Pieces of the Puzzle ~Part 2

Part 2

The last week has been an amazing time of seeing what God has been doing behind the scenes. So full of confirmation that what we are working on is what God wants us to be doing. But first let me tell you what God did to bring us to this point. The story is long so we will be breaking it up into parts. For part one go here 

In October of 2001 I went to Russia on a 9 month mission trip. I thought it was something God had called me to do but in reality I was trying to be a missionary on my strength. It was the the hardest thing I had ever done at that point and because of various situations there I returned home in May 2002. Completely broken and with no desire to have anything to do with God or Christianity. 

While I was in Russia, my parents decided to change churches. I was not pleased. I wanted to go home and hang out with my old friends at my old church. Not start over at a new church. Honestly, the only reason I went was to keep my parents happy. I had no intention of getting involved or even liking it but slowly God started working in my heart. I met real Christians who loved God purely and passionately and as a result showed His love to me when I doubted His existence. I wasn't all the way there yet but I started seeking God again. 

Jose attended his first Encounter God weekend in February 2002. There he was liberated from all addictions, affirmed as a son, understood the true cost of sin, was filled with the Holy Spirit and given vision for his life. The following month our pastors went to Lima, Peru. They visited a church and an orphanage. When they showed the video and gave testimony of what they saw Jose's heart began to race. God was showing him another piece of the puzzle. He couldn't believe a white guy from Katy, TX went to his country to minister the gospel. After that service Jose went up to our pastor to talk to him for the first time and told him "The next time you go to South America, I'm going with you." 

Later that year Jose was commissioned to minister to men. At that time God had spoken to Jose to talk to his dad about Jesus. He visited his dad in November and presented the gospel and testified of what God had done in his life.

It took 2 years of God preparing Jose before he accompanied Pastor to South America.

2 months after Jose went to South America we got married. Thinking we would be missionaries in 5 years...

Part 3 tomorrow

Deeper!

This year has been such an amazing year for us. I can't believe it's only half over! I feel like we have all grown and learned so much just from experiencing God. I could go on about this for awhile but there is so much else for me to talk about that I'll save it for another post. ;)

One of the biggest blessings for us was something that just happened! Jose and I planned our trip to the states in March so we could be a part of the Intense mens conference/father son campout. The only downside, we couldn't stay long enough to be a part of our 15th anniversary conference. So we enjoyed our time there. Only told a few people what we had faith for and PRAYED. So 2 weeks before the conference Jose gets an email that the tickets have gone down to half the normal price (the only time we have seen that happen) so we got blessed with the tickets to go to Houston! We surprised our Pastors and most of our church and had a great weekend of spiritual refreshing! I can't even begin to describe all the ways we got blessed last week while we were there. I will just summarize by saying that God is always, always faithful! He provided for every need we have and used some amazing and often surprising ways to do it. :) 

Some highlights from the conference

*We burned the note! Our building is paid off and Jordan Ranch is more than halfway there! I can't express how exciting this is for us!

*Jose turned 10! He got saved 10 years ago at the 5th anniversary conference. I will always be grateful to God for bringing Pastor Watkins to Katy Tx 15 years ago. Without him my husband would not be the man he is today. We will never forget where we came from!

*The teaching from the other covenant pastors. So awesome to hear the word from brothers in the faith!

*Seeing 57 men, women, and youth get commissioned!

*Visiting with Pastor Carven and Juanita Izaks from Namibia, South Africa. A brother and sister in the Lord and we love having them as a part of our family :) 

*The look on Pastor GF's face when he saw us walk into the sanctuary!

* Seeing so many people we love! We didn't have enough time to spend with most of you and we really wish we could have. But it was encouraging as always to see you and hear what God is doing in your lives!

There is too much stuff to list on one post!

   

One of the things we got blessed with was THE camera I've been praying for. I took over 300 pics and narrowed it down to about 90 favorites. So here are some of the best of the best. Or at least some of my favorites :)

We also got to say hi to some of our family. My niece is cuter than ever and likes Jose more than me. It's really not fair ;) Also my brother looks like an adult now. Which is so weird because when I think about him he is still in his 15 year old body. Why do they have to grow up (I admit he is almost 24 so I should probably adjust his age in my mind) 

For Nothing is impossible with God ~ Luke 1:37

The Exchange

Last night some ladies from Powerhouse had a fund raiser for us called "the exchange" everyone invited brought purses,  jewelry, belts etc... and got to bring home some new things. I thought it was a really cute idea. To raise money they had a small cover charge, raffles, photo ops. It was amazing and so, so fun. They asked me to speak about what we do. I should pause and say I love writing. I love sitting at my blog taking my time to carefully write out my thoughts. When I pause to think about the next thing I'm going to say I do not type um or and uh. So I'm much more eloquent in print than in person ;) Public speaking is very difficult for me just in general. It was really only by the grace of God that I did not faint or get completely tongue tied. I made it! and I spoke for 12 minutes! yikes! I got a little too wordy there (yet another reason I prefer writing to public speaking. ha)

One of the fun things for me last night was getting to talk to Viola (hi *waves*) I'm pretty sure we met before but it was fun to talk to her (as short as it was) because she reads this blog :) I have to admit sometimes I think that only a few people read this and it is fun for me when people talk to me about it. I also love it when people leave comments! So if you read and think I don't know you well enough for you to comment that is so not true! I would love to know who you are. So even if we've never met please, let me know what you think about whatever I'm talking about. If you want to email me (or jose) directly my email is jkmission2peru@gmail.com If you have questions about the mission or anything else feel free to ask. I love it! seriously. Comment, email, go nuts :) I promise we don't bite

God is really good

Before Christmas I made a paper chain for the boys to count down the days until Christmas. Logan thought it was the single greatest idea he had ever heard. He loved it. Since then he has been looking for a reason to make another one. Last week he found one. We will be returning to Houston on February 23rd.
Our church is amazing and when we told them we wanted to take a break and spend a couple months at home they told us they would pray we could work it out and they started doing fundraisers of all kinds to help us make that happen. They blessed us with tickets and we are looking forward to going home for about 7 weeks. We will be visiting some covenant churches and look forward to meeting some new people and telling them what we are doing.
Thank you for those of you who prayed/gave/fund raised or all of the above.
Houston, we are coming home!