So close yet so far

prayer letters, let me say it again, prayer letters.
so close, but so far. Tomorrow should be the big day that we stuff and prepare to hand our heart over in a letter to family and friends.
i sent my passport out
it feels far and close to leaving.

with all that has gone on i have re-passioned my love for creating. mostly due to stress relief. it is such a blessing to create for work, it is something that has been my therapy in hard or stressful times.

i started spending my lunch breaks inspiring myself on the blackberry looking at different types of recycling art. Come home and spend my 10 minutes to build something in a fury that has been building all day. I have a few finished projects, several half projects.

yesterday God answers prayers in still small voices, i just felt overwhelmed all the time that my ability to sit and listen to God or really hear just melted away with 3 year old voices, a crazy schedule and just plain being married. look for inspiration and His word through out my day. Today was just so awesome to think about little ways i planned to sip tea with God. my heart thirst for Him, to sing, to create for him, to be still with Him.

my favorite song right now is Beautiful Things by Michael Gungor. it lifts me up to create for Him and to be in the Spirit with him.

He answered my pray, my desire to be in the spirit with Him more each day.

its been awhile

SO, yes we are super busy with life, work, and planning.
Its been hard to blog due to time and feeling that there is nothing to report more than what we have been saying about Cameroon.
I do have a bit of progress to state on however;
We spent this evening planned to stuff envelopes and the such for our prayer letters. However, we spent most of it re-writing and re-designing. Most of this is due to my (Leah) lack of helping my husband, only later to come in with an opinion.

When we first found out that we were going, it was like getting engaged all over again. Now its like being engaged again. Paperwork, details, meeting, and trying to find that couple time. But the one difference is lack of having a date, now I know some couples have this problem, but Mark and I got married in 6 short months, so this is new to me and to us.

It's hard to imagine, what it will be like to live there, be with some incredible life changing people, struggle with language. I imagine it a bit like Spring Arbor, you can choose to live in the bubble with all the missionaries or you can strike out and learn your community.
I still try to think about it, to understand that yes we are going, sometimes it feels like its still too far away, and we won't get it done.
Through this process, I won't feel there yet till we have plane tickets.
Going to Africa so soon has changed my view on life in funny ways. I start cleaning and ended up with a bag of things to give to friends or someone who would enjoy it, just seems silly to keep it, packet up to sit in storage for 2 years or longer.
I tell my husband, when I see houses that I like my first thought is how easy it would be to move in and out of them. I want to know why someone would live somewhere that is so obviously inconvenient to move into or out of. Result of moving too much and having no concept of living somewhere for a whole lifetime.

I like to have some divine thought to share, but its late, I'm weary and to be honest I have struggled to have enough quite still time to hear from the Lord. In the last 2 or 3 weeks, its like Saturday is the only free day sometimes, and I can't get my brain to stop thinking productive thoughts except when it comes to mind-numbing stopping. I really need to be able think without it needing to be productive?! spiritual thinking, reflection?

please pray for this time that is so needed and vital for both of us.

Remember we are Beloved Children of Christ,
Leah

We need your info!

We are starting to send out updates and prayer letters. If you want to recieve updates just click on link to fill out your info!

Official Invite to Cameroon

This afternoon Leah and I received some great news, that we are officially invited to Cameroon. The site at Cameroon has had our resumes for the last week or so and have been going over the positions that we applied for. Both our positions in Cameroon are through Wycliffe Associates, but specifically with the Rain Forest International School (school for missionary kids). I was seeking the Network Manager position and Leah was seeking to be a librarian or a tutor. I have claimed the Network Manager position and Leah was invited to be a librarian. We have been praying for God to grant us an invite from Cameroon and it is encouraging to see that the door has been fully opened!

Next for the both of us is to begin the process of putting together our initial prayer and support letter in which we will be sending out to friends and family. We also are looking to pull together a distribution list of email addresses for those that want to follow our blog postings and have a more updated way to pray for specific needs and as we are over in Africa to keep all of our friends, family, and supporters up-to-date as to our daily lives in Cameroon.

We hope that those interested will begin to send their email addresses to thejanowiaks@gmail.com

Peace and Love in Christ

Mark J

Whirlwind of Life

Honestly, I cannot get over the fact- Jesus said trust me, I am going to do great things, follow me. Ok yes I will follow you, not understand your ways, not get what I am doing or why. But my struggle is that you weren't joking around when you said great things.

Our dream is to follow God, to share the good news with people who don't have the good news. Our is to go to Africa, now its starting.

Wycliffe has accepted us or approved if you would like. Sent our information to Cameroon to place us in jobs. WOW. More info to come on that. Time frame is however long it takes to fund raise for a 2 year trip. 6 to 10 months is what I am estimating, but as of right now we are just taking one day at a time.

I am in the midst of this I am applying for a preschool teacher job at a Christian daycare. Oh my goodness, I am feeling like I am having fun just thinking about all the ideas I have to do with the kids! Working interview on thur, we will see from there. I will be working a lot more and doing like 40 hours a week with them!!

the Lord has been so gracious with us, may it be poured out onto others in our lives.

update

So I haven't been in writing mode, even though lots to talk about and now I have ten minutes to write.

My husband and myself, recently obtained netflix. Which I love with an ungodly amount. So with some major decisions and life changes we want to make, I felt it appropriate to fast from netflix (and my husband video games) and to try creative ways to fast in our life. Fasting is something I have been doing more and more this last year. I have grown into it, slowing seeing the benefits of it, I feel like its one of the last spiritual disciplines people try to implement into their lives. Don't be like me, experience it sooner. Well I am loving it some much, I might try to use netflix much less, simply because it has inspired working out. Now I am sore but feel great to be honest, I think I am picking it up as a hobby now to exercise to kill board-um instead of T.V.

So just be praying for major life choices! To be announced later!

LJ