MIRACLES IN THE MEANTIME

"I am not saying this because I am in need,
for I have leaned to be content whatever
the circumstances. I know what it is to be
in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content
in any and every situation, whether well fed
or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
I can do all things through him who gives me

strength." Philippians 4:11-13

Well it's been 6 months since our last entry and God has been teaching us a lot. A lot about waiting on Him and trusting Him when the circumstances don't always pan out the way you think they should. It's so great though that God is higher and greater than we are and that He has our best interest in mind. Often times I wonder that if I really got what I think I wanted, would I be as happy as I think I would? Probably not! And I'm so glad that God doesn't always give us what we want. In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord says,

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

So in a nut shell Luke and I have really been wanting to "go". Go and do full time missions for the Lord. Pack up everything, sell whatever, shape up and ship out. But every time some opportunity comes our way, we pray and get no peace and still feel the Lord say "wait." We've had opportunities to go to Indonesia, Africa, Thailand, and many other places but have felt a "no". So here we are at our same jobs, waking up in our same bed, eating the "same thing"... doing the "routine" --the killer of my soul--Luke would say. But in it as we take ourselves out of our grumbling state and open our eyes we have seen so many miracles:

• Luke started to be a part of an amazing men's bible study. It was started by just a few guys getting together trying to seek the Lord, trying to be better men of God, and trying to be real with one another. After a few weeks of them getting together it just began to grow.. and grow.. and grow... and from there we have seen so much happen. Guys show up who don't even know the Lord and leave knowing Him! Others have come back to the Lord from drifting away. Some have discovered gifts they never knew they had, while others have just deepened their walk with Jesus. It has been the best men's group I've ever seen... and every time Luke comes back from it I praise the Lord for what he is doing.

• At almost the same time as the men's group, I started to go to this women's prayer group. And almost the same type of thing started happening there as well. It has grown so much and I've never been in the same room with such an amazing group of women. Truly, to get a group of girls together who are as amazing, beautiful, and talented as these women are and to not see gossip, back biting, and jealousy is so incredible. The Lord meets us EVERY TIME...
  

• With that said... I have been playing my guitar more, lately. The Lord has been opening the doors for me to lead worship and to help bring others into His presence. It has been so good for me to play and get comfortable worshiping the Lord with others. From this I had about 5 different girls ask me in one week if I could teach them guitar.. so we started Women's Group guitar lessons once a week at our house. So fun! God really desires us to worship Him and I'm so excited to see these girls learn to play for Jesus. Here is a little clip of our first night together:

• Since Luke and I have been here we were able to host a homegroup at our house which we discovered we LOVE doing! We never thought we would have so much fun getting our house ready every week for about 30 people to come in and worship, fellowship, read the Bible and pray for one another... and from time to time goof around! =) It has been so much fun... and for the first time Luke and I have learned how to minister to others as a married couple. It has drawn us close in a way that we really needed. We have met some of the greatest people at this home group and have made some life long friends! We are so thankful for you guys! Thank you for being in our lives and loving us so much! On our last night of homegroup I took a quick video... there's nothing quite as sweet as fellowship with believers.

After homegroup ended Luke and I took a little get-a-way up to Yosemite... Probably my favorite place to camp ever! It seriously is a piece of heaven. While we were up there the weather wasn't like I had thought it would be. For those of you who have been to Yosemite it's known for it's hot, dry and sunny days. But this time it rained on and off, and it dropped to around 30 degrees at night. The sun came out a bit but in general it was cold.

The coolest thing is that God was teaching me so much through the weather. He was saying, "Bethany when things don't turn out the way you think they should or expect them to be, will you still rejoice anyway? Will you still be happy?...Will you still praise me?" When we got to our camp site it was freezing and we had to set up our tent in the dark. And every day we had to wear huge jackets and dodge the rain every few hours as there were scattered showers here and there. But to tell you the truth, we had SUCH fun time. I think it's because I was beginning to see what God was trying to teach me -- and He was doing it through the weather -- a parallel to our lives right now. So with the lesson being learned we CHOSE to have fun no matter what... to be 'content whatever the circumstances'... and that made all the difference.

Anyhow here are some pictures and videos of our trip:

We finally got our car packed up by 6pm Monday afternoon.
And didn't get up to Yosemite till 1:00am and set up our tent in the dark! Fun fun!

The view from our camp site. Pretty cool!

Yosemite Falls

Merced River

Making breakfast!


YUM YUM!
Hiking up to our favorite place The Mist Trail


It's called The Mist Trail because the more you hike the wetter you get! So fun...


God blessed us with some awesome neighbors-Ami and Sandi Adler. We had some good talks and great coffee together. Come to find out, Ami is from Israel. How cool is that! He is one of God's chosen people!

Ami and Sandi
On our last day we decided to take a different route home. We drove over Tioga pass which winds east through the Sierra Nevada mountains! INCREDIBLE! This mountain range is so huge that we went from 65 degree weather to SNOW everywhere in a matter of 45 minutes! So cool and unexpected.

What we didn't expect was that our drive took 9 hours to get home!! Ya nine! Feeling hungry we decided to take a little break and get some food. So what do we do?... park in the back parking lot of America's healthiest restaurant-- McDonalds! ...and cook our own food. I was ready to get outta there after everyone from the drive through was wondering what these "homeless" vagabonds were doing.

Then we came home and crashed! It was such a fun time! I love the little trips God lets us go on. We have been so blessed this past year! There is so much more to share but I fear we have already written as much as you can handle in one blog entry.

All in all, if we would have packed up our lives and left in our hastiness we would have missed out on so many miracles. God always has a reason for us to wait and it's ALWAYS for the good! He's not in a hurry so why should we be?

Love you all!
And thank you for your prayers!

Luke and Bethany