What do you SEE?

SO, What do you see? Smiles, happy faces, joy? Boys and girls who have never experienced a hot shower, Electricity, even a flushing toilet. Many of these children have not even experienced an outhouse. And all we see is smiles. What an incredible experience it is when you are surrounded by people with nothing, who live like they have everything. Smile like they have everything. Hope. They have a hope for a better tommorrow, and a knowledge that God has a plan for them. A plan that in a world of luxury, we so easily forget. I am soo excited as we begin our life journey to Africa, for what God has in store for us, and i hope that in each and every picture, and moment you see me, i too will be able to smile, despite life's sorrows. We have so much to learn from those who truly have it all figured out. God has a plan for tommorrow, despite the pain of today.

Our New Fashion Line

Well, we have discovered a new talent- T-shirt designing! We saw these iron on transfer sheets that you can print whatever you want on, and decided to try it on some of Ricks work shirts- it turned out pretty good, but we will have to see if it will withstand the washing machine before we create any more! The picture on the shirt was taken by a friend of Francois (one of the missionaries we will be working with in Mozambique) When we saw this picture we both felt there was such beauty in it, and that it is symbolic of the ministry of SAMM.

God has been blessing us in so many ways recently. Just this week someone gave us a gift of 200$ specifically to help with car and travel expenses. The very next day we discovered our car was in desperate need of two new tires. The bill for replacing them came to exactly $198.43. God is amazing!!!

Also- the expected LOOOOONNNGGGG lines at the passport office never came! I went in today to apply for my passport and was in and out of the office in about 10 minutes. Not that it is really that big of a deal. But it was nice to spend so little time waiting when you had geared yourself up for 3 to 4 hours of boredom!

We really want to say thank you to all of you who have been praying for us, and to those of you who have been supporting us as well. Please continue to pray with us that our monthly support level will be raised! Excluding the sundays before and after Christmas, we are booked to speak in churches until the end of January, and most of February as well. We are excited for these opportunities, but we covet your prayers for safety while travelling. God Bless!

The Gift Puppy

God is so awesome and so faithful. God promises that as we seek after Him and His will, that he will always take care of us and meet our needs. Heather and I both know that God has called us to move to Africa, to serve the hurting, hungry, and sick in Mozambique. Before we can do that we need to both pay off our existing debts, (Line of credit, and student loan) and find people willing to financially partner with us in supporting us in our calling. We have had many people come on board to help us in raising our mission support, and we have also had people graciously give us money personally to help with our debt.

This has been so much appreciated and such an answer to prayer. That is where the Gift Puppy comes in.

In the last couple of weeks God has has used several friends to help us rapidly pay off our student loan. Finally, we were getting close to paying off one of our two debts. Only $1500 left. $300 we had in savings for the next payment, and then a friend sends us $500, and quickly we are down to Just over $700. Then this Sunday we are approached by somebody from our church who gave us almost exactly what we needed- $800, and a story about God's faithfulness.

You see she had a friend who regularily sold puppies, and felt that they should commit to bless one puppy buyer from each litter by giving them the puppy for free. They would pick a puppy from each litter before they were sold and when the lucky buyer went to pay for the puppy they would find out they got it for free. What a blessing. But what happens when her friends dog has complication and only 1 puppy, a c-section and an expensive vet bill. Do they honour their commitment to give away the only puppy, or do they sell it to help with the vet bill. Well, despite a huge loss of income with no puppies to sell the owners suprise the lucky buyer of thier only puppy as they continue to gift a puppy. Now, despite making nothing they still have to pay an expensive vet bill. That's were it get's interesting. When they go to pay the vet bill they find out that it has already been paid in full. You see, without them knowing it, one of the people who worked on the dog, was the one who purchased the puppy. They then, realizing the sacrifice made, paid the vet bill. God is awesome.

This story in turn inspired our friends to also gift a puppy. They decided that they would take the proceeds and return some to the owner, and then gift the rest to help us get to Africa. And it only gets better. When she spoke to the lucky puppy owner they not only said that they would like to give their gift to help us, but that they would do it receipt free and direct to us for the student loan. So praise the Lord. Thanks to so many friends, and the cutest little puppy, we will be paying off our student loan in full this week. Now we are down to one loan, and raising support and we head for Africa. God is so awesome.

Thanks to all our friends in Grunthal, Killarney, and around the country who are showing us such love and support as we prepare for Africa. We love you guys.

