Praise God!

We were able to talk to our church family today about our financial needs, and they have graciously decided to support us! They decided to commit to $125 a month, plus additional support as people give. This is our first “official” support! For those of you that are not familiar with our area, this is a big answer to prayer. Most of the churches on the reservation are so small; they do not pay pastors, let alone support missionaries. Our church has always had a budget, and over the years, missions have become more of a focus. Our pastor gets a small salary, and our church supports six missionaries. (We are number six.  ) Thank you church family! Thank you Lord for your provision! Praise God our immunizations in Farmington are complete! The boys did pretty well considering this was their first visit to the doctor to get shots! The boys still need a TB test, and Jace still gets his four year checkup shots at the end of the month. We have all been pretty healthy despite all the travel to various doctor appointments. (We drove 5,000 miles last month!) This week was the second time the Thrifty Nickel ad for the jeep circulated. Yesterday, we received a call from a rancher that is interested in the jeep. He said he would like to come out this week to take a look at it. Pray that we get it sold! I am starting to remember some of my readings from Asian history. I have learned about the ancient Indus Valley civilization, the nomads from the Asian Steppe, and about the first Chinese dynasties. Don’t ask me about specific dates, but my studies are going well. Please continue to pray for me as I read through my first book. I have much to learn before I can even start to build a class plan. As I learn about Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and other belief systems, it is fun to think of the possibilities for instructing students about the Creator and author of history. Pray for me as I work with BAIS to figure out how best to implement the class. Exciting stuff! (-if you love history!) All our prayer letters have been sent off. If you didn’t get one, let us know your address and we will send you one! Pray for us as we try to meet with particular families to discuss God’s work in more detail. If you want more details about our needs, click on the Join the Team page at the top of the blog, or shoot us an email. (feel free to call too) We would love to share more specifics. Lastly, we will have our first big moving sale in Crownpoint on May 12th. We don’t have a lot of free weekends to do this, so pray that the sale is successful and that we don’t have to have another one! If we do need to sell stuff again, it will have to be on June 2nd. That’s the latest for now. Thanks so much for your support. God moves through the prayers of his people. Thanks for praying with and for us. God bless! -mekj

Quick update

Hello everyone!  Here's the latest -

We have sent out most of our prayer cards and letters.   You should be receiving them by the end of the week hopefully!  If you didn't get one for some reason, please let us know.   We have a few more letters to send off, but most of you should have our mugshot soon!  Put it somewhere where you'll remember to pray for us!  Thanks!

This past Saturday we went to the forest and said our good-byes to our favorite spots.  We visited the old waterfall and mining area, and then went to the Aspen grove where our initials are in the tree.  There was even some snow to play in, so we had a good snowball fight as well!  It was kinda sad, but we needed to see at least a few of the places one last time before we leave. 

We still have not sold the jeep.  We placed an add in the Thrifty Nickel, and we got one call on it, but nothing firm yet.  Please continue to pray for it to sell.  We figure the jeep pays for the plane tickets! 

I am reading two books on Asian history.  They are a little confusing since it's all new to me, but they seem pretty good.  Pray for me as I read and learn the material.  I need to have good recall and then be able to put together a workable plan for the tenth grade class.  Pray that God would lead as I pick out details to teach and how to use the history class as a tool to inform students about THE author of history.

My email account was hacked!  I hope my problem didn't end up infecting you!  We are up and running again, but it makes you rethink your passwords to everything. 

This Sunday we have a chance to talk with our church about our specific financial needs.  We have taken the approach that we need to be specific about our monetary needs, but then let God do the rest.  We are praying for God to lead those he wants to give.  Pray that folks would be sensitive and obedient to the Lord’s leading.  (this applies to our church as well as to individuals everywhere...) God will provide for our needs; His promises are true.

Well, I better go read some more.  Good night and God bless!  -mekj

Our house

Here's a few pictures of the house we will be renting...
It's the house on the end, with the park right next to it!  God is good!

