The Worst Thanksgiving Day Ever

Yes, it could truthfully, pretty acurately be described as that. 
If Thanksgiving was meant to be a day off to take time to reflect over our blessings, and spend time with family, and eat lots of food...yeah, it wasn't any of that - at all! 
Actully, the entire week seemed to be a bad one. 

There were no pies, no turkey, no stuffing - our oven doesn't even work. It hasn't worked since we moved in, and our landlady has had trouble organizing a technician to come take a look at it. 
There was no taking a day off. Too much to do and too many interuptions in what had been supposed to be a week full of accomplishments made that impossible - besides, we're not in the States anyway. 
Nope. We're overseas being missionaries.

Yesterday in itself wasn't too bad. I got some document translation and other paperwork done that I hadn't planned on doing, exactly. But the circumstances surrounding the day - well, that's where the story lies! 

I did write a full large three paragraph story detailing the adventure of this week including: an unplanned overnight stay in a city a few hours away while buying a car, spending two days buying the car, having the same car out of comission until next Wednseday because of head gaskets needing to be replaced; architects coming to evaluate and make lists of repairs needed on the house (oh, yes! we officially have our first safe home!), wanting to get an electrical contract opened to provide power to the house so we can check the plumbing, not being able to do that and instead having to go a different route after trying three times; etc, etc. 
But instead, I erased all of that and decided to start with one simple sentence.

This morning, I cried. 

I was up on the roof talking to God, and I cried.
I cried because of the stress piling up around getting this entire operation going. 
I cried because documents need to be translated, vital documents; yet at the same time so do vital conversations and negotiations with electrical companies, and contractors, and landlords, and mechanics.
I cried because every day this week, every day, the schedule we made was not accomplished. In fact, every day, something we never even considered an issue, came up and overrided anything else we wanted to get done. 
And I cried because I was losing my passion. I was zoning out and it was all just becoming a job to me. 

This morning, God asked me a question - the same question Jesus asked his disciples in Mark 8:29. "But what about you? Who do you say I am?"
When I have bad days, I usually think about little Sebastian in Guatemala; the little 4 year old who has a dad who's a drunk, a grandmother who's deaf, and a mom who sometimes forgets he's there simply because she mentally can't help it. I think about the soldiers overseas who aren't with their families either and are facing tougher things than I am. I think about missionaries like Gladys Aylward or Don Richardson who've actually had the right to have bad days. And I count my blessings, I really do.  
But this morning, when faced with the question, I couldn't turn to any of these other people and say who they think God is. Because the question is, who do I think He is? 

Who do I think He is on a Thanksgiving Day that seemingly brings bad news with each developement? 
Who do I think He is during a week filled with delays and vital timelines, like inspection periods, creeping up without being able to do anything about it? 
Who do I think He is when I go to bed one night and have a hard time bringing into focus the purpose of being here? 

One thing I know - He is everything. The Son of the living, active, doing God. 
He is strength. And He is peace in the storm. 
He is the one who commands the winds and the waves to be quiet and tells the father of a dead daughter, "Do not fear. Just believe." 
He is strong enough to fight the spiritual battles in the warfare we are facing right now. 

For example:
Today was like the epitame of the entire week. 
We got a rental car to use while my bosses' car is getting repaired, so first thing this morning, we headed off to open the electrical contract - only to find that we're missing a paper we didn't even know we needed (thankfully, we figured out a temporary answer until we can get the paper). 
From there we went in search of a generator to borrow for a day so the plumber/technician could check the well pump and system of our safe home before the seven day inspection period allowed in our rental contract runs out (we have til Monday). The company in town said they have one on hand and we thought it was all going well - only to find out, after filling out ten minutes' worth of paperwork, that it didn't have the correct voltage. We left our rental car in their yard and hopped into the SUV of our friend who is helping us with this phase. 
Many hours later, 4:30 rolls around to find us back at the house with a generator we finally found from the next town over (a 45 minute drive, one way). The plumber/technician got there, and we can't wait to get things going - only to find out that, unbeknownst to the owner when he gave us the house, the well pump was stolen. Yup. Somebody moved the concrete slab that was in place the last years or so and supposed to be a sure guard guarantee against that very thing - they pulled up the pipe from way down under and broke off the pump (one of the most vital assests of a house) to sell. 
After going over what was there and making a list of supplies needed (including a new pump), we headed to the hardware store to check prices for tomorrow when we begin. By the time we got back to the yard of the first rental company (where we left our car), they'd already locked the gates and won't open them until tomorrow morning at 8:00. 
Oh yeah! One more thing. The schedule we made this morning said I was supposed to have the entire afternoon today to work on document translation :)
The epitame of the entire week - no joke! It's the kind of stuff that leaves us with the choice to either laugh or cry. 

Tonight, we laughed. 
Then we talked about how these things are not just a circumstance or coincidence. We are facing a real, head-on spiritual battle. 
The enemy hates what we're doing. 
He hates that we've been given open doors and God's favor. 
He hates that we are walking into his territory and actually making headway. 

So we keep doing it, we keep praying, we keep fighting and moving forward. 
And we answer the question, "But what about you? Who do you think I am?" 
Today, my answer is that my God is the one true God. A life giving God. My Father. 
And He is my reason to be thankful - even on the day that seems like the worst possible day ever to give thanks. 

