Holiday Gettogether With Our Lifegroup

Tis the season for holiday gettogethers! Isn't it great to be able to get together with friends and family and enjoy food and fellowship together? We recently had such a time with our LifeGroup from church. We all brought part of the meal and one couple provided the turkey and hosted the group at their house.

Mark enjoyed carving up this massive turkey. He had to improvise to get it out of the crock pot with a fork and ice cream scoop because we couldn't find the tongs and needed something sturdy to get it out with. Whatever works, right?

This great feast included the turkey, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, herb bread, poppy seed blueberry salad, cranberry sauce, jello, and pumpkin pie bars. It was all wonderful! After the feast was done we spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up, we were going to play some games but we never got to them because there was so much to talk about.

This is our group, minus a few who couldn't make it. We always enjoy the fellowship we have with them. Our group has grown from three couples a few years ago to two groups with around six couples each. We aren't in both of the groups now but we still enjoy seeing the other group at church on Sundays.

Where God Guides, He Provides!

The title of this post is something that Mary Geegh said in her book "God Guides." She was a missionary in India in the middle of the 20th century. She had many experiences where she was guided to do something extraordinary and God came through with his providence. This Monday we received some surprising news that shows how God is providing for our missionary journey.

One of the owners of the company where I work, Extol Inc, came up to me and told me that they just ran the numbers and found out that for the last fiscal year we turned a profit. This was a surprise because I had talked to him before and it sounded like we would just break even for the year. Thankfully the fiscal year ended before some not so good months, so for that time period there was a profit. Since Extol is a Christian company they give a tithe on any profit, so they decided to support us with a financial gift.

When he told me how much I was floored! They are going to contribute $5,000!!! WOW! This will cover a pretty big chunk of our start up funds that we have to raise before we leave. I have been praying for miracles lately, and this is certainly is an answer to prayer. All Glory to God, he continues to show us that it is indeed his will for us to go on this journey. He will provide everything we need to make this happen. Amazing, isn't it?

I have to say a huge thank you to Extol for donating this money, it will enable us to minister to the orphans in Romania. What an awesome group of people we have at this company, that they would make a donation like this is really outstanding. Above all, thanks to God for providing this for us. We continue to pray for more miracles like selling our house and raising the rest of the start up fund and monthly commitments. God is so faithfull and we are looking forward to more surprises!

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.

Our Trip To California Part 2

Here is the continuation from where the last post about our California vacation left off. When we arrived at San Diego we stopped for lunch at a fresh fish place near the ocean. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the sights and sounds of that part of the city. As we drove to Ramona, which is where the H2H office is, it started to drizzle, to which Jim and Jodi (the founders of H2H) exclaimed "wow, it's pouring!" We laughed because sometimes we get inches of rain in one shower, but it was a pretty big deal there because it only rains once in a great while. The drive to Ramona was really beautiful, mountainous and very rocky. Some of the mountains were covered with boulders the size of houses, left there by passing glaciers back in the ice age.


We stayed with Jim & Jodi at their guest house which was very nice and comfortable. They really know how to treat guests! While we were there we spent lots of time talking about our plans for our missionary work, and we worked on some things like our prayer cards. We talked about our budget and our fund raising approach, and about lots of other things related to the ministry. It was really an energizing experience and it was great to start our planning.

We went to the ocean on Monday and saw this pelican just hanging out on the pier. We enjoyed walking along and seeing all the palm trees on the beach. Monday night Mark did a little off roading with JT (Jim & Jodi's son), and then some of the high-schoolers that helped at summer camp came over. We made pizzas and had brownies while we caught up and reminisced about our experience with the Romanian orphans.

We stopped in at the Realization Gardens, and we realized that we were in a beautiful place.

On Tuesday we went into San Diego again and visited the veterans war memorial. It overlooks the entire city and surrounding area.

We stopped by a tidal pool which was really cool. We touched live sea urchin and saw a flock of pelicans nesting.

Then we visited an aquarium near the ocean and saw all sorts of amazing aquatic life.

The beautiful and deadly Lionfish.

After visiting the aquarium we went to the beach to see the beautiful sunset. Then we went to Austin & Anna's (Jim & Jodi's daughter & son-in-law) house, and then went out for dinner. The next morning we flew out really early and spent basically the whole rest of the day traveling home. Thankfully we had a pretty good trip back.

This was such a great vacation. We got to see lots of friends and figure a lot out about our coming ministry in Romania. We want to express our thanks to all those who let us stay with them and showed us around, it was such a memorable time!

