It's About Time

Pop Quiz: What country is this?

I'll give the answer in a minute. First I want to let you know that this is a personal post. No design, no great house plans, no cute crafts, not even cute kids!

This post is for all of you who follow Beauty4Ashes because you know me outside of blogland. Friends, family, church members, aunts and uncles and my neighbor's daughter's friend's cat. 

Just kidding about the cat.

This post is for those of you who have followed our personal journey the last six months. Those of you who keep expecting a post about what happens after graduation, where the job is, what in the world we're doing already!!! 

Hint #2:

So the big news is that we are in the reviewing-our-references stage of application to work with Adventist Frontier Missions! We are accepting a call to be church-planters in Scotland!

There are no Adventist churches in Scotland. Our job is to move there, settle in and make friends. When the opportunity arises, we share our faith in a friend-to-friend way. Hopefully that leads to Bible studies and new church members. Of course that's the simplified version.

There's an 18-24 month window before we leave the states. Our first training session is this spring and there will be fundraising to do before we "launch our mission". Meaning: My husband still needs a job for 12-18 months.

 When we left Weimar in December there was a serious job offer. But after waiting a month for a certain meeting and certain approval, it didn't happen for one reason or another. We have two other options but neither of them are quite enough to support a family of five. So we wait.

Sure, we've had bouts of discouragement. We would like to have our own place and an income and to put into practice the things Gary spent the last four months learning about. 

But you know what? We are loved. Cared for. Fed. Appreciated. We are certain God has a plan for us. We haven't doubted that we're doing is what we're supposed to do.

We are grateful for our health too. The pastor of the local church, a very healthy, active man in his 60s, suddenly had an aortic aneurism a week ago. One week and three open-heart surgeries later, he is in ICU struggling for his life. (Prayers for a miracle for Pastor John would be appreciated!) 

Kinda puts life in perspective. 

So! We're super excited to start our Scotland adventure, but keep us in your prayers regarding employment for the next 12-18 months. Thank you for sticking with me during this longer-than-expected transitional phase. We'll make it and have awesome stories to tell! 

One more thing, the boys? In heaven! They love love love staying with Grandma and Grandpa! The house is big, there's plenty of room, we have our own bedroom and so do the boys. Helen and I do really well together, especially when it comes to cooking and meal clean-up. We are so blessed!

Pictures from here.