For His Glory: July 2013

Here is a recap of our great Fourth of July adventure. At the end of this post we have prayer needs that we would love to share with you!

One of my favorite hymns is Solid Rock. The third verses says "When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand".
We saw in a very real way this Fourth of July how bad sinking or sliding ground can be, and how He holds us in His mighty right hand.

This is a part of the road we trying to get across. It was dry and dusty when we turned onto the cut across to Black Butte in the Gravelly Range.

We had 9 miles on this road and the last three were like this! The pictures don't show the steep vertical rise and fall or the steep cross slope. Many spots there was a steep drop off which made us more than a little scared. We kept fish tailing as we tried to climb the 3000' vertical feet to the camp site where we were to meet up with our friends.

Sometimes the things that hurt are a great help! We fish tailed again between ruts and the suburban bounced off a tree. Not excited about the dent, but so thankful for the tree that stopped us from going off the slope!

At one point it was so bad, I had the kids and Brita walk behind while I plowed through the worst spots. There was a lot of praying going on! The kids asked if we would die. I told them that God was totally in control and that whatever happened would be the absolute best. It was good for me to hear that too. Never did we question the safety of the road or try to push anything we thought was risky as we went up the road. One minute it was dry, the next minute it was almost impossible to stay on the road. There was no turning back once the road gave way.

The victory dance (of sorts)! We made it through the worst of the road!

There was no sign where we started going up the road, but as we made it to the other end we looked back and saw the truth put in the form of a yellow and black sign.

Yes it was!

The kids were so happy to be at the camp spot. It was a beautiful sight to see. It was also a beautiful picture of this life in Christ. We can trust Him, no matter what the outcome is. He has proven over and over that in all things God works together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His propose, even when those good things don't seem like what we would choose as the best thing to happen in our life. The infinitely wise and all knowing God of the universe is far more capable of knowing what is best than I do. We were able to praise God as a family that night for His provision and His mighty right hand holding us up.

This is what we read in our tent that night:

¹I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
before the “gods” I will sing your praise.
²I will bow down toward your holy temple
and will praise your name
for your unfailing love and your faithfulness,
for you have so exalted your solemn decree
that it surpasses your fame.
³When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me.

⁴May all the kings of the earth praise you, Lord,
when they hear what you have decreed.
⁵May they sing of the ways of the Lord,
for the glory of the Lord is great.

⁶Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly;
though lofty, he sees them from afar.
⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life.
You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes;
with your right hand you save me.⁸The Lord will vindicate me;
your love, Lord, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.

HERE ARE SOME PRAYER REQUESTS. WE WOULD LOVE YOUR PRAYERS!

Pray that we are able to organize and cut down on more stuff. We are now at the hardest of the hard things to let go of.
Pray that my work (Josh) will become a little less stressful as we prepare to leave. It is hard to leave a job you love so much and I want to finish well and also be able to have time to help Brita with all the preparations.
Pray that we would continue to see support come in. We are at about 60% of our monthly budget (or $2,200/month) and have seen God provide so amazingly over the past 6 months!
Pray that we would be wise in how we spend our last 30 days. We want to see so many people but the time is just too short.
Finally, please pray for our church, New Hope Bible Church. Nearly eight years after it was planted the church we have called home will be closing in early August. Please pray that all of the members will be connected into other great churches around the valley. This has been hard on Brita and I as we prepare to leave, and now we will be without a home church.

Thank you so much for your partnership and sacrifice for the gospel of Jesus! We are so thankful for all of you!

As I sit here looking at the paper chain getting smaller and smaller I realize that time does march on whether we are ready or not!

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to in the last few weeks!

paper chain getting smaller...

Loading up the burb from the storage shed.

"A generous person will prosper;
whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."
Proverbs 11:25

We were privileged enough to experience this proverb first hand. As we are downsizing we had the opportunity along with our church to bless a wonderful family whose little son has a rare form of dwarfism. Benjamin has had numerous surgeries and will need more medical assistance in the future. So we were able to refresh them by donating a lot of the stuff we needed to get rid of. The yard sale was able to raise over $2,000 for Benjamin and we were truly refreshed by the Lord to see faith and love in action!