I know God can...

...the question is "Will He?"

Can you hear the drum roll in the background? We can. We are sitting on the edge of our seat, and can't wait to see what God will do next! Most of you are quite aware that God brings what you need when you need it, usually not before you need it (much to my Type A planner personality chagrin). So, we pray for what we need, cross our fingers that God will also think it's a "need," then hold our breath while we wait for "God's perfect time" a.k.a. "the last minute" to arrive. Show of hands now...do you find yourself doing this prayer dance, too? Mmm Hmm.

Well, God's been teaching me a little about prayer these days, and since it's our blog, I'm going to share it with you. :)

In John 16:24, Jesus told his disciples that "Until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." Matthew 7:7 tells us to "ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you".

So..that's it? Just ask, in Jesus' name, and you will receive it? Wahoo! Well, not quite. There are some constraints. John 15:7 says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you." 1 John 5:14-15 says, "...if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us". 1 John 3:21-22 says, "...if our hearts do not condem us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him."

Summary: To get our prayers answered we must stay connected to Jesus (through prayer and worship), keep His words (the Bible) in our heart and mind, ask according to His will (that's the tricky one for me), have a repentant heart for the sin we commit, obey His commands, and do what pleases him.

Oh, is that all you ask? Nope. There's more. There is a big road block to answered prayer as well. James 4:3 says "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." Slam! Been there, done that.

You know what, though? It's really not that hard. You know Jesus. He's not so much about the do's and don'ts as he is about the condition of the heart. How do we obey his commands and do what pleases him? Simple really -- Love God. Love others. What if we slip? (We all must deal with the occasional slip of loving those in the car in front of us or -- get-off-my-bumper! -- too close in back.) Catch it. Acknowledge it. Give it to God and repent. That means be truly sorry, ask for forgiveness, and do everything you can to not let it happen again. How do we know what his will is? Read the Bible and you'll see that it's written everywhere in it. His will is for us to Love God and Love others. His will is for us to draw together as a body of believers and not divide over petty squabbles. His will is for us to acknowledge He is God and we are not.

So, why are we so sure that God will answer our prayer that we get to the field by August?
1. God called us to Kenya -- very directly and very distinctly. It is His will.
2. We are going because we love Him and would do anything for Him because He has done so much for us. Love God.
3. He has given us a deep love for the Kenyan people and a great desire to see them grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord. Love others.
4. We have obeyed his commands as He's lead us down this path, acknowledged our failures and are constantly asking for His forgiveness and strength to avoid those pitfalls again. Obey his commands.
5. We are moving to a third-world country. Not really high on the "worldly pleasures" scale.

I think there's one more. God wants everyone to know that He is dependable and capable. That He hears and responds. And, God wants people to know that it's HIM and not coincidence, fate, "karma" or whatever.

It was God, through a prompting of HIS faithful servants -- people who don't even know us very well -- who brought in $30,000 to fund our ministry. In one day our ministry fund went from .03% to 97% full. (Did you hear the cymbal crash?) It will be God who gets us to Kenya in August!

(If there's anything that will hold us back, it's my inability to organize!)

Believe!

Making Progress

We're making progress. Feels a bit slow, but we're steadily moving forward. I had a friend who was heading for the mission field give me some great advice about two years ago. She said, "Julie, get rid of half of your stuff every six months. Then it will be manageable." Great advice. I wish we would have taken it! But life kind of gets in the way. I got rid of a roomful of Ashley's things last March and about 1/4 of the garage cleared out in May with the hopes of having a monthly garage sale to get rid of the rest. June's garage sale never materialized..too many other things going on.

It took the two of us 1/2 day to clear out two bookcases....yes, that's right -- 2 people, 1/2 day, 2 bookcases. The conversation went something like this:

Julie to Jeff - "OK honey, make three piles: Pile 1 for things we keep and store. Pile 2 for things we keep and send to Kenya. Pile 3 for things we give away."
Jeff finds Julie awhile later to show her a photo album. They both nostalgically look through it with smiles, sighs and stories. Ashley chimes in. An hour later Jeff is back at the bookcase.
Julie comes in and sees the couch and chairs loaded up with books. "What are these?" she asks.
Jeff -- "The ones on the couch are the religious books and the ones on the chairs are the non-religious books."
Julie -- "What happened to the three piles you were supposed to make?"
Jeff -- "I can't decide. You go through them."
Julie starts digging through and finds another photo album. Sitting on the floor (because there's no other uncovered place to sit) she spends another hour or so going through the photo album, and calls Ashley over to look.
Ashley -- "Tell me a story about what it was like when you were my age."
Another hour later Julie goes back to sorting the books.

And so it goes...

So, you can see progress is slow, but like I said, we are moving forward. This past week, we've had someone come in to fix our drywall issues. Today we'll start painting. We finally got new window coverings (which we've been wanting to do since we moved in!) Our realtor will come in to take pictures next week and then list our house on the market. A friend took the bookcases we finally got cleared out along with Jeff's desk. Jeff is feeling a bit out of place, though. The morning after we moved his desk out I found him in the office, sitting in his chair and staring at the wall where his desk used to be. Julie -- "Honey, your desk isn't there any more." Jeff with a sad sigh, "I know."

Letting go isn't easy. Every time we sold something in the garage sale or watched our bookcases being loaded up, we felt a twinge of loss. It's sort of like pulling a Band-aid slowly off. Personally, I'm in favor of the ripping-it-off-fast method. It really hurts, but only for a minute. This slow release is for the birds! If we weren't connected to five other units, a small fire might be an option! :) JUST KIDDING!

Our support is still low, but we're walking by faith that the Lord will get us to Kenya by August 15th. God can do anything and the Bible shows us that He likes to make it known that it's Him and not us making it happen. So, please pray with me that God will use our circumstances, especially in the area of support, to show everyone just how miraculous He is!