Pray and Praise Update
“THANK YOU for your prayers!”
At the end of January, we posted a blog post in which we asked for prayer. We wanted to get back to you and let you know how God has answered these prayers!
- We are grateful for God’s grace as He helped us through our first two classes in our master’s program! For those of you who may not know, both of us – Dave and Marinajo, enrolled in the Master’s of Pastoral Counseling program at Liberty University Online. Here is a past blog post where we talk more about that decision. We just completed our first 8-week term in which we took a Systematic Theology course and an Introduction to Counseling course. We were surprised, and at times overwhelmed, by how much work was involved. We were also surprised by how immediately impactful and relevant the course content was. By God’s grace, and with the help of your prayers, we completed both of the courses in the midst of health issues for Dave and a very busy month with teams. We even completed our first research papers in more than 20 years (30 years for Marinajo!) and got great grades on them!
- We are thankful for successful surgical team visits during a very busy month of February. Both of the following teams have partnered with Loma de Luz for years now, both visiting twice a year. We always enjoy hosting them, they are both so encouraging to us:
- Orthopedic Surgery Team – Our dear friends from Jacksonville, OR, an orthopedic surgery trip in which about 25 surgeries were completed and an additional 25 or so were seen and evaluated.
- Ophthalmological Surgery Team – Dr. Rick and Jill Reichert blessed us with their visit with 18 successful cataract surgeries and 7 successful pterygium surgeries.
Marinajo was busy administratively as well as interpreting full-time during pre-operative clinic days in the eye clinic with Dr. Rick and Jill. Dave was busy with logistical tasks and helping to keep medical equipment and internet connectivity running for the teams and regular missionary doctors. Dave was also busy assisting with a new large electrical infrastructure project for the hospital. All in all, it was one of the busiest times in memory. We really felt the Lord sustaining and strengthening us, by His grace, to accomplish our tasks as well as our studying during this time.
- We are praising the Lord that Dave is feeling much better. He is finally really starting to feel normal after around 6 weeks of odd symptoms from an unknown illness. Some wonderful doctors at Loma de Luz helped immensely and many tests were taken, but a clear diagnosis was never fully understood. Dave’s energy level is still not normal as he still gets tired from being ill, other than that he feels like he is recuperating and essentially feels back to 100%. Thank you, Lord!
- Great is thy Faithfulness! God continues to faithfully bring additional financial support our way. We are gratefully aware of at least one family that has begun a monthly pledge of financial support. If you feel the Lord directing you to help, please consider either ongoing monthly support for our monthly budget or perhaps a one-time contribution to help offset our tuition for the master’s classes that we are taking or to help us on our upcoming fund-raising trip. We want to reiterate that we are completely content and provided for in every way. We are at rest with God’s provision. We encourage all donors to seek the Lord about who he would have them support. We’re so grateful for those of you whom God has led our way for support!
- Monthly budget – currently $3000
- Monthly giving – currently about $1500
- Master’s in Pastoral Counseling – $5000 per semester (three semesters remaining) for both of us
And now as we head into summer…
We would ask for your prayers for the following:
We will be in the U.S. from 15 April – 24 June, meeting with churches, promoting Loma de Luz, visiting friends and family, studying, and also setting aside times of intentional rest. We would ask for your prayers in each of these things:
- That God would lead us to green pastures in terms of funding partners and churches
- Grace as we travel, study, and embrace our calling to be students
- That God would lead us beside still waters with quality time with family and friends as well as restorative rest for another busy season this fall.
