Jennifer Tibbetts

Dear Friends,

What an incredible blessing it is to have so many write to me and let me know that you are praying for me as I share prayer requests.  I often think "I should write back to each one of you", but then I get overwhelmed.  But please know that I do read each one and appreciate you so much!

And your prayers are being answered!  We had a good meeting on Tuesday afternoon with 4 Adult MKs (3 new ones and 1 from the previous meeting).  It was precious to hear their stories.  I think they were encouraged to know that they are not the only ones who experienced things.  "My parents were always busy.  I can't remember one evening meal when we all sat down together.  But I knew they loved me."; "We moved back to the States when I was going into high school.  We lived on a missionary compound.  My home life was completely different from my school life and my mother had no idea how hard it was for me at school."

I decided not to ask the Adult MKs if they wanted to meet again.  I offered them a series of three webinars being organized by a woman who is an Adult MK, raised MKs herself and is also a therapist (Ulrika Ernvik who wrote the book I mentioned in my last email).  If you are an Adult MK and would be interested in finding out more about these Zoom meetings, please let me know.  After the meeting, I was able to pass on info to three other Adult MKs who hadn't attended.  One wife of an MK said "I tried to get my husband to join the meeting, but he didn't want to open up and share."  She was happy to get the questions I had prepared and perhaps she will try to help her husband process some of his feelings about his childhood.

Meanwhile, little by little I am moving forward on projects to support and empower our OMF MKs.  Please pray for these items:

1. Connecting experienced and inexperienced TCK Advisors for mentorship.  Doing the same for Child Safety Officers.

2. Finding out the felt needs of TCK Advisors and Child Safety Officers and looking for ways to meet them.  This includes how to we provide resources and training for non native English speakers in our organization.

3.  Connecting with leaders in sending countries and missionary fields where they have not appointed TCK Advisors and Child Safety Officers and asking them to consider doing this.

4.  Networking with other missions agencies to create a generic flow of child safety training for families and other workers.  The goal is that this training can be used by many agencies, and will have sections for pre-field, orientation to the field, home assignment/furlough training and refreshers.

5.  Networking with OMF TCK Advisors and Child Safety Officers to begin working on a similar flow of training including age appropriate training (people who don't yet have kids, babies/toddlers, elementary age, teens, tertiary education and beyond), and also how to make this appropriate for different sending centers and fields/countries of ministry.

6.  Creating a team to provide accountability, input and assistance for me in my role.

7.  Working on international policy and Code of Conduct for child safety.

8. Preparing for and planning a Zoom conference for later this year for all TCK Advisors.  (This was supposed to be an in person consultation in Singapore, but travel restrictions have caused us to move to Zoom.)

That's probably not everything, but gives you an idea of how to pray for me!

A brief update on our family:

1. Scott put in an application 3 weeks ago to pastor a local Evangelical Free church.  He heard today that they are considering him and would like to interview him after he preaches at the church for the third time on Feb 28.

2. Matthew and Rachel are enjoying baby Graham. Matthew is tired as he tries to keep up on work.  Rachel continues to heal from a hard delivery.  They've been enjoying a visit with Rachel's sister and two kids who live in Alaska.

3. Joshua has started a new job overseeing all the training for his Navy team.  He likes the challenge and also appreciates having a "9-5" job which gets him out of 24 hour duty rotations.

4. Nathan and Katelyn continue to work on wedding plans for a July 3 wedding.

5. Alysha started a full-time job caring for a family with 3 kids ages 15, 8 and 5 who homeschool, mom has cancer.  Alysha is doing a lot of cooking as the family have a number of food allergies.  She would appreciate your prayers for strength.  We're so glad that she is now earning enough money to meet her expenses.

By the way, I am grateful to say that 100% has been pledged for my basic financial support and I believe that God will provide the additional $400/month needed to reach my full financial support, if this is His will.

Blessings,
Jennifer