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.
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!
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 :) |
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!
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