Happy 4th July!!!! Hope you all have a wonderful time with family and friends.
We are doing well here in Manta, Ecuador. The weather has finally cooled off a little bit and that has been really nice.
We had great services Sunday. The ladies are studying Elizabeth George's Bible Study, "A Woman After God's Own Heart". I have been so excited to see how many ladies are making the effort to attend the 10:00 Bible Study time. Please pray with me that this makes an impact in the lives of these precious ladies.
Tony met with the Architect for our church building this week. We now have an amount of steel and cement to purchase, and are on track to start the auditorium building in 3 weeks. William told Tony that it will take about 10 weeks! Please continue to pray as we work forward to get this building built. We have funds for the next step, but then we are just trusting the Lord to continue to provide.
We are scheduled to have our Home Study tomorrow. Please keep this in your prayers. We are excited to be moving on to this next step, which is the last big step for us to take, yet at the same time it makes us nervous. Teddy's questions today, indicated that he too is nervous about the process. He asked us today, if something could happen that would mean the children couldn't come live with us? Thank you for your prayers for us as we continue to walk through this process. We are trusting the Lord to do all things right.
Enjoy the rest of the week and have a wonderful week-end!
God Bless!
Joy
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Stepping out by Faith...
I may have mentioned this on here before, because this is something that I thought about before, but was reminded of it again today while reading through the gospel of Luke.
I was reading today about Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the 5 loaves and 2 fish. You know, after he was handed the lunch, he turned and told them to have everyone sit down in groups...still just holding 5 loaves and 2 fish...then he lifted his eyes up to heaven and blessed the food...still just holding 5 loaves and 2 fish...then he broke the bread, and started passing it out.
Now I know that he was/is God, but he was also man. Think about it...there he was in front of over 5,000 people, basically telling them to get ready for lunch, and all he had in his hands was 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Yet he had such communion and faith and God to take that step...prepare everyone to eat, and thanked God in heaven for what he was going to do.
We are called to act on faith. To step out, before we can see the end result. That's not always easy. Sometimes it just involves me and maybe a few people close to me, but sometimes it's out there in front of a lot of people.
So what do you think? Are you ready to step out by faith? Trusting the outcome to the Lord?
I was reading today about Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the 5 loaves and 2 fish. You know, after he was handed the lunch, he turned and told them to have everyone sit down in groups...still just holding 5 loaves and 2 fish...then he lifted his eyes up to heaven and blessed the food...still just holding 5 loaves and 2 fish...then he broke the bread, and started passing it out.
Now I know that he was/is God, but he was also man. Think about it...there he was in front of over 5,000 people, basically telling them to get ready for lunch, and all he had in his hands was 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Yet he had such communion and faith and God to take that step...prepare everyone to eat, and thanked God in heaven for what he was going to do.
We are called to act on faith. To step out, before we can see the end result. That's not always easy. Sometimes it just involves me and maybe a few people close to me, but sometimes it's out there in front of a lot of people.
So what do you think? Are you ready to step out by faith? Trusting the outcome to the Lord?
Friday, June 25, 2010
"Hope is patience with the lamp lit." That has been on my desk top for the month of June. The idea of having the "lamp lit"...gives me the picture of someone waiting expectantly. I thought about the times when I have waited for Tony to return from a trip. How I would maybe bake his favorite cookies, and have things cleaned up and just making sure that everything said, "Welcome Home, we missed you!"
As we go through these months, we are waiting patiently, for the Lord to work and open doors. At the same time we aren't being idle. We are working on getting things organized around here...I have spent time cleaning out, closets and storage rooms. throwing away tons of stuff, and getting ready for a "garage sale". This morning was the first day for that, and it went amazingly well. I really was blown away, at how well we did, and I know it is just the Lord blessing us! :-)
We needed to get a bed made for Teddy's room, to make room for 2 boys in there. That is being done now and should be finished sometime this coming week. We also got the "guest room" painted, and are in the process of turning it into a little girl's room. That is fun! It has been quite a while since we had a little girl's room around here. So that is exciting, too! :-)
I have been working on figuring out what and how we are going to do school next year, and have ordered the curriculum we will use. Have just about got that figured out as much as possible, at this time. Tony is going to build 3 new small tables for our school room.
