What is going on???

We've had a few people in our small circle of blog readers who have little to no idea of what has been happening in our lives for the past few months so I decided to use a post to get everyone up to speed. For those of you who know the ins and outs of the changes going on at Plans and Providence, bear with me for a post or two....

We have currently re-located to a big town (well, relatively speaking) in Southern Texas where we will be spending the next 8 months to a year in training that specializes in getting the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who have never heard. This decision was not come by quickly or easily (especially on my part) but one where we have seen our God work in such a way that we have no doubt in His direction of our lives thus far.

In February of 2006, Paul went to the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors in the cities, where the topic of the conference was "How Must a Pastor Die? The Cost of Caring Like Jesus". The topic caught Paul's attention right away, especially living in the American culture where it's easy for us to want to be called Christian, as long as suffering is not included in that calling; a great weakness I see in myself as well. One of the speakers was a man named David Sitton who shared his burden for the unwanted, unreached, sometimes hostile people groups around the world who God has promised will be praising his name around the throne one day (Revelation 7:9-10). The Holy Spirit began to move in the heart of my unsuspecting husband and he prayed with his friend sitting next to him that the Lord would give him direction and clarity as to God's purpose and will.

Paul came home from the conference and very cautiously shared with me the details of the conference and his desire to maybe someday down the road in the distant, distant....distant future look into the possibility of persuing missions to unreached people groups. Immediately I thought of sending my children out to play, worrying that they would be eaten by cannibals and my heart was very closed to the idea. Paul made no mention of it over the weeks that followed, but in my mind we were talking about it pretty much 24/7. Then one early morning as Paul was sleeping (peacefully, I might add) I was awake crying and stubbornly arguing with God, thinking about every reason why it would not be a good idea for us to go into missions. I was foolishly asking God how He could ask us to do this thing, when He asked me, "Keri, do you love Me more than anything?" and I could not argue with Him anymore because He had revealed to me the condition of my heart. That night I gave up arguing with my all-knowing, all-powerful God, and surrendered to the idea of going into missions training. From that point on I cannot tell you what specifically happened in my heart to get me to the point I am now, but He has brought me from being reluctant and unwilling to where I am excited for the training we will receive and for the plans the Lord has for us.

Although we had pursued other areas of possible missions training, those fell through, and the Lord kept bringing To Every Tribe Ministries to Paul's mind. Nothing much was said about it throughout the next 10 months until February 2007 when Paul called David Sitton. He said he was going to be at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors again this year and would meet with Paul there. To make an already long story shorter, Paul and David Sitton met and we went down to Southern Texas for a visit in April. In May Paul resigned his position as youth pastor at our church in Chetek, Paul finished his last day on the first of June, Frankie was born the beginning of July, we put our house up for sale in August (and had an offer on it within a week), and sold the house and moved in with my parents in September. We lived with my mom and dad until December 4th when we headed down to Texas, which brings us to the present time.

I am not going to lie to you and tell you that everything has been easy-going this whole time. I cannot tell you the depth of the lonliness I feel for my family and friends back home; much of my time has been spent in tears (not that that comes as a shock to those of you who really know me), but I have no doubt of the Lord's leading and because of that I can say that this time is good.

I should go for now, but if you have any questions for us, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or e-mail us at pkpoppe@gmail.com.