Howdy, all! We're home. The drive home, other than the fatigue and the weary kids, went without a hitch, so thanks for praying for us. I'll be heading to Indy on Saturday to pick up the other van, so pray about that. We have paid the first of two payments on the remainder that we owe Mission Auto, thanks to God's provision with a $1000 gift we received last month. The final payment of $1280 is coming up on August 14, and I've got to register the vehicle by August 9 (another $365 in sales tax) so pray about that also. Anna and the kids weathered the trip very well, and thank you for praying for them. Pray that the lady who's buying our van would get her title for her other vehicle soon, so she can sell it and get us the money for our old van, which she's buying from us, cause we really need the funds right now. Pray for our finances, which are very tight at the moment. Our trip west went very well, and the churches out there took good care of us, but gas is just really, really expensive, and there's just no getting around it. I can't even imagine how missionaries handle it in countries where they pay twice what we do at the pump, or more. Gas gobbled up much of the love offerings we received, and the support just isn't there yet to pay our monthly bills properly so we can use love offerings for travel expenses like we need to. I know I bring up finances a lot, but that's our biggest need currently, and I figured folks would like to pray about it. As a missionary, it puts a lot of pressure on you, and makes it hard to make the trips you need to make to get the support you need to get to the field, so it's kind of a Catch-22. Should I use the love offerings to pay for travel expenses so I can travel to churches and get support, or pay my bills on time, but have nothing left with which to travel, to raise support, to pay my bills? You see? It's a vicious cycle. At the risk of being accused of begging, I thought I'd tell you what's really going on, so you could pray more effectively for us. Frankly, I feel better knowing that people know our needs and are praying about them.
