Do Not Fear

"Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6

 

"I'm not scared; Daddy's right there!"

This is the third time this week this particular verse has "randomly" been in my Bible reading. And a few others:

"God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;......God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.  Psalm 46:1-3, 5

"Thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You. You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel."Psalm 73:22-24

"Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

I think the Lord has something to say to me about FEAR. Maybe He is speaking to you as well.

I feel afraid just to write this post. If I admit that I struggle with fear, then my brave front crumbles. The image of "having it all together" as a wife, mom of 3, and a woman in ministry is cast down. What will people think? What will my husband think? Don't I need to hold him up? What will my children think? Don't they depend on me? What about the people the Lord has given me to serve? What will they think if they know how fearful I am? Nah, I think I better just keep all this to myself and keep the facade in place.

God didn't like that answer.

He tenderly reminded me of the spiritual "valley" He took me through when He first called us to missions and to leave our life in Tucson. I was filled with and nearly overcome by FEAR. I have often heard what I experienced at that time called "a spirit of fear" upon a person. While it is true that there was fear in my spirit, I do not believe it was primarily a spiritual attack. That would make me a victim of an evil force rather than what it really was; grappling with my own sinful flesh. We are all filled with fear. Fear that we will be exposed, found out to be frauds. Fear that our children will misbehave in public. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of losing something we hold dear. Fear of pain. Fear of physical unattractiveness or poor health. Fear of what we cannot control.

A friend of mine recently shared at our Women's Prayer breakfast that she struggles with the sin of fear. I had honestly never thought of it as sin before, but then I realized that's exactly what it is. If sin is acting as if we don't need God, then allowing ourselves to be ruled by fear is the opposite of dependence on Him. When you look at the results of fear, it becomes even clearer. Fear leads us to try to control every situation and other people. Fear leads us to "keep up appearances" rather than being transparent and open. Fear creates stress rather than peace. Fear is closely related to pride, because it says "I have this all under control" rather than humbly admitting we need God to take control.

So what can we do? It is clear from the verses above and many others in Scripture that God does not mean for us to be enslaved to fear. The answer you will see in bold: Him. He is our refuge, He holds our right hand, He never leaves us. We are without excuse for not trusting in Him and for trying to control everything on our own. Yet He is gracious and patient enough to let me come to him 100 times a day saying "I'm scared. Help me. Show me your will and give me the courage to follow You" And He always does.

When I was struggling so hard with leaving our life in Tucson, it was out of FEAR. I had built a comfortable suburban housewife life for myself there and I was terrified of giving up my comforts, my security, and my "right" to determine how much I was willing to offer to the Lord. A few weeks before we left, our pastor Robert Furrow at CC Tucson preached this message:"Give It Up" on 8/14/2011(scroll down to the teaching on 8/14/2011). The Holy Spirit convicted both Gabe and me powerfully through it and I was encouraged to hear it again today and see how faithful God has been to His promises. I realized that I was the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-31. I didn't want to give up the security of "my life" to follow Jesus. But He loved me enough to know exactly what I needed to give up in order to follow Him and enjoy the blessings He had for me. I thought it was for His purpose of reaching the world with the Gospel, but it was also for my good!

I still struggle with fear though.

Recently it has been fear of:

• Prison Ministry at a local women's prison; yet we stepped out in faith and were so blessed!
• Performance anxiety in children's ministry to kindergartners at church
• An outreach the Lord asked us to do through a neighborhood Easter egg hunt at which we shared the Gospel; again, we were totally blessed!
• Closer personal relationships with other believers; "discipleship" and the transparency it entails
• Facing a challenging time in our marriage
• Having to lovingly speak uncomfortable truth to fellow believers

 I pray this has encouraged you in your walk with our Lord Jesus. While He felt fear in His time on earth, He is our example in taking those feelings to His Father and absolutely trusting in Him.

