Happy Thanksgiving!

November 2012

 

I cannot miss giving thanks to God for all His wonderful gifts to us. Mercy and grace alone are sufficient, let alone all the blessings He has heaped upon us. I don't know if it is the church people who are changing or we, the leaders, who are growing.  We have a spirit of passion and growth and sanctification to catch the vision and see the need of where to put your hand to the task.  Look in God's Word, repent and change every day. How is that for a quick summary of the ministry here?  Yet, growth takes time, and we cannot jerk up the plants, or they will die.

 

Ruth and Hannah have made it to the East Coast safely.  Praise the Lord for that!  Think of two girls without much driving experience, having been out of the country for two years, driving across America.  My heart has been praying.  Thank You, Lord, for our friends who gave them a cell phone. How great is that?

 

Dan and Seth are leaving on November 28. Pray much for all of our people who are traveling and entering college. Those little words, "leaving" (means a lot of planning to do lining up preachers for the church and village work) and "entering college" (applications, preparation and clothes), have a lot of work behind them.

 

Meanwhile, the wall around our property was about to fall down. The ground has slowly been eroding over the years, and we knew we needed to build retaining walls. Every time we thought to use money for that, something else came up.  Something is always going to "come up," but now it became a huge necessity.  Who wants to put money on building a wall, let alone a wall that you can't even see?   But if the property wall fell down, we were going to be looking at a much larger expense and urgency. Then I thought of Nehemiah and Ezra, who spent all that time and effort rebuilding the wall. It was necessary.  That gave me some peace; some things just must be done -- maintenance.  This month, we are happy to say that the wall is almost finished.  We have been getting very heavy rains and are glad that the retaining wall is in place. 

 

We know you are all busy with friends and family.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! All good things come from the Father, and all things from the Father are good.  Sometimes I get in a "tizzy" to clean the house and to get rid of some of these pets! (Smile. Yes, even me.)  Is this a mole hill masquerading as a mountain? Or a tizzy masquerading as a crisis? Count your blessings, and it will keep you out of a pity party for sure.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

Love,

Joan and Dan