FCA Convention 2007

We spent much of last week in Regina at the annual FCA Convention. We went with hopes of meeting many of the pastors and making connections to help us with booking deputations. It went really well and we left feeling encouraged. Not only were we able to make a lot of good connections, but we were able to spend time with SAMM board members and SAMM missionaries Earl and Ruth! It was encouraging to spend time with them and get more info about how everything is going to work when we head down to Brazil for language training before heading to Mozambique. Several pastors have asked us to come to their churches to do presentations so all in all it was a good week.

Also adding to the goodness of my week was the side trip we took to Roleau SK. Otherwise known as Dog River, the home of Corner Gas. Needless to say i was a little excited- its one of my favorite shows on TV- if you havent seen it- its hilarious, a wonderful portrayal of small town prairie life! It was cool to see the elevator, police station, Corner Gas, etc. Rick wasnt nearly as impressed as I was, but oh well.

We were also blessed to spend time with family this past week at a family birthday party- this is me and my little sister in law and my niece!

Rick has spent a lot of time recently hunting both with family and alone- hes taking all the time he can get this year, as it will be his last opportunity for several years. This is Rick with the elk he shot with bow this year- Praise the Lord, we have meat for the next year!!! God is Good. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue with our deputation and meet with pastors etc. God Bless!

An encouraging week!

This week has been a great week for Rick and I- we have been encouraged in many different ways, and have felt a real sense of God confirming His call in our lives. We have had several responses to our newsletters. And were also able to network with quite a few people as we spent most of tuesday meeting with business's and people from our community, just sharing our hearts and our passion for this mission. So far we have about 1/6th of our monthly support raised- so we still have quite a ways to go, but we know God is able! We have been able to pay off some of our debt as well, so we see God working there too. Next week we are going to the FCA convention in Regina, and hope to be able to meet with many pastors there, and hopefully book some sundays to do deputation. Anyhow- just a brief update today, Im gonna try and get some pictures on here again soon. Thats all for now!

..and they are off!!!!!

Well, the newsletters have been sent to nearly everyone, although a few remain here waiting to be sent! After what seemed like a forever long delay waiting for our prayer cards to arrive, we finally received them and quickly sent out as many letters as we could! It feels good to at least have this first mailing behind us! Hopefully soon we will begin hearing back from folks, either signing up to support us or receive our newsletter updates or to be on our prayer team! We have had a busy summer, but we finally seem to be into a routine- being in our own "place" sure helps. Lately we have been busy researching shipping options, so if anyone has "connections" let us know! We have had some interest with people wanting to donate clothing, toys, medical supplies etc, and it looks like buying the generator we are going to need out there (just a small 6.5 KW gas powered) is going to be WAY cheaper here than there! So we are trying to see if getting some stuff shipped to Mozambique will be worth the cost! There is so much to think about though- duties, import issues, customs, freight charges and so much more! Sometimes i spend hours on the computer just researching different questions we have about this whole adventure. Please pray with us as we continue to prepare!

Preparing for Mozambique

ok- so im sure there are a variety of theories out there as to how one should go about preparing for a big move to a foreign country and culture but here is the "neufeld africa move preparation method"!

First: we moved into a garage- we are assuming that the lack of running water, and many modern conveniences will be a good step towards the tent we will most liley be occupying for a good chunk of time upon our arrival in Africa. We have even allowed there to be centimetre wide gaps in the one wall ( where we will soon have properly installed garage doors), to allow the many flies and spiders to find their way into our home. I hear there are lots of bugs in Africa. :) heres the garage- a mess i know but you try fitting a whole house in one room. its an organised mess- really!

Second: we started language lessons- we are "studying"portuguese with a wonderful lady from our church. Her first language is Portuguese, and she is from Brazil- she is very good at speaking the language, and allthough she is not so good at speaking English, we are definetly beginning to understand portuguese a lot more. We arent really speaking it well yet, but I can understand more and more each week. The best was when her spanish speaking friend came over and we had dessert together- i spoke no spanish or portuguese, the friend spoke only spanish, Elsa spoke spanish and portuguese- but very little english! It made translating very interesting!! It is good to spend time with her though, as it really helps us understand what it feels like to be in a situation where we dont understand the language- much like in Africa!!!

