New...what a great refreshing word. "New". Maybe I'll focus on the 'new' today to give you a quick (ha, I always think it will be a short post) update in a few areas of life for us.
First off we are still marvelling in the wonderfully encouraging and fruitful and fun visit we had with my (Stephanie) parents over Christmas. Wow, God is good to have allowed them to come at such a time. Made Christmas so easy for us all the while we have many new friends here in Belize who have such a similar story to us and were unable to spent their Christmas with loved ones. Thank you Lord!
Loved ones. That will lead to my second praise that we marvel in almost daily. Our greatest prayer before coming was that God would provide good friends for both us and the kids to be surrounded by. He hears the prayers of his people indeed and he give us the desires of our hearts! We have several families that we get together with several (ok, about 4 or more) times a week! They are amazing believers in the same powerful God. We are each on a different journey in the same place doing life together and it's awesome to see God provide in so many ways. We learn an incredible amount from each others victories and trials. I feel that my heart will be forever divided and torn now. We have family and friends at home that we love and we now have friends that are as close as our family here. What a blessing they are!
New on the work front: Today Chad registered a business. Shoots Alive is the name of our company. That is the first step to getting a work permit which will allow us to sell product and hopefully draw an income sometime soon as well as bypass the need to go to immigrations every 30 days to get a stamp and approval for an additional 30 days in the country. There is a fee to this as well so we will be happy when we can apply as dependents under Chad's work permit. All in good or God's time though.
New also is the next phase of our business. We have had a great success with our mini sprouting system. We are feeding our 16 broiler chickens fresh sprouts several times a day and juicing barley grass for our morning wake up drink. So, now we are moving onto a building a second system with some modifications. We need to source as much as possible from here in Belize. The import fees are too high to make it feasible to sell the system without sourcing it here. Chad heads out tomorrow to see what we can get made here. The next system will be automated. Right now we are hand watering due to several reasons. One we have little plumbing expertise and second there are some parts that we are unable to get here that we need. They are on order for the next system and will be smuggled...I mean brought in with Chad's parents. (Don't worry Mom, I'm kidding!)
The next "new" thing God is doing is exciting for us. We have had a heart for the village people (locals not the YMCA singers!) since we got here. Through circumstances we have decided to leave the church we were attending and start a new church with the same pastor that was at our old church. Although we don't have a building in the village yet to host church we are hoping that in time that God will open a door to have the church very accessible to villagers. So, we went from a church with 300 + people to .....94! Pretty good for the very first Sunday! It's pretty informal yet as we have only had one Sunday together but you can pray that with all the pieces that need to come together yet we would all be spirit lead and the appropriate leaders would arise to fill positions. We are excited to see what God does.
New at home: We have new neighbours. Ok maybe we are the new neighbours still but the Canadian's that own the property we rent on are back. Chad picked them up from the airport on Tuesday and it was our first time meeting them. Lovely people that have been running several mission projects and teams here for about 10 years. We are also excited at the opportunity this may bring for us to learn and help out with missions teams.
New on our hearts: It has been amazing to see how slowly and surely God has been putting puzzle pieces together for us. I'm thankful He doesn't reveal things to us any sooner than we can handle. Amen? It has been through several different ways that God has challenged our thinking and broadened our thoughts on "this time we are in". We have been reading through the Bible from the beginning with the kids. I've actually never done that yet! True. So, we came across the teaching on Sabbath (or Shemitah) years in Leviticus 25 where God says to plant and work your land for 6 years but the 7th is to be a year of rest for the land. It was meant so that God could show how he provides for us. Then we were introduced to the Jubilee year. Where after every 7 Sabbaths/Shemitahs (each Sabbath is 7 years so 7 of those equals 49 years) is a Jubilee year, that being the 50th year. The year that all debt is repaid and all land returns back to it's rightful owner. In researching we been made aware of many significant world events that have occurred on these Sabbath years. Very interesting and thought provoking studying! I'm thankful that God has first showed us his greatness and providence in our life and we are now ready to expand our understanding and discernment in this area. This was part of our fruitful visit with my parents as well as they have also been studying the same topics without us ever have talked about it!
If you have interest in this topic and want to see how the world and NASA events and predictions line up with God's already spoken words here are a few links to get you started.
http://mikebickle.org/resources/series/daniel-studies-in-the-end-times
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVCcZF2Yfn4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvn9cSHJLQk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsPyne-kjoA
Don't worry we haven't gone off the deep end! We are just opening our eyes and hearts to what God is showing us and seeing that He has ordered this world and He is in control!
My final "new" is the blessing of each new day and each day I have the opportunity to start afresh. And each day I have "new" mercies just for me. I need them. We all need them. I am thankful that in my imperfections God is doing a new thing and where I am weak he comes to make me new and stronger IF I let him.
We are blessed!
I will leave you with this song that comes straight from my heart. It speaks to me all day and I pray it does for you to. The words are powerful and so true for my life.
"Yet I am confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord:
Be strong and take heart and wait on the Lord."
Psalm 27:13-14
