Confession #2...

I am a worrier. Some say that it comes from being a woman (ok, maybe that has something to do with it), but that is not all it is. Know what it is? SIN. I have been really convicted lately about my worry, especially as we are transitioning in many aspects of our life and although we know what we want to do in our future, it is out of our control!

One area that I have been worrying a lot about lately is "when are we going to be able to go overseas?" Our hoped for departure date is September of this year, and while we are working hard to share our vision with people and challenge them to support the ministry, it is ultimately up to God to bring in our support. I have been challenged this week with the idea that even Jesus had to trust the Father with His future. When He was in the garden praying, Jesus specifically prayed that there would be another way, other than death. But God said no. And in this, Jesus trusted the Father that death would not be the end. I worry that we may not be able to leave in September, but if God says no (and He definitely hasn't said that yet!), I am trusting Him that His timing is perfect and that He will allow us to go when we are ready.

So please pray for us. Pray that we would have our support raised and be able to leave for language school in September. We still believe that God has opened doors for us right now to be able to do this! Most of all though, pray that our faith will be strengthened in every circumstance, no matter when we depart.

I'm glad he had a dream...

Why do so few churches do anything special the weekend of MLK's birthday? OK, I agree, celebrating Christmas and Easter is more important, and some churches don't even do much on those days. But I'm curious how many churches celebrate America's Independence Day, and say nothing on MLK's birthday.

Which day should we be more excited about? On Independence Day, whether in a church or at a cookout, Christians celebrate the religious freedoms that we have in America. Even though, many freedoms we celebrate, have often been dispensed in accordance with skin color.

I believe a major aspect of missions is that God desires, not just a quantity of people, but a diversity of people. That's why the church is told to not just go to nations that are responsive; but all nations. The song that is sung in Rev. 5:9 is not that a specified quantify of people have been bought by the blood of Christ, but that people from every tribe, language, people and nation have been bought by the blood of Christ.

Diversity matters!

We should all be thankful to Dr. King because he fought for diversity, and also, the way he fought. Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech includes the line, "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."

So, on this day, I am thankful for ones like Dr. King who have taught me the value of diversity, the value of having dreams, and pursuing dreams the right way. If you've never watched his "I have a Dream" speech, it's worth it.

Nothing to do with Senegal

A major part of us being able to move back to Dallas was myself being able to work. At the beginning of the month, I started working at an engineering company that I had worked at for a few years while I was going to seminary. This has been a huge blessing in that I'm coming back to a job where I can set my schedule, make good money to help us prepare for leaving, and be in a great work environment. Here's a photo of our recent ugly sweater day in honor of an employee who is moving to our Austin office.Other benefits of the environment include the many free lunches I've already received and also being able to work with a good friend of mine who attended N.C. State and Dallas Theological Seminary the same time as myself. He's the one who provided my sweater and he wore my personal favorite from the day.The job has already been a blessing in many ways, but mainly because it's allowed me to move back to part-time which greatly frees us up to focus on Senegal. And if you haven't heard already, I originally got this job because of meeting an employee at this company at the Cheescake Factory and my dad asking if the company needed any part time help.

Praise God for not only meeting our needs right now, but letting me have fun doing it!

AEIOU...

Did you know that in French, A E I O and U sound nothing like they do in English? Well, they sound something like English, but E sounds like you got punched sort of and I sounds like E and O makes my mouth hurt.

We have begun learning French! A friend of ours from our church here in Dallas has offered to help us begin our French studies while we are here in Dallas. Claire is from Switzerland (where French is an official language and her native language) and she has actually taught French at one time. We have only had two lessons so far but it has already been such a help. I must clarify that I am not just beginning to learn French now, at one point I had learned it! I took French for 6 years in school and was actually decent (I thought!) at one point. I have not used it in a long time though, so I have forgotten a lot, and what I do know as far as grammar, I am figuring out that I have a lot of work on my pronunciation. Wayne on the other hand likes to say that he has lost almost none of his French (I'll let you figure out what that means!).

We are excited to finally be beginning somewhat formal studies for a language that we hope to know very well eventually. It also makes us feel good to know that we know more French than Addie right now, as pretty soon she will be rolling her eyes at us. I'm sure she will pick it up a lot faster than us!

...and a happy New Year!

We have started this new year off with a bang! On December 29th, Wayne loaded up our minivan (and I mean loaded!) and headed down to Texas. Two days later, Addie and I followed (only we flew!). We are now once again residents of Dallas, Texas. We will spend the next 8 months here (with a few trips here and there) before leaving for France in September (Lord willing!). We are getting settled into our new home which we are sharing with our good friends Dan and Cyndi and their two dogs Duke and Daisy. Addie loves all the space she has now compared to our little apartment, and has also fallen in love with the dogs! She wanders around all day after them "woofing" at them and giving them other various instructions (I assume, I still can't understand 99% of what comes out of her mouth). We are still very much in transition mode and apologize for the lack of blogging recently. We will do better! In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures to show you what we have been up to.

Like I said, the van was packed!

Here is Addie thinking "maybe if I just climb over the barrier I can get to mom and whatever she's trying to keep me from!"