Another Short Night

Woke up early again. Becoming a bad habit! But the mind just kicks into high gear so what can you do?

Get up and on the computer of course!

Seriously, these early morning hours are great for catching up on e-mail, praying for each person I'm writing, getting caught up on my favorite blogs, and seeing what is happening in the world (confession: I am a TOTAL news junky).

Yesterday marked four-weeks-til-we-leave-for-Argentina.

It just seems SO overwhelming at times. There are still boxes to pack and pallets to load, I have to type up the Spanish shipping manifest (with hubby's help, of course), we have yet to track down a despechante and line up a trucking company to transport our goods from the port to the interior (received an e-mail last night with a good lead), there are still four churches to visit (maybe five)...

Okay, deep breath.

Very much looking forward to this coming Sunday. It's our COMMISSIONING SERVICE! Also the last Sunday we'll be in our home church until our furlough in three years. 'Cause, ya know, there's all those other churches where we have meetings in the next four weeks.

We plan on having a LOT of fun this Sunday! Good times with our church family who have loved us and "grown" us in ministry. They're the ones, after all, who called the hubby to be an associate pastor back in '96 when we had no clue what we were doing. Some might say we still don't have a clue, but we've learned to just go through the doors that God is opening. He is very good at giving the necessary training-as-you-go.

Because it's the middle of summer we know some folks who want to be there can't, but they'll be thinking of us and praying for us. They "get it" about how important prayer is to the missionary endeavor.

As we sent out the last prayer letter, we were really thankful for the many who "get it". As we wind up deputation and prepare to leave for the field this first term, we have close to 600 on our combined e-mail and snail mail lists. How cool is that?!

One example of how important prayer is: We've been asking people to pray about the situation in Argentina where the farmers had been on strike for about four months, often blockading roads. [This after the new president of Argentina placed a 45% tax on agricultural products.] Yesterday the Argentine Senate voted to rescind that tax and the strike is over! Unrest has been simmering and violence briefly erupted a time or two, but thankfully it's all over now. Praise the Lord!