The P Update

This is an update all about the "Ps" in our lives that you may be curious about: Prayer, Praises, (Financial) Partners, and Pictures.

Prayer: 

*That we would learn a healthy balance between classes, ministry, work detail, family, and friendships.

*For God to continue burdening people's hearts for the unreached in whatever role he might have them play in that

*Childcare Need --> They struggle to have enough workers to help with childcare, so Moms have to help. This semester, there are so many kids and so few workers that Moms have to miss class once a week to help in the childcare. While being with the kids is fun, it's difficult to miss one day of classes every week and stay on top of classes. Please pray that I won't be overwhelmed by missing class, but I would also love prayer that they would be able to find more childcare workers/volunteers!

Praises:

*We arrived here safely and are unpacked

*The girls love it here, are back in their routine, and are doing well in childcare! 

*We love being around our friends from the Bible school again!

*Financially, God has been so good to us, and we're so thankful for all who have given financially to help us!

(Financial) Partners:

We are so thankful for the way God has provided for us so that we can be here! Thank you to those who have given to us financially! It was difficult, especially for Ben, to step away from a secure job and trust in God. It is so very exciting, however, to have to trust God in this new way and to see the amazing ways in which he provides.

We've had 15 individuals/couples and 2 churches give to us, either one-time gifts or monthly gifts. These gifts total $10,499, and if you remember from my Money Matters post, we estimate our semester needs to be around $11,500 for each semester. This means we already have 91% of our support for this semester. 

Pictures:

Sophie's in love with the lake...

When one sister looks...

 ...the other doesn't.

 This is how I get the girls to class in the morning! (Ben's already at class, so I have to do it by myself)

Welcome to the MTC: Our New Home

We are so thankful to be here. I was just thanking God this morning for allowing us to be here... for allowing us to be able to head down this path toward tribal missions. There are people who desire to do this who are unable to because of health or finances, and I never want to forget to praise God for allowing us to be here. Thank you to those who have supported us in any way along this journey- financially, prayerfully, giving encouragement, mentoring us, advocating for us... we praise God for you!

Thank you Dad and Mom Miller for helping us move (and wish you didn't have a meeting and could have come too, Mom Walton)!!!

Here is a little tour of our new home! They have really nice townhouses here, and then they have some really old, small housing. We weren't sure which we would get, but since we have two kids, we got the new housing. We definitely are grateful! It's the nicest place we've ever lived in (and probably ever will live in), so we're going to soak it up!

This is the townhouse unit we live in.

Looking in from our front door... living room and kitchen area are all one big space. 

Living room/kitchen space from the opposite direction. Love this kitchen! I've never had anywhere close to this much counter space!!

Both bedrooms are upstairs. This is our bedroom...

 ... and this is the girl's bedroom. They share a room, but it's a really big room. I was a little nervous how they would do with sharing, but they've done great!

Sophie LOVES this place because they have lots of playgrounds. She asks to go to the playground all the time!

We live on a beautiful campus...

These are the Child Care buildings and classroom buildings...

We have really enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting new people while being here. We start orientation on Saturday and classes next week!

Off to the MTC We Go!

It's hard to believe it, but tomorrow is moving day! We are all packed and ready to go! Bright and early, we will begin the 8.5* hour trip to Missouri where the Missionary Training Center is! (*8.5 hours doesn't include a potty trained child and a breastfed baby... I've set my goal on 12 hours). We appreciate your prayers!

We've filled the last few weeks with lots of fun, so here are some pictures to prove it!

The girls hanging out on the bed while we pack... 

 Trying to get a cute sister picture. Instead they're showing their punk sides.

 Oh hey! I finally decided to have my mommy teach me how to sew... since I've been talking about doing so for 3 years now. I learned a little but am still far from being able to make anything wonderful.

 Then this past week we had a nice vacation with Ben's family at Gull Lake in Michigan.

Here's a picture of Daddy with his girls at the lake...

 Sophie loved the beach even though she hated being dirty from the sand.

 We had lots of time to hang out with family! Sophie loved it.

 Sophie got her face painted for the first time :)

We're thankful for the last two weeks where we've been able to spend lots of time with family! Here we goooooo!

An MK in the Making...

MK = Missionary Kid.

Since we plan to head to Papua New Guinea to be missionaries, Sophie and Brielle will be MKs. As a result, they will have different experiences than their peers in the USA, and sometimes these differences will be obvious. Sophie showed her first signs of being an MK during our time on vacation with Ben's family this past week at Gull Lake. Sophie went to a class for kids her age in the mornings, and her Aunt Becca got to be one of her teachers! One day when we picked Sophie up, Becca told us that they did a pretend ride on the wooden train. She said she had all the kids hop on the train, and then she said, "Ok we arrived! Where are we?" She said most kids would say things like, "McDonalds!" or "Chuck E Cheese!" But not Sophie. She shouted, "Papua New Guinea!" haha!

