Principles for Life Ministries

The living, breathing God gave me a Rebecca-specific miracle, not long after reading Romans 8 this morning. It says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”

Sunday, my compassionate friend asked how things are, and I just started crying. (It’s one of those life seasons.) She asked how she could bless me, and I told her I didn’t even know what to ask for. (“We do not know what we ought to pray for.”)

Last night, I told Aaron and God I was so overwhelmed. I didn’t know how I was going to handle this week.

A friend of my sister’s (I’ve only met her 4 or 5 times) brought her son for some landscaping work we’re having him do. She texted after dropping him and asked if she could come to help me with my business or anything, housework, etc. for the hours she wanted and needed to fill until her appointment because of the not wanting to go home to Vancouver in between.

She spent not only those 3 hours helping me but also forewent her afternoon plans to help me finish my laundry, interact with my kids, and finish sanding my magnets for me while I wrapped up various little jobs, fed the kids lunch, put away my laundry (IN DRAWERS, EVEN!). Plus, she took time to encourage me and help build me up spiritually.

You can’t say to me that the God of the universe doesn’t hear prayers when He literally sent a woman I barely know to my front door to ask if I could give her work to do around my house and for my business when since the weekend I have been in agony asking Him how I was to accomplish so many household chores, watch kids, and work endlessly until my festival this Saturday, for Him to just help me know what to do and how to do it.

I may not know a lot of things, but I know this is not how life usually works out. I didn’t know how or what to ask for or from whom to ask it, but He knew I literally needed someone sent to my front door to ask ME if I could let THEM do some of MY work.

Praise Jesus is all I know to say. The LORD be glorified. Because, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen!

Romans 8 from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…

Added Note: Last week I was able to meet with Rigoberto face-to-face in Vancouver, WA. Thanks to Mark Olander who gave Rigo a ride down from Olympia and to my son-in-law, Ben Sadler, who drove me to Vancouver for the meeting. The most recent update is that Rigoberto and his son, Juan Carlos, are leaving their families in Olympia for reasons of safety and are now traveling back to Managua to check on the condition of their home and see if conditions have improved in Nicaragua. Please pray for their safety and their wisdom as they plan to continue the work there and in Central America. And please pray for the political climate in Central America to settle down and return to peace, so that they can continue to preach the Gospel and plant new churches.

As 1 Timothy 2:1-4 commands us, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority (this includes Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista party of Nicaragua), so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,  who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 

And then there were three….

As the Goheens and we have prayed and evaluated the church planting work ahead of us, our own capabilities and weaknesses, and the future needs of the future Kaje church… we have felt the need to add on another family to our team.  So after months of prayer and emails we finally had two weeks of long discussions about theology, church planting strategy, philosophy of ministry, parenting, gifting and abilities, personalities and more (Basically speed dating), and now we are excited to introduce you to the newest members of our team! The picture below is the Meyer family (not to be mistaken with the Myers family).  They are Christopher, Lillie, Linda, and Silas.  They are Germans, but we try not to hold that against them :).  We love them and can’t wait to get them moved into Kaje so they can begin learning the Kaje Language and culture.  Be praying for them as they prepare to begin purchasing solar equipment, lumber milling equipment, plywood for floors, screen for windows, corrugated roofing iron, water filtration, water storage tank or bladder, pipes, a stove etc.  They have a lot of planning and transition ahead of them!

Please Pray For Us As:

• We are having our first literacy class’s graduation in a week.
• Class 2 of literacy starts up two days later with 16 new students.
• Abby prepares a post literacy class to encourage the 1^st16 students to keep growing in their ability to read and write.
• A Bible translation consultant is coming in on July 6^th to check the comprehensions and accuracy of the Bible portions Taylor has been faithfully translating these last months without us.
• The Meyer family is coming in for a few days on July 13^thto be introduced to the Kaje and to begin planning how and where to build their house.
• Continue trusting Jesus for the health of baby Solomon.

Now that I’m free to share, I’m going to write more openly about what my family has been going through.

My father, who has been battling Parkinson’s, spinal stenosis, and Type 2 diabetes, has yet another burden to add to his list. We found out he has an incurable form of Leukemia. (You can read the longer details here. https://principlesforlife.org/…/principlesforlifeministries/)

We are not unfamiliar with grief and fear, as the last 2 years have been horrific roller coaster rides of watching every aspect of my parents’ lives change due to both gradual and sudden health concerns. It’s a strange place to be, to know they are in such a state to die any minute but that they could also go on living for years.

The reason I want to be honest about it is because we all, essentially, have to live in that same state: knowing any minute it will all be taken away. I just get to feel it thrown in my face a little more poignantly than some, on a regular – sometimes weekly – basis.

The main concern I have is not that the world understand how hard our lives have been the last several years. Life is hard. My concern is that people understand why so many of my posts and so many of my updates go back to Jesus, God, and my thanks for Him.

Whether you know this or not, I’ve had a lot to complain about. In many ways, my life has sucked. Not much about my days that makes me stand up and cheer. I get to watch two of my favorite people that I depend on the most for love, support, care, guidance, and hope walk through lives of hopelessness that just keep getting worse.

So how come I filter everything (as best I can) through a faith-based filter? And how come I have faith in a good God who is in control of everything when I look around at the universe that is truly filled with so much self-centeredness, indulgent pride, disinterest in the cause of the needy, that is violent and rageful even in the name of peace? Passive and compromising, intellectually engaged and often heart empty? A place where people are destroyed in the name of defending a cause, where love is so absent from so many of the things we strive for and seek to attain?

All of the above horrors? Those are WHY I believe in that God. The death we all await, and fear and dread? That is WHY I know there is a God in Heaven. Our moral compass that drives you and me to do both wonderful and HORRIBLE things in the name of the things we love, it’s embedded in our hearts. And if a greater God than us didn’t, hadn’t created us with souls that knew THIS PLACE ISN’T RIGHT we wouldn’t know, in our souls, that we were made for something better. We wouldn’t keep striving. We couldn’t claim that there is a right and there is a wrong if we didn’t know it deep down that there IS something called GOOD. We’ve all just distorted it to fit a particular mold, and, in essence, we’ve screwed it up.

But my hope, my belief in God, it shows me how there is a plan for redemption. It shows what a life COULD be. It shows me how I want to be and who I want to become. It provides a webbing and brings a framework to the senseless lives we live, seeking in agony a meaningful existence in a world we know will just someday end for us. Because we believe in a Higher Purpose, even when we say we don’t.

Apart from Christ, I would be nothing. It’s a life and a world I could do without. But unless I have hope of an eternal promise that finally brings fruition to everything I’ve fought for and believed in, in everything I do, WHAT WAS THE POINT? If I can see with my soul’s eye everything my heart wants and desires, all the good God intends for all those of us whom He loves, I can see why all this horrible, terrible mess of this life actually makes sense. It can even show me how and why God has used my parents’ suffering and helplessness for so much good.

It means that the fear, the misery, the agony, as well as the desire to just give up and get out of this place filled with the previews of what Hell is going to be actually keep my feet planted here as long as I can, so I can share the hope we all need. Without God, there truly is no hope. And I’ve seen it. I know it. And for as long as I have to stay here in this godless life of pain and suffering and evil, I will seek after God and impart His goodness into the lives I know. And I’ll do that fearlessly, because God is the only thing we don’t have to be afraid of in this life if we can and will receive His love and gift.

I love each of you. Without hesitation, and ENDLESSLY. Because Jesus first loved me.

Becca

Romans 5:18-21 (NLT) Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…)