Things to remember...

There have been so many things that have taken place in these past 2 years that cannot be attributed to anything but the hand of God. We are humbled and grateful for the ways that we have seen God provide for us and grow us through this process of raising support.

There are two recent situations that I want to share and praise God for...

1. OUR VAN IS SOLD! A little while back, our mission director contacted us about a couple in Fresno, CA that was interested in SALT. Since we were planning to go through Fresno for a different reason, we made contact with them and arranged to have dinner together. We went to their home for dinner, not really knowing anything about them. They are on the missions committee at their church and had basically invited the whole missions committee over for dinner. But they are also the parents of the Talbot Wives Fellowship Director, who I know quite well. And the TWF Director is the wife of a Talbot professor who Nathan knows quite well. Random connection! As we were leaving, we had conversation about the fact that we would be trying to sell our van before we left California. A couple of days later, we got an email from our hosts saying that they were interested in buying the van for their daughter's family who will be home on furlough from Germany this summer. Yesterday, we met the Fresno couple at the Talbot professor's house and sold the van! (Well, they gave us a check, and we'll give them the van in a week. ) What an amazing, random, God-given connection! And though we would have likely been able to sell the van on craigslist, I am grateful to God for providing this easy, stress-free way for the van to be sold. We now have a stronger connection to these people and the missionaries from Germany will hopefully be blessed as well! As an added bonus, the missionary from Germany is an artist and will draw Great Grandma a picture of her beloved van. But shhhhh... don't tell! Thank you, God, for this blessing!

2. OUR CRATE IS PACKED! Now, it is not delivered yet, so there is still some work that needs to be done, but the situation in which we have been able to work on packing the crate is a blessing from God. As we considered what our time in California would look like, we decided that trying to stay with church members might be a bit stressful because of social obligations. We felt like staying with people we did not really know would be a better situation. In talking with friends, we were able to come up with several of these types of situations, though none seemed perfect for various reasons. Just a few weeks before we arrived in CA, our pastor's wife offered her home. We did not initially think it would be a good idea, but considering she and her husband would be gone for significant amount of time, we have house-sat for them a lot and feel comfortable in their home, and Josiah could have his own room we decided to accept her offer. It has been a blessing to be here for a number of reasons, but in regards to the crate... they have a finished garage that used to be a family room, but due to a new addition to their home, is now used mostly for storage. We have been able to put the crate together in the (air-conditioned!) garage and Nathan has had all the time and space he has needed to pack and repack boxes and play tetris with the crate. And though I'm sure we could have figured out a different way to pack the crate, I can't think of anything that would have been better than the situation we have had. Thank you, God, for this blessing!