{"id":541,"date":"2023-10-08T02:44:50","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T07:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/?p=541"},"modified":"2023-10-08T02:44:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T07:44:53","slug":"spinning-plates-juggling-balls-wrangling-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/2023\/10\/08\/spinning-plates-juggling-balls-wrangling-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Spinning Plates, Juggling Balls, Wrangling Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus– the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” -Acts 20:24

Yesterday there were 25 children in my yard. \u00a0They were tossing balls, hurling darts, and pushing each other off a dirt mountain. \u00a0It was craziness. \u00a0And yet, I was so thankful for it, because it was Wyck’s birthday party, just a few years after I was so worried about him because he did not yet have any friends here.

Some people talk about juggling balls or spinning plates when they talk about having a lot of different things to try to keep going. \u00a0I think that wrangling a mob of sugared-up children also illustrates it well.

That is what our lives have felt like this past month. \u00a0We have a lot of different things going on. \u00a0Trying to do them all well has been difficult and hectic, even though we are extremely thankful to be a part of them all. \u00a0For Matt, this has meant trying to balance his director duties while continuing to work on his counseling degree online. \u00a0For me, it has meant trying to balance being a teacher, leading our center’s care team, and being a good mom. \u00a0In addition to these things, we have been really trying to love those around us well, and as always, the the needs around us and the time we feel we need to spend encouraging others far exceeds our capacity to do so.

Please pray for us this month, as there are more things coming up for us. \u00a0This month there is a conference for all the western area bush missionaries, which is in a region of the country far from where we live, so we will spend a week out there with them. \u00a0Pray that we can connect with and encourage them well. \u00a0The day after we return from that, school will start again, so pray that Karissa can teach and invest in her students well.

Please pray for wisdom for us, to know what to do when, that each day God would help us to love well, and that we can finish the work He assigns to us to do.

Till all know,
Matt, Karissa, Ty, and Wyck<\/td><\/tr>
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Some of the kids on the dirt mountain<\/td><\/tr>
Praise God:
-We were able to attend the conference for the central area missionaries and connect with some of them
-Karissa and the boys are on a school break right now
-for answering prayers for friendships for Wyck
-Matt is almost done with his current class
-Karissa was able to attend a training on how to debrief people after crisis incidents

Please Pray:
-For safety and a fruitful time at the western region conference
-For Karissa as she finishes grades for last term and begins planning for next term
-For Karissa as she has been dealing with some eye strain
-For Ty as he is having recurring lung infections and issues. \u00a0Pray for health for him and wisdom for our clinic.
-For more support workers to join our team. \u00a0We are in desperate need of a doctor and more teachers.

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What are we supporting? \u00a0This month’s tribal focus: \u00a0Pray for the Patpatar church. \u00a0The gospel was first preached in Patpatar in 2008, and a\u00a0church was born. \u00a0However, since then they have dealt with persecution. \u00a0In 2017, the missionaries moved out, and the unbelievers thought that if they threw one of the church leaders, Tokiung, off of his land, they could stop the church from continuing. \u00a0God had other plans. \u00a0Inspired by the book of Acts and how God used persecution to spread the gospel, the church began looking for how God might use this. \u00a0As a result, the church leader decided to move to another location in the Patpatar people group and begin teaching the gospel. \u00a0In 2019 a second church was born in this new location. \u00a0Continue to pray for\u00a0this church, for continual strength, unity, and love for Jesus.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus– the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” -Acts 20:24 Yesterday there were 25 children in my yard. \u00a0They were tossing balls, hurling darts, and pushing each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1074,"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-541","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\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}