2003, A Year Of Grace...
Yesterday our pastor at our church asked us if we thought that 2003 would be a year of grace. Was this some sort of prophetic thing? Not at all...simply a realization that each day God makes available to us grace sufficient for everything that we will encounter (2 Corinthians 12:9, Lamentations 3:21-24). Yes! We can say that 2003 will be a year of grace. God's grace is there for us, for you, for me, each morning when we awake.
In December, 2003, the world will reflect and will pass judgment as to whether the year was "good" or "bad", and we may or may not agree with their assessments. But, we can walk in daily grace that God has available for us. Our circumstances will, undoubtedly, make it difficult at times to press through to God and appropriate that grace. Those circumstances will also make it difficult to always feel like we're walking in God's grace. Thanks be to God that His grace is neither dependent upon circumstances of serendipity or our emotional state (both tenuous building blocks!) Instead, His faithfulness is His bond for us in our most difficult and our least difficult times. Those are both times when we're prone to waver (at least I am!) but He never changes! (Hebrews 13:8)
God has also given us each other as a means to appropriating His grace. Through relationship, encouragement, support, and prayer, we have an opportunity to be a conduit of God's grace in the lives of others. I thank you that you have chosen to be instruments of grace for our family! Please let us know how we can pray for you as well and let us have the opportunity to be instruments of grace for you too!
On to prayer...
This month's prayer topics:
|
Health: Our health has improved much since we last wrote. We don't have anybody sick at our house praise God! Olivia has had however, a cough that has held on almost two months. With a humidifier running all night, she sleeps quietly, but we'd like to see it go completely!
|
|
Language School: We finished our first trimester with mixed results. David did better than expected and Angela did worse than expected. We both needed a break from that pressure and this holiday time has been valuable. School starts soon (Jan 6th) though, and we need to begin with God's attitude towards our studies. Pray that both of us put school in its proper priority...not too high...not too low...juuuuuussst right!
|
|
Kid's School: The first trimester for the kids in French public schools also had mixed results. Rachel and Olivia both enjoyed school and did really well. Yes there were challenging moments but all-in-all it was very positive for them. For Noah, however, it was a real struggle. We knew it wasn't his real cup of tea and that it was a steep challenge at times for him. We didn't really know, however, the extent of how lost he was at school until the last week of the trimester! So, we're working with him during this break but his situation is a real prayer need for us. Noah needs a change of heart about school and he needs a change of circumstance at his school. Please pray for an opening in his heart to tackle school, and in particular, French, and for an opening in the class that is better suited to his needs. Also pray for us (Angela in particular) as we balance his needs with the other demands put on us.
|
|
Car: Praise God we're legal! Finally, I got our British car registered and insured here in France. It was a multi-step process that was linguistically and emotionally challenging for a foreigner like me, but not too expensive on the whole. But, we have a door on the car that has been sagging for some time and we've been advised to get it fixed before it falls off! We've found a nice, Christian mechanic and he'll be taking care of it. So, we've got a $200 repair bill coming up here in January. Pray for provision please.
|
|
Ministry: Finally, we have some choices to make with respect to beginning to minister in music here in France. Angela was "volunteered" to lead "chorale" here at the school. This is an actual part of the school where the student body learns several French songs over the course of the next two trimesters and then performs them for graduation. We've also been asked to be involved with some of the worship leading here at the school in other meetings and to help with music at church. These are all things that are on our heart to do. Our need is for wisdom and direction to say "yes" or "no" to things based on God's will and not our own feelings or understanding (Proverbs 3:5)
|
|
Thank You and God Bless!
|
|
David
|