A stowaway!

This week has been another busy but amazing week!  We had Archbishop Rivas of St. Lucia here visiting this weekend.  During Praise and Worship Friday evening with the families (and of course a lot of little ones playing in the middle of the room) he coined my favorite quote of training so far “It has been a very long time since I have found myself contemplating the Divine amid such chaos.”  It was a perfect description of family and missions…  it is absolute chaos, but it is a sweet sweet chaos where the Lord keeps showing up, speaking, healing, and working among us.  It is blessed, wonderful, and exhausting.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

We are continued with our “regular” schedule, the study of Acts of the Apostles, St. John Paul II’s, “Mission of the Redeemer,” a scripture study, praise and worship, morning prayer, and so much more.  This week we also added our Thursday morning service time.  When our service teams were announced, Josh encouraged the kids to come up with our team name.  Somehow Josh our kids came up with name “Team Fun Ninja Unicorns for Jesus.”  The T-shirt design is still pending the approval of the FMC directors. 

This week’s service assignment definitely stretched me outside of my comfort zone, we were asked to do door to door ministry.  One of the seasoned missionaries and his family led our group, and he showed us how he goes to the door, introduces himself and his family.  He then just asks if there is anything we can be doing for them, if they have any prayer intentions they want us to pray for, and invites them to our Wednesday night Mission Formation meetings.   We then pray with them if they have intentions and are willing.  It sounds so nice when I write it out, but it was really difficult to do!!  But after spending a morning doing that I can honestly say it is something I would like to do again.  There were not many people we got a chance to speak with, but there is one in particular who stands out.  Her name was Amy, and her mom, Joyce, had just been moved to her home in hospice care for stage 4 cancer.  The weariness on her face was so apparent, my heart just broke for her and the grief she was experiencing.  Being able to pray with her and see the peace on her face after made the whole morning more than worth it.  She has been on my heart ever since, could you please join me this week praying for her and her mother?

One of our assignments this week during our teaching workshop was to prepare and present our witness story in 10 minutes or less.  It was so amazing to listen to the different stories of the others in Intake with us, and see what the Lord has led each of them through to bring them to where they are today.  Although all of the stories were different, each one had the fingerprints of a God who pursues our hearts tirelessly.  It is absolutely incredible to hear first hand accounts of just how deep the Love and the Mercy of the Lord is. 

Last (but definitely not least) we wanted to share some very exciting family news with you!  It ends up we have a little stowaway making this crazy journey with us!  Little baby “Stowey” (short for stowaway as an in utero nickname) is due March 30^th, 2017.  The kids are incredibly excited and we feel so honored that Lord has given us another little one to love who will be a missionary from the start.  To answer an obvious first question…. we still don’t know logistically if we will be giving birth in the US or in another country, we have obviously began praying and discerning where our first mission post will be with “Stowey” in the forefront of our minds.  Thankfully FMC is very accustomed to families growing, and are truly here to help guide us through this process.  We know this baby is a beautiful part of the Lord’s will for our family, and we cannot wait to see the glory He has planned!! 

We are carrying you all in prayer this week!  Please let us know if you have specific prayer intentions, we would love to be able to lift those up for you.