We are getting ready to head off to Delta Lake this weekend to be there for 17 day! We are so excited about this oppotunity to share about what God is doing in Malawi and in us! Shawn speaks 10 times throughout family camp, and I speak with him some of those times and also to the kids each day. Then we stay on for the following week of Senior High camp and Shawn will be the missionary speaker there. We are all happy to be in a cottage and see family and friends and swim (if it ever gets warm again) and all that fun stuff! God is so good! This has been a rather stressful time for us emotionally as we sit and wait...but we also realize that it is a time to be with people we love and heal and fall more in love with him! We went through a time last summer of sitting and waiting for the time in Malawi, and God allowed us a wonderful summer with family. So this time we are learning to be patient, be still ,and LISTEN! Why is that soooooo hard?
We heard from Evangelism Explosion today and are setting up a time to meet with the leaders in person July 26th. Please keep us in prayer over the next month that we would stay healthy and strong with all the speaking and emotions!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Godknows STEKA!
I have written before about a wonderful man in Malawi named Godknows (yes, that is actually his name) and his wife Helen, who run a ministry for street kids. They are te real thing, and God is working in them and through them in amazing ways! Here is a direct link to their blog if you want to check it out more (and I suggest you do!)
http://steka-malawi.blogspot.com/
http://steka-malawi.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 16, 2008
Things of the past
Well, this has been a very emotional past few months for my family. I am not sure we even realized how much we were affected by the last year! So many people keep apologizing for the way things panned out in Malawi, but I want to tell you (though I appreciate your love) it was not a bad experience in general! I have been working through some of my feelings of grief recently. Some have wondered about my mourning a place that we lived only 8 months and where we had a lot of crazy experiences and adjusting. I have even wondered this myself. Honestly, while I really cared for the people we worked with and loved the other relationships I formed, I still realize that it was less than a year. There were some good relationships - especially with the other missionaries - that I am missing a great deal. And there were many other things that I felt were "on the verge" of being really amazing - whether that be ministry things, relationships, or even in our family. But I was still puzzled by the feelings that I was continuing to experience.
Then yesterday in church I was having trouble focusing (nothing to do with the sermon - I was thinking too much!) So I started flipping through my bible and it suddenly hit me why I am grieveing Malawi so much right now. When we were first there and I was experiencing intense lonliness and wondering whar God was up too, I immersed myself in Psalms. All through that book I have names of people in Malawi written, situations that I was praying for, and personal things having to do with Malawi. There are places where I wrote about my anger, my lonliness, my amazement with God's provsion and love, and my frustrations. There are names of people that I love written next to special passages, and answers to prayers that I saw unfold.
Though I look back on my time and wonder what exactly my part was in Malawi, I can see that my prayer life was pushed to a point it had never been (therefore my love relationship with our Savior was automatically stretchd and grown!) Also, my love for these people and this country was birthed in a way that is different from a normal love.
Am I making any sense? LOL!
I am not saying all this for any reason other than becuase I am working it out in my head, and it helps to blog and get your thoughts!
Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we heal, grow, and seek!
Then yesterday in church I was having trouble focusing (nothing to do with the sermon - I was thinking too much!) So I started flipping through my bible and it suddenly hit me why I am grieveing Malawi so much right now. When we were first there and I was experiencing intense lonliness and wondering whar God was up too, I immersed myself in Psalms. All through that book I have names of people in Malawi written, situations that I was praying for, and personal things having to do with Malawi. There are places where I wrote about my anger, my lonliness, my amazement with God's provsion and love, and my frustrations. There are names of people that I love written next to special passages, and answers to prayers that I saw unfold.
Though I look back on my time and wonder what exactly my part was in Malawi, I can see that my prayer life was pushed to a point it had never been (therefore my love relationship with our Savior was automatically stretchd and grown!) Also, my love for these people and this country was birthed in a way that is different from a normal love.
Am I making any sense? LOL!
I am not saying all this for any reason other than becuase I am working it out in my head, and it helps to blog and get your thoughts!
Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we heal, grow, and seek!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Home again, home again...
I guess. We are quickly figuring out that the only real home we will have is heaven. We feel so displaced on this earth right now, that is a comfort to know that we have an eternal home eventually! It was really awesome to spend the last two weeks with our kinsman family. WE love the people there so much, and God has blessed us in abundance with these friends!
Shawn will be doing some painting this week if it is not raining all week. In a couple weeks we will be off again to Delta Lake this time to speak. I am going to ask you all a very specific prayer request...could you please pray that we will have a more solid idea for our future by then? I am certainly not putting God to the test with a time limit - I am learning to trust him. But it is rather frustrating to speak about our time in Malawi and not be able to say anything about what the future holds for us other than that it is not Malawi! Since we will be speaking a lot at Delta, I would love to have a little bit of a clue. Thank you for your prayers about these things!
Happy Flag day!
