Packing and Seeking God's Timing

My mind reflects back as I type this post.  The time that we are at in our lives right now is very similiar to where we were in 2008. We were living in Bluffton, IN and felt God opening doors for us to move to south Fl. Danny ended his lawncare and landscaping business, we packed most of our house up and prepared to move as we had an interested buyer in our home. We felt sure that it was God's will for us to take this big step and we were ready to go. Then the sale of our house fell through. And then we had another interested buyer and thought this would be the one who would buy. Once again, we mentally prepared ourselves to move far away feeling like this was definitely God's will. Then...you guessed it...that potential buyer could not get a loan due to their credit and we were back at square one. This same disappointing scenario happened over and over through out the next two years. We would pray and ask God if this was really what He wanted for us and and if it wasn't then to please take this longing to serve Him on the mission field out of our hearts. We asked Him to help us be content where we were and kept up our involvement in our home church, yet, not only did He NOT take away the desire to go to the mission field, but He intensified it!

  Danny took whatever odd jobs he could find as he felt reluctant to find a full-time job that he would soon have to leave. As a result of this, money was tight and some times non-existent. When we look back at that time, we can see that God was teaching us to Fully Rely On Him and increasing our faith as He supplied our daily needs. He used some very creative ways. One example of this is one cold, winter night I was driving home and a deer jumped out in front of me and I hit him.  Thankfully, Caleb, who was strapped in his carseat and myself were unharmed. Our insurance company pronounced our van totaled and settled up with us. We then turned around and bought our van back at a cheap price and ordered a new hood, which had been destroyed, and replaced it ourselves. We then took the rest of the money, caught up on our bills and drove to Hobe Sound, FL for Seabreeze Camp. It was while we were at Seabreeze that we were approached with the idea of going to Haiti as teamleaders with Touching Lives for Christ. To make a long story short, after much prayer and discussion, we signed up. Then we typed up and sent out letters asking for financial support and prayer. God amazed us when one donor gave half of what we needed...$1,500! After that, we knew that God wanted our family to go to Haiti! God supplied the rest of the money needed and our family had the honor and priviledge of going to Haiti in 2009. That trip changed our lives and we will never be the same again!
   Another year passed before God finally sold our home and lead us to Hobe Sound, FL. We can see that during that two year period that God was teaching us many lessons. Not only was He teaching us to depend only on Him for our daily needs, but He was also teaching us that His timing is perfect. Even when we in our humaness feel that things are moving too slow, He is in control. It was NOT an easy lesson to learn! Many times we would pray and ask each other what God was doing? Why did He ask us to quit our business, our main lifeline of support for our family of six? Did He not understand how crazy our friends and even our family thought we were?  What about our children? What were they thinking? These were just a few of the many questions swirling through our minds. When we had family prayer, the standard prayer request was for God to sell our house and find us a house in FL. The children were sad to leave our family and friends, yet they seemed to understand that we were waiting on God and this was His plan for our lives.
   God gave me this verse: Psalms 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, Wait,I say, on the Lord!"
   My Wesley Bible had this footnote to say concerning this verse: The idea of waiting on the Lord is prominent in the Psalms. Although it contains an element of time, there is more to it than time alone. Waiting expresses that complete dependence on the Lord which does not run ahead of Him making its own plans and relying on its own strength. To wait on the Lord is an expression of COMPLETE TRUST. It is better not to rush into doing something today if the doing is an expression of dependence on our own strength and on our own sense of timing.
 Wow! I copied this verse and the footnote onto a 3x5 index card and taped it on our bathroom mirror. God used that verse over and over again to calm and reassure our hearts as we waited on Him.

   So here we are now. Fast-forward a little over 2 years. God has helped Danny to complete college, Paid off $18,000 of our debt in 5 months, gave us His help, strength and annointing to go through almost 9 months of deputation, with just two services left, and has provided the entire $30,000 to build our house in Haiti. He has given us a strong, burning passion and excitement to serve Him in Haiti. It seems that, as each service that we speak at passes, God intensifies our excitement and passion and we are so ready to go!
   Yet, here we are...waiting on God just as we did those long two years back in 2009-2010. Is it any easier? No, yet, we have learned that this is the best and only way. God sees the big picture and He, in all His finite wisdom, knows what is best for our family. He knows exactly when He wants us in Grande Riviere du Nord and we do not want to be there a minute before He wants us. God has lead us down this path and we know that He does not make any mistakes!  We need your prayers as we pack, sell and give away our stuff. We need your prayers as our Regional Director and ourselves seek God's timing for our departure date. We need your prayers in putting together a team to go finish our house at the end of April.

