Scattered and Smothered

We received WONDERFUL news today from our flooring helper. We have been officially declared as having NOT 800 square feet but 971 sq. feet !!!! Hallelujah!!! That's 171 sq. ft. more than we were preparing for. God is so good ! I have to say that I told David that I was going to title this weeks entry as "Scattered and Smothered" because we are becoming very (to much so) accustom to the whole living behind the Waffle House thing. They ( the WH employees) are incredibly gracious and have allowed all 8 of us and whoever is around being busy to use their restrooms, we give directions using their name and have gotten to meet some wonderful employees and customers of theirs. Therefore, scattered and smothered came into my mind as I thought about what God is doing with our casa (house). We are a bit "scattered" in ourselves and our own efforts to pull all of what we are doing off and are starting to see so clearly how "smothered " we are in God's love and grace. We continue to learn and see that we are not to wish these days away but to discover the onions, mushrooms, peppers and even the cheese that God is gracing us with. They are appearing in our lives looking like free lights, donated flooring and doors , donated windows, labor, and an entire family that came and painted the inside of our home for us... The dad took 2 days off of his job to do this for us and the have 7 children !!! What gracious love we are seeing!





He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4





Having a lovely brown and yellow day, (WH colors)


The 8 Evans

We're Makin' Progress

Whew! We have now officially had our final yard sale (Saturday) and 90% of our "things" are gone. We're makin' progress! Yes, it does feel good to have gotten rid of the extra. No, we don't miss anything... well, okay, almost nothing. David and I really miss our king size bed but that sounds a little like pouting so I'll move on.

Praises: We have rid ourselves of the "extra" . We realize how much extra we had that we didn't really need. We have sheet rock and all of our vinyl siding on the house as of today. We have a fence that encloses the back yard( this is not to keep others out but instead to keep ours in). We had a precious family volunteer to prime the entire house. And lastly, my father in law was able to get away for the week for some much earned and needed R&R . We LOVE our new home and neighborhood.

Prayer Request: for good health while maintaining twice the busy schedule as normal. Our ministry preparation even at this stage in the game is like having a full time job for both David and I. (David obviously already has a full time job). We will be speaking at a school this Thursday and are praying that God will use us to cast a vision to these high school students for God's work in missions overseas. We are praying to show them a clear, honest approach to preparing for the field. Two of our children will be going to speak with Melinda. Please pray for much success in getting the last things done to our home. This week we are priming, painting , moving cabinets into place and getting toilets ready to be set. It's ALL very exciting!

We love you all,

David , Melinda and the "painting crew"

Lima Beans and Waiting

Wow... the reality of "becoming" missionaries is really starting to take a little root in my heart. I can't imagine what that must sound like to anyone else. Let me try to clarify with a little picture. Do you remember in VBS or Kindergarten planting Lima beans? ... For what seems like so long you have a little Dixie cup with the dirt and the bean in it... you know the bean is in the cup because you drove it down in there with your finger and covered it back up, watered it, watched it, watered, watched.... finally, something green begins to show and there is no question of "what's that"? ..it's the LIMA BEAN! finally!... okay, now to make since of that illustration... we've been holding our Dixie cup of dirt for sooo long. We KNOW that God put a seed for international missions in there and covered it with Guatemalan soil and here we are... starting to see what the root has been busy doing. We are beginning to have support coming in and random things happening to bring us partners to join us in this GOD size endeavor! We are watching our little home in the west side of town being transformed , we have had yard sales( the last one tomorrow ) where we have sold 90% of our "things", we have been able to share our heart for Guatemala with several groups and lastly (my personal favorite) we have mailed out our FIRST NEWSLETTER. What mom doesn't enjoy sending info and photos of her family to 100 + of her closest friends every month? I LOVE IT!!! Thank you all for receiving the info and praying so faithfully for us ! WE FEEL IT!!!!!

My intention with this blog spot is to try to post on Sundays our praises , prayer request and just general news as we live out this crazy life of being transformed into international residents doing the very same sorta thing there as here... Loving Jesus and praying that our love for him draws others to an interest of knowing ,loving and serving him too! ( only in Spanish - hopefully sooner than later)

I hope that you enjoy the photos that I posted. They are pretty random but will catch you up to speed with what we've been up to and then things should make sense from here on out.

We love you all-

Livin' like Lima's

The Evans