I had hoped to greet you from France by now, but we're still in Scotland for a couple more weeks. According to our contact in the French Consulate in Edinburgh, the kids' visas will probably be here the 2nd week in September. Prayer implications in the prayer section below...
Praise...and thanks for your prayers about my driving test. I passed the test on the 2nd try. The relief is pretty incredible ;c)
Recently I felt like God was showing me that I was in the process of learning some things that Jacob in the Bible had to learn. So, I've been reading through the life of Jacob in the last week. Jacob is often characterized as a "schemer, arranger, striver", etc. He expended a tremendous amount of energy in the avoidance and fear of pain. He tried to arrange his life to avoid bad things happening and was often in fear of them happening. Even through all that, God was blessing Jacob and continuing to use him in His eternal purposes. God was trying to teach him to put his trust in God and His promises instead of Jacob's own ability to arrange his own life.
God seemed to be saying to him (and me) that, "Yes, Jacob, there will be things that you encounter in life that will be unpleasant...including some which are a harvest of your own poorly sown seeds. But, you need not live in fear and striving. I have promised my faithfulness and grace to walk you through it and to bless you in the process. My eternal purposes, that you don't fully understand yet, are more important than your temporary pleasure or freedom from pain. You can live in a state of rest and a peace that passes understanding in the midst of circumstances that that would not seem to warrant it."
There's lots more that is swirling around in my heart about the lessons of the life of Jacob and I'm sure much that I've not uncovered yet...Jacob is a complex character! God is faithful to use the circumstances that I'm in to teach me the lessons of the life of Jacob and He is faithful to do the same for you too! On to prayer...
This month's prayer topics:
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French Immigration: I don't know if the lateness of our visas is a specific attack of The Enemy or not, but I do feel there is an issue of prayer involved here. We believe that God is positioning many non-French Christians in France these days for His Kingdom purposes. Pray that the gates of France would be open to the workers of the Kingdom and that the "gatekeepers" would be servants of the King of Kings. To that end, pray specifically for Paul Schaffner at the French Consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the gentleman we've been dealing with regarding our visas. He's a really nice guy but I doubt he's a Christian and he seems to be inexperienced in his visa jog and a bit scatter-brained. It's my belief that a significant portion of "positioning" of non-French Christians into France will come via the UK, so people like Paul, a gatekeeper into France, need to be in the service of Jesus. Pray for opportunities for us to speak into His life and demonstrate God's love in our dealings with him...he is, after all, one of the French people that we feel we're called to!
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School/Friends: The kids' public school begins September 3rd and our school begins September 5th, so we'll all be getting a late start. Our language school folks said that it would be fine for us to come a little late as Angela's French is pretty good and I'm not a complete beginner. Two other families will also be arriving late. Pray that we all would adapt quickly into our various daily school environments when we finally arrive, and especially for the kids to make friends easily as the "latecomers".
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Moving Logistics: Depending upon when the visas arrive, pray for how we get to France. Right now, our friends who have a large family van are offering to come with us to help us move our stuff there. Their window of availability is good right now but too much delay in the visas could change that. Pray for God's provision in this area and wise decisions on our part.
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Car: Due to French regulations and differences between UK and French-oriented cars, insurance, etc., we may not be able to use our car inexpensively in France for more than about 2 months. Pray that we find a good cheap car that works for us during our time down there.
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The Trip: Again, pray for our actual trip down there (2nd or 3rd week in September?), for safety and valuable family time in a tightly packed car! ;c)
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Thank You and God Bless!
David