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Rousehouse Update July 2017

Posted on August 3, 2017August 3, 2017 by Spanky Rouse

Well, we are not in South Africa like we thought we would be right now. I was really looking forward to writing this newsletter from South Africa but things have not gone as planned…welcome to life in Africa!

Here are a few updates from our last months newsletter updates:

Visas to safely and quickly get here in hand

Quick update on what is happening: We were suppose to get our visas and leave on August 1st but towards the end of last week we began getting a little nervous since we haven’t seen them in the mail. It is normal for them to come last minute so until now we hadn’t thought there was a problem. On Sunday morning when Spanky was leaving Portland, Oregon (he was there with a buddy rafting for the week) we decided that it would be best if he flew straight to New York to visit the South African Consulate and try to get our visas in hand. We have called and emailed numerous times but never got an answer so hopefully an in person visit would help. After flying over night Spanky was able to be at the Consulate office before they opened on Monday morning. He was able to talk with the man in charge and get some answers, kind of, not really. He was told that they are waiting on some documents to be sent back from South Africa before we could have our visas approved. This was not the news we were hoping for but there was nothing else we could do therefore we had to cancel our flights until we have a better idea of when we would get our visas. We have been working diligently this week along with many other people here and in South Africa to get some answers and time frames of when to expect our visas. We are frustrated and a bit discouraged but we know that God is still in control just like He has been in every step of this journey leading up to this point. It is still a difficult time. We would love for you to be praying for the people making the decisions on our visas, praying that we get them soon with no more problems, and for us to remain positive and encouraged.

The closing and moving out of our house to go smoothly (Closing is July 11th)

We did close on our house and everything went really well! God showed Himself in this processes and we felt his goodness through it all. We could not have been any more thankful for the way this all went. We had some amazing realtors, wonderful couple buying our house, and a lot of help from friends and family during this time. Praise the Lord!!!

Packing essentials and things we will want in SA. We can only take 2 free bags each but currently have 5 extra bags ($200 each x 5 = $1000!)

We have sold and got rid of everything exce

pt what we have considered the essentials. We had originally thought that 2 bags per person was going to work but we miscalculated. We have 3 bags per person and I think we are done packing.

All of the goodbyes. There are many!

We have learned that goodbyes are hard so we have decided to say “See you later” instead. We have many people that love our family therefore we have had many emotional “see you laters” over the past month. We are pretty worn out emotionally but encouraged by all of the love and support. We have had some fun adventures and created some sweet memories over the past couple of months with all of you that we have been able to see.

Family prayer card

We value all of you who are continuing to prayer for us daily!!! We are learning that we are on a journey that the enemy doesn’t like and we need you to keep lifting us up! The prayers of those in our life is essential to our healthy, growth, success, and safety. PLEASE keep praying for us!

Prayer needs for August:

Visas to arrive quickly and with out any problems or complications
Contentment during this time of waiting
Protection against the attacks of the enemy. Evil is hunting us (our minds, hearts, relationships, etc) daily
New flights
Wisdom and peace to make the right decisions and move in the right directions
Pray that as a husband and wife we will draw closer together and encourage each other daily. Pray that our children will have an overflow of joy while we move from place to place.

If you would like to join our financial or prayer team you can check out how to partner with us by clicking here Partnering with us…. Thank you!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

#allthingsaredying

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Spanky Rouse

Just in case you aren’t familiar with #Hashtags (please don’t call this the pound sign, your children will be completely embarrassed and call you old) they are a simple and fun way to label something, briefly explain your thought, or make a point. Our family plays this game where we have an entire conversation using only hashtags. Elly is the queen at using hashtags and she is hilarious!!! I should video one of these conversations for all to enjoy one day. I will try to keep that in mind.

Lara and I jokingly have a few self labeled hashtags that we are using in this season. When something happens instead of explaining how we feel or getting into a long story we just throw out one of the hashtags like #allthingsaredying. It’s a silly way to recognize the irony of what is happening and allows us to brush it off and laugh at things that normally would drive us crazy. Let me explain #allthingsdying so that you don’t get too worried about us. This one is actually a good thing that the Lord is using to move us on to the next season of life.

A few months ago we began noticing that random things around the house were starting to die on us. Mac even mentioned that it feels like everything is wearing out at just the right time. Just so you get an idea of what we are talking about here are a few examples from the past couple weeks.

Mac’s ipod…he accidentally put that one to death in the car door!
both of our cars began showing signs of dying in the same week – but were brought back from the dead
The A/C in our home – was dead but has new life
our cloths dryer – dead
the ice maker in our fridge – dead
my wireless earbuds – dead
our microwave is barley hanging on to life

We then came to the conclusion 3 weeks ago that we are going to need to sell our home, which honestly felt like a death to us. We love this place that God has blessed us with and didn’t want to give it up. Through listening to others, prayer and a lot of tough conversations we believe that this is His best plan for us. This was not an easy decision and we took a week to mourn our loss. Through this decision Lara began to recognize this theme of dying to ourselves. Dying to yourself and your desires hurts and isn’t all that fun but we know that we can trust the Father! If death is what He has for us then it must be the best for us! Dying to your old life gives birth to the new life and paves away for an abundant life. God doesn’t take things a way too be mean but takes them away because He knows what is good for us.

