Praise and Prayer

A few prayer requests and praises from the Erickson family:

Praise that we were able to purchase a “new” van!!!  Our old van was getting more and more uncertain.  It would go out of drive and be in neutral until it felt like going back into drive.  That was making me nervous.  Plus, we weren’t able to take it on trips, so we would borrow vehicles from people when we needed to go somewhere far.  This van is wonderful!  I am so thankful to the Lord for this blessing!  Thanks to everyone that helped make it possible!!

Prayer:

Wyatt broke his finger in P.E. at school.  He is on a baseball team this summer and is hoping this won’t keep him out for too long. 

I was at the hospital yesterday having ultrasounds done to figure out the source of the pain I was having.  Come to find out, it was a ruptured cyst.  I am on pain meds and Garth is taking great care of me.  Pray for quick healing.

Today we are leaving to go away for the weekend to New London.  There is a wonderful home available for missionaries and pastors.  I am looking forward to the time away as a family and the chance to relax.

Hope your holiday weekend is full of times that you will remember always.

Love you

Rachel

Transported

Today Garth and I worked in the yard digging up and moving around some of the plants that weren’t in the best place.  Some were getting squeezed out and some had too much room around them.  It looks nice, but will look even better in a year or two when it all fills itself in.

I was thinking about our family while we were doing it.  We are a transported family trying to “fill in” where we have been planted.  I don’t feel like our roots have grown firmly down into our soil yet.  We are certainly doing better than we were last summer, but I feel like we still have a ways to go.  In a few weeks it will be a year since we left Indonesia.  It sure feels like quite a bit longer than that.

I asked the kids the other day, “If you had the opportunity to move back to Indo for good, what would you say?”  Emma yelled out “Yes!” before I even finished the question.  Sophie was thoughtful and gave me a list of pros and cons.  Wyatt said yes, but as he considered it, he realized that it would be hard for him to come back here for college if we did that.  Cale is happy wherever he is planted.

For now, we really feel like this is where God wants us.  But please pray for Indo.  There are so many needs there for the upcoming year.  They desperately need teachers, administrators, computer techs and dorm parents.  It is easier to be here while it is warm.  We sure are loving the weather-grilling out, playing outside, swinging on the swings, lounging in the hammock- dreaming of the beach…

We sure do miss that ocean…

Love you
Rachel

Still

I have been quiet lately because I haven’t felt like writing.  With Garth’s Mom dying, and all the other stuff we have going on, I have been feeling a bit melancholy.  Yet, I feel like I should be sharing with you the things that God is teaching me.

The other day, I really wanted a snuggle from Cale.  Cale however, was full of energy and wouldn’t sit still on my lap.  He kept squirming around.  I was trying to talk to him softly about something, but he was moving around so much, he wasn’t listening. 

Now, I know I have talked about this verse before, but God showed it to me in a brand new way.  “Be still, and know that I am God.” 

“Be still.  Please be still.”  That is what I kept saying to Cale and what I know God is often trying to say to me.  I am so out of focus, and I can’t hear what He is saying because I just will not be still.  The desire of my  heart at that moment was to connect in a special way with Cale.  But it ended in frustration as he ran off to “conquer the world.”  I believe there are moments like that with God and me.  My busyness and unwillingness to stop keeps me from that special connection that God longs for-and my heart needs.  I am sure that if I stopped I would hear Him saying to me, “Be still.  Please be still.”

Love you

Rachel