Spring Break and HE Goes Before Us!

It is 7AM and pitch black outside.  Ah, spring forward!  It does mean we get more daylight during the "waking hours," which is good for me as I have a small mountain of mulch in my front yard.  This mountain will be moved one wheel barrow at a time to the garden plot in the back over the course of spring break.  I hope to have it done and planted by 3/15, the typical sowing date for our area (according to some though if you ask me, I wish I had sown about 2 or 3 weeks ago with this lack of winter).  Hopefully "BacktoEden" will work here in central Texas...  

Here's a picture of the mulch mound.  Fortunately, mulch is weigh (get it?) lighter than soil, something I moved one wheel barrow at a time 5 years ago. 

As it turns out, I did get the job at the local UMS school, which I can now share is Fortis Academy!  I will start for the fall semester of 2013 as a 4th or 3rd grade teacher.  Pretty excited about this as I believe the UMS model to be one of the best ways of education and I get to be a part of it.  The boys will go too, and they seem pretty happy about becoming "Falcons," and having Fridays off.  It is likely we will be getting back from Haiti this summer on a Friday and I will be due in for the 2 week teacher pre-prep time come Monday.  Yikes!  It is very cool though, that within one week's time, Veronica and I were accepted to join Praying Pelican this summer, and then I am offered a teaching role for fall.  The Lord is going before us!  

And man we have been getting help lately!  The Lord and His people have been blessing us right and left, and not just the above obvious items.  Every step of the process to make this mission happen has been almost electric with the feel of "what is He going to do next?!"  In the last week, we have had some tremendous help from friends as we created our support letter for the trip.  We had great guidance and help on the how to's, picture taking and envelope stuffing.  As if that were not enough, we received significant help on the plane tickets to Minnesota for the PPM training in April- our first and most pressing financial to do... And it is now done!  I cannot show my gratitude enough to these giving people and to God Himself Who has "prepared these good works beforehand." 

Speaking of, lately I have camped in the book of Ephesians.  It has so much richness to it, and so much I just can't seem to grasp.  I've read and reread trying to get it to soak in my being.

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins... But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...   For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God...  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." 

And chapter 3 speaks of the mystery of the Gentiles sharing in the inheritance.  That's us!  What GOOD NEWS.  What a good future God has prepared for us to walk in beforehand.  And He is working on us, building His church and making His Kingdom run out the counterfeit.  Awesome.

Keep an eye on your mailbox.  The letters are on their way!  Your continued prayers and financial support are making the Haiti trip a reality!  We are so very thankful.  Please call, email, snag us at church or pull a "I was in the neighborhood" and ask us about the trip this summer.  We would love to share more about what we will be a part of and share even more stories from our past two trips (just not enough space in the letter!).  Enjoy the family picture that "almost" made the cut...

-Joshua

We are going to Haiti!

The big news is after a recent phone interview with PPM, we are officially on the Praying Pelican Missions staff for Haiti this summer as assistant trip leaders! We are very excited! Our plan is to leave June 20th and stay until July 26th. Five whole weeks! We have stayed for a week at a time before, so this is quite a jump.

Also the other biggie is the boys are coming with us! When we started to search out mission opportunities we were set on the family going together, and we are grateful to Praying Pelican for accommodating our request. We know the boys are going to do great and it is exciting to introduce them to missions and another culture. We will help lead the High Point team during their trip in the Carrefour area, as well as helping lead 3 or 4 other churches from the states during our 5 week stay. There is one week that we have "off" and will spend it traveling to a couple new locations in Haiti that are in need of full time missionary work. A possibility for us in the future? God knows, and says one step at a time. :) Interesting possibilities for sure. We are just happy the Lord invited us back to Haiti to continue to help, and be a catalyst to other American Christians as they find Kingdom needs in Haiti and all over the world.

Our next big step in the summer mission process is fund raising. We are currently working on a support letter seeking help for the trip both financially and spiritually through prayer. We hope to send that out this weekend at the latest, so check your mailboxes next week. We are working with a total budget of $6,200 that covers all aspects of our trip for the four of us. Even before making fundraising official, we have raised $1,025! How awesome is that?! God is faithful. That being said our first and biggest fundraising goal from the above total is for airline tickets. PPM will reimburse us for the adult tickets to Haiti, but the boys flights will need covered. In addition, we have a training weekend at the end of April in beautiful Minnesota that we will need to raise flight money for as well. Anyone have some frequent flyer miles to donate? If you are interested in sending financial support our way now, you can do so by sending a check to our home church at:

HighPoint Fellowship
600 W New Hope Dr
Cedar Park, TX 78613

Please make payable to "HighPoint Fellowship" while indicating "PPM-ATL" in the memo line. Or, if you are a HighPoint member, you can give online and select the "missions" drop down, and indicate "PPM-ATL" in the notes box. These checks and online donations are tax deductible. If you make a check out directly to us, which are certainly welcome as well, they will not be tax deductible. And of course, we seek your prayers even now as well. God is on the move in Haiti, and we are thrilled to be a part of it. God is certainly on the move in our lives and we are listening. Thank you for your prayer covering.

Please make comments on our blog, facebook us, email us, call us... stay in touch and we will too! Let us know if you want to get together and talk about these big things. Let us know how we can be praying for you and what God is doing in your lives!

Till next time, blessings...

Home Improvements

Hey there!

Wanted to give everyone the latest about what is happening in Hughes-ville.  Look at our new counters!  They were a sort of beige something before, so trust me that this is an improvement.  It was quite a project for Joshua and I am so happy how they turned out!  Good Job Honey! 

Also a couple of weeks ago we had a group of very amazing friends come to help us paint the inside of our house.  We started at 9am and were mostly finished by lunch!  It was surprising how fast it went and how many of our friends who really hate painting came anyway.  And only one unplanned trip to Home Depot was made!  All and all very successful.  It was nice to put all the furniture back the same day we painted.  This color is called "Sea Star" and I love it! 

Joshua had his second interview with the local UMS (university model school) last week, and it went great.  We are waiting to hear back on their decision.  The way it works is that the kids go to school 2 days a week, say Tuesday/Thursday and then the parents teach them at home on the other days.  We have looked at this as a possibility for the boys in the past so we are pretty interested/excited about this opportunity.  Josh is also working on a new garden technique for this year's spring garden.  If you haven't heard of it, check out http://backtoedenfilm.com/.  Very interesting methods and ties to Scripture.  Anything to help in this arid Texas weather!  Aren't the baby plants so cute! 

Spring break is next week!  Can you believe it is March already?  We don't have any big plans since I am working most of the week, but it will be nice to have a week off from the typical schedule.  Happy almost Spring!