Thankful for: Samaritan Ministries

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm doing a little min-series of posts on things we are thankful for as we head toward missions.

Today, I want to talk about Samaritan Ministries. This ministry is a Christian share network. It works as an insurance, but it is not insurance. Basically, when we're asked at the doctor's office if we have insurance, we say no (because we don't) and are considered self-pay. But then we are able to send all of our bills to Samaritan Ministries, and they cover the need.

Here is how they cover the need: We send them our bills, then they send out our needs to other people who use Samaritan. Then those people send us checks along with a card or letter. Depending on if you're single, married, or a few other situations, the amount you pay each month is different. So the checks we receive are different amounts, but they equal to the total of our need. Likewise, we send out a check each month to a person or family that Samaritan requests us to.

We really enjoy using Samaritan. It works in the way that we imagine the body of Christ should work. We also pay much less than what we were having to pay for insurance before. We could not afford regular insurance! Also, Samaritan covered our entire birth with Brielle. We still had a fairly high deductible with our insurance we had when we gave birth to Sophie, along with paying more monthly. So for these reasons, you can see why we are thankful for Samaritan. We switched to Samaritan while at the Bible school. We simply could not afford regular insurance anymore while being students. We qualified for medicaid but just didn't feel comfortable using it, so Samaritan was a perfect alternative. Samaritan has helped us to cover our medical needs without going into debt while in this training phase with New Tribes, so we are grateful!

[a card and check we received]

Thankful for: Our Church

I wanted to do a little mini series of posts on some things that we are thankful for as we head toward a future in missions work.

The first one I want to talk about is our church, Christ's Covenant Church. When we got married and moved close to Warsaw, Ben and I began looking for a church close-by to attend and be a part of. We visited a couple but felt right at home when we attended Christ's Covenant Church. Since beginning to attend there in August 2008, we have served in several different areas. But CCC and its people have served us in far more ways than we could ever count! We are so thankful for this church and its incredible body of believers.

We are thankful for:
-Our pastors who spend much time in the Word so that they can most effectively teach, guide, and serve the people
-The music which often ministers to our hearts
-Their children's program and nursery- Sophie is well-cared for
-Their passion for missions- not only did they encourage us to really become serious about our interest in missions, but they continuously encourage us on this journey by praying for us, financially supporting us, providing us with wonderful mentors, reminding people of our future plans, and reminding the church of God's passion for missions
-MOMs group that Alisha attends
-Small men's group that Ben attends
-Our Life Group- we joined this group shortly after joining CCC, and while the people in the group have changed quite a bit, we never fail to be encouraged by them. Over the years they have continued to pray with and for us, financially encourage us, discuss the Word with us, celebrate new life (babies!) with us, have fun with us, serve with us, and much more!
-They have challenged our hearts to love better, to serve more, to give more, to openly look at the Word of God, to spend more time with the Lord in the Word and in prayer, to be involved in community (Life Group, etc), and to be open to whatever way God might want to use us.

We certainly couldn't be on this journey without our church.

[The sanctuary]

[The back of our church bulletin]

[Part of our Life Group]

[Another picture of our LG that include people not in the above one]

[The sweet ladies of our LG threw me a baby shower]

While we're talking about how thankful we are for our church, I think it's necessary to also mention Merriam Christian Chapel. This is the church Ben grew up in, and I went to from 8th grade until we got married. His parents and my brother and his wife still attend here. This church supported us on our first missions trips and taught us the Word of God when we were young. The church continues to encourage us on this journey by giving us the opportunity to share about what we plan to do, and the people continue to support us financially and through prayer. We have great friendships with many people from this church. Thank you Merriam Christian Chapel!

[MCC Sanctuary]

Family of Four

Most of you already know, but our new addition has arrived! Brielle Riann was born on January 25, and we are all doing very well! We are so thankful for God's goodness to us for giving us two healthy daughters.

More info about Brielle on my mommy blog:

Birth Story

Her Name

Worthy is the Lamb [PNG]

This post has been swirling around in the back of my brain for the last couple of weeks, but I've just been very unmotivated to blog. Thankfully, I have been motivated to do "nesting" things- things to prepare for the new baby that will be in our lives soon. I finally decided I better sit down and write this blog post before I have a baby and am too tired to do so.

Last sunday (a week and a half ago), we sang a song at church called "I Will Rise" by Chris Tomlin. There's a part we sang that really got to me. First, I must put a disclaimer- when I searched the lyrics to get the exact words, this part doesn't show up. So apparently, either there are some added, alternative lyrics to the church worship version, or our church just added in this part. Either way, there was a part we sang that went, "I hear the song of every tribe and tongue, 'Worthy is the Lamb.'" And I got choked up some. I cared about every tribe and tongue before- I mean, Ben and I have been heading down this path -- the path to work with unreached tribal people -- for several years now. But it's different now that I have faces and names in my head. 

