Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Update & Reflections

It seems like it's been forever since I've written. So much has happened, but so much we're still waiting on.


Ted had the surgery to correct his arrhythmia (irregular heart beat), and after seeing the doctor again this week was told his heart is looking completely normal now. Praise the Lord!
We have a contract on our house, and now we're just waiting for the final appraisal so that (hopefully) we can close in a couple of weeks.
We just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary!
We're still settling in at my parents' house, and trying to establish a routine for the kids so they don't kill each other this summer. :)
We are still plugging away at support raising, and with God's help plan to be in France in January.


Sometimes it all gets very overwhelming. Especially the fundraising aspect. Knowing God has called us to go, but waiting on His timing for the money to come in. I described it the other day as this huge mountain, unmovable. We can't go around it and we can't go back. The only way to go is forward. But without God's help, we are stuck staring up at this huge barrier.

Then yesterday I read a devotional that reminded me that we have the authority to cast the mountain into the sea. We can ask our Father for impossible things and He will help us. Just like He helped the Israelites cross the Red Sea, He can move mountains or part the waves for us, too. Our trust, our hope is in Jesus, only. Not circumstances, people, money, dreams. Only Jesus. And He promises that He will take us by the hand and lead us safely to the other side. I pray that this truth will sink into our souls and yours, and give us the courage and hope to keep believing for impossible things.

This poem from "Streams in the Desert" stood out to me this morning:

Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life,
Where in spite of all you do,
There is no way out, there is no way back,
There is no other way but through?
Then wait on the Lord with a trust serene
Till the night of your fear is gone;
He will send the wind, He will heap the floods,
When He says to your soul, "Move on."
And His hand will lead you through- clear through-
Ere the watery walls roll down,
No foe can reach you, no wave can touch,
No mightiest sea can drown;
The tossing billows may rear their crests,
Their foam at your feet may break,
But o'er the seabed you will walk dry ground
In the path that your Lord will make
In the morning watch, 'neath the lifted cloud,
You will see but the Lord alone,
When He leads you on from the place of the sea
To a land that you have not known;
And your fears will pass as your foes have passed,
You will be no more afraid;
You will sing His praise in a better place,
A place that His hand has made.

(Annie Johnson Flint)