We just returned from a week trip to the Baltimore area. Saw several friends, some family, several on our support team and attended a conference. We've been traveling some each month since the beginning of the year. Has it already been four months and we're well into May? March we were in Alabama and Georgia. Last month I was in central Florida. Always heard that "time flies when you're having fun!" It also flies when you are trying to balance life and all its demands from several directions- work, wife, kids, friends, church, personal spiritual life, personal growth, rest, relaxation, hobbbies?!?, technology, learning and growing, my part of the household, etc. (You know the drill!) I thought this was supposed to be easier when you got older!
Several years ago someone told me that it is all downhill from age 45. I don't know their experience. I'm still looking for the crest of the hill! It's not so steep these days, though I have the distinct impression that I'm still heading uphill. (At least I'm not sliding backwards!)
Two weeks ago we shared for the Wednesday night program at Skyland Church, where we live here in Atlanta. We are thoroughly enjoying getting to know folks here in the church. Had the opportunity to talk about France, the needs and our work there. They were very responsive and encouraging. We are always grateful for these chances to motivate and mobilize folks for missions.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Slow Seasons
A dusting of snow on the ground and ice on the roads means that schools are closed in Atlanta and everything is moving slowly. Much like our lives at this moment, things for us are moving slowly. Seems like more than a few months have slipped by since we packed up our household things to put into storage in France. That transition proved to be exhausting, yet went fairly smoothly with only a couple of hiccups. Our hardest challenge was saying good-by to dear friends in Paris.
We arrived in Atlanta in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. What a delight to see our children with spouses and grandchildren in tow during the holidays. We were able to see them all, even though not all at the same time. We are grateful the Lord is giving us this season, not only to renew relationships with our support team, but with our family, too. I desire to nourish family and ministry without giving up time for either one.
Moving slowly into a new season is rather daunting to me this week. I find it especially challenging to even work on scheduling our travels these next few months. Is it burnout after 11 years without a long break? Or, is it the unknown future before us? Or, is it the challenge of securing 40% new support that we’ve lost in the past 12 months? Pray.
Regardless, we’re here for the year and looking forward to seeing lots of friends and support team members in the coming months. We leave next week to drive to Colorado to attend a conference with Missionary Training Institute the end of the month. We’ll be gone about three weeks. As is the case with snow and ice, we drive slower and cautiously, yet we keep on moving. That’s my goal these coming weeks.
We arrived in Atlanta in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. What a delight to see our children with spouses and grandchildren in tow during the holidays. We were able to see them all, even though not all at the same time. We are grateful the Lord is giving us this season, not only to renew relationships with our support team, but with our family, too. I desire to nourish family and ministry without giving up time for either one.
Moving slowly into a new season is rather daunting to me this week. I find it especially challenging to even work on scheduling our travels these next few months. Is it burnout after 11 years without a long break? Or, is it the unknown future before us? Or, is it the challenge of securing 40% new support that we’ve lost in the past 12 months? Pray.
Regardless, we’re here for the year and looking forward to seeing lots of friends and support team members in the coming months. We leave next week to drive to Colorado to attend a conference with Missionary Training Institute the end of the month. We’ll be gone about three weeks. As is the case with snow and ice, we drive slower and cautiously, yet we keep on moving. That’s my goal these coming weeks.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Peaceful in transition
We are in Atlanta after a month of traveling and visiting family. We finally have a contract on our house in France after a disappointing withdrawal on the first contract in June. We've heard nothing from the realtor in the past two and a half weeks so that's good news. We'll call next week to see if the buyers have submitted their application for the loan. They have three weeks to do that. We should close sometime during the first two weeks of October. We'll go back to France mid-Sept. and finish packing our household stuff to put in storage before coming back to the US.
Then, we'll move to Atlanta to begin our year of home assignment. Pray with us for our schedule this coming year starting in November. We're unsure of the next step after our home assignment, though we have the year to seek the Lord and explore our options. Pray with us that when the time comes we'll know where He wants. We're so grateful for the peace we have, as well as the confidence the Lord has given us right now that He is faithful and will lead us in His timing.
Then, we'll move to Atlanta to begin our year of home assignment. Pray with us for our schedule this coming year starting in November. We're unsure of the next step after our home assignment, though we have the year to seek the Lord and explore our options. Pray with us that when the time comes we'll know where He wants. We're so grateful for the peace we have, as well as the confidence the Lord has given us right now that He is faithful and will lead us in His timing.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Response to prayers!!!!!
