Wednesday, April 27, 2011

March/April Update

I feel like a broken record, apologizing for very late posts. Again I must beg you dear readers’ indulgence. March has past us by, but I would like to share the most wonderful news from that month.

We welcomed our second son, Julien Mitchell, on March 25th at 12:44 AM. He was 6 lbs. and 19 inches long. We are grateful to God for a very quick, relatively easy delivery and a healthy boy. I am also indebted to my midwife and the two nurses who were there to help. I don’t know if I could have done it without them.
                                          Trying to sleep in the bright new world
                                              Hello mom and dad
                                          Beautiful dark hair and eyes
                                         Liam meets baby brother for the first time
So far my recovery has been good and Julien is a jewel of a child, just like his brother. He is contented, growing like gangbusters. He also sleeps for 3-4 hours at a time. Which may not seem like much, but it is…Liam is being a great big brother. We are already having to make adjustments and know there will be more when Julien becomes more active, but for now we are doing pretty well going from 3 to 4.

As far was our Wycliffe work is concerned, we have been blessed with more support coming in from some unexpected places, slowly but surely we are making our way toward 100%. At this point we are hovering at around 17%. We are working on our “advocate” base.

Advocates are swiftly becoming the best way for us to get in touch with individuals who may be interested in supporting us. We are finding the old method of churches being the bulk of a missionaries support is not true anymore. Where we are having the most success is one-on-one encounters and smaller groups where we are “vouched for” by those who know us. Folks like you! If you have friends or a small group (even a church if you feel that is a good way of introducing us) you would like us to meet and speak with, PLEASE contact us and we will work out the details, send any literature you would like your way and drive anywhere!

In a related development, we have received word that Evan will not be taking the CAM (Construction and Maintainence) course at JAARS as we thought, but we will still be required to be there for the Intercultural Communication training in August. Only about 3 months away! Our current plan is to purchase an enclosed trailer, which we will load with everything we are going to ship to PNG. Evan will drive the trailer cross-country to JAARS and I will fly there with the kids. Ideally someone would drive with Evan (most likely his brother) and someone would fly with me. However, we cannot pay airfare for anyone other than ourselves, so this is a bit of an issue. This also means we will be finishing packing up the house in the next couple of months. Not always an easy task with a toddler who loves to “help”.

I will close with what is coming up in the month of May for us and a few things to keep in prayer…

We will celebrating Liam’s second birthday. Also, we will be having a day of rememberance for our niece Charlotte.

On the 15th we will be traveling up to Port Townsend, WA to speak at a dear friend’s church. If you are in that area and would like to get together, or know somewhere we should speak, please let us know.

Finally, we will be taking a break mid-month and going to Cascades camp with our church family.

Prayer requests:

For continued opportunities to meet with potential partners

For resolution for our travel plans to JAARS

For clear weather and a good time for Liam’s party and Charlotte’s day

For traveling mercies to Port Townsend and back, also that the speaking engagement goes well

For traveling mercies for our church up to Cascades and back, also for a time of relaxation and fellowship while we are there