Up down up down

It has been a crazy couple weeks for the family. I found out two weeks ago that my grandma was very ill so I left work and drove up to Michigan on 5/8 and spent through Saturday there visiting with her and my grandpa. I drove down to Baltimore and met Christy, the kids, her parents, Nana, papa, aunt, uncle and cousins for mothers day brunch. We drove home on Sunday 5/13, but I got the call on Monday that my grandma had passed away. So, I flew back up to Michigan on Thursday 5/17 and was there through Saturday. It was fun to have the entire family together which had not happened for 15 or more years. Although the funeral was sad - we know grandma was a beleiver and is sitting with Jesus today. This certainly takes much of the sting of death away. After being gone for so long, when I got home and Saturday it was nice to spend some time with Christy and the kids.

We are making initial progress with our fundraising. We've met with several close friends and family over the last two weeks. Also, we are getting ready to open our house for folks to come over and hear how they might be able to partner with us and our mission. Lastly, we have filled out our application to be supported by West End Presbyterian Church. We still have so much to do, but it is nice to be making some strides in the right direction.

We're looking forward to meeting with many of you over the coming months....

SOLD!

Christy and I have been quite busy over the past couple weeks fixing up odds and ends around the house and getting it ready to list on the market (thanks to my folks who spent over a week down here with that activity). Much like the rest of the US, the market in Richmond is a little soft so we were not sure how long it would take to sell. We listed it last Wed and in three days we had 10 showings and 3 contracts - praise the Lord! The inspection and closing still need to happen, but getting the house sold should help provide peace of mind and some additional spare time as we begin to enter into support raising. Another change starting this week, I am officially part time at Capital One, giving me one day back a week to focus on support raising.

One last piece of good news is that Christy has been tentatively offered an adjunct teaching position for the fall semester at Wheaton College. Teaching at the college level is something that Christy has expressed interest in - and - given that we are planning on moving back to Wheaton starting in September anyway, this works out quite well. It will give her a chance to see if she enjoys teaching, and the timing will hopefully work out well with our missions time lines (e.g., going to Costa Rica sometime in early 2008).

Please be praying for us as we begin to move forward with support raising. It is unfamiliar territory and something that we will certainly need to continually look to God for guidance on.

We Have Been Accepted!

Its official: We have been appointed as missionaries with Latin America Mission (LAM)! Our hope is to leave for language school in San Jose, Costa Rica by early 2008. After we have learned Spanish, we will head to the other side of San Jose to serve at Escuela La Palabra de Vida (Word of Life School). I will be teaching English at the PK-11 school while Christy will be continuing the tall order of raising two young children. We also expect to be involved in both school and church ministries.