Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Calm After the Storm

Things have sure seemed stormy.  In life and in the weather!  For the past couple of months it doesn't seem to stop raining here in West Virginia!!  We're starting to wonder if God is preparing us for rainy season in Zambia.  We're definitely taking our rain boots with us when we go.  That's for sure.  We're growing a bit weary of the wet and muck, but showers of blessing are also pouring on our lives after the storms of discouragement we've been going through.

It seemed like when our mission board went under at the beginning of September everything else in life decided to fall apart too.  For a while we were confused about the present, and uncertain about the future.  Everything seemed to be going wrong and we were helpless to fix any of it.  I kept thinking that when things seem the most impossible is when God likes to prove Himself by doing something truly amazing.  And the more I thought that the more impossible things seemed to become.  God is proving Himself over and over, and our storms of discouragement have turned into showers of blessing.

As situations would come up we would call the kids together with us and pray for one specific thing at a time.  The kids prayed for the situation and Jamie and I prayed that God would make  Himself real to our kids through the circumstances.  One day we came together as a family to pray for God to rebuild the funds that we lost when EBM went under, and that God would continue to increase our support level.  While we were praying Jamie's phone rang, but we ignored it.  After we were finished praying Jamie checked his voicemail.  It was the pastor of one of the churches in our area.  The church had voted to give us their annual faith giving offering to help us rebuild the funds we had lost, and they had also voted to start our support in November for 5% of our total support instead of in January like originally planned.  What fun it was to call the kids back together and get to show them how in the very moment that they prayed for our needs God was providing.  Thank you so very much, Tri-City Baptist Church.  You are an answer to prayer in so many ways!

We have narrowed down our mission board search and will be deciding by the first week of December.  We're pretty sure we know where God wants us we're just waiting to speak to our team members, the Chambers, in Zambia to get input from them before we make a final decision.

The roof of our house started leaking this "rainy season".  We had it appraised to see how much it would cost to replace it.  Wow!!!  Expensive!!!  But the appraiser said that it was hail and wind damage and to submit it to our insurance company to see if they would cover it.  We got some estimates, submitted it to our insurance company and, praise God, they're going to cover it!!  What a blessing!

As of Saturday, November 19, our house is officially on the market to rent.  Please pray that God provides a renter for our house very soon.  We almost have it empty...  we just have to find the time to finish before someone comes to look at it.

As I type we are having the truck looked at to see what caused our radiator to blow.  Please pray that it's not too horribly expensive, and a relatively easy fix.  If it's what we think it is, it'll be a big fix with a big price tag.  But God is providing, and we're confident He'll provide for this too.

So, as the storms of discouragement end and the showers of blessings fall a bit more freely we have our rain coats and boots on and we're stomping in the puddles enjoying every last drop.  May you feel the showers of blessing as you celebrate this Thanksgiving season and share them with friends and family.  Thank you for rejoicing with us in ours, and your continued prayers and support.