Next Steps

We are continuing to make progress towards our move to Romania. This past Saturday we moved out of our house and into Rebecca's parents basement with the help of many friends and family. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we close on our house. In the middle of August we will go to California to have more training and visit a few friends. Then, before we all know it, we'll be off to Romania! Our departure date is September 5. Here are some pictures showing where we now live (Caledonia).

The flower garden at the front of the house.

The view out of our slider downstairs.

There is a hummingbird hiding in this picture, feasting on the bee balm.

Robin taking a bath in the fountain.

Our bedroom.

Our mini kitchen.

The living area portion of our room.

Departure Date And Excited Home Buyers

Things have been rolling along nicely with the sale of the house, our inspections went well, the buyers financing is going through, and we're already starting to move some things out. We talked with Heart 2 Heart last week and we both thought that it would be great to pick a departure date. We will be leaving on September 5 to go to Romania and start our ministry there. We are so excited! We will have a few weeks to settle in, then we'll go through the annual staff training and then we'll begin our language lessons. Sometime in mid August we will go to California to get everything set up and for more training. We will probalby spend some time in Cali visiting some friends, we're excited to see them too! Time will fly between now and then especially since Mark will be busy at work until we leave. Praise God for so many things coming together and for His rich blessings in our lives.

Last night we met the people who will be buying our house and it was great. They came over to see the items we fixed from the inspection, and we got a chance to tell them what we're doing and that they're the answer to our prayers. They seemed very excited about our house and told us some of the things they liked about it: the spacious kitchen, the beautifully finished basement, the big lot and country setting, and the already planted garden, among others. We showed them the garden and told them what the plants were and how we make compost in our compost box. Their 5 year old daughter was really excited to see her room in the basement, she loved how big it was. They truly are the ones God had in mind because everything about the house fits what they wanted. It ended up being really fun meeting them and showing them around, and we look forward to seeing them again at closing.

It is so exciting to see how God's plan for us is unfolding. Things are becoming more clear to us as far as God's timing and what He has been teaching us through this. Thanks so much for praying for us thank you for your continued prayers.

More Great News And A Quick Update

God is continuing to move and is answering lots of prayers lately. This week Mark got a call from Extol where he was working until being laid off this spring. They said that a big order that they've been waiting for has finally come in. That means that Mark will be able to work on contract there for about a month. This will greatly help our finances as we prepare to go to Romania. This is definitely an answer to prayer and will be such a huge blessing.

Things are moving along on the sale of our house as well. We will have the inspection tomorrow which we figure will go well since our house is so young. We don't yet know when our closing will be but the offer we accepted said it would be no later than July 11. Our for sale sign looks a lot better now that it says sold instead of for sale.

Once we have a closing date we will probably also pick a departure date for Romania. The last major thing that needs to happen before we go is to complete our support raising. We are doing very well in this area and are hoping that some new monthly supporters will rise up so that we can begin our ministry. We'll have more details on this in another post once we figure out exactly where we're at.

We would appreciate if you would pray that our house sale goes smoothly, our support will be completed soon, and all the preparation and moving will go well. Thanks so much for praying with us!

We Just Accepted An Offer On Our House!!!

Today is the day we've been waiting for for so long! This morning Mark was outside watering some flowers when our realtor pulled up in our driveway. We were waiting for word on our showing last night and usually we hear by phone or e-mail so seeing him in the driveway was a good sign. He got out and asked if we'd like to discuss the offer we had! The offer was great except that they included their closing costs for us to pay. It sounds like our house is toward the high end of what they were looking at, so we decided to accept the offer even though we will have to bring money in to pay off our mortgage. The money isn't even important to us at this point, we just want to sell this house and we don't want to take the chance of losing this buyer. By accepting the offer as is we have a done deal.

The best thing is that this buyer doesn't have a house of their own so there is no contingency on the offer. We will close within a month from now and they will move in two weeks after close. That means we have six weeks or less left of living here. Wow, it's hard to believe but it's so great!

