Prayer Update - 7/16/06

Hello, everyone!

It is so wonderful to know that I can send this email to all of you and count on you to really pray! It is about 11:00pm on Sunday night and we feel very ready for the moving truck to come tomorrow morning. All the boxes are packed and the furniture prepared. North American Van Lines will arrive in the morning to take our belongings and we will depart as soon as the truck is loaded. There have been so many good-byes and yet as we reflect this evening, we find there are many more from whom we wish we could have gotten one more hug! If you're one of those people, please forgive us and just know you're in our hearts. Our hours and physical strength (not to mention emotional strength) fell short as we tried hard to finish well here in Saint Peters.


Here are some specific things to praise God for:

1. We have a house! We're so thankful that God has provided a great house for us in Murrieta as of July 20. We have lots of room and would love to have lots of visitors! Please come.

2. God has provided (through many of you) all the funds needed for our outgoing expenses so we can make the transition to California. Miracle after miracle has occurred to make this possible. The Lord has been so good to confirm our calling again and again throughout the process of support discovery.

3. My trip to Europe in June was fantastic and God showed me in so many ways why He has called us to EGM. Watch for our next newsletter for a full report.


Here are some specific prayer needs:

1. Pray for our trip. Hopefully, we will leave Monday afternoon July 17 and will arrive in Murrieta the evening of July 19. The two words that leap to our minds are safety and sanity. We are looking forward to reconnecting as a family during this time of travel, but will have the joy of transporting our two dogs in the car as well. We've had some car trouble in this last week, but our trusted mechanics have pronounced our car road-worthy, so we begin the journey on faith.

2. Pray for our hearts and those of our children who we are leaving behind in Missouri. The idea of being apart has been a difficult idea to adjust to, but we are all trusting the Lord for His peace and strength as we obey Him in this move and ministry transition. We also leave behind some very dear friends with whom we have deep connections. It's not easy, but God has been so faithful as we have stepped out on faith thus far. How can we not trust Him in this as well?

3. Pray for our belongings to arrive safely and on-time in Murrieta. It's only stuff, but it's the only stuff we've got. The scheduled arrival time is the 24th or 25th of July.

4. Pray for my next trip overseas to Argentina and Chile July 30-August 10. That doesn't give us much time to get things in order before my departure, so your prayers are needed. Pray, too, for the journey to go smoothly and that God's will would be done as I seek to be an encouragement to the children's ministry leaders in these countries for the first time.

We'll be sending another update soon. Thanks so much!

God bless you!

Joe (for the Cox family and EGM)