Jennifer Tibbetts

Dear All,

What an amazing wedding Nathan and Katelyn had on July 3!  God blessed and provided in so many ways.  As any of you know who traveled over July 4th weekend (or who watched the news), many, many flights were canceled and delayed due to travel being 3x what it had been that same weekend in 2020.

 This had an impact on our plans.  Our flight from Florida to Chicago was delayed 3 hours and when we arrived we were able to surprise Alysha and her boyfriend Jacob at their gate.  They went off to get a rental car and we went to the gate for our next flight to Iowa only to have it cancelled.  Thankfully, Alysha and Jacob were still nearby with their rental car so they were able to pick us up and drive us to Dubuque.

Joshua and his girlfriend Megan’s flight was delayed many hours and finally they were put on a different airline, having been in transit for about 22 hours by the time they drove into Dubuque.  The best man’s flight was cancelled, but another friend was able to drive him to the wedding.  And the stories go on.  The hardest one for me was that my parents, sister, nephew and niece were supposed to fly to Dubuque on Friday evening.  Their flight was delayed multiple times that evening and then delayed to the next morning.  After 3 hours of sleep, they tried again to fly out Saturday morning, but when they were further delayed they missed the wedding.

 But God is good!  And we trust that He had a purpose in all this.  Ultimately, Nathan and Katelyn had a precious wedding saying their vows before loved ones in a beautiful garden setting at the Arboretum.  Scott officiated their wedding, hardly cried at all and avoided calling them “Kathan and Natelyn” (which he did during the rehearsal!)  I led country dancing and the Virginia Reel at the Reception and that was a blast.  We sent them off under a tunnel of sparklers to celebrate the 4th.

On the days before the wedding, our family enjoyed paintball, football, visiting historic Galena, games, Joshua’s 28th birthday party, sharing and catching up.  Scott and I with Alysha stayed in a neat Bed and Breakfast that dates from 1883 www.therichardshouse.com  We had a lot of fun touring various family members around this interesting place with amazing antiques, wallpaper and woodwork as well as yummy breakfasts.

 So our big news is that Joshua and Megan are getting married on September 5, Labor Day weekend.  With their wedding on another holiday weekend, we ask you to pray that all of the flights will arrive and that things will go smoothly.  Megan has a 4 year old daughter Natalie (her 1st husband died) so we are getting a granddaughter as well as a daughter in law!  Rapidly expanding family…

I just spent the weekend  in OKC with Matthew, Rachel and 6-month-old Graham for his dedication at church.  So precious to be there as Matthew and Rachel vowed to do everything they can to raise Graham to love and follow Jesus.  Now I'm back home and trying to wrap my head around OMF work again. 

Many good things are happening in the area of care for TCKs and their families for which I am grateful.  I am regularly amazed that there is so much more awareness now of the impact of transitions on the missionary family, as well as many resources to help them survive and thrive.  The challenge is figuring out which are the key resources and how to make people aware of them.  Also, missionaries tend to be very busy people so we need to think about how to support and come alongside them without overwhelming them.

Thanks for your ongoing prayers.  Carleen and Amanda have not come to Bible study, but I have really appreciated my group and sweet times of studying together - this morning there were 5 of us looking at Mark 4.  Nuansee has been regularly attending the Thai church and I've asked the pastor to connect her with someone to disciple her.  Katherine and I will meet for breakfast on Monday.  I long to see her get back to studying the Bible.

Here are a few pictures from July.

Love,

Jennifer and Scott and family