We are so pleased to let everyone know that we have returned to our home at MTI. Our time at the Vista Grande Church was great and we will be forever grateful to them for extending to us the love of Christ that they did. We will be able to continue our studies on Monday and we have not missed a beat.
We are deeply saddened for those in the Springs area that have lost everything. Our prayers are with them as they process this new reality. May God's abundant love and mercy be poured out upon them from church family of this community.
We thank God for all of the firefighters that have been and continue to lay their lives on the line for us all.
We thank God for the Vista Grande Baptist Church and the way they took care of us.
We thank God for the wonderful MTI staff that made each transition seem flawless.
Please continue to pray for the entire Springs area as they are still in danger and will be dealing with this for a long time..
Thank you for your interest and your prayers,
Blessings,
D & D
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
More from Colorado
Yesterday afternoon we were asked to evacuate MTI by the Palmer Lake Fire Department. The concern was that the fire had grown so much the previous night that we could be in danger of needing to be evacuated in the middle of the night. So, in a conservative move, the staff at MTI decided to move us while it was still daylight. We were so blessed to have a local church, Vista Grande Baptist Church, take in all of us missionary refugees. We are all thankful for Gods provision.
Please pray for those who are still in harms way. Especially for the more than 1,000 firefighters that are battling this blaze.
Thank you for all the prayers lifted up for us and our family. We continue this morning with SPLICE and press on from our current location.
God is good, ALL the time.
Blessings,
D&D
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Stretching us
This week has stretched us in so many ways. We have completed our first week of PILAT and are amazed at the teaching and the program. The staff is great and has opened our eyes to so many new and innovative ways to learn a new language. We have been putting the skills to good use already. Talia has been learning French. Dana has been learning Vietnamese. Carson and I have been learning Hindi. You may ask why? Shouldn't we be learning Swahili? As I explained before this training is for us to be able to learn any language. We have started phonetic training for Swahili and are having fun with that. We continue to be challenged and excited. Thank you for all the prayers. We need your prayer for teachable hearts and minds as we move forward this week into more language training.
Happy Father's Day. If you are blessed to have an earthly father that you know I pray that you let him know today how special he is to you! I also hope that everyong took time to thank their heavenly Father. Our perfect example or what a father is to be.
Also a big Happy Birthday to Nathan our oldest son, he is 24 today and we are very proud of him.
Happy Father's Day. If you are blessed to have an earthly father that you know I pray that you let him know today how special he is to you! I also hope that everyong took time to thank their heavenly Father. Our perfect example or what a father is to be.
Also a big Happy Birthday to Nathan our oldest son, he is 24 today and we are very proud of him.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
PILAT Starts
Late last night we finally made it to Colorado to begin our missions training at MTI (Missions Training International). We arrived about 10:30PM and were very grateful to see our rooms.
We got a call this morning from a dear friend asking about our car trouble. He informed us that he knew of someone that wanted to help out. The entire bill for the car repairs has been taken care of. God has once again provided in such a big and tangible way. We are very humbled by the gifting and are very thankful for God's people being obedient to His call to help out a brother and sister in need. We can't adequately convey how touched we are, and how this entire story has increased our faith and shown us the power of prayer.
Here are some pictures of the facility located by Palmer Lake just south of Colorado Springs.
The first day was very intense as I am sure the rest of the days will be. It's great to spend time with other missionaries and hear their stories. We have 67 people attending this session of PILAT. They are from all over the country and with God's provision will be spread all over the world. PILAT stands for Program In Language Acquisition Techniques. We will be learning skills needed to learn a new language. These skills can be used to learn any language so the training is not language specific. We look forward to the challenges in the days ahead. Talia and Carson are also doing very well. They have moved Talia into the adult program with Dana and I. Carson is with the teen boys, and they seem to be getting along great.
We got a call this morning from a dear friend asking about our car trouble. He informed us that he knew of someone that wanted to help out. The entire bill for the car repairs has been taken care of. God has once again provided in such a big and tangible way. We are very humbled by the gifting and are very thankful for God's people being obedient to His call to help out a brother and sister in need. We can't adequately convey how touched we are, and how this entire story has increased our faith and shown us the power of prayer.
