How the Day Sounds Through This New Song

Hello again. 

So glad to be able to get back to you today about what's happened this week.  Dr. Jerry Rankin, president of the Board, came and spent three days with us discussing spiritual warfare.  He instantly became a personal hero for so many of us.  I'll spare you all of the details, but he gave much of his testimony from his time in Indonesia.  Many stories sounded as if they were being retold straight from the book of Acts: demonic possessions, martyrdoms, crazy illnesses, family tragedies, and people giving everything they had to spread the Gospel of Christ.  

Some of you may have heard this before, but Dr. Rankin told a story I feel compelled to share. A woman named Gloria was with her family, living and proclaiming the Gospel in Mexico. She went with them and three visitors (who were helping with the work there), to the beach for a birthday party. While at the beach her daughter was swimming and was taken out by the surf. Gloria's husband immediately went in after her, as did two of the workers. None of them made it back to the shore. The body of her husband was brought back in shortly, and a crowd of locals gathered around, as people are prone to do in those sorts of situations. Instead of cowering in sadness, Gloria saw God working in the midst  of her grief. She turned to the crowd and said (I'm paraphrasing here), "My husband is now with his Savior. If you were to be lying on this beach in his  place, do you know where you would be?" As the result of her faithfulness and reliance on the Spirit, most of those standing on the beach came to faith in Christ and a new church began. 

Gloria's story is not unusual. Of those who are called, many are called to give everything: their lives, health, or grief in the loss of family and friends. Yet, God is always faithful. This saying isn't original to me, but it's true none-the-less: being in the center of God's will is not the safest place to be; but, it is the only place to be.

Aside from the awesome time with Dr. Rankin, we have been doing a little Estonia research. As it turns out, seventy-five percent of the population of Estonia believes that there is no God. One-third of the people of Estonia are Russian, yet are isolated from the native population and considered completely unengaged by the Gospel. Estonia, as I may have mentioned before, is the most secular country in all of Europe, which is the most secular continent in the world. Please pray that God will begin preparing doors to be opened for us to bring His word. Pray that God will be calling out persons of peace who will allow us to become friends with them. It can be hard for the citizens in a country that's been overrun so many times, by so many countries to open up to strangers, particularly foreigners. 

In a bit of exciting news, we also found out that we'll have access to a car, a Honda Fit.  It's a little bit bigger than a smart car, picture that for a minute (pretty comical).  We also have a Saturday off tomorrow, hallelujah. Hopefully, we'll get to go in to a bit of Richmond and explore. We're also getting a Mac compatible video camera, working on getting the software to connect our regular camera, and I'm hopefully gonna make some upgrades to the blog soon. So things should be getting better and better. 

Thanks for keeping up with us and for the continual support.  May you see the Father today.  May others see the Father in you, too. 

Meg & Josh