As I was looking for an image for the newsletter title, I just realized that the Anderson children’s genders and birth order matches ours perfectly. And doesn’t Robert Young make a great image of Father God surrounded by his adoring children?
That is the Father I’m referring to here, and I am happy to report that He is already hard at work to bring light into the darkness we described last month on many levels!
It all happened on a recent Monday morning:
At 6 am we heard yelling in the courtyard behind our house and police forcing their way into the apt. of some discreet Muslims that we have never met. I hear a woman inside complaining of domestic violence and a few minutes later, a pious-looking man in a long robe with flowing beard was led out in handcuffs.
At 10 am the mayor’s office rang to tell us that our work permit was ready to be picked up.
At 11:30 am, on my way home with permit in hand, I crossed the mother of 4 that lives in the apt. next door to the Muslims. The incident gave us a reason to have our first real conversation and it was miraculously warm. Let me remind you that most of the time she looks oppressed and I hear too much daily family dysfunction to be able to approach her without an agenda to "fix" her! So for the last 6 years I have smiled at, cried over and prayed for the sad kids playing in this courtyard, offered some random acts of kindness, and silently forgiven the parents weekly for the angry outbursts, stinky trashcans, exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke that invade our home through the open kitchen/bedroom windows 7 months out of the year. We have never complained, assuming that they won’t or they can’t change without the Father’s intervention, but ever since our conversation, this family has been much less invasive!
That very evening, David sent a separate e-mail to two overly busy friends of ours in the construction business, asking them to come by at the same time to talk about combining the glass block work with insulating the toilet room and plastering/painting the back of the house. The miracle was that they responded immediately and were at the house within a couple of days! We are now waiting on an estimate from them, believing our Father will provide the finances needed as well. Continue to declare with us that there will be light and that the landlord of these two apts. will give us no more trouble, or else agree to buy the house for a good price!
We were trying to please our Father by organizing a second Love After Marriage seminar, but it has fallen flat with only 4 registrations one month out. Cancelling was difficult, especially since we hear about struggling marriages in our sphere of influence every week, our neighbors not included. What was more disheartening was that 3 of the 4 registered couples were not even French! But I suspect that our Father knows our limits and allowed this "defeat" to protect the health and sanity of us and the other couple we were organizing with! Frankly, this gives us some breathing room to get our own houses in order, literally and figuratively! Here is what is currently keeping David plenty occupied, (besides still boiling water in a kettle to wash dishes while waiting for the new water heater!):
- He is craving more time beyond his 8 hrs/week to develop musical creativity
with the Lord in the House of Prayer (HOP) setting. He also enjoys meeting and connecting with others called to this ministry to establish strong foundations relationally for healthy growth. - David is streamlining and updating our outdated leighweb site, as well as working on new websites for the church and the HOP. He still diagnoses sick laptops for friends and helps out with worship most Sunday mornings.
- He has a motivated IT intern (the pastor’s nephew) working full-time with him until the end of Nov., so he is currently doubling his normal working hours at school. This intern is also a guitarist and is happily being discipled musically by David during his HOP sets as well!
- Olivia’s scholarship money did not come in due to mixed-up income figures and re-doing her dossier was another time-eating task that fell under "energy-sapping money management between 2 countries and currencies with multiple bank accounts."
- People are starting to ask us for help with different relationship conflicts. I guess this shouldn’t surprise us since the Father has healed and equipped us with a ton of relational tools in the last 20 years! Our initial efforts to help a few people as a couple were encouraging, but in truth, David is a teacher, not a pastor, and jumping into people’s messes is not life-giving for him. So I am getting curious to see what the Lord has in mind for us together in future ministry for families, if LAM does not take off here in France.
Our Father also knew that the LAM seminar would happen during Olivia’s fall break, which we didn’t know when we scheduled it 8 months ago. Now she will go back to school with her "love tank" filled up, just like the Anderson kids, instead of coming home to a week of pitching in for her parents’ ministry. And Noah comes home for his dose this Christmas!
Now hit "reply" and tell us how the Father is showing how "He knows best" in your life!
Love, Angela