Leaving on a Jet Plane

The restraining Hand of the Almighty God finally lifted off of me this Monday and all I can do is praise Him. After 6 very trying weeks of God refining me while I squirmed in impatience, He finally released me to purchase tickets for language school!!! Hallelujah! I am scheduled to leave on June 2nd, learn as much Spanish as possible for six weeks, fly home on the 14th of July, spend two weeks with family and then head down to the DR with our church team on July 29th. And then I hope to stay.
Many thoughts and emotions, like falling autmn leaves, swirled around me during these last weeks as I pondered my call in God. Had He called me to the Dominican Republic? Was He going to provide it all? Was He going to change His mind and call me to stay here? Excitement, fear, confusion, emptiness, all paraded one by one before me. Each one I was tempted to believe, to cling to, until, one by one they all fell away back into the silence where God's Spirit just smiled. How many times has He heard these things? How many children has He counseled through these dark times? How many hands has He had to hold as one by one His servants tried to find their own ways? "I will perfect that which concerns you". "I will remain faithful even when you are faithless because I can't deny Myself". "I love you".
These precious words from my Father sustained me like the manna that fell from Heaven. And then, in the twinkling of an eye, He said, "Okay... NOW!"
Colors, sounds, joy rushed around me as I danced in abandoned worship. He meant it!! I'm going!! He's faithful!

I bought my tickets today.

The next task is to see the rest of my support come in ( I need $205 more a month pledged and about $10,000 more for my one-time budget). I know God will provide miracles for me because those He predestines, He also calls and those He calls He also justifies and those He justifies He also glorifies (Rom. 8:30).

Thank you for your prayers and perserverance in the Spirit for me. We are all in this together. Please pray for me as I begin saying goodbye to precious friends and family and as I prepare to absorb another language.

Until next time, peace be with you in Christ Jesus.

Resting Between His Shoulders

Since my last blog update, not much has changed. I prayed about some dates that I could possibly leave for language school, checked them out online, but didn't feel peace about purchasing tickets. Within days, as has been in the past, the ticket prices went out of my range. As I wait, somewhat impatiently, I have been helping to organize our church team's upcoming service trip to the Dominican Republic. It is a privilege and a joy helping others get to the place I will one day be living. It has been fun reuniting with last year's team (all of whom are going again!) and sharing stories with the newcomers. It looks like we will have 12 going this year! You can be praying for them as they each prepare in their own way (passports, immunizations, etc). My goal has been, through this whole process, to leave with the team and then just stay down in the DR. To have this accomplished, I will have needed to complete language school (6 weeks) and have all of my support in. Currently, I need $220 more a month pledged to me and around $8000 for my one-time budget. God has done miracles in this area and I am watching for more. Thank you for all who have given and I ask for continued prayer in these areas.
One awesome gift that God is blessing me with is an upcoming visit from my friend Amanda! I met Amanda in Colorado at our pre-field missions training. She is a young woman from North Carolina who has been raising support for 2 years in order to get to Italy. Unlike me, she is planning on moving there indefinitely. She is working for Greater Europe Mission (GEM). I have a link to her blog that I encourage you to check out. She is in great need of R&R and Cambria is just the place for this!!
Actually, I encourage you to check out all the links I have posted, especially the Slabach Family blog. Nate Slabach is our staff pastor down in the DR and he continually posts goings on, ministry stuff, etc that I will eventually have on this site once I am down there. In fact, there is a story he posted about a young boy and a bicycle. You can't imagine how overjoyed I was to read about him, but especially to see his photo. I carried that young boy around on my back for hours one night when we were doing an outreach in his community. As we walked around his village, he just laid his head on my back and rested there, pointing out different friends' houses. Occasionally, because of the heat, my glasses would slip down my nose. I would say, 'Gafas!' ('Glasses') and he would push them up for me, since my hands were in use trying to hold him up. It was easy to love him and then, months later, to see his picture on Nate's blog and to hear his story...
I so look forward to being able to share more stories of my own, with beautiful photos once I am there.
Peace and blessings to you all as you rest between the shoulders of Christ.

She is Healed!

Thanks to a group of faithful brothers and sisters in the Lord who, in obedience and love, laid hands on me and prayed, I experienced a miraculous healing of 'The Pleurisy That Wouldn't Go Away'. Many prayers leading up to this paved the way for breakthrough and so this is to say 'muchisimas gracias' to all prayer warriors and caring friends.

But now what do I do?

God, through various circumstances (namely, I was eagerly attempting to get to language school sometime before Easter, but the plane tickets kept doubling and tripling in price every time I was about to make a purchase), has hemmed me in for a little while. I am in the prayer process regarding when I should get down to Guatemala and I'm thinking it will be in mid-May. With all this beautiful time on my hands, I have been making some art, trying really hard to finish the last book I am required to read before I leave for the field (Walking With the Poor by Bryant Myers), and spending time with my 11-month old nephew who is precious beyond words. Due to some hard circumstances, my brother has relocated here to the Central Coast with his baby and it has been a sanctified time of restoring family relationship (thanks be to Jesus). If it is for this reason alone I was kept here, it is the most valuable thing to me and I don't want to leave too soon. Of course I know that the Lord promises 100% reward for those who leave behind family, but I'll take as much time as I can get!!

As far as support, I am currently at 90% of my monthly budget and need about $12,000 more for my one-time budget. Keep praying with me!