So it
has been a really long time since my last blog. I found in my files that
there is a blog that I wrote at the end of April but never posted it. Weird.
But here is a compilation of where things stand for me and ITEC.
Recently,
we had some friends of Steve and Ginny’s come from Mali, Africa to stay with us
for a while. They are actually on the run because there has been an increase of
persecution against Christians there lately and since he is a prominent pastor
over there, there is a price on his head. I am actually not allowed to
put their names in writing, but you may have heard of them from Steve’s book
“Walking His Trail”. Steve met them in Timbuktu while he was there
setting up a base for MAF in the 80’s.
They moved
into the house that I have been living in since early August last year.
Some of you have actually stayed at that house while visiting me.
The 4 guys living with me and I moved to another house that is roughly 2
½ miles away. There is plenty of work to do on this new house, but I have
been able to make some progress, even with all the things that have jumped in
the way.
Elijah,
my little brother came down for a couple of weeks and was a huge help.
I had a great time with him and everyone here loved him being here
as well. With his help, I was able to get twice as much done in half the
time allowing us to get moved in sooner than I had hoped.
During
the past couple of months ITEC has had several instances where people have been
getting hurt. Steve’s injury was the worst one, but he is recovering
quickly. If you have not been watching the videos that Brian has been
posting on Facebook, I highly recommend you start. Steve is one
incredible guy!!! It was certainly a blow to ITEC during that time of
injuries. I think that 6 people total had pretty serious injuries.
With the prayers of all the people all over the world, team ITEC was able
to pull out of the attack, and we are continuing to work toward accomplishing
what God has given us to do here.
The
couple that I mentioned earlier from Mali, Africa have a son who has been here
for 8 years. He came over here for schooling and he ended up finding a
wife and is now married and has 3 kids. I was asked by ITEC to take him
on as my helper and teach him the stuff that I do. It has been different
teaching someone the things I know. But it certainly has been good. It
helps me find out exactly what I know and figure out why I do things a certain
way. It also has helped me with patience. I am not known for my
patience, as most of you reading this know, but I have been even more impatient
than normal these past several months. I’ve found myself becoming a hard
man, more blunt than normal, to the point of being rude in most cases.
Also,
being the head of the house has been another place where I have been learning
patience and humility. I have 2 guys that work full time at ITEC, Daren
and Robby, the two interns, Dustin, who is from Miami, Jimmy, who is from
Texas, and an older gentleman who lives in his RV outside named Carl. My
house is used as a guest house, so we generally have quite a lot of traffic. I
must say, you get to know some pretty awesome people being the host of a guest
house.
That’s
pretty much it for now. I’ll try to be better about blogging more often so you
guys are all aware of what is going on. Thank you so much, Dossie Briggs,
Ashima Joy, and Paul Hobbs for your donations to me this past month, it came at
an incredible time!! I was literally out of money when that came to me, not
kidding or exaggerating. It was totally God!! Thank you so much.
Anyone that has given money to my mom for me that I do not know who you
are, please forgive me, I am extremely grateful for your support of me
and ITEC.
To the
village as a whole, Steve asks about you often and is extremely grateful for
your prayers and contributions to ITEC. Here is a text message from him
only days after his accident: “Please tell the folks in the Village thanks for
praying for me and my family. I just have this deep seeded sense of
anticipation for how God is going to use this.” I do not know if that
ever made it around to everyone. I forwarded it on to a few people in the
village in hopes that it would make it to everyone.
Thanks
again for all your support!!!
God
Bless,
Austin
PS- since this blog was written, another thing has come up. I have two remaining tests to do for the FAA in the process of getting my medical. One is on Friday the 20th and the other is on Wednesday the 25th. Once those two things are finished, i send the results back to the FAA and we leave it to whatever God wants. These tests are going to cost about $400, any help would be much appreciated.
PPS- Here is the latest video on Steve's recovery. He is such an amazing man. His focus is in the right place. He is just very inspirational.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfPZ_bIRfmM
As always, I am extremely grateful for all of your support through finances ands prayer. I could not do what i do without your help. Thanks so much!!
God Bless,
Austin
