Working and Waiting

I continue to be grateful for all the prayers you are sending up for us. God is continuing to bless us and provide for us.

We are working and waiting. God has been faithful to provide work opportunities for all of us. For the last couple of weeks we have delivered Yellow Pages. The kids worked at this as well and did a great job. I continue to have a steady supply of kids to tutor. Some are tutored for just a few weeks to be prepared for the SAT or ACT test. Others come regularly each week. A lady also approached Keller out of the blue the other day and gave him a leaf-raking job for the fall.

The Lord has also been gracious to help me persevere in my classes this term. German is going well. I feel as though I am barely staying above water but the professor says that is how we should feel when we cram a year's worth of German into one semester. I have a paper due in about three weeks and am working on a course about the Cooperative Program online.

As God is providing for us financially and mentally, He's also working on us spiritually. As many of you know, there were wide-spread power outages here in Louisville last week so the seminary was closed all week. I received an email from the doctoral office a few days ago stating that the process of reviewing the field essays and applications had been delayed due to the outage. That puts me hearing about my test and final acceptance one week later than it was going to be. In stead of the wait being half over, it went back to being three weeks away. I now expect to hear something the middle of October. Amanda says this delay is a "trust test". God is continuing to test (and hopefully grow) our faith. Pray with us about this, too.

Prayer Requests:
*Continued financial provisions (increased hours tutoring and/or additional work opportunities for Jason, possible work opportunities for Amanda, or one of a thousand other ways God may choose to provide!)
*Our house to sell
*Regarding homeschooling--Keller to have self-discipline and Amanda to have creativity
*God's will as we seek another local church to worship and serve with
*Wisdom regarding our van; things are starting to stop working and it may be time to sell it and pray for another vehicle
*The Ph.D. committee as they review my application and field essay
*Grace to trust God no matter their decision and no matter whatelse happens around us

Gas Prices? God's Provision!

I completed my test for admission to the Ph.D. program at Southern Seminary yesterday. A special thanks to all who prayed for me. If you want some specific details, email me and I'll be glad to share them.

As I was leaving Louisville yesterday to return to Savannah to see my family and get another load of stuff to move up, rumors were growing about a gas price hike and a gas shortage. Sure enough, gas prices jumped 50 cents per gallon in some places. While trying to trust God to sell our house and give us what we need to live on in Louisville, not to mention pulling a trailer back and forth to Kentucky, this additional gas hike was shaking our faith a little (ok at times a lot!). Amanda and I had a talk this morning about our worries. I came to the office to pack up some books and checked my email. One of the subject lines read "You won!" and was from a name I did not recognize. I almost deleted it, thinking it was a scam. But I checked it just to make sure . . .

Yesterday the Seminary hosted a job fair. I went in and looked around, picked up a couple brochures and started to leave. At the exit there was a feedback survey. Those who returned the survey were entered to win a $50 gas card or an Ipod Shuffle. And since we didn't need an IPod Shuffle . . . that's right! The email was from the organizers of the job fair saying I had won the gas card! While it is a small thing, it is still a God thing. It is just like our God to give us the financial and spiritual provisions we need to do what He calls us to do! Be blessed and trust Him today!

One More Week

It's Friday and my wife and kids are coming to see me in Louisville today! Pray for their safe travel. The seminary is supposed to have a Fall Kick-Off here on campus with party jumpers, fair rides, free food, etc. It is a big deal but it is scheduled to rain all day today. That's a downer.

There is only one more week until my doctoral exam/essay/interview, Friday, Sept. 12. Remember, this is PhD-day! Pray Hard Day! However this day turns out, we are trusting God. He has brought us this far. If He chooses to continue to open doors and allow us to enter the doctoral program . . . great. If not, that's OK, too. All we know is that we are trying to trust Him today, right now, hour by hour.

There are still no prospects to buy our house. Please make this a matter of prayer. This, too, is in God's hands. Pray that we will trust Him to sell it at the right time for the right price to the right people.

The psalm for today said, "Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, for to Thee do I pray. In the morning, O Lord, Thou wilt hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to Thee and eagerly watch."

I believe the angels (and possibly saints in heaven) eagerly watch to see what God does on the earth. I probably should, too.

For His glory,
Jason