Everything in life seems to be going wrong right now. We're still prayerfully researching mission boards, we found out we can't sell our house without taking a loss so we're going to have to rent it, the roof on the house started leaking like a sinking ship, Warrick started with croup early this year and the other two kids are sick, Jamie is having trouble with his school schedule, and the list could go on and on. Needless to say, we're exhausted.
Speaking of the mission board situation. Our trip visiting mission boards was wonderful. It answered a lot of questions and we feel we got a really good idea of who these boards are. Now we just have to figure out which one God has for us. It was quick, and exhausting (our 13 hour drive to New Hampshire turned into 16 thanks to traffic), but we had a wonderful time together without the kids. The kids had a great time with family in Cincinnati. Please continue to pray for our wisdom and discernment in this big decision.
Okay, back to the prayer topic. We've been calling the family together to have consentrated prayer together. Last week we sat down in our "living room" and had the kids pray for our support to continue to come in and for our start up costs for the field. While we were praying Jamie's phone rang, but of course we ignored it. When we were finished praying he checked his messages. There is a church in the Parkersburg area who has a faith giving offering once a year. This year their church decided to give it to our family to rebuild the start up costs we had saved for. What a blessing!! The church had also voted to start supporting us on a monthly basis in January, but they felt that giving such a large offering to a missionary they didn't support didn't make much sence. So they voted to start supporting us in November for 5% of our support level! Jamie and I have been praying that God would show to our kids, and remind us of, the power of prayer. While we were praying He was answering!! It was so exciting to be able to gather the kids just a few minutes after they prayed and tell them how God was answering while they were expressing their needs to Him. What a faithful God we serve!!
We have amped up the prayer time we spend as a family, and we see and know that God is working. We are asking for you to please do the same. Would you be willing to spend just five minutes a day praying for our family. We need rest, energy, renewal, wisdom, discernment, good health, and just for things to start working out. We have absolutely no doubts that our God is faithful and powerful and soverign and good. We trust Him completely to work out His will in our lives. We just need for Him to show us the next step so we can continue to follow Him on this journey. Please pray with us as we wait patiently on the Lord.
