Dear Prayer Team,

Too Many Pots on the Stove?

Sometimes when I watch my wife prepare dinner for our large family I wonder how she can do it all-so many pots and pans, and prep tools! I also wonder at how the Lord brings me through a variety of situations too. Let me list some of them.

One morning this week, the Lord put in my mind an idea for a Gospel tract. I began working on writing the tract right after devotions. This will be the first in a series of tracts that people can download, modify and print. I have had a burden for this for a while. A fellow preacher mentioned the need for it when I was India, but God had not given me specific writing ideas. This week He started to give me ideas.

The next day, the Lord put on my heart a new chapter for the long neglected Biblical counseling book. I haven't had a chance to think about this book for many months. Now a clear series of thoughts is developing into a chapter for the book discussing the relationship between Biblical counseling and psychology. I also started writing that chapter before my busy day is in full swing (after personal devotions) and I forget what I was thinking.

The Google search engine has yet to restore the BFF website to its search services. I suspect this will happen regularly in a few years when the anti-Christian spirit gets a bit more militant but not yet. I have had to spend time fixing broken links (connections between web pages). This has not resolved the problem. The biggest difficulty is that Google does not give any indication as to the problem or how to fix the website to get it back on its search function. Any help would be appreciated!

Friday, October 19th we became first-time grandparents. It was funny. I felt a bit nervous like when my wife gave birth. Christy had a very short labor with Joshua Del Real (7 lb, 12 oz; 20.5 inch). All is well. We always make room for this kind of interruption!

Several groups are waiting for different audio files recorded in Malawi and India. Editing these many files takes a long time but are very helpful to those who have little or no resources.

Winter is coming. Linda has been patiently waiting for me to do a number of jobs on her "Honey-do" list. I put off a few to enable me to have more time preparing for my almost month away from home. But the nice 70 degree weather is God's grace to get a number of these jobs done: kitchen floor, painting, trimming, wood stove cleaning, etc. Now or never.

But the pans on the stove from before my trip were not taken off as I hoped. They are still waiting attention. I wanted to finish registration papers for BFF's nonprofit status. They should be filed before Nov. 1 when BFF becomes an official nonprofit organization (though nonprofit giving can't be granted until the other paperwork is complete).

I thought the book on parenting was done. I submitted it, but some of the graphics were not 300 dpi quality. I have been waiting for Adobe Acrobat (praise God for a good deal) for a number of weeks. Then I will be able to rightly process a pdf document for going to press.
On and on the list goes. I have folders full of articles to be finished, edited or translated. There are the present tasks like preaching that cannot be put off.

Too many pots on the stove? No, I do not believe so. In one way I am overwhelmed, but I realize that the Lord allows me to enter such crazy situations to remind me that He is in charge of this ministry and that I can trust Him for help in these circumstances. He is sovereign. He can change a king's heart. He will give grace to get done what needs to be done.

Even the search engine debacle is one that He can somehow turn around and make up for the 75% loss of readership since October 4th. That is 28,500 readers lost from being strengthened by God's Word (until today the 22nd). I ask you to join me in asking that God would somehow recoup that loss.