our Pruner

Whew! It's been a busy week without a lot of internet! There is a lot to tell you about, but we decided to share one specific thing that happened on Thursday and Friday that was pretty unbelievable, and a definite work of the Lord and your prayers!

There is one student at the seminary that has been an almost constant problem since he came a few years ago. Not only does he frequently skip classes, disrespect teachers and refuse to do assignments, but he is also very politically-driven, and constantly riling up the student body during already politically tense times (like, the past 2 weeks.) He failed out of Stacey's English class after skipping over 15 classes a few months ago, and has been particularly verbally abusive to her since then.

For three years, the administration has been trying to work with him, meet with him, pray with him, encourage him, discipline him and make allowances for him.

These past two weeks, Matt and I have felt particularly burdened about this student and one other student. We began praying urgently that the Lord would either change them completely or remove them, because they were truly beginning to do harm to the seminary, staff and students, and were not at all reflecting a relationship with Christ.

As the situation has intensified, we have prayed this pray more and more. Thursday night, we went to bed, feeling heavy. At exactly the stroke of midnight, Matt was startled awake by a very clear and strong voice. "Concerning the problems at the seminary..." he heard. And then again, "Concerning the problems at the seminary..."

Immediately after the word "seminary", at exactly midnight, he heard a large coconut outside of our bedroom widow THUD to the ground.

"I just knew" Matt told me the next morning, "so clearly, that the Lord was telling me that He would take care of the bad fruit...that they would fall by His hand, and to let Him take care them."

Friday afternoon, the other staff were in a tizzy at lunch, going on and on about this same student. "What happened now?" we asked.

"Nothing!" we were told. "He came in first thing this morning and dropped out."

After three years of battling with him and two weeks of intense prayers, the Lord DID indeed take care of it. PRAISE THE LORD. We are absolutely calling this a miracle, and trusting God completely to take care of the other student as well. He's refining the Seminary. Please continue to pray for us, that we might stay on our knees and out of His way!

(pictured: Saturday we had a break at the beach with friends who are returning to Illinois next week. They've tried unsuccessfully for 6 months to teach Matt to float, and so were quite amused by this sign at the beach!)