Once again....

...God has shown how His ways are not our ways. He has a much bigger plan than we often see or understand. Last week, as I mentioned in a previous blog, did not go exactly as we had planned. But we sensed God's peace and provision in that despite the many setbacks. We planned to leave much earlier in the week than we actually left, but with Trey getting sick, we weren't able to. When we were traveling through New Mexico on Tuesday, I checked my email to find a prayer request from a missionary couple that I know through my brothers. They are with a mission agency called UIM that establishes indigenous churches among Native Indian, Mexican, and Hispanic peoples of North America. Paul and Laurel (the couple I got the email from) are with the missionary aviation part of UIM. Their email explained that UIM has an immediate need for a caretaker to help with the grounds of their 5 acre business and service center in Glendale, Arizona (which just happens to be about 20 minutes from my work). This would involve mowing the grass, helping care for the grapefruit orchard, and doing miscellaneous jobs around the place (which would be about 15-20 hours a week). The caretaker would be able to stay in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house at no cost - just utilities would need to be covered. I was so excited when I read the email because we are needing a place to live. We are hoping to buy a home eventually, but in the meantime, we were thinking of staying in a condo or an extended stay hotel.

I called Laurel and she put me in contact with a woman named Lynn at the UIM office. I explained our situation to Lynn, and she met with us this morning. We discussed many different things - she said she is really thinking this could work well for us. We don't know if it will be a short term thing for us or a longer term thing. We are excited because we could really learn more about missionary aviation - this is something that David has been considering anyway, so we would have a lot of exposure to by living there. We are excited about the opportunity to serve God in this way and get to know other believers. There are lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit trees on the property.

The front of the duplex we would live in

The back field with the grapefruit orchard to the left

The back of the duplex - the other half is a guest house for visiting missionaries and we would be responsible for changing sheets, etc.

We are going to call Lynn in the morning to find out her answer (based upon our references, background checks, and her talking with the board). We were just blown away at how God is opening up this opportunity. If Trey hadn't been sick, we would have left Knoxville much earlier. We probably already would have been settled into a place short term by the time we got that email yesterday afternoon. Seeing God work in all these details has strengthened our faith the last couple days. Please pray with us that we will know what God has for our family.

I love Trey's fascination with the littlest things

We had a lot of errands to run after we met with Lynn. I had to go to the AZ Board of Nursing and to Human Resources at the hospital. That took all afternoon while David and Trey looked around for a bank for us. We came back to the hotel tonight and went swimming. It was fun to splash around and cool down. All is set for me to start work on Monday morning. Once we know about this caretaker opportunity, we will be able to get our belongings delivered.