new numbers, faithful God.

Shortly after posting my monthly support at 57% due to the 2012 monthly support budget, I found two additional pledges totally $75/month in new monthly giving, and another $950 in one-time gifts!  So, as things now stand, I’ve received:

• 59% of my monthly pledged support
• 87% of my one-time support

In other words, I’ll be fully supported with $1,600 in new monthly pledges and $3,300 in one-time giving.  God is working through your prayers and giving, and my overall support is right at two-thirds: thanks!

More importantly though, God is building his kingdom in Ukraine, and his providence in my own life keeps pointing that direction.  Financial giving is only one of the tools God is using to build my trust in him and send me to Kiev.  At the truthXchange conference last week, and at the L’Abri conference, I met a number of people who offered contacts they have in Kiev, or sources for Ukrainian language and Russian language evangelistic and discipleship tools.  One friend recommended I connect with his friend, who I didn’t find a the conference, but ran into two days later in Terminal G of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

humbled, excited, and needing sleep

When was the last time you were blown to tears by the grace of God? by his insistent, loving hand moving in your life and in your heart to show you (yet again) that He is the Sovereign, He is the King, and to reassure you that He is good, does good, and his covenant faithfulness or hesed pursues you all the days of your life? When was the last time you were deeply thankful for God saying “no” to your request–and not thankful because you initially wanted to be thankful, but only thankful because in your disappointment at the “no” you still knew that God has your best in view, that He knows what you really need? When were you last reminded that when you ask for something and God overrules you and says “no”, his promises are all still Yes in Christ Jesus?  When was the last time a good friend reminded you that God’s sovereignty and his providence are never opposed to each other in your life? when singing old hymns raised your eyes from navel-gazing to a jaw-dropping view of Jehovah’s grace and glory?

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32)

God’s no to my request is actually yes to what I really need, and the thing is, He knows better than I what I need. Needless to say, I’ve been blown away by God’s greatness, by his majesty, by his love, by the comfort of the reality that He is enthroned, ruling for his glory and the good of his people–and that includes me, as undeserving as I am.

God has given me new, more demanding responsibilities in my engineering job (i.e., more hours, too), when I had hoped and prayed to reduce my hours for more time support raising. This was initially very disappointing and hard for me, but over the past two days God has done amazing work in my heart and through the prayers of his people.  I need your prayers that I will adjust well to my new schedule and have wisdom for my time-commitments.

Tonight I presented the Ukraine ministry to a group of friends brought together by an engineer who’s a former co-worker of mine. I’m so encouraged by friends and coworkers who give me the gift of time to hear how God is working in Kiev and calling me to serve there.

Part of what God may be reminding me with my new responsibilities and tighter schedule may be my limitations and my dependence on him. One of those limitations is my need for sleep, now.  Its yet another gift from my Keeper who doesn’t sleep.