So that is a little of what has been going on around our house. We got all the Sunday School material packed into some trunks and taken to the church. So the ladies that help me with the Children's ministry is working on getting it organized and ready to go. We are using material that I organized in a 3 year cycle. That is all good, but for the 1st two years, we only had 2 classes and now we have 3, so I am working on getting material for ready for our "primary class", so that it will follow the plan also.
Besides working on Children's ministry stuff, I am also teaching the Ladies Sunday School class. We are presently using Elizabeth George's study, "A Woman After God's Own Heart". The women are really enjoying the study. We have had a good turn out for the first 4 weeks of this study...averaging about 30 ladies.
I appreciate your prayers for Tony, Teddy and I as we have our home study, this coming Thursday. (hopefully, that is when it is scheduled to be, but they haven't confirmed that.) Pray with us, that we actually have it, as there isn't a lot of wiggle room in the schedule. Also pray that the meeting goes well.
Please be praying for a team from West Park Baptist Church that will be visiting us from July 5-12. They will be in our services on Wednesday night, and we are having an outreach on Thursday in a new neighborhood, where we would like to start a new work. The plan now is to hand out fliers and show a movie. Then on Friday and Saturday we are having our first Family Retreat. Pray we have a good turn out and for the team as they work with us. Teaching classes for the children, teens, and adults.
Please be praying for me as I work on getting the material together for the primary class and also as I prepare the lessons for the Ladies Sunday School class.
God Bless you as you serve him wherever he has placed you!
Joy
As we go through these months, we are waiting patiently, for the Lord to work and open doors. At the same time we aren't being idle. We are working on getting things organized around here...I have spent time cleaning out, closets and storage rooms. throwing away tons of stuff, and getting ready for a "garage sale". This morning was the first day for that, and it went amazingly well. I really was blown away, at how well we did, and I know it is just the Lord blessing us! :-)
We needed to get a bed made for Teddy's room, to make room for 2 boys in there. That is being done now and should be finished sometime this coming week. We also got the "guest room" painted, and are in the process of turning it into a little girl's room. That is fun! It has been quite a while since we had a little girl's room around here. So that is exciting, too! :-)
I have been working on figuring out what and how we are going to do school next year, and have ordered the curriculum we will use. Have just about got that figured out as much as possible, at this time. Tony is going to build 3 new small tables for our school room.
So that is a little of what has been going on around our house. We got all the Sunday School material packed into some trunks and taken to the church. So the ladies that help me with the Children's ministry is working on getting it organized and ready to go. We are using material that I organized in a 3 year cycle. That is all good, but for the 1st two years, we only had 2 classes and now we have 3, so I am working on getting material for ready for our "primary class", so that it will follow the plan also.
Besides working on Children's ministry stuff, I am also teaching the Ladies Sunday School class. We are presently using Elizabeth George's study, "A Woman After God's Own Heart". The women are really enjoying the study. We have had a good turn out for the first 4 weeks of this study...averaging about 30 ladies.
I appreciate your prayers for Tony, Teddy and I as we have our home study, this coming Thursday. (hopefully, that is when it is scheduled to be, but they haven't confirmed that.) Pray with us, that we actually have it, as there isn't a lot of wiggle room in the schedule. Also pray that the meeting goes well.
Please be praying for a team from West Park Baptist Church that will be visiting us from July 5-12. They will be in our services on Wednesday night, and we are having an outreach on Thursday in a new neighborhood, where we would like to start a new work. The plan now is to hand out fliers and show a movie. Then on Friday and Saturday we are having our first Family Retreat. Pray we have a good turn out and for the team as they work with us. Teaching classes for the children, teens, and adults.
Please be praying for me as I work on getting the material together for the primary class and also as I prepare the lessons for the Ladies Sunday School class.
God Bless you as you serve him wherever he has placed you!
Joy
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