Thanks so much for praying for us during our supporter-connections trip, dear friends! We had a wonderful trip, successfully connected with several supporters and a few churches, and are thrilled to be back home (even if it’s only for several hours).
During this trip, we memorized Romans 15:5. It says “May the God of encouragement and endurance give you the same attitude of mind toward each other as Christ Jesus had”. As we drove home, we took some time to notice that indeed, God had provided encouragement and endurance all through the trip.
Several times on the trip, there were several small things that threatened to discourage us – poor nights of sleep, guilt over what felt like missed opportunities for deeper discussions, a bout of stomach flu and interpersonal tensions. But there was so much that encouraged us too – so many people willing to host us (even some complete strangers!), opportunities to help out on small home or grounds improvement projects at our hosts, people asking to know more about this ministry, then taking the time to let us know that they think what God has given us to do is really cool. Even our kids encouraged us by serving heartily and by really enjoying and participating in the Grace Evangelical Society conference we attended.
God also gave endurance through long days of working and long days of driving, and gave the extra measure of grace we needed to withstand (most of the time) the temptation to be irritable with each other and with our hosts, instead helping us to have a bit of Christ-like attitude toward each other, as mentioned in the verse. Those of you who have traveled with kids know what a miracle that is, and we are grateful to God for that!
We reached home five weeks and two days after departing, did lots of laundry, attended church and visited our local area family, then forty hours after arriving, Chester and the kids left to be staff at Glad Tidings Bible Camp. As we look forward to a summer of serving with the camp, we’re again so grateful to God for His encouragement and endurance, and are continuing to pray that we’ll have the same attitude of mind toward others that Christ Jesus demonstrated to us.
Thank you for partnering with us as we serve!
Current support level: 41% monthly, 65% annual