Expectations vs. Reality

Psalm 103:10-12
        He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
(I read this verse today, and it kind of rocked my world! I wanted to share it with you all. How good is our God!)

Have you ever been rocked by a sermon? Gotten the feeling that God is using your pastor as a megaphone to get his point across to you, because you obviously aren't getting it? That's what happened to us this last Sunday. Russ, our pastor, was finishing up a series on Jonah. He chose the focus of expectations versus reality. These are some of the questions he posed:
          Are my expectations of God in line with reality? Do I have unfair expectations of God? Do I expect certain circumstances to occur, and get upset when they don't?

Talk about convicting!! God challenged me on my expectations with the support raising process we are going through currently. Expectation: response cards will flood our mail box. Reality: we haven't received one in a week. Expectation: people will be falling over themselves to support us and support raising will be a piece of cake. Reality: this has been one of the most challenging experiences I have ever gone through.

I expected God to follow my directions, agree to my plans, and say "Yes, Jenna, it will happen exactly as you planned." HA! Sadly, God doesn't work like that. A friend of mine reminded me of a saying, "The best way to make God laugh is to make our own plans." How true that is. I think I am trusting in God, believing that the support will come in (which is God's nature in providing for the needs his followers), but who said it was supposed to be by July 18th? Once again, our departure date has been moved back, in order for our pastor to be at church for our commissioning July 24th. But who's to say that wasn't God's plan all along? I self-imposed a leave date and promptly worried and stressed about it. Maybe God is telling me to take a chill pill and let him be in control. Which sounds fantastic, but is hard to put into practice when you are a fan of being in control.

So, update: We are currently looking at leaving around the end of July. We have $650/mo. raised, praise Jesus!! We have a three-bedroom duplex to live in, a plan on how to move across country, and the prayers of alot of people. Thank the Lord! If you want to sit down and talk with us about what we are doing in Indiana, please let us know!! We want to make sure we see as many people as we can :)
Love you all!
Jenna Stanton

Learning to Trust

Psalm 94:18-19

“When I said ‘My foot is slipping,’ your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”

It’s a very good thing God has A LOT of patience with us. Somehow He has enough patience to put up with my constant doubt and worry. Raising support, trying to figure out how to move across the country, realizing we actually are moving across the country – I think God should be getting sick of my anxiety and doubt about now. Thank goodness He loves me without fail.

This blog may be very random, as I am fitting a lot in :)

Raising support has been an ongoing process. Most of our support letters have been sent out last week!! (If you would like a support letter and didn’t receive one yet, PLEASE let me know and I will happily send you one!) It has been a huge faith trial, putting my faith in how the Lord provides every time, even though my fear says ‘What if this time is different??’ We are currently at $175/mo. and still have about $825/mo. before we can leave. Be praying that the support comes in!! And pray about how you can help!

Our leave date has continually fluctuated, moving further back as we realize the process will take a while. It is currently sent for July 18^th, provided we receive all the support we need in order to leave!

GOOD NEWS! We have somewhere to live when we get to Indiana! Darrell’s son owns a duplex, and as of now we are clear to live there. Huge prayer request answered!  

So, my friends, what’s next for the Stantons? Well, I am walking across the stage for Graduation on Saturday and turn 22 next Friday. Nothing too big ;) Caleb will be done with work the 24^th and we are off to Seattle to visit family and friends. Thank you everyone who has supported us in any aspect, especially those who have shared some love as we newly-weds try and figure out how to follow God’s will.

Love you all! Jenna

Our Journey to Lifeline Thus Far

Jeremiah 1:5-8:
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

before you were born I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

  “Ah, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.”

  But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 

The BIG News: On May 17th, Caleb accepted a job with Lifeline Youth for Christ in Elkhart, Indiana. He will be the Sports Director and Elementary Director, working with at-risk 3rd-6th graders.

The journey towards moving to Indiana started at the beginning of April, but I believe it started a couple months earlier than that. Caleb has always had a heart for missions and serving others in Christ and I knew this going in. However, this didn't stop me from panicking every time my husband came home with a new vision of where we should move. About four months ago, Caleb and our pastor, Russ, had coffee together. Caleb came home with visions of Eastern Europe or South America - somewhere new, different, and far away. I shut down, not wanting to talk about it. The next few days, however, God worked his magic on my heart, and I realized that I am no where near ready to go out to the missions field. I needed to be prepared, so I started to prep my heart for what God wanted us to do. Little did I know it would come so soon!!

