Ballew Mission Journey: September/October 2010 Update

"They will be reached only if someone from outside their culture is willing to sacrifice his or her own comfortable community to reach them with the Gospel of Christ. And to go and do so, that person needs believers at home who will stand behind him with prayers and finances."
K.P. Yohannan Revolution in World Missions

I begin with this quote from the latest book I've been reading because I want those of you who are "standing behind" us to know how immensely thankful and grateful we are for you. We can not do what God is calling us to do without your help. We remain here, in our "comfortable community", for now but are longing to be on the field, in Bolivia. For whatever reason(s), God has not allowed us to GO yet. Our home has now been on the market for over 7 months, with not one single offer. As you all well know, it is the worst housing/real estate market in many, many years (some have said 30 or more...). None of this is a surprise to God. He knew very well that this is what we would be facing. He has a divine purpose for us, still, during this seemingly hopeless season. He wants us to continue to prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for the journey ahead. He wants us to continue to trust in Him and seek Him and know his mind. We are {trying} to live life as normal as possible as we wait. WAIT. God is simply telling us to wait. To be STILL and know that He is God. We must be patient, as this journey we are going to embark upon is not light. It is very,very heavy. We face many challenges that we can not even comprehend yet and God is whispering to us, "Wait. Prepare. Pray. Seek Me. " We will need much strength to go on this journey. It takes time to muster it up, and be ready. Really ready. God knows when our time is right. When it is a part of His perfect plan. We do not doubt {although we've struggled to keep that emotion at bay} that He called us. We KNOW that this is still something He wants us to do. We, in our limitless minds, think that our home is the only thing holding us back. But, if God is in ultimate control, then he is apparently holding us back and will send us at just the perfect moment and not a moment too soon.
In the meantime, we continue to educate the kids at home and try to stay in continual learning mode. It has been a neat blessing to have Lowell home to help with the schooling. We are having some amazing family devotional moments each morning, struggling through math problems together, quizzing each other on Spanish vocabulary, reading about ancient history - Greece, Rome, India, China (which is immensely interesting to me!), making messes with crazy Science experiments, and reading the classics (we read The Hobbit in September and are currently reading Farmer Boy). The boys continue their love of LEGO building, playing music, and skateboarding. Olivia is soaking up every single moment of life and just started attending a homeschool "kindergarten" class for an hour 1/2 one day a week. We chose not to sign up for any activities this semester, assuming that we could "pack up and leave at any moment". This awkward season of waiting has been a little difficult on the kids, because of the uncertainty of things. We have already sold so many of their material possessions and sold our suburban. We are blessed to be able to borrow my Mom's car, but it is so small that our entire family can not fit! As we enter the holiday season, they are anticipating "decorating" for Christmas, and it was quite sad to tell them that all of our decorations had been sold or given away! We had every reason to believe last Spring that we would be in Bolivia by now, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in a new culture, with many new traditions (and during the summer!).
Lowell has been in full blown music lesson mode for the past two months. We prayed that God would send more students for him, and He certainly came through! He has about 20 students to whom he teaches guitar, bass, piano, and drum lessons each afternoon at our home. The Lord also provided an interim Worship Leader position at another church here in the Clear Lake area for him. He leads music for a contemporary service at a traditional Baptist church each Sunday morning, helps rehearse their student band, and plays lead electric in the worship band at a different church on Sunday evenings. These are all ways God has provided for us financially during this season of preparation and waiting! Amazingly, we have not had to touch the funds that we have been raising (and continue to raise) for living and doing ministry on the field in Bolivia! We continue to be humbled at all of the financial support we have received for our mission journey. We are very close to 100% of our financial goal! Our prayer is for God to raise up 10 more families/individuals to support us with a monthly gift of $100, or 5 at $100 and 10 at $50, or 20 at $50....well, you get the idea! We need $1,000 more of monthly commitments basically.

Please continue to join us in prayer, Oh faithful friends, family, and fellow servants!

*For the remainder of our financial support to come in
*For our continued perseverance and preparation during this season of waiting
*For our home to sell or lease asap!
*That we would be united as a family and that our love and support for one another would not grow weak. To die to self daily, living in HIS spirit.
*For the vision that God has given us for the people of Bolivia to not die, but grow ever stronger in our hearts and minds!