February Newsletter

Unless the Lord builds the house...

Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain."  

Since I've started this journey with GlobalFingerprints, it has been obvious that the Lord is building "this house".  The way things have come together with this has been amazing, and continues to be amazing.  

Every February, the Minnesota Music Educators Association holds a state-wide music education convention in Minneapolis.  It's a great time to get together with old friends and colleagues, learns some new tips and tricks and hear some outstanding performances.  It was after one of these outstanding performances (which happened to be by the Edina Concert Band - where Andy teaches and was asked to conduct one of the pieces) that I was enjoying a time of chatting with old friends, and well wishers of the Edina band program.  One of the people I had the pleasure of chatting with was Doug Schmitt (of the music store, Schmitt Music Co). While we were chatting, he asked what I do.  While I explained what I'm doing in Haiti, he shared that he had been to Haiti once before.  We had a nice conversation about some of our similar experiences there, what specifically I would be doing and whether or not the program would be successful given the social, political and climatic situations in Haiti.  It was in the middle of this conversation that he looked at me and asked, "How about if I donate 100 recorders for you take down there?"  I was astonished!  Recorders were at the top of my shopping list.  I thanked him and told him that would help tremendously!  Since that original conversation, Doug has also offered to help me try to find some recorder method books written in French and in his words, "hustle" them to donate some books.  I'm thankful for the way God is going before me in this ministry.  I'm working hard to remember that these are not things I need to do, but that these are things God is doing through me.  Two passages of scripture I lean on regularly to help me remember that are:

Exodus 14:14

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

John 15:1-17

The Vine and the Branches

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

(Emphasis added)

UPDATES/PRAISES/REQUESTS

•        The kids moved down to their new bedrooms!  We’ve started moving some things in the down stairs family room.  We can see the light at the end of this construction tunnel.  If I haven’t mentioned it before, my husband is amazing!
•         Creole lessons started back up last week.  Pray that what I’m learning would stick!
•          Pray that God would raise up a team of musicians to travel with me in July.
•          Pray that God would provide the people we need for the two positions we have open in the   GlobalFingerprints Haiti staff.
•          Praising the Lord that our time of transition seems to be coming to a close as we are starting to feel more settled as a family into our new normal.  Especially now that Andy isn’t spending all of his free time working on the basement.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me!

God bless!

Lynn