Friday, April 10, 2009

Hughes Family Walks The Steps of Abraham: Where To Lord?

As we enter the Easter weekend, we find ourselves restless.

Have you ever been restless before?

If you have, then you know what I am talking about. You know that there are times in your life that you feel like the Lord is directing you to some great next stage in your life, but you don't know what that is or when it might come to pass.

Jaci and I feel very restless this Easter season.

For some time, we have been praying that the Lord would direct our steps and open the doors for us that need to be opened. So far nothing.

Of course, the first instinct when the doors remained locked and shut down tight is to question the Lord as to where He is.

Of course, as Job knows, God then has the potential to respond by asking us where we were when He created the earth. He is somewhat bigger than we are. (Especially with our nearly 60 pound combined weight loss!) Okay, so He's a lot bigger than we are. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.

The frustrating thing for our family right now is that we feel like God has given us a vision of where He wants us to ultimately be, but we haven't gotten the road map yet. We know where He wants us ultimately to end up, we just don't know the timeline and how we are to end up there!

In our culture of immediate gratification, it is very difficult to be put into a holding pattern. It's difficult when the GPS isn't giving us the next route to take.

So, we find ourselves praying and becoming increasingly frustrated that God doesn't move at the pace that we would like Him to. Please pray with us as we seek God's will for our lives and are expecting that He will open the doors that need to be opened.

Easter is all about the death of our old life and the re-birth of something new entirely. In almost 10 years of marriage, Jaci and I can both say that we are not the same people who entered into this covenant back in 1999. We have grown and changed throughout the years, but the cool thing for us has been that God is having us serve together. This life is meant to be a team sport for the Hughes family and we remain on the same team.

After 5 years of serving with Choices of the Heart back in 2007, God made it clear to BOTH OF US that I was to take the step of faith to leave and spend more time serving in Kids Avenue. After a short time without that second income, we were able to enter into a new position with Kids Avenue at church that helped to offset the lost income from Choices of the Heart.

That in itself is amazing, because if you were to tell me that I would be serving in Children's ministry even 3 years ago, I would have laughed at you. However, we became involved in using the 252 Basics Curriculum for children and have found it to be an amazing tool to train young people for lives that serve the Lord and live according to His Word.

Jesus wants our faithfulness. Sometimes that faithfulness is hard to maintain when things don't fall into place the way we would like them to. Sometimes getting that vision of the promised land is frustrating when you know that you are stuck in the middle of the wilderness somewhere with no estimated time of arrival in the promised land.

We have seen God do the miraculous in our lives and we are trusting that He will do again. Please pray for us during this time of testing!

May God bless you this Easter season with the miracle of Jesus' power in your life. May you come to know Christ more deeply and intimately than ever and may you also get a glimpse of the promised land that God has for you and yours.

May we all have the courage to wait on the Lord and step out in faith when called to do so.

Happy Easter!

Volcano Land!

Volcano Land!
Hughes Family loves these Guatemalan volcanoes!

WORD OF GOD SPEAK!

"This is how we know what love is: JESUS CHRIST LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR US. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers...Dear children, let us NOT love with words or tongue but with ACTIONS, and in TRUTH...And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, JESUS CHRIST, and to LOVE one another as HE commanded us." 1 John 3:16,18,23

Noah Doing His Moves

Noah Doing His Moves
He captivating the hearts of the young guatemalan ladies with his moves

You Are Good (Eres Fiel)

You Are Good (Eres Fiel)
My beautiful bride and her sis teaching a song to the girls!

A House in Santa Maria de Jesus

A House in Santa Maria de Jesus

Santa Maria de Jesus

Santa Maria de Jesus
The road that Proximos Pasos is on...those structures are houses

Where's Waldo?

Where's Waldo?
Can you find us hiding among the girls?