After Thanksgiving Special

Yesterday afternoon I was miserable. Everyone at our house was just sitting around groaning. One of the best Thanksgiving meals ever.

It was a wonderful day with family and friends. Yes, I'm very thankful for all of them. There is soooo much that we have to be thankful for. I don't know where to begin and wouldn't know where to end.

Then again -- it all begins and ends with God. The Bible says that all good gifts come from God. That succinctly describes our life -- non-stop good gifts.

Sure, there are those things that at the moment we think aren't a good thing. In fact, today the sore throat that I've had the past few days has evolved into a full-on head cold.

But then we remember that "all thing happen for the good of those who love the Lord." I've been needing a day off and God made it so that I had to. Yes Lord, I hear you.

What will it take?

There is a theme that is taking hold throughout Greater Europe Mission these days.

"Whatever it takes..." is ringing out as a rallying cry for the work that we are doing across the continent.

Europe is one of the most unevangelized, unreached societies in the world. Even with thousands of missionaries working for years, still less than 1% of the population are what would be considered Bible-believing Christians.

It's long, hard work. It's frustrating at times. It's going to take a lot more effort, a lot more support, a lot more workers.

What else will it take? Well, in addition to all the work that is currently being done, GEM has a new initiative that begins today. We're taking it back to the basics -- the foundation.

Prayer.

Today begins "50 Days with God" -- a time for all GEM missionaries to really engage with God in a fresh way on a daily and weekly basis; to reignite the flame within and empower us to effectively continue our work. It's all in preparation for "The Day of Prayer for Europe", which is January 8.

Yes, it's for GEM missionaries, but if you have a heart for the peoples of Europe and desire to see God's work break forth across the continent as never before, I would invite you to join with us in this effort.

It's only 7 weeks. Heavens, I've felt the effects of the flu that long before.

Let me know if you will stand with us for the sake of the missionaries as well as the expansion of God's Kingdom in Europe.

Super Salad

We've joked about it for years. Now we've actually heard it in real life...

Eating out recently, we overheard someone at the table next to us ask the waitress, "Now, what is a Super Salad?" To which the waitress responded, "That's Soup or Salad."

Then we were expected to sit there straight-faced as if we didn't overhear.

To everything, turn, turn, turn...

We feel the season changing. Okay, yeah the air is cooler. We're having those gorgeous autumn sunsets. The bay is often glassy.

But that's not what I'm talking about. We've been in a season of waiting. Sure, we've been able to travel quite a bit to Europe to get our ministry off the ground. But we have a goal -- to move to Ireland full-time so that we can conduct our work in the way it deserves. This goal has seemed somewhat elusive. For one thing, we've been working to raise our support for more than 2 years now. For another thing, the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro has kept us at the same percentage of needed support for a while even though we've taken on more pledges.

God's timing has been perfect from the beginning of this process, and we know that up to this point we wouldn't have been ready. God had some work to do to prepare us and our daughter Molly for our relocation. Molly is in her second year as a violin performance major at the University of West Florida and actually living out on her own now!

We are so proud of her -- her resourcefulness, her levelheadedness. She is much more focused than I would have imagined a child of mine would be. Just look at her parents. We weren't anything like this in college. She must have got it from my dad.

Yep, we're a little proud.

So... the change of seasons...

We are starting to sense that things are about to begin moving ahead for us. Nothing concrete -- just small indicators and inklings really. It's like the wind is shifting and a new season is underway.

We are so stoked (is that so 90's, or what?) about getting to Ireland full-time and have a lot of people in Ireland rooting for us. Just gotta keep our nose to the grindstone and get the rest of our support raised.

We'll do our part and then stand back and watch God do His thing. It's His baby, after all. We're just along for the ride.