Life Update

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything on here - this blog has proven to be one of several things that I haven't had time to stay up with in the last few months. Hopefully that will change at some unknown time in the future.

This semester has been up and down as we've been learning to adapt our lives to Cohen, all while maneuvering through school work, various physical pains and problems, and battling anxiety about the future. It's been a daily fight to trust the Lord and not to hold on the comforts we are so tempted to think we are entitled to. The Lord has been extremely faithful, answering our prayers for wisdom and patience, sanctifying us through learning to serve Cohen and one another. We've both found that we are very prone to slipping into a legalistic attitude toward God. We have a tendency to let our sin get us down, and to imagine that since we aren't displaying whatever signs of grace we think we ought to, that means we aren't right with the Lord, or aren't growing in our faith, or whatever. Praise God that the gospel is of free grace! I've been especially comforted lately by Zephaniah 3:17 -"The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." It helps me to fight my tendency toward seeing God primarily as my judge, who is constantly disappointed with me and shaking his head at my sin, knowing that this verse is true for me in Jesus Christ.

Cohen. Cohen has calmed down quite a bit since the first 2 months. He's on a pretty set schedule, and does quite well even when we take him out. Our favorite thing to do is put him in the baby bjorn and go for a walk. He chews on the front edge of the carrier the whole time and just makes noises. We will probably be doing that every day now that it's warming up. My birthday was on Thursday, and I decided to take the day off from work and class and do something fun as a family. We went to Clark State Forest in Indiana and walked around for a while. The weather was beautiful, and it was a really awesome day! Cohen did great at being flexible.

School.After this semester, I'll have about 40 hours of seminary under my belt. If I stick with the current plan of taking 3 classes during the semester and one in between I can be done in 2 more years. Thankfully I've gotten a lot of the tougher classes out of the way already, so I think this is manageable, but we'll see.

Future.When we think about how we might serve the Lord after seminary two possibilities are coming to our minds right now. The first is going back to China and serving as long term church planters, and the other is doing Bible translation in some capacity, probably also in conjunction with church planting. To be honest, we feel very weak and unfit for either of these ministries, and we know that there are some significant ways that we need to grow if either of these is to become a reality.

Misc. I'm going to China with a group from our church in July to visit some M's and to do some EV work there. I'm really excited, and praying that God will help Megan and I through this trip to discern whether he would have us pursue going back there in the future. This is going to be another summer of weddings. We'll be going to weddings in Blacksburg, Virginia Beach, Baltimore, and Bluefield. It will be fun, but exhausting. My brother in law, Tom, has been promoted in the Coastguard. This is great news, except that it also comes with a transfer to Clearwater, FL. He will likely be moving in July and Christina and the kids will join him once the house sells. How great it is that everyone in our family is able to trust the Lord and his sovereign plan, even though we're all sad to know we'll be farther apart.

Thank the Lord that it's his strength that sustains us to the end, because it's clear that we don't have it in ourselves.

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it." (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)