Day 34 - The daily grind

One of the many homeless that live by us.

It seems natural to only write about the exciting things that we see or experience down here but it may give the wrong impression that all we do is fun and exciting things.  So today I want to tell you a little about our daily struggles and pressures that we must face. 
It seems that it is a common theme among families at the school right now to be facing a spiritual battle within the home.  The enemy uses a combination of the many pressures, adjustments, and trials with our sinful nature to cause divisions in families which could eventually launch a family far away from the mission field. 

On a daily basis we must balance so many things.  We have the pressure to learn a new language and culture upon us all the time which takes up so much of our time and makes my head hurt at the end of the day.  Top this with the business of the city, not being able to get things we need very conveniently (at least it is a lot different than the States and we have no car), language barrier when trying to have simple conversation with people, living in a city far more dangerous than where we came from, the different ways of doing even simple things,the high expenses of everything, the usual challenges for Kim in homeschooling the kids, cooking, the never ending cleaning of the house, and her countless other duties, and the continued challenge of leading the family and being united in Christ.  No more peaceful runs in the solitude of the mountains and hours of peaceful prayer with God because the city is so loud and busy that there is no place to be alone.

Banana tree

For the sake of unity withing the family and peace with God we have the great privelege to get away from everything once and while and as a family just enjoy each other and be with God.  These little breaks are very refreshing to our souls and motivate us to press on toward the goal.

A monkey in the city

These are just a few things that we deal with each day so you can see where the enemy can focus to try and cause division.  Don't get me wrong, we are not complaining at all.  We count all of these things pure joy and have peace and confidence in our Sovereign God.  We are growing through this all and are loving our calling and privilege to be here.  I only wrote this because we know that so many people back in the States are praying for us and this will give you an idea of what to focus on.  We so desperately need your prayers as the enemy of God does not want any of us in his dark territories. 

We are so encouraged how we see God working not only in us but in many other families here.  So we want to confirm to you our joy in being here to serve our might God for His glory and we want to encourage you to pray for us as we advance into new territories that have been taken captive by the devil.  Gracias para orando.  Para la fama de Su nombre.

In the middle of razor wire security on every house, God's glory in His creation can't help but to shout.