Psalm 91

God keeps bringing this to my attention. (Ruth)

Psalm 91
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. 3 For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. 4 He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. 5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. 6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. 7 Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. 8 Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished.
9 If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, 10 no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. 11 For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. 12 They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. 13 You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. 15 When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. 16 I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”

Bong Ti....this will be our new home in a few weeks. Zach said to me (Ruth) today in the midst of our garage sale - 'I just want to scream as loud as I can'. This being very unlike Zach to show such passionate emotion, I asked him why. He said ' I am just so excited, I love our life, I love the adventure, I love that we are selling stuff and I love that we are going to Bong Ti'. This is very much the feeling within our family. Most of the future is completely unknown, but we are anticipating adventure. While there is excitment there is also... a growing awareness of the injustices toward the Karen people who are having to escape Burma - heading to Thailand. Col and I are sickened by what has been apathy on our part toward the oppressed in our world. Just having opened the window a little we are overwhelmed at the comfort of our own lives. The more we have got to know Jesus the more acutely aware we are becoming that our lives can be anything but comfortable. So we head toward this new chapter in our lives - not knowing fully what we will learn. Colin said to me the other day 'this will be defining for our family' and I believe it will be. Our hope is to return to Australia better equiped to lead the many faithful followers of Jesus in Australia in responding appropriately to the poor and oppressed in our country and countries around the world. Here are some photos of what will be our new home - Bamboo School. We will teach English, help in the medical clinic (Colin will anyway - I struggle with one of our children cutting themself, let alone someone's spleen hanging out or a gun shot wound!) we will teach Bible and love the children/young adults there. We will eat vegan and Colin (a lover of meat) has already warned us that if one of the Water Buffalo go missing we will know where to find him and it.