Pressing matters

We've been praying for an iron at our house. We'd been gifted with two so far and neither worked. So we were praying (and thanking God) for an iron. This morning I arrived at my desk after prayer to find a brand-new iron sitting on my office chair! Excitedly, I emailed my housemates about the gift. They were also excited about the iron, but expressed concern that the love seat we'd been praying for would be delivered in like manner--on top of my chair?

It was a busy day at the office...training new workers, tracking down last week's unfinished business, and meeting for a short time with the other intern discipleship team members. At the end of the work day, I ended up at Bro. KP's house, training his wife on new computer software so she can effectively send and receive updates and stories from the mission field.

Pray for each of us involved in the internship - students and leaders. Pray that as the adreneline wears off, we will continue to faithfully seek God and that the enemy will be unable to find a foothold in our lives.

The Prayer Support

Today's been a little busy - trying to get back on my feet in the office after being in intern meetings a good chunk of the week. With printers not working and a conference to register for and software throwing fits and people needing answers now, I was feeling a little overwhelmed... like my juggling balls were up in the air and any moment they would come crashing down on me.

Then an email arrived for me from one our Canadian staff members. Part of it simply read: "the Lord reminded me of you this morning and I said a prayer for you. Be encouraged!"

And I was. I thought: "You know, the Lord knew today was coming. He knew I was going to face this. And he prompted someone to pray for me. And others are praying for me too. If they're praying, then I know it will be okay."

So thank you... and pray.

Reality Continues

Day 2 of the Road to Reality internship is coming to a close and already I'm tired. :) The interns had an overview today of the GFA Core Values as well as World ABC statistics (I'll have to find a website link for this.) and tons of other information.

Tomorrow they have their "intro to IT" training in both morning and afternoon. I've got a lot of things to get ready for this, so you can pray I complete my tasks for tomorrow and present the training clearly.

Pray too for the schedule and arrangements at the house. Pray that each of us would seek God diligently and know how to implement what He tells us in our lives.

Reality is Here

One lesson I continually try to teach myself is that the busier I am, the more I need to spend time with God. And, I think today, the more deliberate I need to be about posting what's happening--so you can pray for me too!

Last week was hectic, but good with KT coming over for garage cleaning on Monday, prayer on Tuesday. My cousins and the Cf family joined me for dusting and vaccuming and putting beds together on Wednesday. My two new interns dropped off their belongings on Thursday. Friday we found out KT was also moving into the house. Saturday was the big move-in day. Sunday we all attended church together. And today was packed full of orientation classes and team building activities.

Please pray for me and the rest of the intern team as we continue to prepare for a new year and we try to model community and "being real" to a group of young people.

I praise God for you!

I'm blogging this...

Since my shirt said I would... Thursday I went to Six Flags for the evening with a cousin and coworker. With the free passes God provided, we were able to enjoy ourselves without spending a ton of time (or money) there. The real fun started just after the second ride when I realized I had lost my keys. The ride hands searched for them, but to no avail. We double checked our other stops and then filed a report at Lost and Found. We then placed a call to my sister (1 hour north of us) who has the only other key to my car. She (wonderfully) agreed to drive down and bring my extra key at closing time.

From there, we decided to enjoy the rest of our evening. Our next stop was the Titan rollercoaster where, halfway up the first hill, I realized I still had my glasses on. I folded them and clipped them to my belt loop where they would stay safe. Unfortunately, about 30 seconds into the ride, I reached for them and discovered they weren't there. I screamed and panicked the rest of the ride until we pulled into the station and I found them tucked inside my t-shirt.

My t-shirt for the day read simply, "I'm blogging this."

Was it any suprise then when I continued to lose things Friday in the office? I left my Palm, my 2-way radio, and my keys behind at different desks during the day.

Today has been calmer as I stayed home and spent time reading through Philipians and worked on another chapter of "Why Grace Changes Everything" by Chuck Smith. Tommorow is also set aside to seek God.

Relationships - that's what our lives are about in different ways. Having a relationship with God, sharing that relationship with others, building relationships with different people in different ways so more people can have that relationship with God.

Praising God for your relationship with me as we help missionaries in Asia lead thousands of people a day to a relationship with God! Thank you.

Training and Fellowship

I was blessed to have a full day of training in Dallas today--trying to learn how to apply time management techniques to computer training/software. So...instead of just teaching you this "cool computer tip," can I help you learn to use your computer (and this cool tip) as a time saver and not a time waster?

I arrived back at the office just in time to borrow another staff member's truck and help TR move from his third floor apartment to a different third floor apartment. At the end of the long evening, I had a mattress and box springs set for my third intern AND a bookshelf! We also dropped a desk and chair off at NN's house for his interns.

It was an unexpected blessing this evening when NN and TT, both members of the Intern Discipleship Team, ended up at my house for an extended conversation about life, God, challenges, and blessings.... It was a very real time of fellowship. We ended the time with prayer--renewed and encouraged and challenged and...ready to go on.

Thanks for your prayers as we get ready for the interns...9 days and counting...

Raining in a new year

We had what might be called torrential rains in Carrollton this afternoon. From my second floor window, it looked like the building had been inserted into car wash. The rain poured for half and hour and as the pressure lessened, we could see the water flooding 5-6" deep through the parking lot. You would have heard phrases like, "Look at all that water!" and "Wow, look at it pour." Then the rain lessened and we all went back to work.

But as I walked back to my desk, it dawned on me how blessed I was. Because that's not what happened in Mumbai. 10 days of torrential rain was followed by 238,000 people left homeless. Parents without jobs. Children without parents. Families without food.

And just like I walked away from my window and forgot about the rain, so the world has walked away and forgotten about Mumbai. "Bombay has returned to normal!" the headlines read. But I wonder, would the families who lost their homes and posessions agree?

The rain storm here cleared the humidity from the air and created a perfect evening for a walk at the nature preserve. A beautiful beginning to my 27th year.

Friday Night Prayer - August

It's Friday night prayer again and we're heading into Saturday morning. We're in small groups right now, praying for our Human Resources department, our Call Center, and special projects. God is doing amazing things in Asia and we are asking him to go ahead of us and guide us into each project.

JB said tonight as he spoke about development and brochures and timing decisions for media and marketing: "The important part is for us to follow God. I mean, we could follow our own wisdom for all of three seconds and then where would we be? We need to seek God and know His will."

Praise God for leaders who want to seek and follow Him.

In between

We're in the middle of transition... I have no phone or internet at the house until Saturday as we change from one service provider to another. I've been busy this weekend purchasing things for the house and scrubbing the bathroom floor and cleaning the fridge. It's a little easier to do these things when there is only one of you. 18 days until the interns arrive...

We've been busy at the office getting ready to do phone software training for our new phone software. I'll start making the documentation tomorrow and then start training on Thursday and continue it little by little throughout the month of August.

Two of my local supporters are planning on coming to Friday night prayer this week! I am so excited! Please pray that everything works out.

An email was sent out today from GFA with an update on the Bombay flooding and people have been coming to the website to donate to the disaster recovery fund. www.gfa.org/flood

Hey! I was involved in that! Yesterday afternoon, K and S had an email problem. They struggled with it for about 2 hours before they called me and I stopped by and we trained them on how to use it in about 10 minutes. What were they working on? Making sure the email list that the urgent updates were being sent to was up to date!

Your prayers and support enable me to be here...so you were a part of this too! Where ever you are working--in the home, the office, at a lumber store in small-town Kansas, or attending college classes... you've been a part of helping the flooded slums of Bombay.

Thank you!