HEAT

Before you say anything, I know you've got humidity that we don't have (ours was 18% yesterday.) But you also have air conditioning in your home which we don't have. Most people up here don't. Yesterday the high was 99 degrees; today was supposed to be a few degrees cooler.

At about 9:15pm (you can still see the very top of the sun over the horizon) I came home from walking the dog. I grabbed my water glass off of the entertainment center where I had set it last night. I went to the fridge and started pouring water from our filter jug and the glass cracked! You know how glass does when it goes from too hot to too cold too fast!?! It was a pretty thin glass, a thicker one hadn't cracked earlier, but I was still so shocked!

That's all, I just thought I'd share another amazing adventure in Montana, the land of extremes :)

Praying for a hurting family...

Landon Meece went to be with the Lord yesterday. Please remember to continue praying for the family. Although we celebrate that she is in the presence of her Redeemer, there will still be dificulty and some grief for the family. Please pray for their comfort and that the Lord would continue to be glorified through this, even though we don't understand it.

I could have told you, but I'd have had to kill you...

For several months we have been praying about a move. Right after our April vacation the pastor of my home church (Emmanuel Baptist) in Billings, Pastor Paul, one of my closest friends and mentors, called me and asked me to pray about submitting my resume for consideration to become the new pastor of the church in Columbus, MT. After praying for a couple of weeks, we did. Columbus Baptist Church is basically a restart and it has been under the direct supervision of Emmanuel Baptist for the past 6 years or so. They are running about 100 in worship now and have really become active in reaching their community. Their current pastor is moving to be closer to his daughter and grandchildren because the dad is scheduled for his third tour of duty in Iraq/Afganistan. Last week Paul helped them form a pastor search committee...their first ever committee! Normally when they have business, they call a potluck fellowship and people just volunteer to do whatever needs to be done. Pastor Paul told me that they have a very sweet spirit and have really become missions oriented...which, in my opinion, is a direct influence from Paul and Emmanuel.

This really would be an ideal situation. We are still praying about it, but we are excited about the possibility. The chance to have Paul teach me how to pastor, to have the direct support of a growing, healthy church like Emmanuel, and to do it in a church that is healthy, growing and is missions/community oriented seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Please pray with us about this...however perfect it may seem, it will be completely wrong if it is not God's will. Pray for us for God's wisdom and understanding, that we will be able to discern God's will. Pastor Paul would like to have the new pastor in place by the end of the summer, so it is coming up fairly quickly.

Thank you everyone for all of your prayers!

On to a more immediate need, thanks to everyone who is praying for Landon Meese. As of yesterday the situation had not changed...she is breathing, for the most part, on her own, but is still unconscious and shows no brain activity on the EEG. The doctors do not know the extent of injury and things still look bad.
Pray for the family, that they would have continued peace and strength as this painful situation continues.

General Updates and a Perfect Flan

Now that there is no more substitute teaching to be done, Michael is the newest employee at our Lowe's store. He says the work is pretty easy, he just has to get used to their system. Let's pray that they actually work around his mission team/block party schedule as well as they said they would.

Michael's parents came for a visit. I feel like they mostly sat around and waited for us to have time in our schedules to hang out - but they said they had a lot of fun. We really enjoyed having them here:) They are such a blessing!

We are well into the summer season of mission teams. Our first sports camp was last week. We have huge team this week that is putting on Backyard Bible Clubs as well as a team who is leading a Crown Financial workshop. We have other teams coming this summer for more sports camps and service projects. I'm having a hard time keeping them all straight. Pray that God would use them to minister to the community and draw people to Himself and also that God would use the mission trip to do a work in each team member's life.

Much thanks to my friend Maday who gave me her flan recipe. The first attempt was OK, but after I have adjusted for my oven, my husband is now more in love with me than ever! :)

That about covers all our news. Please continue to keep Landon Meese and her family in your prayers. We are praying for a miracle and for God's glory.

Please Pray!

Please take a moment to pray for Landon Meese. She is the thirteen-year-old daughter of Ed and Karen Meese, who are part of our church planting team in Livingston, MT. She was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis this weekend and airlifted to the Hospital in Great Falls, MT. She is in critical condition and is not expected to live much longer. Please pray that God would heal her body...but above all pray that He would be glorified through this painful situation.

Death of an Appliance

It's finally happened! The washer and dryer that was a hand-me-down from my seminary roommate have finally died!! The timer on the dryer hasn't worked in quite a while, but we worked around that. But yesterday I went downstairs to change the loads and was met with a smoky room and the smell of burning electronics! Don't worry, there was no actual fire! So, we're looking at buying a new set - hoping the last warehouse set of last year's model will sell so we could get the floor model at a discount. We'll see. It's kind of nice to be in a place where I've finally realized that it's all up to God, so I don't really have to stress over anything :) Here's hoping you are all in that place, too.