Third ( and most importantly :) ): I have decided I need to get over my fear of snakes! Oh yes- i heather am terrified of the little (and big) slithering yucky ugly hissing snakes. Ick. I hate them. And Im terrified out my mind when i see one. I even swerve the car to avoid them on the road so my car doesnt touch them. So yesterday rick and I stopped at the Narcisse garter snake pits to see some snakes- we are starting slow with non poisenous totally none threatening snakes. But unfortunatly no snakes were around when we went-rick was a little dissapointed. (me too) But today we found a nice little garter snake when we were out four-wheeling. AND I TOUCHED IT! yep. i was pretty proud of myself, and to my suprise it wasnt slimy at all.

So there you have it- the neufeld preparation method- im sure more steps will come... keep watching for updates!!! :)

Newsletter still "almost" on the way!

Hey all- sorry no newsletter in the mail yet! But soon- i promise! This past month has just flown by and we have both been so busy! Rick got called away to speak at the Bible Camp we used to direct as their speaker for the week cancelled, I have been getting more hours at work and we have finally moved into our little garage apartment. We are still transferring our belongings over, but it is nice to just be in here! It has been a long time coming! And currently we are house sitting two different houses for friends who are on vacation- there is a bunch of miscellaneous farm animals at the one place so that makes life even more interesting. :)

I will begin printing and folding newsletters this week, and once our prayer cards are back from the printers they will go in the envelopes too and then off to the mail.

We still really feeling God telling us that next feburary /march will be our departure time, but even so- our debt is still so high and the amount we need to raise for support seems so unreachable, please pray with us that we can reach these goals! We know God is faithful to those He has called for a purpose, please pray that we will continue to lean on Him, and to trust that He can make a way. Anyway- id better be getting ready for work- God Bless- heres a pic of us reacting to the statement " Your moving out of the house into the garage" spoken by Rick's mom! Not sure how many people would have reacted this way to that statement, but oh well!

Newsletter is on the way! (almost!)

Well, I have written our first newsletter and hope to have it on the way by the end of the month, im working on our address database, and we still need to get a prayer card picture done and printed! Yikes. Anyways, it was quite an accomplishment for me to figure out enough of this new VISTA stuff just to get the newsletter done, so I am pretty proud of myself. If you are not sure if we have your mailing address, please feel free to email us and give us your address, we will make sure to add it to our list! And the other big news from last week is that some work happened on the garage!! WOOHOO- the roof went on and the connecting walls were finished. Now the electrician and drywallers can do their thing- just as soon as the boys shingle the roof. Well, This is a short blog, Im trying out a new way of getting these posts online, so im just testing with this one! God Bless,

Rick and Heather

Life in the basement!

Hello! Sorry it has taken us so long to write a new post. We have now settled into our one little bedroom in the basement of Rick's parents house, while we wait for renovations on the garage to continue, so we can move in! It has been interesting and a bit of a challenge to live in such tight quarters, but we are making it work, by spending lots of time outside fishing and fourwheeling and even just siting on the deck reading. The mosquitoes are horrendous this time of year, especially with all the hot damp weather we have been having but if you go really fast and try to get muddy you are usually ok. :) Heres a pic of Rick and Me after a fourwheeling adventure- notice how clean I am. hee hee. ( he is wearing blue jeans too!)

In other news, the renovations of the garage have pretty much come to a standstill, but i have hope that they will continue again soon. (soon is a relative term i have come to find out!) Rick is busy working with his brothers framing and pretty much building houses, they have a line- up of houses waiting to be done, so there is no shortage of work for them! I have been hired at the new Superstore in Steinbach, as a cashier. I enjoy the job, but would like more hours, so we will have to see if it picks up over summer or not. We are in the process of trying to get everything organised for our deputation etc, but i am finding it dificult to accomplish with so much disaray around me. Hopefully, as I begin to settle into a schedule and determine what it is that needs to be done first, things will start rolling. Soon we will be calling and mailing churches to begin to schedule our visits, and will send out newsletters and support letters as well- it seems like a lot of work, but we will get it all done! (I guess that is one reason to be thankful for fewer hours at work!) Well, I should be going, I promise it wont take me another month to put up a new post. Please pray for us as we begin the work of deputation and fundraising! God Bless- Heather and Rick

