July 11, 2006

Prayers!

FYI - I typed out this nice, long blog this morning (before 6:00 a.m.) and when I went to post it, it couldn't access the page. I went back and POOF! my whole blog was GONE! I had to leave so I had no time to redo it and I doubt I will recapture what I wrote. I really should have copied it before I sent it. So here goes:

This is what we desire and need from all of you right now. I can certainly feel not only God's direction and leading, but also Satan's strong attacks in our lives this week. We have had little sleep, averaging five hours each night. I don't do very well on this amount of sleep, but I am hanging in there. This morning we had to be here at 6:20 to get breakfast set up for everyone, so it was an early morning indeed. I got up earlier than planned (because our alarm clock was set on the wrong time), but it allowed me to find a good mission verse in my devotions and to type a blog (which went to Never-Find-It-Again Land). Besides the lack of sleep, Jason has been dealing with some of his previous physical challenges again - something I cannot go into in detail - and this area needs serious prayer.

Yesterday I was assigned to see a Biblical Counselor who comes to meet with many candidates. It turned out to be a good time of discussion about our hectic and stressful lives this year. He suggested we meet again, so we will be meeting for an hour tomorrow (Wednesday). He gave us some homework that I think it will help him know how best to help us.

We came here having no idea on a field choice. We have talked to many candidates, regional administrators, and have seen presentations from all the regional administrators as well. The world is such a needy place. This is such an easy thing to lose sight of as we often get tunnel vision in the States. If only our churches could gain this vision as well, our world would be a much better place and missionaries could get on the field much more quickly than they presently do (2 1/2 - 3 1/2 yrs. on average). Last night we made a list of the top five countries we have been thinking about/considering. Other than one country, we had the same places listed and some were even in the same order or close to it. I was not surprised, as obviously God does work in our hearts to bring us together. The same country, a country that has many daunting things about it, was at the top of both of our lists. I will not name it since we have not made a final decision and probably will not make one while we are here. We are still open to God's leading and the agency is not putting any pressure on us to make a decision, thankfully. (I know this is going to drive Arlene crazy!)

The Lord is working in my heart in many ways. I was not necessarily doing wrong things, but at the same time there were many things I should have been doing that I was failing to do. This has caused conviction in my heart. I have been so busy existing, that I haven't done much to impact those around me. I do what needs to be done, but I rarely go above and beyond. I often hold back, afraid of what God might expect from me, uncertain of whether He will truly guide, protect, and lead like He promises.

We miss our boys terribly, but are thankful they are having a great time with Gips and Nana. The schedule here would be very rough on them. This also allows us time to be alone, which rarely happens and we can focus on the task at hand without being distracted.

This blog is not quite the same as the first, but I'm sure what is happening in our lives right now came across just the same.