Dear Friends,
Thank you all for your prayers this week! The Lord has really answered them!
First of all, Billy is feeling much better. Usually when he gets a cough it turns into bronchitis, but I haven't heard him cough in several days! He's also doing great in his studies, and just tonight he came home with a 99% on one of his exams. I'm very proud of my hard-working fiance.
Second, a lot of possibilities opened up this week regarding the illustrations for the chronological Bible materials. Here's what we've come up with so far:
1. We were able to cheaply purchase the rights to several sets of illustrations from an organization called The Glory Story (check out http://theglorystory.com/html/glory_picture_gallery.htm if you want to see what some of the pictures are like). Not all of the stories that we are hoping to illustrate are included, but some of them could definitely be used.
2. We've been thinking about possibly using flannel graphs to illustrate the stories. Then we would either take pictures of the scenes that we create and use those in the booklets, or use those pictures and then trace over and color them in Photoshop to create illustrations that way.
3. Just tonight I received permission to use screen shots in our booklets from The Animated Kids Bible (http://www.thekidsbible.com/), a video series for children. Again, they don't have all the stories we need, but having the permission to take screen shots gives us a lot of flexibility in choosing which images to capture for the stories.
I'm amazed at the doors that are opening up, and it's helping me remember that this really is God's project, not ours, and as long as we continue to submit ourselves to Him and ask for His help, he will move the necessary mountains. Please pray with us in the next few weeks that the Lord would lead us to His choice of method to illustrate His precious Word for the Tarahumara people.
Third, I praise the Lord for putting me so close to my students from Mexico. Yesterday one of them had a birthday, her first away from home. One's first birthday at college is always the most difficult because no one knows you well enough to make it special for you. I'm so glad that Billy and I were able to spend the day with her, and hopefully she felt special and loved even though she's so far from home.
Thank you for being such a huge part of the ministry in La Mesa. Attached at the end of this email is the picture that I have set as my desktop background this week. It's a constant reminder of what I'm working for... who I'm working for. It's never about our "service for God," but about loving God and loving the people that he has put in our lives. Thank you for loving the Tarahumara and for all you have invested into seeing them know and love God themselves.
Much love,
Erika Van Kirk
