Fun Day At The Zoo

This was my third week being laid off and the weather was finally a little warmer so we decided it would be fun to go to the zoo.  We invited our friends Scott and Kayleen since Scott is also laid off, and our friend Jess.  So we headed out to the John Ball Zoo and had a great time.

Scott & Kayleen's son Sam liked the fish, someday he'll probably be catching them like his dad.  Sam had a ball seeing all the different animals.

This is Lexi, Scott & Kayleen's daughter.  She liked the monkeys and the penguins.

Precious enjoyed watching the wolverine and just about anything that moved.  She is Jess & Jonah's daughter.  Jonah was working so he couldn't make it to the zoo.

Pelicans.

We saw lions...

And tigers...

And bears, oh my!

An iguana just hanging out.

 This small alligator didn't even blink for the picture.

Colorful chameleon.

After the zoo we went to Scott & Kayleen's house and hung out the rest of the day.  We had black bean chili with rice and tortillas and Filipino beef for dinner.  Then we had a chocolate cake roll for dessert.  Even though it isn't good being laid off it was nice to be able to get out of the house and hang out with our friends.  Next we would like to go to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, we just need some free tickets :-)

The Great Up North

Each year around this time some of Rebecca's family goes to their cabin in the upper peninsula for a snowmobiling trip.  This year since I (Mark) wasn't working I got the chance to go too, and I really had a blast.  Rebecca's dad, uncle, cousin, and I left on Thursday morning.  We had lunch in Mackinaw city and then headed over the bridge.

The Mackinaw bridge as seen from St. Ignace in the UP.

The road that the cabin is on doesn't get plowed so we had to park the truck and ride the snowmobiles the rest of the way.  This is the one I drove the most, it's a classic, 1979 or so.  Even though it's so old it still hauls and I really enjoyed driving it.

This is the family cabin that we stayed in.  Throughout the weekend we shoveled all the snow off the roof.  

The cabin is one room with a loft and a few sets of bunk beds.  The cabin came with "Fred the Dead Deer Head", mounted above the fireplace.

This is the view from the cabin.  There is a creek down there which you can hardly see because the snow is so deep.  There was about 6 inches of fresh powder which made the scenery very beautiful.  We snowshoed and cross country skied through the forrest and it was great to be in such a wonderful setting.

We rode our snowmobiles to Tahquamenon Falls, which was really flowing due to recent rain and some thawing.  The ice all around was spectacular and it was a beautiful day out.  Notice the rainbow created from the sunshine reflecting in the mist from the falls.

This is me standing by a massive icicle.  We walked up to the falls as far as we could but we couldn't go behind them because there was too much ice.

There were lots of really cool ice formations all over around the falls.  On our way back to the cabin from the falls we rode our snowmobiles on the river, which was a little scary, but Dad said that there was probably 3 feet of ice on there so it was OK.  It still was a little nerve wracking especially because some of the snow on top was melting and forming puddles.

We saw some cattails in a beaver pond that we skied to.

On our way home on Monday we went through Hulbert, the nearest town to the cabin.  There were lots of deer there feeding, right in town.

This was a great vacation, lots of time to relax and also lots of fun activities.  The best part of it all was being in the wilderness and being able to appreciate God's great creation.

Cookbooks For Sale!

We are excited to announce that we are selling cookbooks as a fundraiser for our mission to the orphans in Romania.  Several of our friends from our original LifeGroup at church came up with the idea and are doing all the work and donating all the profit to us!  The recipes are being collected from members of our church and we will have a few of our favorites in there as well.

We are selling these cookbooks for only $12, what a great deal!  This will be a great addition to your cookbook collection, after all, can you really have too many cookbooks?  They also make great gifts, and they will be ready before Mothers Day!  The best part is that the profit goes to support our ministry and will help get us to Romania sooner.

To order please send your check (made out to Fair Haven Ministries) to our friend Angie Hordyk: 620 Broadview St, Grand Rapids, MI 49507.  Please include how many cookbooks you want, your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address.  Please have your orders in by March 22, which is less than two weeks away.  If you send your order out and don't think it will make it in time please e-mail us so we can make sure it gets put in.  The cookbooks will be ready just before Mothers Day, either for pickup at our church or we can send them to you or arrange for pickup.

Thanks in advance for your order, we are looking forward to seeing how God will use this fundraiser to support us as missionaries to the orphans in Romania.

The Open House

Last weekend was our first try at having an open house since we put our house up for sale.  You may recall that we are trying to sell our house so that we can go and be missionaries to orphans in Romania.  We spent most of the weekend cleaning up, straightening, and preparing for the open house.  We took our cats for a ride during the open house so that they wouldn't be a hindrance for potential buyers.  We lit some nice candles and cooked hot fruit salad to fill the house with wonderful smells.  

Unfortunately for us the weather was not good, it was cloudy and rainy, not the type of day that most people go looking at open houses.  So only one person ended up coming, and it was someone that our realtor invited.  It did sound like they liked our house and neighborhood, and they were here for 30-45 minutes, which is great.  They are waiting for their qualification from the bank, so they don't know how much they will be able to get.  We are praying that God will allow them to qualify for enough that they can buy our house, and that He increases their desire to do so.

We will have another open house in a couple weeks, and hopefully the weather will be better.  We are increasingly praying for this house to sell and ask for your prayers as well.  Thank you for covering this in prayer!

God Is Good, ALL The Time

This week we got some great and not so great news. Lets start with the great news because it is so really really great that we just can't even contain ourselves! Our Church will be providing our ministry with twice as much monthly support as we had originally anticipated, and that is a huge answer to prayer! We have been praying hard for God to provide our monthly funding and this is a big step ahead. Normally missionaries get a certain amount per year if they're with an independent organization, but they get twice as much if they are partnered with the Reformed Church of America's mission agency. We are working on partnering with the RCA but it is a long process and there's a lot to be worked out so we were only planning the base amount. This week, however, our pastor of mission and multiplication met with the Romania team and they decided to give us the full amount!

God has definitely been at work here, working in people's hearts to increase their passion for the ministry we will be doing. There are so many people from church behind us and supportive of our mission, it is just wonderful. We are so thankful for this extra support, to God and to our church and all those that were involved in this. It is yet another affirmation that this is what God wants us to do.

The not so great news is that Mark will be laid off again starting next week. Many other people at work are still laid off so much prayer is needed for all of us. The comforting thing in this is that we know that God is in control, and we know He is good all the time. We are learning more and more to depend on Him, through the mission preparations and the roller coaster of being laid off. We have hope that He will keep his promises and that He cares for us deeply. Isn't it great knowing that we don't have to worry about a thing because God has a greater plan than we know? We think it is, and we are clinging to that.