Here are some pictures of the facility located by Palmer Lake just south of Colorado Springs.
The first day was very intense as I am sure the rest of the days will be. It's great to spend time with other missionaries and hear their stories. We have 67 people attending this session of PILAT. They are from all over the country and with God's provision will be spread all over the world. PILAT stands for Program In Language Acquisition Techniques. We will be learning skills needed to learn a new language. These skills can be used to learn any language so the training is not language specific. We look forward to the challenges in the days ahead. Talia and Carson are also doing very well. They have moved Talia into the adult program with Dana and I. Carson is with the teen boys, and they seem to be getting along great.
Monday, June 11, 2012
The Power of Prayer
We had an amazing day today that I promised God I would share yet tonight. We were on our way to North Platte, Nebraska, this morning after leaving the worship service at Taintor Community Church. It was an amazing morning of worship and fellowship at Taintor. We re-connected with friends and were blessed abundantly. We are so grateful for our family of Christ at that church!
We left the hotel and headed down the highway. About 6 hours into the trip we stopped for gas. The engine when we slowed down began to shimmy and shake. We had no idea what was wrong. I pulled out of the gas station to an adjoining parking lot and looked under the hood. The only thing I noticed was that the water pump seemed a little sloppy, but everything else looked good. We decided to let the engine cool down and see if it might be a vacuum problem. We started sending out prayer requests for the car to get us to North Platte. We decided to eat supper and let the car rest. After eating and sending out the requests, we got in the car and started out. The shimmy in it was terrible at low speed but got better as we increased speed. We had over 100 miles to go to get to North Platte.
I remembered a story I had been told about the need for being very specific with your prayers. Our prayer request was that we would be able to make it to North Platte. I began to pray specifically for Jesus to wrap His hands around the engine and protect it so that we could get to the parking lot of the hotel in North Platte, under its own power. We had several people praying for us and there were some very tense moments over the next hour and a half. Abount 50 miles from the hotel the engine started shaking and knocking very loud. We intensified our prayer, believing fully that Jesus could and would see us through! The engine quieted down and after one and a half hours of praying and driving we came off Interstate 80 and the hotel was in site. The water pump finally gave way, the serpentine belt came off and we coasted into the parking space of the hotel.
PRAISE GOD!! What an awesome God we serve. We were so grateful and appreciative of getting to the hotel. It was not luck or skill that got us there, it was the awesome power of prayer!!!
We are now praying for the repairs to be able to be completed so we can still get to our training on time. We know that God is in control, and we will get to the training at the exact time we are supposed to.
I hope this story encourages you, I will be telling it all the rest of my days.
Blessings and much Praise this evening,
D & D
We left the hotel and headed down the highway. About 6 hours into the trip we stopped for gas. The engine when we slowed down began to shimmy and shake. We had no idea what was wrong. I pulled out of the gas station to an adjoining parking lot and looked under the hood. The only thing I noticed was that the water pump seemed a little sloppy, but everything else looked good. We decided to let the engine cool down and see if it might be a vacuum problem. We started sending out prayer requests for the car to get us to North Platte. We decided to eat supper and let the car rest. After eating and sending out the requests, we got in the car and started out. The shimmy in it was terrible at low speed but got better as we increased speed. We had over 100 miles to go to get to North Platte.
I remembered a story I had been told about the need for being very specific with your prayers. Our prayer request was that we would be able to make it to North Platte. I began to pray specifically for Jesus to wrap His hands around the engine and protect it so that we could get to the parking lot of the hotel in North Platte, under its own power. We had several people praying for us and there were some very tense moments over the next hour and a half. Abount 50 miles from the hotel the engine started shaking and knocking very loud. We intensified our prayer, believing fully that Jesus could and would see us through! The engine quieted down and after one and a half hours of praying and driving we came off Interstate 80 and the hotel was in site. The water pump finally gave way, the serpentine belt came off and we coasted into the parking space of the hotel.
PRAISE GOD!! What an awesome God we serve. We were so grateful and appreciative of getting to the hotel. It was not luck or skill that got us there, it was the awesome power of prayer!!!
