Raney and Her Princess Quilt

Singing the Song of Grace

“In believing prayer, we learn to connect our present troubles to the good and perfect will of God.  We refuse to believe that chance rules our lives.  We withstand the temptation to imagine that God is capricious or malicious.  We know he has a higher purpose and that he is not dealing with us as our sins deserve. As we bring our troubles to Jesus in prayer—asking his will to be done—we approve the will of our Father in heaven. We see our sufferings in the greater reality of his good, acceptable, and perfect will.  In prayer we “turn crisis to Christ.”  Our heart becomes tuned to his heart and we sing the song of grace.” Ancient Prayer, John F. Smed

1st Week of September, A Week to Remember

This week was one to remember! We started September out with a bang!
The sidewalks here aren't quite like the sidewalks in our country. They are all raised and quite rough. I do watch where I am going BUT on Tuesday I tripped while walking and fell head long into a wall. That wall stopped me cold, result, a concussion and headache for 4 hours. Praise the Lord that it didn't knock me out or cut my head. Seriously I have been thankful all week for a hard head!
Wednesday, Steven shut the door with a key in the lock on the inside. He did try it first with the door open but once it was closed, his key wouldn't fit into the lock from the outside because there was a key on the inside. We had to get a locksmith but thankfully his visit only cost us $7.00.
Checked on our visas for what seems like the 1,000th time, still no visas. Please do pray that they come in soon. All of the paperwork is at immigration and the WORD is it should be any day.
Sunday morning up in time for the early service at 9:30. BUT, Avenue de Mexico was blocked due to joggers. So, let's go to the University to get to church that way. Patria was blocked due to joggers. On the way back, our windows were down cause it was a gorgeous 70 degrees, and a man said something to us in Spanish and looks at the rear of our car. A stop at a service station reveals that we have a nail in one of our new tires. So, we ventured to follow the ladies directions to a place that could fix it and Praise the Lord as we were wandering around about to leave, God pointed us straight to the place. Steven said the man didn't have "plug" but fixed it the old way with a patch, for only, $6.40.
We returned home and listened to a great sermon by Mike Campbell through the Internet. Wonder what next week will hold? Not matter what, we are thankful for God's, Presence, Protection, Provisions and Direction!!

Inadequacy

“For years I hid the inadequacy I felt as a counselor behind a professional demeanor, technical jargon, and sound psychological methods of treatment.  Recently I’ve made a truly liberating discovery.  I am inadequate.  My sense of inadequacy is not the effect of deficient intellect or poor training, nor is it a symptom of emotional disorder.  It is the painful admission of what is true.  On my own, I can make nothing of importance happen.  I can help no one.  But if I abide in Christ, if I present myself before God’s Spirit for searching and filling, if I study and ponder the Scriptures and live my life in brokenness before a grace-dispensing community, I can transcend my inadequacy, I can find myself as I worship.  I can struggle on behalf of others with the energy of Christ powerfully working in me.”   Larry Crabb "Shattered Dreams"


Much truth to ponder! What amazing grace to show us these truths!!

An Adventure in Mexico

Today was so much fun! We traveled about 1 1/2 hours south from our home to a small town surrounded by mountains to visit a new mercy ministry. Chuey is Mexican and has a heart for at risk children and is living his dream. He has returned to his home town of 600-700 people where he and his wife are opening/building a foster home for street children. His parents still live in this same town. It's ALWAYS so encouraging to see how God works even in remote villages.

We didn't realize we would be fording a stream

Here goes Steven, thankfully it wasn't that deep.

The home of Chuey & his family and the new foster home

The site for VBS, needing a bit of preparation

Isn't she adorable!! 1 of 6 foster children at this home

A Mexican cemetery

Christian School & Dental Ministry in Guadalajara

The church where about 70 people worship

This morning was delightful!! We visited am MTW ministry about 30 minutes from our home. While it's a small place in a small town, God is at work!! They have a dental ministry, a Christian school with 67 children from age 3 to 5th grade and a church. The parents pay only $1.50 per week for their child to attend this school. A team was visiting from New Jersey helping to prepare the school for opening day on August 31. Our hearts were tugged upon as we long to be done with language and involved in ministry again!!!!!! It was encouraging to see how God is at work and also to be reminded of the end goal - Ministry - AFTER LANGUAGE!

Dental office

A classroom that the team just painted

Playground with church building in the background

Acapulco

While Acapulco was DEFINITELY different than we expected it is a beautiful place.  There is a small land mass with tons of people (in need of the gospel). We returned home some what confused and are resting in the truth that God will in His time show us where we are to live and minister for His glory!