“If God tears up your beautiful game plan and leads you into a valley instead of onto a mountaintop, it is because He wants you to discover His plan, which is more beautiful than anything you or I could have dreamed up. The response of trust is ‘Thank You, Jesus,’ even if it is said through clenched teeth.”

- The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, by Brennan Manning

The above quote has been gnawing at my mind the past few days. We are in the midst of transition once again, which can easily make us feel like life never seems to work out the way we had intended it to. Getting back into the village is always a physically and emotionally stressful event. The Lord answered prayer for us by enabling a certain form that we had been waiting on for over a week, to miraculously get moved from the bottom of a stack of papers to the top of the papers in some government office here in Indonesia, the very day we needed it. That allowed us to fly into an airstrip only 4 hours from the village we live in. We will be in here for about a month and then begin the process of coming home to the States as a family!

There are a number of reasons we will be traveling home for the summer, the prominent one being a desire to totally finalize Dina’s adoption we began back in August of 2006. If we do not finish the adoption this summer we will be required to redo a number of costly and time consuming things that we have already completed. We are also excited to have family and friends finally get to meet Abby and Dina for the first time. A sad note though is that the kids will not get to meet their grandma Ullum, not until heaven that is, we miss her so. We truly want to reconnect with the body of Christ and especially those of you who have been the ministering hands and heart of the body of Christ to us. You have cared for us and encouraged us through so many of life’s winding paths.

We hope to be able to share with many of you how we see God tearing up our beautiful game plan, complete with treasured ambitions and personal timetables, in exchange for, what we are in faith and hope receiving- His plan which is more beautiful yet! We are excited to share that vision with you. As with most “visions” the way is not clear nor the path well traveled. None the less, we are hopeful that if it is indeed His plan then He certainly sees that way forward and will be in the lead.

We are having a good time back in the village, although the first few days were pretty tough. All of us have different ways of handling the stress that comes with those changes. Dina and Abby have their own way of expressing themselves when faced with such changes cranky, tired, and lots of tears(as do their mom and dad). 

Everyone is coming by to look at the white baby. A favorite expression is that Abby is as white as the fruit in the kekabu’ tree. The kekabu’ fruit when it opens up is similar to cotton. When the gospel is preached here, who knows that since these people know nothing about snow, that they will describe Jesus’ forgiveness of sin as being as pure white as the kekabu’ fruit (or as baby Abby’s skin). We really need you to pray for us this next week or two. I along with my language helper Cuk will be visiting some other villages in the area. My goal is to investigate the language situation and at the same time be asking the Lord for guidance as to their receptivity/openness to hearing the teaching of God’s word in their language.

We look forward to seeing many of you in just a few short months. Our time in the States will be about 5 months long. If there is a chance to get together with you over coffee or have you over to our place, we would really like that. Thanks for praying us through these adjusting and changing times!