Family News:

• Gabe started Aircraft Mechanic School at Clover Park Technical College on 4/1/2013 and is really enjoying it and finding lots of ministry opportunities. Post coming soon from him on that! Our prayers about transportation were answered and he is riding to and from school every day with another student from Eatonville. Praise God for Ryan!
•  Bonnie recently got to attend a friend's home birth to be with her two older daughters and enjoyed a beautiful time :-)
• Sammy brought home straight A's this trimester and is growing in respect for his teacher and in being a friend. He is also faithfully following our church's "read through the Bible in a year" plan and we are seeing fruit of God's Word in his life!
• Ciara continues to amaze us with her intellect; she is reading the Little House on the Prairie series right now at the age of 5! She also recently got her training wheels off :-)
• Asher celebrated turning 1 on 3/31/2013 and is eating big people food, cruising all over the house, up and down the stairs, and will be walking soon! He brings joy to our whole family.

A final word:  

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us" I John 4:18-19

love, Bonnie

And the Answer Is...

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  -Jeremiah 29:11-13*

*****UPDATE - See bottom of post*****

I posted this prayer request on Treasure in Earthen Vessels on January 21: "Direction: That we might discern the next step the Lord has for us. Do we continue in aviation? If so, where?" It's a question we've been asking the Lord since we broke away from Trinity Aviation Academy (TAA) last December.

To those of you who have been praying, thank you. We have heard the Lord's answer.

A few months ago, a friend encouraged me to pray about whether to attend a local state school, Clover Park Technical College, for my Airframe & Powerplant certification. The school has a good reputation, and was attended by not only this friend, but also by an instructor at TAA, and the director of TAA himself (to whom I was apprenticed for over a year). 

I promptly forgot about it.

A few weeks ago, my friend again encouraged me to look into Clover Park. This coincided with Bonnie's and my changed prayer to the Lord. Overriding the question "Where do we complete this education?", we began to ask, "Where do we look to be planted in a local church body?" 

How often do we Christians ask that question when we are looking at a major change in life? What importance do we actually place on being rooted in God's house? We are already planted in a good church, as Bonnie has related to you in the past. If God wanted us to uproot from that, we wanted a sure sign that the direction was from Him.

Two weeks ago, I attended a tour/orientation of Clover Park's aviation maintenance program. The program is solid, and the instructors are enthusiastic. Only problem is: there's a waiting list. The target date to get into the program was Fall, 2015.

After the tour, I sat in the parking lot and prayed. I was discouraged. I had hoped that my experience over the last year might equip me to slip into the program during the Summer quarter, taking the last few courses first, and then start in the Fall with the rest of the new guys. I was told the classes were too full - they couldn't possibly take me in the middle of the program. I realized I would need to wait on the Lord all summer, and take my chances for an opening during registration like everybody else. 

I was about to scrap my plan to meet the admission folks that evening, and just drive home.  But, I had no peace with that decision, so I turned around. On my way, my friend called and informed me that the program actually starts twice a year, Spring and Fall. The registration for Spring was in 1 week. Somewhere along the drive, the Lord renewed my hope in Him, and I thought, "What a perfect opportunity for the Lord to communicate His will to us! What's a waiting list to Him, but a chance to defy the odds and bring glory to Himself?"

By the time I arrived at the college's Admissions department, the target date had moved! To the Spring of 2016…

Admission to the college went smoothly, thanks to a wonderfully pleasant lady in the department, and I went home still encouraged, determined that my hope would rest in the Lord.

.

.

.

As of Friday last week, I am a student of the 2-year-long Clover Park Aviation Maintenance program and will (God willing) start attending classes on April 1st. If the Lord wills, the classes will be completely paid by the GI Bill for the duration. Also as He wills, we will remain planted in our church body, growing in the Lord, being equipped, and serving His people. Praise God!

What's a little thing like a 3-year waiting list to the Lord? 

-Gabe, 2-24-13

*****UPDATE, 2-28-13*****

The Lord has provided, again. Gabe's application for the Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits was accepted (for 100% of the benefit), and will cover all tuition, provide a stipend for books, and pay a housing allowance. Praise God!