The Path of Trusting

Trust.

It's been the reacurring theme of my life this year.

So many times as I sit here with my fingers poised over my keyboard, learning to trust and to entrust the details of this venture in life seem to be the common thread in anything I begin to write or to even think of writing down.
And I must say, I have this little nudging feeling that this theme isn't coming to a close very soon, either! I can look back over this entire year - all the way back to trying to figure out what the next step was after leaving Guatemala until today - and trust has been the cost demanded at almost every turn.

Trust.

It's comes at a high cost.

It demands acknowledgement that the self-sufficiency we seem to think we possess isn't as strong as we like to believe it to be. It leaves no corner unsearched, no turn untouched. When one part of our self says, "I've learned this terrain. I know what it means to trust. We can move on to the next level; we can take the next turn.", in the next bend of the road, the landscape is inevitably scattered with higher hills to climb and a louder, more forceful confrontation, asking, "Do you still trust? Can you trust God with this one? Do you think you've learned what it takes?"

Trust.

It can be the hardest, most difficult lesson to learn - this learning how to completely give up control of something.

With trust comes vulnerability. It's not easy to hit a rock wall while climbing, with the only hope of succeeding lying in trusting someone else. Even when that 'someone' is a God who has proven Himself faithful time and time again leaving no room for doubt that He knows what He's doing, the self side of human nature and the need to control situations and circumstances never fails to make the process a hard one.

Trust.

It can be one of the most beautiful terrains to cross.

Once we climb the hill, take in the beauty of the view, and proceed around the next corner, the next turn, only to confront a larger, steeper, harder mountain to cross, we find that the perseverance, determination, and the strength we've gained through the process of trusting has equipped us more thoroughly than we could have ever forseen.

Trust is how our faith grows.
'Trusting' is to have faith in someone or something. Learning to trust God with every detail of every circumstance, new or old, cultivates a faith that becomes stronger every time a new challenge or another demand arises. And faith - a faith that is not stagnant or dormant but grows and lives - can move mountains.


It hasn't been quite 3 weeks yet since I've moved to the DR.
Time is a funny thing when trying to measure it through 'concept.' When I think of the day we walked off the airplane onto Dominican soil, it seems like 3 weeks. Yet when I think of all the work we've been doing and the meetings, contracts, documents, etc. that those 3 weeks have covered, it seems like much longer! At the moment, life is being lived one day at a time with a general agenda of what we hope to accomplish in a week.

The roof of our apartment building
has become my favorite place to get
away to read, study, or even have
breakfast :) 

This past week has been a cumilation of so many things. We signed a six month contract on a second-floor, 3-bedroom apartment last weekend, got the electrical contract into place, and moved in. This week we've been working on getting an internet contract set up for our apartment, hunting for a first girls' home location, compiling and translating a 16 page document detailing our program descriptions for child services to approve, meetings with our lawyer on legalities, waiting on bank account processes to go through, and the list goes on.

We've experienced so much favor in so many different areas! For instance, the electrical company has a gurantee of turning on power within 72 hrs. of completing a contract - we got ours turned on the same afternoon (not a normal occurence, at all!). The internet carrier we're going with has a gurantee of setting up within 5-7 business days of completing a contract - this morning I got a call saying they'll be out this afternoon or tomorrow (if they carry out their word, we'll have internet in 2-3 days, including the weekend!). A few days ago we were out looking for a printer to help with the mounds of documentation we have. In the first store we checked out, the sales rep. ended up being the president of the company and after hearing a little bit about our ministry of helping girls rescued from human trafficking, she donated a used model of the highest quality printer they had in the store!

We participated in a walk for advocating children's rights on Thurs. One of Pastor P's connections we met there is a real estate agent, along with his wife, and told us that there is a house they found in the area that we might be interested in looking at to use as a home. It seemed like the perfect property and all of us were pretty excited about it. That evening, he called us up with a different property they had found and thought might be an even better fit for us. We checked it out on Friday and started comparing the two properties. The first one was a two-story home that could accomodate up to 10 girls, with little need for repairs or additions to the layout to have it approved by child services' inspection. It had great yard and activity space with an extra room that could be used for tutoring lessons. The second house is a bigger, three-story house that could easily accomodate up to 15 girls, has an extra area that could be used as an office, an extra possible counseling room, as well as plenty of yard and activity space and a room for tutoring lessons. When we go down the list of requirements from child services, it has pretty much everything - BUT it is in dire need of a lot of repair work. We met with the owner yesterday to talk over contracts, agreements, price, changes we'd make to the property, etc. We were also informed by the real estate agents that the zoning laws in the area of the first house won't allow it to be used as anything except a private home. So, we continue to pray that God will push us in the direction of the right location and home and give us clear answers on whether or not to proceed with this most recent option.

God has visibly been giving us so much favor as we move forward and we continue to count on your prayers as the process keeps unfolding.

Personally, I also heavily rely on your support through daily prayers.
The responsibility of having everything - from contracts, processes, and paperwork to conversations, proposals, questions, and legalities - requiring to be filtered through my translation because of the language barrier, weighs heavily at times. It can seem overwhelming, enough to rob me of sleep on occasion; but trust and faith keep happening and God keeps on being faithful and good!