One Step Closer

Praise the Lord, we are yet another step closer to our goal of moving to Mozambique. A lot has happened since the last time we posted an entry and we are excited to fill everybody in on the progress. First, we sold much of what we own in a garage sale. It was awesome and we were able to make just short of $1000 to help us in preparing for Africa. Not only that, but it is an awesome feeling as you begin to free yourself of money and possessions. We do still own a lot of stuff, but we have begun the process for Africa, and eliminated so many non-essentials. We were also able to fill a van (packed) to the ceiling with stuff for charity which was also a great feeling. Second, we are getting ready to move to Grunthal. This is a very exciting move for us, as it is the last step before we head to Africa. Our goal in moving to Grunthal is to be close to our family and home church as well as to pay off the debt we have before leaving for Africa. As of next week, Heather and I will be able to call a garage our home. We are moving into my parents garage so that we do not have debt to pay. This should get us to Africa a couple months sooner. Small price to pay for a dream. That, and we will likely be living in a tent when we first move to Africa anyways. Finally, and most exciting is that we have officially be accepted as missionaries with SAM Ministries. We spent this last week in Edmonton visiting the board there, and it ended with us being taken on board as part of the SAM Team. What an answer to prayer. God is soo good. Now, all that is left is to pay off debt, and raise the support needed for heading to the mission field. What a blessing it has been to see God answer prayer. Especially as we have already had some people say that they will commit to sponsoring us in Africa. Awesome, and if that is you, Thanks so Much. We just want to say thanks to everybody out their who has supported us with prayer in these last months. It has been a really blessing in our lives. So, stay tuned as we begin to give you more frequent updates and info in the near future. So for now, to learn more about what we will be doing just check out our links. Yours in Christ Rick

Now We Wait

Whenever it comes to faith, the hardest thing to do is wait. Although we have finished several steps needed to apply to S.A.M Ministries, the process is not complete. In our hearts, we feel that God is calling us to minister with them, but now we need to wait. Today i sent away the "big" application. 15 pages dealing with faith, doctrine, and current issues. Now, we just need to wait. Wait in faith. We know God is calling us to Africa, so at least that makes the waiting a little easier to bear. There is no question about that. Anyways, we have been hearing a lot from Mozambique and would encourage you to take a look at our links. There are a lot of deaths this time of year in Mozambique, and our hearts long to be there, to help as we can. We are excited to have a meeting with the S.A.M. board coming up in May, and are hoping they will be able to take us on as missionaries at that time, although we are still not sure how the entire process works. As for now, we are preparing to move back to Grunthal to pay off debt. We are hoping to live in my parent's garage to save some cash. Yes, the garage, but remember, it is better to live a dream in poverty, then to forsake a dream for riches. Pray for us as we enter this next part of our journey.

SAM Ministries Presentation

Here is a great video that explains a little bit more about what we are going to be doing when we head out to Mozambique. God is so awesome. We hope you enjoy this video.

Spring Fever!

Sometimes our posts have deep intellectual thoughts full of our challenges and what we have been learning. This is not one of those posts. Apparently Rick and one of our youth kids, Kevin were bitten by a bug carrying spring fever- its the only possible explanation that does justice to explaining why they went crazy this afternoon! First, Rick decided to try and do a back flip off a swing into a mud puddle. ( this would have worked better if the ground about two inches in wasn't still FROZEN!) Although he managed to land right side up- he still landed on his "backside" completely covering him in mud! Then- in typical spring fever brilliance- he decided to jump into the only spot on the whole lake not currently covered in ice (yes thick, cold, winter... ICE) to rinse off and convinced Kevin to join him in this spectacular idea. If only I had had the camera with us. But alas- no camera- so you will all just have to use your imaginations. It was pretty funny. I guess its better he get these experiences over with before we move to Africa where the ice is a bit more scarce! hee hee. Anyways- happy spring to you all! God Bless, Heather and Rick

Balloons! Pizza! Face Paints! Ventriloquists!!!

Well! Rick and I are totally exhausted! Last night we ran ( along with several others) a HUGE kids outreach event at our church. We had a free pizza and ice cream dinner for all the kids who come to our kids club and awana programs AND all their parents, siblings and even some friends! It was a huge success, and many parents thanked us for taking such an interest in working with their children. We had prayed and asked God for 100 people to come, and He gave us 103! (not including all the volunteers!) It was really neat.

Rick built a REALLY big balloon pit and filled it with well over 600 balloons! ( we did use an air compressor- although it still took like 5 hours or something!) The kids loved it! We had that plus face painting and a coloring wall, prizes, parent and kid games and after all that chaos was over- a ventriloquist! Linda was amazingly talented and the kids loved her! It is so neat to see our ministry here going so well, but it is also hard, because we know in just 2 short months we are leaving! We are praying that God would raise up people (and hopefully another youth minister) to continue on with these amazing ministries. So many families from the community were there last night, many of them do not attend any church- it was a wonderful outreach. PRAISE GOD.