April began with a bang this year. Caleb received a text from Russ and only told me that I should be praying about what's coming next and a possible job opportunity. Terrified, I ran to God, and he kindly provided the verse I quoted above: Jeremiah 1:5-8. After praying fervently and impatiently waiting for Caleb to come home, I felt at peace with whatever he would tell me.  

 The text message had been about a Youth for Christ job opening up that Russ thought we should apply for. But there was a little catch.....the job was in Elkhart, Indiana. INDIANA!! I didn't even know where Indiana was! (A slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean.) But, because God and I had spent the last three months prepping to go where God leads us, I said I was open to it. I even managed to keep my composure (for the first ten minutes at least). As scary as the prospect of leaving Spokane was, it was perfect timing. I had just graduated from EWU and wanted to find a new job. Caleb enjoyed his job, but ministry is where his passion is. It sounded perfect! (except the 35 hours away part.)

 We took the next week to pray, ask our parents for prayer and advice, and try to decide whether or not we wanted to apply. After receiving confirmation that we should at least try it, Caleb typed up a resume and sent it to the Director we had never even talked to. After two or three anxious days of waiting to hear back, the Director, Darrell, sent an e-mail back and wanted to talk to Caleb on the phone and let Caleb ask any questions he had. (More praying ensued.)

First phone call: Caleb talking to Darrell in the front room, with me in our bedroom, trying not to listen and praying like crazy. The result: a little bit more panic, finding out he wants someone there soon, and getting a little overwhelmed with the job. We were told to pray about it, and the two of us talk on the phone next time. 

Second phone call: the two of us talked to Darrell, addressing concerns like how the job will affect our marriage, how tied they were to YFC, and just big questions. He told us to continue praying and let him know if we wanted to schedule a visit. After the phone call, though , we were both so excited about everything we heard that we were ready to visit. There is only so much we can learn from over the phone and we hit the point where we were interested enough to visit and see for ourselves what God was doing in Elkhart.

We were too excited about the job and the idea of seeing it, so we e-mailed Darrell to let him know we wanted to schedule a time to come over. God had moved some big mountains and provided several situations where the two of us felt confirmed in our desire to do this job. Everyone Caleb talked to was excited for him and affirmed his gift and desire to work with Lifeline. A good friend of mine reminded me of the passion I have for encouraging women, and in turn, adoption and foster-care. Who says they have to legally be our kids? We can accept them into our home and love them as someday we will with our own children. Loving on these kids can show them what the love of Christ looks like. Darrell called us a few days later and we scheduled a time to fly over.

The trip was amazing! (There will be another blog to talk about it later, as this one is outrageously long.) We saw God's hand very present in Elkhart and with Lifeline. After every day we got more and more excited and more passionate towards these kids. The job was ours if we wanted it. Did we want it? Yes, but we decided to take a week to pray and talk to family about it first. We got back to Seattle May 13th and spent the weekend with Caleb's family. They all confirmed what we heard: this sounds like the place for us. Returning to Spokane, we heard the same from my family as well as friends. In the car on our way home from a dinner with my family, we looked at each other and asked, "Do we want to take this?" Yes, we did. The next day, Caleb called Darrell and accepted the job.

What now? We are still continually praying about this job with Lifeline, but we also need prayer for raising support for Lifeline. We do receive a salary, but it is a non-profit organization and survives off support. We would like to raise a total of $3,000/mo. to support the organization, but only need $1,000/mo. to leave. We want to aim for the $3,000/mo. to help Lifeline support these kids who need to be shown the love of Christ, and find it at Lifeline. Supporting us and Lifeline means providing these at-risk kids with opportunities to hear about Christ, to develop into loving men and women. We want to leave around the beginning or middle of July, provided we have our support. Feel free to ask us about it! We would love to have coffee or dinner with you and explain what we are doing to further God's kingdom :) Love you all! - Jenna