*When I began this post, I was thinking about what verse best applied to the topic at hand. The first verse that came to mind was Jeremiah 29:11, and the thought was immediately followed by "Nah, maybe that one's overused…". Then I arrived at BibleGateway.com, the site I prefer for the Bible quotes I use in this blog. Whaddya' know, the Verse of the Day today is Jeremiah 29:11-13. Ok, Lord, I hear you.

Close Quarters and the Best Homemade Yogurt

It's been about 6 weeks since the Lord confirmed on Gabe's heart that it was time for him to leave Trinity Aviation Academy and seek what other direction He has for us...currently as missionaries and in our future training. It's been a hard transition. We find ourselves looking back a lot, wondering what we could have done differently, why it went the way it went, nursing wounds, praying, feeling like failures, missing being part of the "family" there in the same way we were. I received this verse (no surprise!) not long ago:

Philippians 3:12-14
¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I picture Paul writing this with compassion to the church in Phillippi, letting them know "It's so easy to have regrets and look back and over analyze things, but don't! God has so much more in store for you!" All I can say is He is faithful. He tells us to trust Him and keep going, so we are.

By far the most challenging part of all this has been the sudden increase in "family togetherness". Specifically, Gabe being home 24/7 all of a sudden and me getting rather territorial about "my space". You know the stories of when a man retires and is home all the time and his wife of 30+ years has to get a job to get out of the house! Or when you're on family vacation and you spend so much time together that you start to drive each other crazy.  Maybe it's a partner home because of illness, injury, or job loss. Your routine is interrupted, your "normal" is off, and you can't wait for that person or circumstance who seems to have disrupted it to go back to work or wherever so you can "get back to normal".

So around here, that has looked like Gabe being the incredibly helpful husband that he is doing all he can to serve me. The dude does laundry, dishes, diapers, homework, you name it. He's a servant. Every busy mom's dream come true! And instead of feeling thankful, I keep feeling...useless...insignificant....jealous even. Like "hey, that was my job, I may not have done the best at it, but it was mine!". Pathetic, I know. The most telling example of this in the last few weeks has been Making Yogurt.

A few months back a friend of mine taught me how to make homemade yogurt. Her/My method goes as follows:

Take 1/2 gal whole milk, preferably organic, and bring it to a scald(just starting to steam and bubble), whisking occasionally. Turn off the heat and let it cool for 5-10 min or so. Whisk in 3 tbsp plain yogurt from a previous batch or store bought organic plain yogurt with no gelatin/fillers in it. Cover and place on a heating pad on low for 12-24 hours depending on how tart you like it. Remove from heat, stir, and refrigerate.
  
Amazingly, this really works! You get yogurt that is a little runny, but really good. Gabe eats it every day for breakfast. So, one day we are almost out if it, and he doesn't want to bother me with asking how to make it and having me "supervise" (I can't blame him for this!). He Googles it instead.

The next thing I know there is yogurt being made by Gabe's Method:

Set up a double boiler. Put 1/2 gal whole milk into pot over pot of simmering water and heat to 185 F on a candy thermometer. Hold at a simmer at 185 for 30 min whisking occasionally. After 30 min, remove from heat and cool to 110 F before adding 3 tbsp whole milk yogurt for starter. May use an ice bath to cool more quickly as it takes approx 30 min to cool to 110. Cover and set on heating pad on medium for 1-2 hours and then low for 6-12.(I may not have this quite right but this is my best understanding of it...not good with details)

Needless to say, this is a bit more complicated than my method. So I got quite territorial about it and gave my poor husband a relentless hard time about taking a process I had already figured out and having to improve/perfect it. You see, my personality is one of "get it done" and Gabe's is "get it done right". Anyone who has ever had a steak grilled for you by my husband or his amazing Pad Thai can attest to the fact that his cooking is...perfection. Mine is a bit more crazy and adventurous, but it feeds us 3 meals a day.