Here are some pics of the event!

The Balloon Pit!!!!!!

Linda takes "Buzz" for a trip to the balloon pit! GRRRRRR!! I'm a tiger! Moms and daughters fight it out in the 4-way tug of war!

Get out of the Boat!

As promised, I have returned to explain the title of our blog. Last fall, when we were really feeling God calling us to work in Moz- very strongly and very clearly- I (heather) was experiencing some of my old " but what if...?" moments. I was saying to God- "yeah I know you want us to go.. but what if.... we die? get sick? war breaks out? i step on a landmine? we cant raise our support? we cant pay off our debt???" etc etc.... Right about then, Rick was given the opportunity to preach in church- his sermon focused on the story where Peter walks on the water with Christ. Many people look at Peter and shake their heads "tsk tsk " they say " he didnt have very good faith- look at him, he started to sink!" Ricks point in the message was yeah he started to sink alright- but WHERE were the other disciples???- still safe in the boat! They didnt even have enough faith to step out and take a chance! Well, needless to say, the message really hit me hard- I knew I was one of the disciples in the boat, hearing God's call but choosing to keep to my safe little vessel.

Here are two of my "what if" moments.. both pics Rick took in Moz! As the days and weeks went on after this sermon- God seemed to sense that I was still struggling with the issue, because I was seeing/hearing the phrase "Get Out of The Boat" everywhere!!!! In the SAMM fall newsletter, in a book i was reading (first page!), In a song we sang in church, on TV ( in programs that were not even religious!), people who i didnt even know were saying things like - "wow- Africa eh? thats a big step out of your boat!)

I have to admit, at first i was a little spooked by it all, but i guess sometimes God just wont give up until we finally GET IT!! And it goes on- just the other day I was singing special music in church- a song I love, but i could never understand the end of the first line on the CD- we got out the lyrics and it says "if you ask me to leap- out of my boat onto crashing waves..." Wow! I am glad that I have so much confirmation of this calling in my life, I know it would be a lot scarier if I didnt!

Some of the stories we hear from our Mozambique missionary friends tell us that we are in for a wild ride, often hopeful and fulfilling, but just as often, hard, lonely, and scary. What a comfort we have in Christ. (check out francois and alta's blog for a real story about the dark side of things)

Rick took this picture in Mozambique last summer when he was there. Its a good reminder to me- no matter how safe my boat may feel- if I'm not paying attention to "The Light" then my safe little vessel may end up like this one! God bless- hope you are as challenged by our recent life lessons as we are! Heather and Rick

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

There is that old saying that "Home is where the heart is," and it has never rang so clear as now. It seems that each and every day I get more and more homesick for a place I have never lived in. A place that I have only ever glimpsed for short periods of time. God has called us to Africa, and embedded a passion for his people there in our hearts. He is daily showing us that his plans for us are not our own. So now, we are waiting for the chance to go home, to sell what we have, to pack up our bags and go. What an exciting time it is for us now. One of the many things that we hope to be involved with is going to be actively helping out with children's ministry. There is such a need in Mozambique for children's ministry on so many levels. This is not just something that is done in the form of spiritual care. This is a land where sickness, and hunger, kill many children before they ever get a chance to experience what life has to offer. Part of what we hope to be involved with is the starting of schools, feeding programs, and orphan programs. We want to actively meet all the needs of these children. We want to be there to meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. We want to provide them with food and water, as well as education and spiritual care. Although we are incredibly excited, we also know that there are going to be times of great hardship and discouragement along the way. And yet we know that God has a plan for us and that he promises to be with us always. It is this promise that will keep us going. The Joy of the Lord is our strength.

JUMPING

FAITH. As Heather and I look to the future and to where God has called us, we are learning so much about faith. There can be no faith with no risk. I sometimes feel that we live in a society that will so be void of faith because the church and Christians are taking so few risks. Everything in our lives has to fit together perfectly like a self created puzzle. Nobody can take a step in any direction until each piece is firmly in its place. The problem is that it takes no faith in God if we only move, when all the pieces are in place. Instead God calls us to move, and he promises to put the pieces in place as we go along the journey.

