What He Said...

Lowell just posted an update on our other blog...

"So, we are down to the wire. A week from today we should be in the van, hopefully with a trailer packed with those Winter clothes, probably more toys than we should be taking, all my misc. electronic gadgets that I am going to have to learn how to let go of over time, our two guitars (yes, I have a bass and I WILL learn how to play it!), a significant number of blankets and coats (did I mention we are going to a place where it is cold?), and several books we have both planned to read for some time and will likely bring back to Fresno in December having not read them."

To read the rest, and see a really cute picture of our kids with their cousins on the Ens side, CLICK HERE.

Thanks for your prayers!  If I don't post again in the next week, it's because I'm trying to move out of the country.  I'm sure you'll understand.  : )

Prayer!

Hi friends...  The organization we will be training and serving with is wise enough to know that in order to be successful in this endeavor, we need a lot of prayer support behind us.  They have asked us to find 40 people who are willing to pray for us every day while we are in training. (Our training starts Sept. 7 and ends Dec. 17, though you don't have to wait until then to start praying for us and you don't have to stop in December!)  If you would like to be one of those people, you can leave us a comment or try to print/download the form below and email it back to us.  : )  One way or another, we'll get you signed up and we'll be honored and blessed to have you praying for us!

For the JOY...

As our family prepares to embark on this super-exciting (and super-challenging!) journey, I'm so SO grateful for the lessons God has been teaching me and for how He's showing me in such a tangible way that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH HIM.  It doesn't say that nothing is impossible if He does it for me.  It doesn't say nothing is impossible if I talk to Him without looking at Him like He's in the room over there somewhere busy doing something else while I'm busy over here.  It says WITH HIM.  With His strength working in me.  With His peace guarding my heart.  With His hand covering me.  With my eyes fixed on Him instead of on the waves.  


I am so grateful for how God has been drawing me closer to Him through this.  I'm thankful for His patience with me.  For His reassurance over and over again that He is going to supply EVERYTHING WE NEED and that much of that will come through an intimate relationship with Him.  He keeps encouraging me when I get discouraged.  In fact, that seems to be a big stronghold He is working on dislodging from my heart...  my tendency to get discouraged when things get tough.  He wants to teach me to PERSEVERE.  And nothing will teach perseverance like...... having to persevere!  : )

So, here I am.  Persevering, but finding (as I search for it) JOY in the middle of it.  I'm so thankful (again) that God doesn't just want my body to keep going without my heart.  He doesn't just want me to move out of this house, exhausted, frustrated and worn out.  He wants me to find JOY in it!

"²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  (James 1:2-4)


"⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."  (1 Peter 1:6-9)


Do you see that???  Wow.  Greatly rejoice...  Pure, inexpressible and glorious joy.  Reminds me of how Jesus persevered through being crucified...  FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM.

"¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."  (Hebrews 12:1-3)

If you would like to join (officially) in praying for us as we enter into our training time, we would be so honored...  We actually have to have at least 40 people signed, sealed and committed to praying for us daily by the time we get to Canada.  If God puts it on your heart to be one of those people, please let me know either in the comments or by email and I'll send you the form.


Keep fixing your eyes on Him...  and pray that we do the same.


~Melissa