After working through medical clearance, we are finally on the official countdown to leave. We will depart from Memphis, TN on Saturday the 19th for Kenya!

The last month has been an interesting time of stretching. After going to have my glasses prescription updated, I was sent on a whirlwind of medical tests to rule out some pretty hard sounding things. When it was all settled, I was put on medicine for reflux and an over-the-counter eye drop. I can't tell you how thankful we were.

As we are now cleared to go back to the place where God has called us to serve and Glorify Him, I am looking back over things I have been shown in the past. One is Is. 61:1-3. Years before details worked out for us to be in Kenya, I was working through this call on my life. Jim was not called yet, but God had made it very clear to me that I was set apart for His service. As I prayed through that, I read these verses in Is. one day in my quiet time. They became alive, and it became clear that all I would do serving the Lord would fall within these guidelines.

Yesterday, as I sat in our home church, I was thinking about the medical scare and how it had resolved. I was able to sing and praise the Lord without discomfort in my throat for the first time in a long time. I thought about how that acid had prevented my voice from being able to preform that action. It reminded me of how so many Christians have experienced hard things that effect them in such a way that they no longer praise Him with their lives. It felt so good to be able to sing. I then thought of the vision issues I had been experiencing. I had been seeing double for about two years - blurring my vision. It turned out that the whole thing was caused by dry eyes - which made my eyes see two images. My mind also though of these same Christians that had been hurt and unable to praise the Lord seeing two pictures, one of the worlds view and one of God's view. They are dry in their walk with Him - and they are unable to see anything clearly.

We are leaving for Kenya, and my prayer is that we are used to Glorify Him as we share with people that have never heard, people that have heard but have never believed and trusted, and also with people that have been burned and are dry.

Pray with us that we would indeed be living hands and feet used by God to do exactly what Is. 61:1-3 says. Read it. Then read vs 4. God showed me that verse years later - as the reward.

May we all be found guilty of doing these things - for His glory - until He returns!

¹The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
²To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
³To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
⁴Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,
They will raise up the former devastations;
And they will repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.