We know that this is God's answer to our prayers!!! This is such an awesome feeling, God has rewarded us for waiting patiently on Him. We want to give Him all the glory for this, He is our provider! Please pray for these things with us:

- First let's thank and praise Him for sending these buyers to our house.

- Pray that the paperwork and closing will all go smoothly.

- Pray for our transition and all the packing and moving we'll be doing.

Thank you so much for praying with us! Your prayers have been heard and answered on this one! We are so appreciative of your prayer support. We'll keep everyone posted on how things go, lots of changes are in store for us soon!

Great Weekend Update

Sunday was a big day for us. We started out by driving up to Kent City to visit Red Pine Bible Church to present about our ministry. After some singing pastor Rick introduced us and gave us the floor. Rebecca opened by talking about how we came to this point; our previous trips and our call from God to go to Romania as full time missionaries. Mark then gave a bit of background on Romania and how it has been ravaged by communism and corruption. We then showed the H2H ministry video (which you can watch too, it is the "Orphans of Romania" video on the right sidebar of the blog). Then Mark explained what we will be doing once we're there and talked about some of the relationships we formed at summer camp last year. He read Elena's first letter to us after camp, where she thanked us for everything we did, like sitting with her for dinner, taking pictures with her, and letting her carry our backpack.

After church we talked with people and felt very warmly welcomed by many friendly people. Lots of people were interested and wanted to hear more about what we're doing. It was a great experience to be able to share our passion with them and it was great to see that they were excited about it too.

We then went to Mark's aunt's house for dinner and had a great time of fellowship with family. They prepared a great meal and had lots of snacks afterwards. We talked more about what we will be doing and showed more pictures of our previous trips. It was a lot of fun and we are very grateful for their hospitality.

Later that night after we had gone home the deacons along with Pastor Rick met to talk about what we had shared with them. They were very excited about our ministry and decided that they would like to partner in supporting us! They will be recommending this to the church and they will decide for sure by the end of the month. God is definitely at work here and this is an answer to prayers! Let's continue to pray that the recommendation goes through and that we can form a great partnership with the body of Christ at Red Pine Bible Church.

We had an open house while all this was going on and one couple came to look through our house. They said they really liked it and liked the lot and the country feel that we have here. They are just starting looking and are trying to decide if they want to invest this much into a house. Please pray with us that God will speak powerfully and clearly into their lives to lead them to buy our house. What a wonderful thing that would be!

Thanks so much for praying for and with us in these things. Your prayers are making a huge difference and we are so appreciative for your prayer partnership.

Church Partnership & Open House Prayer Requests

This weekend we have a couple of things going on that we would like to ask you to pray for with us.  On Sunday we will be sharing about our ministry at Red Pine Bible Church in Kent City. Mark's cousin Rick is the pastor there and we have been talking with him about partnering with his church.  We will have 25 minutes of the church service to share our vision with the congregation, what an honor!  We will first show a video of what H2H does and then we'll talk about our previous trips and what we'll be doing in our ministry.  We are very excited about this opportunity and are eagerly waiting to see how God will use it.  Would you please pray that:

-The Holy Spirit will anoint us and speak powerfully through us.

-God will speak to the hearts of the people there, firing up their passion for advancing His kingdom.

-For a close partnership to develop with this church body.

-For God to raise up people to be prayer and support partners.

Also this weekend we will be having an open house.  Would you please pray that God will send a buyer soon?

As we pray these things I would like to encourage you to meditate on one of my favorite Bible passages.  It is very reassuring for us since so many things are up in the air in our lives right now.  I hope that it will be an encouragement to you as well.

Phillipians 4:6-7  Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

House Update...

Wow, it's hard to believe that it is May already.  Recently we have had more activity on our house and even though it hasn't sold yet we are very hopeful that it will soon.  We had an open house last weekend and it was on a beautiful day.  Two couples came through and one liked our house very much.  They are just starting their search for a house so we can pray that they decide on our house.  Besides that there have been some other people interested and looking.  We don't yet know what all of them are thinking, but that's OK.

We would really appreciate if you would join us in asking God to sell our house soon.  We are still hoping that the house will sell soon so that we can start working in Romania in the summer.

