First Things First

It's been a while-I know. As I've said before, I'm not terribly consistent when it comes to blogging. However, much has happened. First of all, our church is sending a missions team to Nicaragua next month. Heather and I have decided that it would be beneficial for me to go. I wanted to go anyway, but we feel like I need to get my feet wet in missions and this week-long trip is a great opportunity to do that. I would like to ask anyone that reads this to please pray for me. Because of our plans to go to China and the initial expense involved, not to mention that the economic downturn has adversely affected my job, we don't have a large cash reserve sitting around. I believe that God will provide the funds and I know that I live in a Kingdom economy rather than the world economy. So we are praying...please pray with us! More importantly, the people we will be working with (mostly children) live in deplorable conditions. They need Jesus! Pray that everyone in our group will be Jesus to these kids.

I took a couple of years of Spanish in college. Nearly 20 years later, I haven't really ever used Spanish, so I'm a little rusty, to say the least! But the the other night, I was on a train and started asking the Lord for the ability to speak Spanish and everything I learned back then came flooding back. I hated that class, but now am glad I took it! I have enough knowledge now that I could get by without a full-time interpreter. Dr. Brown, if you ever come across this blog-THANK YOU!

We have nailed down a tentative plan to go to China in April. We are very excited. We have begun Rosetta Stone Mandarin and have labels all over the house with the chinese words that represent the things that are labeled. For example, the water dispenser on the fridge is labeled shui (water). It is great fun, but I find the language to be particularly daunting. My children, however, are learning fast. Oh to be young and sponge-like again.

My last request for this post is that you pray for clarity of purpose for us. We have our heart set on a certain part of China, but want what the Lord wants for us. We don't want to be so set on one place that we miss his direction. As I have said before, it seems like everything is being set in place and I know that's true. We just want the vision to see what is really being set in place-not what we want to see.

Thanks to all for the encouragement and prayers. Know that when we go, we carry you all in our hearts and therefore, you will be there also! Praise be to our Father who was and is and is to come!!!