Through dying we can see He is faithful, trustworthy, present, for us, sovereign, loving, compassionate, mighty, glorious, gracious, and the list goes on. Dying is a necessity and dying is worth it because we get more of Him and His goodness he has stored up for us! Psalms 145

When you are going through a time of death (and you will) and you can’t see past what is happening right in front of you read and re-read what the Lord says in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you. They are good plans, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a future and a hope!” He never goes back on a promise either!

Did you know that your skin cells are constantly dying. In the next minute 667 skin cells will die and fall off your body, the next hour 40,000, over the next day close to a million cells die and fall off your body! That is kind of gross if you think about what happens to all of those that have fallen off your body this week alone. Where are they??? Back to my point, they have to die so new cells can grow. As skin cells grow and others die your body is able to heal it’s self, protect you from infections and viruses, and technically makes you waterproof (seriously, think about it). But none of this would be possible if your skin didn’t die constantly so that better, newer skin could be born.

What is dying in your life that God is wanting to use for your good?

What needs to die in your life to allow you to experience the abundance He has for you?

#allthingsaredying

Be still, Wait on the Lord, & Watch Him do it

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Spanky Rouse

godisdoinganewthing

For the past couple of years I have tried to pay attention to the themes I believe the Lord is wanting me to learn or hear from him. Last year, for instance, was “I am His beloved son”. Those lessons learned changed my perspective on a lot in life and I believe will empower me to run this race of life better, for sure!

It is now close to the fourth month of the year and I am just now starting to see clearly (clear as mud currently) what this years theme might be from the Lord. “Be still, wait on me (God), and watch me do it!” I like the last part of this theme, “watch me do it” but the previous two points frustrate me to be honest. Maybe this is why He has chosen to teach me about them.

Be still – In my personal experience over these past couple months I have since the Lord saying, “CHILL OUT! REST! Let me refresh you!” I love to rest and vacation but I think that there is a time and place for that. So when I hear this part of the my yearly theme (Rest) over and over it frustrates me. Most days I feel like I have 1 million things to accomplish therefore if I don’t do all that I can the world is going to fall apart, right???

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalms 46:10

Wait on me – Again not a topic that I excel in. I like action. I am a head down, check off the task list, don’t get in my way kind of person. This idea that I am suppose to not only be chilling with God but now I am suppose to stop trying to figure life out and make things happen makes me feel like I am going insane. I have crazy questions rumbling around in my head like, “How long do I wait? God are you paying attention to the time table I have set? How far behind are we going to be, if God ever shows up and gets started”. Don’t judge me I know you have all thought these same things before, I just said them out loud. **BTW, I think God is ok with us getting real and asking our stupid, off the wall questions. He may even enjoy it when we get this honest. What I perceive to be the real meaning for me behind “wait on me” is trust. He wants me to trust that He is good and in control as I rest in Him and wait.

We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. Psalms 33:20

Watch me (God) do it – This one isn’t too developed in my head, heart or life just yet but I LIKE IT! I know that He likes to show off His glory and I believe that there is nothing too big for God to do. At least in my head I know these truths so maybe His point with this one is to get it in my heart. The thought I keep having is what is “it” and how big is He going to show up doing “it”? I’ll keep you posted on this one.

I know that my God is moving in great ways and I know that He deeply longs for me to trust him and let go of the steering wheel. The funny thing is, when I do the opposite of these three I don’t enjoy life as well nor do the people around me. I believe that the Father is trying to lead me in my life in such a way that I will thrive, be refreshed, enjoy the fullness of Him and be a blessing to all of those around me. What a surprise, He does know what is best for me (said with much sarcasm).

He is good and is pursuing us with a great passion! Let’s pay attention today to how He is working and loving us! Stay tuned. I know that I will have much more to learn over these next 8 months of 2017.

The Rousehouse is Moving to AFRICA!

Posted on February 2, 2017February 2, 2017 by Spanky Rouse

The Rousehouse has taken some big steps before but this may be the biggest one yet! We are moving to AFRICA!!! We are so excited to publicly announce this news as well as tell you a little bit about our story. So here you go…

Last summer our family moved into the neighborhood that surrounded Piney Grove Elementary, the school we had built a partnership with through Ridge Church and had been volunteering at for the past few years. We had no idea how the Lord was going to use that step of faith to call us to even bigger ones. We moved into the neighborhood because we loved the idea of our family living missionally beside these people we had been serving and fallen in love with. We loved the idea of our family being intentional about building relationships in a community of people that maybe didn’t look or act exactly like we did. We believe there is a great big God who is constantly at work in this great big world and by living our lives this way our family will be able to experience Him more and hopefully, just maybe, He would use us to bring others closer to Him. What a privilege!

