Thankful
In a previous post we listed some things that needed attention through prayer. God has been very good to us this fall, and we want to update you on how He addressed these needs.
- Annette’s back surgery was a HUGE success. The recovery period was tough (as expected), but the results from the operation have amazingly been better than anticipated even by the surgeon! Praise God!
- We have a minivan! God wove a series of events together around Thanksgiving that led to us purchasing a minivan. And some of you helped make that happen! Thank you so much! It’s old and has high mileage, but was kept up extremely well by the sellers. Annette never knew how easy carting 3 small kids around town could be until now. What a huge blessing!
- Our kids are doing great! Other than a couple of ear infections and whatnot, our kids have stayed healthy and happy this fall. They still talk about all of their friends back in Georgia, but have already made lifelong friendships here in Charleston. Out of the 70 or so folks who already make up River Church, one third of them are children under the age of 8. It’s a great community for kids!
- God has been very gracious in the area of finances. He has provided through some overwhelmingly generous gifts from some very dear people. And He has also opened the door for Stephen to begin working part time at the Apple Store on King Street in downtown Charleston. We’re still living the leanest days of our marriage, but He always seems to provide what we need to the penny at just the right time.
We’ll have a new post up shortly telling you more about what’s happening in our family and at River Church. But for the time being, we just wanted to share some specifics on how your prayers for us specifically have been answered abundantly.
Thank you so much for praying!
pray – July 2009
Happy Saturday!
Our Current Concerns
- Annette will be having back surgery on Monday, August 10 in Atlanta. Probably enough said right there. But being away from home is tough on kids, and we’ll all be away from home for at least a week during this process. We’d appreciate your prayer for Annette’s safety and 100% success of the surgery, as well as an easy transition for our kids as we stay at Stephen’s parents’ house for the week.
- We need a minivan or a large SUV. We are scaling back on expenses which means getting one of our vehicles out of our hands. That will be like getting a raise, but we are left with one small car that requires a good hip-hit to close the back doors when all three of our carseats are installed. We need God to provide a minivan or large SUV for little to no cost.
- Our kids. Moving is hard on anyone, but especially kids. We’ve had some tough days with McKenna, especially. Seen some breakthroughs, too. And we’re learning a lot in the process, which is good. But it’s still tough…and we’ve insisted that we will not allow this transition to make our kids bitter towards the Church.
- Finances. It seems that every missionary goes through a season of God stripping away the nonsense and getting focused on the fireproof stuff rather than the flammables [see this post to get what we mean]. We are not the exception. The economy has hit some of Stephen’s web/graphic-design clients hard which in turn means less work that we had been counting on to get us through the summer. Please pray that our Financial Support Team will grow.
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