with short term missions, its purpose, and who it is most about. It is our hope that as we lead short term trips that we and our team are being transformed as we participate in God’s transforming work. In short term missions, we have the difficult task of not just providing a band aid but to help work toward wholeness. The authors of “When Helping Hurts” say you have to recognize what is needed in a situation, relief, rehabilitation, or development (104).

In short term missions, it is difficult to see past relief and often short term missions never makes it past this. It is our hope in our relationship with what God is doing in Ghana that we can move toward rehabilitation and development as God is making all things new (Rev. 21:5).

Our host Vincent has such a heart for God’s work in Ghana. He is truly one of the most amazing and most humble men that I know. When I am asked why I go to Ghana, deep down, my honest (and selfish) answer is so that I can spend two weeks in the shadow and dust of Vincent.

Vincent serves as a board member of the All Nations Charity Home where we serve and is also the founder of Shoot 4 Life Ministries. For more information please check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfhUZ0O9gNA. If you would like to join in with what God is doing in Ghana through Vincent and Shoot 4 Life or if you would like to help support the All Nations Charity Home, please leave me a comment and I will get you that information.

God is moving in the world, the question is, how are you participating in the mission of God? Thank you for following what God is doing in mine and Heather’s lives and how are seeking to help build a different kind of tomorrow.

Grace and Peace,

Chad and Heather