Why?

Lately Tim and I have gotten a few emails and the like with a similar question in them.  Basically, a few folks have asked why we didn't go to Senegal.  Our desire is to be transparent in this transition and I have been meaning to address this via the blog for a while now.  Usually, by the time I get Jackson into bed, I am too wiped to do anything very productive!

Our answer to this question is painfully simple:  God said so.  It doesn't sound like much, I know, but it's enough.  It has to be!  Just over a year ago, the Lord started preparing us for a door that was going to close.  His word was that we should not be discouraged, b/c He was going to do a new thing.  Though we never imagined it would be such a big door, God began to speak to us (loudly) about obedience and timing.  We do have more insight into why, and some of that we are holding on to until the time is right to share it, but we can say that God wanted to know how much He could trust us.

When we first heard Him say that a door was closing, we began to pray for discernment.  We also began to say yes, yes, yes to all that God has for us, even if it meant a completely different ministry.  The best way that I can explain it is that as we were constantly saying yes, and holding "our" ministry in open hands, along the way we said yes to something that God grabbed on to and thought 'ok, I am going to use them in a different way, time to change the direction of things.'  I don't know if that makes sense to you, but that is how I understand it.

So we stayed b/c God changed the plan.  We still feel called to ministry, but we have NO idea of what that will look like.  And since we made the final decision to heed what we thought we were hearing from God, we have not doubted for a moment that it was the right decision.  We praise God for that peace and we are blessed by how vocal God has been to us in this time of transition.

This season continues to be one filled with pain, tears and grieving and we deeply covet your prayers, especially for our unity as a family.  We definitely feel stretched, especially as this season of unemployment continues to take its toll on us.  We are hanging in there, but it's surely a challenge to stay full of faith and hopeful for the future.

I hope this answers some questions.  If not, we want to know.  We want God to be supremely glorified through this chapter of our lives and we are not embarrassed by anything that has transpired (even though we are unemployed and live in my parents guest room....  :P  ) so we welcome dialog  about what God is doing.

If you'd like to read the original newsletter see the post from July 30th, 2009 from the archives.

Peace.

Housesitting

For the last week and a half, Heidi and I have been housesitting in Richfield.  It is nice to be closer to our friends and have our own place for a while but being away from all of our stuff does get tiring.  Also, Jackson requires so much gear that our car was pretty much stuffed.  A few days ago our stationwagon needed to go into the shop so we had to bring some stuff back to Heidi's parent's house and retrieve our Honda Civic, which has much less cargo space.  Hopefully we will still be able to get everything into the Honda on Tuesday when we are done in Richfield.  We have also discovered that we are not dog people.  This is the second time we have watched someone's dog and, while we do not dislike dogs, we just don't love them.  Ironically, we have two more house/dogsittings scheduled for the next couple months.  In both cases, the people are good friends with nice dogs, (and large TVs) so we are not at all worried about it.  It is good that we did this so that we did not get a dog and discover that we were not cut out for dog ownership.

I am still in the job hunt.  Yesterday I had an interview at MN Teen Challenge and that went well.  It would be a great job and I am sure I would like it a lot.  I will not hear about a 2nd interview for a couple weeks since one of the decision makers is going on vacation all of next week.  Today I had a phone interview at Lifesource, which does organ procurement.  Next week I should hear if they want another interview.  It is good to have interviews and I'll keep putting out applications and keep the blog updated when anything happens.  I am in a good place of trusting God to provide.

Let's party, MK style

This entry is kind of like Tim's last blog, it's another employment update...sort of...I have decided to start selling Mary Kay cosmetics again!  I used to do this a few years back and I thought I'd see if I can generate some income for the Chase family until Tim is working.  So, here we go!  

Some of you have asked us over the past few months if there is anything you can do to help us re-transition back to life in MN.  Well.....I have a fun, tangible suggestion for you (insert sweet smile)...you can throw a Mary Kay party!!!  If you are reading this and thinking, "No way!  MK is for Southern women with big hair and way too much lipstick," don't worry, that's not how I roll.  I am a pretty mellow MK lady, parties are a fun way to hang out with your friends and try a new lip gloss color :)     

So, if you're up for it, or even if you just want to order a refill of your fave foundation, let me know.  I would REALLY appreciate it and I promise it will be fun!