Praise the Lord; we believe we have a buyer for our house! A family visited today and made us an offer tonight. They are the first ones to visit with their kids. The wife loves our house and the husband actually called me back a second time after he made the offer to assure me they were serious. He had stepped out of the house to reassure me they were very serious and that they really want the house and want to discuss the price. He’s close to where we need to be so I told him I was sure we would be able to reach an agreeable compromise.
I’m reminded in this whole situation about the Lord’s timing in our lives. We cannot begin to know or understand His ways, yet we benefit from them in so many different manners. For us it was a real step of faith to place our house on the market when real estate has declined 20% in the past 16 months. Several agents told us that houses that are selling right now are mostly two and three bedroom. Buyers looking for a four bedroom home are maybe one or two a month. We posted ours on the internet last week and signed with several agencies this week. The buyers are from the internet ad so they already gain by having no realtor fees. All this to say we didn’t know if we’d sell in one week, one month or one year! We certainly don’t deserve the Lord’s gracious timing in finding a buyer before we head to the US for the summer, but we rejoice and receive it with gratitude. His ways are indeed high above our own and his thoughts not even close to ours. Yet he sees fit to continually allow us to participate with Him in his plan to reach the world.
I’m reminded in this whole situation about the Lord’s timing in our lives. We cannot begin to know or understand His ways, yet we benefit from them in so many different manners. For us it was a real step of faith to place our house on the market when real estate has declined 20% in the past 16 months. Several agents told us that houses that are selling right now are mostly two and three bedroom. Buyers looking for a four bedroom home are maybe one or two a month. We posted ours on the internet last week and signed with several agencies this week. The buyers are from the internet ad so they already gain by having no realtor fees. All this to say we didn’t know if we’d sell in one week, one month or one year! We certainly don’t deserve the Lord’s gracious timing in finding a buyer before we head to the US for the summer, but we rejoice and receive it with gratitude. His ways are indeed high above our own and his thoughts not even close to ours. Yet he sees fit to continually allow us to participate with Him in his plan to reach the world.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Constant Change!!
That’s not really an oxymoron! The only thing constant and sure in life (besides Jesus!!) is change! We are certainly in the midst of that right now.
A couple of weeks ago we received our April financial report from the mission and the news was on the sobering side. Our support for the month was almost half what we need for our budget. We’ve seen a real drop in giving since last September, yet this past month puts us in a crisis. What to do?
After much prayer and discussion, Margaret and I have decided that the best thing for us at this point is to sell our home here in France and help alleviate some of the financial responsibilities we have here. Housing costs are a big chunk of our budget. That will also free us up to move to the next phase of ministry, wherever that happens to be in the future. We’ve had a sense for several weeks now that we are in transition. We believe that will be for some other location in France. We are open and seeking the Lord about what to do after this year in the US.
So… pray with us for a quick sale of the house (Standard time for a house sale here is 3-4 months, once you have a buyer!), for the move that will follow (We’ve already found a great place to store our things while in the US.), and for a hundred small details that need to fall into place in these coming months. Continue to pray also for housing in the Atlanta area starting this fall.
We have our last family conference on Saturday at a church in Paris. Pray for the couples who will attend this conference on Communicating Better in Marriage. After that only three weeks until we go stateside! Lots to do before leaving.
A couple of weeks ago we received our April financial report from the mission and the news was on the sobering side. Our support for the month was almost half what we need for our budget. We’ve seen a real drop in giving since last September, yet this past month puts us in a crisis. What to do?
After much prayer and discussion, Margaret and I have decided that the best thing for us at this point is to sell our home here in France and help alleviate some of the financial responsibilities we have here. Housing costs are a big chunk of our budget. That will also free us up to move to the next phase of ministry, wherever that happens to be in the future. We’ve had a sense for several weeks now that we are in transition. We believe that will be for some other location in France. We are open and seeking the Lord about what to do after this year in the US.
So… pray with us for a quick sale of the house (Standard time for a house sale here is 3-4 months, once you have a buyer!), for the move that will follow (We’ve already found a great place to store our things while in the US.), and for a hundred small details that need to fall into place in these coming months. Continue to pray also for housing in the Atlanta area starting this fall.
We have our last family conference on Saturday at a church in Paris. Pray for the couples who will attend this conference on Communicating Better in Marriage. After that only three weeks until we go stateside! Lots to do before leaving.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Coffee at the Hardware Store, part 2
I just finished another “project” with my friend, Bruno. The project was to help him finish redoing their kitchen by tiling the walls. They had already redone the counters and cabinets. I was working on tiling the backsplash area. Since it wasn’t a real large kitchen I could put on the tiles the first day and do the joints and trim the second day. We chose a holiday weekend so he was free to help Friday and Saturday.
