thethirdtuttle
Sep 24th 2008, 10:23 PM
Right off the bant, I would like to apologize for not being on here as regularly as I used to be. Except for the past couple of weeks or so, internet access has been sporadic at best where I live due to a delinquent cable bill, so I haven't been able to check the forums as often as I would like. God has been faithful, though, in the midst of everything that my wife and I have been going through over the last few months or so. I'll share my various prayer requests in a separate post in the prayer request forum, but I'd just like to pass along some of the cool stuff that God's been doing in our lives lately. (BTW, if this post gets ridiculously long, I'd like to profusely apologize ahead of time. I do tend to get a bit loquacious at times.)
First, back on Wednesday, June 11th, my wife and I both got baptized by immersion at our church (me for the second time, my wife for the very first time). It was absolutely awesome! Satan did quite a bit to try to keep it from happening (I'll go into more detail in my prayer request post), but with God's help and empowerment, it happened anyways. We went to a little mini-class beforehand so that we understood what the procedure was and why it is so important for believers to be baptized, and then after a couple of praise and worship songs, they had us get up on the platform. There was only one other person doing it besides us, and it was a middle-aged guy. He went first, I went second, and my wife was last. Afterwards, we went to a class they had at the church about marriage, and then we went home. I'm SO glad me and my wife were able to experience that together as a family, especially since it is something she had never done before.
Second, since we became members of our church some time back in the spring, we have both become more involved in the worship team. We both love to sing, so we both are involved in choir, which is being increasingly used to help lead worship, while it used to be only every few months or so. Additionally, our church now has a new worship leader, and he is an incredibly talented young man with a passion for worship, which is exactly what our relatively new senior pastors were looking for. So, my wife and I have been up on the platform about half a dozen times or so for Sunday morning services, and it is absolutely fantastic! If you had told me five years ago I would be doing something like that, I wouldn't have believed you. Now look how far the Lord has brought us! Thinking about it makes me excited to see what the Lord has for us next.
Third, despite our car needing some fairly expensive repairs (our windshield recently developed a crack due to a small rock hitting it at the base while my wife was driving to work one day a few weeks back, and both of our rear tires need to be replaced due to a slow leak in one and extremely worn tread on the other) and our financial situation being quite tight, we were able to go up north for the past few days and celebrate our second wedding anniversary. We went up to my hometown of Petoskey, spent some time with my mom and step-dad who still live there (in the house I grew up in, at that), went up to Mackinaw City and spent a few hours on Mackinaw Island, checked out a few other places on the way back, and got in at about quarter to 4 this afternoon. God faithfully watched over our car, and us, and made sure nothing bad happened to us, and that we didn't get lost. I was a bit anxious about this, because the circumstances were somewhat similar to our honeymoon (that's a whole other extremely long story I won't go into here), but my wife kindly and lovingly reminded me that we were not on our honeymoon, and that we needed to take all of these things to God in prayer, which we did. Afterwards, I felt a whole lot better, because I had laid all of my cares at the feet of Jesus, and He carried my burden for me. Praise the Lord for a wonderful, loving wife who I can talk to about anything, and also for our amazing God who is always willing to listen to our prayers, even if they're just about seemingly insignificant things like feelings and emotions.
Fourth and finally, my wife and I were able to go to a family reunion for all of the siblings, cousins (first, second and third), and all others who are on my wife's father's side of the family the weekend after Labor Day. Once there, we will be able to rejoice with my MIL that the growth that they found on her left vocal cord was NOT cancer (I'll go into more detail about her various health struggles in my prayer request post). Also, we were able to rejoice with my FIL that he finally got his unemployment, which he had to go to court about because they claimed that HE owed THEM money, which was totally bogus and unfair. We also rejoiced with him because he is going to be able to retire at the end of this year, which means he will be able to spend more time doing woodworking, which is a hobby that he loves and is very good at. He will probably still work part-time somewhere, but that'll be just to help bring in some extra money. It's been absolutely amazing how God has provided for my in-laws this past year or so, as well, despite the fact that, except for the last month or so in the case of my FIL, neither of them have been working at all this past year. God is so amazingly faithful, and I praise and worship His name for that!
