Trust in the Lord

We are surrounded by transition in all stages.  Each and every day continues to bring something new and we are enjoying it.  First of all, we are excited to share is that our daughter Emma Hadassah Fogleman came into the world on June 17th! She came 10lb 2oz and 21 3/4in long and is so beautiful! Nothing compares to the feeling of holding your precious child.  We of course are learning how much work it takes to care for Emma, but are loving it!  We thank all the family and friends that have helped us during her arrival.

Emma Hadassah Fogleman

From the title of this post, we just wanted to share that our trust in God is what has been carrying us through.  We are learning that no matter how much you may plan something on your own, life sometimes has unexpected turns.  An example of that is Emma's arrival.  We had the plan of Emma coming naturally on her own timing with automatic nursing etc, but Kenzi ended up having an induction and c-section for a variety of reasons.  Trusting Jesus through times of pain, restlessness, and even concern for finances gave us a peace that He was with us.  We praise God that both Kenzi and Emma are healthy and doing well.

In our last post, we wrote about the vision trip, where we visited, and feeling the Lord's presence as we visited Northern Kenya.  As we continue to take steps toward Kenya, we are going through another transition.  We just finished an amazing Foundations Training with our sending agency at the beginning of May and with their blessing are starting our partnership development (prayerful and financial) and also building our personal accountability and care team (Home Team).  Our living and project expenses will come from financial supporters that desire to join us as we join Jesus in Kenya (there is a link on the right if you would like to make reoccurring and/or financial support).  And our Home Team will help us as we launch and live in Kenya through a variety of ways from the US.

This process too has had its ups and downs.  After our training, we came home pretty pumped up and came up with a list of some different individuals to ask about joining us and our Home Team.  As a result of a variety of reasons such as our church going through a huge leadership transition and everyone being so busy, the response of some individuals was not what we expected.  We have had to be honest and bring all this before the Lord as we continue to seek Him and what we know the the call on our lives.  We know that He will provide as we follow Him.  The advice and encouragement from the staff at our sending agency has been great and we really appreciate it.  Although we still need to quite a few to join us, we are still excited and are continuing to pray that God raises up more people to join us as we seek them out.

We also are having to trust God as we continue our communication with the local church and ministry in Kenya.  As we would never want to just move into an area and do our own thing without permission, we understand the importance of joining the locals in the ways that God has been already working.  Sometimes it is hard to feel that you are not in control or that you may be taking a step back, but we have had to rely on God to continually open doors and our eyes to see our next steps clearly.  Although some details are yet to be worked out, we are grateful that the local pastor is excited to have us join him and our future partnership.

To sum it all up, we would have to say that we must first seek His kingdom, and He will work out all these other details.  Choosing to trust rather than stress continually brings us back to the feet of Christ.  We are not expected to know it all, but are simply created to know Him and make Him known.  We are learning more and more each day about the present Kingdom of God and how we can be a part of it, in Lexington, KY and across the world.  Please pray that we will be salt and light today as spouses, parents, co-workers, etc and that God continues to use and prepare us.  We are all in some sort of life transition and can take it day by day through the power of Jesus.  As the humble cross-cultural witness Jim Elliot once said, "Wherever you are, be all there." Have a blessed day!