Summer Plans?

Or more like summer mixup!! As usual, our best laid plans.... well, we try our best, but sometimes God fills in the "blanks" with totally different ones. Of the four summer trips we would be in charge of, it would appear only one is a definite. Now, this makes me nervous, because in my world of total control and preplanning, these trips would have been in the final planning stages. I find myself, however, off to church to pick up the "response" cards that we include in support letters. There are currently three sets of cards, each for a different trip. Already, one set of these cards has the wrong info on them... And, as you have likely already assumed, we have done NO, I repeat, NO kind of support raising for any of these trips. Now, hmm... what to say?

This is the part of missions work that I struggle with the most, I'm quite sure. I hate asking for anything, especially money. I don't mind asking for prayer, but money?? At the same time, I know that if these letters don't go out soon we'll be pinching it last minute. Every year I am bugging T about needing to know about summer sooner and every year it's always last minute. I do not like that. That's just me. When my husband talks about being a full-time missionary, I cringe. This is one reason, money, and how to raise it. The second is for another post! Money, as my parents used to say, doesn't grow on trees!

This is not to say that I don't believe God that He will provide. I do believe that, but I also believe that we need to not assume that He will, we need to ask Him to, to listen to Him and to be responsible about the way we are sent out. Last year we came very close, in fact, we were a bit under in our "fundraising". Fortunately, the difference was covered by our huge budget. It did make me wonder a bit, though, about why that would happen. I know it's not all about money, but the fact remains that without it, trips would be a no go.

So, here we are, once again, mid March, no support letters have gone out. In fact, we are not even sure where anyone is going this summer or when. What does that mean for me? I have no summer vacation plans, I could not sign up the girls for camps, which are now all full, I don't have a clue whether my husband will be around for most of the summer or not or where he will be. That's my life right now! That and meetings all the time about all these trips. Some are here, some are elsewhere, some are planned, some are last minute. We are busy but there is nothing on our calendar. So, sometime around next August or September, when life has calmed down a bit, I'll let you know how this all turned out!