The process of moving (or “going on our mission” as my dear mom told us we should refer to it as) has officially begun. To kick things off we are listing lots of stuff for sale. Our goal is to slowly transition to our coming lifestyle instead of a crazy push at the end. Our moving goal date is July 31st.

Check out some of the goodies we have listed:

• IKEA Expidit Bookshelf/Desk combo
• Breville iKon Multi-Speed Juice Fountain SOLD!
• PRINT GOCCO PG-11 Professional Printing System SOLD!

That’s all for now – but we will keep everyone updpated with new stuff we list (lots of IKEA goodies).

I just found the coolest website! It’s called Voices en Español. You can listen to Spanish stories through their podcast, and read the transcripts. It’s a great way to see and hear the language. Another great way to learn!

Out first batch of support letters went out this morning! It’s so exciting. I’ve been a little anxious up until now worrying about not having enough support, worrying about grammar in the letter, worrying about offending someone… The list goes on and on in my head. But after we addressed the envelopes, realized we hadn’t signed the letters, and then prayed over them, I felt much calmer and at peace. God has this under control, I don’t have to worry about this. Every step that we’ve taken towards Nicaragua has been while God is holding our hands.

We have a total of 101 letters going out in the next month. The first batch includes our small group and a few churches that friends have suggested. We’re then moving on to family and then friends.

We’re also contributing a significant amount of the support through our finances! We’ve also applied for a grant from our church, and I’m researching other possible grant opportunities. It helps that I volunteered as a grant writer for a local non-profit. I’m finding those skills come back to me! Pray for continued peace and wisdom during this process.

For the past couple of years, Frank and I have served a group of guys in downtown Birmingham. Part of that service is at a soup kitchen. We’ve gone with different groups over that time, but lately it’s just been us and Frank’s family. The time we spend in that kitchen has been incredible. Even when we get The Yeller (as in, yelled for ten minutes “more please”). We laugh together, get stressed out together. Numerous hams have gone in the oven. Potatoes have been boiled. Tea has been spilled. Sugar and salt have been consumed in massive quantities.

I checked the calendar for upcoming dates at the kitchen, and they don’t have any available until July. My heart cramped as I thought “Wow, that’s when we hope to leave.” I can’t think of leaving these guys. I have come to love them and be amazed by their love and deep thoughts. From Crazy Nate to Chip aka Chuck Taylor, I have no idea how I’m going to say goodbye. We haven’t told them that we’re leaving yet. Frank and I are avoiders of all goodbyes.

Please be praying for us through this process. Pray for these guys, that they will know the depths of Christ’s love for them. Pray for people to love them a million times more than we do.

“The Scriptures say that we should not fear those things that can destroy the body, but we are to fear that which can destroy the soul (Matthew 10:28). While the ghettos may have their share of violence and crime, the posh suburbs are home to more subtle demonic forces – numbness, complacency and comfort. These are the powers that can eat away at our souls.”

- The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

I find God mostly through silence and in nature. Lately I’ve ignored both of those, and my soul is feeling the affects. I find myself painting pictures of Egypt because of this. I’m feeling the extreme need to be alone and talk with God.

Off to find solitude….

Almsgiving proceeds from a merciful heart and is more useful for the one who practices it than for the one who recieves it, for the man who makes a practice of almsgiving draws out a spiritual profit from his acts, whilst those who recieve his alms recieve only a temporal benefit. — St. Thomas Aquinas

Ezekiel 37:21-28
21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all sides, and bring them to their own land;
22 and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.
23 They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
24 “My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes.
25 They shall dwell in the land where your fathers dwelt that I gave to my servant Jacob; they and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there for ever; and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.
26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
27 My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore.”

Jeremiah 31:10-13
10 “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands afar off; say, `He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.
13 Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

John 11:45-56
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him;
46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
48 If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.”
49 But one of them, Ca’iaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all;
50 you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”
51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation,
52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
53 So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death.
54 Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town called E’phraim; and there he stayed with the disciples.
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.
56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”

Almsgiving proceeds from a merciful heart and is more useful for the one who practices it than for the one who recieves it, for the man who makes a practice of almsgiving draws out a spiritual profit from his acts, whilst those who recieve his alms recieve only a temporal benefit.
– St. Thomas Aquinas

Ezekiel 37: 21 – 28
21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all sides, and bring them to their own land;
22 and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.
23 They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
24 “My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes.
25 They shall dwell in the land where your fathers dwelt that I gave to my servant Jacob; they and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there for ever; and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.
26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
27 My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore.”

Jeremiah 31: 10 – 13
10 “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands afar off; say, `He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.
13 Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

John 11: 45 – 56
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him;
46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
48 If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.”
49 But one of them, Ca’iaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all;
50 you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”
51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation,
52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
53 So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death.
54 Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town called E’phraim; and there he stayed with the disciples.
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.
56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”

He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His Name. — Luke i. 49

Jeremiah 20:10-13
10 For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him, and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 O LORD of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.
13 Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

Psalm 18:2-7
2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encompassed me, the torrents of perdition assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.

John 10:31-42
31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?”
33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, `I said, you are gods’?
35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken),
36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, `You are blaspheming,’ because I said, `I am the Son of God’?
37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
39 Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained.
41 And many came to him; and they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.”
42 And many believed in him there.

Great news came last week. After passing our psych evaluations, we are officially AIM staff members. I realized that I have been on pause until receiving final approval. We are now going to start sending out support letters (get ready for yours). You can also donate online by following this link.

We’ve already started receiving support from a few family members and close friends. I am not one to ask for help. With each check we are handed, I realize we are deeply loved and trusted. I know this process will be an amazing affirmation of God’s love for me.

Please know that if you choose to support us financially, we are incredibly grateful.