As dit be Harmon Neeshtaytish?

That was the first sentence we heard when Karlene answered the door today around 7:15. Karlene answered that she did not speak German, and the lady repeated the sentence - Is this where Herman Neustaeter lives? I came to help out, and answered the only Neustaeter I know close by is a Willy. The lady explained that she was meeting her brother there to look at a van to buy. I laughed and said that we had our van for sale. She looked interested so I continued. I told her I had wanted to sell the van but had not had time to advertise as we are moving to Zambia. She mentioned that she was not able to pay it outright, but wanted to do it by payments. I said we could definitely work something out. She left to find her brother, and I was not sure if I would see her again. I was amazed though that God would bring someone to our yard when we have wanted to sell our van but just have not been able to get around to it. It blew me away. I felt like God was again blessing us 10 times over for the small ways that we have been faithful in giving.
I phoned Dad and asked if he thought this would be a good idea, if he would be willing to take the payments. He was, but cautioned me to be aware that these types of arrangements are not to be counted on. I was OK with that, but felt that the lady was sincere and that God had brought her to us, so we were not to turn this away.
She did come back, with her brother who is a mechanic. After a very brief looking over, he advised her to make the deal. We did sell it for less than we wanted, but feel good about being able to help her out, and at the same time have a little bit of income every month for almost 2 years. Praise the Lord, He is good and faithful! Deut. 32:4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

Singing His Praises!

"I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High...Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name...Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name."
(Psalm 7:17, Psalm 103:1, Psalm 100:4)

God is good! God is trustworthy! God is Faithful! The words to one of my favorite hymns, have been running through my mind these past two weeks.

"Great is Thy Faithfulness, Great is Thy Faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed your hand has provided. Great is your faithfulness, Lord unto me."

If I had to pick an anthem for our lives at this point in time, this song would win hands down. God has taken our faith and stretched it beyond what I thought possible and at the end of it, He has proven Himself faithful! Why do I doubt? Why do I question? Have I not learned anything from how He has always faithfully provided in the past? I find myself described oh so well in the pages of scripture when I read about the Israelites and how often, when faced with difficult and unknown circumstances, they forgot what God had done for them in the past and gave in to fear, worry, doubt, mistrust and complaining. Why do I lack faith and trust, in the One who has never failed me and who never will? I have some serious 'growing up' to do! And yet, God is so patient with me, just like He was with the Israelites. He continues to prove His faithfulness each and every day and continually calls me to trust, and trust and trust again, never once giving up on me and never once failing to be faithful.

I share this struggle to help you understand why these past two weeks have my heart overflowing with His praises! I am overwhelmed by all that He has done! I want to shout His praise from the rooftop and sing His praises to all the earth!

Answer to prayer # 1: Earlier this summer we had medicals done. Some of Anthony's blood work results concerned the doctor enough to order an ultrasound. This really set us back with questions. Is this God closing the door? If it's something serious, does that mean we won't go to Zambia? Will we go and then come back if he needs treatment? It made packing and planning and buying tickets rather difficult and it felt like we were left hanging and all the while wondering if we should proceed or if we should wait. The doctor's staff went out of their way to find an ultrasound appointment for Anthony before September and on August 10th he traveled to Grande Prairie to have it done. We praise God that the results show that everything is physically normal! The doctor believes that the blood work results might be from the damage caused by the malaria that Anthony had in Zambia and our concerns have been relieved.

Answer to prayer #2: So, with these positive results in mind, we once again returned to packing and preparation feeling that God had kept the door open and was continuing to confirm the call to Zambia. However, now we faced the unknown of what to do with our house. Our time of departure was nearing and we still did not have buyers or renters for our home. We knew that we could not possibly carry a mortgage and be on missions at the same time. Another unknown. Another reason to wait and trust on God. Then last Thursday, we had a couple come and look at our home and now...........we have renters!!!! Praise God!

Answer to prayer #3: For a time it looked like we would have to travel separately to Zambia due to time restraints and cost. However, this past Friday we received an email saying that our travel agent had found us cheap tickets for September 7th instead of August 26th. This buys us more time to get everything done that we need to here at home, still saves us money, enables us to travel as a family and gets Anthony to Zambia in time to attend most of the initial meetings and workshops with BIC teachers and headmasters!

What amazes me is that these three unknowns all came to a head on the same day last week. It was Tuesday morning, Anthony was gone for his ultrasound and we wouldn't know his results for 3-4 days, our email wasn't working so I couldn't check the replies that I was waiting for and hoping would bring some answers, we didn't have renters, we had no clue about what to do about booking tickets and when I had called MCC Alberta the day before to find out if any donations had come in, I was worried when their response was, "no." I was feeling stressed and worried and my mind was full of questions. I wanted answers to the unknowns, direction in what to do and an end to the waiting. It was then, that a still quite voice inside, urged me to turn to my Bible and thankfully I heeded it because God spoke straight to my heart. I opened my Bible and was blown away by the divinely appointed devotional that awaited me! The scripture read, "I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word." Psalm130:5. Let me quote the opening lines written by Charles Stanley.

"Right timing is critical in a believer's walk with the Lord. However, trusting His timing in important decisions, uncertain direction, or pressing needs is extremely difficult when everything within us cries, "Do something!" Because we want action, waiting for God seems so passive. To wait for the Lord means to pause for further instruction while remaining in the present circumstance. It is purposeful, expectant focus on God - a choice to be actively still and quiet in our hearts, listening for His voice and watching for His intervention. The wait is not for events to work out as we want, but rather for God's will to be done."

