"Happy 1st of July!"

Based on the title you’re probably wondering whether I’ve forgotten national holidays in all my travels, or if maybe the hot sun has addled my brain just a little so now I subtract three from every date. Neither is true, so don’t worry…actually, as it turns out July 1^st is a national holiday for Ghana too—“Republic Day”. I haven’t gotten a clear report of what year Ghana became a republic, but apparently it happened on the first of July. Unfortunately, they don’t celebrate Republic Day the same way that we Americans celebrate our Independence Day, so I didn’t get to watch fireworks, light sparklers, watch a parade or eat massive amounts of potato salad, but I did get the day “off” and got to hang out on the base…which was nice.

The thought recently dawned on me that we’re actually halfway through 2008. This made me think about a couple things… First, my birthday is coming up pretty soon (JULY 23^RD), and second (perhaps a deeper thought…) half of another year is over—how has it gone? Remembering back to New Year’s Eve, sitting around at midnight, praying the new year in with my sister and a good friend while eating Christmas cookies sent from home. Okay, maybe the praying wasn’t simultaneous with the eating of the cookies—kinda hard to talk to God with your mouth full of coconut macaroon. Anyway, I was just thinking about how quickly time passes and how easy it is to miss it. Thinking about all the things I was praying and asking God for at the beginning of the year, how are those things going now? And I don’t mean “God please give me a husband” or “God I need money”—I mean more along the lines of ways I want to grow in Him this year, paths I’m hoping He’ll take me down, where He’s leading me. Have I been sticking to what I’ve asked Him to help me with? Am I holding up my end of the bargain? I think it’s really easy to go to God with requests and sit back and wait for a miraculous change to take place. But I think even though that’s easy to do, it’s really important to keep up with it myself. To constantly check myself to see where I’m progressing and where I’m falling behind. In Amos, there is a point where God shows Amos an image of a plumb line and a wall built true to plumb. God then tells Amos that Israel is no longer true to plumb and describes the judgment about to befall them. As someone who has worked laying blocks in Mexico I can appreciate this imagery. I know what will happen if you allow even one row to be unlevel… as you build up on unlevel blocks, the whole wall gets progressively worse and before you know it the wall is bowing out (or in) and you have to remove several rows of block that you’ve laid to be sure of the structural integrity. This is the kind of thing I mean…it’s very easy to just keep building and “eye-balling” whether you’re level or not. But if you’re off, it’s going to be a lot more work down the road to get yourself back in line than if you had been really checking and monitoring little by little as you work. It’s the same with life…what’s my plumb line (or level)? Am I checking myself against it? When I do check am I in line or do I need to go back and tear down all the ‘progress’ I thought I was making? Just something I've been thinking about lately.

In other news, it looks like we're finally getting the feeding program for the elderly off the ground, which is really exciting! Please pray for us as we really launch into this--it's an exciting time, but it also requires a lot of work and we really want this to bless the community.

Thanks for all your prayers and support,
Hope you had an awesome Independence Day!

Rachel