In Memoriam

     We've had a bittersweet couple of weeks in our family.  As you know Dana's brother was quickly succumbing to the cancer that had invaded his body.  On Saturday, April 7th, Doug left the pain and suffering of this world and went to be with Jesus.  

Dana and Doug

     We are comforted by the knowledge that Doug had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  We know that Doug is now in heaven with Jesus, whole again.  No more sickness, pain or suffering, Doug's body is brand new!!  Praise Jesus! 
     Now we must learn to accept this new normal with Doug absent.  Not an easy task!!  The hole we have in our hearts will never heal, but the Lord will fill it with His peace.  His mercy and grace is overflowing on Dana's family as we process all that has happened. 
     We were so thankful and overwhelmed with all the people that attended Doug's viewing and funeral.  Listening to their stories about Dana's brother were priceless.  We never knew the impact Doug had had on so many people.  People that he worked with, present and past, attended and warmed our hearts with their kind words. 
     Doug had gotten very bad and was in a lot of pain on Saturday, March 31.  He went to the hospital and was there several days where he continued to decline.  He was moved to Hospice House later that week.  That was an extremely hard decision to make.  All the people at Hospice House were wonderful and treated Doug with love and respect.  They took such good care of him, we will be forever grateful for that. 
      Knowing that Doug was not doing well at all, most of Dana's family stayed the night at Hospice House.  On Saturday, April 7th, Doug's breathing had gotten very sparatic.  The nurse on duty told us to remain close that day, the end was very near.  We prayed over Doug.  Dana sat and rubbed his arm and read the Bible to him most of the morning.  We all gave him kisses and said our final goodbyes preparing for the inevitable. 
     Dana knelt by Doug's bedside holding his hand and began praying outloud.  The rest of the family that were there gathered in and layed hands on Doug during this time.  After Dana finished praying Doug's breathing slowed even further and within minutes he had left us.  Our hearts were broken, never again to be the same.  We will miss Doug for the rest of our lives.  But knowing he has eternal life in Christ Jesus makes all the difference in the world.
     About the time Doug moved into his Hospice room, a pair of doves moved in outside of Doug's window.  They began building a nest in this pitiful tree.  The tree provided no protection whatsoever for the doves so it was so a little odd that they decided to build in it.  A dove represents peace, we believe it was no accident that they decided to build their nest right there within a couple feet from Doug's bedside.  God's peace was all over that place.  His presence was felt so strongly. 
     The viewing was Tuesday and the funeral Wednesday.  Dana opened the service with a very touching eulogy for her brother telling stories from the past as well as the story of Doug accepting Christ.  Talia also spoke and read scripture.  Dan also shared with words of tribute to Doug.  Then Pastor Dennis Ingle gave the rest of the message.  The funeral was beautiful!  We were all very touched by everyones kinds words and prayers.
    Please continue to keep the entire family in your prayers. We have been so blessed by our church family at NMC. Many strong prayer warriors that lifted us up through this difficult time, flowers, cards, meals, hugs, it has been overwhelming to be bathed in that much love. Thank you, thank you!
   In the midst of our darkest hours, we can say, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessings and many thanks,

D&D

Peaks and Valleys

    We have not posted anything for almost two weeks. This has indeed been a period of peaks and valleys. Almost two weeks ago, we got news that Dana's brother Doug who has been battling cancer for 18 months, only had 2 months to live. We were not sure if Doug had accepted Christ. We are very happy to report that this past week while Dana was talking with Doug, he did indeed ask Jesus to be the Lord of his life. Praise God!! We are actually this morning in his hospital room with him. Please keep Doug, Dana and the entire family in your prayers as Doug prepares to go home to Jesus.
   We are also in the middle of final packing in anticipation of moving on April the 28th. We have been very blessed to have a couple wonderful people from our church family give us a home to stay in until we leave for Colorado. Praise God for people who our so generous and giving.
   We are on track for our June departure to Colorado. We are also continuing with our schooling and should be completed by the end of May.
   We have a team from NMC there in Kenya this week. It will be great to hear first hand what is going on at the BC and in Saalga. Our prayers are with them. Below are some recent pictures of our new home at the BC sent to us by Kristy M.