That's about it for now. I'm sure there are lots of other things that I'm forgetting, but God knows what they are, and that I'm thankful for everything He does for us, even when I don't understand what He is doing or it looks like He isn't doing anything and just doesn't care. Guess what?! He does!!! He loves us more than we can possibly imagine, and I'm SO thankful He has showered me with His love, mercy and forgiveness. Praise the name of the Lord! Woohoo!
Yours in Christ,
Benjamin
First, back on Wednesday, June 11th, my wife and I both got baptized by immersion at our church (me for the second time, my wife for the very first time). It was absolutely awesome! Satan did quite a bit to try to keep it from happening (I'll go into more detail in my prayer request post), but with God's help and empowerment, it happened anyways. We went to a little mini-class beforehand so that we understood what the procedure was and why it is so important for believers to be baptized, and then after a couple of praise and worship songs, they had us get up on the platform. There was only one other person doing it besides us, and it was a middle-aged guy. He went first, I went second, and my wife was last. Afterwards, we went to a class they had at the church about marriage, and then we went home. I'm SO glad me and my wife were able to experience that together as a family, especially since it is something she had never done before.
Second, since we became members of our church some time back in the spring, we have both become more involved in the worship team. We both love to sing, so we both are involved in choir, which is being increasingly used to help lead worship, while it used to be only every few months or so. Additionally, our church now has a new worship leader, and he is an incredibly talented young man with a passion for worship, which is exactly what our relatively new senior pastors were looking for. So, my wife and I have been up on the platform about half a dozen times or so for Sunday morning services, and it is absolutely fantastic! If you had told me five years ago I would be doing something like that, I wouldn't have believed you. Now look how far the Lord has brought us! Thinking about it makes me excited to see what the Lord has for us next.
Third, despite our car needing some fairly expensive repairs (our windshield recently developed a crack due to a small rock hitting it at the base while my wife was driving to work one day a few weeks back, and both of our rear tires need to be replaced due to a slow leak in one and extremely worn tread on the other) and our financial situation being quite tight, we were able to go up north for the past few days and celebrate our second wedding anniversary. We went up to my hometown of Petoskey, spent some time with my mom and step-dad who still live there (in the house I grew up in, at that), went up to Mackinaw City and spent a few hours on Mackinaw Island, checked out a few other places on the way back, and got in at about quarter to 4 this afternoon. God faithfully watched over our car, and us, and made sure nothing bad happened to us, and that we didn't get lost. I was a bit anxious about this, because the circumstances were somewhat similar to our honeymoon (that's a whole other extremely long story I won't go into here), but my wife kindly and lovingly reminded me that we were not on our honeymoon, and that we needed to take all of these things to God in prayer, which we did. Afterwards, I felt a whole lot better, because I had laid all of my cares at the feet of Jesus, and He carried my burden for me. Praise the Lord for a wonderful, loving wife who I can talk to about anything, and also for our amazing God who is always willing to listen to our prayers, even if they're just about seemingly insignificant things like feelings and emotions.
Fourth and finally, my wife and I were able to go to a family reunion for all of the siblings, cousins (first, second and third), and all others who are on my wife's father's side of the family the weekend after Labor Day. Once there, we will be able to rejoice with my MIL that the growth that they found on her left vocal cord was NOT cancer (I'll go into more detail about her various health struggles in my prayer request post). Also, we were able to rejoice with my FIL that he finally got his unemployment, which he had to go to court about because they claimed that HE owed THEM money, which was totally bogus and unfair. We also rejoiced with him because he is going to be able to retire at the end of this year, which means he will be able to spend more time doing woodworking, which is a hobby that he loves and is very good at. He will probably still work part-time somewhere, but that'll be just to help bring in some extra money. It's been absolutely amazing how God has provided for my in-laws this past year or so, as well, despite the fact that, except for the last month or so in the case of my FIL, neither of them have been working at all this past year. God is so amazingly faithful, and I praise and worship His name for that!
That's about it for now. I'm sure there are lots of other things that I'm forgetting, but God knows what they are, and that I'm thankful for everything He does for us, even when I don't understand what He is doing or it looks like He isn't doing anything and just doesn't care. Guess what?! He does!!! He loves us more than we can possibly imagine, and I'm SO thankful He has showered me with His love, mercy and forgiveness. Praise the name of the Lord! Woohoo!
Yours in Christ,
Benjamin