Mission Update

Dear Family and Friends,
We hope that you have had a blessed beginning to this new year. We are so thankful to have each of you in our lives. The love and support that you have shown us as we explore serving God in mission work means more than you will ever know.
We wanted to update you on our journey. We had hoped to be able to travel to Africa the first part of this year. As we have prayed and sought God’s guidance in this, we believe that His Spirit has been saying, “wait, it’s not time yet.”
We fully believe that God has called our family to serve Him and His hurting children around the world. We continue to pray for His wisdom as we seek the best way for our family to be more involved in missions. We are listening to His voice and trying to follow His lead. Because we do not yet know when God’s Spirit will lead us to travel or what the next step may be, we want to graciously return your generous gifts. Your outpouring of financial support was a great source of encouragement to us. Thank you. We feel very convicted that we are not to hold you back from passing on these financial blessings to others while we wait to hear from God.
The Lord has opened our eyes to many injustices that break His heart—child abandonment, neglect, abuse, hunger, extreme poverty and sickness. In the past when we have seen tragedy and despair we have wondered how we could help. God has been faithful to show us many ways that we can join in caring for those less fortunate than we. He has given us the opportunity to connect with and even partner with several faith based groups that are bringing hope to the hopeless in Africa as well as other countries. God is blessing our family in heavenly ways as He teaches us the joy of giving up our wants in order to meet the basic needs of others. We want to encourage you to check out some of the opportunities that you can be involved also.

World Orphans www.worldorphans.org
World Vision www.worldvision.org
Kingdom Vision Int. www.kingdomvisioninternational.blogspot.com
Zemba Kids Ministries www.zemba.org
Drawn From Water www.drawnfromwater.org

Thank you for coming along side our family with your love, support, and prayers. Please continue to pray for us as we heed the call to missions that God has placed on our lives. We will continue to pray for you in your journey as well.
We Love You!

Christmas Gifts with a Double Blessing

As we celebrate God's amazing gift to us this Christmas season we are excited to have found a way to add more meaning to our gift giving. I wanted to share some of the links where we will be doing our Christmas shopping (and requesting) this year. There are many different options and places to shop that give a double blessing. Some purchases help adoptive families, some help Christian artisans from around the world to make a living, some help feed and clothe orphans. Lots of gift ideas for the whole family--toys, bags, shirts, puzzles, bowls, baskets, jewelry, coffee, shoes, and more. Check it out. It's so exciting to be able to give gifts that truly help others!


Christian Freedom International
Handmade gifts-- toys, bags, puzzles, baskets, jewelry, and more-- made by persecuted and struggling Christians around the world.

Saints Coffee
Purchase a pound of coffee and feed an orphan for 1 month.

TOMS Shoes
Purchase a pair of shoes and a pair will be donated to someone less fortunate--1 for 1.

Tiny Rockstar
Purchase a t-shirt and feed an orphan for 1 month.

Tracy's Adoption Shop
Various Ethiopian gifts that support adoptive families.

Integrity Worldwide Christian International Missions Donations
Provide protective bed netting or clean water to a family in need.

World Vision Donations: Animals
Give a family a goat, chicken, cow, sheep, fish pond, etc. to provide income for their family and community.

Thank You

Just wanted to thank you all for your prayers, support, and contributions towards our survey trip to Africa. Our passports did not arrive in time to travel in October, so we are working on rescheduling. We know God has a perfect plan and will fulfill it in His perfect timing. We continue to pray and listen as He teaches us how to serve the least of these---who are all around us as well as on the other side of the world.
We will keep you updated as plans progress!

Waiting and Praying

Well, we are now 1 week into waiting for our passports to arrive. We have scheduled an appointment to receive our shots. We mailed out a support letter today. We are praying for God to bring to completion this portion of what He has brought us to. Lord willing we will travel to Entebbe, Uganda Oct. 13 and arrive back home Oct. 22. Here are 3 ways you can be in prayer.

1) We ask you to join us in prayer for the 143+ million orphans worldwide, 40+ million in Africa alone. God has promised to set the lonely in families, and He often works through His people to accomplish His will.

2) We ask you to join us in prayer as we seek God’s guidance for our family. Pray that we will know and do His will, His way.

3) We ask you to consider joining us by donating to the financial costs of this mission trip. The total cost of this trip will be approximately $5,500. In order to purchase our tickets for this trip, we need the majority of this in less than 2 weeks, by September 22.

Please pray also that our passports arrive by Sept. 22. If they do not, we feel that we will have to postpone the trip until early 2010. We trust God to work out the best timing for everything.

Thank you!

Shots! and Prayers.......

Ok....If Chad and I got every shot that we might possibly need, then we are looking at over $1000, just for vaccines. That seems kind of crazy. That doesn't include Maclain's, but his is only $120. Plus we all need Malaria pills, which aren't cheap either. Our insurance doesn't cover any of this. We are feeling pretty intimidated by that figure since we have not started raising any money yet. I don't have the quote for the flights yet, but I'm sure that they will be pretty high as well.

God please provide the funds for what you have called us to.......and help us to trust you. You are bigger than any problem we encounter. Help us to do our part as well.

On a more serious note........

Please pray for a dear friend of ours who lost her daughter today. Explaining suicide to your children is not easy, but it does provide an opportunity to remind them how much they are loved, and always will be, no matter what, by their parents and an Amazing God.

I encourage you to share Christ's love today and everyday with the people in your life that it seems the most difficult to love. More than likely they are the ones who need it the most.

Filthy Rich

As Americans, even the poorest of us are filthy rich compared to the majority of the world. As you thank God for the many blessings He has given you, please consider opening your hands to the least of these. You will be blessed! A lot of people are looking for a way to help the 147 million orphans. There are many ways to help. This is just one way to share the love of God with His hurting children. Please consider donating! Here's the blog and video.

Donate to Drawn From Water
Drawn From Water
The rubber hitting the dirt (not much pavement in Jinka)
August 30, 2009

"We are having a hard time with money. The costs of running the orphanage and working on getting the children adopted despite being in a inexpensive country are high and we do not have enough supporters."

Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

Uganda....October.....Wow, That's soon!

RIght now it looks like we might be traveling to Uganda around October 16th. That is less than 2 months away! I do not even have my passport or Maclain's passport yet!! I have got to get a move on! I pray that God will overcome my procrastination.

Anyway, we hope to travel to visit New Hope Uganda as well as a new baby home called Acacia Tree (a ministry of Zemba Kids). New Hope is a Children's Center as well as a training facility for people interested in working with orphans. Their Institute of Childcare and Family looks incredible. It is a 5 month program of study and healing to better prepare vessels to bring the Fatherhood of God to the Fatherless.

I am so excited and I can see God working in sooo many ways. I am so thankful He already knows the plans He has for us and that nothing can thwart His plans!

I will try to post more soon. For now you can check out these websites. I just wanted to updated so that you could be praying for us and these ministries. We have a lot to get worked out before then, like fundraising, childcare, passports (as mentioned earlier). So please just pray that we will hear and obey each step.... and trust.

Also Acacia Tree is a Brand New Baby Home and is in need of monthly and any other support. So please consider donating. We have emailed back and forth with Robin who is getting it started. She has been through New Hope and this is the 2nd baby home she has set up. We are really looking forward to meeting her.