This journey we are on can not be done without God.  I have been reminded over and over again through this that God is faithful and will provide.  Yet much like the Israelites after leaving Egypt I have forgotten about His goodness. I get to a place of self-suffuciency, or at least I think so, and forget about His promises.

God has provided for us in so many ways over the last several months as we have stepped out in obedience to His call to Cape Town.  He provided a quick sell of our home.  He has provided the financial pieces of the puzzle.  He provided when it came time for Tate  to inform his company about our move.  The Lord has stepped up to the plate each time for us and provided beyond our expectations.  But I still got self-sufficient.  I easily got to a place where I forgot about all GOD was doing...not me.

This week we got news that what we thought was going to be our plan for our girls schooling might not work out.  What is the first thing I do....I try to fix it myself....I start worrying.....

I was reminded of something I recently read in a book Circle Makers by Mark Batterson and knew it was a reminder from the Lord.

"We want a one-week or one-month or one-year supply of God's provision, but God wants us to drop on our knees EVERY DAY in raw dependence on Him.  And God knows that if He provided too much too soon we'd lose our spiritual hunger.  He knows we'd stop trusting  in our Provider and start trusting in the provision.  We seem to want God to provide more so we need Him less."

My lesson in all this is simple....I don't want to lose my spiritual hunger.  God is the same today as He was to the Israelites.  He literally provided their daily bread each day but yet they forgot.  I don't want to lose my hunger or need for MY PROVIDER.

Brooke and I have just returned from (3) weeks of training at Mission Training International in Palmer Lake, CO.  We went through their SPLICE class which is a pre-field training program designed to help equip you for cross-cultural missionary service.
It was an amazing facility with an even more amazing group of trainers and staff.  The things we learned and the aspects in which we were challenged gave us so much insight into who we are, what we believe and how to deal with the challenges to come.  We gained so much from hearing wisdom from others and have been humbled by their faith and their call to service.  We developed surprisingly deep friendships during such a short time and look forward to seeing how God works through these ministries all across the globe.

Oh yeah and we cried our eyes out.  Brooke more than me…..but unfortunately not by much.  We also got to do some sightseeing in a new part of the country we hadn’t spent much time.  I loaded some pictures on the "Photos" page if you want to check it out. 

As we went through the training I tried to note things that stuck out to me or resonated along the way.  As I was looking back at my notes I noticed I wrote:

“How much do I let my cultural view dictate my biblical interpretation versus how much of my biblical interpretation frames my cultural view?”

I asked Brooke why I would have written that and to my surprise she didn’t know.  Go figure.  I don’t really know either as it was just on a scratch piece of paper and not associated with any one particular session that we did.  I am pretty impressed with my deep thought on that though and only now have really started to ponder it. 

How much do we let society and culture frame how we interpret scripture?  Do we cherry pick scripture and assign a meaning to it so it can support our social stance on topics?  Of course we do.  But shouldn’t we interpret scripture first and then let it frame where we stand on social views?  Of course we should.

“Different is not necessarily wrong; wrong is wrong!”

What a blessing we received by being challenged through this training.  As they plainly state the purpose of the program is and I can attest to its success we have:

• gained a more accurate knowledge of our motives, drives, joys, fears, strengths and weaknesses
• interacted with God and allowed Him to show His grace in the midst of both our current and anticipated joys and pains
• physically, mentally and emotionally left our personal comfort zone and will go wholeheartedly to the world of others who are different
  
  

We will continue to process and learn and are blessed to serve a God who is God, a God who is faithful and a God who is good.