Back in Canada!

Well, I haven't been very diligent at giving our latest update on what we are doing, where we're at...life. 
We are now back in London, Ontario and have been for about 3 weeks now.  Time sure is sneaking up/flying by - however you say that.  I have been back to work now for a couple weeks.  Right back into the grind and routine of life. 

It's good to be home.  The kids are so happy to be in their comfortable surroundings.  Once in a while though I have the girls wanting their 'house' back and their 'dog'.  A few tears as well.  They sure miss our Lacey dog.  Judah doesn't remember her and seems to have gained a bit of a fear of dogs...hard to imagine that it's only been about 8 months since we haven't had Lacey and he already forgets.  I am happy to get frequent updates on how she's doing and where she is.  The family that ended up taking her love her and have helped their daughter through a rough time at school.  That is comforting and seems to be a great purpose for our little Lacey.

So, adjusting back to life here is still a work in progress.  We still feel unsettled as we are living at my parents house, out of boxes and suitcases still.  We have decided to rent a place for this year and will be in our 'new' home August 1st.  We are excited to have our own space - and a lot of it to boot - in comparison to what we have had the last 1/2 year!!  We are even so blessed to have a 4 bedroom home after being told there was an extremely long waiting list of 21 people ahead of us for the 4 bedroom units.  It may've been compassion and sympathy as we walked into the model home with our 3 young children and my busting belly!

Yes - for those that don't know yet - we are expecting yet again!!  What a surprise that I have grown to love!!  This little one will be here October 15th.  I wanted to wait till I was back at my job before announcing our news to the world.  We were able to find out the gender too and we are doubly excited to know it's a boy!!  God has a purpose for this little guy.

But, as we were prepping to leave for Hawaii, we downsized tremendously and that included getting rid of ALL our baby things.  So, we are starting over in that department.  Fun but costly! 

Another great praise report is that Mike has had absolutely no troubles finding work here.  In my opinion, he's been more than wanted by a few companies even without interviews.  So, he's committed to a company just outside of London and will be starting there this week.  He's excited about it.  And we are so happy and blessed that he was able to get work so quickly.

I want to say thank you to all that have been standing beside us in prayer through our journey.  It definetly wasn't all sunshine and lollipops as hard as that may seem as we were in "Hawaiian Paradise".  There were lots of challenges along the way and my heart is still being tested.  Lots of things I don't understand and possibly never will.  But it also was great.  God did a lot in our lives and hearts and in our kids lives.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity that God gave us in this time in our lives. 

We aren't sure what our next steps will be.  Well, we do know we are here to have baby #4!  And we are here to pay the remaining of our debts off.  After that, we don't know.  We are open to what God has for us.  But for now, we are so happy to be home.  To be focusing on our growing family.  That is our priority.

We are in Hilo, HI

We spent a month of our outreach in Kona, HI which was great and challenging at the same time.  God did some great things and we were able to see people give their lives to Jesus and also did a lot of work in our own hearts and lives.  We feel so blessed to be able to be doing what we are doing and to experience all that we're experiencing.  It's not always easy but God has taught us so much during this time!
Last week we left to head to Southpoint, HI. where we spent 5 days of  some team building time and some evangelism.  It was a great week.  We all needed the time there to re-group.  I can't say enough how much that week was needed for me.  It was so good.  We all (40 of us) stayed in a big 5 bedroom house.  There were chickens there that greatly entertained the kids and a coffee farm starting that all the men helped with installing irrigation for the plants.  One night we had a bonfire.  Some of the other nights, we spent in worship, testimony time and a time to receive from God.  We went to a coffee festival as one of our evangelism outings.  And a day at black sands beach to do a BBQ and reach out to people there - Judah and I stayed behind as he'd been sick.

Now we are in Hilo, HI which is pretty much the other side of the island as to Kona.  Kona is a pretty dry climate.  It barely rains there and usually always sunny.  Here in Hilo, it calls for rain just about every day.  The sun shines once in a while.  It's still quite warm and humid here.  And we have amazingly, beautiful scenery everywhere we go.  It's basically a rainforest here.  So, so pretty.  Lots of waterfalls, tons of greenery everywhere. At night, there are tree frogs that start 'chirpping' and don't stop till about 5am - then the birds takeover the song...It's crazy.  I've never heard anything like it.  And they're everywhere.  No matter where you are in the city, you're guaranteed to hear them!

