I got my tax information gathering done (to send to our CPA friend)! Yeah! When it came to medical expenses for the two of us this past year....yikes! I am overawed at how much it has cost for all my surgeries, treatments and doctor visits. And Randy’s, too. He also ended up having major surgery last year when his remaining “bad” knee, the one he’d been putting off having replaced, gave out on him while here in California. We decided he should go ahead and have the replacement done here while in the midst of some of the best doctors in the country. I had 2 surgeries, February and April, which turned out to be outpatient (praise the Lord!) and at the end of April he had his as an inpatient!

Preparing for our taxes is not my favorite thing. Yet like other things I’ve had to do, it gives me a view of reality which is not unlike stepping back and seeing the “forest”, not just the “trees”. Gaining a different perspective helps me see things in a new way. And usually I end up thanking God for the traces of his mercy and grace in what I see.

For instance, for Randy and me this past year has been the most unusual in our lives. Yet the grace of God is woven through the fibers of every day. It is evident wherever we look. The fact that our medical insurance is still in force and paying the agreed upon amounts is amazing and one of God’s huge blessings to us. The strength and healing I have been experiencing has “blown us away”, and we keep giving thanks and praise to God. We continue to be amazed at the way our family has embraced us and taken us in, literally, to live here with them in California so we both have had access to some of the best medical care in the country and even the world. The concern and prayers of scores of family and friends, like you, have humbled, encouraged and blessed us. And every day Randy and I need God’s grace to live apart from each other so I can continue and finish up my treatments here…and we have it. So many things point to God’s truly Amazing Grace.

As I approach the final 5 months of my treatments, I find myself mentally looking to West Virginia and home more each day. For a year my involvement with all that was my life in West Virginia was put on hold, suspended in my mind because I couldn’t be there physically. I had already learned the life lesson not to pine for what cannot be, so I settled in to living here with our sons and families and enjoying them while I had to go through all that breast cancer treatment means. I’ve always said God has given me a great capacity to adjust to whatever circumstances I find myself in. That capacity is his grace given to me for whatever life brings. In this case I have been overflowingly (I think I just made up a word) blessed because I have been able to spend the past 13 months with some of the most special people in my life, my kids (sons and wives) and grandkids! And the amazing part is they haven’t gotten tired of me! When it comes to leaving here when it is time for me to move back to West Virginia, I’ll need lots of God’s grace to leave them…. Well, I know I’ll have it when I need it, not before. That’s how God’s grace is given, for the needs of “today”, not tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

So what is happening “back home” and with Mustard Seeds and Mountains, which has been our life these many years? Our staff is very capably holding down the “fort” while Randy is in Georgia at our home church’s annual missions conference. I wish I could be there with him. Next year, Lord willing. We have so many dear friends in the Atlanta area and we thank God for them!

Randy will be conducting a workshop for the missionaries on how to best use volunteers in their ministries. I think you could say he is an “expert” in that field after 14 years experience! We have learned a lot over the years and I am glad for the opportunity he has to share with other servants of the Lord so they can benefit.

Randy was able to get a lot of work done this past week on the book he is writing for families. Our prayer is that God will use it powerfully to help parents shape their families to be Kingdom people, after God’s heart, accomplishing his purposes in the world. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Oktavec family for hosting him last week, giving him the time and space to focus on his writing. Thanks guys.

As a “remote” staff person with Mustard Seeds and Mountains, I book the mission trips and handle things related to personnel record keeping. Technology (stop laughing back there!) makes so much possible, even thousands of miles away from the home office, even when one is not a techie. I am glad to be able to do the things I do with Mustard Seeds, especially being so far away. Of course, I also have a ministry here in our local church and I am so thankful to be involved. Wherever you are, there you minister. And of course, prayer has no boundaries.

Speaking of prayer, as you pray for us and the ministry of Mustard Seeds, please pray once again for my daughter in law, Monica, who has had another injury to her right eye, and the cornea has been damaged. Pray God mercifully heal and protect her eye. And while you are at it, pray for her in her pregnancy and the young life she is carrying. Thank you.

This year has brought much into our lives. The evil one meant it for harm but God’s grace was available to turn it, as God intended, to good. When that “forest” you find yourself in turns out to be a grove of lemon trees…yup, make lemonade.

“Man’s extremities are God’s opportunities”.

Jacque