Please pray for Fred's travels In Africa

Fred Travels - Please Pray!
August 26-27 – Fred & Robert fly to Accra, Ghana
August 27-28 – Drive North to Tamale, Ghana
August 29-Sept.1 – Graduation and Ministry in Tamale
September 2-4 – Travel to Accra and Ministry
September 5-6 – Robert flies & Fred goes to Lome, Togo
September 6 – Preach in Lome & travel to Cotonou, Benin & Frank Parrish of WorldMap arrives
September 7-9 – WorldMap Conf. – Cotonou, Benin
September 10-11 – WorldMap Conf.– Porto-Novo, Benin
September 12-13 – Travel to Parakou, Sunday service.
September 14-16 – WorldMap Conf.– Parakou, Benin
September 17-18 – WorldMap Conf.– Natintingou, Benin
September 19 – Travel to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
September 20 – Sunday service, & Meeting with Pastors & Bill Chapel arrives
September 21 – Travel to Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso & Meeting with Pastors
September 22 – Travel to Koutiala, Mali
September 23-26 – WorldMap Conf.– Koutiala, Mali
September 26 – Travel to Bamako, Mali
September 27-30 – WorldMap Conf.– Bamako, Mali
October 1 – Frank Parrish returns to USA.
October 1-3 – Fred teaches Bible School – Bamako, Mali
October 3 – Fred and Bill fly to Dakar, Senegal
October 4 – Sunday service Dakar, Senegal
October 5 – Fred and Bill return to USA.

Update

I was pondering my busy life and realized that I have entered a whirlwind season. Often people ask me, "So what are you doing now?" Well.... let me tell you.

We just returned from New Hampshire and also Virginia. Yes I know they are not really connected however we did connect them in an asphalt kind of way....driving that is. Ha ha. While we were in Virginia we prayed for and sent our Daughter-in-law, Tina, off to Guatemala. She will be gone for about 2 weeks. Our Son Chris leaves on Saturday to join her.

On Tuesday/Wednesday, the 18th and 19th of August, Fred and I travel to NYC to pick up Dorcas Coulebly from Mali. She will become our "adopted daughter" for the next 4 years while she attends school in Olean NY. She was able to obtain a 4 year student visa.

On Friday (August 21st)we will take Marie-Louise to East Liverpool, Ohio. She will be traveling to Honduras with Mike and Becky Ingole on her first mission trip without mom and dad.

On Sunday the 23rd Chris and Tina return from their trip.

On Wednesday the 26th Fred leaves for Africa. He will not return till mid October.

Marie-Louise returns September 5th just in time for her to start school.

In the mean time, I have churches to visit and some ladies conferences planned. October 28th I leave to Palawan, Philippines. I have a feeling that I will sleep well on the plane. Ha ha!!!

Quality Time or Quantity Time

Ah the great debate between quality time and quantity time. Is it better to have a lot of devoted time to a person or project or is it the quality of time that is greater? In pondering this I have discovered that both are true and they both demand commitment. Of course individual situations often dictate whether it is quantity or quality. Even for myself it is hard to determine which I prefer. With our lifestyle so busy and unpredictable having family time is sometimes a difficult task. I have discovered that I want both quality and quantity. I want the five minute talks and the quick little e-mails but I also long for the extended moments when nothing is said but we are all in the same room together, breathing the same air, knowing everyone is close. Our relationship with God is like that. God desires our day to day devotion time be it long or short. The fact that we designate some time to Him each day is pleasing to Him and yet He longs for those times when we retreat to a hidden place for an extended amount of time and just focus on being in His presence, breathing His air and knowing He is close. "Remember the Sabbath day" isn't legalism, it's a commitment. I don't have to be legalistic to devote quality or quantity time to God, I just have to do it.

Outside

Yesterday I painted some of the outdoor white trim on my house. I do not enjoy being outside so painting the outdoor trim was not pleasant. I do like to paint but only inside. Generally speaking I enjoy any kind of painting but for some reason painting outside took most of the fun out of the job. I know most people look for a reason to be outside and even enjoy it but this was not my idea of a good time. I love projects and I am not afraid of a challenge but they are all inside. As I painted, wishing that the sun would stop glaring in my face, I thought about how we all have to do things we don't like to do. Life isn't always fun, easy or comfortable. I'm different, I know that. I feel at home in an airport and I feel my best eating food I have never had before. Yet being outside in the sun irritates me. God knew just what I needed yesterday. He was stretching me, taking me outside of my comfort zone, making me go "outside". It's good for us to do things we don't want to do. I guess it's called growing up.

In the Trash!

I was reading in Hebrews this morning and my eye seemed stuck on this one verse, " So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God."(Hebrews 3:12 Message)
I kept reading the part that says "unbelief lying around" and began imagining "unbelief" as if it were old socks, dirty dishes, or newspapers lying around my house. You know... the stuff no one wants to pick up and take care of. I could visualize the dishes, socks, and newspapers but what about "unbelief"? And yet it is true, we leave it lying around in our mind and in our heart. Sometimes the worst thing we do is pick it up only to speak our "unbelief" and lay it inside of someone else's heart and mind. Lets make it a point today to pick up our junk. I don't want to get tripped up and I certainly don't want to trip someone else up. Lets put "unbelief" where it belongs...in the trash!

Pulled in a million directions

I was feeling pulled in several directions. I am sure you know the feeling, someone wants your attention while the phone is ringing and another person is tugging at your sleeve. By the end of the day you want to collapse but there are several more projects that demand attention and before you know it it's after midnight...again. Since I am not a night person "after midnight" is not nice. That is just how I felt last night and I was visualizing those feelings and saw myself being pulled left and right back and forth. I could see my arms and legs being stretched further and further and feeling like I just might split in two or maybe three pieces. Then I knew that God had an answer for me. I could feel God drawing me toward Him but instead of feeling pulled in yet another direction I felt embraced and whole. I need to remember this, the next time I feel overwhelmed by so many of life's demands, I need to take a moment and draw close to the One who keeps me all together.

Failure

I am no stranger to failure. It seems we are all destined to fail at some point (or points) in our life. I have one failure that I have to face day after day. Several weeks ago I decided to repaint my bathtub. This didn't seem like a terribly hard thing to do. I read the box and thought, "Oh I could do that easily." I set aside the day to do the work and as the box instructed, I scrubbed and sanded, rinsed and dried the tub until I had prepped the surface and it was ready to paint. Taking my premixed spray cans I sprayed and sprayed. With every layer the tub looked better and better. Now only 2 short months later the tub is pealing and bubbling all over looking worse and worse with patches of peeled paint over top of a nasty looking tub. Failure screams at me every time I take a bath and clean the tub. I had been so sure I could do this job.
Today, as I finished my bath, I couldn't help but think that this tub fiasco is much like other events in life. Often even after much hard work the result is failure. For many these failures define them. However what should define us is the courage to try again and to not give in to the voices of defeat. I'm not going to let a bathtub dictate to me how I feel or convince me of failure. This tub won't win...if I have to I can take a sledge hammer to it and take it out. Then we'll see who wins.