Hidden Blessings

Our faithful God is so merciful to lavish upon us blessings through difficult times. Most often, these blessings are hidden and may not even be recognized for months or years. Nevertheless, they are there.

James 1 tells us to count it all joy when we meet trials. Why? Because that testing will produce a steadfastness that leads to a completeness, lacking in nothing. The testing pushes us into a deeper dependence on the true Perfect One. Not easy, but true.

Sometimes the blessings are not completely hidden. In our marriage, God has graced us 3 times with a wonderful gift accompanied by trial. For us, this is pregnancy. The one clear gift at the end of the 9 month journey is so obvious as we press forward to the goal of a beautiful new addition to our family. But that beautiful baby comes with the high cost of a very difficult pregnancy.
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That being said, we have wonderful news to share with you – baby #4 coming end of May! Wonderful, yet not without trial and we covet your prayers during this season. God has certainly used the last couple months to stretch us, refine us and push us to our max when we already thought we were there. This baby, in God’s divine wisdom and timing, has come to teach us and strengthen our family.

Please pray for perseverance. Pray for teachable hearts. Pray for us to trust His timing as we consider our timeline for moving overseas and how this should affect it. Pray for wisdom to know how much is healthy for our family to take on as we strive to persevere in our preparations for serving overseas. Thank you - your prayers keep us going!

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Our next big step in the training is for Frank to add on helicopter to his Certified Flight Instructor rating. This is pretty involved and probably won’t happen in the time frame we had originally planned. But we are stepping forward and trusting God with the timing.
Frank recently completed his first flight from the instructor’s seat. Everything looks and feels different from there. It was like going back to his early training days all over again – for now, it takes a lot more mental energy to achieve less than desirable results in areas he hardly had to even think about anymore!
Please pray for wisdom and a clear mind for Frank during this next step in the training.

Last of all, a fun update – the passenger flights we mentioned last month went fabulously! Frank flew well over 150 passengers and was super blessed by our community up in Gilbert. He gained valuable experience and had a blast flying each one of them. Thank you to all of you who participated.
Actually, you can get a taste of what the flights were like because one of his passengers put together this great video. Thank you, Mark!