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Well, I knew that this past December and January were setting themselves up to be a busy season… and they were, just not entirely in the way I was expecting. When I agreed to lead a mission trip from our own church to Salta, Argentina, in January, it wasn’t hard to anticipate that doing this right after the Christmas holidays (we left January 2) would be challenging. Christmas has its own active schedule year to year, but to add the preparation that a mission team needs (training, fundraising, etc.) on top of it; well, let’s just say that it was a very busy time.
So in light of all of that, you can imagine how it was to find out in early December that my brother was going to have cancer surgery right before we left for Argentina; that my mother-in-law would also be having surgery in January; and to find out, just days after we arrived in Argentina, that both my dad and my father-in-law would be admitted to the same hospital–dad for surgery after a bad fall (he’s still in rehab) and my father-in-law for a blood infection.
It was (and still is) quite a season!
So what am I learning from all of this? That people’s prayers matter; and that as we’re praying, we don’t always have to know every detail that we’re praying into…the Spirit does the necessary “translation” and what ends up being needed in a situation is exactly what God provides. To the point, many of you (and others) pray regularly for me and my family and some of those details to pray about show up here in this newsletter and in other places, but many of those details aren’t here. But no matter, your prayers for me/us are and were effectual and they played an important part in the peace we felt while all of this was going on. That peace can only come from Jesus Himself and it allowed for not only a blessed and successful mission in Argentina for our team but also the confidence to know that our family members would all be ok while we were far away.
When all is said and done, let me say that I appreciate you all and that your prayer and support matters in ways you will many times never know.
Thank you again; AND thank you for your prayers.
– Randy Schmor