Will and Last Testament

Today, Josh and I signed our Will and Last Testament, an unusual activity for a couple of 23-year-olds with no children, no property, and no significant assets. This caused a startling realization of the risk involved in moving to Africa; it’s not that we haven’t considered them or been aware, rather that they haven’t been our biggest priority. I’ve realized an attitude of balance and complete reliance on God is absolutely crucial. On the one hand, Africa is not all war-torn , all the time. On the other, contrary to what many people say, it is not even close to commensurate to living in north Minneapolis.

I’m not going to lie to you- there is risk involved.

At our local fireworks last July, we had one of those convoluted “coincidences” in which we ran into a long-term missionary to the Philippines who was on furlough. She graciously allowed me to pick her brain, and offered the following wisdom in response to my questions regarding responding to others’ concern about danger:

“The most dangerous place to be is anywhere but God’s will.”

Oh, I was convicted. How many times has my stubborn foolishness caused me to be outside of God’s will? What we are going to do is far less dangerous. God commanded us to go; it wasn’t a suggestion. We are privileged to have the opportunity to obey.

Do not fear for us, or for our safety. Instead, pray.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” –Philippians 4:6

I hope God will use our absence and our work to somehow challenge you. He will certainly be challenging us. We will miss home and our loved ones SO much! For those of you that may miss us at times or fear for us, PLEASE let it draw you nearer to the Lord. If we cannot affect those closest to us on Christ’s behalf, we have not adequately done all we can, both as missionaries and as Christians.

In Need of Prayer

Hello faithful readers. I love you all. When I talk to you and you tell me you read this blog, it makes me feel it is for a purpose- Thank you!

We need some prayer. For the next week or so, our lives will continue to move at a pace that feels like our heads our going to spin off. Just this weekend, we spoke 4 times, each led small groups, and attended 3 church services, went to a fundraiser, and did some house/teenager sitting. We are pretty tired, and don't really have time to slow down yet. For those of you who don't know, I have an autoimmune disorder, and it is just starting to act up (in fact, I am typing with a migraine right now.) So , no is the time to practice being prayer warriors for when we are on the field. I have no doubt that satan would love nothing more than for us to lay down and give up.

We raised some more money this weekend, and are finally coming in on our financial goal. PRAISE THE LORD! We are not there yet, but are getting closer.

Over this next couple of weeks, we will be working on a relationship with someone who has been strained. I cannot provide any details, but we would still appreciate any prayers you could offer. We need to be as free from distractions as possible.

Also, I am considering shutting down our prayer blog. I haven't really done a great job of keeping it up, so it seems that it would be a better plan to combine the two, especially since more of you read this one, and we could still get pray requests that way.

One little announcement: there will be a soup send-off at Nicole's family's church this coming Sunday from 11:30am-1:30pm. It is free, and if you would like to stop by, we would love to see you. We leave 2 weeks from today, so it may be our last chance to see you for awhile.