Tired...please pray.

I am not a good patient. At least, it's hard for me to adapt the "patient" mindset. I am frustrated with feeling literally exhausted. I get up, walk around the house, and lie back down because I am so tired. Though, I am thankful that I did not need to have blood transfusions during my operation which my physician quite honestly was surprised by and had ordered before my preadmission testing came back before surgery. Next Saturday begins our three short-term teams in six weeks marathon. This week starts the preparations! Please pray for Ken, David & Katherine and our kids as they prepare for and work alongside the teams. Pray for me. I am tired of being tired.

On winning the Super Bowl...

::snicker::

Our Pastor said last night he was eating "humble pie" and he had gotten some "phone calls". I refrained from calling him to rub in his loss. (See, us loud mouthed Northerners can on occasion exercise restraint). I chose to take the "high road", though I must say, I had "amusing thoughts" of placing a sign in his front lawn proclaiming him to be a "Giants Fan". I thought that would be a hoot to have him wake up, drive out of his driveway on the way to his office and see that banner in his front yard! Ghastly, I know (hanging head low)!

"One more sleep"...and Ken will be home! (That's how Jordan keeps track, by the number of times he has to sleep before someone arrives home or until an exciting event happens). We arrived home from church last night to have an interesting email from Ken half composed in English and in Spanish. My immediate thought was, "alright, he has an interpreter sitting next to him because there's no way". Needless to say, I have no clue what half of it said, so I hope it wasn't too important. Today, he is driving around getting things lined up for our transplant to Costa Rica (post office box, grocery card for the camp, meeting the landlord) and I am not sure what else.

Yesterday, I had to leave the house and the company came in with the realtor to shoot our 360 degree house tour. It's not on-line yet, but that should be interesting to view. No new showings this week or last week, either. That's okay though, since I really had not been feeling that good. I have that lingering cough and sinus stuff that everyone seems to be carrying around. We are praying about dropping the price into the next bracket. We trust that God has a plan in all of this for us and we are content to wait and see how it all unfolds! It also gives me more time to enjoy the fresh paint :)

Well, let the Nascar season begin!

The changes begin...

"Ding Dong the green truck's gone". Danielle was never to fond of it always telling her Dad it looked like a booger. But Ken would always say, "it could be worse, Danielle. I could be driving around with a big bug on the roof" and we would always start laughing! Seems weird not to see it in the driveway after seven years. It has been turned over to another colleague at Stock while we wait to be able to leave. And so, the changes begin.

Travel, work, reading

We had a sloth weekend! In other words, we just hung around the house, lying on the couch, sitting in recliners and relaxing. It felt so good! Ken is leaving for Costa Rica in a few days to help with a short-term team down at the camp for two weeks. They will be finishing up the camp kitchen renovation project that was started by another team who just left Costa Rica. When he returns we will be home for a week and then travel up North for training and then to say good-bye to family. The house is officially on the market now. We are both still working our full-time jobs and I have been reading three books. I can't remember my Social Security # or the dates of birth of my four children unless I say them in order, but I can master processing three books at one time...go figure! "Cross-Cultural Conflict" by Duane Elmer is an intense book; one that you read a few chapters and have to put it down and process it for a couple of hours. It's about building relationships for effective ministry. It was recommended by another missionary friend in Teguc, Honduras working with CAM. When I cannot process much more of this book at one time and need a break, I've been reading "On Being a Missionary" by Thomas Hale. Thomas Hale is a missionary physician who has served in Nepal since 1970. This book uses the insights of over one hundred missionary writers in dealing with the problems, struggles and failures that missionaries often face. It's an eye opening book with serious implications and hiliarous ones too! And the last book is "Let the Nations Be Glad, The Supremacy of God in Missions" by John Piper. It's a deep book! Another one you can only absorb so much of at one time and then you just have to put it down! Here's a quote from the book that has really caused a headache for me this week (really stopped me in my tracks and made me think), "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't". (Passing the bottle of Tylenol).

$400, that's all folks

$400 of pledged monthly support is all we have left to raise. That breaks down to 13 people committing to $30 a month or 8 people committing to $50 a month. We continue to step out in faith trusting that God is going to provide for our needs by getting our house ready to be placed on the market. Two days ago we were at 88%. Today, we are at 90%. An amazing God!

Beginning preparations

I seem to be having trouble logging on to our blog from our computer. This post is being done on our lap top. Our livingroom is piled high with empty boxes in one corner, two boxes in another corner packed. There are side jobs that Ken had committed to weeks ago and those doors, windows, etc. are now coming in and he is working on Saturdays to finish those jobs for people. We have other commitments that should be wrapped up soon, R.O.C.K. Rally and Marching Band season will soon begin winding down. It's been busy and we just haven't found a lot of free time to get to the house. We spoke with the person that we will probably list our house with and talked about how the housing market is "really" going. You see and hear things on the local news. He said that in Johnston County housing was going at 110% this past summer, but it's still at about 90% right now and keeping him very busy. We trust that the Lord already has a plan for our home! It seems that Global Outreach has found a home for us to rent in Costa Rica when we get there so that is really nice and makes our transition so much easier. We couldn't be more thankful for that! I haven't had time to get a newsletter done, but I hope to get to that this weekend. If you would, just continue to keep our family in your prayers as we begin to go through things in our home and prepare it to be placed on the market. We feel a little overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. We continue to take it one day at a time and pray that God would allow us to use any available free time wisely!

Support Raising, waiting and praying to get to Costa Rica!

