We spent ours helping with a 3-day Cupcake Kids sale:



We celebrated this little dude's birthday:



We sent our Daddy off to Africa:


And we had a house showing for a prospective buyer.

So... not much going on around here.

I need to ask y'all to please pray for Dan and his time in Africa this week. More and more, we're learning that the mission field is also a battlefield. It's rough out there. And for us, the last several months have been marked by trials, testing and persecution like we've never experienced before.

Ministry work can be deflating and discouraging. It can be depressing and it can be downright ugly. And sometimes I can't help but wonder why? Why must it all be so hard? If Dan and I are walking in the Lord's will for our lives and faithfully serving Him with all our hearts... shouldn't He be blessing us?

Not necessarily. In fact, the opposite is usually true.

This weekend, Dan and I watched a powerful sermon by Ligon Duncan, a pastor in Jackson, MS. It's a full length sermon so plan to watch it when you have a spare 58 minutes. But it's worth every second.

Duncan's message is for anyone who is faithfully serving God while simultaneously experiencing hardship, discouragement and disappointment. The two are not mutually exclusive -- they often go hand in hand. And with a walk through 1 Kings 19, Duncan beautifully explains why.

I honestly think this is one of the most impactful messages I've ever heard and I cannot recommend it highly enough.


Have a great week, friends. If you watch the sermon, please come back and tell me what you think.