Thankfulness

Here you go, Matt!  A new blog update!!

How can we not think about being thankful after just celebrating Thanksgiving?  We have so much to be grateful for, and it was encouraging to see so many express their thanks on Facebook.  I quoted I Peter 1:3-4, and I think that pretty well says it all:

"Thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade."

We've got a lot more to be grateful for and so we just wanted to make a list and share it with you:

• Our families -- they have loved, supported, prayed, encouraged, laughed and cried with us.  Our parents have been Godly examples and modeled for us a Christ-filled life.  Our kids have brought us joy from the day they were born and it's exciting to see the women they've become.  Avery and Riley are the two most beautiful granddaughters and we are blessed every day to be their gramma and grampa.  God also gave us an amazing extended family that seems to grow each year!
• Our church -- we pray you are as blessed as we are with our church family.  Incarnate Faith began 3 years ago with a small group of people who wanted to do church differently.  We wanted to share the love of Jesus to the community we live in.  We have been stretched and challenged and have grown and we share a real bond of love.
• Friends!  - there are so many of you out there that have touched our lives in many ways.  Some have been for a season and others have been there for many, many years.  Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Each friend has had a part in shaping our lives into the people God wants us to be.

We could go on and on with things to be thankful for, but wanted to just list the highlights.  I think it's good to put your list in writing and then share it.  We've each got a few daily devotionals that we read and naturally, most of them have been about gratitude this week.  One especially caught my eye, because it was about those who are going through really tough times and the difficulty in feeling thankful.  So many of us are surrounded by family and friends and look forward with great anticipation to the holiday season, but there are others around us who are struggling with loss, loneliness, disappointment, job loss, financial struggles, and the list goes on.  If you're dealing with any of these issues, I want to encourage you with the list from "Strength for the Journey."  You can be thankful

If you have Jesus and His strong presence in your life . . .

If you have His Word to comfort and assure you that all is not lost and your disappointments are the fertile ground where God often works to bring about good and gain to His glory and your benefit. . .

If you believe that this is not the only world you have and that He has paid the entry price for you to go to a world that is forever far better . . .

If you believe that crying lasts for the night but joy comes in the morning . . 

If you can still pray . . .

If you can give help to someone else in need . . .

If you can’t ever lose the stuff that really counts in your life . . .

Yes, I can be thankful for every one of those things!  Happy Thanksgiving and as we enter into the Christmas season, we pray you will enjoy every moment and be thankful for the gift of Jesus, the greatest gift ever given!

The Great Adventure Begins

Jim and I have always loved the song "The Great Adventure" by Steven Curtis Chapman, so we're borrowing it as our theme! From the moment the opportunity to serve in Tanzania opened, we feel like we're on an amazing ride, holding onto God's coattails. It seems like every day, He opens a new door, prepares the way ahead of us or provides exactly what we need before we know we need it!

Let's start at the beginning, August 30, 2011. We received a prayer request from Harold & Coni (the Kneppers, who founded Hope of the Nations, the mission that we are going to be working with)regarding the boat ministry, that the government informed them they would need a licensed boat captain in order to use the boat. Of course, we started praying that God would provide exactly what was needed so the boat ministry could continue. A couple of days later, Jim came to me and said that as he had been praying, he felt God telling him that he (Jim) was the answer to that prayer -- he should be the boat captain. We wrote back to the Kneppers, telling them how God was speaking to us and asking them to pray with us, specifically that if this was His will, He would make it abundantly clear. The Hope of the Nations (HOTN) staff began to pray as did others whose counsel we sought. All of the answers confirmed where we felt God was leading -- Kigoma, Tanzania.

Our next step was to figure out the timing of his retirement. We knew that we needed to be in Kigoma in early June as that is when most visiting teams begin arriving, and the boat would be in constant use. We originally thought that he would retire at the end of February, giving us about three months to get everything ready. God obviously had other things in mind, however, and in a number of ways, lead us to change that date to December 30th. We found out that if we wanted to send a shipping container of supplies, we should plan on a ship date of no later than March 30. This will give us about 3 months to plan, purchase and then pack the container. We also need to sell our house, our cars and most of our belongings. We figured that would take several months to do as well. Crazy us -- did we forget that we'd prayed and asked God to be over all of our preparations? In a matter of a few weeks after telling family, friends and our church of our plans, we have someone that wants to buy our house, and almost all of our belongings have been spoken for, as well as one of our cars, all without any advertising!

Our home church, Incarnate Faith, has agreed to be our sending church. Even greater, since we recently did a church merge with two other churches (becoming one church with 3 campuses), the whole church has asked us to be their missionaries, the first that would be sent out. We are so humbled and overwhelmed by their love, support and encouragement, and are excited to be the first missionaries from South Valley Community Church. We are looking forward to our partnership and know that God has great things in store for all of us. November is Global Compasssion month at all 3 campuses and we will be at each campus during the month. In addition, we will be speaking at Jim's parents' church on November 13.

We will be updating the blog monthly while we're still in the states, and more often once we're in Kigoma. We plan to include preparation updates, ministry stories, pictures, prayer requests and more.

Listed below are our first prayer requests:

1. Spiritual health -- that we would be diligent in our prayer and study time.
2. Wisdom in our planning and preparation for our shipping container.
3. Financial provision -- that God will provide for our required HOTN support funds.
4. That our house in Gilroy will go through with our potential buyers, as it is a short sale and needs bank approval.
5. Housing in Kigoma
6. God's provision for a good car (land cruiser) for us to purchase in Africa.