Dreaming

I have a lot of dreams for the future.

One of those dreams is to refinance the house to a 15-year loan and be done paying on it before Elsie is out of high school. I can't even imagine how liberating that will be! I think it's worth the itty bitty extra stretch every month for the next three years, and when we are debt-free (June 2015, baby--if not sooner!!) it won't be a stretch at all. Once the mortgage is paid, the extra cash from house payments can go toward cash-flowing college for our two eldest (right now, our only two).

Another of those dreams is something I'm reluctant to talk about, but it does have to do with starting a non-profit of sorts. I have a big idea. I'm not sure how big. And I'm not sure what to do with it, but the Lord has made abundantly clear that this will be an exercise in patience. Part of me really just wants to jump in head first and see what happens. Another part of me wants to ignore it and let someone else do it (and who's to say that that won't happen anyway?). To sit and wait on the Lord is the one thing that is stretching and tearing my insides into glorious, faithful pieces. I look at a timeline of several years and I get impatient, but I know that the stretching feeling in my soul is the Lord growing me, all the while perfecting His plan.

We've been talking about God's providence at church, and I have no doubt that the Lord has put me in all the places I've been in order to enable His will to be done. Even if nothing comes of this big idea, my prayer is that I will be obedient and patient so that the Lord will use whatever this is, and whatever it's intended to be, to further His kingdom.

So, right now I'm just gathering.

Ideas.

Resources.

Names of connected people.

Useful skills.

Books I need to read.

Fundraising strategies.

Possible in-kind donors.

People with know-how; specialists; artists.

Geographical locations.

Stuff like that.

Please just pray for me and my willingness to be patient and obedient. This may be years--years--in development. I'll talk more about it when the time comes. For now, prayers please.

Cheers.