Changes!

Lisa's brother and family moved to our hometown this past week and so the changes begin for both of our families. We are currently making plans to transition out of our home so they can move in (at present they are staying with other family members). We are trusting the Lord for the rest of our funding to be in by the end of fall. Then we can head for language school in Costa Rica after Christmas!
As for now, Hannah and Samuel are really enjoying spending time with their Florida cousins, uncle and aunt. And we are too!
We are hoping to fill our schedule this fall and would appreciate your continued prayers for the following:
1. Praise the Lord for the safe arrival of Lisa's brother's family!
2. Praise Him for how He is working out all the details, putting everything in place and making His care for all of us very evident.
3. Pray for Nick as he travels and speaks at Grace UM September 6 and EC World Fest on September 12.
4. Pray for fruitful meetings, strong relationships to be built and funding to come quickly.

Home Again

We had a great time during our 3 weeks of CROSS training at OMS headquarters! Thank you so much for praying for our family during that time. We learned a great deal that will be most useful in the days, weeks and years ahead. We also were able to meet others heading to Mexico City (or are already there) and are excited about the team the Lord has put together.
While we were away, Lisa's brother and his family began to make plans to move to our hometown. This will be the first time Lisa and her siblings will be living in the same area in over 20 years! We are currently working out details for her brother's family to live in our home while we are out of the country.
Thank you so much for partnering with us and especially for your prayers. As you pray for us in the coming days, here are some prayer requests:
1. Praise the Lord for the safe travel, fellowship and learning we experienced in July!
2. Pray for Nick who will be travelling to Terre Hill EC Church this weekend and for an abundant time in ministry.
3. Pray we will be fully funded by fall so we can go to language school in January 2010.
4. Pray for the Coslett family (Steve, Helen and Nisha) as they prepare to leave for language school in Costa Rica this month. (They were in training with us and will be part of the Mexico ministry team.)

Getting Ready

Well, June has been quite a month for our extended family. As a matter of fact, my (Lisa's) grandmother was just hospitalized on Father's Day and is being released today. We have seen the Lord's hand at work as both Mom and Mimi (grandma) have dealt with life-threatening illnesses in June. Both of them have progressed toward wellness much faster than doctor's anticipated. Thank you so much for praying!

Now we are counting down...one week to go before leaving for CROSS training at OMS. We are very excited and have a lot of loose ends to tie up. We feel we are playing "catch up" in several areas as this has been a rather hectic month. So, we would really appreciate your prayers for the following:

1. Praise the Lord for His healing power at work in Mom and Mimi!
2. Pray for physical health and strength for us and our extended family during this week and while we'll be away.
3. Pray we can efficiently accomplish all necessary tasks before next week.
4. Intercede on behalf of everyone attending CROSS training and all those leading us at OMS headquarters. We're most likely not the only ones who have faced challenges recently.
5. Pray for a few good, calm days for our family to be together, regroup and feel rested before we leave.
6. Praise the Lord He is always faithful!

When we are weak, He is strong!

We know that the Lord tells us His strength is made perfect in our weakness, and we have had the opportunity to experience that first hand the last couple of weeks.
June has had a rough start for our extended family. My (Lisa's) mother has been hospitalized twice for kidney failure and my grandmother has had some problems recovering from a recent surgery, as well as needing a new one. The doctors told my Mom it would be months before she would be well again. It has been an emotionally and physically trying time for all of us.
We have had many people praying for us and we want to thank you. You have held us up and kept us from becoming discouraged.
Nick is at Seneca Hills Bible Camp this week sharing with children ages 8-12 and he is having a great time. Hannah and Samuel were with him last night and called to say they love it! I will be picking my Mom up today when she is discharged from the hospital. She will be glad to be home, I'm sure!
So, here's our praise and prayer requests:
1. Thank the Lord for being our strength! Thank Him for our partners in prayer and ask His blessing.
2. Praise Him that both Mom and Mimi (grandma) are recovering much quicker than anyone expected!
3. Pray we will continue to have the strength to all the Lord has for us.
4. Pray as we make arrangements to be at cross-cultural training at OMS headquarters in July that all will work out smoothly, and we will be prepared to learn all we need to know to help us in our future ministry.

