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Our church just bought a video projector...good-bye transparencies. As technology guy at our school and sort of de facto technology guy for worship stuff at our church, getting it up and running has fallen largely on me (get a computer, set it up, projection software, song database creation, etc.) It's made life a bit crazy for the last month and my time short for writing this. So here goes...quickly I hope.
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Health - Winter ailments have passed us by so far. We can be very thankful for that as we hear of absences at school! We appreciate your prayers, particularly for how to walk with Angela in cyclical and recurring "heath annoyances" (back pain, headaches, feet pain, etc.) While I can't say that there has been a huge difference in what she experiences from her body, I believe there is progress in what she experiences in terms of support from me. I am increasingly of the opinion that while sickness has a variety of sources and the enemy loves to use them all, God is more than able and very desirous to use the challenge of sickness to change our hearts in the process of bringing healing.
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Trip Home - Gifts continue to come in for the trip and an itinerary "skeleton" has been fixed. Now we'll get some "meat" on the bones and be contacting people more specifically in the areas where we'll be. We'll lay it out more in Angela's Feb. newsletter. Housing is covered, much airfare is covered, and just today, we found someone to house-sit and cat-sit for the month - a big answer to prayer!
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Finances - Thank you for your prayers in this. Angela and I are coming into closer to common perspectives on finances and we're establishing more budgeted "set aside" funds for large annual vs. weekly expenses. There are still areas where our faith is quite challenged though. Furniture and appliances we brought from Denver and Scotland are starting to need replacement. Our car is faithful, but it never sounds like it's going to last for a long time. New tires are over-due, etc. We recently had our annual inspection for the insect treatment of the attic beams in our house. The floor beams were never treated and need it...especially before we can think of finishing the two huge attics we have in any way. The price tag is out of reach of course, and with no salary all their "financing deals" are off-limits to us (we currently have no source of credit at all). This all brings many issues to the surface for discussion and prayer, which I believe are appropriate responses. We do need to fight discouragement in this (especially regarding big ticket expenses for house renovation) and need to know when/how to find solutions for the various issues. God is a creative God with ingenious solutions to everything. We need help in seeking His face for them! ;c)
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School - I think all 5 of us are seeing a new season starting in school right now compared with last year. Angela and I are feeling increasingly integrated in our roles there...it feels like we're part of the team/staff, instead of people who just volunteer a lot, and that is stimulating in and of itself. I'm experiencing much satisfaction (punctuation occasionally with panic and pressure) my role as the one responsible for all aspects of computing at the school. It's incredibly varied as it covers planning, purchasing, training of adults, teaching of children, programming in various languages, working with multiple operating systems, hardware, software, troubleshooting/problem-solving of all kinds. I'm gaining so much in this equation. God is good.
We are excited to have a couple of teams of intercessors coming this spring, and a couple of US teams that want to come do manual labor at the school.
Rachel has begun her 2nd semester with some new joys/challenges in her art and music worlds. I'm also encouraged with Noah's increasing integration with peers and Olivia is starting to be more of a pre-teen and less of a child.The 2 of them are also now participating in a worship team formation for the pre-teens, which they both love. I love watching Him work in progressing all of us!
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YWAM DTS Team Visit - The 4-person team that visited from YWAM was a tremendous shot-in-the arm for us. Angela and I had a good time preparing the church for them to stay in, and having them over for a meal. They dove in with both feet for several days solidly, helping out at church and school before heading off to their next stop. I think this is the beginning of more visits from YWAM DTS teams, and that encourages me because our geographical separation from the rest of YWAM can cause us to feel very disconnected from the organization. We are where we are called to be, but we still want to keep that connection going.
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- Trip Home in April - As we add "meat" (or "meet") to the skeleton of our itinerary, we increasingly see the strategic nature of this visit. God loves to watch His body working together; exercising existing relationships and making new ones. Our church in Denver is a fine example. In our absence they've changed dramatically. We know only a small handful of people still personally...and that doesn't even include our new pastor. So we have quite an opportunity to re-connect and simply connect for the first time! Please pray for discernment as to what to share at our church...what context and what message will best facilitate the relationship there upon which God can build His Kingdom. Please pray for other such divinely-orchestrated opportunities to connect/communicate/relate while in the States. Provision-wise, we still need some "wheels" while in Denver and plane tix for the whole family for KC-Las Cruces...around $1300 (Angela's parents are there now). Please pray for God's ingenious solutions to transforming "cattle on a thousand hills" to airfare!
- Finances - Part of the discussion of finances above leads us to pose the question as to whether we are supposed to move into a smaller but newer house (read "less maintenance needs"), or be patient in this one and see God provide for things such as an architect to help us plan, finances for certain professional-only tasks, finances for materials, skilled labor to help us advance step-by-step (and perhaps learn something in the process! ;c)). Staying without any sense that things will change is discouraging but searching for a different house/moving effort without clear direction that we should or not is fairly daunting as well (I hate moving). We certainly don't have a sense that we should move away from this area, not even this town necessarily, just that our situation, without any change, seems untenable over the long haul. Please pray for discernment in this area and a renewed vision of what God wants our dwelling place to ultimately be for His purposes and for us.
- School and Church "tent-space-enlarging" (Isaiah 54:2) - There is the sense in both our church here and the school we serve at that the Lord is expanding the work He is doing and that He may be putting in place right now the pieces to expand the physical space occupied in order to do that. Growth for its own sake has never been a goal either place, simply the growth of the Kingdom of God in this area. There are nearby land and building purchases, renovation work, new people involved, etc. in all of this. There is a need for spiritual protection and discernment during a time such as this with many decisions to be made, steps of faith to be taken, etc.; a desperate need to seek a new depth of the presence of the Lord. Please pray for a deeper attachment to the heart of God for the leaders of the church (Église Josué) and the school (Collège-Daniel) so that like the apostle John, they would hear the secrets of Jesus' heart and walk closely in the paths that He is directly. This is a long-term request (not just the month of February!). If things do go forward there will be need for unity, faith, and provision.
May your knees be blessed...;c)
David
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