by Tina | Oct 1, 2013 | Devotional
Well, It is October! I have been done working at Edinbrook Church for 6 weeks now. In those 6 weeks we have;
sold the house,
found a new home for our furry family member, Lola, (pictured)
moved into a friends basement room,
visited some wonderful churches in Connecticut,
Visited with churches in northern MN and re-connected with friends in many parts of the northern as well as metro MN area.
We have now raised over 50% of our needed support to get to Nigeria! We are very excited about that! God has been very good there!
All of this to say that things are moving forward. Quickly. Our lives will never be the same again. When you give yourself to God and say to Him, “Whatever you want, God, wherever you want.” He takes you up on that! This is both an overwhelming thought and a humbling thought.
My point for today is this: Have you given God all of you? Have you said, “God, here I am, use me”? When you do, life will never be boring again!
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!
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!
by Tina | Jun 18, 2013 | Devotional
Our local Christian radio station’s tagline this summer is, “Best Summer Ever”. This morning I was in a “meh” mood and thought, “That’s kind of a laugh, this summer so far has been the suckiest on record!” (Confession time, I tend to tell it like it is, and “sucky” is it!)
Let me tell you about summer so far. It has rained every day and we have had a couple of sunny days only. I love the sun! We spent Mother’s Day working on the house and Father’s Day working on things and every day and night painting, carpeting, cleaning, moving, sorting. All of this to find out that what we were working toward, (being out of our house so the new owners could take possession in two weeks) They cancelled the contract two weeks before we were supposed to be out! This leaves us in our house with no food, our bed, a loveseat recliner and our clothes! Last night Dan said, “We don’t even have Barbecue sauce,” and to that I said, “we don’t have anything to put barbecue sauce on!”, and we laughed!
So, what do we decide to do, re-finish wood floors, paint the area my mom lived in and re-do the deck boards. This house IS going to sell this summer! All the while we are working on the house, we are thinking we need to be developing partners so we can get to GECHAAN by October and be fully-funded!~
So, I have discovered that at 49 years of age I really am a first-born otter child! I have always considered myself more of a worker-bee. I am finding I am very tired of this and want it to be OVER! I want to dance in the sun (even if I can’t dance) and scrap book, and enjoy time with my husband, children, and friends. I want to be lazy and drink coffee and laugh!
There! That is over, here is what I’m learning. Dan and I are working better than ever together. We are doing everything we can together and working very well as a team, this was not always the case ;). We are enjoying the time we spend together doing whatever it is we have to do, even if we don’t enjoy the task. We are striving toward something bigger than ourselves. This time will be over, the house will be sold, our jobs will be gone, and we will be in Gembu, Nigeria in God’s time. We need to be faithful to do the possible so that God can do the impossible. We have dear friends starting to support us, and are making contacts with churches that we don’t know yet. It is good! I have always been a poor long-term planner, I am more of a short-term pleasure sort of gal. I am so thankful to be married to a long-time planner and thinker!
So, here is my point for today, “Don’t give up God’s long-term plan for YOU, for short summer-time pleasure!” I would hate to look back on the summer and think what could have been if I hadn’t given it my all. STRAIGHT AHEAD, as our friend, Pastor Joel says!
by Tina | Apr 29, 2013 | Devotional
One year ago on March 22, we were in Nigeria and I got shot. This is one of those “pile of stone” moments for me.
You know, when the children of Israel piled stones in areas to remember and tell their children the stories of God’s protection and direction?
I have items all over our house to remind me of different times in my life when I felt God spoke to me and led me. A heart-shaped rock from Mexico from our first mission’s trip, a piece of pottery that I wrote on when I felt God confirming that He had another job for Dan and I. A picture out of the window of the van as I sat there after being shot and praying and feeling personally HIS protection.
I like to remember the feeling of the moment when I FIRST felt God speaking. It helps me to remember and then gives me strength to continue on.
A year ago, I don’t know if I could have ever dreamt of where we would be this year. Here are a few of the highlights of this past year. Our youngest son, Robert, married Katie, they had a wonderful wedding on October 27 and are currently working on buying a house. Our oldest son, Andrew, is working two jobs, saving, and doing better than ever. God has blessed us here and we are thankful.
We have met so many wonderful, encouraging people since last years Nigerian trip. Wonderful Nigerians who were very sad that I had been shot, wonderful media and news people who interviewed us when we got back in the States. People that we have been blessed with in sharing our vision to getting to Nigeria very soon. Friends and others supporting us both in prayer and financially believing in the work going on in GECHAAN and in our ability to continue on with Art and Dorothy there. So many, young, old, different walks of life. We have been so blessed!
We are looking forward to a summer of visiting anyone that will listen to us and partner with us in our work in Nigeria. Developing partners in prayer and financially. Selling the house, it goes on the market this week. Phasing down in our current jobs. I sit here in my favorite chair in our wonderful house Dan built knowing that next year at this time, it will all have changed.
Here’s my point for today. It is good, healthy, and wise to look back, but then we most move forward!
by Tina | Mar 19, 2013 | Devotional
I know it has been a long time since we have blogged. Dan and I had a misunderstanding on who was blogging and how that should go. So….. here I am. For those of you who don’t know what we have been up to I’d like to update you on our progress.
We have replaced carpet, laminate, and painted our entire house. I am currently bleaching out windows and we are working on refinishing them, because of water, etc. We continue to give much away, take a couple of loads a week to Savers, sell on Craig’s List and E-Bay. We are getting ready to put the house on the market in about two weeks or so!
We are living in Minnesota, I am not sure all of you understand what this means. Right now in Minnesota it is still cold, windy, and snowy AND it is March! We are ready for Spring! I was tossing this around my brain today and realized that my soul is ready for Spring as well. God tells us in Galatians 3:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” That is Spring for my soul. Dan and I are physically weary- working full-time, constantly working on the house, going through 31 years of possessions as we have kept everything “in case we need it again”, phasing out of volunteer and other responsibilities, family, and raising support as we would like to be on the field by December of 2013.
This TOTALLY encourages me, just like I know Spring will come to Minnesota, we will also make it to Nigeria in HIS timing, not ours. A wonderful Pastor friend of ours, ends most of his chats with, “Straight Ahead”, and so I say this to you, Straight ahead with what He’s doing in and through YOU!
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