So, here we have gotten some great connections with a couple churches that have been more than welcoming to having us here.  The one church had a typical Hawaiian welcoming for us the day we arrived and fed us all dinner.  It was such a blessing.  They are looking forward to spending time with us.  We will be spending time with youth groups, intercession meetings, doing some church services and continuing on with evangelism and spending time in worship and prayer as a team.  We look forward to the weeks to come here and what the Lord has planned for us.

And in case anyone wonders - we are in a bit of a need for a few things if anyone would want to contribute...we are needing to rent a van for 3 weeks while we ship ours back to the mainland and were able to get one that will cost $300 for the 3 weeks.  Something we haven't budgeted for.  The other cost that we need help with is getting home!  We will be driving from Los Angeles to London, ON and are guessing we'll take about a week. So, hotels, gas, and food is what we need covered that could add up pretty quick (Possibly between $600-800)  We expected to have the finances for this but didn't realize how expensive things would be in Hawaii.  Everything is VERY pricey...so, just living here and buying the necessities has eaten up a lot of our budget over the last 5 months.
Thanks for considering.
And thank you again to those that have given!  It has meant a lot to us and has kept us here.  We continue to pray God's blessings on you for your generosity.

We love you all and thank you all for your prayers!  We look forward to seeing you London folks and family in June and anyone else that we may catch up with while on the road to London :)

                                        The house we stayed at in Southpoint

                                         Getting some irrigation put in around coffee plants

                                             Beautiful south point

                                         Our home here in Hilo

                                         The welcome dinner

                                              Making new friends

Has it been that long?!

Wow, I just realized it's been since March 23rd that I wrote the last update.  Sad.  And I'm sorry to those that look forward to hearing what's been going on!

It's been a transition time and it's been busy and lots of changes as outreach has begun.  First of all, we all moved off campus and into a hotel in town.  Only a few minutes away from YWAM but right in the core of this town of Kona.  It's been a great transition surprisingly to me.  I thought it would be harder moving into a small hotel room with all 5 of us but it's been good.  We downsized, yet again (HAHA) so that all our things would fit without feeling too crowded.  So, really, just brought our essentials over. All part of outreach!  So, we are sharing a room with 2 double beds and have Judah's pack n play set up for him.  Being in the middle of Kona has brought a new light to this place and has allowed us to mingle more with the people.  We will be here for another 2 weeks.  It's already been 2 weeks here.  And then we will be moving on to the other side of the island, Hilo.
We have been doing some Bible distribution - working along a project that is being head up here to attempt to get a Bible into every home in Kona.  We are also involved in a few things with Salvation Army and also did a BBQ this past Saturday which we'll do this coming Saturday again for the people in that neighborhood.  We have seen a handful of people give their lives to Jesus and it's been great to hear the testimonies when we talk about our day.  God is so faithful to willing hearts.

Today was especially fun for us.  Mike lead a small group of us out this morning with prayer and just asking God to give us a word or a picture of something that would direct our path for the morning.  So, the words were simple: a book, plumeria flower, bread, lantern and something wrong with an arm.  Well, as we felt directed to a specific shopping area, we weren't sure what to do next but started walking.  We saw a bakery! So, we went in and bought some bread.  When we walked outside, we noticed the next restaurant over had lanterns hanging outside of it. Cool! So, we felt we were in the right place.  As we were hanging out there for a bit, we noticed a guy sitting, reading a book - so a few from our team walked over to talk to him and as they were headed over, we noticed he was sitting under a plumeria tree!  That was pretty cool!  Well, needless to say, this young man was who God wanted to welcome into His arms today.  He was ready and sincere and wanting all we had to share about Jesus.  As we were wrapping it up with talking to him, we were all over to meet him, Mike asked if anything was wrong with his arm.  He has been a drug addict so had lots of track marks and caloused veins so were able to pray for that too.  That God would set him free from his addictions.  He was so thankful and open.  We'll continue to pray for Aaron. Please join with me! We also exchanged numbers so hope to see him again.