Oh how well God knows what we need and when we need it! How well He knows our hearts! I sat back after reading this and confessed my doubt, worry and fear, chose to wait and trust and the resulting peace was amazing! By the end of that same week, we had all of the answers listed above and we continue to praise God for His faithfulness! We still have a huge unknown facing us and that is the finances to purchase our tickets. At this present time we do not have enough money to buy our tickets and to pay our remaining bills. We have enough money to do one or the other, but not both. And so we enter another period of waiting and trusting God. We know that He will once again, prove Himself faithful! We have already been incredibly blessed through a dear couple who gave us a $500 donation toward our plane tickets! So we are well on our way and trusting God for another miraculous intervention! Through all of this, we are learning to trust and have faith! We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are moving in the right direction and that God is affirming His call on our lives and confirming His call to Zambia. How good it is to know that we are walking in His will and following the path He has set before us. We have stepped out in faith and we know that God will continue to be faithful!

I came across a prayer in Colossians 1:9-14 that we would love to have you pray for us as we return to Zambia.

"9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins."

We appreciate your prayers and support! You are a vital part of God’s Ministry! In Christ and with love, The Thiessens ~ by Karlene

If you would like to support us financially, please make cheques payable to MCC Alberta and enclose a note like the one below.
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Please use the enclosed donation for the support of Anthony and Karlene Thiessen serving with MCC Zambia. Thank-you.
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The address of their office is Mennonite Central Committee Alberta, 210 2946 32 St NE Calgary, Alberta, T1Y 6J7.

Flights Here and Gone Again

It is good to be wary, but sometimes you need to move forward. I have been burned by online travel deals in the past so I was leery of booking my own flights through an unknown small agency, who said that they specialize in missionary discounted flights - www.economytravel.com . I checked them out by searching for scams associated with them. I came up empty. That was great, as the price they quoted me was almost half of what the cheapest online quote I could get from all the big agencies.

The lady I dealt with was very professional and friendly, and I did not feel there was any cause for concern, but as the time came to pay for the tickets, I found it harder and harder to do it with peace in my heart. SO I decided to try checking up on them more thoroughly. I phoned Better Business Bureau, they had not heard of them. Economy Travel had a symbol on the bottom of their web page, IATA, so I phoned them after finding out they are a registry for travel agencies. They searched for a bit, and then assured me that they were legit. They gave me the company address, but it was different than the one on Economy's web page, so now I was concerned again. I phoned my travel agent, she assured me they were legit and had moved recently. She told me to phone British Airways, and walked me through some steps that showed that my trips were registered...but then came bad news. Our flights have been canceled.

I was supposed to have paid for the flights four days ago, but we were still waiting for a few things to fall into place, so I was going to pay for them today. Well, British Airways got impatient and canceled the booking. She searched for seats again, and the price went up for the same dates - $200 per person.

ON Monday, I will be paying unless I get cold feet again. I pray that God grants wisdom in this and that perhaps we can get back to the lower price again. God answers prayer, as we have experienced in the last few weeks, so I trust he will help us in this fun stuff of navigating the airways! :)

Tears and Teddy Bears

It was brought to my attention a few nights ago, that I've been a little preoccupied with preparations. We had a couple, who were possibly interested in buying our house, come for a tour. In the end it didn't work for them to do so and I didn't give it much more thought. However, when praying with Keyana that night, I soon realized that our little girl had given the days events more thought than I had. As she laid in bed, hugging her teddy big tears welled up in her eyes and in a shaky voice she said, "But I don't want other people to live in our house. This is our house." And then she began to cry. I was surprised and I realized that I had wrongly assumed that Keyana was oblivious to much of what is happening these days. I knew that Josiah had his share of fears because he's told us. "I don't want to go on a plane because planes crash, what if a lion eats me, they don't speak English over there so I won't be able to understand them, I don't have friends there, I don't want to leave Papa and Nana behind......" I was able to reassure her that wherever we go in the world, God will provide for all our needs, including a house. We wiped away her tears, prayed and she fell asleep peacefully. I came away with the realization that these changes are going to affect us all, even if on the outside it doesn't seem to and that we need to be diligent in helping our children make this adjustment. We appreciate your prayers for the wisdom, understanding, compassion and strength to make this transition a positive one for Josiah and Keyana. We pray that these 11 months in Zambia will bring us even closer as a family and strengthen our faith in God! ~Karlene

Peace Midst the Stress and Unknowns

Time is ticking, the countdown is on and yet we are so far from being ready to go. The stress is rising, the unknowns are still not answered and yet......there is peace. How can that be? We have no idea what we are doing with our house or our stuff, Anthony has some health concerns that need to be checked into, we're trying to finish some projects, our tickets need to be bought but we don't know if there is money to buy them with, we've hardly packed and yet life continues to go on. I wish there was a way of stopping time so that we could catch up! I feel the stress and yet there's an underlying peace that I can't explain. I know that God has not brought us this far to abandon us now. I take encouragement from these verses in Psalm 138:3,8, "When I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me the strength I need...The Lord will work out His plans for my life - for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever." I know He's calling us to trust Him to work out the plans for our future and to wait on Him as He does. This peace I feel midst the stress is foreign to me, usually I'm plagued with worry in times like these. I now more fully understand the kind of peace that Paul was talking about in Philippians 4:6-7. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." We appreciate your prayers as we continue on this journey, one step at a time. ~Karlene