Another Lesson Learned

I have been reading through the book of Judges lately, but for the last two nights I accidentally put in the book of Joshua when I enter the verses in my Bible program. Since this was the second or third night I did this, I figured maybe I should read where I had accidentally turned to in Scripture. It was Joshua 3-4, the story of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River on dry ground. How amazing to have a river at flood stage simply stop flowing to allow God’s people to cross to the other side. I think how amazing, yet to God this is nothing.

Today we ordered our prayer cards. For the last day, we had been sending back various tweaks to the card. We had probably looked at our prayer card about 4 times before Erin okayed the final version. Then while at McDonald’s in Gallup (can anyone go to Gallup and not go to McD’s?) we got on my computer and looked more closely at the card. Honestly, I was not sure why I brought the computer in, but I figured I could do some email stuff, so I logged on to our Gmail account. Erin wanted to look at the card one last time. We looked at the verse on the card and realized the reference was backwards. We were horrified! We had just bought 500 cards that now had Joshua 5:22 instead of Joshua 22:5 as our verse on the card. We called and left a message, and then sent an email, hoping that the printing could be stopped. I told Erin not to worry and that God knew this would happen, but that was little comfort in the moment, especially as we looked and realized I had switched the numbers on the first email we sent. (I have a little dyslexia, and it showed up when I sent off the verse…) We prayed in Walmart’s parking lot (our next stop- can anyone go to Gallup and NOT go to Wally World??) I said, “God, you knew this would happen before we were born. We just want to learn the lesson you are trying to teach us. You own the cattle on a thousand hills, so the money is not an issue to you, but we would like to be good stewards of what you have given us. Work this out for your glory.”

About 5 hours later, we receive an email from the prayer card company. The lady said it was no problem. She was going to print the cards in the morning, so she could easily make the changes. Amazing, huh? Should we have been amazed? The God that stops rivers from flowing also keeps prayer cards from being printed too soon. God truly does work all things together for our good and his glory. I thought I would share the story with you all. We learned a lot- to not worry, to trust, to pray for God’s will to be done. While I am sure we will have many more lessons to learn, this was really cool one to share. Don’t be discouraged when things seem to be out of control or crazy. God is just giving us a chance to see his glory and for us to glorify him.

And that was just one lesson God prepared for us today! I can tell you more later! Blessings! -mekj

Progress

Shots, tickets, and prayer cards, new friends, a new blog page, and another moving sale. That’s the short version of what we have going on this week….

Yesterday, we traveled to Farmington for the second round of our Hep. A/B vaccinations. Since I almost passed out with the first shot, the doctor made me lie down and stay put for about ten minutes! (for the record, I didn’t pass out, and I wasn’t expecting the shot to feel like an injection..) After the shots, we went to Red Lobster. Kadin wanted to take mom out on a date, and we figured, “How many more times will we be in a town with a Red Lobster?” Needless to say the kids didn’t like much of the seafood, but the chicken strips were a hit.

While at Farmington, we received an email from a travel agent concerning tickets to Indonesia. We had looked at tickets through Priceline and similar sites, but NICS has a couple of travel agent companies they recommend, so we figured we would see what could develop. The company we are working with is absolutely wonderful. The agent has actually been to Jakarta and knows the specific airlines we would use. We started to narrow down flights, and tomorrow we will be ordering tickets through the travel agent (they were significantly cheaper than Priceline…). The company is 963missions.com. I would recommend them based on our experience so far (though I think they may just work with missionaries…). We will be leaving the States from DFW at 10:40pm on August 4th, and arrive in Jakarta at 1:10pm on August 6th. The flight should be an adventure! Praise God that we have found tickets and have the means to purchase them! Pray that our travel goes smoothly and our bags arrive with us! Speaking of bags, pray for us as we continue to pare down our boxes of things we will be taking with us. The kids have been great so far as they place their toys into the car to take to the sale this weekend at the church.

Next we have started the process of getting prayer cards. We probably could have placed an order but I accidentally sent the wrong picture, so they have to be redone. OOPS! My mix-up was a good dose of humility.