     We have been very blessed with many ministry team members. Please continue to pray for opportunities for us to share about our passion for the BC and missions. We are scheduled to be in Iowa in two weeks and are looking forward to the opportunity. We continue to see new members join our team, and are so excited to be a part of such a special group of people  We are currently at 56% for our monthly support.
    We have a couple of busy weeks ahead and also the unknown of what will be taking place with Doug. We are thankful that the Lord is in full control, and ask that we are sensitive to His leading and direction as we move into these next two weeks!

  Love and Blessings
   D & D
    
   

   We praise God for continuing to guide and direct us through the many transitions that we are in the middle of right now. We are preparing to move out of our home on April the 28th to vacate it for its new tenants. We are not sure today who that will be, we currently have two families that are very interested and are working on their financing. Our friend Jeff, who God brought to us continues to work on the details, please pray for him and the families as they strive to complete the deal. This has been an amazing story that only God could have orchestrated!

   For those who do not know our older children who are out of the house we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce them. The first one is Nathan. Nathan will be 24 years old in June and has just recently moved back to the Mishawaka area. He works for Gaylor Electric. He has been able to do several mission trips himself and has accompanied me on two trips down to Juarez Mexico. He has a very tender heart and it will be difficult to say goodbye for such a long time.

   Secondly, I would like to introduce Andrea, who will be 23 years old in May and is now Andrea Mathis. Andrea has been married to her husband Mike for 3 1/2 years. They live in Mishawaka and are active in their churches youth group. We love them very much and will miss them also when we leave. We are very hopeful that they will all get to come over and visit us while we are on field.

   We have received some pictures of our new home being built on the Baby Centre compound. It is exciting to see the pictures and know that it has actually started. Please pray for Mwangi our construction foreman and the workers that they would be safe through the building process.

     We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners at Albright United Methodist Church.  They collected items for the Baby Centre through the month of February.  Each Sunday was designated to bring a different item in need at the Centre.  They did an absolutely amazing job!  Below is a picture of the items they collected!!  Among them are 185 pairs of socks, 43 bottles of Baby Wash, 67 pacifiers, 41 diapers, 43 washcloths, 31 baby spoons, along with many outfits for babies and toddlers, and many other items as well.  A big THANK YOU Albright for your sacrificial giving!!

Praise God for so many of you being willing to get involved and becoming partners with us in impacting the orphans of Kenya reaching out with the gospel and the compassion of Jesus.

Blessings
D & D

Things are moving!

     It has been a great week with many things going on. We have had quite a bit of activity on the house and had a showing last night. It went very well and we are currently working on a deal. Praise God for bringing us together with these people. This has been a wonderful experience to share with many what God is doing in our lives and to hear other people's stories. Please pray for God's guidance in working out all of the details and that the deal would be a blessing to all parties! We continue to pack and move items into storage in anticipation of the sale!
    Our schooling is progressing very well and we enjoy it very much. We are now past the half-way point with our Perspectives class and are ready to complete our first IWU class this week.
    We have been asked to speak at several venues over the next two months. On April 15th we will be in Iowa at the Taintor Community Church in the morning and then at the Omega Church in Oskaloosa that evening. We will then speak at the Men With Vision Iowa State dinner on the 16th. In May we will be in Middlebury speaking at the Indiana/Michigan dinner for MWV. We are looking forward to all of the opportunities to share our passion for the work in Kenya.
     We were able to check out the new water truck that is going over to Kenya in the next several weeks to be added to the water business there in Salgaa. Here is a photo of the truck, it is beautiful! Just think of the life giving water it will provide and the life giving love of Jesus that comes with every drop. Thank you to the many individuals who have made the water business possible.

