I feel I need to blog again, but it is hard to top the "pajama burgler", but I will try to go on.
Ken got home today!!! Can I just say, "I LOVE MY HUSBAND!" Now before you stick your finger in your mouth and do the gag reflex, or sit in envy because your marriage is struggling, our marriage has not always been this way. We have spent the last 9 years slowing growing from a nightmare marriage to what I feel has become the honeymoon period (we sort of missed that the first time around). Now if we had given up at any moment (which we thought of a million times) we would be missing out on what God is bringing us into; uniting us together for His Glory and Kingdom and showing us His plan to bring about dreams we've had in our hearts for years.
Ken has been gone almost two weeks, but when you and your spouse are on the same page with God and what He has called you to do, seemingly tough things end up not being tough at all. I was a single mom to 4 kids ages 1-6 (the 6 yr old being homeschooled) for almost two weeks, and I actually had alot of fun. We planned alot of outings, visited friends, watched movies, climbed through windows in our pajamas,... but what really made Ken's being gone so easy was hearing the awesome things God was doing in my husband through the people he was meeting from around the world. It made being his wife and the mother of his children exciting and fulfilling.
God is doing some amazing things in our lives right now. I haven't shared much, because God has been in process for the past few months, but Ken and I feel God has been moving in our hearts to take a step of faith and step down from our missions organization and go independently with a church or group of likeminded churches. The only reason being that we feel our vision is more like that of the church planters we have been meeting. We have been connecting with church planting groups and amazingly creative church planters and brainstorming with them and learning from them these past 3 years and we have found our niche. We believe God has been "filling our toolbox" (what my husband always says) with the ways He wants to reach the French, and connecting us with the people (other successful and creative church planters) we really need over us as we embark on this endeavor.
There were also some changes beginning to happen in our organization that were going to affect us, and we felt this was the time and God was saying, "Go... take this step of faith and see what I will do.
Even when we first began to think along these lines, God's peace overwhelmed us. And ever since we finalized our decision and obeyed what we felt God was telling us to do, God began making connections that we could not ever have imagined. It was almost as if He was just waiting for us to follow Him blindly by faith, and then He began pouring out His blessings almost immediately. Our connection with churches and church planters has doubled, and God has connected us with so many professional new artists from an array of different backgrounds (dance, design, modeling, fashion industry, fine arts, theatre, etc.) from all over the U.S. and world, and many who have done their work on the professional stage in France and want to go back, or ones that just want to go with us.
God has already been preparing a team, and a church or possibly churches that will be our sending agents. God has not shown us the whole plan yet, so we will let you know as soon as He opens those doors. Our support will be coming through another avenue starting in June, and we will let people know that also this month. We feel our time table is the same. We hope to be in France by the fall, but we know God's timing has always been the same, and when we get to France He will have prepared the hearts of thousands of French people who are searching and will find Him in the movement God has put on our hearts; to help French people plant relevant dynamic exciting churches for this young generation.
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