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This picture was taken last year at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, where I studied the linguistics course with SIL. I am posing with Laura Gittlen, the professor with whom I will be working this year.
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I'll be leaving for San Luis Potosi on the first of July. I'll settle in that evening, and go to the office the next morning, where I am sure that Laura, the professor with whom I will be working, will have plenty of work for me to do. I am excited!
In the meantime, I am preparing like crazy. Wow, what a busy month, and it is going so fast! Please pray that I will get everything done that I need to do before I go!
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The subject of the Sunday School lessons that I have been translating and teaching lately has been the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread." At the same time, God has been teaching me to walk by faith, knowing that if I am doing His will, He will provide my needs.
Two weeks ago I knew that I had to leave the country to renew my visa. Since I couldn't afford to do that, I went to the immigration office in Zacatecas, and I called my lawyer; I did everything I could to avoid having to leave. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get out of it. I was faced with two choices: stay here illegally until I had the money to leave; or simply leave, knowing that God wanted me to obey the law and He would provide the means. I chose to honor and trust God.
My brother (who was in the same situation) and I bought our bus tickets to the border and left on a Saturday evening. We arrived at the border on Sunday morning and turned in our old visas.
Dave and Sharon Sachs, the managers of Melody Lane Christian Renewal Center at Texas Rose, picked us up at the bus station and brought us to the trailer where we would be staying. They graciously gave us a painting job to pay for our lodging while we stayed there. That first evening they took us out to eat, and on the way home they stopped at the grocery store and bought us fresh food that we wouldn't be able to get from the food shelf, such as fresh fruit, milk and eggs. On Monday morning they took us to the food shelf and we got plenty of cans of food for the week, including various fruit juices.
Sometime during the next week, we came back to our trailer after painting for the day, and we found more bags of groceries on our front step. The next day a man walked in to the clubhouse where we were relaxing, and said that he had some groceries for us. It turned out that they were the same people who had given us groceries the day before, but this time they had things that needed to be refrigerated, so they couldn't just leave them on our doorstep. They were a missionary couple who were staying at the same place for medical reasons. (Their names are Jim and Kathy; please pray for them.) They also invited us to eat with them a couple of times.
God provided our literal bread, as well as our place to stay for the ten days that we were there.
On Monday evening a week later, the groundskeepers finished our painting job for us. We wondered what we would do next. On Tuesday morning we got up and got ready to work, not knowing what job we would do. Just as we were ready, there was a knock on the door. A woman I had never seen before was standing there. They were missionaries who were staying in the same place, and had heard that we had no money to go back home. They offered us a ride as far as Monterrey (several hours down the road) and a place to stay for the night. "How soon are you leaving?" I asked her. "We are getting ready to go right now," was the reply. Danny and I prayed and talked it over. We had needed to stay at the border for ten days, and this "happened" to be the tenth day (by Mexican reckoning, although it was the ninth day by American reckoning). Daniel needed to stop at a store for one errand, and it "happened" that they intended to stop at Walmart on their way. And we had just finished the work that we had been given to do. It all seemed to be the timing of God. We thankfully accepted the offer. We said goodbye to people, and then it took us about half an hour to pack our bags, stuff as much of the food as we could into our already full bags, strip the beds, wash the dishes, take out the garbage, return the library books... move out. Before we left, the managers gave us money.
The people who gave us the ride are Mark and Vickee Bennett, who live in a small town in the mountains near Monterrey. We had good conversation with them. We got to their home in the late afternoon, and in the evening they took us to the place where they are building a new house. It is in a most picturesque village, where all the houses are built into the side of the mountain and one person's front door might be higher than the next-door neighbor's roof. The view from the porch is so beautiful that I gasped when I saw it. I just stood there for a few minutes, and my soul felt refreshed. That was like another gift from God. He was supplying more than our physical needs on this trip that we took by faith.
The next morning they took us to the bus station in Monterrey and they also gave us "a little money for the road." We are thankful for their generosity and hospitality, and for taking the time to go all the way into the city of Monterrey to leave us at the bus station. We got home that night at about 9:30. I was surprised when we unloaded the canned food that we had brought back with us. How did so much fit in our bags if they had been full to begin with? It reminded me of the scene in Mary Poppins where she is unpacking and draws large items out of her handbag, such as lamps and things that could not possibly have fit in it. I think that was another miracle.
God truly provides our daily bread.
On Sunday he provided even more, through a woman at church who gave us a bag of groceries.
God is so good! Just think what blessings we would have missed out on if we had thought we couldn't travel until we had the money! At the very least, we would have missed out on meeting some new friends. When we honor Him and walk in His will, He truly does provide our every need "according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Praise the Lord!
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This is me standing in the trailer that my brother Daniel and I have been living in for a week now. I had just finished painting for the day, so I am still wearing my jeans inside out (to save them from getting painted).
We are at Texas Rose, which is a part of Melody Lane Christian Renewal Center in the Rio Grande Valley, South Texas. Daniel and I are waiting for ten days to go by so we can renew our visas, and then we will wait a day or two more for our monthly support to be donated so that we can buy the bus ticket back to Jerez. Please keep us in your prayers, and keep Marcela and the girls in your prayers as well, as they are in Jerez waiting for us.
God has blessed our time here very much, giving us plenty of food, fellowship, and just enough work to feel good about ourselves without getting too tired. We are both anxious to get back home and back to our regular work, though!
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Living by faith is not always easy. In fact, it seems to get harder the older I get. God does not let me stay in a comfort zone of faith. He keeps asking for more -- more faith, more direct dependence on Him, more surrender, more obedience. He keeps putting me in harder and harder situations. If something is already impossible, can there be anything harder? Well, yes, it seems so. Once I believe -- truly believe and expect -- that God will do the impossible in one kind of situation, I find that He puts me in a bigger one.
When faced with a mountain in my path, I used to stop and say, "God, please move that mountain, if it's Your will." Sometimes He would move it. Sometimes He would show me a way around it. Somehow very recently, God has taught me to handle those mountains differently. Now when I am faced with a mountain up ahead, I prayerfully make sure that I am walking in the right direction... and I keep walking. As I walk, I say, "God, that seems like an awfully big mountain up ahead. If this is the way You want me to go, then I need you to either move it or help me over it, please." The difference is that I keep walking. I keep moving in the path that God has set before me, and as I approach the mountain, miracles happen.
"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)
The more impossible the need, the more obvious is the hand of God in supplying it.
It's not easy to live by faith. It's not fun to feel in need. It's humbling when God uses others to supply my material needs. But living directly "from God's hand to my mouth" (as Hudson Taylor said) leads to a new and ever-growing level of intimacy with the Lord. And seeing God's miraculous provision is a great reward. (He could provide without letting us see it as miraculous. He could, for example, give me a job with a salary. But at this stage in my life He has chosen to let me see His hand more clearly in His provision.)
It is hard, and right now I am struggling with issues of pride as I come face-to-face with the fact that I am not the one who provides all my own needs. However, the reward truly is great. Perhaps one day this life of faith will involve a salary and medical insurance. Right now it does not. Either way it will be the same God providing my daily bread. Praise the Lord.
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