I love the family picture to the right so much that I substituted it for the newer picture of me and Steve for a while. It's fun to look at it and think about all the things that have happened in the past 6 years - all the high school graduations, a college graduation, and even a wedding! (Still hard to believe Aaron got married May 9th!)
We've sure all changed since this picture, especially Jennifer. A big difference from 13 years old to 19 years old and going to college! I don't think Steve has changed a lot, but I definitely have more wrinkles and also gray at my temples now. Otherwise, it's still a good picture and I want to share it for a while.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
God of the unexpected...
Some of our adventures in trust involve finances for our ministry as missionaries working with Native Americans. What I find over and over is that God sends surprises, working in ways that I never would have figured. One of our issues is that it is coming up on time for our "Homeland Ministry Assignment" which is a time when we re-connect with prayer partners, financial supporters, and supporting churches. By the time this is happening, our current level of support has gotten to the point of "woefully inadequate." Most people understand how this happens, because they deal with cost increases all the time in their lives and know missionaries must as well. With our mission, our account can actually go into a negative or deficit situation, at least a bit, because they try to give us a chance to get the support back up before they have to do things like withhold our salary. (We are very glad of this!) However, it all has to be made up and there is a certain point they won't let us go beyond. And we keep getting dangerously close to that point and then God sends some of His wonderful surprises: once, from a prayer partner who had never been a donor before; another time, through a fellow missionary.
This freefall into negative dollars continues to happen until we have enough people pledge more support, and when we go on HMA we are given a particular monetary figure we must have coming in to be fully funded. The thing that has me excited today is that I just found a mistake in the way I was counting some funding, which made it look like we needed $1800 more coming in per month, when actually we only need $1200 more a month! And I was thinking, "Isn't this just like God? I'm looking for Him to bless us with quite a lot more funds, and instead He shows us that we don't need as much as we thought."
It happens to us all sometimes, doesn't it? Whether He shows us how we can save money somewhere, or whether He does things for us that inexplicably make what we have last longer than it should have, He has ways to do things that we never would have figured out. That's why it's such a joy to trust Him!
This freefall into negative dollars continues to happen until we have enough people pledge more support, and when we go on HMA we are given a particular monetary figure we must have coming in to be fully funded. The thing that has me excited today is that I just found a mistake in the way I was counting some funding, which made it look like we needed $1800 more coming in per month, when actually we only need $1200 more a month! And I was thinking, "Isn't this just like God? I'm looking for Him to bless us with quite a lot more funds, and instead He shows us that we don't need as much as we thought."
It happens to us all sometimes, doesn't it? Whether He shows us how we can save money somewhere, or whether He does things for us that inexplicably make what we have last longer than it should have, He has ways to do things that we never would have figured out. That's why it's such a joy to trust Him!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Life transitions
We all go through them and sometimes they come at us in a hurry. For us, our kids have kept us busy with changes. Within a 3 week period of time our son, Aaron, got married to his lovely bride, Liz (Merritt) Cartwright; our daughter, Jennifer, graduated from high school; and our daughter, Stephanie, packed up and moved from Ohio to Indiana looking for work. It hasn't been boring around here, but we sure hope all the transitions slow down for a while.
This photo is fun - you can see all our "kids" in it, as Stephanie is singing and Jennifer is the maid of honor.
Whenever I think I'm a grown-up...
... I (Debbie) realize that isn't always the best goal. Sure, God wants mature, growing believers. He doesn't want us to remain static or unchanged. But He also says, over and over, that we are to be like little children and I can't help but believe that I get into trouble every time I get "too big for my britches."
One of the things God challenged me with at the beginning of this year was to "regress" - to think about what it means to be His child. To do this, He reminded me about life as an infant. A baby is helpless. Without constant care and attention to very basic needs, the baby will not live to be a toddler. No baby ever said, "I can do this on my own. I don't need my parents' help."
Yet how often I say that to "Abba," my Heavenly Dad, if not verbally then by my actions. I act self-sufficient until I get into trouble and then I call for help, "bawling" loudly. How much better to face the facts that "I can do nothing on my own." If Jesus said this about Himself and the Father (at least 4 times in the Gospel of John) then I am really, truly helpless. And so much better off when I admit it.
There are so many things I realize I have to depend on Him completely for this year: our ministry finances; needs of our children; losing weight and getting healthy. I can't afford to crawl out into the big bad world alone. I need Abba.
One of the things God challenged me with at the beginning of this year was to "regress" - to think about what it means to be His child. To do this, He reminded me about life as an infant. A baby is helpless. Without constant care and attention to very basic needs, the baby will not live to be a toddler. No baby ever said, "I can do this on my own. I don't need my parents' help."
Yet how often I say that to "Abba," my Heavenly Dad, if not verbally then by my actions. I act self-sufficient until I get into trouble and then I call for help, "bawling" loudly. How much better to face the facts that "I can do nothing on my own." If Jesus said this about Himself and the Father (at least 4 times in the Gospel of John) then I am really, truly helpless. And so much better off when I admit it.
There are so many things I realize I have to depend on Him completely for this year: our ministry finances; needs of our children; losing weight and getting healthy. I can't afford to crawl out into the big bad world alone. I need Abba.
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