The Calm before the Storm

Last week was supposed to be a time for us to prepare ourselves for the next 7 months of Volunteers. Unfortunately, time to prepare rarely happens around here. There is so much to do and things just creep in on us. This past week, we finished our entrepreneur training at Living Way. We now have to mentor these folks to help them write their business plans etc. so they can get capital to start their businesses. Next week starts the “storm.” We will have two teams here at the same time involving 33 people arriving on Monday evening. We also have an individual volunteer arriving with them. They are all from the Nashville area, so we are excited to hear some good southern slang. One group is a sports ministry and the other is an Academic Study Abroad group. This will keep us very busy for the next 13 days. From this time forward we have 25 teams coming to do volunteer work and 26 individuals that will be here anywhere from 30 days to a year. We are excited to have them come but it can be tricky in getting everyone organized where they feel the most useful in the ministry. Please pray with us as we seek to place each one where they are the best fit. Also, pray for them to be content. We have a lot of college age students that are quite set in their ways and we know God wants them to be obedient and content in whatever job they are doing. This can be difficult when you have 3 or 16 people here at the same time all doing different duties thinking they have it tough and want to do something different. This was one of the main reasons we had to keep their stay to a minimum of 30 days. It usually takes 2 weeks for them to adjust.
I hope the “storm” isn’t like the storms that rolled through here last night. We had wind gusts up to 35 miles an hour and about 6am this morning we heard this crash of glass, and of course our first thought someone has broken in, but after we got ourselves awake we realized it came from next door. We proceeded to put on our rain gear and check it out. Turned out our neighbor had left his window open and the wind blew the window off. We are expecting more rain today, so this has turned out be a good day to stay indoors get prayed up (this is a joke of course we stay prayed up) and catch up on work. We are beginning to get into winter here but it is usually rain with wind instead of freezing and snow. It is quite different from Tennessee. Thanks for your prayers and support because we couldn’t do this without you!