Odds and Ends

By AJ on June 6th, 2009, 11:32 PM

Thanks to those of you who have been praying for the sale of our house. It looks like we have a buyer. Please pray that the sale process will go smoothly and that we will be able to close by mid-July when our visas expire. We’re finding that it can be rather difficult and expensive to sell a house in Mexico!
We spent part of yesterday evening in the emergency room. Christian, our adventuresome, accident-prone, hyper-active five-year-old cut his eyelid open while climbing a gate. Thankfully, there was a plastic surgeon on call for the hospital and it looks like Christian patched up very nicely. Life’s an adventure!
Please be in prayer for our transition the next couple of months. Especially pray for Ruth’s pregnancy as we will be moving.
Please pray for us as we begin to look for God- and gospel-centered churches and individuals to support us in our new missionary ministry. Lord willing we will begin deputation this fall.

I’ll close with a quote from CPCP visiting professor Don Richardson’s excellent book, Peace Child. This brief section eloquently reminds us of the desperate need of the unreached people of the earth to hear the gospel.

I found myself becoming totally sensitized to the intrinsic humanity of each individual. Uncouth, misshapen, scarred, facially peculiar, or covered with flaking fungus infections as some of them were, they were all intensely appealing in their mute acknowledgment of some deep, inexpressible need.

Their urgency was like that of doomed men seeking reprieve. And they were charging me with the responsibility for that reprieve. The pressure of that responsibility became an intolerable burden.

Suddenly I awoke, sweating, heaving with desire to bring solace to those grimly anxious men and to their women and children. For about an hour I lay desolate with longing before God, pleading with Him that the reprieve written in blood so long ago might soon be made effective for these lost sheep of the swamps. Just before sunrise He breathed in the assurance I was seeking.