Can it Be

September 01, 2014

We have always enjoyed Proverbs 3:5-6. We have taken these verses and have tried to live by them. We don’t want to lean on our own understanding but we desire to wholly trust in the Lord. What we have found is that this isn’t always easy. We have stepped out in faith many times but each time it is a struggle and we have some inner battles that we deal with on a regular basis. With all of this said we have always found the Lord to be faithful and He has directed our paths. This past month has been a good month but one with struggles. We have done lots of traveling for various reasons and as of Saturday we now have two girls living in a different county attending boarding school.

We are so thankful to the Lord and give Him all the glory for the good that is happening here in Madagascar. Not only is He doing great things among the Antandroy people we find that He is at work in our teammate’s lives and ministry and among other ministry partners around the Island of Madagascar. God has great plans for this island and we just hope that we can be useful tools to allow the glory of God to be revealed. We have seen the Lord working out little issues and continuing to guide and speak to our local partners. They are so willing to go and share and all they ask is for some guidance. We seek to go out and train and equip these trainers to join us in sharing the Word of God among the lost in Andrey land. We have also seen how our short term teams impacted the people they shared with. As we followed up with several households we found people growing in their walk and many that are thirsting for the Word of God to be taught to them. However, the problem we seem to encounter is that we have more work than we have time. We just Trust that the Lord will rise up partners in ministry and prayer warriors to help us accomplish His desires for the Antandroy and Antanosy peoples.

We also have struggled a little with the inner turmoil of separating our family once again. We have a peace about letting our daughters go off to boarding school but it doesn’t mean that it is easy to see them go. We all begin to question ourselves as one of our life goals has been to do things together. We have found that here on the field we have been apart more than we ever expected. Adam is always making trips, the girls are gone nine months a year and Suzie, Baylee and River have their own trips at times that it seems like we are always coming or going. We struggle with the thought that we are abandoning our children and each other. We struggle with knowing that we can’t be there to cheer Phoebe and Emma on. We struggle that we can’t hug them on bad days. We struggle not knowing what the safety and security is for them all the time. However, we also know that we have built our foundation on Christ Jesus our Rock and cornerstone. So with all of these struggles we also fully trust that we are walking with the Lord and living out His plans for our lives. We don’t always know the how, why or like where we are at but we know that we must obey. We seek to walk by faith and not by sight.

Thus, we say this, God is good all the time and all the time He is good.

Prayer Request:

Some vital bush trips this month
Training for teammates to be completed
Health needs for us and our teammates
Car to stay strong and no problems
Wisdom in how we use our time
Phoebe and Emma at boarding school and Baylee doing Home-school
Rachel as she finishes up training and gets ready to come this way

Praises:

So far we have had no problems with our travels and our teammates made it safely as well
The girls seem happy at School
Phoebe and Emma had a good break time before school started
We have been with the IMB for over three years now.