The end of the story is...Gabe's yogurt is way better than mine! His is thick and creamy, almost Greek yogurt consistency. So we are now doing it the better way unless I am really in a time crunch and then I may go back to the simplified method. Although I have convinced him to dispense with the double boiler :-)

What the Lord has taught me through this is that whenever I really think someone else is the problem, or a certain circumstance is the problem, to look back at myself and see if maybe I'm not a big part of my own problem. He is LORD, also known as I AM and JEHOVAH which means, He was there in my past, is already in my future, and is completely present in my present and is in control of all the circumstances that seem so messed up to me. He is teaching me through them if I allow Him to.

Now that I have some perspective, I can laugh about "the infamous yogurt making incident" and let Him turn my frustration to thankfulness. I am truly thankful for the time we have together as a family. I am thankful that Asher gets his Daddy around so much to enjoy all his baby moments. I am thankful that Sam has a Dad who has time to volunteer in his classroom and go on field trips with him. I am thankful Ciara has a Dad with time to play with her in the morning before she goes to kindergarten. I am thankful he and I have time to talk, eat lunch together, pray together and just hang out. I love the man God has given me so much, and I know there will come a day when I really am thankful for every minute.

And just so you know, he isn't here making gourmet organic yogurt all the time. He's been volunteering in Sam's class quite a bit as well as at a couple different food banks run by local churches. I think there is some street visitation in Tacoma coming soon too. He's researching and praying through different options for our future while trying to be available and present for God to use him now. He's considered going back to work but since we are blessed with provision for right now, there's no rush on that.  It's amazing to see the heart God is giving him for people. 

May you be blessed in whatever your circumstances are today!

 

 

There's always another bend in the road...

When I was around 12 or 13, I loved "Anne of Green Gables", both the books by L.M. Montgomery and the movies. I loved how Anne had such a big heart, a longing to be loved, and was forever getting herself into trouble with her spontaneity. She loved big, trusted big, messed up big, sought and found forgiveness and bounced back from her mistakes. Much like my oldest son Sammy :-) One of my favorite quotes from her character is "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it. Well, with no mistakes in it yet!" During my preteen years I studiously avoided mistakes, feeling that I had to always be perfect, or at least give that appearance. I still struggle with this (pride is the best name I have for it), but God is so good to give me a forgiving husband and adventurous children who remind me that unless you allow yourself to make mistakes and learn from them, you miss the adventure! And, that the more we really trust the Lord and follow His plans for us, the fewer "mistakes" there are. Often our choices can look like foolish mistakes in the world's eyes, but if our eyes are on Him, then we can trust that He has us on the right path.

The Lord has grown us all so much this year. It's hard to condense it down into one end-of-year blog post. Very little of it has been in the ways we would have expected. It has come through surprising friendships, unexpected hurts, humbling mistakes, and moments of pure joy. We are beginning to truly fall in love with Jesus and allow that to just spill out into being able to love others more freely. We thought we were coming to Eatonville, WA to "learn to be missionaries" but God has brought it about in such a beautifully personal way that is far better than any formal discipleship school we could have imagined. Much of it has come through our amazing family of believers at South Hill Calvary Chapel, but also through our wonderful friends at Trinity Aviation Academy.

Phillipians 1:3-7
New King James Version (NKJV)
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,  for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,  being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;  just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace."

The Ledfords

We've been struck this year by how much of the Bible is about relationships...really ALL of it is about relationships. It begins with God's relationship within Himself of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect communion and love...then His relationship with man made in His image, how man broke that relationship through sin and then how our loving God has sought throughout history to restore His people to Himself, even though we, not He, were the ones who broke the relationship. It ultimately cost Him the life of Jesus, his perfect Son, as a sacrifice to cover our sin and bring us back into a relationship with Him. We are very, very important to God and therefore should be very important to each other as well! He has taught us a lot about being authentic in relationships this year as we seek to know His nature better.

