Thursday, November 20, 2008

Here's the latest scoop!

Well, I have been meaning to get on here and post for a week now and I am just now doing it. We have been busy the last 2 weeks looking at airfare and trying to find the best rate out there for our family. There is so much to do and plan in order be ready to move and it seems like we are finding our days more and more focused on Africa. Which, let me say is very exciting, but can also be overwhelming if we take our eyes off of Christ and the call He has on our lives. We have to take it one step at a time and remember that we can do everything through the power of Christ. He gives us strength! (Philippians 4:13)

I want to back up last Wednesday, November 12th. It was just one of those days. The day started with an attack from the enemy ... Ephesians 6:12 "Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world." Through prayer and God's love, grace and mercy by late afternoon it seemed better. After church that night we went to check the mail and we had an envelop addressed to our family. When we opened it up we found a check for $500.00 towards our full time mission. In the midst of the trials God used this family to show us to continue to walk forward. Nothing else matters when it compares to God's will for you.

He is our Joy, our Refuge, our Comforter, our Rock, our Redeemer, He is WORTHY.

Thursday, November 13th, God continued to pour out His blessings on our family. We found out that Mark had his name drawn at work to be off on Christmas day. (This is the first time in 3 years he will not have to go to work at 6:30 am on Christmas morning!) That afternoon we found out that there is a ministry called World Connex (Missions from the Inside Out) that has grants available for Self-Supported Full Time Missionaries. We are in the process of applying for that. There is a possibility we could get up to $1,000 per month for a year.

God just keeps reminding me that He has a Big plan, bigger and better than we could ever imagine. He has reminded me that the enemy doesn't want any part of it to happen. The Word tells us that Satan is here to kill, steal and destroy. The enemy wants to discourage us and put doubt in our minds. We recognize it for what it is and say that we are choosing to follow Christ, even if it is all the way on the other side of the world. HE IS WORTHY!!!

We wait with anticipation to see how He is going to work out all of the details over the next 7 months.

Please continue to pray for our family. We have several things in the next few weeks to take care of. Some of them include ...

1. Airfare ... We are in the process of booking airfare. We have some tickets on hold for us to fly out on June 22nd.

2. Support Letters ... Our brochures should be in tomorrow and we will be sending out our Thanksgiving "thank you" letters to all of our supporters from this past trip as well as sending information asking for others to join us in the work God has called us to by praying for our family and financially supporting our mission.

3. Pray for us to stay focused on the Lord through this whole journey. We want more than anything for His name to get the GLORY!

One last thing ... Be sure to watch the video from the previous post, "Cardboard Testimonies", if you have not had a chance to. Remember to turn up the volume so you can hear the song as well.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Hopefully some day I will get to visit you guys! I've never been to that part of Africa! I was supposed to be taking a group over to Kenya in April, but it looks like that trip is going to be postponed until August (the next time the kids will be out of school). I'm about to start the fund raising process. I have some meetings next week that will make everything official, then I'll "go public" with all that's going on and what it looks like God is calling me to. Let me know if you guys are ever in my area!

Gayle said...

The video was very good.
We know that God is definitely in control of everything. We must listen carefully to Him and trust Him. Philippians 4:13 is one of my favorite verses. In our weakness, HE is Strong. HE knows the plans He has for us.
We love you so very much!
Mom and Dad