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!

Loving the Psalms

At first thought, I was going to begin with a disclaimer that this post would have nothing to do with being a missionary or going to Honduras. In reality, it has everything to do with it. Recently I have been loving the Psalms. I have read them before, but I'm reading through them again and just loving the picture of the Lord's faithfulness that I find there. I also love the glimpses into David's heart before the Lord and finding that I want to pray those same prayers that He prayed.

Psalm 86: 11-12
"Teach me your way, oh Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Oh Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever!"

I have known for a long time that the Lord wants my whole life, all of it. That everything that I do is for Him. And yet, I'm struck again by this... David is praying for an undivided heart. For me to pray this prayer is to ask to the Lord to remove my distractions. I really like some of my distractions, or idols as we have learned to call them this summer in Bible study, and I'm not sure I really want the Lord to take them. But I believe that it is good for me and most glorifying to the Lord when my heart is undivided and only seeking the Lord.

So... this has everything to do with ministry. I have to be willing to pray the very prayer that I am urging others to pray. I have to be willing to sacrifice my idols at the cross even as I am asking others to do so as well. And more than that, when I really believe the truth of Scripture... I want to pray this way. I want to see the Lord give me an undivided heart.

First Support Meeting

I am excited to announce another productive moment in the journey of support raising! I have now had my first dinner meeting with some good family friends to practice my support presentation. It was so encouraging. These familes are great friends who gave encouragement and helpful feedback to make my presentation better in the future. Thanks to you all for your patience to listen and help me! In August I will be trying to be in touch with more people and hopefully have many more of these types of meetings.

Spanish learning tool #47, the label maker. You have no idea the many uses for a label maker, and though it went unused for a year in Gary's closet, it has now labeled my entire kitchen and living room from la lampara to la taza. I'm hoping vocab will sink in through observation... right now I can talk about food items, my family, and that's about it... so I really need some vocabulary expansion. Also I watched Sesame street in Spanish the other day... sad when you can't understand a show written for preschoolers.

I am feeling really encouraged right now in pursuing this calling on my life. I know the Lord is faithful even when plans change and at times things seem overwhelming. One of the biggest things is that I feel like in the midst of my crazy summer life the Lord is still giving me much needed times of rest. I'm so thankful for those!

Marathon Preperation

What a week this is turning out to be... and yet the Lord remains so faithful to give me times of rest and productivity in the midst of it all.

We decided on Monday not to take our youth group kids on our short-term trip to Honduras. I know that they are devestated... and I'm not sure that I'm much better except that I was better prepared for the bad news. It was such a tough decision... but in the end we are trusting that the Lord led us to the right decision for our group at this time. Sometimes you just have to trust. Sunday night we sang the song, "Blessed Be Your Name". In it there is a line that says... "You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be Your name.". I was reminded that the Lord is always purposeful in all that He does. He was purposeful to give us the chance for this trip and to allow us to learn in our preperation. He grew our hearts for Honduras and led me to serve there more full-time as a result. He was not purposeless by any means. Now we just have to be open to what He has to teach us in the new plan.

"Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." Pr. 19:21

As for me personally... today was a marathon prep session for support raising. I really do feel like I got a lot done. I'm again thankful for Megan who takes the time to sit down with me and we keep each other on task and get excited over the little things. I made an info sheet today that took me 4 hours... when you see it you will wonder how that could be? It will look like it should have taken 30 minutes. Oh contraire. For the perfectionist using technology, nothing is as it seems...

And... great news... my prayer card has been sent to the printer... things are happening! One day this will become a reality!

Good news, bad news, and pictures!

Good news...

I have my first two supporters! Thank you for supporting me even before I have a fancy presentation ready to give! Honestly, I am blown away by the Lord's provision before I have even asked anyone.

Bad news...

I was supposed to travel to La Ceiba in about 2 1/2 weeks with the youth from church. Due to the instability of the government there, it looks like we won't be able to go. That's not certain yet, but looking that way. Please pray for us to have wisdom and discernment to make this decision.
Pictures...

Thanks Taylor! One of these will end of being my prayer card picture.

Thanks to Taylor...

I will soon have a picture for my prayer card! This morning Taylor and I went to the park to get a good picture for my prayer card. We were informed at training not to put our favorite pet (not a problem) or stuffed animal in our prayer card picture and beware of things accidently growing out of our heads in pictures. So... hopefully we got one that will work:)

Every little thing that gets done feels like a victory. I think that is the Lord's encouragement to me in all the little things so that I don't get too overwhelmed. Today I'm just excited for what's to come. Scared because change is hard, but really excited. I am daily thankful to the Lord for Megan. For those of your who don't know, Megan is a dear friend of mine who is headed to London with MTW for 11 months. In the Lord's timing, we are going through this whole process together of raising support, preparing to leave our families, and praying for the ministry of church planting that the Lord has provided. It is such a blessing to have her to walk through this time of my life with me. We are going to try to get together for a couple hours a week to work on things together and encourage each other.

I am sure that you have heard about the situation in Honduras right now. For more information from a missionaries point of view, read my team leader's blog at http://www.pettengillmissionaries.com/. It's good insight. We are praying for the country and the Lord's hand in their government situation right now. Also, we are praying for things to settle down so that our short-term team of 16 high schoolers and 4 adults from church will be able to go and serve on July 25th as planned. I'm not worried... God has everything under control and already knows what needs to happen for His Word to go out as He has planned.