Life in 2009

We are at 75% of our goal!  The only way it happened was God because we literally picked up 10% in 10 days.  This shows God is in charge of support not us.  There are many people who came to us in the last 10 days to be on our support team which is very unusual but refreshing none the less.  I would really like to thank everyone who is currently committed and giving and not giving up on us.  It would be hard for me to start my monthly gift if the people I was supporting were not on the campus they said they were going to be on.  We could not do what we are doing now and putting so much time into support raising if it were not for the people that have started giving.  Our ministry has in a way started now and I very much feel a part that is true.

In general, Amanda and I have been doing well.  We have our ups and downs but in general we are doing well.  Yesterday we talked with Jutty and Abbey, our team leaders in Italy, and we realized how much they need us over there in order to reach the goals and aspirations that we have set for Agape Italia.  They helped us remember that this process is part of our sanctification and that we should not look at it as we cannot wait to get out of this season, but this is part of the process that is preparing us to do ministry in Italy.  Also with their small children, the adjustment has been hard in a lot of ways and so they are extremely encouraged with us heading over there to be a part of things.  It was extremely encouraging because so many times we feel so replaceable, because we feel so weak because we do not have other purposes than to just raise support.  We cannot hold jobs nor have consistent ministry in one place because we travel so much between Tampa and Orlando.  

We are starting to think about logistical stuff such as bank accounts, plane travel, Vonage phones, etc.  When I say we, I mean mostly Amanda.  She loves to look up this kind of stuff and plan and find the best deals.  I love my wife!  We actually have a reason to start doing things and thinking about things because we are so much closer.  This is the update for now, I feel good no tangents this time!

Wisdom.......in your teeth?

Greetings to everyone who reads these collection of thoughts, gripes, or tangents. We are doing well, considering the crazy idea that we got on this past Tuesday after going to the dentist. We decided to pull all FOUR of Amanda's wisdom teeth on Thursday. We decided since we were getting back in the swing of things and stuff was still kind of slow since people are trying to catch up from their holiday activities. It was fun in one sense because I got to share my crazy wisdom teeth stories from when I was a junior in high school, about the nurse joking that she was going to steal my watch and shoes when I was under the laughing gas and I said, "Sure, that's fine" and laughed as the doctor said, "Turn down his gas dosage what are you going to do kill him?" Also two days later after getting them pulled I went on first date with my best-friends-girl-friends-friend to a comedy movie. Dont ever do that it was a bad idea since you havent brushed your teeth in a few days and laughing rips out stitches :) What was great is as I met with people and talked to people at church I heard stories of waking up with the teeth puller wrench in their mouth. One guy had so much laughing gas and only had local anastesia(area numbed around mouth but not put to sleep) that he actually liked getting his teeth pulled and told the doctors he wanted to do it again. A mother who made two of her children out at the same time so she did not have to go through it again, that must have been crazy. There are other ones I do not remember and I need to stop rambling.
Amanda is recovering nicely....her jaw hurts from time to time but she is able to move around and she does not have swelling any longer. Her right side is worse than her left, so she could still develop there but she should be okay. Continue to pray for her recovery.
Lastly, I want to leave everyone with a thought. I am reading through the Bible in a year and over the last few days I have been reading about Jacob and Esau. Jacob was said to have his older brother serve him before they were born. Still through God's sovereignty he still received the blessing from his father, Isaac, after deceiving Esau and Isaac. I have a problem with it, because I have this thing that everything should be fair and if I put in 50 hours a week in support raising related activities that I should be blessed financially congruently. Support Raising just does not work that way and I have to remember just if I do not deem something as fair that it still might be in our Awesome God's sovereign plan.
I also found it interesting that he got deceived by Laban his uncle later when he wanted to marry Rachel. I think it is interesting in the Bible when certain characters get grace at certain times and when some get consequences. I always try to map in out with no avail in my head, because there is no pattern. What I do recognize is that God answers prayer and somehow mysteriously it changes outcomes and hearts, what I do not know is how it happens. Just a few thoughts into how I am processing things during one of the most difficult seasons of my life.

Its a New Year!!!

2009....More importantly today is the first Monday in 2009. This way you can see if all the things you want to do in the new year really get off to a new start. It is good to be back in Orlando. I know all our family is in Tampa, but not to hurt any of their feelings, we just feel like Orlando is our home. It is kind of weird since both of us spent the majority of our lives in Tampa. Maybe its the Uptown Altamonte that we have gotten so used to walking around in the morning and night. Maybe its OGC our awesome church that we have attended for the last 3 years. Or it could be that we live about 5 minutes from the dollar movie theater. Whatever it is we love Orlando. I do not really know why I went off about Orlando, since we will be moving to another country in a few months.
The Christmas break we had of about two weeks was good for us. At first, I thought it was going to be crazy because the 19th-25th when we were in Tampa, there was never a dull moment even though we really had nothing planned at the beginning of the week. It was good to see my grandmother get out of the hospital okay on the 22nd. I thought it was going to be twice in a row with my mom getting out of the hospital on Christmas Eve last year.
All the Christmases we celebrated which each of our families went well and we got lots of gifts! The favorite thing I got was a toss up between Bluegrass worship music from Amanda (yes I like bluegrass and not country, it just puts me in a good mood always ;) and James Bond monopoly from Amanda's mom, Terri. I am not sure what Amanda's favorite gift was but it was probably her watch.
We left for Illinois on Christmas day out of Orlando so we had to drive there in the morning. It was not too bad, we saved a lot of money doing it. Illinois was so cold. There was ice on the ground for two days but it never snowed:( I got to know Amanda's grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins better. It was good for us to take a break for those two weeks including the week we were in Illinois. I did not realize how much we needed it until January 2nd or 3rd. It is a new year and I am trying to think about support in a new way with God's help as we are now back, ready to go, trying to figure a lot of stuff out for the rest of winter and Spring like where a few hundred more contacts are going to come from. Continue to pray for us we need it!