Two Weeks and Counting Down....

Two weeks from today I will leave on a short term mission trip to Romania...making a short stop in the Czech Republic on the way there.  This time will be different than the rest...I get to work with two of my sons (Elijah and Nehemiah) and Preston Kane.  It has been a journey in preparing for this trip.  We are contucting a music camp in Beius, Romania under the direction of the Romanian Evangelistic Medical Missions ministry.  In the Czech Republic we are attending the KVZ Student's for Christ 20th Anniversary Celebration.  In 2009 I went to Czech on my first foreign mission trip and worked with KVZ.   It is very exciting to get to return there if even for a short stay.  I have maintained contact with several people whom I am privilaged to call friend and praise the Lord that He is allowing me to see them again on this earth. 

Pray for our team as we head out to get in the middle of what God is doing in Czech and Romania.  Pray for protection on our travel, unity of the team, hearts and ears to hear God's leading through His Holy Spirit. 

Praise to God for His provision...

just a quick update on our financial support...

As of this past Sunday night we still had $3000 to raise....

total needed as of Tuesday night

$1,320

We just keep on trusting to provide our every need!

June Mission trip to Czech Republic and Romania!

June Mission Trip
Music Camp at Casa Josef
Beius, Romania
June 15-27, 2011
June Mission Team:
Paula Daves, Elijah Daves, Nehemiah Daves, Preston Kane

I just want to give an update on where we are for raising our financial support for our June mission trip.
Praise the Lord for all His provision!  We are almost there... 
Total Expenses: $8000 (for the me, Elijah and Nehemiah)
Amount raised as of June 5th: $7355....Yeah!
Amount still to raise: $645
Three and a half days to go.....
Praise The Lord!!!!

We will be leaving on June 9th for our mission trip.  The Lord has opened the door for us to go to the Czech Republic for 5 days before going to Romania.  We will be joining KVZ Students for Christ in Czech for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the start of their ministry.  I had the privilage in 2009 of going to Czech and working with KVZ on my first foreign mission trip.  We will spend time in Brno and Prague.  Outside of the celebration day, we will spend time with the Believers there encouraging them in the Lord and doing some prayer walking.  Only .5% of the Czech Republic is Christian.  Pray for their nation to be open to the Gospel. 
We will then leave by train and head to Romania on June 15th.  Once in Romania, we will prepare for the music camp that will run a full week, June 21-25th!  While there, other possible opportunities are to sing and share testimony in church on the Sunday's that we are there, make agape runs, hang out at Casa Josef orphanage and play with the girls.  Please be praying for us as we prepare to serve Christ through this mission.  Pray for wisdom as I lead the team, pray for unity among the team members, that we each grow in our walk with Christ and that we could plant seeds and encourgage others in their walk with Him!

The Storm

"I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You." Job 42:5

Today I am trying to catch up on work, mission trip preparation, house work...everything it seems like.  The events of the past two weeks have changed our lives here in many ways.  A tornado swept through our small town of Ringgold, GA on April 27th, 2011.  Many homes damaged and destroyed, lives lost, businesses wiped out, our middle and high school campus torn apart.  Our home was left untouched by the terrible storm, we only lost trees.  My hometown of Ringgold, Georgia no longer looks the same.

It was about two days after the storm that I began to think about my friend Sarah Jones.  She came to my house back in January to teach a group of women from God's Word for a gathering I called "Invitation".  She spoke of the "Invitation to the Storm".  She would then share this same teaching while we were in Romania together this past March.  The word she brought to us during those times was such a different approach to a storm than I had heard before.  She said that the storms of our lives are the times that God is inviting us to get to know Him better, to know Him more.  This was true in the life of Job.  I have heard so many people say that "we don't know why Job had to go through all the losses...including his children"  but he tells us in Job 42:5 that he had heard rumors of the Lord, but now his eyes had seen Him.   The first time I read that I thought...That is exactly why he went through all he did. 

I don't know why God allowed the tornados to sweep through Ringgold, parts of Alabama and Tennessee.  But what I do know is that God is Soverign!  He loves us so much and with a love that will never end.  His Word tells us that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us.  The storm itself has ended, but the path of destruction it left is great...but our God is Greater!  This is an invitation for us to get to know Him more, to see Him with our very own eyes at work through His people.