Prayer update

I want to explain to you how best to pray for us while keeping in mind that Philippians tells us to do all things without murmuring. Therefore, I do not intend for this update to be a whining session, but to inform you of some of the minor annoyances that are bothering us because we need you to pray for us.

We arrived in Mongolian with only a minor hitch that was soon rectified. It was only after we arrived in Mongolia that all the minor annoyances began to crop up. First, we realized that the faucet in the kitchen was leaking, and although I tried I could not seem to fix the leak. I cannot quite reach the part that needs to be tightened up. Then we went to use the car: the battery was dead and one tire was completely flat. Since I repaired the tire and recharged the battery, the car has run fine. Then we could not find some rather crucial items at the market like cheese, mayonnaise, etc. The hose to washing machine was clogged and had to be cleaned before Kristie could start laundry. Monday morning the rod that holds the drapes in the living room fell off the wall. On Tuesday morning, Elsie threw up on the couch. Sickness already?!? The heating in our building has already been turned on although it is 70° outside. Inside it is much warmer even though all the windows are open.

A building is being constructed to the north of us about 100 yards away. The work going on near us along with the open windows means that from early morning to late night we hear pounding, banging, yelling, sawing, crashing metal, trucks, etc. It keeps us from sleeping. Jet lag has caused me to wake up at 2 or 3 or 4 AM no matter what time I have gone to bed. Kristie has endured the same. The weariness does not help ones nerves and exacerbates the grumpiness.

The worse part is that it all looks so minor but seems so major. It is not like we can report cholera has struck or our apartment burned down. Those tragedies might elicit sympathy. Instead, we face the temptation to be discouraged, grumpy, and focused on our (minor) problems instead of being focused on important things. We could sit, have a pity party, and lose the Holy Spirit's power to impact lives for the glory of Jesus Christ ... and think that we are perfectly justified in being ineffective. After all, look at all the "obstacles" we face.

So please pray this week that we would not allow all the minor annoyances to distract us from our true purpose - loving God and loving our neighbors as Jesus loved people. Pray that we would drink in the grace that God offers us to cheerfully meet each annoyance and grow because of them. Pray for wisdom to fix the sink and for God's assistance to restore our sleep patterns.

Let me also mention the blessings. We want to publicly thank the Lord that all our luggage arrived despite the fact that our bags were initially mis-tagged. God brought our crate safely to Mongolia, gave me favor with customs, and once I figured out what I was doing I received the crate in about an hour of work after paying a $1 customs fee. On Sunday Ganpurev and Roland preached and there were nine adults and three children in attendance. We are comfortably back at home and basically moved back in. Everyone has been healthy except for Elsie's brief sickness on Tuesday morning. Thank you all for praying for us.