Could They Be The Ones?

There are two big goals left in our journey towards becoming missionaries to orphans in Romania; raising the rest of our funding and selling our house.  We put our house up for sale at the end of September.  Since then there has been some interest but not as much as we had hoped for.  We have been learning patience and reliance on God as only He knows the right timing for our house to sell.

Two weeks ago we had an open house and the only person to come was another realtor who was having an open house near by.  He stopped in because he has a customer who will soon be looking for a house in this area.  We recently found out a little more about these potential buyers, and we were greatly encouraged and excited.  First of all, they are relocating to the area for a job they already have.  Since many people around are losing their jobs it is pretty amazing that they are coming here for a new job.  Secondly, they are looking for a country setting and a house with a large lot, both of which our house has.  Our house is in their price range too, and it sounds like they're approved on a loan already.

Could these people be the ones God will use to buy our house and get us one step closer to starting our ministry in Romania?  We certainly hope so and are praying that God works in their hearts and leads them to buy our house.  They are supposed to be coming to look at houses around the first week of May, so we would like to mobilize many prayer partners to bathe this issue in prayer.  Would you please join us in praying?

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!

Romania Progress Update

Just this week we reached a big milestone in our journey to becoming missionaries in Romania. The start up fund that we needed to raise was completed, praise God! This $12,350 fund will pay for our travel to Romania, our language classes, visas, and housing set up. This is definitely an answer to prayer, and there were some specific prayers answered to complete it. One such prayer was that my company, Extol Inc, would help supporting us. Even though at first it didn't look like they would be able to, they came through with an unexpected $5,000 donation! Also thank you for your generous donations, this puts us one step closer to Romania!

We are still working on raising our monthly support and are at around 30% right now. We need to raise $3,580 per month in the form of monthly commitments. That means we have just under $2,500 to go. Wow, it seems like a lot, but we know that God has a plan for this. Our goal is to leave around April, but we can't go until we are fully funded. Thanks so much to those of you who have already committed to supporting our ministry! If you are interested in making a monthly commitment please let us (616-895-1603) or Heart 2 Heart (877-590-4051) know. Even if you don't plan to start your support until we leave it will help us to know where we're at, so please let us know as soon as you decide. Monthly support can be started any time, funds that come in before we leave will be spread out over the whole two year term which reduces the amount of commitments we need.

We are still gladly accepting one time donations, as they will reduce the amount of monthly support we need to raise. There is a new button on the upper right hand side of the blog that links to H2H's secure website, so donations can be made online. Donations can also be sent to H2H at P.O. BOX 1832 Ramona, CA 92065, make the check out to H2H International and include a separate note designating the gift for us.

Our house is still for sale and we need to sell it before we leave. We lowered the price this week and are having an open house on March 8. The spring is coming and with it hopefully the spring housing market picks up. Typically the spring market is the best of the year, so we really need to sell the house sometime this spring. Even though we hear so many bad things about the housing market we still have hope because all it takes is one person that really likes the house, location, lot, etc. Plus we know that God has a plan for this too, and he knows exactly what he's doing.

Would you please pray with us that God will provide our funding and sell our house so we can begin our ministry in Romania? Would you consider being a prayer partner or supporting our ministry with a monthly commitment? If you want to know more about what we will be doing we would love to talk to you. You can also read more in past posts and watch the "Orphans of Romania (part 1 & 2)" video on the sidebar of the blog.

Mulţumesc!!! (Thank you in Romanian)

More Hope For Selling Our House

Since our house went up for sale in October it has been shown to three couples. The last people who looked liked it very much and had said they were going to start deciding after Thanksgiving. Then we didn't hear anything from them for a month, which left us wondering what they were up to. Our realitor called us last week to let us know that they are now planning on deciding shortly after the beginning of the year, and that our house is still on their list.

