Levi slept 7.5 hours a couple nights ago. Hurrah! Mom and Dad are noticeably more agreeable, even when he "only" sleeps in 4 hour stretches. He is full of smiles for anyone who will look him in the eye, loves to play little games and be sung to, HATES being alone, and is constant wiggling his arms and legs. Relational, happy, easy.
Debra and I caved in to that hallmark of grownup life and joined a gym (the YMCA). It's been a big blessing as the childcare is free, it gives us time together while exercising (alone time is currently at a premium for us) and there are times I'll drop the kids off and just work on WDA stuff in the adjoining lounge.
My new responsibilities with WDA (namely, spearheading the international part of the blog on their website) is going well. It's familiarizing me with the awesome work we do overseas and I'm able to give a "face" to the ministry I'll be investing my life in. However (and I ask your prayers in this) I’ve been “encouraged” to make sure my time doesn’t get diverted from support-raising. It would be so easy to get sucked into ministry and try to live on our paltry income… but then we’d never get to Georgia (much less Africa). So I’m trying trying trying to keep my eyes on reaching our income goal by the end of summer. Pray for miracles!!
My new mini-job at Faith Covenant is going well. I led my
first Sunday a couple weeks ago and I realized that I really love leading worship. The chance to help craft a service
with lots of inviting spaces for the Holy Spirit to move is a fun and exciting
task.
It’s also giving me the chance to meet people. This week
alone I’ve had 4 one-on-ones with folks from the church. It’s been great to
hear their stories and get a read on the church’s heartbeat.
I’m planning to start a “Restoring
Your Heart” group for men at the church. I’ve got one guy signed up through
word of mouth and I’m looking for a few more. I need the hookups on discernment
of people going forward as this is a really intense and powerful experience in
people’s emotional healing journey. Will you p-p-p-pray with me?
Finally, it’s off to the Congo for me! They really
want us
over there in Lubumbashi in the south for the second half of August. I’m
making
it my goal to spend 5 days a week in my French textbook with lots of
listening
in the car. Je voudrais visitee le boulangerie en ville. And that’s as
far as
I’ve gotten! Well we gotta start somewhere right? (Any french-speakers
out there wanna hang out with me??) I hope I can carry on decent
conversation with the conference participants as those one-on-one times
are always
the highlight of these trips for me!
Debra and I keep dreaming and dreaming about the future. I
was brought to tears yesterday with excitement about an idea that’s been
brewing: Take the whole family to Africa somewhere during the 4 months of
Atlanta’s hot summer. We can lead Restoring Your Heart groups for missionaries
(believe me, they need it), Debra can counsel individuals, I can partner up and
trek out with local pastors and missionaries to conduct discipleship trainings
all summer. Meanwhile we can lend out our house (we want to buy a big one for
hospitality) in Georgia’s to WDA’s summer interns so they can hang out under
one roof. We also keep dreaming about planting a church out of our big house
where everybody is working on their stuff (er… emotional baggage), building
good friendships, reaching out to the neighborhood and the world, and creating
a safe, hospitable environment for people to feel inspired (Holy Spirit) rather
than judged (Satan, the Accuser) to live the Jesus life. Well, we can dream.
One last exciting piece of news: Levi turns out to be a cash
cow. He doubled the amount of our tax return this year! With this development,
we will be able to finally get rid all non-school debt (which is in forbearance
anyway). Yay! The last two months, I’ve been worrying a lot less about money as
I see ALL the ways God has provided everything we need… not enough for a
cushion, but enough for right now. I like that.
Thanks for all y'all's support, prayers, and happy thoughts toward us. We need and appreciate our friends!
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