Playing Catch Up.

Wow, it is really difficult to keep up with this blog. I left you with a cliff hanger, that's for sure.

So, we received the much anticipated phone call and were told to continue on in the process! What an exciting day! Then we started the not so exciting paperwork. Once Chandler got the email outlining the this step of the process, we had three months to get it all done. We had to complete medical forms to receive medical clearance and educational evaluations for Waverly. Chandler and I needed 10 references each with strict guidelines on who those references could be and we had to write nine position papers each. Now, the papers were no more than 2,000 characters, but it was so challenging because I have never had to work through my specific beliefs about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the church. It was good for me though. I have to know why I believe what I believe and back it up with Scripture, so I'm thankful for the challenge.

Over the course of the three months, Chandler quit Best Buy and became the interim youth pastor at our church. At the same time, I took the position as his part-time assistant and Waverly started going to Mom's Day Out, so our world was kind of rocked and our paperwork was put aside for a bit. Needless to say, we scrambled at the last minute to wrap things up and even turned in a few things a few days late, but it's done. Then, we receive an email from our SBTS representative saying our file will be read in December... December. But that's okay...I guess. Our part is done for now.

Probably the most exciting part of this step in the process has nothing to do with the application at all. Al, the IMB affinity group leader for sub-saharan Africa, called Chandler about a week ago concerning a job opportunity that had just crossed his desk. He was excited to share the news with us and asked us to pray about it over the next month. Up until this point, we had been praying about a specific job in Mozambique, but now we've kind of shifted our prayers toward this job in Madagascar. I don't want to give a whole lot of specifics at this point, but let's just say, it meets both of our desires. If this were to be God's will, it would be a clear outpouring of His grace on our lives in this situation; giving us what we don't deserve, placing us in a part of Africa where Chandler can be the pioneer, while we can live in a place around people and around another missionary family with children.

Pray with us. We have to let Al know whether this is something we're interested in or not by the end of November.