Closing date!

Yes, you read that correctly. Our home has a contract on it! We have spent the last week praising God. And this week will be spent packing.

Here are some upcoming dates that you can pray with us about, and if you are local to us, we can even use some manpower! (and womanpower)

July 7th- Inspection Day- please pray that this goes well.

July 10-11- we are holding the world's biggest single family garage sale. This will be held at the home that we are selling, and we will be selling almost all of our possessions. THe money that we raise will help us as we get through the next couple of months. Our savings account will be drained from the closing (we lost money on the house). We are accepting donations of things to sell as well.

If you would like to help with the garage sale, have items to donate, or just want to come shop; email me for the address: givepraygo@gmail.com

July 17th- MOVING DAY: This brings up another praise. our church has been without a pastor for over a year, and last Sunday we accepted the call of Pastor Jason and his wife Marta. We are beyond excited to have them, however, their moving date is the same as ours, which means that many of the people we hoped would help us move will be helping them move. SO, if you are local to us and can help us out on Friday and Sat morning, please shoot me an email for the address and details:
givepraygo@gmail.com

July 24th- Closing

July 26th- fellowship with our supporters at Northview Baptist Church

August 2- We will be in Little Rock at R Street Church. Their Street kids will be supporting the King kids, and we are taking a trip so they can all meet each other!

Thank you for all your prayers, continue to pray for the selling of the house, as well as our need to raise the support we need.

Hit your knees!

We would appreciate your fervent prayers- we are in negotiations on the house!

God can do this- I know He can. Please comment and let me know you are praying for us. It would mean so much.

How about an update?

Things are still moving slowly here. We have received some recent news that you might be interested in.

I received an email this morning from the personal director in Loja. Sheryl wrote to tell me that the team needs us to arrive by November 1st. In order for this to happen, we need to have 90% of our support raised by October.

Can we do it?

No.

But do we serve a God who can?

Of course we do!

Will He use you to help us? I guess that only you can answer that question. Can you help us? Will you please be one of the 200 people we need to support us at 20.00 each month? Our support does not need to come in until we arrive on the field, but we must have the promises totaling our needs by October. Many of my readers have expressed interest in our ministry and have said that they would like to support us.

Now is the time! Let's pull together and get the King family on a plane to Ecuador!

our missions email is:
givepraygo@gmail.com

Please send us a note letting us know the amount that you can support us at. We love all of you and continue to covet your prayers.

Prayer Requests Wednesday:

I am beyond sorry for letting our prayer requests posts lag for such a long time. It just began to seem so very repetitive.

Anyhow, my mother informed me I needed to stay on top of things, and because I am a dutiful daughter, here I am. Please continue to check back often, I promise to continue to update you. If you haven't already heard about blog readers, I highly suggest signing up for bloglines.com. I keep up with over 100 blogs and I read (browse) them all through bloglines. It is a super easy way to keep up with the blogs that you follow.

Ok, here goes the big prayer request for this week:

We are STILL struggling with poison ivy. It's a huge issue with our family and everyone except me seems to be highly allergic. Last Sunday we took Weston to the Urgi-care because the stuff went straight for his eyes. They put him on a course of prednisone and we took our last hefty dose of that yesterday. The problem is- he is not better. In fact, he is far worse, and seems to have developed a rash that is not poison ivy on top of what clearly looks like poison ivy.

This is highly confusing to me because we are having the kids shower every night with tech-nu (for posion ivy), they change there clothes daily, and I am washing their sheets and pajamas every day. They aren't even allowed to reuse their towels. On top of that, I have not allowed them to play outside.

Yesterday I took them to the Walgreens clinic (which I highly recommend over urgi-care) and the NP was as stumped as I was. It looks like poison ivy, but he should not have poison ivy. And then there is the additional mystery rash.

Esther has poison ivy as well and the two of them are as miserable as they can possibly be.

We have another dr appt. this afternoon in a grand effort to rid ourselves of the stuff, but I admit that I am afraid of them even being outside.

Okay, that was a very long explanation of our biggest prayer need right this moment. Thank you for all your support and prayers for us.

