Do you remember that scene in the Princess Bride where Fezzik and Inigo are trying to bring the, currently living but very recently \u201cmostly dead\u201d Wesley up to speed on Buttercup\u2019s whereabouts? Inigo realizes very quickly that to catch Wesley up, will take time that they don\u2019t have, before Buttercup is forced to marry the evil Prince Humperdink. So instead, he decides to \u201csum up\u201d the last few months\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For us, the last few months have been very full. Maybe full to distraction at times? Maybe more full than we would have liked. Sometimes full of conversations we didn\u2019t want to have, but knew we needed to have. Sometimes it was full of fun conversations, too! Sometimes it was full of encouragement from brothers and sisters in Christ. Through it all though, there has always been God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February was full of alumni coaching planning, meetings with interns and chapel small groups and Sunday School lessons and chapel sessions about missions, indoor soccer for the boys, and play practice for Addie. I suppose there was a little snow in there, and probably some other fun stuff that we didn\u2019t want to bore you with! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
March was full of ministry at church and working with the interns as they started seeing the end of the program. We had some good friends come visit (he\u2019s training to be a missionary pilot and taking Bible classes online.) There were also \u201cfinishing touches\u201d to be put on our Next Steps class. But , to be honest, we were kind of ambushed by March. Yes, there\u2019s a story there. This isn\u2019t the space for it, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April was full of meeting with interns and chapel small groups and more conversations that should\u2019ve been had a long time ago. Addie had some concerts and a weekend full of performances of You Can\u2019t Take It With You. We were also preparing for the Encounter trip to SE Africa in June. Passports, packing lists, and prayer letters\u2026 Next Steps class kicked off with 26 students trying to figure out what it practically looks like to step out of EBI into further training with Ethnos360. Tamara had her hands full (as usual) with her interns and a staff ladies Bible study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May disappeared quicker than we thought it would! We had \u201cENC \u2013 SEAF\u201d (Encounter – SE Africa) preparation conversations with our missionaries over there and the team formed here. Our 22 year old Honda CR-V needed some TLC and ended up taking 3 days partially torn apart in the driveway. Praise God for sunny days and the smooth driveway! The 21 year old Suburban ALSO let me down for the last time.\u00a0 I have been trying to get the gremlins out of it (ever since its first MI winter!) and when I had to leave a kid stranded at school during an actual thunderstorm, \u201cwe\u201d agreed that it was time.\u00a0 I shopped around and found an (only 8 years!) old Ford that I hope lives with us until I die. The rest of the month was filled with meetings at church, meetings at school, class prep, grading homework, and teaching Sunday school.\u00a0 A lot of questions were asked. \u00a0\u201cHow do we do this?\u201d \u201cHow do we fix that?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhat does God\u2019s Word say about THAT?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just a few days ago, while celebrating our niece\u2019s grad in MI, I caught a case of cellulitis that abruptly ended mine and Addie\u2019s trip planning for SE Africa. I ended up in the ER and she ended up with an early end to her school year, but no trip to see what Ethnos360 is doing in SE Africa. This was a bitter pill to swallow but we\u2019re convinced it was a wise decision. Addi can have the funds that have come in, held for another trip, next year. She\u2019ll be 18, so that\u2019ll make travel easier, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also happening in just a few days, Emma and Wyatt will be moving out of Wisconsin and on to the next chapter of their story. At the same time, \u2018Tmama\u2019 and I are staring at a new reality that we\u2019re not entirely sure we\u2019re old enough for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To say that the last 6 months have been spiritually, mentally, and physically challenging would be a bit of an understatement. But at the same time we haven\u2019t had any broken bones, cancer discoveries, or hospital admissions, either. We\u2019ve had some very hard conversations that have brought us tears and been with others whose hearts were broken by the hardness of living in a world that has been deeply impacted by sin. BUT GOD\u2026 continues to love SO faithfully, in SO MANY WAYS that we have been able to see! Just this morning as I was reading in Romans I was reminded again of my own inability to please God with my efforts, however admirable they may be. But, as Paul reminds us in chapter 5, \u201c\u2026since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God\u2019s glory. Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.\u201d (NET)<\/em> Even though \u201call the things\u2019 are hard sometimes, we know that God is working in our lives (and the lives around us, through us!) disciplining us because He loves us, like a good father loves his children, to shape us into the image of Christ! <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re looking for pictures, please make sure to visit @tmama2six on Instagram and @MathewMeanderings on Facebook\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you remember that scene in the Princess Bride where Fezzik and Inigo are trying to bring the, currently living but very recently \u201cmostly dead\u201d Wesley up to speed on Buttercup\u2019s whereabouts? Inigo realizes very quickly that to catch Wesley up, will take time that they don\u2019t have, before Buttercup is forced to marry the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}