Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I WILL go...



When God speaks people listen. Sometimes, as in our case, we don’t ‘hear’ that still small voice. Sometimes it’s like a bad cell phone connection, can you hear me now?? OK, I’ll get their attention....NOW can you hear me? We hear it now, we’ve been hearing it but thought well we have it figured out, we will go....when ___________fill in the blank, (Josh finishes high school, Dave get’s his ordination, Jen goes back to school, Hannah adapts to school) God has been revealing himself to us for years, calling us into the mission field and for a long time we questioned, what does the mission field look like?? Making changes is scary. Really scary, and making changes with kids involved is even more scary! But I keep listening to this song by Rita Springer: IF you say Go
If You say go, we will go
If You say wait, we will wait
If You say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come

Your ways are higher than our ways
And the plans that You have laid
Are good and true
If You call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We'll gaze into the flames and look for You
I think we have been saying “wait” and not God. It’s time to step out on the water, in faith and fix our eyes on HIM.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

This is my beloved, and this is my friend...



When I read this verse, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend” from Song of Songs 5:16, I can relate. I always say I married my best friend, but never fully understood what that meant until the last few years. Difficult times, trying times can either tear apart or make stronger and I can truly say ours has gotten stronger. Right now we feel like we are scaling the side of a mountain because my beloved has been battling a bout of diverticulitis since January 1st of this year, and the antibiotics have only helped to make him feel sicker. We have been in constant prayer and feel God’s loving hands upon us, giving of glimpses of His provision along the way. Let me share a for instance: A few Sundays ago we had a visitor at our church; someone was training at the Gap and decided he’d come and check out our services for the day. During the Sunday school hour we began to pray and lay hands of my husband and this visitor was praying and started to sing a song, it was an old Petra song and I didn’t understand the significance of this until later that day. You see in 1994 my than boyfriend, now husband, was in a terrible vehicle accident, as new believers the ONLY tape I had was Petra and I would listen to those songs over and over again as I drove to the hospital each day. And it was at that moment that I could sense God’s presence reminding me that He is with us, that He got us thru that awful time in our lives and He continues to provide and He will see us thru this as well. I love when God reveals himself that way, he’s so awesome!! Yesterday we met with a surgeon from Hershey Med. Center and they scheduled my beloved for bowel resection surgery, they will go in, laparoscopically, and remove the damaged section of bowel and reattach. And we felt such PEACE with that decision…scary, YES, but an overwhelming sense of peace. Will there be more tears, I’m sure but that Peace that is beyond understanding is with us and I am so thankful for that.
My husband’s coping mechanism has been his guitar, playing and worshipping calms the soul and I’m so thankful I’ve been here to capture some of those moments…