PERSEVERANCE: "steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success"
So I've been thinking about this conversation I had with a friend earlier this week. We were talking about going through hard time in life and having a lot of decisions to make; things that anyone might be faced with. He told me that something he's been learning/thinking about is how often when faced with difficult times we (as christians) resort to praying it away. By that I mean, praying that God would "fix it", "take it away", "make it better", you get the idea.....but something he's been challenged to do is to, instead, pray that God would give him the strength to push through the hard times, live in the tension for a while, and find God in the midst of it. There is always something to be learned.
I feel like this is so true. We live in a world of quick fixes that don't really, in the end, fix anything. We seek immediate results and pill popping relief. How quickly we forget the things we've learned, character we've gained, and our relationship with God deepened by the times we've pushed through.
It's just something I've been thinking about a lot. I'd like to better at persevering.
life post dts
....looks like i've been home a month today! africa now seems so far away and sometimes i have to stop and remind myself that i really was there. i had 2 weeks off after the students went home. it feels less wierd to be back and more wierd to think i was on the other side of the world for 2 months. it's good to be back, but of course, i miss our friends in zambia and also the students i went with.
last saturday i moved. it was a really big move....
NEXT DOOR! i lived next door to the student house, officially nicknamed "the grey house", and now i live IN the grey house. see, our base is in the process of actually purchasing the grey house and looking for new staff housing as the town-house we were living up until last week had been a decent deal in the past but certainly hasn't been for a while. so we transferred our lease to the grey house and all moved over here. we will be here until august (as september a new group of students will need to move in for DTS) and at that time we will move into a new place. it's been really great. we love it....for now.
**
important: my new address is
4303 8th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA, 98105**
right now we are hosting teams (youth groups, college groups) coming to Seattle for an urban ministry experience. i've been helping out with that - making meals, setting up at the church, etc. in a couple of months the Mission Adventures program will start and we'll be doing
tons of team hosting and urban ministry. we don't have tons of staff lined up for the summer, so that's something to pray for on our behalf.
also, i'm in the place financially where i'd like to
raise my support to at least $200USD more per month. i'm playing a bit of catch-up with my rent currently (not my favourite game to play...) which is leaving me with not a lot of extra money. it's good when my support covers my rent ($350/mth), but i still have all kinds of other living expenses after the rent is paid. i want to thank those of you who have both supported me and
are supporting me in the way of finances. it has been both a source of encouragment and sustenance and i'm extremely thankful for you helping me be able to be happy, healthy, & productive both in seattle and overseas. if you would like to become a part of my support team, please email me and i can let you know how. thank you for considering this :)
it's beautiful in seattle today...the sky looks like this:
it's 67F (19C for you Canucks) outside!! I went for a nice run this afternoon to take advantage of the warm air not killing my lungs.
you know what i think? i think you should come to seattle...and i think you'd like it. i sure do.