This is great news becuase it means that after looking at many houses they are still interested in ours. Hopefully they will want to look through it again and then decide that ours is the one they want to buy. So we need to pray doubly hard that God will lead them to buy our house, and we ask you to join us again in praying for this. Even in this down market and rough financial time God is in control and we trust that he will provide for the sale of our house. It would be so great to sell it soon so that we would be one step closer to beginning our work with the orphans in Romania!

All The Latest Happenings

Wow, a lot has been happening with us recently, and it's been a while since the last post. Let's back up to Thanksgiving. We had a great time spending the day with our family, eating wonderful food and hanging out having some fun. We watched the classic Home Alone and played a great game of Scrabble.

On Black Friday we did something really stupid, we went shopping. This was something we had said we would never do but there was a terrific sale on a laptop computer at Best Buy, so we went with a friend at MIDNIGHT and waited to get a ticket for the computer we wanted. The whole thing was very badly managed and the first 15-20 people in line ended up getting all the best deals, so before the store even opened we left knowing that there wasn't a chance that we would get what we want. It was really frustrating, but now we know to NEVER get sucked in by what seems to be such a good deal.

The rest of the long weekend was fun, we went hot-tubing with a friend, Mark went to the Grand Valley football game (unfortunately they lost, it was a really bad game), and we had dinner and played Wii with some other friends.

We haven't heard anything from the last people that looked at our house, so we are still praying that they will buy it even though they said they would start deciding last week. We are still trusting that God has a plan so even if they don't buy the house someone else will come along at the right time. We had our meeting with the RCA about partnering with them in our mission, and that went well. There is still a lot to figure out there but we are praying that God will open the doors for this to work as well. Our fund raising started by sending out our support letters to friends and family. God is in control of sll three of these areas and we continue to ask for your prayers.

The kitties helped Rebecca decorate recently. They also had fun helping un-decorate by constantly playing with the decorations and pulling down the blankets and tablecloth.

They also liked playing in the snow on the deck.

Rebecca took some great closeup shots of snowflakes.

The snow is really beautiful, just don't ask how fun it is to drive in it.

Prayer Request For Selling Our House

Our house has been for sale now for about 2 months and 3 different people have looked through it so far. The first two looked within a couple weeks of being listed, and both ended up going with something else. The third ones just looked at our house last weekend, and we just heard about what they are thinking. Ours was one of the first houses they've looked at and they really liked it, and there were quite a few specific things they liked about it. They want to look at some more houses before making a decision, which they will do shortly after Thanksgiving. So we are asking for your prayers that they will end up liking our house the best and will put in a reasonable offer. This would be huge for us as it would remove this from our list of things to do before we go to Romania.

Only God knows if these are our buyers but we can pray that he works in their lives so they decide on our house. We know God has a plan and that he will provide all of our needs, so we'll see what he does in this. Thanks in advance for praying for this and we'll let you know what happens when we find out.

Missionary Application & Selling Our House Update

Now that we have posted all the pictures and stories from camp we can start writing about what's going on in our lives right now. I had posted a while back saying that we had decided to apply to be full time missionaries in Romania, and now we are in that process. For the application we had to fill out a statement of intent where we talked about the why and how of what we want our ministry to look like. We are now waiting for some of our references to come in, and after they do then our application will be reviewed by the Heart 2 Heart board. After we are accepted we will start planning a budget and come up with a plan to raise our funds. How ever long it takes to raise our funds will be how long before we go there, so we're not really sure when that will be.

We've spent the last few weeks cleaning up our house and going through lots of stuff so that we could put it up for sale. We went through all our childhood stuff and kept only what was really meaningful, and we went through anything else we had stored or that we don't use very often. We donated lots of things to a local second hand store, including a bookcase and computer desk. It was a lot of work but it feels really good to be clutter free, and our house feels a lot more open. Last week we had a realtor come over and we listed our house with him. He is the same realtor who we bought the house with and we were very pleased when we worked with him last time. So if you know of anyone who is looking for a house in our area please let them know about ours. I put the links to the listing at the end of this post. We are really praying that God provides a buyer for our house, especially with the market the way it is.

Grand Rapids Association of Realtors (MLS Listing)

West Michigan Lakeshore Association of Realtors