40 days of Fasting and Renewal

I am so proud of my husband... He just completed his second 40 day fast yesterday. He and I did a fast in 1998 along with many from the Campus Crusade for Christ organization founded by Bill Bright who sort of brought the idea of fasting back into the 21st Century. In 1998 Ken fasted all food and took in limited nutrients. I fasted all solid food, but kept my calorie intake up (soups, ensure, shakes, juice, etc.) because I was already very small and was coaching a girls track team and running with them. Anyway, it was an amazing experience for both of us.

You can read more about his recent fast on his blog... but the most amazing thing about it was that unlike 9 years ago, he has a family and he was around food all the time and could not take alot of breaks where he could just go hide and lay around when he felt tired or weak. I know humanly speaking it had to be unbearable temptation.... But during this fast instead of going and hiding when it was dinner time, he was often the one in the kitchen making some gourmet meal, often including dessert for the whole family. He was such a servant. He also went to a number of family functions where there was lots of food and desserts and people... and he quietly went about helping with all our kids at meal times so he would not have to announce to the world he was fasting. I know he doesn't want all this praise, but I am just so proud of him. I know how hard it is to fight "the flesh"... and he won (well Christ won).

It has been an interesting time for me though... I feel like I sort of fasted vicariously through him and grew spiritually in amazing ways. I did fast off and on with a "Daniel fast" our Church is doing, but for the most part I just supported him and cheered him on, watched God grow us closer together, watched God grow both of us, and am amazed at how He continues to clarify the vision He has given us.

God has definitely confirmed our hearts are definitely for Europe, not just for France... and we are not sure of all the details yet, but just as the last day of the fast came, God began moving in ways that we are excited to see the fulfillment of.