Great Expectations- A July Update

“If you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed.” Patricia McCormick

That quote is ironic because even in that statement there’s the expectation of not ever being disappointed. It’s been a year since we were commissioned by Live Global for full time missions. We can look back and see that we had some big expectations on what this year was going to look like. We expected that by this time we would be at 100% of monthly support we needed to raise.  We didn’t expect different family challenges and how big this transition would be. We didn’t expect how God would grow us spiritually through this last year.  We didn’t expect how much more the Lord was going to expand our worldview even more through the lives of our partners.

Unmet expectations inevitably will lead to disappointments. Daily we are faced with disappointments of varying sizes. In the Old Testament, we read about various times the nation of Israel experienced unmet expectations that led to disappointments on their journey to the promised land. Whether it was lack of food and water or just life being harder than anticipated, the Israelites set before us a pattern that we should pay attention to.  Disappointments, when they are left unchecked, will always lead to discontent and disbelief.  It is so much easier to believe the lie that started in the garden that God is withholding something good from us when we are discontented. The Lord has been teaching us how to quickly bring our disappointments to Him and allowing Him to refocus our hearts on His goodness and to grow in our contentment in Him.

Expectations are not a bad thing, as long as we place our hope in the One who never changes. In Psalm 27:14, David urges us to “Wait and hope for and expect the Lord.” Again in Psalm 130:5 “I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for He has promised.” Having an attitude of expectancy in the Lord is producing a peace and a joy in our hearts that we would not have had otherwise!

What we have been doing:

We have reached the 300-church milestone in our partnership development.  That means we have contacted over 300 hundred churches!  We continue to contact new churches each week.

Each week, we have numerous coffee/lunch meetings with pastors and individuals to share our ministry with them.

For this summer and fall, we are speaking and presenting our ministry at a church about 75% of the Sundays.

In June, I(Kim) was a Bible teacher for our church’s VBS. I greatly enjoyed my time with the awesome 2nd graders.

Partnership Development

If you know someone who like to hear about what we are doing, please let us know. We would love to share with them the ministry that God has given us to steward.

Praises:

• As many of you know, our youngest daughter Reese is nonverbal autistic. Over Reese’s life, we have seen God’s faithfulness is so many ways. He has been our helper in times when we had no clue how to help Reese. One thing we have been praying about is how do we go to all these churches with our kids, because Reese has really struggled in the past with sitting in service. Once again, the Lord is proving to be trustworthy day by day. This last Sunday, we were at a church that was having an outdoor service. The Lord helped Reese sit through the ENTIRE service! We are just rejoicing over what the Lord is doing!

• Many more churches are starting to reach out and show interest in having us come to their church! We are excited to share the work the Lord has called us to!

• Our partner in Bosnia, who we wrote about in last month’s newsletter, just shared with us that they had many kids come to their day camp/VBS. Most of the children there were unsaved and coming from Muslim homes. Please pray that the seeds that are being sowed will fall on good soil and bear MUCH fruit for generations and generations!

Prayer Requests:

• Both of our mothers are dealing with health issues that weigh heavy on us. We need the Lord to give clear direction and we pray for His healing.

• I(Kim) am finalizing my teaching lessons for Romanian trip in October. I am also learning basic Romanian for the trip. Please pray for the team that we will be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in our lessons and that the Lord will do a mighty work in the hearts and lives of the women we will be serving.

• Please pray that as we travel to churches and have meetings the Lord will continue to add to our support team and that we would develop partnerships with churches and individuals.

• This is VBS season all around the world! Please be praying that the Lord will save many children and their families this summer!