New EVERY Morning

Lamentations 3: 22-26

²² Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

Good morning – I just thought I would share that verse with you this morning. “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning” – AMEN! As we start of this week, we want to remember that. That God grace, mercy, and love is new every morning and his faithfulness is great!

We’ve had a busy week this last week, but got a chance to just settle down and relax this weekend. We were also able to draft up another prayer letter, so you should be receiving that soon!

Here are our prayer requests and praises for this week!

Prayer:

• Ø RIGHT NOW if you could say a prayer for Steve, he has a presentation in front of the big wigs at Medtronic at around 11(??) today.
• Ø That our prayer letter would bring new partners to help us reach our goal of 50% by the end of September
• Ø For the Girls Group that I organize and our Sunday School classes as they start up that God would be doing great things in these children
• Ø For a more consistent time to spend time with God together and on our own – our schedules have been crazy and it seems like we’re sneaking in times here and there instead of building our day around time with God.

Praise:

Ø Lord willing, we will be paying off my (Jessica's) school loans on Friday J PRAISE GOD!

Ø That God’s mercies are new every morning.

Ø For a relaxing weekend and being refreshed to face this new week.

Ø For lots of French connections this week – I (Jessica) got to meet some French church planters at work on Thursday, and also a student who is looking to pursue French (also have been dreaming in French a lot lately, which is fun J)

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Hello!

Yes, we realize that’s it’s been a while and we realized we kind of dropped off the face of the earth…but WE’RE BACK and better than ever J God has been doing some great things and teaching us some great things in our lives this summer. Too much to even put on one post, but we’ll try…lets go back!

May – While stressing about getting a job, and finals and vacation (only we can stress about vacation, right?) and all the things that needed to be done, God provided in every way. Steve got a job about 2 days before he was planning on calling the YMCA to continue working there throughout the summer. He’s working a Summer Internship at Medtronic (a company that designs and manufactures medical devices). So, basically all summer he’s been doing stuff with defibrillators and pacemakers (or at least that’s what I get out of when he tells me all day). This has given us a chance to pay back HUGE chunks of my school loans and start into his before they start gaining interest! What a huge praise.

June – June was a month of fun things – we were able to spend some time together camping, going on some road trips and amusement parks. We finally learned that we don’t need to have a week off in order to have a great summer. We took advantage of the weekends and the great weather to have some fun.

July – At the shock of seeing July 1^st come around on the calendar and us looking and seeing that our support hasn’t really moved in almost 2 months, we realized that we needed to buckle down on our support raising. There are always excuses though – in May we said we’d wait until Steve was done with school and started his job and things “calmed down”; June came and we said that we’d wait until we got into the swing of things with both working 8-4:30 jobs, but when July came around we had no more excuses – well, except that I was going to be gone for 3 out of the 4 weeks for music festivals and vacations and my mom coming into town.

*Can I just take a break and say I don’t know how people do support raising. I know that it’s a full time job in and of itself and we just can’t seem to balance it. Eventually (as you’ll find out) we learned how to do it little by little, but it just doesn’t seem to come naturally to us. I mean, I get how Moses felt when he told God that speaking wasn’t his strength and he should really pick someone else. It’s been a challenge to just pick up the phone and call someone and let them know about our ministry. We’ve realized we need to stop making excuses and just do what God has called us to do.*

Ok, back to July. Finally, the last week in July, Steve and I, sitting at a Perkins, faced the facts that we’re not going to be able to raise $5,500/month on letters alone, and started writing letters to talk to people one on one. We’re just getting started and hope that the money comes to us in such a way that only God can be glorified.

So…here we are in August. Lives are getting back to “normal” (or our new normal) – Steve’s boss has invited him to stay as long as they can afford them, which we’re hoping, will mean until we leave for France. This has been a blessing as it’s hard to find a job for just 9 months in the Engineering field.

We would love to leave as soon as possible and are still looking for partners in this – so if you’ve been praying about it, give (just click the box to the right). We’ll let you know a little more about support raising later! Keep praying for us! We appreciate it!