Important Prayer Request

Now that we are officially part of H2H it is time to start raising funding for our ministry in Romania. We will soon be sending out support letters to friends and family, and posting the letter here on this blog. So we are asking for much prayer that God will provide the funding we need quickly so we can start our ministry in April of 2009. This is an aggressive goal but we are putting all of our trust in God that he will work it out. We recently read through a book by a missionary in India and her main saying was: "When God guides He provides." We know God has guided us to minister to the orphans of Romania, so we know he will provide for all our needs.

Another important prayer request is that we can partner with the Reformed Church in America in this ministry. We have a meeting with some of their mission executives next Monday, Nov 24. We don't really know what to expect but we are praying that they will be open to this idea. It would mean a lot if we were able to do this, as it would open the doors to all of the RCA congregations, as well as allow us to receive more support from our own church. Also, if we were able to speak in many more churches we could introduce them to H2H and seek people to come on short term mission trips to Romania. Short term trips are a big part of H2H's ministry to the orphans as they bring in lots of people to show the orphans love. Being able to partner with the RCA would be beneficial in multiple ways, so we ask for your prayers that God works this out.

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.

Our Trip To California Part 1

We recently went on vacation in California to see some friends and go to a wedding. We drove to Chicago Midway airport and didn't get stuck in traffic, and then each leg of our flight was early, which was really nice. When we got to Sacramento, the capital of California, we were picked up by our friend's grandma and taken to their house. Sarah, our friend who was at summer camp in Romania with us, was at work so we hung out with her grandparents for a while. Her grandparents have also been to Romania so we watched a video of their pictures and had a great time getting to know them. Mark & Kristin, two Heart 2 Heart missionaries that we got to know during camp, stopped by to see us and we caught up on what we've all been doing since camp. Then another friend from camp, Marci, stopped by to say hi before she had to go to work. Later Sarah came home and Marci came back after work, and we spent the rest of the night hanging out and catching up with each other.

Friday morning we went to see Sarah at work at the local coffee place. She made us some wonderful drinks. When her shift was done we headed out to San Fransisco for the rest of the day. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the ride there and the sights we saw. We went to the Exploratorium first, a place were there were lots of cool science demonstrations. After that we headed over to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz as seen from a far away bridge.

Driving on the Golden Gate Bridge was fun as the clouds began to roll in.

We enjoyed a beautiful view of the bridge and the sunset and the fog rolling in over the mountains was really cool. After that we went in search of dinner, so we drove down by the pier area. We walked down to pier 39 where we watched a guy twirling flaming torches and then we decided to go to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to eat. When we looked at the menus we were surprised by how expensive it was and how little we liked on there, so we quietly left. It was pretty weird leaving like that but it was worth it because we went to a great pizza place and split a pizza. Overall the pier was really neat with all the different shops and restaurants.

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On Saturday morning we went to where Marci works: Starbucks. We got some good drinks and enjoyed the sparing between Sarah and Marci over which coffee is better. Then we went to downtown Sacramento and walked to the capital building. There were beautiful gardens all around and lots of orange trees as you can see above. We ate at a great Mediterranean place for lunch and then headed back to Sarah's place to get ready for Mark & Kristin's wedding.

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At the wedding we got to see lots of people we knew from Heart 2 Heart. We enjoyed catching up with them and it was nice to know that we were going to be a part of that organization.

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The wedding went great and the reception was fun. It was great to see Mark & Kristin and we wish them the best in their new marriage. They are going to stay in California for a year and then return to Romania to minister to the orphans there with H2H. So then we will be working with them again.

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On Sunday we went to church with Marci, and then we had to say our goodbyes. We went to the airport and met up with Jim & Jodi Sorrels, the founders of H2H. Anna & Austin, their daughter and son-in-law and JT their son were there too, and we flew out with them to San Diego. You can read about the rest of our vacation in the continuation of this post in a couple days.

It Is Official - We Are Going To Romania Full Time!

This is big news! We have officially been accepted by Heart To Heart International Ministries as missionaries! The H2H board went over our application and references and decided that we would be a good fit with their ministry. We are very excited!

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Our goal is to start our ministry to the orphans of Romania by April 2009. In order to do that we will need to raise support funds for our ministry. We will be sending out support letters soon and will also post the letter on this blog. We will also need to sell our house before we go, so if you know anyone who is looking, please let them know about our house.

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Above all we really need your prayers, please pray that we are able to raise our funds and sell our house quickly. Also pray for all of the planning we have to do before we go. Pray for guidance, wisdom, and strength.

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We are looking forward to being used by God to change the lives of orphans in Romania. This is an amazing opportunity and a big life change for us. We know that God has placed this call in our hearts and that he will provide for all our needs. Praise God!

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