Since we arrived back in the States a month and a half ago, we have been kept very busy.  What have we been doing?  Let’s see...We visited family and friends for two weeks in Missouri, a couple of weeks in Indiana and are now back in Missouri for a few more.  Jimmy has picked up 10 pounds of “extra baggage” in this short span of time, thanks in part to the availability of ice cream and everyone’s desire to have us over for dinner.  We have shared about our mission and have several more churches lined up in the weeks ahead.  Yet, the one thing we have been most consumed with since we have been back--fishing.

 

Diana’s folks took us to Bennett Springs for a little trout fishing one day when we first came in.  That gave us the bug.  Then Jimmy’s parents took us to a pond for a four-hour stint of catching blue gill on EVERY cast (literally).  Boy, was that fun.  Caleb caught 44!  We used crickets (even though they all died by the time we arrived at the pond), the pistil of a dead dandelion, and even caught a couple on an empty hook!  At Grandma Melba’s near St. Joseph, the boys braved the field to pull in some really nice bass.  

 

Three days of fishing in no way compares to one who is consumed.  Papa Brown used go ‘bout every day.  However, our fishing hasn’t been limited to blue gills or bass.  Rather, we have bigger fish to fry.  With the very real reality of having no source of income or insurance after the end of the month, we are consumed with trying to land the “big one” God has in store for us--our next field of ministry.  

 

The challenge is a trying one.  First, it is difficult to know which field to be fishing in.  Second, it is confusing at times to wonder how much and what kind of “bait” to use.  We wholeheartedly trust in God’s sovereignty, but struggled with knowing how much we are responsible for in the task of finding a ministry position.  What’s more, it is hard to be patient as we wait for bite.  Ultimately the issue is whether to fish like Isaac or Caleb.  Isaac likes to let Dad cast out his line, catch the fish, hand the pole over to him and let him reel it in and claim it as his own.  Caleb casts the line out one time, reels it in 90 miles per hour and declares he needs to use a different bait or go home ‘cause the fish aren’t biting!  

 

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to determine exactly where God wants us to serve Him.  Also, pray we will have the patience to wait upon Him with faith and hope.