We are now praying for the repairs to be able to be completed so we can still get to our training on time. We know that God is in control, and we will get to the training at the exact time we are supposed to.
I hope this story encourages you, I will be telling it all the rest of my days.
Blessings and much Praise this evening,
D & D
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Heading to Colorado
We left this morning for our training, SPLICE/PILAT at Mission Training International in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We will be there for the next five weeks. Thank you to all who have supported us and prayed for us to get here. We have been very busy the last few weeks getting ready and are excited to get started. As I said we left from home this morning and are spending the night in Grinnel Iowa. This is a town very close to our friends Pastor Dave and Jan Pinkerton. We spent a wonderful evening with them at their home with their son Joel and his girl friend Megan. We first met two months ago when I spoke at Taintor Community Church. We are going to that same church tomorrow for Sunday worship. I am excited to be back and re-connect.
Tomorrow we will go as far as North Platte, Nebraska, and then on to Palmer Lake on Monday morning. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are praying for open eyes, open hearts and open minds so we will be able to see all that God is wanting us to learn on this trip. We are so very blessed to be at this stage in our ministry and continue to be in awe of God's provision for us.
Blessings,
D & D
Tomorrow we will go as far as North Platte, Nebraska, and then on to Palmer Lake on Monday morning. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are praying for open eyes, open hearts and open minds so we will be able to see all that God is wanting us to learn on this trip. We are so very blessed to be at this stage in our ministry and continue to be in awe of God's provision for us.
Blessings,
D & D
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Preparing For Training
We have been busy getting ready to head to Colorado for our training which begins on June 11th. We will be there for 5 weeks taking SPLICE/PILAT training. These courses are designed to help us with language acquisition and also to prepare us for living in a different culture. We look forward to this training as it gets us one step closer to getting to the field.
We are looking forward to getting to the Baby Centre, and our target date is still in August. We have fallen a little behind in our monthly support and are planning on having an event on July 15th at Nappanee Missionary Church to raise awareness of our need for other partners in our ministry. We are currently at 59% of our total monthly need. We need to be at 90% by the end of July in order to meet our goal of being in Kenya in August. God has blessed us so much over this last year in so many ways. We know that when He calls, He provides and we are confident in His timing that the funds necessary to get us to the field will come in.
Dan and I are finishing up our Perspectives class and should be done in the next two weeks. Perspectives is very appropriately named as it has given us so many different facets of ministry that have helped shape and prepare our hearts for the task that lies ahead of us.
There have been many transitions in our lives over the last few weeks. Many ask how we are doing with all of the changes. It is difficult to describe, but there is a definite peace that can only come from God. Knowing that He is in control and that we are fully committed to our mission. We look forward to serving our Lord and Savior, the people of Kenya, the babies at the Baby Centre and all of our ministry partners.
Let us know how we can partner with you and bring you along with us to bring the Gospel to the people of Kenya.
Blessings,
D & D
We are looking forward to getting to the Baby Centre, and our target date is still in August. We have fallen a little behind in our monthly support and are planning on having an event on July 15th at Nappanee Missionary Church to raise awareness of our need for other partners in our ministry. We are currently at 59% of our total monthly need. We need to be at 90% by the end of July in order to meet our goal of being in Kenya in August. God has blessed us so much over this last year in so many ways. We know that when He calls, He provides and we are confident in His timing that the funds necessary to get us to the field will come in.
Dan and I are finishing up our Perspectives class and should be done in the next two weeks. Perspectives is very appropriately named as it has given us so many different facets of ministry that have helped shape and prepare our hearts for the task that lies ahead of us.
There have been many transitions in our lives over the last few weeks. Many ask how we are doing with all of the changes. It is difficult to describe, but there is a definite peace that can only come from God. Knowing that He is in control and that we are fully committed to our mission. We look forward to serving our Lord and Savior, the people of Kenya, the babies at the Baby Centre and all of our ministry partners.
Let us know how we can partner with you and bring you along with us to bring the Gospel to the people of Kenya.
Blessings,
D & D
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