Dear Friends,

The heavens declare the glory of God! -Psalm 19:1

It is hard to know how to begin this month’s letter. I have been in New Zealand for a week now, and I feel at once that I’m just getting settled in and that too much has happened to be able to tell. As always, I want to let you know what I’m up to, but most of all, I want to share my heart. So, business first. While I have only been here a short time, I have already been given a wide variety of work. It has included administrative tasks (making schedules and charts, running photocopies, collating booklets) and a bit of bookkeeping. It has been so gratifying to take all the skills I have learned in years of office work and finally put them to use in something dear to my heart. Praise God that I can help people in this way! I have assisted with other miscellaneous things, but my greatest excitement has been that I got to lead one of the school sessions. I simply prepared and facilitated a day where the students took personality tests and discussed how different styles of perception and behavior would affect working on a team. While this is hardly the same as preparing a lesson for the students, I did very much enjoy taking on a leadership role where I created activities, led discussion, and did a small bit of teaching. I was excited to be trusted with the responsibility, and I expect to be leading other projects as the school progresses. I have offered to provide some basic evangelism training to those students who have not done street evangelism before, and I will be in charge of a number of groups who are leading church services at a local church that partners with us.

Now, on to less practical but more important things. As you can see in the picture below, I am writing this letter first by hand while sitting on beautiful Waikanae Beach. (Apologies to those of you still stuck in the snow!) 

I have been walking on the shore for over an hour, marveling at God’s creation. Since I have arrived, I have felt God calling me to see his face. Through Scriptures, devotionals, books I’ve read, and sermons I’ve heard, the theme keeps repeating: See God face-to-face. Yes, there are things here that I need to do. Yes, there are plans I need to pray about. But above all else, I want to see God’s face. And today, as I walked along the water, I felt like I got a glimpse. This is my third trip to New Zealand (what a miraculous blessing!), and I can’t begin to count how many times I have walked along this beach. But never before have I seen the things I saw today. Shelled animals slowly moving through the wet sand, squirting water at me upon my approach. A shell containing a dead crab, with large, barnacle-like growths on the shell, housing other creatures—nearly dead from drying out in the sun—that shrank back as I moved the shell. A tiny, sand-colored crab, smaller in diameter and thinner than a dime, scurrying along under the water left by the tide, and disappearing instantly into the sand as I got near, as if a slit had been cut by an invisible knife, leaving no trace behind it. I walked along, marveling at the things our God has made. Oh, the beauty and the strangeness of it all! I felt as if he was saying, “There is life all around!” And there is. And wherever I see the life teeming in the world and turn my heart in thanks to my Father, I see a bit more of his face.

I am still praying for a great revelation from God, for renewed passion, for a new vision… for big things. But as I see those things, I never want to forget to take the time to put dried-up sea creatures back in the ocean and notice the tiny slits in the sand that tell me there are animals hiding underneath, that will squirt water upwards if I step too close.

May you also be blessed by the little things in the world that speak to us of our Father. And may he bless you as you also seek to see his face. Thank you to all of you who bless me with your prayers and support. I am more grateful than you know. As always, there are prayer requests below, and I thank you for lifting them to God on my behalf.

Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong!

Molly S. Waggoner
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www.blog.myspace.com/mollysidera

Prayer requests:

-Praise for safe travel. If you have read my blog, you know it wasn’t an easy trip, but I got here no worse for the wear. My flight from Los Angeles was delayed 17 hours due a mechanical failure on the plane, so thank God that they found it before we were halfway across the ocean! Praise also that while the departure was difficult, I felt God alongside me and did not feel terribly displaced or uprooted.

-Please continue to pray for the Jesus Kitchen and all my friends on the West Bank while I am gone—that God’s will would be done and that his Kingdom would come among them.

-Pray for what God has next for me. I feel like there are new things he wants to do, but I am not yet sure what they are. A few ideas have come to mind, and I want to make sure that God directs me to what is his will , not my imagination. After years of trying to raise enough support to move into full-time ministry, I’m feeling that perhaps my time of working a regular job may be coming to a close. That may be wishful thinking (after all, I have no more support than ever before), but I want to be open to what God might be preparing. So, as I have mentioned, please also pray that I would be able to develop some clearly stated goals and plans to help in raising support.

-Most of all, I need God to help me have the ability to accomplish the tasks that I need to accomplish here, yet seek him first and truly live in his presence. I want to be responsible with the things I need to do, and yet I want my eyes to be constantly searching for more of God’s face.

-And just to mention this one more time… If you have any interest in being part of Steiger ministry, I suggest that you pray about getting involved in some of our short-term missions opportunities. You can view this year’s opportunities at: http://www.steiger.org/Short_Term_Mission_Opps/short_term_missions.htm

Thank you!
MSW

Financial support can be given at www.steiger.org. Click the “Donate Now” button, and enter “Molly” as the purpose of donation.