Hey everyone, it’s always hard to believe that a month and a half has gone by, and I always wish I would have gotten to sending out an update sooner! So much has been going on it’s hard to keep track of, and with a newborn in the house our brain capacity seems to be cut down quite a bit too. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers and for your encouragement through this challenging time! Please let us know if there is any way we can pray for you as well!
Michael & Raelyn: Wow is about all I can say to summarize this season! Having a newborn come into our home on one day’s notice has been a huge blessing as well as a huge challenge. We love Michael very much, and Raelyn continues to adore him. Michael started off eating just fine but seemed to struggle with gas and digestion issues, which have seemed to get worse as time has gone on. We suspect that he has developed an umbilical hernia as well which aren’t supposed to be painful or a big concern, just that when he’s straining his belly button inflates so big it looks like it will pop! Also we’ve been starting to suspect that he has silent reflux, he doesn’t spit up nearly as much as Raelyn did but the rest of the symptoms are there. This has made sleeping difficult, as he’s self regulated how much he eats so he doesn’t feel bad, but then he’s not eating enough to sleep for long periods. We’ve been perplexed and dazed as our sleep has been so bad, and we’ll get to how Raelyn plays into it in a moment. We are seeing a doctor tomorrow to talk about these issues, and we pray for wisdom and for healing. We need prayers for rest, it just seems hopeless now but we are hoping for better soon.
We are praying for Michael's case as well, the case is staying on the other side of the state which is a bummer, and there will be a pretrial soon to determine the direction it goes. Please pray for wisdom for all those involved and that this would go much faster and be much more straight forward than last time.
So Raelyn, as much as she’s had great love for Michael, has been having difficulties adjusting and they have manifested in difficult ways. She can sense that she’s not getting our undivided attention, even as much as we like to, in caring for Michael and having him come so suddenly, it’s been hard for her. During the day she can be a little naughtier than normal and we are sleep deprived so it probably seems worse than it is, but nap time and nights have been the hardest. She’s not been napping very well, not every day but many times she’s resisted the nap which leads to being more difficult later. At night she has been using every trick in the book to stall, and she particularly won’t let me leave. We’ve been trying different things to various degrees of success, and we received prayer at church last week and have felt that it’s been going better this week, but we still need prayer for resolving this completely. I won’t go into all the details of what we’ve done but if you can think of it or read about it on google chances are we’ve tried it :-) What we really need is wisdom and discernment to get to the root of it, and for God to bring healing there.
Church Work: Things have been busy at church too and I’ve been trying to balance all this out amidst the sleepless nights, continuing to transition roles, stepping into new teams and still trying to find people to help in most areas of ministry. I am enjoying it but am realizing that I need to take it easy too to avoid burning out. Many of the points from last time still apply, so I’ll include that here as well:
- My transition into my new position at church has been going well, just a lot of things that still need to happen for me to be able to transition fully
- Upward Challenge camp went really well, even though I wasn’t there, I got to hear stories from many of the kids and leaders that experienced God in new and fresh ways during that week. One person who is a UC veteran said it was the best one yet. I thank the Lord that my hard work of planning paid off and was helpful to those that had to step up into my place to help direct the camp.
- Prayer walking has been going wonderfully, we’ve had so many wonderful encounters and have been blessing the neighborhood with our prayers and love. We will soon be discerning whether we will be continuing beyond the summer
- We are still in dire need of more children’s workers at church, can’t seem to get ahead on that one
- We are praying for what do do without a worship leader, things are going well though but the role of worship planning is just one more thing added to myself and the others helping with this
- Prayer Ministry is still full!
- We are pursuing a new ministry partnership with a church we’ve had a long relationship with, so prayers for that process requested. We are hoping for a meeting with their missions team early this fall.
Health: I’m still struggling with my stuffy sinuses, it’s now been almost 10 years since it started and I’d like it gone (without paying an arm and a leg or being on medicine the rest of my life) ie I need a healing miracle. I’ve been trying Flonase which seems to help temporarily. Also Raelyn came down with a cold this week which always makes things harder for sleeping. Please pray for protection for our health and for healing of these and some other aches and pains that seem to crop up.
Thanks so much again for your prayers and support! We can’t do this alone and are so thankful to have such a wonderful group that is lifting us up in their prayers.
With much love,
Mark, Rebecca, Raelyn & Michael
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