Patience. . .

. . .is a virtue. This is something I have never had a great deal of and as my departure to Bolivia gets closer and I hear of activities and events going on in Trinidad, I can't wait to join people and be a part of the goings on there.

I am experiencing some spiritual oppression as I go out to fundraise. Making those phone calls to setup appointments is not something I'm gifted at (I don't like making business calls - period). Please pray for me on this, it is probably my biggest struggle right now. I actually find getting together and meeting with people is a lot of fun and that's the easy part, even asking them to consider donating. To the right, I've added a "Support Watch" section that you can check out each time you visit and see where my support levels are at. As you can see, right now I have a lot of work to do to get to 100% of monthly support hopefully by the end of the year!

In my spare time, I am reading and starting to work again on the La Palmera website (www.ccclapalmera.org). Among the books I am reading:

• What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey - all about how we can experience (or how we don't experience) God's grace in our life <-- I'm almost done with this one
  
• Inside Out by Larry Crabb - this is a book I am reading through with a friend and discussing as part of my training, it's all about facing the emotional junk in our lives and giving it up to God so we can be made into His image - clean and holy
• The Invisible War by Chip Ingram - This is an excellent book about the realities of spiritual warfare and spiritual oppression that EVERY believer faces, even here in US. It shows how to be aware of it, but not obsessed with it and how to deal with it.
  
• The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster - This is a Christian classic talking about the idea that many aspects of our faith do require discipline - that is, they are things we have to work at daily to stay on top of in following Christ. This is also a requirement for my final training