Look at that smile! It's because she's holding the New Testament in her heart language for the first time. And the child will benefit from it to. (the one in the bag hanging from her head.. yeah there's a baby in that bag... or cabbage, hard to tell from this pic (= )
Life has its ups and downs. Some days hit harder than others and some day's you're elated. How that relates to living overseas, is that on the down-days you pray harder and on the up days you sort of miss some friends back at home to share it with.
The down days make you tired... you start asking questions that maybe ought not be asked like
"God am I doing what You truly want?"
"God is it time to call it quits?"
Our prayer has always been as support staff, for other missionaries (and ourselves) to not get overwhelmed by discouragement. When it hits, it hits hard, and being thousands of miles from your prayer support, your home church and your family can give it an extra ounce of kick that makes it sting a tad more.
So my wife and I pray that God would send encouragement to people who are in these situations.
Our own personal experience has been that God always sends us encouragement around the time something discouraging happens. He does that as an answer to prayer for us so we never have to ask those questions because we know with certainty we're meant to remain here and do this work!
Today we tallied the cost of Chad's medivac. We looked at the extra financial gifts that have come in (thank you!) and we looked at how much air fare is going to cost us (we have to book flights to return to California in the coming weeks).
We submitted all the insurance forms and got the results back... and we looked at the bank account.
Basically we did bills. Who here doesn't get a little down when they do bills? Everyone does.
So as I was sitting there, thinking "Okay God, we need another $7000 to come from somewhere, we trust you to supply it, now I am going to force myself NOT to be down in the mouth about this, you've always provided"
and I get an email with some incredibly encouraging news!
and then I get another email with encouraging news!
and stories like the one about the furniture and the wiring,
and stories like the one about the Enga people getting God's Word in their heart language and being excited to read and to hear it...
and suddenly I realize God is talking to us.... assuring us... keeping us calm, even exciting us.
And I so wish that you at home could sense this encouragement that happens, and I hope you do. i know that your lives have the same ups and downs.
And so today I offer you this bit of encouragement.
Because of you, your support of our ministry, your partnership, your prayer, your financial gifts...
there are young people, old people, children, and future children who are today, this very moment, listening and reading the Word of God and being changed by it. They are able to absorb into their souls the Words our Creator breathed into life, and it is permeating them in new ways because it's in a language they fully understand in a meaningful way.
So be encouraged. Real life change is happening and you are involved.