Same routine as before: going out the door of the hardware store he asked me if I wanted a coffee. I politely declined this time since I just arrived from home and finishing breakfast, saying I preferred getting started and then taking a break in an hour. Sure enough, when the hour finished he was starting up the coffee maker! Gotta love working without pressure! We visited and talked over coffee, then continued while working. Covered the usual guy stuff- cars, family, children, wives, then moved on the church while meandering around rock and roll and music before ending up discussing politics. Actually, quite a bit of talk for guys! Our days included an hour lunch break (which we managed to stretch into an hour and a half!) and, of course, an afternoon coffee break.
We have a friend who used to say, “Life is too short to eat burnt English muffins!” That is one way of looking at life the way the French do. Painting and tiling are not more important than coffee and sharing friendship. It’s not either-or, it’s both-and. I realize these past few weeks I have missed the usual comings and goings of folks around our home. Since the church stopped meeting last month, we don’t have the regular times of meeting people that were a normal part of our schedule. I find I miss that. I’m more aware than ever that we are here just for those encounters, those moments of touching another life, of listening to a sad heart or offering an encouraging word. We are, after all, relational creatures, created in the image of Him who is relationship.
Glad I love good coffee!
Same routine as before: going out the door of the hardware store he asked me if I wanted a coffee. I politely declined this time since I just arrived from home and finishing breakfast, saying I preferred getting started and then taking a break in an hour. Sure enough, when the hour finished he was starting up the coffee maker! Gotta love working without pressure! We visited and talked over coffee, then continued while working. Covered the usual guy stuff- cars, family, children, wives, then moved on the church while meandering around rock and roll and music before ending up discussing politics. Actually, quite a bit of talk for guys! Our days included an hour lunch break (which we managed to stretch into an hour and a half!) and, of course, an afternoon coffee break.
We have a friend who used to say, “Life is too short to eat burnt English muffins!” That is one way of looking at life the way the French do. Painting and tiling are not more important than coffee and sharing friendship. It’s not either-or, it’s both-and. I realize these past few weeks I have missed the usual comings and goings of folks around our home. Since the church stopped meeting last month, we don’t have the regular times of meeting people that were a normal part of our schedule. I find I miss that. I’m more aware than ever that we are here just for those encounters, those moments of touching another life, of listening to a sad heart or offering an encouraging word. We are, after all, relational creatures, created in the image of Him who is relationship.
Glad I love good coffee!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Changes in the wind
Sunday, April 19
Well, much has happened in the past few weeks. We know for sure you are praying when we are at peace when making decisions in a limited time frame. I’ll explain. (Thus, the longer than usual update!)
Last month when I attended a conference with 50 other missionaries I discovered that I am not entirely in line with all the regulations concerning Social Security and the agreements between the US and France. I’ve tried several times over the past six years to get into the system here (which I’m required to do if I’m here longer than 5 years, and that certainly is the case.) yet haven’t found a way through all the complexities of the system. I learned last month that in order to do things correctly I need to return to the US for a year and a day so basically start anew and be able to do all the necessary paperwork correctly.
That being the case the obvious question is when? In discussing with our director at The Mission Society and prayerfully discussing it here we decided that the sooner, the better. Since we were planning a trip for a month this coming July to visit a few churches and family, we’ve decided to let that be the beginning of a year of home assignment. We haven’t done that long of a stay in the US since our return to France in 1998. We are beginning now to plan our itineration schedule to see as many of you as we possibly can from August ’09 through June 2010. I’ll send some rough ideas of the time frame for various areas of the country in the next update.
Our next biggest question was, of course, what about the house church? We only had one man in place to help lead and he isn’t ready to go solo, so what do we do? Interesting how the Lord goes before us in all things. Starting with the departure of our friends (the couple who left over an unresolved conflict in Feb.) and another lady who moved last year, our newer convert from the first year shared with us in Feb. as well, her desire to experience a larger church setting. We’ve been still meeting with a core group of seven the past two months. Two weeks ago two of the single folks told me that would like to return to the church we were all a part of before starting the house church. That only left three other single men. Last week after our Easter sunrise meeting we were ending with breakfast together. Margaret and I had decided we didn’t want to wait about sharing our plans so at the close of the meal we shared with the group. They were incredibly understanding. One of the single men even shared that the Lord had impressed upon him that we would be going to the states for a period of time soon!
