Rush, rush, rush - Time for a Breather

We've been running around like "chickens with our heads cut off" to move out of the house we've been staying in, visiting churches, having some meetings, writing letters to send to new people telling them about our work and consolidating our junk down to one car load. If you would tell me that I would go from a 4 bedroom 4 bath house to one car load and move 6 times in 2 years plus work in France for 2 months I would think you were crazy! God is honing us, stripping us of so many things, and yet blessing us beyond measure.

We are continuing to speak to groups of people "in person" in the Kansas City area between Lawrence and Raytown and all points in between. Then we will use our Macon, MO location to come back to for home base. There are some great folks all over these here parts. I'm starting to speak like my country folk and at the moment thinking a little less French. Tomorrow we will get back to French lessons once arriving at our friend Jana's house.

Our son-inlaw, Joe, is graduating from KU in film and Biology and we are very proud of him! Let's hope it doesn't rain for commencement. The school will put off the ceremony every 2 hrs. in the event of rain and if they put it off so long they will cancel it. Can you imagine?!! I hope that doesn't happen.

My brain is full. Life is good. Pray for Russell's dad, Sherman who has had some complications with his heart. We are glad to have spent this past week with them. He is doing somewhat better and went for a stress test today.

The World Team staff said we scored high on our Inter-cultural survey to see if we could live cross-culturally. That was good to hear. Some people have such a hard time melting into a culture and trying to get rid of the American mindset. We'll see how we do when we get back to France.

We believe 2 churches from this area are going to add to our support needs. Thank you Lord. Pray that God would move more people to want to partner with us in this venture. Pray for our new work in Gisor, France; for Kevin and Stephenie, Eliezer and Esther in this Normandy town. For the people they are meeting, a few in Gisor have met Kevin and they are Christians who are excited to have an evangelical church in their own town (there is only one Catholic church in an area of probably 40 or 50,000 people) and also pray for those who don't know God yet but have a spiritual need and want Kevin or Eliezer to help them find Him.

From France, to Britain and Home in the USA - nothing ordinary about that

William and Kate got married last week. I was so excited to view this historical event. How many high profile weddings do we get to actually watch on TV? Only this one. We didn't see Chelsea Clinton get married.  We haven't seen any president's get married or future presidents. But we did have an opportunity to see a future King get married. So many people passed this off as a ridiculous thing. But this is a future King who will rule one-third of the world. Many think the Queen is just a figurehead. But she works over 300 days a year along with the Prime Minister. They confer and run nations. I watched this wedding from my little dorm room and enjoyed it thoroughly. Christ was proclaimed!  It was a day in church with much scripture read. It was a day for Christianity and showed God's plan for couples. It was a big day for marriage. Let's hope the pressures of such a media life will not break this couple.

I'm glad to be back home but feeling wobbly and drained since arriving on Saturday. Immediately we had things to do and I was ready to do them. The children's musical at First Baptist in Raytown on Sunday was a great event. I didn't want to miss "Happily Forever After". Everyone did a wonderful job. Russell was glad to be a part of the set design. Then off to our daughter's scholarship art show at KU. I was glad to be able to attend. I could sleep later. It was a wonderful day to be back.

It's amazing how one day can change our world with the next big media event about the killing of Usama Bin Laden. Many emotions for everyone, including myself.  I was chastised by my daughter and her friends for being gleeful and was very glad that he was gone from this earth. Maybe I was too glib repeating something I saw on a home made poster that said,... When I heard they buried him at sea I thought, how perfect. There will be no place that people can make a shrine for him. They won't know where he's buried. No country would take him and as a Muslim he had to be buried within 24 hrs.

Even with that raw emotion many people have felt these last 2 days, we should take time to pray for the families of the victims, our military and those of our allies who are working hard to end this terror. One of my friends said, "the head of the snake is cut off!" We know there are many others working in the name of Al Qaeda and the war is not over but this was a victory for our nation.

I'm glad to be back but hoping we will be moving forward to working full time in France very soon. It's all in His hands, isn't it? Lord, help me to be plugged into your plans...