   Another ministry opportunity that I have doing extensive research on is Tilapia farming. Tilapia are fish that are indigenous to Kenya and are delicious and a very good source of protein. They are manageable even on a small scale and are hardy and resistant to disease. I look forward to moving ahead with this project as not only a source of food for the babies at the centre but also as a small business funding stream for the operational costs of the centre as well.
    We are very excited to see God moving in such a mighty way in so many peoples lives. We are so thankful for our ministry partners and look forward to welcoming new ones in the coming weeks. Please pray for strength and wisdom for Dana and I as we continue to prepare for leaving. Dana is actually sick this evening so a special prayer for her tonight to get well soon.
    We praise God for His leading and the doors He has opened for us. To Him be all the honor and the glory!

Blessings
D & D

Staying busy!

      Well it has been two weeks since our last post and we have many things going on. We have been so blessed these last two weeks with new connections and many things moving forward.
      We continue to move forward with selling the house. We have met with our partner in selling our home again this past week, and we continue to make progress. We are currently working on a deal, please pray for God's guidance and blessing upon the sale. We are very excited and feel God's leading. The entire story is a great one, we are looking forward to sharing it soon.
      We continue to work on our Perspectives class and we are now half-way completed. It continues to excite and intrigue us about our mission. We are also currently taking our New Testament Survey, and Old Testament Survey Bible classes with IWU. It is a lot to do but has been very rewarding. Continue to please pray for each of us to have teachable hearts.
     The Kenyan construction team continues to work on our home. We should have some pictures to post in the next day or so. We look forward to moving in, in August!
     We also continue to build our financial team, and we are very happy to be at 54% right now! We have a goal to be at 65% by the end of March. God continues to open doors of opportunity for us to share and we are grateful for it. Please continue to pray for more opportunities to speak and share. We do have a wonderful opportunity coming up in April to have three speaking engagements in Iowa. We will share more on these as we get closer.
     The common thread through our journey this far, is seeing the power of prayer. God has answered so many prayers and has been so faithful to us. We continue to ask for you to pray for us for wisdom, strength, endurance, sensitive hearts, guidance, and courage. We are very excited to see what God has in store for us as we move closer to leaving, there are many plans in the works for our ministry and we will start unfolding some of those plans over the next several weeks.
    Thank you for being a member of our team!!

Blessings
D & D

Milestone

What a wonderful announcement to make! We have hit the 50% mark! Praise God for His wonderful provision in bringing His obedient people to partner with us to accomplish His will in Kenya. We feel so blessed to be at this milestone and are very excited to move ahead. Thank you for all who have prayed and supported us.

We also have news on the house, we have someone coming this Friday to talk to us a second time about our home. It is very exciting and there is a wonderful story behind it, but it is not finished yet. We will definitely keep everyone updated as things progress. Please pray for our meeting on Friday at 8:30am that God will guide and direct us to do His will in this matter.

School is going great as well, Dana and I are almost half way through Perspectives and we have started our IWU classes also.

We will have more to tell this weekend, thank you for your continued prayer support, it is so important.

Blessings
D&D

WOW!

     What a Sunday service, we are so blessed to have a church that has a heart for the nations.  We were able to give a brief update in each of the three services in the main sanctuary this past Sunday.  We were also able to set up our display in the Grand Hall and interact with many people that had wonderful questions about our ministry work in Kenya.  Thank you to all that stopped by to speak with us. 
     We published our first newsletter this past week and we were excited to be able, through God's leading, to put a time line together.  This makes leaving for the field more tangible.  Please continue to pray for us as we begin preparations for finishing school, selling our home, and preparing to leave family and friends.  It's only through God's power that all these things will be accomplished.
     As we prepare to go and our prayer and finanacial teams continue to grow we are continually amazed at God working in the lives of so many to bring them together for His work.  We are humbled by so many of you who have giving sacrificially in order to send us to the Kenyan field.  It is with great gladness tonight that we are able to update our current needs status below.

     Again, Wow!  Thank you so much for your generosity, and for answering God's call to send out workers into His fields for the harvest.  We look forward to laboring on your behalf in Kenya.

Blessings,

D&D