Fast forward to this past March…

Lara and I had the opportunity to travel to Cape Town, South Africa to visit a missional community that I serve with at UWM called East Mountain. As we spent time with this group of people we saw something that sparked a passion inside of us. The excitement began to grow as we saw how they serve and support the local church and how they live in healthy community with one another. It was also very exciting to see how they are partnering with ministries in South Africa similarly to how we have partnered with Piney Grove. As East Mountain is serving alongside these national workers God is using them to grow His church, strengthen indigenousness leaders, and do good works while living in healthy community with each other. Lara and I have patiently been waiting for God to provide an opportunity for our family to serve overseas for a few years and through this trip He did just that. Our time in South Africa was awesome, simply because we heard the Father’s voice calling us to something amazing.

After a whole lot of prayer and discernment, we feel like this is how the Lord wants the Rousehouse to, “Live a life that is worthy of the calling He has graciously extended to you” (Ephesians 4:1). We feel like this calling is God extending His grace to us. It is a privilege to serve alongside the other missionaries in this community as well as be a part of how the Lord is building His church all over the globe, especially in Africa, a part of the world we fell in love with many years ago.

We have committed to serve in South Africa for 3 years on staff with
East Mountain. East Mountain is a community of people who love Jesus and are passionate about teaching, developing and empowering leaders. They accomplish this through one-on-one discipleship, training workshops, theological education, and spiritual formation as well as forming authentic relationships with leaders already engaged in excellent Kingdom work in churches, non-profit organizations, and schools. While we are there we will spend a third of our time doing a specific role/job, and third of our time will be spent serving as a family in one of these local partnerships, and a third of our time being developed ourselves as leaders and Christ followers.

Lara and I have been involved in missions from the very beginning of our marriage. We have served in Brazil, Panama, Uganda, our local church, and in our community, Piney Grove. Our whole family shares this love for people and we know that we were created to live our lives this way. By living in community we care for others and we are cared for, we disciple others and we are discipled, and as we serve others we are blessed beyond measure. We are super excited about the work God has called us to and we know He has not called us to do it alone. We are seeking a team of partners that will help with meeting our financial support goals, praying for us, and connecting us to others who may be able to partner with us as well.

There will be many stories and lessons learned that we will want to share here on our blog, we hope that you will stop by and follow us along the way! God is doing a good work and we look forward to telling you all about it!

If you would like to grab coffee, a meal, or simply give us a call to hear more please email Spanky directly to set up a time we would be honored to answer your questions and share more with you! spanky.rouse@gmail.com

You can also learn more about East Mountain at http://www.eastmountain.tv .

It is our desire to make an impact globally, serve locally, and invest deeply in God’s people and we would love to have you on this journey with us!

If you would like information on how to partner with us through sending us, praying for us, and supporting our family in this mission you can either let us know by emailing Spanky or clicking here.

What am I called?

Posted on November 15, 2016November 15, 2016 by Spanky Rouse

“My heart was an orphan but you gave me a name”

Mark 1:11, Matthew 17:5, & Galatians 3:26

When God looks at me does He say this is my son, Spanky, in whom I love and am well pleased? I am guessing that God doesn’t call me Spanky 🙂

I do believe that when He looks at me He does call me by name, though. What is this name He calls me? I think it is a make up of my personality, deep desires, hardwiring, and His personal finger print on my life. So, is it an actual name or just a deep emotion that moves His heart? I don’t really know but I like imagine that He has given me a specific and divine name.

“Mighty Beloved”

I believe that this summer the Lord actually spoke this name to me only for the purpose of reminding me who I am and whose I am.

Mighty – strong, powerful, immense, enormous, tremendous…

God’s finger print on my life is this mighty passion He has filled my soul with. Let me be clear, I think He calls me mighty not because of any physical strength or power. Mighty because of this enormous passion He has put in my heart. Passion is something I am not lacking in especially when it comes to my wife, my children, serving and loving others, meeting the needs of people, and encouraging others to seek after Jesus. I feel like there are days and moments when I am going to simply explode from all of this that is inside of me that wants to come out. And this mighty passion was created inside of me not remain but to flow freely!

Beloved – cherished, greatly loved, dear to the heart, cared for intently

I am the center of the Father’s heart and affection. He treasures me and says that I am His pleasure and satisfaction. I was made to be loved by God and He desires to cover me in this gigantic love everyday. The reason for God’s love, is me. As the Father’s son I am loved beyond measure now and every single day I wake up!

Therefore, when life gets tough, days aren’t the brightest, mountains are in front of me, task are big, I feel scared and I want to give up, my Dad reminds me that He calls me by name…“Mighty Beloved”.

My question to the one reading this is…How has the Father uniquely created you? And, have you sat and thought of just how much he cherishes you, just because of who you are? Do it! Take the time to sit with this and let Him speak to your heart today.