Ministry Update - Home Ministry

Shortly after we sent out our last update (within a few hours, in fact) we received the wonderful news that a new church would be joining our financial support team! In fact, the week that we sent out that update we received a great deal of encouragement in the form of new support. Over the course of the following weeks we gained an additional $1,100 in monthly support!!! I still have a hard time believing what I just wrote! After several slow months, the Lord literally opened up the flood gates of provision.

I am reminded by this provision that God's timing is different from my own and He does not share the same sense of urgency that we have...in fact, there is no urgency with God. We recently were reminded by a very timely sermon of that very fact. In the Gospel of Luke a man named Jairus appeals to Jesus to heal his daughter. This girl's life hangs in the balance and you can imagine that Jairus feels a sense of urgency to get Jesus to his house in time. On the way a woman who has suffered bleeding for 12 years touches Jesus and is healed...and Jesus stops. He stops! A girl's life is in jeopardy and Jesus stops to ask who touched him and proclaim to this woman that her faith has healed her! Can you imagine what Jairus must have felt? How could Jesus put the less serious needs of this woman before the much more serious case of his daughter? Something similar happens in the Gospel of John with Lazarus. When Jesus gets the news of Lazarus' sickness He doesn't rush to Bethany but stays where He is ministering. A decisive lack of urgency in both situations.

We cannot mistake this lack of urgency for a lack of care - that is certainly not true of Christ. He cares deeply for us and we see that care demonstrated on a great many occassions in the Gospels (the woman who touched Jesus being a prime example). What we find instead is that God works on a timeline different than our own. Where we see a hard deadline, He does not. Where we see a dead end, He does not. In both the case of Jairus' daughter as well as that of Lazarus, Jesus demonstrates His power over death itself - the grave could not hold these two souls when their Creator called them back to life.

While we are not facing death, it is good to remember that God is in control of our fundraising. It is good to know that there is no sense of urgency with Him because He is in control of all things and nothing will work out any differently than He plans and expects. Our God, unlike us, is not wringing His hands wondering where He might find a few more dollars to get us back Costa Rica "in time". Instead, our God is walking us along the path at His pace, using this time to teach, to mold and to prepare us for when He sends us back.

We are grateful for the Lord's kind provision of new support and for the way in which He has sustained our support over these months. We are refreshed and excited about our return, though we still have some distance to cover. We are also encouraged as we continue to visit churches and meet with individuals and we can now say that we are within $750/month of our goal!!!

Family Update

This update finds us freshly home after a two week road trip that took us from Knoxville all the way to San Antonio, Texas and home again. We were honored to participate in a missions conference in Kosciuscko, MS and enjoyed visiting with friends and supporters during this trip.

One of the challenges we faced was how to get the kid's schooling in while on the road. They were real troopers and did extra work before we left and even studied in some of our hotel rooms! Of course, when a hotel is involved the pool always provides great incentive and motivation! You can see a few places we stopped along the way below!

How you can pray this month...

-Julie's grandmother's health is failing (she is 92) and we anticipate her passing into the presence of the Lord soon. We plan on traveling to be with the family when the time comes. In the meantime you can pray for comfort and peace as well as grace to deal with the details.
-Pray for the kids as they continue their school work - they are not excited to return to a full schedule!
-Pray for the remainder of our support to come in - we are very anxious to return to Costa

Praise and Thanksgiving this month... 

-We are grateful to the Lord for the lives of our grandmothers. Both women have faithfully prayed for us and have lived faithfully for the Lord. Often we forget what a blessing it is to have grown up in homes with both parents and grandparents as believers!
-We praise God for safety in travel during our recent road trip - over 2,000 miles of driving!!!
-We are grateful for the way in which the Lord used the churches and individuals we visited to encourage us.

Andrew and Julie 
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