"Our" Plans

"A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps."
Proverbs 16:9

"Show me Your ways, O LORD;

Teach me Your paths."

Psalm 25:4

For those of you who have been visiting here for a while you'll know that my husband and I hope to do overseas missions one day.

If you'd like to start from the beginning and hear how and where I met my husband and what we've been up to since our wedding almost 5 years ago, you can read this and this and this.

All caught up? Now you'll know what we are doing here in Northern Ireland this year.

The mission organization that we are planning on working with is New Tribes Mission (NTM) and the way they work is that they train and equip the missionaries but the local churches are the ones to actually send and support the missionaries. So it is necessary to have a "home church" in order to go on and work with NTM. Our home church will be the church here in Northern Ireland.

We've been getting to know the people in our church here and talking to the pastor. He came over last Monday to talk things through with us. We shared our thoughts on where we would like to finish the missionary training and he shared with us what the church is thinking.

It was encouraging to find out that we are on the same page and are thinking along the same lines.

The plan is to stay here until a new class starts next January. That would be January of 2010. During the rest of our time here Geoff and I will be visiting some area churches and sharing our plans desire to serve the Lord over seas as missionaries.

Mr. Smylie (our pastor) asked if we could make up a short DVD presentation to share with the different groups we'll speak at. A DVD explaining the work of NTM and a bit about who we are and what we plan to do.

Mr. Smylie just phoned us last night to let us know he'd confirmed things and we can begin the application process.

Since the class starts in January we'll have the summer off before resuming classes in the fall. So we'd come back to Northern Ireland for the summer to catch up and reconnect with people here.

So the end of 2009 will most likely find us making another trans-Atlantic move back to the US to finish my last year of missionary training in Missouri.

Like the verses say, we realize that we can make all the plans we want but unless the Lord is the one leading us the plans will be useless. He is the one to determine where our lives go. We need to be listening closely so we can hear His still small voice.

I'm so thankful that we can trust the Lord to direct our steps. That way we can always be secure in the fact that we are were God wants us.

And there's not better or safer place to be than where God wants you.

So even as we make "our" plans we pray that they are also God's plans.

I hope you all will stick around and come along on this journey with us. I have a feeling there will be a lot of interesting experiences coming up that you won't want to miss!

But most of all through this crazy journey of life we pray that God will get the glory out of everything we do. That we will be open to be used in whatever way He pleases.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths."

Prov 3:5-6