Who do we have confidence in?

Hebrews 10 34-35

34. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

We're reading through Hebrews in our young adult group, and these verses really struck me. "you...joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew you had better and lasting possessions, so do not threw away your confidence"

As we're gearing up to leave, some of our biggest fears seem to be about jobs we're leaving behind, or what we get to bring with us, or the fact that we're leaving security for the uncertain, but this verse really convicted me of what I put my confidence in. If my confidence is in my job, money, or possessions, then I'm not really going to be willing to give those up if that's what God calls me to do.

However, if my confidence is in God, it doesn't matter what anyone takes from me, my confidence cannot be taken.

I also think it's interesting that the Bible says "do not THROW AWAY your confidence." It makes me think that when we put our confidence in anything but God, we're waisting it, because those things are not lasting - they're fleeting.

My question for you (and for me) is, are we wasting our confidence? Are we throwing it away on things that can be easily taken? Are we not following (or afriad to follow) what God wants us to do because our confidence is in something other then Him?

Lord, please help me to be confident in You and nothing else but You. God help me to be willing to completely surrender my life to You, and not keep any part for myself. Calm my irrational fears because I know that You have and will continue to take care of us. Amen.

Is what we believe really real to us?

It's a rainy Saturday morning here in St. Paul, and seems like the perfect morning to write in a blog. I know I'm supposed to keep posts short, but I feel a long one coming on, so bear with me.

Like Steve mentioned in the last post, it's been a crazy week, or really, weeks (plural) since we've returned from Denver. It's really challenged our focus, drive, enery, and attention span. I know that when the devil knows that we're on fire and really running after Christ, he wants to do anything and everything he can to divert our attention from that.

I challenged my girls Sunday School class to be reading through John this week. We're talking about it in church, and I've been challenging them to give out gospels of John for months now, but we never actually read through it on our own (lately at least). It's amazing that in this Gospel, Jesus makes no mistake to let his people (us) know who He is.

Just in the first chapter it says he is:

• The Word (vs. 1, 14)


• God (v. 1)


• Creator (vs. 3, 10)


• The Light (vs.4-5)


• Grace and Truth (v. 17)


• The Lord (v. 23)


• Worthy (v. 27)


• Lamb of God/Taker of sin (v. 29, 36)


• Teacher (vs. 38,49)


• Son of God (v. 49)


• King of Isreal (v. 49)

All I can respond to that is WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE. How can we not shout that? How can we go about our day when the Light, the Creator, the Lamb of God wants a personal relationship to us?

I once heard someone say that the reason people ignore Christ is because if Christians REALLY had what they say they have, they would act different. Not just being "better" then the person next to you, but if we REALLY believed that we have a personal relationship with the ONE who takes away the sin of the world and give us a life, we would be shouting it from the rooftops. But we don't. I don't. Most Christians don't. So...that begs the question. Do we believe that what we believe is really real? Let me say that one more time....do we believe that what we believe is really real? If so, then how would our lives look different?

I know mine would. I would not be scared to share the Gospel with EVERYONE because I knew that I found the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I would not have to schedule in time to read my Bible and pray because I would realize that I have a personal relationship with the CREATOR of the World and maker of all things. I wouldn't worry about the little things because the One who takes care of me gave it to me and He can do with my life what He pleases.

Just ponder on that for a bit (I know I will) - Do you believe that what you believe is really real?

Just to give credit where credit is due, these throughts came from a combination of "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project".

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, concerns, and prayer requests on our blog. We love to hear from you.

Just to let you know, our next week blogs will be about France (which, considering it's called FOCUS ON FRANCE, would be good). We will be posting different facts and also our reasons for wanting to go to France. Thanks for following. We really appreciate you all!

The beginning of this week was a stressful one for me (Steve). I had a long engineering assignment due Tuesday and a French presentation Wednesday that I hadn’t started. That was just the start of the week. I had to keep reminding myself (and Jess would remind me too) to take deep breathes and take one day at a time.

