Thursday, April 14, 2011

God, we need a miracle!

We received some tough news yesterday from the man who arranges all the travel for us every year for our mission trips. Because of all the gas and oil prices going sky high all over the world, which is also affecting the Euro/Dollar exchange for us, our ticket prices are going up $250 each. That is a total of $3,825 increase for our 17 tickets. Wow...that is a lot of money especially considering the fact that we haven't raised the needed funds yet. Does this surprise God?
NO! I believe He has this all under control. However, we still have to take action. The first thing we need to do is ask for prayer. We need to pay for the tickets and we need to raise the rest of the money for the trip itself and the supplies and all that is involved with the trip. Unfortunately, it costs to stay in the places we stay, it costs to eat, and to travel once we are there. We gladly pay our translators for the many, many hours they sacrifice. They leave their families, and even their jobs sometimes, while we are there. They have a deep desire to serve Jesus and minister to these children. In order for them to do this with us, we must pay them for their time or they could not come with us every day, all day long. The first week we are in Ukraine, they stay away from home in a different village, which is about 2 1/2 hours away from their city. All this to say, we must raise the rest of our money, but this is nothing unexpected or new.
God's timing always tests our faith. Our fleshly desire is for the finances to be taken care of way in advanced so that we can rest in that and take a deep sigh. Whew! That would be nice. Then we could concentrate on planning the Bible stories, crafts, games, songs, and what to pack. God doesn't usually work that way; at least He hasn't chosen to work that way in our group in the past. Instead, we put our rest in Him and take our deep sigh in His arms, knowing He has everything in His control. We always say we trust Him. We always say His timing is perfect. We do believe this but that doesn't mean it's easy, does it.
SO, my friends, I write this to ask for your prayers. Our mission team needs a financial miracle. The tickets need to be paid for by Monday, April 25th (if I am incorrect about this I will correct it later but this is the way I understand it as of now). We can continue to raise the rest of our funds, but first, we have to be able
to purchase those tickets! Thank you for your prayers! God is able.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Father Daughter Banquet 2011

What a special night at our Father Daughter Banquet! The girls came all dressed up in their finest and their daddies didn't look too bad either. : ) The theme was like a Masquerade Ball and dads and their daughters had a lot fun with that. We talked about not hiding behind a mask and, instead, being all that God has for you to be. We gave away bookmarks with several verses about being complete in Christ. The girls played a game with their dads to see how well they knew each other. We have done this every year and it is a lot of fun to watch them interact with each other as they played. Some couples were up on stage and the rest of the families played the game at their tables. After the first question was asked (What is your daughter's favorite color?) a little girl near where I was standing exclaimed to her father, "We went over this in the car! How could you miss this?!?!" Apparently, Dad did not get the correct answer and obviously, they knew this game was coming. : ) We had a lot of special talent during the evening. "Justin Bieber" made a special appearance and "sang" (pretended to sing) "Pray", along with his band. One of the guys re-wrote and sang, "You Smile, I Smile", as a Daddy Daughter song and another one of our teenagers sang a song about daughters. This years' Ukraine mission team has a very talented group of musicians. I will be posting video of the songs as time permits. I am not posting many pictures; I do not want to post pictures of the little girls since this goes out to anyone. The girls loved taking pictures with "Justin". They thought it was pretty cool to surround him and take a million pictures! He was good sport to sit and smile for at least 30-45 minutes with a bunch of silly, giggly girls. He knew it was all about them that night so he didn't mind. The evening ended with a special dance. Those of us who were there to serve and make the night a success, just stood there in tears as we watched this precious time. These are memories that the daughter will cherish forever. Something tells me they are memories that the dads will never forget either. Thank you Jesus for making this night so special. You are so good to us. To see pictures of the banquet click on:





father daughter 2011