ex-presidents and curfews

Hey everyone...

Please be praying for Honduras. Things are heating up there as the ex-president has taken up residence in the capital in the Brazilian embassy. I have been keeping up with the stories through the news, but also through the blogs of the missionaries on my team who are there. Check out www.pettengillmissionaries.org for more insight into the situation. Today they have been able to get out after 3-4 days of mandatory curfews. They are back on track doing ministry work with the medical clinic today. They are also glad to be able to check in with those out in Armenia Bonito where they do most of their work.

We see that the effect of sin in the world goes a lot further than just being personal. It effects families, cities, governments, and nations. And yet we serve a God who is at work redeeming people, cultures, and even nations to Himself. Pray that through this time of instability in their government, people might see that they need to put their hope in something bigger than their goverment and their nation and that they would trust in Jesus. And pray for stability to be renewed in this country.

Trees: A Hot Commodity

I just wanted to give a little financial update. These $41 trees are being snatched up left and right... apparently buying trees is the thing to do :) Seriously though... I am so thankful for the Lord's faithful provision. Thinking back, I was feeling defeated for all of two days before the Lord started to answer prayers and I have seen pledges coming in steadily since then. I know for a fact that this cannot be attributed to my persuasive and eloquent support presentations or my awesome letter writing abilities... I have none of those things. This kind of provision can only be from the Lord! THANK YOU to all who are listening to the Lord's call to give generously and be a part of His kingdom work!

In case the trees are too blurry to count... that's 24% pledged!!!

Psalm 62

I listened to this song approximately 15 times today between driving around different places. It came on as I was listening through Shane and Shane songs this morning and I just can't get over it. The words are so good and exactly how I would sum up all that I have learned in the past week!

Psalm 62
Shane and Shane

He’s the only one
Strong enough to lean
My heaviness against
The weight of all my sin
Falling on a rock
Leaning on a fortress
Oh the wall of God, Jesus

He won’t move

On God I rest, my salvation
My fortress, shall not be shaken
My mighty rock, and my glorious
I lay my head upon His chest
On God I rest

Oh I am calling out
Oh my soul
Oh my stubborn soul
Won’t you wait on Him
Wait in the quiet
Even in your fear
Oh your God is here, to lean on!

He won’t move

He has spoken
Hear his voice
I have come for the broken
So all ye weary come and rest

Living in Grace

For the past couple days I have been at "Living in Grace" training through MTW in the mountains of NC. It has been such a great time of refreshment for me. Honestly, the material isn't new to me necessarily, but since my life is always changing, it is good for me to be challenged again to apply these concepts to my life. I don't know why some of these things are so easy to forget!

Just a couple of topics that we've covered... the love of God, forgiveness, surrender, humility, repentance. Wow... if I really let these affect my life, it would look so different. I am finding again how my independent spirit and personality so deeply affect my walk with the Lord. I take my attitude of "I can do it myself" right into my relationship with God when all that He asks of me is to surrender and sit back and rest in His grace on my behalf. He asks that I rest in the merit of Jesus instead of trying to earn it myself. He asks that I trust in the power of prayer more than in my ability to "do". He asks that I see others as better than myself. He asks that I deal with my sin 100% in every situation instead of constantly finding someone else to take the blame. And He asks that I let the Gospel actually transform my life... that I would really see the Holy Spirit bringing about change because I am finally willing to surrender.

You can pray for me that the Lord would continue to drive home these truths in my life.

cutest blog... ?

So the promise of the cutestblogontheblock.com to make MY blog the cutest was probably a misnomer. I am far from it. Please bear with me as I try things out and use my non-artistic eye to try to match colors and such together. Clearly, having a cute blog is not my forte :)

On to more encouraging news however...
This week was a struggle at the beginning. I was feeling rather defeated about raising support in general. And then the ever-present technology struggle got me down as I was trying to get more support info printed and I couldn't seem to get my files right. After about 3 hours the computer won the battle and I just went to bed. I woke up still feeling discouraged. I have sent out lots of letters and talked to lots of people, but I just wasn't seeing pledge cards come in or people making commitments.

It turned out to be a great thing for me. The Lord was quick to remind me that raising support is a lot like being on the field in this way... He is still the one who does the work. I could talk to 300 people, but if He doesn't move their hearts to give generously or to pray, then it won't happen. I had been neglecting the most important part of my own support raising... praying for the Lord to raise up people to partner with me. This realization put me on my knees this week... still not as much as I should be, but I'm getting there.

And in His goodness, He allowed me to see answered prayer quickly! I know this doesn't always happen, but yesterday I had 5 pledges come in bringing me up to 15% of my support! Praise the Lord!

So... thank you to all my new supporters. You were an answer to prayer this week!

Tomorrow I leave for a week at Living in Grace training in the NC mountains. Please be praying for me while I'm there. When I get back I'll try to post an update on what the Honduras team is up to this fall... until then... check out the Pettengills and Mccanns websites!

2 down... 800 to go

Last week marked my second dinner meeting for support raising... yay!

I know I have a ways to go, but I am encouraged to be at 6% of my monthly goal because people have already pledged monthly gifts! If you are interested in being on my partnership/support team, please let me know. I would love to have people start supporting me now - the sooner the better. All the support that comes in between now and when I leave goes toward my one time need of $30,000. I have put a (somewhat fuzzy) chart on here to show my monthly support progress. My final need is $4,100 a month. I am asking people to consider supporting me in incriments of $41 a month, so that could be $41/$82/$164/you get the point:) But any amount is welcome! The circled trees are the pledged support that I have recieved.

Right now this whole process still seems overwhelming, but the Lord has always shown Himself to be a provider and I trust that He will continue to prove Himself faithful now!

This process is a practice of faith, for me as I step out in boldness to ask and wait, and for those who will support me, to trust the Lord to continue to provide for their needs as they make a sacrifice for the kingdom. I'll keep you updated to let you know how the Lord is blessing this process, because I know that He will. Keep looking for more tree charts. Hopefully we'll continue to see more and more pink circles appearing!

Above all... please keep praying for me. It's tough to have good time management and balance the time I need to pour into raising support with time spent to still sustain my job, ministry, and life here. It's also hard to know how much to let me heart move toward my future ministry in Honduras while still wanting to be faithful in ministry here. So, keep me in your prayers as
I seek the Lord's wisdom in these things! Thanks!