Mission Monday... it's been a while!

Scattered throughout I will include some pictures to be looking for in the future on our web page and prayer card etc.

Long ago I wanted to put updates on our "Mission in Progress" every Monday, and while I was consistently doing something to progress our mission, I didn't think "I have prayed that the Lord would continue to guide and direct as we continue to travel this path etc." was something that needed to be said. Every week!
That being said...

For four long years my husband has been diligently working a full time job and attending full time institute...( I know you know that...!...) and my type A personality was just doing nothing waiting for the moment he was done. Nothing of course consisted of parenting, home schooling, working, blah-blah-blah. All the normal life things a mother does. It felt like nothing towards the ultimate goal. I wanted to get the "green light" so I could plunge full speed head long into all of the things that needed to be finished in order to start deputation... let alone actually get to the field!

Well the day has come, and we are starting deputation. Soon. We are in the process of having a web page designed. (thank you Mr Lunch Time Thoughts!) We are also getting reference letters, content materials, hard copy, etc. needed to give pastors a little view of who we are and what our vision/mission is. We also need to get our video completed. No small task!

We were advised to start this piece years ago. Let me tell you, we still do not know exactly how to present our mission! We want to be informative, but not too detailed. We want to be reaching the brain, but not devoid of emotional pull. We want to have it just long enough to make you wanting to know more instead of "will this ever end"! Exactly how should we do that?!

So we have full courses of about three dinners on our plate! And while we could slap it all together, that is not my hubbys M.O. He is methodical in his proceedings. (Read that as he does things WaY DiFfErEnT than I do!) (... and that is Such a Good Thing!) We will take this at his pace, and at times it will drive me (my flesh!) nuts. I am understanding more every day why the Lord gave us twenty years of marriage before He called us to this! {ahem}"Discussions" like the ones we have had in the past few weeks would have done great harm in the early years of our marriage. We didn't know each other well enough, nor did I care if he had a differing approach. I would find a way to make it agree with my way, end of discussion. (read that as I was a manipulative wife. Go ahead. I give you full permission.)

The front of our prayer card

But God is Good, and I have changed (well I have been changed!) and my husband is a great man of God and leads this home spiritually like no other I know. We have three teen age children. And two others not far behind! That alone should give you a picture of some of the struggles he faces. That they are still going to church with us with a good attitude is the least of the reasons for our thanksgiving. I am so grateful we are not traveling with tiny children and I have to worry about nurseries and ear infections and croup. Now I have other worries, great big ones in their own right, but I am still thankful for the timing of the Lord for us. His ways are perfect, and every day I see the Great Conductor making beautiful music around us.

Back of our prayer card

Don't try the web page yet... work in progress! :)
Dan's email is good though!

My prayers recently- allow me to follow my husband with a single heart, as unto the Lord. I pray we are worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, and I pray this path is a journey to be enjoyed as opposed to a labor to be endured! I have been on a journey within a journey, and I keep singing the little ditty

He's still working on me,
to make me what I'm supposed to be,
it took him just a week to make the moon and stars,
the Sun and the Earth and Jupiter and Mars...
how loving and patient he must be,
cuz he's still working on me!

Cute, but so true! He is a gentle, patient, and giving God!

I will leave you with that thought!