Enjoy the Ride

You can tell I've been busy when I don't post for six months! Oh, how the time goes by! It has been a crazy ride since we left Indonesia on June 2 and headed for the States. We spent the first month moving our of our house and preparing it to rent. Praise the Lord we have a great tenant in there right now. Then we spent time in San Diego visiting family and friends, churches and supporters. On the way back from San Diego, we road tripped through Arizona to see my grandma and other family members before coming back to Idaho and preparing to go to the Mid-West and Philadelphia to visit out there. I guess you can see why I haven't blogged, huh? Below is a picture of our family with my Grandma Evelyn. She finally got to meet Ryan!

We have immensely enjoyed our time of visiting with everyone! But, like the conscientious first-borns that we are, Dave and I found ourselves really tired as we were driving back again to California in late September. We had been working so hard trying to raise our support for MAF and not seeing a lot of results, and on the drive, Dave looked over at me and said, "You know, I think we just need to relax and enjoy the ride." A little taken back, I said, "what do you mean?" He continued, "We need to let God bring in our support. Let's not kill ourselves trying. We need to keep working at it, but I think we have to truly trust that God will do it, and I think He wants us to enjoy the ride." Wow. Profound words. I knew it was the Holy Spirit speaking through my husband. We both needed to hear that at that point. And, not long after, we got a phone call in the car from a gentleman whom we had never met asking if we needed support for our ministry. Wow. What a confirmation!

Now, it hasn't been easy to stay in that "enjoy the ride" mentality. We both find ourselves teetering on the see-saw of "doing it myself" versus "trust God and enjoy the ride." But, when we hit hard on the "doing it myself" side, God gently directs us back to trust in Him. Can anyone relate?

We are currently in San Diego and will be heading back to Nampa on November 15. While there we will pack our crates and then depart for Papua on December 8. Please pray for us as we prepare to say our good-byes to our family and friends stateside. It will be hard to leave them. But we carry on knowing that God has called us to go, and that He is good, and that He has a plan.

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11

Below are some other photos from our furlough thus far! I thought you might enjoy them. So, for all us Ringenbergs, relax and enjoy the ride!

Here's the boys at Tombstone:

And at Allison Ranch, Idaho:

Here's Ryan on our Aunt's horse in Illinois:

And here is a Pennsylvania version of the Wal-Mart parking lot, Amish style!: