Finally...some warmer weather!

Seriously, I was getting really tired of enduring 60 degree weather everyday...at last, spring is here, and I can once again count on 70, 75, or 80 degree days. It's a dog's life. We've had over 7 inches of rain so far this year, which is huge, since the yearly average is 10 inches, and the rainy season is in August. The farmers are happy, the floors are dirty...etc.

Anyway, various things to write about...my parents and Keith and Ruth came to visit for a week or so, which was nice. The extra boys have moved out of the dorm, and I've moved to a bigger, more comfortable room. (The whole dorm smells much better!) Aside from a few cold showers last week, due to our water heater cracking, things are much more comfortable around the house. The roof is almost on the newest house, so they can start with drywall soon, and the fence has been completed all the way around the campus (except for the razor wire and cement undergirding). We have a host of new sidewalks, making it much easier for the poor souls cleaning up the mess after every rain when kids of all ages track mud all over the floors, not to mention a new basketball court and a couple of new hoops. All of this work has been done by teams from Congerville/Eureka, ISU, on-campus staff, and random visitors. Also, Jon and Amy Gerst came for a quick visit, which was a nice Leo reminder.

Prayer Requests:

Josiah (whom I've named Throckmorton)(this will also serve as the monthly profile) is our newest family member. He was born to an extremely malnourished mother and weighed just 3-4 pounds at birth. We got him at 5 days old, and since then Steph, Jodi, and assorted others have been trying to keep him alive, which is no easy task, given the circumstances. He doesn't eat very well (acid reflux, vomiting) and actually was 4 ounces less than his birth weight today when he went for his doctor's visit. They were considering the possibility of new formula, or injecting his food with a syringe. There have been 8 hour periods where he wouldn't eat anything. Through prayer and God's provision he's made it this far. Please keep him in your prayers.

Steph and Jodi and Jenna (see above) have a lot on their plates.

Joel and Kristi have started taking care of 5 boys: Bennie, a hefty 6 month old, Daniel, Angel, Jose, and Isaac. Please keep in mind that three of these boys have been raised by single men for the last five years...One of them used a wedding-gift dish towel for a paint rag today...and then asked permission. I think my mom is sighing in remembrance right now. I'd like to think I wasn't like that when I was growing up, but alas...

Jonathan and Bere have a big wedding coming up, with lots of preparation and separation. (Bere went to Michoacan to get stuff ready, Jonathon is staying here for a few more weeks to get things ready on this end.

Speaking of the wedding, we at CVE are officially crazy. We're planning to take the secondary kids, teachers, and the Schick family to the wedding, a two day driving trip that will be a huge blessing in terms of time spent together, memories made, rapport built up...but also lots of tight spaces and travel fatigue... Please pray for protection and blessed time together.

Also, speaking of the school, we are looking for more teachers and school staff for next year, which can make things really smooth or really stressful. Please pray for wisdom and the right people at the right times, even when God's plan makes no sense to me.

A parting thought...

How many times do we make the same mistake the Israelites made with their kings, or that Gideon made with his thousands of men? We (especially me) tend to think that more organization, planning, etc. is the best, that it's up to us to get things done and accomplish the task as efficiently, cleanly, and neatly American-style as we can, when God wants to use "300" men in a very disorganized, bizarre and totally illogical way to get His plan accomplished? Do we long for the power, organization, security, and efficiency of depending on a "king" in place of the uncertainty, flexibility, and illogicalness of depending on God and His system of "judges?" How often do we miss the blessing of taking things one day at a time with God and His plan as opposed to trying to figure it all out on our own, with all our ducks in a row, everything laid out? Will we be content to rely on God's unorthodox "marching around Jericho" for our problems, or will we want a good, logical, American, money-driven, efficient, planned out solution? Are we submitted enough to wait on the Lord?

Along with that, the primary reason for wanting a king was the poor conduct of Samuel's sons. This says a lot of things: first, the importance of rearing well, not just governing well; second, the idiocy of wanting a king (whose sons will tend to be just as corrupt as Samuel's, if not more) in place of God's chosen judge. Also, how often are spiritually dead people turned away from Christ by the corruption in our hearts, the selfishness, the materialism, the dependence on man and his solutions? How often are we the reason people won't accept the uncertain (yet certain) way of the Lord? Are we the ones who drive others (even in the church) to seek a humanistic solution to their problems?