Change in Date!

Due to some conflict in schedules, we need to change the date for the Open House 

to Sunday, March 15th.

We will let you know as soon as possible what the times of the open house will be.

Thanks! 

God is Good - We are on our Way!

We have a new update, so if you have not received one, please let us know and we will get it to you as soon as possible.

Our family is in a huge transition right now trying to clean out our apartment and move into a temporary home provided by some friends at church. Please be praying for us as we continue to work on this and that the boys are able to process everything as we literally sell their beds out from underneath them! =D

Some upcoming dates you might want to put on your prayer list:
* February 27th (Friday) - We will be presenting our family and our work at Trinity Baptist Church in Renton.
*Please be praying for Paul and I to speak clearly and present our work in a meaningful and efficient way.

* March 5th - 7th - I (Kim) will be flying to Minnesota to visit a longtime friend before we depart overseas.
*Be praying for safety and for a time of great fellowship with this dear friend. It will be a hard weekend saying goodbye but it a huge blessing that I am able to make the trip back to see her.

* March 14th (Saturday) - Open House Going Away Party at Karleen Kennedy's home in Burien. We do not have a specific time frame yet, so keep your eyes open for information regarding this.

* March 15th (Sunday) - Commissioning Service at Christ's Church of Federal Way. This will happen at both services. www.ccfw.org

* March 23rd (Monday) - Departure Date!! Our flight leaves at 2pm!

Please continue to pray as we seek more prayer and financial partners. There are still many details that need to be finished before we go like getting school curriculum for next year, sell our vehicles, pack more completely and say many goodbyes!

We thank you all for walking this journey with us. It has been long and hard on some days but you all have been faithful. We are truly blessed to have you with us as we close the door on the journey toward the mission field and start the journey of being overseas missionaries! How exciting does that sound?!

Many hugs to all of you,
Kim and Paul

Latest Update

As I begin this letter I am realizing that it has been far too long since we have written to inform you of what is happening in our lives and with our planning for Ch*. As the list of events is somewhat lengthy I will use bullet points below to quickly and chronologically update you with some of the more significant events of the past few months.

• A week long family vacation to Idaho. This time was split up between visiting a former youth pastor of mine who is now pastor of a small church in Bellevue Idaho and then spending several day at a family reunion on Kim's side of the family. This trip was a much needed rest for all of us and a very enjoyable time was had by all.
  
• Kim began working part-time at Starbuck's to help fill in a few of the financial gaps in our budget.
• The boys began their 3rd year of home school (which is going very well so far, we are pleased).
• Andrew (now 15 1/2) has begun drivers education through a nearby high school. This is a little scary for us.
• Paul & Kim spent the weekend attending the 2008 Seattle Missions Fest while the boys spent that time with Grandma and Grandpa Harris.
• Kim and Matthew spend the weekend attending a junior high youth retreat on the Washington coast while Paul, Andrew, and Josh took a road trip (a chance for Andrew to practice his driving skills) up to Vancouver, British Columbia.

On the mission side of things, we have also had many new and exciting things happening. I think that when we last wrote we mentioned our goal of wanting to "be ready" by the end of November. As we have spent these past few months contemplating what "being ready" actually means we have been finding that our definition is somewhat different than God's definition. As we often seem to focus on the here and now, God's focus is much more on the area of our hearts. He has been teaching us much over these last few months.

Again in the interest of being brief, the below bullet points represent a few of the highlights for us in our mission's preparation:

• A visit from the people we will be working with in Ch* which was tied in with an informational meeting night we had at our church that was attended by about 35 friends, supporters, and family members. We really wished that all of you could have been there. It was a great time.
• 2008 Seattle Missions Fest - a time in which we were able to catch up and renew friendships with a number of good friends we have made since becoming involved with missions. We had the opportunity to make several new and exciting contacts with possible resources for the future. We also had the chance to listen to and be encouraged by several current and former missionaries who shared their stories with during the two day conference.
  
• Multiple opportunities and appointments we've had, to meet one on one with people, to share our calling and story and invite them to partner with us in this ministry.
• Personal & Spiritual Growth - continually we find ourselves standing in awe of the way God is molding an shaping us through many situations and events is our daily lives as he prepares us for serving Him in Ch*.
• A mission's budget that now includes a fully-funded out-going portion and a monthly portion that is just shy of 70% pledged (80% is needed for us to set a departure date).
  
• Becoming more and more excited as we read emails from our friends in Ch* and hear of how the ministry there is expanding and growing.

For me personally, I am now focusing my time primarily on our monthly fund raising efforts and looking forward to soon being able to consider leaving my truck driving job to fully dedicate all of my attention to our mission's preparation.

An update on Kim's health: She has her follow-up scan on December 5th. Please be praying that everything comes out as clean as they are expecting and that there are no signs of remaining cancer cells. We know the results are really up to God and we are trusting Him with those results. We have been appreciating all the support and encouragement we have been receiving along the way. It has blessed us greatly to have so many people love and care for us. Thank you! We will let you know the results when we find out what they are.

I am hoping that the above information gives all of you a little bit better idea of what we have been up to these past few months. I promise to try and do my best at not letting such a long period of time go by before the next time we write. We wish and pray the blessings of our Lord upon you all. As always we long the next time we write. We wish and pray the blessings of our Lord upon you all. As always we love haring from you so please feel free to email us with questions, encouragement, or for whatever reason.

Many blessings to you and your families,
Paul & Kim (Andrew, Josh, and Matthew)

Mission Trip to Montana '08

Andrew & I (Kim) will be leaving this Friday early AM along with about 103 other people (high school youth and leaders) to three small towns of Montana. The name of the three towns, so that you can be praying for them by name, are Plains, Superior and Deer Lodge. Our teams will be putting on VBS in all three towns, doing community development (fixing things, painting, maintainance, chopping wood, delivery of wood and food etc), community outreach events and prison ministry in Deer Lodge.