Faith can be illustrated in so many ways. A son jumping from a high place into his fathers arms, is a great example of faith. Although there is a risk, the boy does not calculate it before he jumps because he knows his father will catch him. Recently, in my life journey, God showed me a different view of faith and our relationship to Him. This view of faith involves God as the pilot, and us as His passengers. God calls us to go with him on a journey, and we hesitate. We inspect the plane, and then inspect again. We watch others who have taken the flight with him, with positive results, and finally we decided that it is time to fly, time to have faith in God. It is at this point that we enter into relationship with our savior. It is also at this point that many things go awry.

The first Christians bail, just as God calls them to actually join the journey, and they get off the plane before take off. They decide that they trust the pilot, but don't trust the turbulence and storms of life, and they don't trust the plane to help them through it. But there are many who do stay on board. They have inspected the plane, and have seen many planes before and they realize that there is little faith needed for this flight. So, they buckle in, and settle for take off. Then, after reaching cruising altitude the pilot comes to the back, and he is wearing a back-pack and all of a sudden, we are scared.

Then the pilot (God) reminds us that he invited us to join him on a journey, and not just a plane ride. He tells us he has big plans for us, and that we need to follow him. He says that getting on the plane was the first step, but the the second is getting out. The plane has been put on auto pilot and will only fly as long as there is fuel. Everybody is given a parachute as the pilot tells us to jump. "JUMP!! But you promised you would get us down safely." And the pilot reassures us that if we follow Him and jump, we will get down safely.

Then something strange happens. People stay in their seats. They begin to get worried, and unsure. They don't know if they are up for the risk, and the challenge. They begin to make excuses. "I will go after the movie," one says, while another stays on board for a frightened family member. They all want to stay on the doomed plane and do plane stuff. They feel secure in their seats, with their seat belts, and although they know the plane will eventually crash, it is flying nice now.

So, with a deep look of regret, the pilot, and the few faithful risk takers jump. They jump, and they enjoy the most exhilarating, adventure imaginable, and each and every one of them lands safely on the ground, changed forever. What about the people on the plane? They keep flying, for now, securely buckled into the doomed plane they trust so much. The pilot is not there, not that he doesn't care, but that they didn't follow. And they will continue to fly until the tank hits empty.

It is my desire to have the faith to jump. The faith to commit, despite the fear, despite the risks. I have no desire to live in a church, claiming faith with no adventure, and no journey. God has called us to Him, to go where He calls us to. I want to GO.

Our heart, is to follow God, and go where he calls. We feel that God has called us to Africa. To make a difference and to change lives.

Our first "REAL" post

Woohooo! I think I actually have this slightly figured out! ( minor miracle!) Anyways- this is a blog to let our friends and family and supporters keep up to date on how the two of us our doing. We have just recently given our resignation at the church where we have been youth pastoring for nearly 3 yrs. At the end of May we will be done, and moving back to our hometown to hopefully pay off our debt really quickly and then, Lord willing, be in Mozambique by sometime in 2008!

Our hearts have been so passionate for Africa and serving God's people there, it sometimes is so hard to wait for His timing- and then there are other times when it seems like His timing might be a bit faster than ours. Thru various ways our debt is being reduced so much faster than we ever thought possible. God is amazing and faithfull to His promises when we follow His guidance! Praise God for the many blessing we have recieved even just this past week- enabling us to double our monthly payment on our loan this month!

Another major issue in our lives right now is adoption. We are currently waiting to get on the adoption list here in Manitoba- but our window of time to adopt is looking smaller and smaller- at least for a domestic ( here in Canada) adoption. It is sometimes hard for us (particularly Heather) to trust and know that God will make a way for the child HE wants us to have, to be ready for us- and to trust Him for His timing, not ours.

In health news- Ricks shoulder has been acting up again- we could use a lot of prayer for that . Heather has just gotten over a minor bout of bronchitis and is feeling much better.

Well- I dont have much else to say in this, our first real post on this blog, maybe next time I'll explain the title of the blog to those who dont know yet! Hopefully I'll keep this updated pretty regularly ( hopefully i'll have news so its interesting updates too!) Love ya all!

p.s. the pic is of Heather with one of many orphaned babies we met on our trip to Kenya in 2005- this little one in particular captured Heather's heart - her three yr old brother had been "taking care" of her for several days by the time anyone noticed their mother was gone.

This had better work!

OK. At least I have gotten to the posting phase. This making a blog thing is apparently more complicated than it looks. I have such respect for those of you who are doing this out in the bush with uncertain satellite connections, cranky weather systems and battery run computers! PHEW! This is my first attempt at a post- ill add more later if this works! God bless!