The renewal of summer

Well, hello all!

Summer is in full swing here in Marshfield. Today I took the kids to the city pool for our first swim of the season.  The pool here is beautiful and everyday they have free swim from 11:00-11:45. It's the perfect amount of time to be in the sun and it's right before lunch. You can't beat that.

Lots is happening here right now even though it feels slightly slow for me.  Paul has been gone to St. Louis the past few days to do fundraising.  Fundraising is the tune of our lives right now. Many, many one on one meetings with individuals and families to share our vision and just ask for support via prayer or plain 'ole money. It's going well yet God needs to provide so much more.

This fundraising process is really teaching me that ultimately, He is our provider. It may come from human beings, but ultimately it's Him. He has to do this or it just won't happen.

Right now, I feel like God has me in the pressure cooker of "renewal".  He's refining me and making me a new woman.  There are two ways He is doing this right now:

1) He has called me to log off Facebook.  In the last few days, I have been so deeply convicted that Facebook steals soooooooooooo much time from me and my family.  I have also found that the times that I am most irritated is if I am trying to look at something and the kids or Paul want my attention.  He also revealed to me that I have tried to fill the loneliness that I have felt with reading about people's lives on Facebook.  I should have been crying out to Him about how I feel and asking Him to take care of my needs. 

The only thing I have allowed myself on Facebook is personal messages and personal posts to my wall. However, I just set my phone to notify me if those things show up then I can respond directly and don't need to log in and peruse the news feed. 

2) I am participating in a Bible Study on Wednesday mornings this summer with women that are mostly quite a bit older than me.  We are doing a study on revival. I was a bit hesitant as the author of this study is not one that I would typically read because some of her "opinions" on women don't seem to line up with Scripture to me.  However, her theology is solid and sound so I decided to go for it.  God is the teacher.  I am LOVING this study.  It's 5 days a week that I have to do a lesson so I have incorporated those into my daily quiet time.  I am learning a lot about pride. 

I really believe that these final months in Marshfield, God is using to really refine me.  He is still preparing us for what He has for us in Peoria.  Sometimes it feels that our hearts are in two places: Marshfield and Peoria. But my prayer has been that God would help me to be fully here until it is time for us to go.

The only other thing happening right now is that it's looking more like we will be in Marshfield into the Fall. The church is just going through so many transitions with moving back to a building and hiring Paul's replacement that they have asked if we would be willing to stay a few weeks longer.  I'm actually quite peaceful about this.  This gives us more time to plan and transition in a peaceful manner rather than stressing.

At times, I find myself just thinking about how God has a sense of humor.  His sense of humor would be us feeling content with staying through most of Fall, but then He would show up in a powerful manner and move us in a whirlwind.  Whatever He does, we're on board and just waiting to see how He works it all out.

Love to all of you!