Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Mexico Bound

Thank you for praying for our time in Florida with Andrew Lamb, Ann his wife and their 4 boys. It was an incredible time of fellowship, getting to know Andrew and Ann better and enjoying their boys as well.  What a privilege to enter into their family life for 3 days and to enjoy Ann’s definite gift of hospitality.  God granted us safe travel and allowed us to get all of our questions answered.

We returned to Mississippi feeling a bit overwhelmed and yet began to pray for God to reveal His will for our lives. As we began to think and process there were several things that stood out distinctly to us.

-Andrew was the chairman of the committee that interviewed us during MTW’s Interview and Orientation in the very beginning of our mission career and God used him to extend some refreshing grace to us during this time.

-We reflected upon God’s sovereign hand in bringing Andrew to the Philippines to visit with us during our first term (when he was headed to a partnership meeting in Thailand).  We appreciated his willingness to listen to us and encourage us.   

-We continue to be amazed at God’s timing of our leaving the Philippines and the already open and approved position in Mexico.

-We are so thankful for our ability to be honest with Andrew and Ann, their life commitment to minister in grace as much as possible and their acceptance of us.

-We are still amazed at God’s plan for our gifts and talents.  Steven will be able to use all of his administrative gifts, mercy ministry and short-term team experience in Mexico as well and even more.  I (Deborah) will be able to continue to participate in Mexico in every mercy ministry that God had previously laid upon my heart with an added bonus of working with an orphanage.

-And last but not least, since January we have prayed for God to reveal His will to us and we also prayed for Him to make it clear and not confusing.  Upon our return, we realized that He has closed all other doors that have been opened so indeed the call to Mexico became really clear to us.

Therefore, it is with much excitement that we want to share with you that we have accepted a call to work on a Servant’s team in Mexico with Andrew Lamb and one other participant. What does that mean next??

-First, our budget for Mexico is less than our previous budget, but we have lost some supporters who were interested specifically in the Philippines.  So, we need to raise some more support before we can depart for Mexico.

-But we would really like to be in Mexico, in Guadalajara, for language school this September.  Our precious daughter-in-law Kelly is fluent in Spanish and so we are going to start working on language with her. We are thankful that Spanish is supposed to be easier than Tagalog.

-So, would you please praise the Lord for His clear calling upon our lives to Mexico and for our time with Andrew and his family? 

-Would you please pray for God to quickly raise up churches or individuals that are willing to support God’s work through us in Mexico? 

-Would you pray for His hand to be in all the logistics, housing, transportation, what we need to take to Mexico etc? 

-Please praise the Lord for the support of our family, Chad, Kelly and Lindsey.  Each one of them has given us countless hours of encouragement, wisdom, listening and just loving us.  We are so thankful for the gift of each precious family member, including Wyatt who will be 4 in December, Raney who will be 2 June 27th and the newest baby which will be born the first of November. 

And we thank you immensely for standing with us during this time of transition, for your prayers, support, encouragement, grace and love.

We would love to hear any questions that come to mind!

Mexico bound -

1 comment:

Laurie M. said...

This is just fantastic news! I'm so encouraged to see how God is working in your lives. I will keep you in my prayers and look forward to all that God will do through you in Mexico.

BTW, I thought you might enjoy reading the story of a courageous young gal who headed down to Costa Rica recently as an independent missionary. She's the daughter of a blog friend of mine and has found amazing opportunities in just a very short time. The link to her father's blog is below. The two most recent posts are about her - one from her voice and one from her father's.

http://foreverriver.blogspot.com/