Good News--Bad News--GOOD NEWS

Dear Friends,

You are probably familiar with a genre of humor known as Good-News/Bad News jokes. Like the following joke:

"Good news: Recently, my friend got to go skydiving for the first time. Bad news: His parachute failed. Good news: As he was falling, he noticed a large pile of hay directly below. Bad News: There was a pitch fork in the middle of the hay. Good news: He missed the pitch fork. Bad news: He missed the pile of hay."

These past four months have been a mix of good news and bad news regarding the challenges of our residency. I won't rehearse all the details, other than to say that currently, the good news is that we are about to complete the last step necessary to receive our temporary residency in Ukraine. The bad news is that we have fallen on (yet) another pitchfork (ie. complication) in what has become an enexpectedly drawn out process.

And so we ask you to pray. Please pray for the local official with whom we meet today (around 9:00 to 10:00 AM EDT).  Solomon reminds us that "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will" (Proverbs 21:1).  With that in view, we ask you to pray that God would move in his heart to be gracious to us and allow us to complete this process without further delay or additional costs.

But we also ask you to pray for us. The drawn out nature of this process with all its ups and downs  can become emotionally draining. The temptation is to focus on getting this over with so we can just "move on."  And so, every day becomes another chance for hopes to be fulfilled--or dashed. If we are not careful, we can become emotionally trapped between the hopes for good news and the numbing disappointment of the latest bad news.

Which brings me to our specific request. Pray for us that we will focus on THE GOOD NEWS, the Gospel! This news is not impacted by daily events ("good" or "bad"). It is the good news that our Savior has already satisfied the righteous wrath of God that we deserved and altered the effects of life in a fallen world for His people. This guarantees that whatever happens ("good" or "bad"), it always works for our ultimate "good" (For a fuller explanation of this, see Romans 8:17-39).

Pray that whatever happens, our focus today (and always) will be on His Good News.

Thankful for God's Unchanging Good News,

Jerry and Kellie