   You may wonder why I have shared all this? Simply to let you know where we are right now and how you all can pray for us.  Please help us to pray for the rest of our shares to come in. AT THIS TIME WE ARE JUST 40 SHARES SHORT!  Help us pray for the $5,000 that we need for moving expenses. Pray for us to have clear direction and wisdom as we wait on God. Thank-you for coming on this amazing journey with us! Your prayers and financial support mean more than we can say! Please feel free to leave a comment or two as we enjoy reading them :o) Blessings!


       

 

Happy Easter from our family to yours! He is RISEN!

God is meeting the need for His work in Haiti!

 We have been in Warren, Oh this past week. The Warren Bible Methodist church opened up their furnished fellowship hall to us and stocked it with food as well. I really enjoyed being able to cook for our family again as that is not something I get to do very much since we are often hosted by others for our meals. We love being invited over to someones home and sharing a home cooked meal with them and it is nice to have a break from doing all the cooking like I do when we are home. But, deep inside of me is a cook/baker and if I do not scratch that itch often than I get antsy to get my hands on some baking ingredients and turn it into something yummy like a pasta salad, cream puffs or a tasty meatloaf! So, I was able to happily scratch my cooking/baking itch and it felt good to be in the kitchen again!
 We enjoyed spending time with the Paul Young family who pastor there and had a very nice week. They had us over for a delicious lasagna dinner one night :o) Another day we went with the Youngs and the Pinkerton family to a really cool toy store called Kraynacks. The Pinkertons have 7 children, we have 4 and the Youngs have 2 so we made quite the childrens parade going into the toy store! All the children behaved well and we had a wonderful time checking out the cool toys and looking at their beautiful Easter display. Check FB for pics. Thank-you Warren Bible Methodist for allowing us to stay in your fellowship hall and giving us a fun week!

  Saturday afternoon found us driving 3-4 hrs to the snow covered mountains of Pennsylvania. We arrived in Osterburg around 7 pm and a very nice man named Charlie who attends the church helped us unload our things into a nice camper that we are now staying in. It is the pastor and his families. Charlie then had us follow him to his house where we met his sweet wife, Judy. They had cooked us a delicious spaghetti dinner with a homemade meat sauce, garlic bread and a fresh garden salad. It was all so good! Then they brought out an amazing Coconut Cream Pie piled high with meringue and of course it was homemade from scratch as well as a creamy Egg Custard pie and some very soft, tasty Sour Cream cookies for our dessert. Mmmm! We had a wonderful visit getting to know them. They shared that they had recently gotten saved and it was great to hear about how God showed them their need of Him and how He changed their lives :o) Thank-you Charlie and Judy! We appreciate you and your hospitality!

 This past Sunday morning we spoke at Community Bible in Osterburg, PA and had a wonderful service and enjoyed meeting the friendly people. Pastor Weaver and his wife, Bev, had us over for a delicous roast beef dinner. Then we drove up to Mahaffey for our evening service at Osterburg God's Missionary Church where Steve West pastors. God gave us another good service and we met more wonderful people :o) God moved on people's hearts and the generous offerings overwhelmed us! At this point, God has provided the rest of the money needed to get our house built and furnished in Haiti! We just lack 70 share supporters and $5,000 to get our belongings to Haiti, This includes  our airfare as well. If you feel God asking you to join in with His work in Grande Rivierre just click on the donate now button through paypal. Thank-you! We know God is going to supply this need and are excited to watch how He works!

  We are presently staying with the Neil Weaver family in PA and we are really enjoying visiting with them! We had a winter weather snow storm today and our kids enjoyed going sledding with their kids. They have 7 children, ages 17 down to 5 yrs. old and there has been a playmate or two for each of our kids and they are having a great time! It has been a restful day and we have enjoyed just hanging out with their family and watching the snow fall down :o) They have been feeding us yummy meals and making us feel at home here. We are so very thankful for ALL the wonderful hosts we have had since we began this deputation journey!
 
  As long as the roads clear up, we are planning on speaking at Mt. Siniai in Blue Knob with Pastor Van Dorman this coming Wed. evening. Please pray for God's help and annointing as we finish up our deputation time. Here is the rest of our schedule:

 March 20  Mt. Siniai God's Missionary in Blue Knob, PA
            24  Holiness Missionary in Vassar, MI-am
                  Greenville Bible Methodist in Greenville, MI-pm
April   7     Grace Fellowship in Decatur, In

          14    Bible Methodist in Gas City, In -pm

          16-18  IHC  (Look for our booth!)