The other thing that helped me through the week was Romans 5:1-5

“1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but w] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

I was very encouraged by this passage.

The second half of the week I had a homework assignment for my Advanced Analog Integrated Circuits class (yes, this class is as much fun as it sounds). The class is extremely challenging and when I started the assignment I knew how I needed to start and how it should end. The steps in between were hazy so I worked on it Wednesday and did not get far.

Thursday morning I received an email from my professor who had solved the tedious middle part save for a few steps and posted his work online. I realized it is great to see how he worked through the problem because it gave me an idea of how to do the last few steps. The parallels our walk with God, we need people who are able to teach and guide us as we grow with God.

Life Goes On...

Our Mid-Term Training Group - Pray for these people as they're on the same journey we are raising support to go over seas to preach the Gospel!

Well, we’ve been back for a week, and like coming back from summer camp excited about what you learned, the training last week gave us the renewed excitement for the ministry ahead. However, real life is still going on. *sigh* We had a busy week with lots of extra hours of work and school and catching up from the weekend we didn’t really have.

I have learned this week (as many of us do after coming back from something that spurs us on to ministry or a call that God has given us) that I cannot rely on excitement alone – when I come back from a conference or training, I am so hyped to do EVERYTHING! I eat, sleep, dream France and missions and presentations and culture, BUT…that excitement goes away. Just as the Bible says our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), I think that relying on pure emotion to follow God’s will is deceitful. I think that’s why the Bible talks on perseverance so much.

2 Thessalonians 3: 1-5 1Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 2And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. 3But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 4We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. 5May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance.

I need to have Christ’s perseverance. Think on Christ’s life and how many things He suffered through after they stopped being “fun” or “exciting” (if they ever were). He knew the will of God for His life, and nothing was going to stop Him until His time was done on earth.

Let me ask to you – is there something in your life that God is spurring you to do, but because the “thrill” of it is gone, you have put it on the back burner? Has your Christian walk become like that? Just because you can’t “feel” God in your life, have you stopped seeking after Him?
Can I just ask you to, right now, rededicate that thing to Him – whether it’s your passions, your service, your money, or your life, give it to Him. The Bible says that if you “commit to the Lord whatever you do…your plans will succeed” (Prov. 16:3).

Lord, please forgive me if I ever try to take the passion You’ve given us into my own hands. Lord, I give this to you. I pray that I will not rely on my emotions, but that I will allow You to give me the strength and perseverance to finish the calling that You gave to me.

Yesterday was a hard day for me. I was challenged by many of my downfalls and could feel myself starting to get anxious about everything. We started talking about transition and starting out on the field. Someone asked how we will know if we’re doing things right and all of a sudden a sheet of dread just closed in on me. I like order, I like routine – and although I like to be spontaneous, it’s only when I’m in control of the adventure. This adventure is one that is out of my control for the most part, and in God’s hands. My mind tells me that is a good thing, but my stomach did flips.

How am I going to know if I’m doing a good job? How am I going to build routine? Will I have enough stuff to do during language training that will give my life purpose? Am I ACTUALLY a people person, or is that just what I’m expected to be? I feel panicked at the mere thought of trying to build relationships in France….does that mean I’m going to fail as a missionary?

We also talked about support raising. There are so many rules. I feel like I can do nothing but wrong things – it seems weird that we have to jump through hoops in order to get the church to support doing God’s work through us. I mean, I’m not saying anything about the church, because, honestly, I usually have to be VERY impressed with a missionary, or organization in order to give my money. It takes something emotional and something convicting for me to even part from $32/month for my compassion child. I’m definitely one of the culprits.

Lord, please calm me – give me a peace that passes all understanding and help me to realize that You are the almighty God and you already know who is going to partner with us, who is going to pray for us, and through You, we will succeed. I give this all to you, Lord – work through me. As Your Word says, we are only servants, and we plant and we water, but only you can make things grow. This is not about me or my ability, but about Your strength working through me. God, give me clarity to start today strong and learn more about serving You. Amen.