We've been busy. That's not even accurate, really. Feels like we've been crazy! We got our last support letter typed and sent to the Mission. You should be receiving that now asking for your help in getting us to Costa Rica by January '08, our deadline. It's almost time for another newsletter to go out. We have received word that we have received additional support, but we do not know exactly what percentage we are at as Global just finished a big conference and everyone's desk is piled high with requests at the office. We should have a better picture next week and be able to report that here to you. In the meantime, thank you to all of you who have been praying for us during this time. We cannot even express to you how much it means to us knowing that you are specifically bringing our family before the Throne. Thank you to our Support Team for your love, prayers and especially the encouragement. It's hard to imagine where we would be without you in our lives. You all mean so much to us! May the Lord continue to move in a way that will bring Him the glory!

A weekend at home/monthly support report

This will be the first weekend in four weeks that we have all been home together! We attended the family wedding in Atlanta, then we went to Camp Dixie the next weekend, Ken was in Florida for "Big Splash" last weekend. We have been busy!

I love these verses in Habakkuk 2 where Habakkuk wanted answers. "How long, O Lord?" he asks. God took His time. Then He tells Habakkuk, "The vision is yet for an appointed time,". "Wait for it; because it will surely come".

God continues to move us forward and we have now received 46% of our committed monthly support. We have received a deadline to be in Costa Rica by January '08. At least we will have an answer.

Our Prayer!

"This season of waiting is always an essential qualification for successful service. God would have His children realize the utter inadequacy of all human means to accomplish His gigantic purposes, that thus the praise and glory might be afterwards ascribed exclusively to Him".
-Hugh D. Brown-

Our calling to missions

Galatians 1:2, "I was not called to be a missionary by any group or agency. My call is from Jesus Christ himself, and from God the Father who raised him from the dead".

While we have been licensed to serve under Global Outreach Mission, God continues to remind us that our calling is directly from Him! These past few weeks He has kept us very busy with contacts and presentations. In fact, we have had three presentations to do this week alone! Last Monday, we received word from a friend that a local church was considering supporting us and we needed to send some budget information to them right away. When we offered to set up a time to come to the church and do a presentation we were told it wouldn't be necessary. "Wouldn't be necessary"? I kept thinking to myself, "Someone, please pinch me, it's not supposed to be this easy"! Yesterday, we received confirmation from that church that they had made a commitment to Global Outreach Mission on our behalf for monthly support! For six months now we have been sitting at the 33% mark of our pledged monthly support. Today, we moved up to 37%! God continues to move us forward in His timing and in His way!

God's timing

Yesterday was "the beach or bust" and...it was a bust! We watched the weather report on Friday night and "blow over" light rain was predicted for over Wilmington on Saturday. We got up early. I had been bragging to Ken and the kids about a fun country restaurant I had found on one of my excursions with a friend to do some scrapbooking at a scrapbook store in Wilmington. We found the restaurant and had breakfast there. About halfway through my bacon-n-cheese omelet I heard thunder and it grew dark outside. We left there and got gas in the car and Ken just happened to ask a man at the gas station about the weather forecast for the day. Sure enough, "it will pass over in fifteen minutes", the man said. We decided to do a little school shopping at a nearby plaza where Rugged Warehouse and Ross' were. Hmmm...trying on clothing in a totally dark store is interesting! Needless to say the storm never blew over. We did get to the beach during a 15-minute lull in the storm, though it picked back up again. We had a fun day even though it wasn't quite what we had planned.

It kind of reminded me of a testimony Ken gave at a church service on Thursday evening. We had gotten a phone call from a local church that they were interested in supporting us in some way. We never expected that! In the fundraising process, you always have a standing list in your mind of people you should be following up with, talking too, etc. He continues to move in His timing and in His way! We were reminded this week of this verse from Proverbs 16:1, "We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in God's hands".

Two important meetings this week: Friday evening we have a small-group presentation and on Sunday morning. Thank you for your thoughts, and your continued prayers!

Waiting and the bumpy road

It's been a little rough the beginning of this week. Sunday's presentation by Alan & Dana Sims, at least looking at their ministry pictures was hard for Ken & I. We sat and watched with tears streaming down our faces in a congregation of people we had never met before! Uncomfortable, to say the least. We've been to Honduras five times and looking at their pictures brought back memories from a country that will always be close to our hearts. Part of the crying was pure joy at being able to hear and see all that God is doing in their ministry. It was amazing and exciting! A very small part was sadness at still sitting here in the States. We feel homesick to go back to Costa Rica. We've been encouraged and reminded that all of this is in the "plan". We wouldn't choose to change any of this bumpy road! We've grown, we've cried, we've prayed, we've fought, we've surrendered! God loves Ken & Sherri Dundon with an unconditional, unfailing love! And so we continue to wait probably more patiently than we ever have before, not because of anything we have done, but because of all that He has! To Him be the glory!!!

Waiting on God

Waiting...it can be painful, frustrating and discouraging. They say that this is the hardest time for a missionary doing this support raising thing. It is during this time of waiting that many give up. I wish I could say I haven't thought about it (Sherri typing). The amazing thing, the very few times the thought has even entered my mind, we receive word that someone else has decided to support us! Even more encouraging than that has been the way that God has met with me, just right where I am at! Last week in particular there was one really ugly day. Let me spell it out for you, I do mean, U-G-L-Y. Ever have one of those days? Please, someone tell me I am not alone! You're like a two-year-old, hands on hips and you want an answer...NOW (and you throw in a little stomp of the foot)! God met me right where I was that day, as pitiful as it was. After He did some gentle disciplining, the next day He sent two friends to encourage me! Looking back over this past year, I wouldn't change the waiting. It has been during this time that I have been forced to trust God more, pray harder and dig deeper into His word! When things go well, I tend to depend on God less, I've realized. Sometimes God allows us to wait so He can spend time preparing. James 1:2, 4 says, "is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete". I'm willing to wait, Lord!