Dear
Friends,
What a blessing to hear from
some of you from time to time. I was asked to give
an update on our plans as we move out of Colorado.
First of all, Alysha, my parents and I had a wonderful
visit to Bremerton, Washington to visit Joshua from
August 21-25. It was so good to see the house he
bought and meet his housemate. Josh has done a
great job fixing this house up, furnishing and decorating
it. We also enjoyed spending some time on his Navy
base and my dad knew all the right questions to ask about
the submariner life! Beautiful views from the top
of a mountain, a lovely ferry ride including the view of
some sea life - a whale? a sea lion, birds. My
parents saw an aircraft carrier head out to sea.
Thank you God for providing this trip! Joshua's
submariner is dry docked for the next year as it receives
necessary repairs. Josh is part of the repairs and
has regular duty overseeing all the systems on his
sub. Please pray for Josh as he has
begun attending a new church to continue growing in his
walk with Jesus. Also, pray for one more housemate
to rent from him.
Secondly, Scott finished
preaching at Faith E Free Louviers on August 30.
Our church voted to hire an interim pastor on August 31
and he began preaching last Sunday. Jeff and Mary
are in their early 70s and have a lot of ministry
experience including missions and pastoral. We are
glad to have them! Please pray with us
that God will provide a new pastor for our little
church. We are hoping for a pastor/wife with young
children who will reach out to our community as there are
many children in town. We have done VBS, Sunday
School and other outreaches to share Christ and long for
many of these families to center their lives on
Jesus.
Thirdly, Nathan arrived last
Saturday Sept 5 and it has been wonderful having him with
us. He wanted closure on Colorado as he spent 3
years here finishing high school and then came to
Colorado every summer during his college years as well as
visits during these past 2 years as he has worked for
John Deere. We enjoyed visits with my sisters and
brother with their families and my parents over the Labor
Day weekend as we said our goodbyes. Nathan has
been working remotely from our house all week.
Alysha has continued at her job making toys for dock dogs
- https://www.atlasoutfittersk9.com/
Today is her last work day before
moving.
Things are steadily coming
together for our move and this is our
itinerary:
Sept 11-15 Finish packing up,
a number of farewells including with my morning and
evening neighborhood Bible study groups, cleaning with
the help of my parents and sister
(thanks!)
Sept 16 Our caravan of 4 cars
heads out with my Mom and Dad driving a car that is going
to Matthew in Oklahoma City, Alysha driving her car,
Scott driving his car and me driving my car. Our
youngest car is a 2004 and has 227,000 miles - oldest is
a 1996. One car has over 300,000
miles. So please pray for cars to work
well! They are Hondas and Toyotas and
have served us very well! Our first night will be
in Lamar, Colorado where Alysha attended community
college.
Sept 17 Drive to Edmond,
Oklahoma
September 18-20 Spend time
with Matthew, Rachel and baby bump Graham - our first
grandchild is due in late January/early February -
yippee! We are excited to be with them. From
Oklahoma, my parents will fly back to Colorado and Nathan
will fly back to Iowa.
September 21-22 Alysha, Scott
and I will travel to Memphis, Tennessee and spend a day
there
September 23 Travel to
Atlanta, Georgia
September 24 Alysha travels to
Wilmington, NC and we travel to Tampa,
FL
Alysha has been working on
connecting with a possible housemate in Wilmington (where
she knows no one). Please pray for a
good housemate, a job, a new church
family. And she is hoping to be able
to intern with an Equine Assisted Therapy (working with
horses and people for emotional healing – like for people
with PTSD). This is Alysha's long term goal -
ministering to people through her love for and gifting
with animals. Please pray for Alysha
as she launches into young adulthood, holding tightly to
her Heavenly Father!
As for Scott and
I, we are hoping to find a rental home
near some of the 2000 Thai that live south of Tampa and
have an opportunity to minister to them. We will
be looking for a church family that will refresh and
restore us after giving out a lot, and also a place we
can serve. Maybe a place where sometime in the
future Scott could preach 1-2x per month. We’d
love to rent a home that is furnished, if God
wills. We’d love a home with at least 1 guest
room so we can welcome visitors (come visit us!)
It would be great to be in a neighborhood where we can
build relationships. I’d like to find a church or
organization that would allow me to office at their
building (for free!) and use their copier/scanner/wifi
so I don’t have to do my OMF work from
home.
Scott and I are weary.
Once we get to Tampa and get at least somewhat
established in a new home, Scott plans to take a 3
month sabbatical (he has almost completed 7 years of
pastoring). I too would like to take a week or
two of rest as I finish out my role with OMF US
Personnel and move into my new international
role. We need time to sit before the
Lord and seek His face for this new season, time to
laugh, to play. Excited to see God's
beautiful ocean again!
Your prayers are much
appreciated.
Jennifer, Scott,
Alysha
