Tickets!

The Lord provided the money and we were able to purchase tickets! Even though it is still months away, this is an exciting step for us. Please pray that we will have wisdom as we prepare in the next months.

Summer’s Coming!

Another busy summer is coming up, and May is our official start of the craziness. Birthdays galore—Nancy turned 30 (May 5th), Isaac turned 2 (May 12th), and Emma will be 6 (May 29th)! Top that off with our 10th Anniversary on April 27th, and throw in Mother’s Day for good measure!

We are also helping quite a bit at our Christian school, preparing for a 30th Anniversary of the school. We will also be getting ready for VBS in July, as well as continuing to work on our Partnership Development.

Visits

Please continue to pray that the Lord would supply the remaining amount of monthly support. Pray too that we would be able to schedule visits to most of our ministry partners before we leave.

Prayer Requests

• Praise for tickets!
• Pray for that we would rely on the Lord for our strength during the busyness.
• Pray that we would be faithful to make time as a family during the busyness.
• Pray for wisdom scheduling visits and trips.
• Pray that the kids would be adjusting well to some of the changes starting soon (homeschooling, packing/purging, etc.).

Prayer Requests

• Praise that we were able to nail down a date for our departure to Senegal! Check out our blog if you haven’t heard about it yet…
• Pray for a good chapel time with the elementary classes at Cowden Lake Bible Academy today. Titus and Emma will be sharing some of their thoughts about missions with their classmates!

3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

See Prayer Archives

The Countdown Has Begun!

OK, so it’s still a long countdown at this point—but we are excited nonetheless. Yes, over the last few weeks, we nailed down a departure date for Senegal! We are planning to leave on January 10th, 2013. We had hoped for this Spring or Fall (2012), our support level and the timing of the French course in Senegal required us to come up with this alternative.

One good thing about figuring things out so far ahead is being able to research ticket prices well in advance. And so, instead of tickets that are around $3000-$4000 apiece ($18000-24000 total), we are looking at buying tickets for $5000 TOTAL! We have had people donate $3500 for tickets so far; between some refund money and further donations we hope to have the remainder soon. If you would like to partner with us in giving toward this (as a one time gift, marked “For Tickets”) or through regular monthly support, check out the ways you can give here.

We do need to see our overall support level increase by about $650-$1200 a month before we go, so we are still actively working on our Partnership Development during this time.

The Days are Just Packed

Our summer is already starting to fill up, especially as we look toward our departure in January. We will be helping out with a 30th Anniversary celebration at Cowden Lake Bible Academy (a ministry of our home church), organizing (or at least helping to organize) and participating in VBS and a Church Work Week, and possibly chaperoning some our our youth on a trip to NTM’s Wayumi Experience.

We also look forward to spending time with Michael’s family sometime in July or August.

Preparations

One step we are taking to prepare for our move is to homeschool our kids starting this Fall. We (and they) have so enjoyed their time at CLBA, and they will definitely miss their teachers and friends (and Grandma’s after school snacks). But, after much thought and prayer, we decided it would be wise to start working the kinks out of the system and get us all adjusted to this change before we have to adjust to it in a foreign context. We are hoping that it will better prepare our kids for the transition to Senegal and all the other changes that they will face there. Pray (especially) for Nancy; she is doing most of the planning and will be doing most the teaching. Pray also for the kids to adjust well to this small step.

Thanks

We’d like to send out our thanks to all of you, for partnering with us on this journey. You have encouraged us more than you know. The Lord continues to burden our hearts with the needs in West Africa, and we cannot wait to serve Him there.

Prayer Requests

• Praise for a definite date!
• Praise for a good deal on tickets!
• Pray for the Lord to continue to raise up people to partner with us.
• Pray for all the planning and adjustments to go well.
• Pray that this summer’s many ministry opportunities would bring glory to God.

Prayer Requests

• Praise for a great Spring Break — with a visit to Michael’s sister and brother-in-law, and some work days with our home church.
• Praise that our car has not continued to act up.
• Praise for a good spiritual emphasis week at Cowden Lake Bible Academy. (We got to help out!)
• Pray for continued opportunities to minister; here in our community, and in other churches.
• Pray for wisdom in planning for our move to Senegal.

Psalm 104:1 “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great!.”

See Prayer Archives

Prayer Requests

• Praise for a peaceful outcome of Senegal’s elections! (More details here.)
• Praise for an opportunity to be part of Spiritual Emphasis week at Cowden Lake Bible Academy.
• Pray that God would use all the speakers and teachers to challenge the students at CLBA this week.
• Pray for Micah and Isaac. They are fighting nasty congestion, fevers and coughs.

Romans 1:11-12 “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”

See Prayer Archives

As everyone knows, getting a decent family picture with kids can be… well, challenging, to say the least. Of course, missionary kids are no different! Add in trying to get proper framing (to have room for all the information we want to put in) and trying to get a background that doesn’t hide the text, and you get some idea of our process. (Just look at what ended up being one of our favorites—Titus sticking our his tongue. We didn’t even realize it happened until we looked at the pictures later!) On our last prayer card, we tried four different locations, set the self-timer, and after around 90 pictures still didn’t have one that worked perfectly! Happily we live in an age of digital miracles, so we were able to combine two photos in order to get a picture in which we all had our eyes open and were mostly smiling.

Speaking of the digital age, “with great power comes great responsibility”! Looking back, there are times where I just shake my head and wonder what I was thinking. (Little capsule bubbles around our names? Hmm…) I think that we have (mostly) gotten better at it as time goes by!

So here’s our look back over our prayer cards so far. (Right click here to open a much larger version in a new window or tab, or to download a copy.) Thanks for praying!

Prayer Requests

• Praise for the beautiful weather!
• Praise for the Lord’s continued provision! He keeps bringing along people who are excited about His work in West Africa.
• Pray that we’d be able to get our car running smoothly again soon. (It runs, but starts and idles roughly.)

Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

See Prayer Archives

Prayer Requests

• Praise for a great time sharing our ministry and the Word this weekend and for the fellowship we enjoyed.
• Pray that we would “increase in the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”.
• Pray that we would “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him; bearing fruit in every good work”
• Pray for a young man in West Africa (a believer) who is going through some serious sickness.

Colossians 1:9-10 “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. ”

See Prayer Archives

Prayer Requests

• Praise for a speaking/preaching opportunity we have this Sunday.
• Pray for that we would communicate well and have a good time of fellowship!
• Pray for Nancy as she continues to try to reach out to a lady in our neighborhood.

2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

See Prayer Archives

Prayer Requests

• Praise for a peaceful election day yesterday in Senegal.
• Pray that Senegal would continue to have peace—that the vote counting and runoff election would go smoothly. (If you want more information, check out these resources: BBC Article, BBC Video, Reuters Article.)
• Praise that the boys’ hives seem to be gone.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

See Prayer Archives