March...More than just throwing Whipped Cream...

Lest you think we are just throwing around said whipped cream concoctions...here is a run-down of what we've been doing lately...(settle in, it's a longer read than usual)







On Monday nights this month Howard and I spent the evenings with the kids from Brainerd High School here in Chattanooga as part of the CRU ministry led by our friend Jill Finley who is on staff with them.
We are getting to know these high-schoolers who are like teenagers everywhere and hoping to SHOW THEM JESUS.







We spent Thursday the 5th with our Sweetwater Small Group friends - catching up on what we were all up to and hearing how we have survived the winter so far. We shared a meal and great discussion and much prayer.  (more about that here.)

We took our photo for the official church directory of Covenant Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga on Monday the 19th - there was too much double chin stuff going on for our liking...so no photo for you - but it will be in the directory.

On Tuesdays the 3rd and the 17th, Sandy spent the morning watching kids at Covenant PCA while their mothers attended a Mother's Encouragement Group held at the church.  My mother always taught me that it was important to give younger mother's a break when my kids were grown.  It has been good to meet new people, kids and adults!

          

Howard has had the opportunity to help at the church we are attending after their custodian retired at the end of last year. He has been fixing toilets, building shelves, and cleaning as needed until the new person starts.  This past Sunday's crisis was a sewer back-up which caused all the bathrooms on the main floor to flood - right before 2 wedding showers...guess how he spent his afternoon.

On Thursday the 12th we took a short road-trip down to MTW offices and met with Rohan Crown and Jack Beall at Starbucks - where Sandy completely embarressed herself by answering the Barista's question of what kind of milk in her iced coffee with a puzzled "cow milk?"....sigh....it was only the 2nd time I have been to Starbucks. Steep learning curve.

We spent that afternoon visiting with new missionaries at the offices - there are two more families who will be working with the Native America/First Nations people in the US and in Canada.  We look forward to getting to know them and their work.

In the evening we joined Rohan at Chestnut Mountain Presbyterian Church and visited with friends there, David &Bethany and Dee & Katie.  We got to see Rohan in action as he shared with the folks there who support him and his family in their work at Amazing Grace Community Church, and we met Emily's parents!

Saturday the 14th found us traveling down to Atlanta again - this time to share memories and catch up with long-time friends and fellow missionaries from Nigeria Dan & Lois Verhoef. We had a great time and they took us for lunch to the city of Senoia - which, for those who don't know ( and we didn't either), is the city where they shoot the Walking Dead TV series.

The evening of Saturday the 14th we were again at Chestnut Mountain to visit with Rohan and hear the mission speaker at the churches Mission Conference. We were challenged by Dee Hammond to take a Kool Whip pie to raise support for the Amazing Kids ministry in Lethbridge.

Kool Whip for Kool Kids


Then back home to Chattanooga for the BIG BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Sunday afternoon it was a beautiful day and we washed our filthy vehicles before heading over to our daughter Becky's house for Julie's birthday.


We haven't spent a birthday with our daughter Julie in over 5 years because she has been in Honduras teaching - so we through a big bash with lots of cake on Sunday, March 15th.

The week of the 16th found us:
- buying a new TV because our free one finally gave up the ghost after 3 years (yes, Howard and Julie were having fun with the box - once a kids always a kid...

- volunteering at church quite a bit and bringing meals to friends who had babies
-attending Bible studies
- attending CRU
 - GOING TO SEE THE CINDERELLA MOVIE!! with all of the Vander Griend girls!

- finished up the week with a Ladies Spring retreat on Saturday - we were challenged to
Be Intentional in our living of the Christian life.  It was very good and it was great to spend time with just the girls. (Thanks Howard for watching some of the grands).
- Howard and I completed our Kool Whip for Kool Kids challenge (see previous post for the highlights)


Sunday the 22nd Howard and I helped serve lunch to the Covenant College choir who sang at our worship service that morning and then had some friends over for dinner to share more about our work with the Blackfoot people.

We will end this week with a trip to Cherokee, N.C. for training to be associate staff this summer for a week in with people who volunteer for a week with MTW's short-term ministry among the Cherokee Native Americans.

We will end the month up with having more people over for dinner who have recently become monthly supporters and then looking forward to celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior! in the month of April.

Hope you had a busy month too!

Encourage One Another! (February Newsletter)

2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,

4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,

5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;

6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ

                                                                          Philippians 1: 2-6

 Praise God from whom All Blessings Flow.

Howard and I have challenged ourselves to BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS and begin the New Year with 15 new monthly partners. We are humbled by the way God worked to accomplish this by mid-February. This 15% increase puts us over 65% of our monthly support pledged.  We are awed at how God is working to get us to Canada through your support. Thank You to each of you who have joined our support team.





(This challenge to ourselves really helped motivate us to get new partners both prayer and financial - so much so that we are continuing this "15" challenge into March - 15 more new partners by the end of March!!)

   

Road Trip Review

    Howard and I just spent 10 days on a visit to Florida sharing our call to work with the Blackfoot people in Alberta at 2 new churches and with several interested families. We were blessed by the opportunity to minister to family and friends as they are ministering to us, and by the interest and new support we received from people we visited. 

   Here is the photo review of places we went and people we saw while we were in Florida!

Prayers

-We will be traveling at the end of March to Cherokee, NC for training. We plan to work for two weeks this summer with short term mission teams who will be ministering on the Cherokee reservation.  This will better prepare us for working with First Nations cultures and mission teams who will come to Lethbridge.

 -The building which Amazing Kids and Amazing Grace CC were hoping to purchase did not work out.  Pray for the right property to be found – a place to be used by God to reach the people of Lethbridge and the Blackfoot people.  We rejoice that the individual who was going to finance the purchase of a new home for the ministries is still willing to do so!