92%!

As someone else said to us today, "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!" The Lord has shown us again and again that He is charge of our missionary endeavor. Our job is simply to abide in Him.

Last night, we learned that we have received pledges that total 92% of our monthly support needs!

Before we realized the Lord provided this (earlier in the evening), we got the okay from Dwight Carr, our mission agency director, to make plans to begin language school in September, which would mean a late August move.

Please pray for us as we have several decisions to make--especially about timing. We don't want to get ahead of the Lord's will in our excitement. We have less than half of our start up costs, but we also have three more months before we need to go. The thing is, we need to have our paperwork in to register for classes right now, as the language school is staying pretty full.

Please pray that God's will for each and every decision we need to make will be perfectly clear to us!

I'll keep you posted . . . : )

80% of Monthly Support Goal Reached!

First of all, I am so pleased to say that, on our monthly support pledges, we have reached 80%! AMAZING! We are once again humbled by God's provision. Only, three short weeks ago we were announcing that we had reached 66%. We have almost half of our start up costs.

This past week, I have been in contact with the language school that we will attend in Costa Rica. We will be there for one year while we master the language. Ha! Or, actually, while our kids master the language. : ) Missionaries have told us that Tully and I will definitely be able to speak and understand the language when we leave language school, but we will probably sound (in Spanish) more like elementary school children rather than college educated adults. Present and past tense, future tense, sure, but it will take living in the culture and speaking it all the time to really develop and be comfortable with the different tenses. Since hearing that, I have become much more aware of all of the different tenses we use in everyday conversation. YIKES!! These same missionaries have told us that the best things for learning a language are a big sense of humor and a small sense of self. Sounds like great advice to me--now if I can just remember that when the going gets tough in language school. . .

Anyway, each year at this time, I plan out our school year for the next year--not lesson plans, but what subject/curriculum for each child and what activities each will participate in. I also order all of the books we will need--it's one of my favorite things to do.

This year--what do I do?? If we start language school in August, do I order books or use the ones the school down there provides for the children? And if we start in January, how do we mesh half of a year of what I want the children to do with half of a year of what the teachers will teach them in language school?

When I contacted the language school, the principal assured me that they are accustomed to working with children who come from homeschool, public school, and private school backgrounds. At the time we register, we will work on determining what exactly they will need in the way of classes and books, and if we start language school in January, we can send their current books and lesson plans with them. Hallelujah! One thing crossed off of the list that floats around in my mind! : )

Anna's Birthday

And Abraham called the name of the place, Jehovahjireh, as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided." Gen. 22:14

Jehovahjireh. The-Lord-Will-Provide. In a Bible study in which I participated a few years ago, we were given a list of all of the names of God that He has given us through His Word. What an astounding activity to think through your life and consider at what point(s) He revealed Himself to you as that particular name.

Jehovahjireh introduced Himself to our children in a profound way recently. We were scheduled to speak at a church in Columbia February 20, which was also our Anna’s second birthday. On the day before one of our children’s birthdays, we always say, “Wow! This is your last day to be __!” Two days before Anna;s birthday, I heard our then four year old, Elijah, say, “Anna, tomorrow will be the last day that you’ll be one! And then you’ll be two! And you’ll get to eat cake and ice cream on your birthday!” And then he called, “Mom! What kind of cake is Anna going to have?” I explained that we weren’t going to have her birthday celebration on that day, but would wait until the weekend as we were going to Columbia to speak. He said, “Well, she needs a birthday cake on her birthday.” I knew that it wasn’t possible for me to get a cake made between then and her birthday. I thought the matter was over, as we’ve celebrated many birthdays on days other than the actual birthday. Then, another son asked what kind of cake Anna would have on her birthday, and another, until all of them had asked me about it. I explained and then put it out my mind.

When we got to the church, we introduced everyone to the pastor and his wife. As we got to Anna, I mentioned that it was her second birthday. As it was their church’s Wednesday night potluck supper, the pastor said a blessing and the members sang “Happy Birthday” to Anna. As they were singing, one young mom and her daughter made their way up to the front. As soon as the song was finished, she came up to me with tears in her eyes and said, “I made your daughter a birthday cake.” I said, “What?” I had never seen her before and knew she did not know that today was Anna’s birthday. She said, “I didn’t know that’s what I was doing, I just began to make a cake for tonight. My daughter kept saying, “Mom, whose birthday is it?” This sweet mother told her daughter, “No, honey, it’s just a cake, that’s all.” But her daughter, who looked to be three or four years old, said, “Well, it IS a birthday cake, Mommy.” She proceeded to tell me she hadn’t planned to make a cake that night, but decided to at the last minute. It was beautiful—pale pink icing and pastel confetti sprinkles on top. Best of all, Anna and her family got to eat birthday cake on the night of her birthday!

Later, as we drove home that night, we were fascinated by the beauty of the lunar eclipse that was taking place as we traveled, but more importantly we marveled at its Creator—the same One Who designed the moon and all of creation to point us straight to Him, knew and cared deeply that five brothers were concerned for their sister. He made sure that little Anna had a birthday cake on her birthday night.

As we have journeyed along this process of becoming full time missionaries, we have answered many questions that have arisen, “God will take care of it in His time.” In essence, “God will provide.” . Jehovahjireh. The-Lord-Will-Provide. He did—and he does!