God's Continuous Provision

Whew! I'm sorry I haven't been here for a few days. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity around here. I, Christine have been working a lot. I also joined a Beth Moore bible study. If you are familiar with her studies they are pretty intense with a lot of homework. Then last Thursday I finally did something I have wanted to do for more than 14 years. I joined the chuch choir. Last weekend we had a choir "retreat" on both Saturday and Sunday where the music for the annual church Christmas musical was introduced to the choir and I was away at that all day both days.

As I stated, I have wanted to join the church choir for years. First, when we attended the small Baptist church where we got saved, then later at our current church. As a mom I find it hard to take time for myself and when my children were younger it was even more dificult. I always told myself that when my children got older I would join. Then we started having younger foster children and the time just never seemed right. I am pretty excited to be able to participate in the over 70 member choir and have had fun so far. I'm also looking forward to the musical. We will be putting on the play, "The Christmas Shoes." It is sure to be a tear jerker and will keep me very busy during the month of December when we will participate in 7 performances.

The title of my post is what I wish to write about now. While Shannon was away in Tanzania he took three weeks off from work. Unfortunately, he only receives one week of vacation per year. That meant his last paycheck pretty much didn't exist. The first paycheck of the month is what usually pays our mortgage. Long story short, we are in a financial bind. We have several items we are trying to turn into cash but the buyers just haven't come forward yet. About two weeeks ago I started praying for God to provide as He always does. Two days after I started praying I received a phone call from the mail carrier I substitute drive for. It was harvest time and he wanted me to work a Saturday through Saturday. Then just this weekend he extended it by two more days. As crazy as it makes my life with homeschooling and all of the other things going on, I could easily see the answer to prayer in the equation. As Shannon an I were talking the other night, it seems that everytime we get truly desperate financially, the mail route is often where God brings that money in. When Shannon had his back surgery and was unable to work for several months, the regular carrier had a serious car accident, providing me with a full-time job for a couple of months until he could return to work. Anyway, all this to say, that although the mortgage payment is late this month and we have had to use spare change to buy gas and millk, God is always faithful. We are eating out of our well stocked pantry and praising Him for always answering our prayers.

An encouraging conversation

Today I very hesitantly called our son's private school to talk with the principal there about our son's trip and how that will affect his school attendance. I was concerned that they would be very disappointed that he would miss three weeks of school right away at the beginning of the year. The principal, Mr. Brouwer, was very encouraging and told me I should talk with each of the teachers about how our son can best stay on track by either working ahead or doing extra projects. He then spent several minutes on the phone with my son. According to my son he told him that he thinks this is a wonderful opportunity and that he knows our son can keep up but that he will have to work hard and apply himself fully to be on track in October. Mr. Brouwer then transferred my call to Mr. Greene's room.
Mr. Greene will be our son's science and bible teacher this next year. He also taught those same subjects to our son last year. Mr. Greene was a teacher in international schools for about 12 years in Brazil and Japan. He raised his children internationally and has worked with many missionary children, otherwise known as "third culture kids" in the schools he taught in. He was very excited that our son would have this opportunity to see his future home country before the move and even more excited to hear about our upcoming move. He shared about how his children have grown up to be internationally minded and one is currently looking at missions. The other is currently doing well in college. We also spoke of the many Christian colleges that have great "re-entry" programs for third culture kids. TCK's often grow up between two worlds, thus creating a third culture. They often do not feel at home in their "home" culture but also are diferent within thier host culture. However these children usually grow up to be well adjusted, world minded adults that have a great concern and love for others. Our conversation was so encouraging to me as he expressed that he feels international travel is one of the best things to offer a child to help them learn to apreciate being an American and realizing how blessed they are as well as turn them into responsible adults.

Joseph is home!

Just an update on Joseph to let you know that he was released from the burn unit today. According to his mom, he needs to clean his burns three times daily which includes cleaning the pus and dead skin away from the wounds. He is on pain meds on demand and he is only needing them when his mom helps him clean. When he did it himself he did not need the medication. He will be treated as an out patient through the burn unit while they wait to see if he will need some skin grafting on his chest. He is confined to the house for two weeks to prevent any infection and has to shower even if he spends some time out on the porch.
Please continue to pray for healing with minimal scarring and for no skin grafts to be needed, as well as no infection. Also, pray that he be content with being home and not get cabin fever too badly.

Praise reports!!

First, an update on Joseph. He is being treated at a burn center. His burns are all second degree. The praise is that there are no third degree burns. This means healing and scarring will be much less. His parents report that they have seen God's hand throughout. Joseph was wearing a hat and his glasses at the time of the explosion so his eyes and above were protected. Gasoline burns are known to sometimes worsen anytime in the first 24 hours so there was concern these could become third degree. They did not. It looks like he may be able to be home sometime this weekend.

Second, and seemingly much less important when put in perspective, Collin's passport arrived today. We were surprised it was here already but glad. Now Collin's visa application can be sent along with the entire teams which will save us money and concern about time limits.