We leave THREE WEEKS from today and we can feel the time getting shorter! We are very excited about all that the Lord will do in us as we experience the Holy Land and also through us as we share His Truth about walking in freedom with the people that we encounter there. Our boys are marking their calendars for the day we leave – I think that’s a good sign – they are excited to get to go stay with their friends for such an extended period of time – 9 sleepovers in a row! Haha!
Here are some verses that ministered to me this morning. I’m using them in this update (look for them!)
But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. – I Corinthians 1:24.
And so all Israel will be saved . . . – Romans 11:26a
But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. – Psalm 3:3
Here are some updates on the planning and then some points of prayer for this week.
TRIP SCHEDULE: Not sure if we said this before but the trip plan was flipped a bit because of the national holiday (Israel becoming a nation) that will occur while we are there. So we will be visiting in Jerusalem for a few days first before going up to the Galilee area to do the teachings in the evenings. At first, I wasn’t sure about the switch in schedule, but it actually gives us several days up front to spend with our translator (who will be translating during our Free Indeed teaching nights) to work on what to share and how to share it. We have just sent him a copy of the CDs for Free Indeed so he can have a solid understanding of what we are planning to share before we arrive. (Have I mentioned that I love technology?)
MEETING LOCATIONS: We were told at our last Israel team meeting that they are working on getting a location secured for us to have people from both of the tribes able to meet together for the nights of our Free Indeed teachings. We will be meeting and visiting house-to-house during the day time and then hosting these meetings for 3 nights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (April 28-30). While we are in Galilee, we will be staying in a Jewish kibbutz and ministering to Arab Christians. The owner of the kibbutz has already given explicit instructions to our tour leader that we are not allowed to proselytize any Jews while we are there – the only reason he allowed us to stay there is because we are working with the Arabs – because he would be in danger if it became known that we were talking about Christianity with Jews. (They are happy for us to talk about it with the Arabs though!) So, you can sure pray that we would be able to be discreet, yet Spirit-led, in all of our conversations throughout the area.
But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the
power of God and the wisdom of God. – I Corinthians 1:24.
**We are trusting the power of God and the wisdom of God to go before us and prepare the way!
If you’re interested in more information about the group that we will be with – check out http://www.centerformissions.com/ - the group is called the Center for Global Ministries, based out of Plano. They travel to Israel several times each year, as well as India and China, and have built a good relationship with the people that we will be teaching. We are looking forward to adding this “freedom” element to the work that they have begun with the Arab Christian community in the Galilee area.
PRAYER POINTS:
But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. – Psalm 3:3
**We trust the Lord to guard and protect our way, guiding our path even before we go, holding our heads high and helping us to thoroughly prepare without fretting, for He knows the plans He has for us…
- Top of my list – we MUST finish our taxes – preferably this weekend and not drag it out until the last minute! Having a regular job plus owning our own business on the side makes it slightly more complicated, but I’m trusting the Lord that we can easily get our hands on every piece of documentation we need (even though we moved 6 months ago) so we can fly through the details.
- Money – would you believe that money is NOT on our list of “needs” really? I mean, of course we need finances to do what we are going to do, so don’t get me wrong. But we have been amazed at all that the Lord has provided since the beginning of 2009. Steve has been taking in a lot of extra work on the side and it has relieved that worrisome feeling about “where will the money come from?” that we have commonly felt before mission trips in the past. (Maybe it’s a girl thing – but we ladies do worry about stuff like that…)
- Steve’s “day job” – he is currently working 3 mid-size projects at his company. Each of them is in the early stages and one of them has a “gate review” on the day before we leave. Normally, if things aren’t perfect, you can push a gate review out if you have to, but in this case, everything needs to fall into place so the project does not get delayed and so people can do their jobs while Steve is gone out of the country. (This might actually be the top of Steve’s list!)
- Sharing the Word – because of the language differences (word meanings, syntax, etc.), I have been very prayerful about saying things in English in such a way that they can be smoothly translated for those listening. I’m sure it’s the teacher in me, but my heart is not to present good teaching, but for people to receive the good teaching, so they have to understand it first!!! If you would pray that we would just be super-naturally led to use phrasing that isn’t our same-old Christian-ese, but be the right phrasing for our translator to “get it” so the people listening can “get it”, that would be awesome! You know what else would be awesome? If Steve and I could just quickly and easily connect with our translator so it’s amazingly simple for him to know what we mean when we say things.
And so all Israel will be saved . . . – Romans 11:26a
**We are believing God will give us divine revelation for the new friends we meet in Israel,
His saving grace for ALL in Israel, Arab and Jew and Druze and any others!
Guess that will do for this update! I hope to send these a little more frequently between now and the time we go. I’m considering whether to just journal while we are gone or to try to update a blog each night. Not sure on that one yet but I’d love some feedback from others who have traveled and blogged, versus traveled and journaled.
- We are so thankful that we worked out the primary arrangements for the kids while we are gone. The girls will be staying at my parents and the boys will be staying with our friends. Instead of being my typically “over-planning” self, we have prayerfully appointed each of them the “parents” for the week and a half that we are gone to choose whatever schedule they would like to keep with our kids. Those of you who know me well know that I would normally have a calendar with each of their events and such planned out, including where they would stay each night, etc., but as I prayed about this part of our being away, I really felt to let that go. Whatever the kids learn for school and if the kids are going to do anything extra, my friend and my mom will make the decisions. 