Spring Break and HE Goes Before Us!

It is 7AM and pitch black outside.  Ah, spring forward!  It does mean we get more daylight during the "waking hours," which is good for me as I have a small mountain of mulch in my front yard.  This mountain will be moved one wheel barrow at a time to the garden plot in the back over the course of spring break.  I hope to have it done and planted by 3/15, the typical sowing date for our area (according to some though if you ask me, I wish I had sown about 2 or 3 weeks ago with this lack of winter).  Hopefully "BacktoEden" will work here in central Texas...  

Here's a picture of the mulch mound.  Fortunately, mulch is weigh (get it?) lighter than soil, something I moved one wheel barrow at a time 5 years ago. 

As it turns out, I did get the job at the local UMS school, which I can now share is Fortis Academy!  I will start for the fall semester of 2013 as a 4th or 3rd grade teacher.  Pretty excited about this as I believe the UMS model to be one of the best ways of education and I get to be a part of it.  The boys will go too, and they seem pretty happy about becoming "Falcons," and having Fridays off.  It is likely we will be getting back from Haiti this summer on a Friday and I will be due in for the 2 week teacher pre-prep time come Monday.  Yikes!  It is very cool though, that within one week's time, Veronica and I were accepted to join Praying Pelican this summer, and then I am offered a teaching role for fall.  The Lord is going before us!  

And man we have been getting help lately!  The Lord and His people have been blessing us right and left, and not just the above obvious items.  Every step of the process to make this mission happen has been almost electric with the feel of "what is He going to do next?!"  In the last week, we have had some tremendous help from friends as we created our support letter for the trip.  We had great guidance and help on the how to's, picture taking and envelope stuffing.  As if that were not enough, we received significant help on the plane tickets to Minnesota for the PPM training in April- our first and most pressing financial to do... And it is now done!  I cannot show my gratitude enough to these giving people and to God Himself Who has "prepared these good works beforehand." 

Speaking of, lately I have camped in the book of Ephesians.  It has so much richness to it, and so much I just can't seem to grasp.  I've read and reread trying to get it to soak in my being.

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins... But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...   For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God...  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." 

And chapter 3 speaks of the mystery of the Gentiles sharing in the inheritance.  That's us!  What GOOD NEWS.  What a good future God has prepared for us to walk in beforehand.  And He is working on us, building His church and making His Kingdom run out the counterfeit.  Awesome.

Keep an eye on your mailbox.  The letters are on their way!  Your continued prayers and financial support are making the Haiti trip a reality!  We are so very thankful.  Please call, email, snag us at church or pull a "I was in the neighborhood" and ask us about the trip this summer.  We would love to share more about what we will be a part of and share even more stories from our past two trips (just not enough space in the letter!).  Enjoy the family picture that "almost" made the cut...

-Joshua