My New Favorite Song

Blessings - by Laura Story


We pray for blessing

We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights 
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights 
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home,
It's not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights 
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

GOODBYE HOME!

Proclaim the Good News

March 2011 Update - Africa!

Most of you know I spent a few months in Zambia, Africa in 2008, and that  I have been hoping that the Lord would open the door for me to go back again one of these days—and He finally has!

This time I will be going to Yaoundé, Cameroon!  I have been asked to fill the volunteer coordinator position there “part-time.”  “Part-time” means that I will be serving in Cameroon April—September, and then come back to the states and serve in Dallas October-March.  This year (2011) will be a little bit different since I am still in the process of raising support.  In May, June, and early July I will be traveling to visit my partners, a few churches, and hopefully welcoming new partners in Missouri, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska & Colorado.  Then the second week of July I will head to Cameroon for about 3 months, where I will work with volunteer teams traveling there for a few weeks at a time. 

Cameroon is slightly bigger than the state of California.  The official languages are French and English.  There are 278 living languages in Cameroon alone.

* 78 have the New Testament or the whole Bible

* 45 have portions of scripture or translations started

* 147 have no scripture at all.  Not one word…

Praise & Prayer Requests

· Praise—I get to go back to Africa and support Bible translation doing a job I love.

· Praise—The “volunteer season” in Dallas went VERY well, with many new volunteers this year.

· Praise—My financial and prayer partnerships continue to increase.

· Please pray that my financial support will continue to increase as I travel to see several partners and hopefully add new ones May—July.  I am currently at about 60%.

· Please pray for the logistics of my travel to see partners & family, as well as logistics for going to Cameroon. (where to live in Cameroon, & Dallas when I return, visas, packing, immunizations, plane tickets, etc…) 

· Please pray that I will acclimate quickly to Cameroon.  I will need to hit the ground running.

Thank you for your prayers, financial support and encouragement!

To Become a Financial Partner:

Online: Go to www.wycliffeassociates.org\links\donatenow

       and follow the prompts.

By Check:  Make checks payable to Wycliffe Associates

       Write only account # M08730 on the memo line.

       Send to: PO Box 620368; Orlando, FL 32862

Volunteer Appreciation Pig Roast

110 people showed up for this dinner. Pig, homemade macaroni and cheese, green beans, Asia coleslaw...and of course brownies. Yum!

John, our new Assoc Center Director of Facilities, roasted the pig starting at about 5AM, and I made the sides and brownies.  Good times for everyone!

Actually, it took me back to some of my favorite memories of childhood.  When I was in my early teen years we lived really close to the lake and had a pontoon boat.  Every summer someone would roast a pig and the ladies would make side dishes and we would all head out to the cove in the boats.  We would have a string of 15+ pontoon boats and several speed boats all tied together.  A big board would be laid across a couple of the boats with the pig in the middle and the side dishes around it.  Lots of fun, family, swimming skiing, tabletopping, tubing....good times with family and friends!

God is Good!

I just started a study at my church called "Lies Women Believe - And The Truth That Sets Them Free." The first lie she addresses is "God is Good." I didn't really think I struggled with that very much.  I have my moments "like everybody else," but I didn't really think it was a lie I needed to spend a lot of time on.  The Lord showed me that I needed to spend a little time on this one.  
The lie we believe is that God is not good. We (I) fall into believing that God's goodness is based on our (my) life circumstances.  It is not.  It is based on His character as a Loving God, because God is Love.

A great many things in God's divine providences do not look to the eye like goodness.  But faith sits down before mysteries such as these, and says, "The Lord is good, therefore all that He does must be good not matter how it looks.  I can wait for His explanations."  Hannah Whitall Smith

We have 5 lessons for each week and this was lesson one.  For several days I tried to find some time to get to lesson two, but just couldn't seem to get there.  I did this lesson (God is Good) on Wed night.  Thursday night God gave me a pretty good glimpse into my future (which I will be sharing more of in a few days).  On Friday, we had a Wycliffe Assoc dinner social.  The speaker that night just so happen to speak on.....yes, you guessed it....God is good.  That literally was the entire theme of her talk....she said it like 20 times in less than 10 minutes.  It's not like could have ignored her either,  I was sitting so close to where she was speaking I could have leaned forward and touched her.  Saturday, brought another reminder.  If you saw my previous post on Battle Scars, you saw that I babysat 7 kids (great and fun kiddies I might add :~).  After the attack on the trampoline we came inside and the 20 month old cutie wanted me to read her a book, so she brought a book to me and dropped it on my lap.  A book about chickens....see....harmless enough.

Not so much....once I opened the book, there it was in black and white...AGAIN!

Those are just a few of the tangible ways God has reminded me that He is good.

Battle Scars... :~)

This morning I babysat 7 kids....yes that is s-e-v-e-n and yes all from the same family.  They are great kids!  I didn't have to raise my voice even once.  I did actually scream once though...of course I was face down on a trampoline with 2 kids on my back and 4 holding me by the ankles tickling my feet. :~)  I have the trampoline burns on both elbows and hands to prove it too.  Thank God there weren't any cameras around!!  I did eventually find my camera and took a few pics.  We had a great time!!

The two oldest...

The 3 middle kiddies...

The two youngest curtain climbers..