Shawn will be doing some painting this week if it is not raining all week. In a couple weeks we will be off again to Delta Lake this time to speak. I am going to ask you all a very specific prayer request...could you please pray that we will have a more solid idea for our future by then? I am certainly not putting God to the test with a time limit - I am learning to trust him. But it is rather frustrating to speak about our time in Malawi and not be able to say anything about what the future holds for us other than that it is not Malawi! Since we will be speaking a lot at Delta, I would love to have a little bit of a clue. Thank you for your prayers about these things!
Happy Flag day!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Make new friends, keep the old...
One is silver and the other is gold!
Do you remember that little song that we used to sing as kids? The older I get, the more I realize this is true!
We have spent this week in PA/OH visiting friends. The beginning of the trip included one of our best friends in college and his wife, Matt and Patti. They have 3 year old twins and just had a baby yesterday, so it was a fun visit! The twins adore my kids, and it is fun to watch them be the "big" kids that the other kids want to follow around and be like! I will try to post pics when we get home!
Then we made it to Jamestown for the graduation party of Nathan Stevenson, and we are at their house for another week. We got together with all the people from the church and area that we love and missed. In fact, we have been on the go since we got here! I am not complaining though - it is nice to be loved and missed! And I realized how very much these wonderful people will always be a part of our lives! We met the new pastor and his wife and really like them - God placed the perfect people here! He is an encourager, and the church needed that!
I got to spend time with some of the families that I strive to be like when it ocmes to parenting and loving God. If you don't have any of those in your life, you need to find them, because it is a wonderful thing!
Since Shawn's dentist appointement was cancelled because his dentist broke his arm (Yikes) we decided to stay an extra week (after talking to the pastor and the district to make t was ok) so the kids can go to VBS here. Terry has her two grandchildren here this week from Georgia, so my kids are loving that too!
One of the things I realized that has been a blessing about at the moving that we have done is the friend factor. At each church or place that we have lived we have developed friendships that have become real and long lasting. Recently I even hooked up with my best friend though high school, and that has been such a blessing! To have friendships where people have known you your whole life almost is fun, crazy, and a little unconfortable sometimes...but a good reminder of what God is doing and has done in our lives!
We continue to seek out God's next step for our future. We have done a lot of talking with people we love and respect here, and I am thankful for the chance to process things a little more. We filled out the application for EE and will be talking with them after they contact all our references (we hope!) LOL! We thank you for your continued prayers!
Please keep Emmanuel and Frank in your prayers. Frank is the missionary that is living in the house that was ours there and is working with th guys. Acts III is giving them many problems, and I am feeling bad for getting Frank mixed up in it all! He's a big boy, and he is a good friend, so I am sure he can handle it, but you can still be praying for him!
Keep in touch and let us know what is going on in your life!
Do you remember that little song that we used to sing as kids? The older I get, the more I realize this is true!
We have spent this week in PA/OH visiting friends. The beginning of the trip included one of our best friends in college and his wife, Matt and Patti. They have 3 year old twins and just had a baby yesterday, so it was a fun visit! The twins adore my kids, and it is fun to watch them be the "big" kids that the other kids want to follow around and be like! I will try to post pics when we get home!
Then we made it to Jamestown for the graduation party of Nathan Stevenson, and we are at their house for another week. We got together with all the people from the church and area that we love and missed. In fact, we have been on the go since we got here! I am not complaining though - it is nice to be loved and missed! And I realized how very much these wonderful people will always be a part of our lives! We met the new pastor and his wife and really like them - God placed the perfect people here! He is an encourager, and the church needed that!
I got to spend time with some of the families that I strive to be like when it ocmes to parenting and loving God. If you don't have any of those in your life, you need to find them, because it is a wonderful thing!
Since Shawn's dentist appointement was cancelled because his dentist broke his arm (Yikes) we decided to stay an extra week (after talking to the pastor and the district to make t was ok) so the kids can go to VBS here. Terry has her two grandchildren here this week from Georgia, so my kids are loving that too!
One of the things I realized that has been a blessing about at the moving that we have done is the friend factor. At each church or place that we have lived we have developed friendships that have become real and long lasting. Recently I even hooked up with my best friend though high school, and that has been such a blessing! To have friendships where people have known you your whole life almost is fun, crazy, and a little unconfortable sometimes...but a good reminder of what God is doing and has done in our lives!
We continue to seek out God's next step for our future. We have done a lot of talking with people we love and respect here, and I am thankful for the chance to process things a little more. We filled out the application for EE and will be talking with them after they contact all our references (we hope!) LOL! We thank you for your continued prayers!
Please keep Emmanuel and Frank in your prayers. Frank is the missionary that is living in the house that was ours there and is working with th guys. Acts III is giving them many problems, and I am feeling bad for getting Frank mixed up in it all! He's a big boy, and he is a good friend, so I am sure he can handle it, but you can still be praying for him!
Keep in touch and let us know what is going on in your life!
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