School

Well, it's hard to believe it, but Hannah and Samuel are about to finish their school year. The time really flew by quickly. As we are saying good-bye to school, we are not saying good-bye to learning however. We are preparing for our CROSS (cross-cultural) training at OMS headquarters in July. Some of our pre-training assignments have been completed and we're working on some more. Each thing we have done has been very helpful and we are becoming excited about training. We are especially excited to meet those who will be a part of the missionary team in Mexico!

Please pray:
1. Thank the Lord for all of the missionaries at OMS headquarters that are putting this training together.
2. Pray we will get all of our assignments completed in a timely manner and we will finish up all things necessary at home as we plan for our time away.
3. Pray for our continued health and strength as we prepare for our training and during the training.
4. As always, please pray for the Mexican people to rejoice in Jesus as their Savior.

Thank you for partnering with us in prayer!

Surprises

What a lot of surprises we've had since last weekend! We returned home from Texas to a ringing telephone with our first surprise. Someone we deeply love and trust is considering moving to our home area and living in our home while we're on the mission field. That would be the answer to many concerns, if it works out.


Then we went to the mission conference in Cranberry, PA where our next surprise awaited. This is what greeted us when we drove in to the place we were staying for the weekend.

I heard from the back seat as we pulled in, "This is like a dream come true!" Not only did we have a wonderful time of fellowship with the people of Van UM, Cranberry UM and Rockland UM churches, including a fun fiesta with good Mexican food, but we were also restored. Ahhh!

Because of government concerns over the swine flu, Hannah and Samuel could not return to school until they were tested for the virus. (They do not have it.) So, they got to stay home an extra day. And surprise...at the doctor's office Monday we met a wonderful Christian nurse who wants to become more involved in missions. She was interested in hearing about Mexico City and we are hoping much good will come from our meeting, with she and her husband visiting there in the future.

Nick went back to teaching Tuesday and was offered a new job until the end of the school year tutoring a student. He was happy to come home and tell us about this opportunity!

So, we had a joy-filled, surprising week. Now we are trying to get back into the "routine". Here are our prayer requests:
1. Praise the Lord for surprising us with so many blessings this week.
2. Please pray the Lord will work out our loved one moving to Greenville in perfect timing with our full-funding and moving on to language school.
3. Please pray we will have many more good meetings with believer's whose hearts are stirred to spread the gospel to all nations. (Nick will preach at Leavittsburg EC Church this Mother's Day and we will be at Riverhill EC Church missions conference May 16-17.)
4. Pray we will be fully funded by fall so we can make plans for language school.
5. Pray as we prepare for cross-cultural training at OMS headquarters in July. (We are currently finishing up some homework.)

6. Please pray especially for the people of Mexico City as they attempt to get back to "normal" after the swine flu scare. Pray for much fruitful ministry in the days ahead for the missionaries and national Christians.

Thank you for partnering with us in this journey of faith. May the Lord surprise you with many blessings this week. Lisa

Texas

We are back from the Missions Conference at First UMC in Waco, TX. So how was it? You can figure it out by Samuel's parting words on the way to the airport as we were heading back home, "I want to move to Waco, Texas!"

We met many people who have been a part of the OMS Mexico work and we hope they will return while we are living there, giving us the opportunity to minister together. It was a privilege to share how the Lord is working in our lives as we prepare for life in Mexico City. And, we were richly blessed by many new friends. We are so thankful for those who have made the faith committment to partner with us on this journey!

We will be leaving shortly for our next missions conference in the Cranberry, PA area and are looking forward to making many more friends.

Praise and prayer:
1. Praise the Lord for His provision and for family in Christ.
2. Please pray for strength and good health in all our travels, currently Samuel is recovering from a cold.
3. Ask the Lord that many people will join us as prayer and financial parnters.
4. Pray we will do and say exactly what the Lord wants us to.
5. Pray for much fruit to come from the missions conference this weekend!