Please be praying for
* safety for travel
* safety in the towns as we all work on sites and interact with the town people
* open hearts of the children and adults we encounter in each town
* opportunities for each of us to share our faith and testimonies
* against the enemy who would not want us there reaching these towns for Christ
* follow-up: that the churches are able to welcome and disciple the people who accept Jesus and need a church home to learn and grow

Also, please be praying for Paul, Joshua and Matthew who will be home. Joshua and Matthew will be spending the weekdays we are gone at family friends homes and Paul will be working. Pray for their well-being!

I am so excited to get to go out with the youth on this mission trip. It is always such a blessing to work with kids who are eager to share their faith and aren't held back by the "status quo" of the world yet. I learn so much about myself and my own fear to stretch myself and go outside my comfort zone in order to win people to Christ. And it is fun too! =D

We leave on Friday, July 25th and return Saturday, August 2nd in the afternoon. We would appreciate everyone being on their knees to help prepare the way and sustain us while we are there.

Thank you!
Kim

Back in the swing of things...

Our family has just returned from a road trip vacation and want to try to get on track with the work of getting our family ready to go by November of this year. This doesn't mean we will be leaving at the time, unless the Lord has that planned, but we want to be standing ready to serve our Father whenever He sees us ready.

You can be praying for ways for us to reach others outside of our wonderful church family for financial support. This can happen in many ways from us sending information to churches we don't really know, to having friends who go to other churches give information about us to their pastor or missions directors, or to having friends give dinners/lunches/desserts for people outside our immediate circle whom we can share our mission plans with. You can pray for the Lord to open doors to the people who have a heart for supporting missionaries on a long term basis. We believe God can provide more people than we can imagine!

On June 11th, we had a wonderful visit from Mike & Janet and they shared with 35 people what they are doing overseas and how they saw us fitting into the ministry there. It was very encouraging and refreshing for us to see them. It was like they helped rekindle the flame in our hearts to be there working among the people of Ch. There are some things you can be praying for in regards to what is going on over there and there are some things to be praising the Father for.

Here is some information directly from Mike & Janet for you to take to the Father in praise and prayer:
* We received notice yesterday that the local security bureau will be making undercover inspections of all the training centers to make sure all the regulations governing foreigners are being followed. Fortunately this came as a forewarning but it means that the "games" paranoia is expanding. Often these kinds of activities amount to harassment so, please pray that we will not experience unnecessary difficulty during this time. They also told us that the provincial security bureau will conducting their own undercover operations which means they don't trust the locals to do their job well or perhaps that they are looking for some specific kind of "results". We know we are here at His direction. We want to be wise and innocent.

* Visa regulations have changed again. Now it is necessary for all foreigners to apply for work visas from their home country. That means we can no longer get them here or even go out to HK or Thailand to apply for them. This is an additional burden that we will have to find ways to overcome.

* We have almost 35 young people heading out of the city on short term mission trips to a number of locations in Ch. Some will do English camps in house churches and other groups, some will be collecting language data among minority people's villages for the development of better evangelistic material, and some will be doing relief work in the earthquake areas. Pray for their safety and for the unity among them; they are from a number of different schools an different church groups that don't have a good sense of unity. Janet will be involved in the next week or so with the final training of the English teaching teams and Jake & Mike have the responsibility to prepare them spiritually.

We appreciate all of your prayers on their behalf.
Blessings,
Kim & Paul

Latest Newsletter

I am in the process of getting our newsletter typed and sent out. It seems like it should be a rather simple task but it never seems to turn out that way. =D If you are not on our mailing list to receive our newsletters or are not on our email list, please let us know.

Be praying for the people of "Ch" as they are suffer through surviving this earthquake. They need the hope of the Lord as they grieve their loved ones, search for the missing and rebuild after such an event.

Hi everyone,
Many are wondering about whether or not we will still be going overseas and if so, what is going on. These are great questions. The last month or so, we both have felt like it is time to get "back on the horse" and bring back the focus of getting ourselves "ready" for the mission field. We know that we have to be here at least until November for me to have another scan to make sure the treatment I had in January did the job it was meant to do. At first we took that as another road block or somewhat of a disappointment, but were encouraged by a dear friend who told us there was no reason we couldn't make ourselves ready in that time. It seemed somewhat like a "no brainer" but it lifted us up and helped bring our thoughts back in line with where the Lord wants us to be.

We have been at this for the past 3 years now and it has been difficult in so many different ways. But, oh how the Lord has been so faithful to teach us and grow us to rely on Him. Everyday I notice how much I thought I relied on Him before and yet I rely on Him more today than yesterday. I see so much growth in my husband and the more I step out of the way and allow God to move Paul, the more in awe I am of both of them. What more can I ask for? How can I continue to question God's reasoning for why this or that is happening (or not happening) when He has shown Himself purposeful and so accurate in assessing what we need to move us towards His goal for us.

So what now? As we work on getting back on track, we could use prayer as we pursue partners for our mission work, be diligent with our time for prayer with each other, and for us to continue in our trusting in the Lord's direction for our family. We are currently working on getting a newsletter out, we will start compiling a packet to give to churches as we seek church partners, and organizing a "plan" or "to do" list of how to meet the needs that will get us from where we are now to being ready in November. This doesn't necessarily mean we will leave in November but we want to stand ready for when the Lord decides it is time.

If for some reason you are not on our mailing list, please contact us via email so we can be sending you our updates. We appreciate all of our family and friends and their desire to support us in this call on our lives. We love you!

Kim