This Christmas we were blessed with the opportunity to spend time working on our relationships with family and friends, with a visit from my sister, Caroline, and her husband, Dave; followed by our visit to the Ledfords in Grand Rapids. It was wonderful to first open our home, and then to be welcomed into the home of Gabe's brother, Paul, his wife, Tammy, and their five children. Then, on New Year's Eve, we topped off the visit by spending the evening with our crazy friends, Scott and Christine (Christine has been Gabe's friend from childhood). They are always so welcoming, and really know how to have fun!

There are changes on the horizon for us and how He would have us fulfill our calling. For now, we are still called to foreign missions, and still through aviation - including Gabe completing his A&P certificate and commercial pilot's license to better be able to serve the Lord using an airplane (or helicopter?) as a tool. It seems the Lord is changing our direction, however, about where Gabe receives his aviation training from. We feel led away from our dear friends at Trinity and on to somewhere else, not sure yet where it will be, but probably not until summer/fall of 2013. So we ask for your prayers through the transition as we seek where God would use us in the next 6 months in Washington (possibly a summer mission trip?), and where He would have us continue Gabe's training in the fall. It has been a difficult decision, but one covered in prayer in which the Lord has been so faithful to speak to us, send others to minister to our hearts, and preserve our relationships through difficulty. The road to "becoming aviation missionaries" seems longer than ever before, but we trust that God knows exactly what He's doing(duh) and we are seeking to have joy every day in being in His will for this moment. Thank you for all your love and prayers this year and may you all be blessed as you seek a closer relationship with our Lord Jesus!

In His Love,

Bonnie

Here are some recent photos of the family:

Ciara's Ballet Recital

Looks like the Wii is being held hostage again...

"Reading" his Christmas gift

Ol' Man Winter visits Eatonville occasionally

Spending Thanksgiving weekend with friends

Darth Dave has the young padawan on the run

"Sledding" in Michigan

Ciara's Werewolf Phase?

Suffering

I heard a powerful sermon series the other day from a pastor who was teaching at our church while I was down in Chihuahua, Mexico. The subject was suffering. The world, and especially our society in America, flees from suffering. I can understand that - discomfort, hard work, pain, death - these were all part of the curse Adam's sin brought on the world. Of course we'd want to run from that.

Isn't it awesome how God takes a curse and twists it around? Adam had just handed the world over to Satan, and God's already got a plan for fixing it. Jesus took the punishment of the curse when he died on the cross. Yes, there's still suffering, but now it's beneficial to those who know God through Jesus. Suffering now serves God's plan to draw us closer to Him, make us more reliant on Him, and fill us with His power. 

The gist of the sermon series was this: not only is suffering necessary for the growth of the Christian, but we should actually be pursuing it because that's what we're called to do: share in Christ's suffering and rejoice to be counted worthy. We will be rewarded, both now and in the next life.

I'm glad I heard the sermons when I did. Bonnie and I are going through a rough time right now (nothing major, not like the difficulties some of you are going through). I trust God that we will come out of this more reliant on Him; and in that reliance, we'll see His strength and power through our weakness and helplessness.

You probably just think I'm weird (join the club), but if you're interested, the sermon series can be found here:

Sermon 1: Is Jesus Worth It? The Necessity of Suffering 

Sermon 2: Is Jesus Worth It? The Reward of Suffering 

Pictures from our recent trip to the Tacoma Children's Museum:

- Gabe Ledford, 12-3-2012

Grandma Ledford's 4 year birthday in Heaven

 As she would want it, we didn't wake up missing her this morning, but went about a normal, fun family Saturday. We didn't make the colored pancakes we planned to make every year in her memory. Then midway through the morning, we remembered. And thought of all the things from the last four years we wished we could share with her. While we would selfishly wish her back, we can't help but smile as we think of her meeting our Lord in Heaven. Wow. Can't wait to see you again, Mom!

Pride and Submission

A visiting missionary(the Mom of our YWAM staff missionaries!) spoke to our little community at Trinity yesterday morning. Her topic was spiritual warfare, and she said something I had never considered before: "The Enemy doesn't attack when you're down. He comes to steal your harvest."  Or put a different way, when your life is full of blessing and it seems you are about to see the fruit of a lot of labor, he will come in to discourage you and steal your joy. She encouraged us to stand firm to protect our joy and our blessings, knowing that they are vulnerable if we do not.