To be honest, I didn't love the Pei people. There were a lot of things that drove me crazy about them - the way that I couldn't understand anything they said, the way that they grabbed my child, the way that they were dirty and had lice and ringworm, the way that they would be really loud late at night and early in the morning, the way that they would follow Sophie and I around... there were many things that made it hard for me to just naturally feel love toward them (I don't know how humanitarians do it). But I do love Jesus, and my love for him caused me to care about the souls of the Pei people. With how remote they are, they have never had missionaries among them, and they are far from civilzation (town) which would be far too expensive for them to take trips to (reminder: it was an hour plane ride for us and a 2 hour boat ride- it would be days on a boat for them, and then days of walking- which would be a lot of money). So all that to say, they have never heard the gospel. They have never heard that 2000 years ago, a man named Jesus came to this earth and died on a cross to save them from their sins. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around, because I've heard this and read this since I was a young girl. I have hundreds of Bibles and books about the Bible at my fingertips. But they don't even have a written alphabet, let alone a Bible.

The Pei people live in so much fear right now because of tribal beliefs that rule their lives and play an effect into every decision they make. Ben and I spent a very short amount of time in the tribe but still saw how the Pei people lived in fear. One night, Ben stayed up talking with one of the men from Pei. Through interpretation, he was able to learn that this man was sharing about his family, and he shared that his two brothers had died because someone had put a curse on them. The tribal people don't associate death with things like malaria and sickness. Instead, they blame it on witchdoctors and curses. Another thing Ben learned while we were in the tribe happened while he was out with the men cutting down trees in the jungle. The jungle was frustrating to walk through since it was swampy and some trees were covered in thorns. One time, the men heard a bird call and refused to take the short way out of the jungle and instead insisted on a long way. Ben learned that this was because the Pei people associated this bird's call as a warning about danger. They believed this bird was a friend of their tribe who would give them warning when necessary, and the people would therefore alter their previous decisions when they heard this particular bird. Ben was mostly bummed that this meant they had to travel longer in the jungle. 

We only lived among the Pei people for a very short time, and yet we could see just in that short time that they lived in fear. So you see, the thought of these people living free of these beliefs that bind them is thrilling to me. And I believe that that freedom will come through learning about God as the almighty Creator and his son Jesus as our almighty Savior. When they put their trust in him, they will no longer have to fear someone putting a curse on them or a bird chirping in the jungle. And even more thrilling is the thought of being in heaven, falling on our knees before Jesus, and singing "worthy is the lamb" alongside the Pei people.

**If you want to read more on my thoughts about why it's necessary for the people of Pei to HEAR the gospel before being saved, you can read an old post of mine here.

Here's to 2013!

Looking Back...

2012 was a wonderful year for many reasons:

- We celebrated Sophie's first birthday

- We graduated from New Tribe's Bible Institute in Jackson, MI

- We found out we were pregnant with our second child!

- We found a reasonably-priced place to rent for our year home, Ben got a good job, and Alisha got a babysitting job

- We have been able to get involved and serve in our church, Christ's Covenant Church - and they have also done a marvelous job of serving and loving us

- We were able to take a 6 week trip to Papua New Guinea that opened our eyes to tribal missions

- We found out we are going to finally be an aunt and uncle (and cousin) - my sister Nikki and her husband Trevor are pregnant with their first child!

Looking Forward...

2013 excites us because:

- We will welcome out new baby girl into our family in the next month

- We envision many great times with family, friends, our Life Group, and our church
- Sophie will turn 2 in March
- We will both celebrate our 25th birthdays in March!

- Trevor and Nikki will have their baby in June or July

- We will begin our final part of training in August at the Missionary Training Center in Missouri

- We hope to grow in our walk with the Lord

Christmas 2012 Recap

I suppose before the New Year hits that I better do a recap of Christmas 2012. 

Christmas came and went fast since we got back from PNG just one week earlier. Ben and I spent the saturday before finishing up shopping. Christmas Eve we spent at Ben's grandpa's house with his extended family.

Christmas morning we spent with Ben's family, and then we spent that night with my family. It was a fun day. Sophie was thoroughly spoiled, and Ben and I received a lot of fun gifts as well!

She got a shopping cart (amongst many other gifts) from Grandpa and Grandma Miller...

She read books with Aunt Katie...

She played with her new baby doll from Grandma Walton...

And we all played a fun game that Nate and Kelly introduced to us at the Walton Christmas where we had to try to unwrap a very securely taped while wearing a pair of gloves and a santa hat. Whoever got the gift opened got to keep it. Nate won and got to keep the Reeses :)

I have a sweet husband who knows the way to my heart :) We have discussed for several months about getting me a nice camera since we just had a cheaper digital camera. The other camera (which took it's last photo below) worked well enough, but now that we have kids, I'd like to be able to take nicer pictures of them. He chose the model and color of camera after talking to several people, and I love it! He also got me lots of other fun goodies, like dark chocolate, beef jerky, and socks. And to top it, he bought me an egg slicer as a joke (he said he walked into a store and wanted to buy the dumbest kitchen gadget he could find- he did well!) and mace (which isn't a joke... he fully expects me to carry it in my purse and use it if necessary).

We are so thankful for wonderful families to celebrate Christmas with. We are also thankful that Christmas is a time where we can reflect on the birth of our Lord and Savior who has blessed us abundantly.

PNG Recap Video

Chris Jones helped us put together a recap video of our time in PNG as well as some information about our future plans. Here it is!