NEWSLETTER: May 2015 prayer/fasting

Seasons are changing and God is working in my life.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8  (KJV)

Seasons are Changing

The season of formal language learning is coming to an end as you may have read in my May newsletter earlier this week. A new season will begin. Actually, there will be many things that begin. I'm not even going to try to list a few those.

In a podcast that I have been listening to, the speaker, Graham Cooke, tells a story of a woman coming to ask for advice. She had been recently diagnosed with cancer and her prognosis was dishearteningly short. He proceeds to tell her that death is not one of the things he will attempt to share prophecy about. Instead, he challenges her to ask God what He is going to be for her now that she has cancer that he couldn't be for her before.

This concept has been heavily laden on my mind and spirit over the recent weeks. I have been in and out of a variety of seasons over the last 18 months as I prepared to come to Africa and now that I'm here. In all that has changed over the past few months and so many changes to come as Melody and I transition to the village, what does God want to be for me? Melody has been lead to point out that He wants me to find my identity in Him. She is overjoyed to walk this journey with me and I am literally without the words to describe my gratitude for her help and patience. What a blessing it is that God saw fit to put us on the same team so she could help me through this process!!

Through some prayer and discussion, I have decided it would be beneficial to take the next two weeks to be more intentional about spending time with our Heavenly Father. It will be a time to find comfort in Him as He is the one thing that does not change.

I ask you to join me through prayer.
-please pray for a women's retreat that we are going to this weekend. (It must be a season for retreats because I know of two that recently happened in the states.)
-continued relationship growth between Melody and I
-my heart and mind to be open to what God wants me to hear and closed to the lies of the enemy
-perseverance to finish formal language learning strong
-joy to begin continued language learning in the everyday setting of the village
-time to process and anticipate the changes to come for the new season of adjusting to village life

What season are you in right now? If it is difficult, then what can you be doing to make the next one more enjoyable?

Also, I encourage you to ask yourself the same thing. If you are going through a new, unique, or challenging season (or maybe one is on the horizon), what is God wanting to be for you now that He could not do before?

I welcome your thoughts about this and encourage you to share what the Lord tells you with someone else that may need to hear the same words.

May you have a blessed and beautiful weekend!

Katherine