So… after praying and sharing together last week, we jointly decided that we would stop the church meeting until we return. We looked at everyone’s calendars and decided that today would be the last meeting officially at our house on Sunday mornings. ( work, vacations, trips, etc. determined the date) We called those who had attended or visited over the past year and shared our plans, as well as the desire to celebrate all the Lord has done for us together these past two and a half years. Sixteen of us gathered for worship this morning and fourteen were able to stay for the meal we shared afterwards.
We shared a wonderful time in the Lord’s presence and with each other. I closed with a short message from the Psalms about remembering and our need to encourage and fortify each other with regular testimonies of God’s faithfulness. Then, I opened it up for sharing their encouraging memories from these months together. When everyone finally left at 5:30 this afternoon, Margaret and I were overwhelmed with gratitude and peace at how good the Lord is… all the time. Even when our plans change in a way we haven’t thought they would, he is still faithful. One of our friends this morning had an image as we were in worship. He saw a large room with many doors. Through each door was a hallway leading to another room. We were all looking at these doors and needing to choose the right one, which would be different for each of us. The Lord seemed to be saying to have no fear because he was still leading, even if the appearance was in different directions.
Prayer needs at this time:
- Renters for our house this next year
- A place for ourselves in the Atlanta area
- Wrapping up things here these next two months
- At the same time starting the planning process for the year ahead: scheduling, etc.
Thanks so very much for your faithfulness before the throne of grace.
Andrew
Well, much has happened in the past few weeks. We know for sure you are praying when we are at peace when making decisions in a limited time frame. I’ll explain. (Thus, the longer than usual update!)
Last month when I attended a conference with 50 other missionaries I discovered that I am not entirely in line with all the regulations concerning Social Security and the agreements between the US and France. I’ve tried several times over the past six years to get into the system here (which I’m required to do if I’m here longer than 5 years, and that certainly is the case.) yet haven’t found a way through all the complexities of the system. I learned last month that in order to do things correctly I need to return to the US for a year and a day so basically start anew and be able to do all the necessary paperwork correctly.
That being the case the obvious question is when? In discussing with our director at The Mission Society and prayerfully discussing it here we decided that the sooner, the better. Since we were planning a trip for a month this coming July to visit a few churches and family, we’ve decided to let that be the beginning of a year of home assignment. We haven’t done that long of a stay in the US since our return to France in 1998. We are beginning now to plan our itineration schedule to see as many of you as we possibly can from August ’09 through June 2010. I’ll send some rough ideas of the time frame for various areas of the country in the next update.
Our next biggest question was, of course, what about the house church? We only had one man in place to help lead and he isn’t ready to go solo, so what do we do? Interesting how the Lord goes before us in all things. Starting with the departure of our friends (the couple who left over an unresolved conflict in Feb.) and another lady who moved last year, our newer convert from the first year shared with us in Feb. as well, her desire to experience a larger church setting. We’ve been still meeting with a core group of seven the past two months. Two weeks ago two of the single folks told me that would like to return to the church we were all a part of before starting the house church. That only left three other single men. Last week after our Easter sunrise meeting we were ending with breakfast together. Margaret and I had decided we didn’t want to wait about sharing our plans so at the close of the meal we shared with the group. They were incredibly understanding. One of the single men even shared that the Lord had impressed upon him that we would be going to the states for a period of time soon!
So… after praying and sharing together last week, we jointly decided that we would stop the church meeting until we return. We looked at everyone’s calendars and decided that today would be the last meeting officially at our house on Sunday mornings. ( work, vacations, trips, etc. determined the date) We called those who had attended or visited over the past year and shared our plans, as well as the desire to celebrate all the Lord has done for us together these past two and a half years. Sixteen of us gathered for worship this morning and fourteen were able to stay for the meal we shared afterwards.
We shared a wonderful time in the Lord’s presence and with each other. I closed with a short message from the Psalms about remembering and our need to encourage and fortify each other with regular testimonies of God’s faithfulness. Then, I opened it up for sharing their encouraging memories from these months together. When everyone finally left at 5:30 this afternoon, Margaret and I were overwhelmed with gratitude and peace at how good the Lord is… all the time. Even when our plans change in a way we haven’t thought they would, he is still faithful. One of our friends this morning had an image as we were in worship. He saw a large room with many doors. Through each door was a hallway leading to another room. We were all looking at these doors and needing to choose the right one, which would be different for each of us. The Lord seemed to be saying to have no fear because he was still leading, even if the appearance was in different directions.
Prayer needs at this time:
- Renters for our house this next year
- A place for ourselves in the Atlanta area
- Wrapping up things here these next two months
- At the same time starting the planning process for the year ahead: scheduling, etc.
Thanks so very much for your faithfulness before the throne of grace.
Andrew
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