I sent this email out on Monday, April 1st to our friends and family. I was encouraged by several people to blog this email and the other 2. I hope you enjoy reading about what's happened in our lives over the past month.
It's hard to try and describe the range of emotions that Lauren and I have gone through over the past few weeks. We've had some incredible ups and downs, intermixed with just waiting to see the Lord answer our prayers. Waiting is tough. We pray in faith, believing that God will answer. But there's still that feeling in your stomach, that tiny bit of doubt that creeps in, that thought in your head that says, "be realistic...you're asking for too much." And this morning, about an hour ago, the Lord again answered our (and your) prayers. Lauren's Passport finally arrived! Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed for this. We truly see this as a miracle.
For those of you who don't know the story, Lauren needed to replace her damaged Passport (Riley chewed it up about 2 years ago) and Lincoln needed a new one. So she sent everything in (including her damaged passport), a few weeks ago, hoping that we would get new Passports really quickly. Lincoln's came on Tuesday (the 26th). Lauren received an email on Wednesday (the 27th), from the Passport place, stating that they needed Lauren's damaged Passport. There was no number she could call to tell them that she had sent it already, and there was no way to reply to that email. The only way to get in contact with these people was to send a letter, stating that she had sent the damaged Passport. (On a side-note, isn't our government awesome?! Utterly ridiculous that that's the only way to get in contact with them). So Lauren over-nighted a letter on Wednesday. We assume that they received it on Thursday, but we weren't sure what would happen with the holiday weekend, and it still generally takes 2-3 weeks to process and receive passports, even when expedited. And so we waited and prayed...waited and prayed...waited and prayed. We went back and forth on whether or not to change Lauren's flight to a later date. We decided to not touch her flight and just trust the Lord. And we are glad that we did.
I was watching the first part of that Bible series from the History channel on Youtube last night, and was encouraged by the stories of Noah, Abraham and Moses - men who simply trusted God and lived their lives in such a way that demonstrated that trust/faith in Him. I was reading in Hebrews 11 this morning and again was reminded of those who have gone before us, who lived lives full of faith. That passage says that these were people "of whom the world was not worthy." Simply because they had faith. They trusted God and His promises. In the gospels, the only time that Jesus is ever amazed is when he sees that someone has a large amount of faith (Matthew 8:10), and when he sees an incredible lack of faith (Mark 6:6). We want to be in that first category and experiences such as this continue to grow our faith in Him.
Our flight leaves for Colombia tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon. We'll both be on it (with Lincoln). Annie will be with my sister's family. Our finances have been taken care of. What a joy it is to follow Christ! There's no adventure that compares in this life!
As we travel, we have a few remaining prayer requests for our time there:
-That the Lord would use me as I speak 4 times to a group of 43 students and 7 teachers. The theme I'm speaking on is "Radical Obedience."
-That the Lord would make it very clear whether or not He wants us in Colombia long term.
-If He does want us there long term, that He would provide a great housing situation for us.
-Safety.
Thank you so much for your prayers and/or financial support. We can't wait to let you know how this trip goes!
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