Ministry News
We are now back in the U.S. We were looking forward to a time of relaxation on our last family vacation with our oldest son Josh, before he goes to college. However, things haven’t been as relaxing as we had hoped. We started our trip and visited some friends, family, and supporters. As we were driving through Virginia, our van broke down. The mechanic originally thought it was because we got some bad diesel. However, the following day, he told us the bad news that we need a new transmission. To make a very long (and stressful!) story short, it is impossible to get a new transmission for our type of van here in the US. Plans have changed daily, sometimes hourly, as we’ve tried to get the transmission shipped here. Bryan finally got the great news today that we will be able to get one shipped and installed by the end of this month. Our other concern was how to move around a family of 8 with all our luggage as we continue to visit family and churches, and drop Josh off at college. We are so grateful that God has provided a 15 passenger van to rent for the month of August, and at a discounted price. We thank God for already providing a few churches and families who are helping with the extra expenses. It’s been very stressful, but God has a purpose for this, and one of the purposes is for our growth. He is in control, and is using this for our sanctification.
Northwest Baptist Church in Florida sent a group down to visit in June. Pastor Dan taught an expository teaching class to our men as well as to men from another church. It was excellent and helped our men as they prepared to teach every week while we are gone. They also bought 300 pizzas to give away as an outreach in the community. It was a great opportunity for our church people to get involved in ministering as well. Many contacts were made. They did a women’s activity and we had some visitors come to church because of it. Pastor Dan also helped teach a parenting class at a public school. We made many contacts, and one person asked for counseling. We praise God for the group and the blessing and encouragement that they were to our church family.
We praise God for the 3 men who we left in charge while we are gone. They love God and will do a great job. I have seen them step up even in the 3 weeks since we left. It would be very hard to leave the church if we didn’t have them. We hope that one if not all of them will some day be pastors.
We look forward to seeing many of you this fall!
Family News
Next week, we’ll be dropping Josh off at college. He is very excited about this new stage in life. The rest of the kids will be starting a new year of home school soon.
Susan’s surgery went ok, although she still isn’t at 100%.
Susan and I celebrated 21 years of marriage this week, although we still haven’t really celebrated due to the adventure with our van.?
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