So, it's short and sweet today..but atleast I'm finally present after 3 weeks!
Here are some pictures :) Enjoy

This was from Easter - they had a really fun easter egg hunt at the ywam campus at the preschool that runs there.

This is at the hotel we are staying at.

Also at the hotel we're staying at...Judah has discovered motorcycles and absolutely has found a new love!

This is at the hotel - Judah is in love with this Marlin on the wall.  Every time we walk by it, he has to go and see it up close. Cute...

Here we are helping out at the Salvation Army with food sorting and distributing to the poor.

                                           The board walk in town

Here we are having our community team dinners...at the hotel, downstairs (we take turns cooking - often in several crockpots and bring them down for dinner)

                                       The kids were treated to a shave iced cone by our awesome friends.  Lovin' it!

                                          Just chillin' at the beach

                                   Here is our first day of our evangelism team

                                         Here is the bakery and the lanterns

                               And here is the guy reading a book under a plumeria tree who found Jesus this day

These 4 pictures below are from our 'lovefeast' for our DTS - kinda like a final nice dinner before sending us all out to the nations.

Judah being a complete ham....and his cute little friend Mercy who loves to say, "my Judah". So cute.

The last few pictures are from a camp area that we were checking out for our team to stay at for a couple days at some point.  Lots of fruit trees.  Madison was all for the guavas everywhere.  The kids had a lot of fun!

Lecture Phase... DONE!

Lecture Phase is over!  I can't believe that time has gone by so quickly.  Done!
And what an amazing time it has been.  What an amazing thing that we have been a part of.  We feel so privileged to be able to be here.  To be able to soak up all that God has been putting out there for us.  To be in such a 'presence' here on campus.  God is so good to us.

So, a recap of the last few weeks!  Some great speakers of course.  The week that stood out to me the most was a man from South Africa, David Gava.  This man lives a life that I admire.  The relationship that he has with Jesus is something I hunger for.  He imparted faith to all of us and most definitely a hunger to walk in a deeper level with our maker.  He is such a humble and sweet man but comes with a powerful anointing and authority.  Among MANY amazing and incredible stories, this one is one of the coolest... When he was 6 yrs old he had to have a surgery done and as they finished, the doctor came out to tell his mother that he had died during the procedure.  Being a mother, she demanded to see him.  They refused initially but with her persistence finally allowed her.  The doctors had already wrote up a death certificate...but on went his mother to pray.  Not accepting his death, she prayed for 2 1/2 hrs for his life to return.  Then, he began to cough and life returned.  And, here he is today to talk about it.  Not only to tell the story but to tell the story fully restored.  No deficits, no brain damage....absolutely faith inspiring and frankly, a MIRACLE!  God is so good and we are in a time right now where He is ready to use those who are willing to be used....to raise the dead!! To heal the sick.  To perform signs and wonders.  Why?  Because He loves us and because He wants ALL men to know Him.  Don't forget that this is in the Bible.  It says it right in there!  He says in John 14:12-15
 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. ¹³ And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask^[a] anything in My name, I will do it."
Wow.  I'm not content any longer with the life I've been living.  It is time for awakening in the world.  Time to shake it up a bit!  I liked what David Gava said in response to his questions of what we expected or wanted from God...he simply said, "That's too small of a thing for Him to do, what do you want?"  He is a big God.  Think BIG. 

This week was our last week with a lot of outreach prep and last words of advice.  Really great stuff.  Loved it.  Today we had the amazing privilege of having Loren Cunningham - THE founder of YWAM - speak to us and pray for us.  So great and so full of wisdom.  So blessed.  
Next week, starting Tuesday, we have teams starting to leave for the Nations.  Going throughout the world and United States.  So excited to hear all the will transpire through these next 2 months.  

It was also Judah's birthday! Yay!!  So fun.  And he is getting SO big.  He is also SO heavy!! Love that kid so much.  We had a fun little family time celebrating his birthday.  We've had a lot of birthday celebrations with cake around here so I decided to get some donuts to change it up a bit and the kids loved them.  Judah also had a little 'party' with his friends during the day as Sarah watched him.  Sarah and Judah have found good friends in 3 other little kids that are part of our team that are also being babysat. So cute.  I'll have to ask Sarah is she has any pictures of them all hangin' out :)  They are all so stinkin' cute!

