Behind on Posting!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while. Life is incredibly busy. Mark went to Haiti for 4 days. It was a very good trip. They were able to distribute a lot of food and check out various options for future mission trips to Haiti for our church. They were encouraged by meeting with the Haitian pastor, and hopefuly, he was also encouraged by their visit.

Our son, Paul, is still in Japan. He is having a good trip, as well. It is incredible to see how God has provided for this trip. The church told Paul they would pay for the trip, but asked the guys to do fund-raisers and reimburse the church whatever they could. A couple of weeks before Paul and Dan left on their trip, they did a little concert where they shared about what they would be doing in Japan, and they lead worship for about an hour... people who attended were incredibly generous with donations that evening. In addition, Dan and Paul didn't know it, but the church leaders recorded that worship service and then gave the CDs out the next Sunday in exchange for a donation. Again, the church was incredibly generous, doubling the funds the guys had already raised. When Paul and Dan return there will be another fund-raiser at the church... a rummage sale on May 31. Email me if you want details. Paul keeps sending back beautiful photos and videos.... it helps us to feel like he isn't TOO far away. They have worked on the church building a lot.... painting, building and installing hand railings, gutters, cleaning, yard work, and more. They have attended English classes so that the students can practice conversing English with them. They have lead worship in a Japanese church. They say the Japanese love their music and keep asking them to sing more. And, they've done a lot of sight seeing. The American missionary there found them some dirt bikes, so in the evenings they typically bike around Nagano. They have been invited into Japanese homes for meals and they are enjoying spending time with the people. They said that one little Japanese girl was fascinated with their eyes, especially Paul's blue ones. :-) They come back on the 26th. Please pray for a safe trip for them.

I would also ask that you pray for Mark's business. The trip to Haiti ended up costing us some business. I am trying hard to trust God in this... God called Mark to go. And He knew that this would happen. So, it is another lesson in TRUST.

What happened is..... We had our phone company forward business phone calls to our business partners in Ohio, so that they could answer questions and take appointments for Mark while he was gone. I could've done it, but I'm not knowledgeable enough regarding inspection practices so we didn't feel it was the best option. I wasn't home much during the 4 days Mark was gone. The last day of Mark's trip I was home in the evening, and I noticed that the business line rang here at home (oh no!) and went to our home answering machine! Not good. Apparently, the phone company messed something up in the settings and the phone calls did not forward to Ohio. But, since I wasn't home I didn't realize it was wrong until late on the 4th day. So, Mark has had no work scheduled for this week, and who know what the customers who called during those 4 days thought when the home answering machine picked up. The phone has rang very little this week... there is no doubt this trip hurt the fledgling business.

Yep, this is a lesson in trust. I'm having a hard time with it. Please pray!
Thank you.