Thankful for Encouragement

I thought about doing a thankfulness series each day of November in honor of Thanksgiving coming up. It's not really good enough to just be thankful one day of the year, but 24 days is a lot to keep up with. I did want to post today because I am genuinely very thankful today, but we'll see if this becomes a daily posting or just every now and then.

So what am I thankful for? Well today I feel very blessed regarding this ministry we're in right now. We're in the middle of raising up a team of ministry partners to support us as we go to work in the regional office in Philadelphia. So far God has raised up over 60% of our support. !! It would be really easy to just say "oh, we have 60%" or look at the numbers and think "we still have a long way to go" but honestly I really feel blessed for having what we do because it's all God's work.

Support raising has been such a great experience so far because it's shown God's provision for us. Well that's not really accurate - support raising has been great because God has shown His provision to us. In this kind of ministry it's tempting to think that we have to earn our support by having a good presentation, saying the right words, and staying on top of correspondence. The conference we went to last week reminded us that that's not the case. It is essential that we do the work we're responsible for, but that isn't at all what will bring in our partners. The Lord knows who He is going to have join our team and when we will finish (aka get to start our jobs). And Him providing support for us consistently along this journey confirms that He has called us and we are following the path He has planned for us.

So I'm thankful for that. I'm also really thankful for encouragement. (I guess this post can count for today and tomorrow ;)). In training seminars they teach us that this really is a ministry - God will use us to encourage the people we meet with. What's surprising is that the people we meet with minister to us too! (Only surprising because they don't really prepare you for that.) I love getting to meet new people and getting a better picture of people's lives that are truly following the Lord. This is such a great opportunity for us as a young couple to see great examples of what it should look like down the road when we have kids and when we decide what to do with our finances and when we have a ministry in the church. If you hadn't guessed, the people we met with tonight really encouraged us in that way!

Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to teach us and encourage us, as well as show Your hand in this ministry You've called us to!