Thankful for the weirdness!

by Tina | Jul 23, 2013 | Devotional

Today I am just feeling thankful, thankful, thankful!  I should finish cleaning out my office, I really planned to be done last Friday.  Life seems to be getting in the way!  Today we have two showings on the house, I brought Lola to work with me.  Thankful we have two showings.  The last two things we have to check off the list before we can go to Gembu are to sell the house and to finish raising our support.  We are at 33% as of yesterday!  We are very excited about that and have so many more people to talk to and churches to visit.

Last weekend we were at Gladstone, MI visiting a most wonderful church with the best Missions Board, we laughed, talked, got to know each other and I was blessed all over again about the clusters of sweet, mission-minded Christians in so many parts of this world.  It is so fun that we have been and will be visiting with more of them.

We are still living in our house with our bed, dresser, chair, and string cheese.  Our dog, Lola, is finally used to the house not having much in it and is fine as long as we don’t mess with her stuff, then she gets a little anxious.  I’m thankful that Katie and Robert take her when we travel and they will be taking her when we have to move out of our house when it sells.  I’m thankful our other son, Andrew, just purchased a house and will be settled in before we go.

Last night we got to talk with Dorothy Helwig, it was wonderful to hear how things are going at GECHAAN in Gembu, and for her to reaffirm that she would love for us to be going back with them in September.  We don’t know how that is possible, but GOD does!  We will be there as long as we do our part, we know God will do HIS!

So thankful that Steph Thurston has done this new web-site for us and I love the look and feel of it, what a blessing!

I’m sorry for the rambliness today, but I am so thankful, I could go on, but must focus on getting this office emptied out!

My point for today is this:  With an attitude of gratitude in your heart each morning to carry you through the day, there is nothing that God and you can’t do!

We’re on our way!

by Tina | Jul 10, 2013 | Devotional

Dear Friends,

Today I am cleaning all of the Winnie the Pooh items out of my office and starting to get it ready for the person coming into my job after me.  It is a bittersweet day.  Rowena, my co-worker, mentor, and very good friend for many years and I had a little cry as we commiserated how transition is so hard.  It is!  I know that God has a wonderful plan for Edinbrook Church and the person taking over the responsiblity of the pre-school ministry there and He has a plan for GECHAAN and for Dan and I.

Tomorrow some dear teenage whirlwinds are coming to help me organize and sort my storage area so that others can find things there and help me with my office.  I am so thankful for the wonderful words of encouragement, unexpected financial support, and the assurance that WE ARE ON OUR WAY!  It does not seem like anything is moving forward, and yet each day little assurances of  “You heard right, I do have work for you to do, and it’s in Nigeria now”.

Friends, change is hard, like I have told you before, I didn’t even used to move my furniture EVER.  When it was in the place I liked it, it stayed for 17 years!  Now that we are down to a chair, a bed, and two dressers, that’s still the same!  We are rolling around our house, knowing it will not be long and something will change again.

God is leading us and we’re on our way!

My point for today is this- Enjoy each step of the journey, but know it’s not going to be easy, keep your eye on the goal!