Female cardinal outside our window.

Cardinals are Nesting

Eagles soaring in the sky

Robins flying not so high

Oh, oh, cardinals are nesting.

Bumblebees are perched on flowers

That have bloomed from April showers

Oh, oh, cardinals are nesting.

The creek is gurgling

While hawks are circling

Oh, oh, cardinals are nesting.

-Teah, age 7

Creeknoll Cottage, Minnesota

Collin lovingly wrapped a sticky tape that read “XL” around my wrist like it was a new piece of jewelry.  But his eyes were twinkling.  The sticky tape was off a cheap new tshirt from Target.  Collin said it was definitely mine.  I thanked him cautiously.  He asked me if I knew what it meant.  I replied in what I meant to be my dry tone, that it meant Extra Large and Very Funny Son.  His grin widened.  It has another meaning.  Now I was stumped.  “Roman numerals,” he encouraged.

Then I knew it was time to go write my end of furlough blog.  What a perfect summation.  Extra Large and Forty.

Yes, that is my feeling, my view.  But I think God has another take on it.  I can hear the whine of the jet engines spooling up.  I can feel the press of time rushing past us now.  XLerating.  It is time to go.  “XL” -Father God whispers with that great faith only an engaging dad’s eyes can hold.  A kind of “You can do it.”  Even though we cannot.  But he wants that we should try.  And he will back us up.

Extra Large.  Forty.  Excel.  Accelerate.  Do those four words find any natural fit with each other?  I think God might be laughing quietly.  What else could it mean?  Exhale?  Ex-hell?  I should stop holding my breath; let go of anxiety and breath deeply with the knowledge of my name written in an ultimate Book of Life.  Jesus said not to rejoice because the demons are subject, but to rejoice that we have eternal life.  God, Only You can make our work mean that someone else will find Christ and find their name written down in God’s book and be able to exhale at last together with us.  Ex-hell.  Perhaps even whole people groups perishing…then rescued.  PRAY ye the LORD of the harvest that He will send laborers into the harvest.  Even extra large, forty year old laborers like me.

-Liisa

Counting down the days to May 20th, our planned departure, several have written us with both questions and decisions to get involved. Only $800/ month to go, we are encouraged, grateful, and working to be ready in anticipation of what God is doing in raising our support.  However, we have to pray.  We have a bird’s eye view on a battle. It is a battle to walk by faith, a battle to seriously care about others and not curl up contentedly in ourselves, a battle to think biblically, a battle to follow God not fear.
Please pray with us. This Sunday bandits in northern Kenya shot at AIM Missionaries Ken and Susan Black and their two boys on the road north of Marallal.  Five other Samburu people were also in the vehicle with our friends.  Their Land Rover took four rounds, one of which pierced Susan’s leg, shattering her femur.  With permission from the local police, the Gatab pilot landed the AIM AIR Cessna 206 on the road a few kilometers past the ambush and evacuated the family.
Susan has undergone the first of several surgeries and is in intensive care.  The family is asking for special prayer for their boys Robert and Joseph.  Their boys are good friends with our boys, and so the event disturbs us at many levels.  We’ve travelled that road dozens of times ourselves.  Pray for AIM.  Pray that we may go back in the Lord’s time and be able to work -supporting men and women of His, “of whom the world is not worthy.”  (book of Hebrews 11:38)
The question on the table now for us and before God is about our children’s education.  That remaining support is for putting the older boys into a school in Nairobi. This has been our plan, after much prayer and searching.  Jonathan will be a High Schooler already next year, and we (and he) all feel it’s a good time for school.  However, if we are willing (& led by God) to continue to homeschool, then we can go with the amount that we have.  Proverbs 16:9, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
Our tickets for our family to return to Kenya is over $5K , of which we have $3K saved for it.  One-time support will go to meet that need as well.  So pray with us, lifting the Blacks up to the throne.  Pray that our direction concerning school will be made clear.
Under His mercy,
The Rurups

Sometimes, when we are called to obey, the fear does not subside, and we are expected to move against the fear.  One must choose to do it afraid. -Elizabeth Elliot.

This film, which was a collaboration of my shooting, Mikes writing, and Andy’s editing, has just been released, and it tells the story of missions in the hard places of Central Africa.  We are praying for a new generation of missionaries that are willing to go…willing to move against the fear.

-Ted

We’re sleeping in my parents garage, Liisa and I, and little Timmy in a small bed beside us.  It’s really quite comfortable, a mostly finished garage with a kerosene heater and a large, bouncy bed.  Timmy was just bouncing on it a few minutes ago and I told him to stop jumping up and down on the bed.  He slumped down in disappointment, then folded his hands, closed his eyes, and said, “Please God, I wanna bounce on the bed….YES!” Then he opened his eyes and looked at me expectantly.

~Ted