Jehova-Jireh

"Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, Jehovah-Jireh(the LORD will provide); as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided." Genesis 22:13-14

In the scriptures God is given many different names. Each name is a reflection of some part of His character. Jehovah-Jireh translates "the LORD will provide". We have certainly seen this aspect of God's character throughout our lives. But Sunday evening He not only showed up, He showed off! Brad and I had the opportunity to speak before our home congregation on Sunday about our calling. We shared our testimonies and some of the details of our mission. Our Pastor challenged the church family to prayerfully consider how they could help us financially and make committments. We were confident that our brothers and sisters would help and support us, but we had no idea how God would move in the hearts of his people on our behalf. The committments we recieved far exceeded anything we had hoped for. Once again, we found that we had underestimated the power of Jehovah-Jireh. We give Him all glory for this amazing show of support. We also thank our precious brothers and sisters at Hulls Grove Baptist. May God bless each and everyone of you for allowing Him to be His hands and feet as He furthers His kingdom.

Reckless Faith?

As I write this post the Huss family is moving into the farmhouse. Praise the LORD! We praise Him not just for sending renters, but for sending the right renters. No, the Huss's are not the people I told you about in our last post. That family took the lease home to look it over and sign it and never returned. Brad put the sign back out on January 31 and by February 1 it was rented again! We don't know why the first renters didn't come back, but we know God had something to do with it. We can get all the information in the world about someone on a piece of paper but in the end you're still taking a chance. We can only depend wholly on God's judgement. We prayed for Him to send honest, dependable renters and we believe he has. Thank you, LORD! Please be in prayer for the Huss's and their children that the Lord's will would be done in their lives.

I know that this post will not fully convey to you the excitement the LORD has put in our hearts this week, but I'll give it a try. Getting the farmhouse emptied and ready for the renters was a huge load off of us. Until I began I did not realize how much we had accumulated in this house that we use primarily for guests. But I can say with confidence we will be having one MAMMOTH moving sale in two weeks! We have come to the realization over the past few years that having a lot of stuff is a lot of burden. We know that part of what God wants us to learn through all of this is that we don't need very much at all . As I am going through things I have three categories: Mexico, storage, and moving sale. Sounds cut and dry. It's NOT! The nagging question in my mind is "What if I need this in Mexico?" But then the Spirit whispers "Let it go!". I'm getting there. (Just a little side note. Brad IS there!! If it were up to him I think we would go with backpacks!!) See, I knew I wouldn't be able to convey the excitement. But just know that all this letting go and checking things off of the to-do list each day are HUGE for us. We know that everyday we are closer to this adventure beginning and we can't wait.

A good friend from church gave us a book yesterday called Reckless Faith by Beth Guckenberger. Brad and I both finished it today!! It is about Beth and her husband Todd who are missionaries at an orphanage in Monterrey, Mexico. I felt like I could have written parts of this book about myself. It encouraged us and spurred us on in our work more than I can say! God is so AWESOME like that! Our friend had been carrying the book around for us since December. When she apologized I said, "God knew when we needed it." We had been feeling a bit discouraged by people and the things that some have said to us, but He reminded us that we are not doing this for people. We are doing this for Him and for His glory. None of it makes sense in human terms. But Brad and I want our family to have a "reckless faith". We don't want to live by man's logic or worship a God of our own making who does things OUR way in OUR time. We've learned enough times that our way is usually not so great. But when we put our trust in Him and act on faith it's nothing short of miraculous.

We feel closer than ever to God at this time and we are daily amazed at how He is revealing Himself to us. We still have much to accomplish in just a few short months, but we know we can do it through His power. Thankfully, we have received some more letters of financial committment and we praise Him for that. We will be making a presentation for our church on February 15th about our trip and we will be asking for committments then. Please be in prayer for us that God would provide the remaining funds necessary.

We also need prayers concerning the rental or our primary house, the sale of Brad's corvette, the sale of our animals, the sale of our John Deere Gator , and a successful moving sale. Please leave us a comment here and let us know that you're praying for us. We really love to hear from everyone.

God Bless!!