Happy New Year!
2014
The Christmas decorations have been boxed, and lovingly placed in their places for their year long rest.
We have connected with our friends and family during this holiday season. And look forward to the coming year. We have gained new friendships, new family members, and look forward to what God has in store for us in the coming year.
We pray that your Christmas Season was enjoyable as well!
Our coming year looks to be a busy one again.....things planned already, and things unplanned we know.
Our family will be celebrating a wedding, as our son Keaton proposed to his wonderful Abby this past October after the Chicago Marathon. What else will be in store? Only God knows.
It is hard to believe that it has been over a year now since we finished our sabbatical, and added to our blog.
This past year has been one of sheer busyness!
Our first adventure for 2014 will take us back to our friends in the Philippines. We worked hard with our Philippine Mission Team, doing fundraisers every month to prepare for our trip on January 9th, 2014. We sold knives, egg rolls, coordinated an auction, hosted spaghetti, and chili suppers, worked in the Pendleton Ballpark selling concessions, sold concessions at a baseball tournament in Indianapolis, and enjoyed Sahm's restaurants climbing on board by supporting our team with a percentage of sales going toward our goal.
This trip was planned 2 years ago, but, little did we know at the time, that our timing would be so important.
Just a few months ago, the strongest Typhoon in recorded history made it's way across the Philippine Islands and destroyed many homes, and disrupted an already difficult life for those who suffer from a widespread of poverty. We prayed, and kept in touch, miraculously through emails and Facebook with our friends and missionaries. Before the typhoon we didn't have a clear direction of what our mission would be, except we would be doing something "with water". Now, we know why. God would have a plan for us that would come alive as we watched the news.
To say we are excited to visit our Filipino friends who have become family to us, is an understatement. We are taking a team of 17 this time. All but one will be traveling back with the former 2010 team, with the addition of 5 new members. The will be the largest team we have traveled with yet.
For those who do not know, the trip there is grueling. The flight alone is 23 hours, with a long layover in Manilla, and another long layover coming back through Seoul, Korea. So, we covet your prayers.
Then, God willing, we will be traveling back to Israel, in September, taking a team of 30+ people from the US to visit the Holy Land, and the Greek Islands. Back to Paul's footsteps, and Jesus' home.
We are in progress of meeting with friends from Ovid, and others planning this trip of a lifetime. Keith and I are pinching ourselves trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we will be walking where Jesus walked AGAIN! To share our discoveries from a year ago with family and friends is more than exciting to us. Our lives were changed, and we will love watching the transformation in our traveling pilgrims.
So, the dust has hardly settled on our suitcases,and our passports. We will be loading them again, and heading to the airport. East seems to be the popular destination.
It will be another busy year of preparations.
Join us through our blog....we will love having you along.
2014
The Christmas decorations have been boxed, and lovingly placed in their places for their year long rest.
We have connected with our friends and family during this holiday season. And look forward to the coming year. We have gained new friendships, new family members, and look forward to what God has in store for us in the coming year.
We pray that your Christmas Season was enjoyable as well!
Our coming year looks to be a busy one again.....things planned already, and things unplanned we know.
Our family will be celebrating a wedding, as our son Keaton proposed to his wonderful Abby this past October after the Chicago Marathon. What else will be in store? Only God knows.
It is hard to believe that it has been over a year now since we finished our sabbatical, and added to our blog.
This past year has been one of sheer busyness!
Our first adventure for 2014 will take us back to our friends in the Philippines. We worked hard with our Philippine Mission Team, doing fundraisers every month to prepare for our trip on January 9th, 2014. We sold knives, egg rolls, coordinated an auction, hosted spaghetti, and chili suppers, worked in the Pendleton Ballpark selling concessions, sold concessions at a baseball tournament in Indianapolis, and enjoyed Sahm's restaurants climbing on board by supporting our team with a percentage of sales going toward our goal.
This trip was planned 2 years ago, but, little did we know at the time, that our timing would be so important.
Just a few months ago, the strongest Typhoon in recorded history made it's way across the Philippine Islands and destroyed many homes, and disrupted an already difficult life for those who suffer from a widespread of poverty. We prayed, and kept in touch, miraculously through emails and Facebook with our friends and missionaries. Before the typhoon we didn't have a clear direction of what our mission would be, except we would be doing something "with water". Now, we know why. God would have a plan for us that would come alive as we watched the news.
To say we are excited to visit our Filipino friends who have become family to us, is an understatement. We are taking a team of 17 this time. All but one will be traveling back with the former 2010 team, with the addition of 5 new members. The will be the largest team we have traveled with yet.
For those who do not know, the trip there is grueling. The flight alone is 23 hours, with a long layover in Manilla, and another long layover coming back through Seoul, Korea. So, we covet your prayers.
Then, God willing, we will be traveling back to Israel, in September, taking a team of 30+ people from the US to visit the Holy Land, and the Greek Islands. Back to Paul's footsteps, and Jesus' home.
We are in progress of meeting with friends from Ovid, and others planning this trip of a lifetime. Keith and I are pinching ourselves trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we will be walking where Jesus walked AGAIN! To share our discoveries from a year ago with family and friends is more than exciting to us. Our lives were changed, and we will love watching the transformation in our traveling pilgrims.
So, the dust has hardly settled on our suitcases,and our passports. We will be loading them again, and heading to the airport. East seems to be the popular destination.
It will be another busy year of preparations.
Join us through our blog....we will love having you along.
