Great Is Thy Faithfulness

"Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness.  Morning by morning new mercies I see.  All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided.  Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me."

We have been stunned this summer by all the ways God has provided for our needs.  I know and believe God is faithful, yet in the midst of circumstances I tend to be forgetful and begin to worry.  Several situations came about this summer, one where I was laid off my job working with the Gas and Oil companies and a few other minor situations with our car.  After getting laid off, no more than two or three days later, a friend of mine from school who lives here said the man he works for needed an extra hand, and I started right away.  This job provided me with more flexibility to go to my step-brother's wedding, to see my family in the Poconos and visit my sister in New York City.  So money was tight this summer due to the job situation and being newlyweds, yet time after time God brought people into our lives, whether it was a check in the mail or someone who forgot to give us their card for our wedding.  Next, our car failed inspection because of some minor rust on our wheel wells and again, the man I got hired to work for gave me a extremely generous amount of money in order to fix the car.  God is faithful to provide for the needs of his children.  Earthly fathers give good things and so, no doubt God knows how to provide for us.  It amazes me how far-reaching the provisions of God are.  He provided a sacrifice in His Son Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of every single one of us, and then on a day-to-day basis, He never ceases to amaze.

So here we are, back at New Tribes, I, Josh, working in maintenance, getting the school ready for students in 2 weeks, and Felicia working in the front office, preparing for registration.  We have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us as even though we have graduated from NTBI, there is still an opportunity to be prepared by the Lord here for current and future ministry.  Please pray for us as we will meet a class of 70+ freshman in a little while, while also welcoming back good friends.  We have opportunities to receive discipling and to give godly counsel to those who seek it here at school and come alongside others in their understanding of God's Word.  Please pray for Felicia and I to grow in our marriage here, to dig into ministry with one another and see the Lord's work.  Pray as we enter our church here and work with the youth, that we would be diligent, humble and able to form relationships with teenagers.  Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray for us to trust God with finances and our lives.

Here are some prayer requests for New Tribes:

• For students to have open and humble hearts to God and His Word so that they might understand Him and deepen their relationship with Him more.
• For many to commit their lives to serving God in carrying out the Great Commission
• For the 2 billion+ unreached people of the world to come to know Christ which means we must also pray that we the Church must trust God to use us to do something

An interesting thought I had the other day that applies to those in need of Christ and us who believe, who struggle with our acceptance before God.  "It is a challenge by God for us to believe that despite all the rottenness and depravity that lies within all of us, that God desires us.  To get past our pride and/or self-pity and realize and believe that God gave up everything He possibly could because He wanted us back from the pit of sin we led ourselves into.  That is something I must believe to be true about God."