Sammy was baptized almost two weeks ago. Unfortunately with Gabe in the hot tub with him and me wrangling a fussy baby, I didn't get very good video. There's a short clip on facebook that our church posted if you missed it! It was an incredibly joyous day for us. He had put his trust in Christ for salvation at the age of 4, and now there was no dissuading him that he was ready to be obedient to give his life fully to Jesus as Lord in baptism.  We couldn't be more pleased to see him give his heart to Christ. And we both found the job we now have of continuing to discipline our son incredibly sobering.

It was also an adventurous day...since we have a new young student named Jessica at Trinity who rides to church with us, we have to trust the Lord for a vehicle other than our own each week since we don't have an extra seat. That week it was the notorious "Big Blue" a full-size handicap accessible van that Trinity owns for common use. Big Blue has been broken down more than running in the year we've been here. The week prior to Sam's baptism the three mechanic students got together and decided to see if they could replace the fuel pump and get her running again.  They succeeded, and we took her on her maiden voyage to Puyallup. For a man who used to drive a Nissan 350Z and then a Subaru WRX(oddly enough, both blue!), watching Gabe wrangle Big Blue was quite entertaining. Her top speed was about 50 and she got there in.....5-10 minutes. On the way to the baptism after church we started to notice white smoke coming from her. Not so great but figured she would make it. Sure enough, she started up after the baptism. So then I suggested a celebratory trip for frozen yogurt. And the parking lot of the frozen yogurt place was where she died. No amount of tinkering from Gabe or Dan (Trinity's director who came to our rescue) could get her going again, so we got shuttled home in two truckloads. All in a typical Sunday these days!

Since that day, we have definitely been under spiritual attack, though we failed to fully recognize it as such and pray accordingly. We have learned so much this year about the power of prayer and want to thank everyone who reads this who faithfully prays for us! I'm feeling nudged to post prayer requests more often just in case you are the person who God appoints to pray for us, so be on the lookout for that.

The past couple weeks the attacks have come in the form of discouragment and depression for me, and then a bit of a wake up call when we had Sammy's parent-teacher conference this week. We prayed that the Lord would give each of our children the teachers He intended for them this year and use them in their lives. We are amazed at how precisely the Lord answered that prayer. Ciara has a teacher who is thrilled to have a kindergartner with such a high reading level and is doing all she can to keep her challenged. Sam has a teacher who is experienced, energetic, and has high standards of behavior and academics in the classroom. And in just a few weeks, she totally gets him.

Unfortunately, that means she sees that while he is very bright, he doesn't want to work. He is getting D's in math and writing right now. Not because he can't do the work, or because there is anything wrong with the teacher, her methods, the school or their policies. I won't even put much blame on myself as last year's teacher, although I could have pushed him a little harder. The responsibility is his. What's even more concerning to us is that he is also talking a lot in class and not following instructions. As she put it, "He's polite....but then does whatever he wants, not what I've said". We've had this feedback about Sam before. He is also kind, sweet, and compassionate which we are thankful for.

So please pray with us that Lord would change Sam's heart to one of submission to this teacher who may not know the Lord and is in authority over him. Pray also that he will seek a better work ethic and that we can both have patience and be able to motivate him. Pray that we will be the witness Christ wants us to be in this situation.

"...there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted..."  Romans 13:1-2
  
Sobering.

But then God reminded us that He has a plan for Sam. That Sam has a lot of leadership qualities and that He is working out what He needs to in his life right now. If he's going to lead, he needs to learn to follow.

We have to trust that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

A few additional prayer requests:

• Protection for Gabe and the team from our church heading to Mexico the end of October
• Protection for me from the spiritual attack that always come to me when Gabe is away
• Vision and clear direction for Trinity's leaders, staff, and students 

Thank you, and may you be richly blessed!

love, Bonnie