"Uptime"

A week and a half ago, I wrote about downtime, a period of time in which business was slow. Well this week it's been the opposite, especially today. A huge order for engraved signs came in yesterday afternoon, so the engraver's been running all day long, turning out 46 signs (about 600 characters total!). I've begun work on a logo design for a new construction company, which has been testing my illustrating skills and taxing my patience for going over my time budgeted for it.

Speaking of taxes, I finished figuring my taxes this year. Praise the Lord I don't have much to pay! It was fun figuring it all by myself for the first time, though I did occasionally have to consult with Ken and Mom.

The other thing on my mind today is the fact that all this stuff needs to get done before Friday morning, which is when I'm leaving for Mexico.

Ken and I are traveling to Leon in the center of Mexico to work with a missionary family there and a group of students from Emmaus Bible College. Much of what will our role be is still unknown to me, but I know that if I obey the Lord and stay close to Him, I will not be shaken.

How wonderful is our Lord! It´s astounding to think that we have the power of the One who made the world and the sun and the hurricanes and the mighty forces of nature on our side to strenthen us and conform us to His own image!

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,

"For your sake we are bing put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.