Thankfulness!

"Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable His judgements and His paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?  Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever, Amen."        Romans 11:33-36

The Madison River after the fire last spring

 

Can something become more beautiful without changing?  Can some common event become more exciting though nothing has physically changed? 

 

I feel an overwhelming gratefulness to God for the privilege to live here.  I have lived all my life in Montana and have really taken for granted all that is here.  For example, a full winter snow storm in May? 

 

Normally this is a pain and inconvenience.  But when you are re-awakened to the wonder of things like snow, knowing you may not see it for a long time, you remember it is declaring praise to God!  "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow..." Job 38:22

 

Or a normal Caddis hatch on the Madison River .  I had the joy to take two hours and be surrounded by the wonder of 100,000,000+ caddis bugs swarming the river as the fish gorge themselves on a tasty treat.

 

 

 

As I was catching this trout, a bald eagle flew by with its own catch . I have fished this river and the caddis hatch many times, yet somehow knowing this is not a guarantee to happen again it was almost too much to take in! "The heavens declare your praises"

 

 Kids are such a blessing from the Lord!  They teach you so much!  When was the last time you were grateful for a letter?  A real letter from the mail?  Evelyn shows me so often that it is the everyday things that are a wonder too.  This was her first letter in the mail all for her!

 

 

 "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17

And all this from a new perspective on the routine, everyday things in life.  I will never know why God chose to open my eyes to see Him at 19, to fall in love with my Savior and really know Him.  That is the ultimate gift!  And I can't wait to be trained to tell others that have never had the chance to even hear, let alone know this God.  And what pleasure and joy there is in knowing the Creator of all these wonders.  They are beams of the light of His glory.  If we only look at them we miss the point. 

They are meant to be pointers to the source of the wonder and awe!

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.

¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:9-11

 

That path is through Jesus! 

 



100 Days!!

Counting down the days until we leave for Texas!

There are only 100 days left until we leave Montana and travel south to the Center for Pioneer Church Planting in Los Fresnos, Texas!  It has been a long wait, but we are beginning to see the end of this stage.   We are so excited to tackle the tasks that need to be done before we load up the Suburban and trailer. 

• Continue to raise support
• Have a garage sale 
• Get the old suburban ready for the long haul
• Continue to save as much money as we can
• Move out of our apartment
• Tons of miscellaneous small things!

100 days... That's only 14 weekends.  It may sound like a lot but it is going to go very quickly! 


We received an update on our support on May 1st and are praising Jesus for his continued provision!  Here are the new numbers:

• 37% of our monthly living expenses are met (groceries, rent, insurance, taxes)
• 90% of our one time expenses are met (tuition, books, week long trips into Mexico, etc)

It is so exciting that we now have enough to pay Josh's tuition!  Hopefully we will get that done in the next couple of weeks. 

We have been so blessed by all of you who have already committed to pray for us and/or support us financially!  We have even received some great notes of encouragement that has meant so much to us.  You are the other half of this mission!  We give up our comforts to go, just as you give up your comforts to give.  We are partners!  Thank you!

Would you please commit to praying with us that we will be fully funded before we go?  Trusting God to provide enough through financial donations is actually no different than trusting him to provide enough through a salary or an hourly wage.  But it sure feels different!  It is an amazing opportunity to allow God to grow us in our faith, and we feel we are being stretched.  From past experience we know that this is exactly where we want to be - fully relying on God because He is fully in control! 

If you have not already partnered with us financially would you consider joining with us?  We are very much in need of more monthly supporters!  Currently we have monthly supporters giving anywhere between $20 and $200 dollars.  The wonderful thing about monthly gifts is that they are a reminder every month that you are with us and that you are praying for us.  Any amount is an incredible gift!  One time gifts are no less important and as soon as our one time needs are met they will be spread over the year to help with our monthly living expenses.

It is hard to put in to words how excited we are to begin to train to be long term cross cultural missionaries!  We will be part of ongoing church planting every month in Mexico while we train.  So we really will be doing the work of spreading the gospel starting this summer!