Year in Review 2009

I stole this video from my team leader in Honduras... Mike Pettengill. He put together a summary video of 2009. It was so fun to watch it and see all of the things that the Lord has been doing through this team in the past year. It gives a really good picture of what ministries they are involved in and how the Lord is growing their work there. This month they purchased two properties that will become a ministry center and a permanent medical clinic!

I'm so excited to get down there and join them!

contributions and Belgium

Great news! If you make a onetime contribution to MTW by midnight on December 31st it is a tax-deductible donation for your 2009 income taxes. Also MTW has recently started online giving capacity directly from your credit or debit card to my support account. You can either make a one-time contribution or set up ongoing monthly support from your credit or debit card. To give towards my work as part of the Lord's ministry in Honduras, go to this link and scroll down to “Innes, Shannon”, click on “donate” and follow the prompts. Thank you for your support!

In other news... I leave for Belgium January 9th for my last official MTW training... that is so soon! I feel like I have lots to get done before then, but it will all get done! The Lord provided all the people that I needed to get my work responsibilities covered while I'm gone, which was a huge blessing! Now I just have to get packed... how to pack for 5 weeks in one suitcase?!?

I am hoping to leave for the field only a few short months after I return from this training. Please be praying for the Lord to provide monthly supporters! I am at about 65% of my monthly need and I am not able to leave for the field until I'm fully funded. Please join me in praying that the Lord would move people's hearts to support this work. If you are interested, please let me know and I would love to give you more information and talk to you about the ministry!

Grace in Practice

I have been praying a lot recently about what grace looks like practically played out in my life. What does it look like to really love people, especially when its hard. One of the big things I've realized is how much easier it is to offer forgiveness for something that has happened in the past... it is so much harder to offer continual forgiveness for something that is happening in the present. What does grace look like when that person keeps messing up? I am just stunned again to realize that this is my relationship with the Lord. Not only has he forgiven my past, but also my present and my future. He moves towards me in relationship even though I am hard to love and choose other things over Him every day of my life.

Andy used these quotes on Sunday morning... and I've decided I need to read the book that they came from. It's called "Grace in Practice" by Paul Zahl.

"Grace is love that seeks you our when you have nothing to give in return. Grace is love coming at you that has nothing to do with you. Grace is being loved when you are unlovable. It is being loved when you are the opposite of lovable."

"Grace is one-way love"

I ordered the book today on Amazon... I expect great things :)

everyone loves a Christmas tree!

I think in honor of Christmas, we should just pretend that this chart is full of cute and well decorated Christmas trees... who wouldn't want to sponsor one?!? You'll have use your imaginations because remaking my chart was way too much work!

Great news! I now have 59% of my monthly supported pledged! And I have just passed one-third of my needed one-time support. The Lord continues to provide for me. It seems as though things have slowed down recently. But I'm praying that is due to the busyness of the season, I have not not gotten discouraged... the Lord has all the money and when He is ready for me to have it and be fully funded, I will be.

Yesterday Megan and I got the opportunity to speak at my grandmothers Bible study. They were having a Christmas luncheon and chose to use their time together to hear about what the Lord is doing around the world. What a blessing! These women were really sweet and very encouraging. I know that this Bible study group will pray faithfully for us! Please pray that the Lord stirs some of their hearts to give financially as well.

One quick story about yesterday...
One of the older women in the group came up to me and started chatting. She ended up saying, "You know, some days I wish I could be young again. I didn't have faith in the Lord when I was your age and never would have done something like this. Now that I believe, the Lord is going to have to use me to other things... but there are days I wish I could go back." Wow. The Lord really reminded me that He has called me... first to Himself to walk in relationship with Him from a young age, and then clearly called me overseas. I'm so thankful for both of those things.

Last update: (This is what happens when you don't post for awhile, you actually have something to say!) Last week I bought my plane ticket to go to Belgium for cross-cultural training! I will be gone from January 9th-February 11th. It's amazing that its really happening and honestly, not all that far away!

If any of you is interesting in year-end giving, please let me know or send a donation to...
Mission to the World
PO Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368

PC Rendevous 2009

I promise to post about Honduras and support before the end of this week... but I need one more tangent post... This past weekend two dear friends from college came to visit! I consider myself more than blessed to have Krissie and Amy nearby and I get to see them often. Having Cassie and Aimee was just an extra special time! And we got to play with Aimee's two little ones, Tyus and Eli... so precious. Here's a picture of us before we left the boys with Maggie while we went to dinner. I just cannot even begin to tell you how encouraging this time with them was. It has been 5 years almost since we were all together and the Lord has done a lot in our lives since then. I have personally been in a dry spot with the Lord recently. I've been feeling like I want to learn, but I'm just not getting anything new. I have just been so complacent. But talking to them about the hard things that life has thrown at us, either personally or in our ministries, or with our friends... we just kept coming back to the grace of God. How much we need it personally and how much we need to show it to others. I feel like I am so acutely aware right now of my need for grace and the Gospel. And yet, so excited to remember that the Lord is so much bigger than all of my failures. I was excited to get to talk on Sunday night to the youth about being excited about Christmas and remembering that it was through Jesus that God CAME to earth to dwell among us and exhibit the character of God in a visible way to the world. I am so thankful for that! “I cannot get away from the wonder of these words, “He came.” The story of pity and mercy and redeeming love are all here in two words, “He came.” All the pity that God is capable of feeling, all the mercy that He is capable of showing and all the redeeming grace that He could pour out of His heart are at least suggested here in two simple words: “He came.” All the hopes and longings and aspirations and dreams of immortality that lie in the human breast had their fulfillment in those two words.” A.W. Tozer Love it. Here's some fun pictures of our time! Cassie and Ty at Panera  

This is a tired Eli!