Here it is June already! Sorry for the delay in the blog, we have been busy with many things in our normal life and working on departure stuff. Praise the Lord that our first moving sell was a huge success!!! So not only do we get asked a lot "when are you leaving?" but the next big question is "why?". Why would we sell everything and move to a foreign country to live? Well the answer for us is easy - we love more!
We love abandoned and unwanted kids more than we love ourselves, we love the opportunity to increase the kingdom of heaven more than we love our comforts, we love Jesus more than we love our stuff and most importantly we love more because we have been forgiven more. See we are just sinners saved by grace, not special people or better than anyone else. We are just ordinary people whose lives were shaped by the truth of the gospel.
If you have ever held a baby in your arms and they have smiled at you, you smile back. Your response is automatic, no one has to tell you to do that; the response flows naturally. Worship should come that naturally to us too as a response to a transformed life by the truth of the gospel. One of the key things that should prompt our hearts to worship is an encounter between Jesus and us. Receiving forgiveness naturally gives rise to loving worship. When we drink deeply of God's forgiveness, we will find our hearts in loving worship. We are able to love more when we drink deeply, love God more and love people more.
So yes we have been forgiven much therefore we love much!!! Forgiveness is not a one time thing, it is a daily encounter with God. There is not one day that goes by that we won't have to ask forgiveness for something, whether it be a thought, or a harsh word, or a lie or a lost temper or whatever. But as we read in Luke 7 when Jesus was eating at Simon's (Pharisee) house and a woman came in and started weeping at His feet and drying His feet with her hair and pouring expensive perfume on His feet, He says, "I tell you, her sins - and they are MANY - have been forgiven, so she has shown Me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love." Jesus himself is saying that the more we are forgiven the more we love!! Not only will we love Jesus more, but we will love others more.
I would encourage you to spend time daily with God asking Him to make you sensitive to the Holy Spirit to see if there is unconfessed sin in your heart that is keeping you from loving Him and others more. I am not proud of my past in one bit, but because my sins were great and I have been forgiven much - I love much more. What about you?
So school is out at The Ranch, they had graduation on Friday. Now is the time of year that the few kids that have families will return to their homes for 2 months and the kids that do not have families will go to near by orphanages for 2 months. This also marks the time of year when we start getting a lot of churches and groups for mission work. They will help us get all kinds of repairs done, any additions that need to be done and whatever needs to be done while the kids are not in the dorms and on campus. The kids will come back at the end of August to get ready for school to start in September. School does not start until after the big Baja Race, it is a big deal out there and there are so many tourist and traffic so we wait until it is over to start school.
We are now at 23% of our support and need to get to 90% before we can depart. Please be in prayer for us as we seek those God has called to be the sending part of our going. We are not able to be obedient until those He has called to give are obedient in giving. We really need to be at 90% by fall so we can leave for language school and make the last classes before Christmas break, other wise it will be next year before we can leave!! Honestly, I really don't know how I can wait until next year - my heart aches daily to be there and to be serving!!! Please would you pray about whether God is asking you to partner with us to do His work among the deaf in Mexico!!! Our work there is not limited to just Mexico but we will also be training other deaf and hearing people to go to other parts of the world and start reaching the deaf in other countries. The deaf are one of the largest unreached people groups in the world. Together we can make a difference!!!
Thank you for keeping up with us, loving us, praying for us and supporting us!! We are grateful. Don't forget that if you don't get our monthly newsletter you can sign up here on our blog - top right hover over the black and click on sign up for newsletter. Thank you again, now enjoy pictures and the video!!!
Below I am posting some pictures and a video that one of the missionaries there made in May of this year.
Here is the video that Jason made from just last month.
It gives you a snip-it look at what life is like on The Ranch.
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| Graduation Day - we had 4 kids graduate this year. Luke signing the graduation certificate. |
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| These 6 boys just accepted Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord last week at The Ranch!!! So thankful for all the missionaries there pouring into these kids, it makes a difference!! |
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| Sammy our snake patrol. We have a ton of snakes there, mostly rattle snakes. This is why the kids can not go outside alone because they can not hear the rattle snakes rattling. I told Mike I am glad they are rattle snakes because they will rattle at you when you get close and that lets me know to run the other way!!! |
