Land of Our Sojourn

Every July we find ourselves meditating on God's grace. You see, in July of 2006 we first arrived in this country and with each passing year we become more aware of our own weaknesses and more stunned by the goodness of God. This year we celebrated enduring for 11 years working cross-culturally. But enduring is hardly the right word. Yes, there have been many difficult moments. We have seen two teams fall apart. We have seen many friends move on for a variety of reasons. We have endured our fair share of smoke, heat, and power outages. But honestly, we cannot claim anything as coming from ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). It is unfathomable to me that 11 years later we are still here and doing reasonably well emotionally and physically. Why, Lord, are we of all people still here? We have seen so many high-quality, amazing, diligent, and more qualified people come and go. All we can come back to is that God has sovereign plans that make no sense to us. We just keep walking, trust...

I was asked recently to try to summarize the work of the past 10+ years. Obviously, that is a difficult task to do. However, an image has come to my mind as I have meditated over the past few years. Imagine walking into a pitch black room. You've never been in this room before. You have no clue as to its contents. Slowly you step in and begin groping around with your hands. BANG! You smack your shin on something low. You stop and begin investigating what this object might be. Upon rubbing your hands down the surface you have discovered a small table. It might be a coffee table. "Yes, I recognize this" you say and then move on. However, you bang into it again! Hmmm. This is not a type of coffee table I have every known before. The shape and surface are totally different. You make a mental note. This may or may not be a coffee table. Then you turn around. BANG! You have just bumped your head into something that might be hanging from the ceiling. As you had done previo...

I listened closely to his story, hoping my 7 months away from the language wouldn't inhibit my ability to understand. He spoke rapidly but in between the colloquial words I grasped that his family were not true believers. I had asked the group of seven young Bible students to briefly tell how they came to know Christ. The next young man started his story. Apparently just after being baptized his pastor asked him if he wanted to go to Bible school. Having been here many years, I have heard this story often. Everyone wants to get a college degree. But few can afford it. So, of course, given the opportunity one would say 'yes.' The question in my mind was did he truly encounter Jesus? I had hoped that through their stories I would get to understand their background better. The pastor had asked me to come and teach the group about how to share their faith. But it was becoming increasingly clear that this group may not even totally understand their faith themselves. It is one...

The night before our flight I lay in bed thinking. I was exhausted from the work of cleaning our house, packing our 10 large bags, and the constant questioning ‘am I forgetting anything?’ That night I couldn’t sleep and began worrying -which I have discovered is something that my body does when it has hit physical and emotional exhaustion. 'Why am I doing this? Why am I taking my small kids across the planet? Have you really called us to this? What good are we doing anyway?’ The questions scared me, but I knew I just needed to get some sleep. A few days later we finally flew to our home. We got through immigration, wheeled are many bags to a friend’s car and saw many smiling faces. People happy to see us again. We drove to our home commenting on the things that had changed and hadn’t changed since we were gone. And then we came to our home. We opened the door and I felt a rush of peace. I cannot explain why. The house is just a normal house. It had the same smells, the same h...

Today as K and I were walking to the car I felt the cool breeze and said, "Stop! Let's enjoy this. Pretty soon we won't be feeling this again." All that we are feeling right now is summed up in that little moment. We leave in just a few more days. There is something about the transitions that make you hypersensitive to the differences. Years ago there may have been some bitterness or grumbling in those feelings. I can't say that the grumbling is never mixed in with those feelings. I can say, however,  that we have made it a point to follow Paul's instruction to Do all with without grumbling and complaining and give thanks in all circumstances . Being able to stop and enjoy that breeze shows me that it's becoming more natural. There is always a sadness as we leave as well as a weariness as the many farewells pile up. Ten years is a long time to continually say goodbye to your loved ones. Yet there is an inner eagerness to get back to what has become ...

People frequently ask us, "How can we pray for you?" We are so thankful that we have so many friends who think about us and want to pray for us! In our newsletter we mentioned a few ministry related prayer requests for 2017. We hope that these will provide you with some long term things to pray for when you think of us. Here are couple personal ways that you can pray for us: Homeschool We never would have homeschooled had it not been for the living situation we find ourselves in. It has been a HARD 2 years as we have adjusted our personal wants and routines to this life stage. We do not find personal satisfaction in homeschooling. It is simply a matter of obedience. Every week we have to motivate ourselves to get back in the battle. This coming year will have new challenges with our third child who is know 3 years old and whose volume is increasing at an amazing rate! Kid's Adjustment We have been in the States for 6 months. Going back and forth from home to home ...

Last week we had the joy of celebrating Andy’s birthday. He is now three years old and making the transition to a BIG boy. Our family would not be the same without him. I remember after our 2nd was born. I (B) was having a hard time adjusting to two children, the activity of a toddler boy, and an increasing work load. We felt like two children was probably our limit. But as we talked we realized that we were making this decision without consulting the Lord in prayer. We said, ‘We’re not talking about this for 2 weeks. We are just going to have focused time in prayer.’ We came together after 2 weeks and found that God had totally changed our hearts! We really wanted another child. About 4 months later we were pregnant and 9 months later Andrew was born during our time in Texas. He continually surprises us with his wit, candor, and vocabulary. He is a total extrovert often asking if we are going to someone’s house or feeling disappointed if it is 'only’ our family. He is such a ch...