Re: Facing a big decision

From the book Shadow of the Almighty by E. Elliott

“I pray for you, that all your misgivings will be melted to thanksgivings.  Remember that the shadow a thing casts often far exceeds the size of the thing itself (especially if the light be low on the horizon) and though some future fear may strut brave darkness as you approach, the thing itself will be but a speck when seen from beyond.  On that He would restore us often with that aspect from beyond, to see a thing as He sees it, to remember that He dealeth with us as with sons.  Amy Carmichael’s words come to me:

He hath never failed thee yet.

Never will his love forget.

O fret not thyself nor let

Thy heart be troubled.

Neither let it be afraid.

A long overdue post.

How are we doing? In short, we’re doing ok. Suddenly I (Keri) have found myself in a dichotomy of not knowing what next year will hold while at the same time completely resting in the belief that God will provide for us in His time and in His way. Last night as I was praying, I was thankful that I am not anxious – RARE for me! We are hoping to be able to stay here another year but our finances and support aren’t looking great at this point, but we’ll see. We are going home in June and hope to have a decision by then. I told David last night how it’s hard to know sometimes which direction God is working from – like are we not exercising enough faith that He will provide the support we need for another year when we both so strongly felt that we should stay or is it a God-thing that we happened to look at our finances the other night, which is leading us to explore other possibilities job-wise for next year that may not be available had we waited until the end of summer? Either way – we agree that the Lord has always provided for us and says in his Word that he will graciously give us all things, so we have no reason to expect otherwise even though we can’t see into the future. Of course, David feels the weight of it more than I do because he feels a responsibility to provide for his family. He came home the other day notably weighted down by it all and I tried to encourage him, and he said, “You worry about hotels burning down and planes crashing and I worry about not being able to provide for my family.” I reminded him that the things I worry about never happen anyway so his probably wouldn’t happen either. :)

Anyway. So pray for us in all of that, if you think about it.

Valdemossa/Mallorca

The next day we drove up to a couple little towns, Valdemossa and Soller. Valdemossa was by far my favorite. There is something about these little Spanish towns which have been there for hundreds of years and still look the same. We met the group for cafe con leches, then split up and met back again to travel on to Soller.

This is a view of Valdemossa as we approached.

The little cafe where we had our coffee.

Another quaint corner shop.

Rachel with a native-dressed Spanish doll.


There were orange and lemon trees everywhere. This was someone's backyard. Love it!

Valdemossa is also famous for being the place where Chopin spent a winter and composed some of his music. Here is his statue.

I never get tired of seeing these doorways with plants and flowers on the walls.

Mathis with a Spanish shield.

From there, we drove along a very winding narrow highway along the coast up to Soller.

Colorful police vehicles.


The great cathedral.