No FAQ today:

God has placed something different on my heart.

Disappointment leads to discouragement. Discouragement leads to anxiety. Anxiety leads to fear.

I know this to be true and I also know it as oppositional to what God wants for our lives.

Here is what God wants:
Romans 5:3-5 (HCS)

And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope does not disappoint,

And so, as disappointment gets thrown in our faces, we hold tight not to what we feel, but to what we know to be truth.

Satan means for us to be bogged down by fear.

God means for us to be wrapped in hope.

I choose hope over fear. I choose patience over discouragement. I choose endurance over disappointment.

I praise God in all things. Even for those I can not understand.

God sent this to my email this morning. I wanted to share it with you, to show you that God knows where we are. He knows what we need, and even at our weakest moments, BECAUSE of our weakest moments, He is working in our lives.

This devotional touched my life today.

HOPE. Because of discouragement and fear- I have HOPE. Guess what is great about HOPE? IT DOESN'T DISAPPOINT!!!!!!

It's April

Those who have been with us- along for this journey for a while will know that we had a target date of April for us to be leaving the states, and for us to be serving God in Ecuador.

We had not picked this goal willy-nilly. We didn't just pull it out of a hat.

We prayed about it.
We considered what would be good for our family.
We considered what would be good for our field.

And holding onto the knowledge that the ministry at El Sendero would be needing workers in the Spring, and that Amanda who had been home for a 6 mo visit would also be leaving in April, and that being able to travel with her would make things easier on us. I mean, she would be an extra set of arms to help with the kids, she knows the language, and all those unknown things that roll around in our heads- she has already experienced them. How nice would it have been to have her holding our hands?

But.

It's April. We visited Amanda for one last weekend and saw her suitcases piled up and we longed to have our suitcases piled beside hers.

It's Spring, and as I read THIS POST OF JAMIE'S, I could not help but to long to be in Ecuador.

And so, as April passes us by, and as we readjust our goals to hope for late "summer, or maybe Fall, and please don't let us have to hold out until next year..." we are learning to deal with disappointment.

Our home has not sold.
Our basement is leaking, we need a new roof, the concrete patio needs to be replaced.
Our van is coughing. I think she has TB.
The car can no longer be driven on the interstate.
Promising contacts have failed to come through.
Speaking engagements have canceled.
Our friends from SIMCO (missionary orientation are arriving on their fields.

It's tempting to pile up our troubles and disappointments into a big steamy heap and roll around in it. It's only natural.

And so, today, in my quiet time, I went in search of hope.

Philippians 1:6
"I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion in Christ Jesus."

I can not hold onto disappointment when I have the option to hold on to this confidence: God, who has called us to a task He set before us, will see both, us and the task to completion.

As an update on where we stand: We have about 20% of our monthly needs met and over 50% of our one time needs in hand. Will you please consider joining our support team? There is a button in the right hand column that will take you to SIM's website.

Wednesday Prayer Requests

Thank you so much for your prayers for us.

We are adjusting to living away from our house, and with friends, but the kids (especially Weston) seem to having a difficult couple of days. Weston is having some rough social interactions with the children we are living with and is weepy and distraught. He feels left out and unliked (which he is not). Please pray that God will bless him with the wisdom that he needs to see these interactions in their true light.
Please pray that God will bless him with JOY.

We are grateful for good health, but as we enter allergy season, we could use some prayers for continued health. Esther especially is susceptible to poor health during the early Spring. Her allergies have a tendency to turn towards pneumonia.

Our home is showing today. Please pray that this family is the family that God is sending our way. Please pray that today will be the day we receive the answer to the prayer we have been praying for. The showing is at 3:00. Pray that God will grant this family the eyes to see what a beautiful home this house can be.

Please continue to pray for our support to come in. Last week God blessed us with the growth of our prayer support team, pray that our financial support team will grow as well. Please pray for Cornerstone church in Shiloh and Christ Methodist Church in Belleville as they prayerfully consider adding to our support.

We love all of you and would like to pray for you as well. Leave a comment with your prayer needs.