Headed back to Colombia

This has been quite a year. We had no clue what all awaited us over the coming year as we returned home from Colombia in mid-June of last year. All we knew was that we had a new son that we were now responsible for somehow and that we had a story to tell. What only God knew was that there was a book on the horizon that would be our platform to tell that story and that our new son's needs would be much greater than we imagined or could handle on our own strength and resources. Talk about life just completely changing! Wow. We've learned the meaning of the verse that states that we need not worry about tomorrow because today has enough trouble of its own. Let tomorrow worry about itself. I have truly had to let go of any and all of our own plans and just let God guide us through each day, providing all we need precisely when we need it. Not before and not after.

This week I came down pretty hard on Julian regarding money, and I actually ended up really hurting him. Then God hit me over the head and reminded me that He is the one providing the money for Julian to live right now, not us or our "budget". I had looked at the numbers at what it was costing him to live, and I panicked because it was not in my proposed budget of what we could do to help him. Then I opened up my study on Experiencing God and read, "I wonder whether God ever tests our faith as He did Philip's. Does He say, "Feed the multitudes (care for the orphan)and we respond, "Our budget can't do it." Ouch. That hurt. I immediately confessed my lack of faith that God would continue to provide, I apologized to Julian for having been so hard on him, and the very next day God blessed us with airline tickets for our return to Colombia this summer that had dropped nearly $200 in price for the first time in months. That saved almost $600! Once again I was reminded of how much we miss of God's activity when we try to operate on our own logic, reasoning, and numbers.

So, I'm just going to back off from trying to control this whole situation and once again allow God to work in His own way to show that when He gives a God-sized assignment, it will be something that only He can do. He knows we can't do it on our own strength and resources, and that's the whole point. We were never meant to.

We will be returning to Colombia on June 5th to work at a school called El Camino Academy. I will be teaching intensive English in their summer school program, and Mike will be working in and around the school on different physical projects. David will join both of us in various capacities depending on what's going on each day. This will also give us another 30 days to spend with Julian. God may have completely different plans for us once we get there, but we will just wait and see what He has planned for us. Our trip is going to cost about $3,000, which includes the airline tickets, a furnished apartment, and daily food and travel. If you would like to give toward our trip, just go to this link https://www.lakepointe.org/Give/Default.aspx, click on the location to give to a mission trip, and find our names towards the bottom of the list. Our Lifegroup has expressed a desire to help with Julian's daily expenses right now, and we found this to be a way to do so in a tax deductible way because any part of our trip that is covered frees us to be able to help him more right now.

Thanks.