Married Life

(This is Mary writing:) It's been a very long time since this has been updated, and so much has happened in the last several months. After our wedding we settled in Fort Wayne for (what we thought was going to be) a while. We were renting from a friend who had the house on the market. Daniel had a construction job with another good friend, but since it was winter, work was pretty slow. We did a lot of praying during this time, and in late January decided to go to Dallas, Texas, and study. We were also hoping to join a missionary organization which had a new team going to the same country we hope to one day minister in.

  We enjoyed most of the classes we took. God provided housing for us in a wonderful way by allowing us to house-sit for a dear old missionary couple. But as time went on, we encountered some problems which we felt were serious enough to halt the application process with the missionary organization. Unreached people groups are unreached for a reason, and philosophies surrounding how to reach these people with the Gospel are varied and hotly debated. Plenty of theories float around, but not a lot of practical examples are presented.

  While we were mulling over these things, we found out that God had blessed us with a new member to our family! The baby is due in mid-September. Now we were faced with a very difficult decision: should we remain in Texas for the baby to be born and continue studying, or should we go back to Indiana to have the baby and work a job while waiting for an open door? After a lot of prayer (and changing our minds a few times) we felt it would be a better use of our time and resources to be in Indiana at least until after our baby is born. We've moved back to Fort Wayne, and strangely enough, back into the house we were renting before. This time our friend does not have it on the market, so we don't have that to worry about.

  In some ways it may feel like we are back at "square one", so to speak. The mission field feels as far away as it ever was. We were disappointed that things didn't work out with the mission organization, and were tempted to feel that we had wasted our time in going down to Texas. But I don't think that it was a waste; I know God had His reasons for why we were there when we were there. Some of these reasons we can see, like how we met several people going to the same field as ourselves and establishing good relationships with them, and becoming informed of what's facing the Church and the mission world right now. Also, I was able to pick up some very inexpensive basic linguistics training and Daniel was able to start on his Master's in Applied Linguistics. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray that we can trust the Lord to lead us to the right open door. Pray that we do not become so busy with "everyday life" that we forget those lost souls around us and overseas.