Later in the week she got on the train, so we turned the video camera on to see if we asked her again if she would say the same thing... and she did! 

Packing: On the Move Again

We are packing! Getting ready to move into our 6th home since getting married 5 years ago! We are ready, and we are pretty efficient packers, but I admit that I always get overwhelmed at the start of packing. It's just a daunting task, and it's hard to decide which things you can do without for several weeks. 

We have to be out of our apartment by the end of July. Then we'll have some time with family, including going on vacation with the Miller family, before heading to MTC on August 10. 

Thankfully Sophie is so good about it! When I started packing, she saw me put her lion in a box and went to take it out. I told her we had to leave it in there if she wanted us to move it to our new house. She put him right back and has since been helping me by packing her toys while I pack other things! It's so refreshing that she has a good attitude about us packing her stuff up.

Please pray for us as we pack, live on the go for a couple of weeks, move, and transition.

Money Matters: Seventy Percent

It's true. Money matters. When we're looking for people to "partner" with us in order to be missionaries to an unreached people group, we're not ONLY looking for those who give financially. We NEED people who will pray for us, advocate for us, communicate with us, host us, and care for us in countless other ways. But we never want to minimize the importance of those who give to us financially. We absolutely could not live among an unreached people group without those who partner with us financially.

Some people have been confused as to whether we are needing financial partners now. The answer is YES! We will need help financially in order to study the 3 semesters at the Missionary Training Center. The reason for this is because the staff at the MTC advise against working during our time there. On top of our classes and homework, we will have to be involved in a ministry and Ben will have to work around the MTC campus in the afternoon. Ben plans to work on summer break, but in order to gain the most out of our training, he won't work during the school year. 

Ben and I have crunched all of the numbers, and right now it looks like we'll need around $11,500 per semester. This includes the cost of attending the MTC (which is right around $7000), plus all of our living expenses (food, toiletries, insurance, travel). We'll need $1918 for each month. We've added up all of the one-time gifts and monthly supporters we have thus far (THANK YOU!), and we are at 70% for our first semester!! This means we need $564 more for each month or a total of $3384 for the first semester.

If you're interested in giving, you can learn how to do so here. If you're reading this and are unable to give financially to us, we'd appreciate your prayers that God will provide for us and raise up people who can and desire to financially partner with us. Thank you!

	First Semester Needs
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

Called to Play it Safe

(This is a third and final post on thoughts I have after reading "A Holy Ambition" by John Piper. The other posts are here and here.)

"The price is suffering, and the volatility in the world today against the church is not decreasing. It is increasing, especially among the groups that need the gospel" (Piper 120).

Suffering. Ah, suffering. Let's be honest. When I think about being a missionary, I don't think about suffering much. I mean, I think about the kind of suffering that involves giving up: American comforts, owning a home of my own, living close to family, owning a pet dog, attending my home church, having access to grocery stores and restaurants and Auntie Anne pretzels. Yes, I think of that type of suffering often. And I don't want to minimize how hard all of those things will be to give up... to leave for years at a time. But that type of suffering is only a fraction of the type of suffering that Jesus went through. That Paul went through. That many missionaries and many native believers in foreign countries are going through this very minute as their bodies are brutally beaten for the gospel.

Piper talks about Americanism...
"It's the absorption of a consumer, comfort, ease culture that is permeating the church. And it creates little ministries and churches in which safe, secure, nice things are done for each other. And little safe excursions are made to help save some others" (122).
... and this mentality has certainly seeped into my mind. I like safe, little ministries. I like safety. I like serving God while feeling safe. The best of both worlds, right?

But Piper (and ultimately the Lord) reminds my heart that suffering is necessary, though I try to deny it. "...suffering is the means and not just the price." Suffering is the means to get the gospel to the nations.

Maybe I won't have to suffer in any ways more brutal than the ways I listed in the first paragraph. But I must be willing. We all must be willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel. If we really believe it, why would we not be willing?

John Piper wrote a paragraph that really caught my attention. He says, "Paul's self-understanding of his mission is that there is one thing lacking in the sufferings of Jesus. The love offering of Christ is to be presented in person through missionaries to the people for whom he died. And Paul says, 'I do this in my sufferings. In my sufferings I complete what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. [Col. 1:24]' Which means that Christ intends for the Great Commission to be a presentation to the nations of the sufferings of his cross through the sufferings of his people. That's the way it will be finished. If you sign up for the Great Commission, that's what you sign up for" (124)

Am I ready to sign up? To be honest... I'm not sure. But I have signed up. So I trust that God will help me in my weakness.

"Jesus died in our place so that we might escape the wrath of God, not the wrath of man... Don't ever elevate safety in missions to the point where you assume that if one of our missionaries is killed we have made a mistake" (Piper 136).

So, no... I wasn't really called to play it safe. I wish I was sometimes. But when I read the Bible, I just can't find any justification for living a life where I play it safe.