Oh - and just to keep you posted on financials for us...we continue to ask for the Lord to speak to your heart as to if He would have you help in any way.  Again, we are SO thankful for those of you that have sowed into our time here. SO thankful!  I can't say it enough.  
And, if not financially, please take a minute to lift us up in prayer.  We appreciate being covered in prayers so much.  Also, if there is anything we could pray for you, we'd love to hear from you and would love to pray for you.  Let us know!

And here I'll leave you with some more pictures.....
The first 5 pictures were graciously taken by a guy in our school that is an amazing photographer. A Blessing! Credit goes to David Parks.  LOVE them!!!  His photo's are awe inspiring...have a look!
www.davidparksphotography.com

And here are some pics taken over the past few weeks...
Okay, they seem to be only beach pictures...I really need to take more around here.  This is not all we do - lol.  We actually don't get to the beach too often - perhaps that's why the pictures - to savor the moments.

A couple more weeks done! Wow...time is flying.  Today makes 2 months exactly since the start of our school here in Kona.  It has flown by!  I can't believe how quickly time has gone.
The last few weeks have been good - just like the other 6 weeks before that!  We've had some great speakers come in enlightening us more to the word of God.  Amazing the insights we are receiving and it just keeps coming! Yay God for endless amounts of revelation He has to give us for the rest of our lives!!

Firstly - I NEED to say THANK YOU to my wonderful friends that I just love so much for your amazing support prayerfully and financially!  We are so forever thankful for you all.  We pray for your families - that God would bless you guys so much.  Thank you for sewing into us and God :)
We continue to need finances - and like I mentioned before - your prayers.  We value your prayers.  I would love to hear from anyone who's been praying for us.  It just means So much to us - we need it! And thank you!

This week one of my biggest highlights was meeting with my dear friend Kari Adams.  I love her soooo much!  We did our DTS together back in '97 and then a leadership school in '98.  We have been in touch since...mostly by distance with an email here and there throughout the years.   I called her up a few times just before coming here - talking things over about what we were going to be doing and asking her for some insight as she'd been on staff here in Kona for quite a while but was then living in Washington....THEN, a crazy little story of hers, ended her and her husband moving here just this past November before we got here!  God knew I needed her here :)
She met us at the airport when we arrived and we've seen each other here and there throughout the 2 months of being here.  She's been a blessing and has been a great listening ear, encourager and prayer friend.  This week was just extra special.  Just Love her so much.  Thanks Kari for your deep friendship that we were able to pick up as if we'd only been apart a couple weeks rather than 14 years!!! :)

Oh, I also wanted to share this really cool healing story that happened!
One of the girls here was in a pretty bad moped accident (hit by a car/no helmet - no one wears them here for mopeds).  She wasn't able to tell the ambulance guys her name and had a pretty messed up leg. They did a scan which showed her back to be fine and no internal bleeding but that her right leg was broken in several places and needed surgery to place screws/plates. Initially they thought she was bad enough to be flown to the main hospital in Honolulu (different island).
Right away, there was a huge ban of people praying for her all over here and at the hospital with her.  So, then comes the news: - no internal bleeding (they thought she may've had this on arrival)
-they could do surgery here and not have to fly her.
Then, she went into surgery and as she came out of recovery - the Doctors reported she didn't have any broken bones in her leg! Wow - just awesome.
So, she walked away with a leg that is still quite sore and will take a couple weeks to gain full walking on it BUT no broken bones, NO head injury, NO internal injuries!  God is good and what an exciting faith builder for us all!

And here are just a few pictures....I need to be a bit more intentional with the camera! Not that many pics this time....

                                                              After the rain fall

                                 Just came across this one - Madison took it - so sweet.

                                     sisters...I did have to get them to pose for it though. :)

It rained!! It doesn't happen often but it did right at dinner time and Judah had so much fun getting soaked! I took him off guard on this picture...haha