Erin was able to email more questions to our fellow partners in Kota Baru this week. (We will live near Bandung, but the name of the actual place we live is Kota Baru Parahyangan, or Kota Baru for short.) She’s now been on Facebook with some wonderful ladies that work with the school. God is answering prayer!

For the astute observer, you may have noticed we added a new page to the blog. Near the top of the blog page there are now three pages that can be accessed. The new one is “Join the team”. It’s a convenient way to read about our specific needs and then pray about how you can get involved. At the bottom of the page there is a link that takes you to a downloadable Prayer Partner/Supporter form. Our prayer is that this new page will make it easier for folks to see our needs and find ways to become part of the team. We will also be contacting folks through emails, phone calls and personal visits, but this page is just a way to start the process.

This Saturday, we have another moving sale at Crosslands. The forecast is for rain or snow. Pray that it all goes well. I still have a jeep to sell, and we are praying for a buyer as well.

That’s it for now! I just got off the phone with my principal in Indonesia. He got me up to speed about the classes I will be teaching this year. A lot has happened over the last few days, but I will save it for another post! God bless and good night! Thanks for your prayers and support. -mekj

Good Friday

Today I was blessed with the chance to explain what today is all about.  (I was able to talk with some students about why Christians call Christ's death a good thing.) Each year at this time, I am reminded how many folks don't even know what Good Friday is all about.  It's easy to pity others' ignorance, but then I think about my own life.  How often did I pause to reflect on Christ and his sacrifice this week?  I must admit I should have spent a whole lot more time reading, reflecting, and thanking God for his great plan.  Today is a great reminder of our daily need for our Savior.  Thank you Lord for your unbelievable sacrifice!  We are honored to have the opportunity to serve you as master and Lord.

Indonesia update

That's the title of the new email list we finally composed - Indonesia update.  We are still adding some names to the list and fixing bad email addresses.  We just completed going through 19 pages of contacts, trying to consolidate and update our lists of family and friends.  So we would like to welcome everyone to the group!

As far as news goes, we had our second sale this morning.  The boys and I hung out at the church while Erin was away at a woman's conference.  We had a fun time at the church.  When folks weren't around looking at what we had to sell, we played outside (toy diggers in the dirt) or chased each other around the property (daddy is an infected zombie that must eat brains).  We even managed to catch our first lizard of the season!  (it promptly bit Kadin)  The boys and I had so much fun, we stayed around till 5pm.  The sale went well, although we still have about half of our stuff to get rid of... 

We are proud of the boys - they helped pick out the toys to sell today, and they only got upset once as some of their former possessions walked out the door.  (most of that was due to their being tired)  Kadin has said he wants other kids to have fun with the toys he has enjoyed.  Pretty cool attitude. 

Up this week- Monday is dental work for Kadin, Wednesday we head to Farmington for immunizations.  Please pray for travel safety.  (We will be driving about 400 miles between the two trips.)  Here's what else we are praying for- we are praying for a committed group of prayer partners.  This is our greatest need.  We must have folks willing to intercede for the work going on at BIAS.  Without prayer leading the way, we fall into the trap of thinking we can use our own strength to do what is in reality a spiritual battle.  We are also praying for God’s help in the small things, like travel, visas, schedules, etc.  We want to be more aware of our minute by minute need for our Savior.  And we are praying for financial help to be raised up.  We want to take the approach of Hudson Taylor- he depended upon God to lay the need to support his work on other's hearts.  That is not to say we will not ask for money, but we want to be sure we seek financial help in a way that puts the focus on God working to meet the needs vs. us trying to do the work through our own strength. 

That's it for now.  Thanks so much for those of you who are currently praying for us.  Thanks too for those of you who are new to all of this, but are interested in the work and how you will fit in.  Most of all thanks be to God for giving us this wonderful opportunity to serve him!  Feel free to contact us with any questions or ideas.  If you want this blog post sent directly to your email, let me know and we can do that as well.  (I may repost how to "follow" this blog later...)  God bless and good night!  -mekj