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.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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
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
Monday, January 28, 2008
Recovery Update
Greetings to all of you, our family and friends,
It has now been one week since I received treatment for my thyroid cancer. I won't go into too many details of the process or anything else, but just want you to know that I am no longer glowing at this point and am doing ok. I am still having some small residual side effects from the treatment as well as starting back on thyroid meds, but overall am functioning to the best of my ability. It will take some time for me to balance back out and get my strength, normal vision and thought process back. I will go in this Wednesday for another full body scan to make sure the treatment did its job. As far as I know, last weeks treatment should be all that I need to get rid of the cancer. Of course, we don't know for sure but our Lord does and that is all the matters to us at the moment! =D
People are still wanting to know how to be praying for us. I guess I would ask for patience. I know it can be a scary request when we decide to ask the Lord for patience but I don't deal very well with a slow recovery process. I want my body to just be back to normal right away and it just doesn't work that way. So I need to continue to rely on the Lord and remain humble in needing to slow down and even ask those around me for help until I am back on my feet. Mostly, our hearts are with Paul's dad who still is in the hospital trying to endure the process of fighting GVHD (Graft Verses Host Disease). Though they, Paul's parents, rely on the strength of our Father to carry them through this, they can grow tired and weary. We want to be able to be there as much as possible for them and desire them to feel the love of the Lord in their lives.
We want to say thank you to all of you who have helped us physically, offered to support our family and all the prayers that have been said on our behalf. We couldn't ask for a better prayer warriors and loving people to be part of our lives. We love and appreciate each and every one of you.
Blessings,
Kim & Paul
It has now been one week since I received treatment for my thyroid cancer. I won't go into too many details of the process or anything else, but just want you to know that I am no longer glowing at this point and am doing ok. I am still having some small residual side effects from the treatment as well as starting back on thyroid meds, but overall am functioning to the best of my ability. It will take some time for me to balance back out and get my strength, normal vision and thought process back. I will go in this Wednesday for another full body scan to make sure the treatment did its job. As far as I know, last weeks treatment should be all that I need to get rid of the cancer. Of course, we don't know for sure but our Lord does and that is all the matters to us at the moment! =D
People are still wanting to know how to be praying for us. I guess I would ask for patience. I know it can be a scary request when we decide to ask the Lord for patience but I don't deal very well with a slow recovery process. I want my body to just be back to normal right away and it just doesn't work that way. So I need to continue to rely on the Lord and remain humble in needing to slow down and even ask those around me for help until I am back on my feet. Mostly, our hearts are with Paul's dad who still is in the hospital trying to endure the process of fighting GVHD (Graft Verses Host Disease). Though they, Paul's parents, rely on the strength of our Father to carry them through this, they can grow tired and weary. We want to be able to be there as much as possible for them and desire them to feel the love of the Lord in their lives.
We want to say thank you to all of you who have helped us physically, offered to support our family and all the prayers that have been said on our behalf. We couldn't ask for a better prayer warriors and loving people to be part of our lives. We love and appreciate each and every one of you.
Blessings,
Kim & Paul
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Where are we?
I know many of you are wondering if we fell off the face of the earth and if we hadn't, why isn't the blogsite updated!! Well, I wish I had a glorious story to tell you, but the reality is, I haven't been as good at doing this as I had hoped I would. So to the few of you that look at this, please except my greatest apology and I will try to get on here soon to get an update. I did get some basics updated on budget, praises and prayer requests.
Thank you for all of your love and prayers for our family!
Thank you for all of your love and prayers for our family!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Overdue...
Friends,
It seems that I am not as diligent at updating this on a regular basis as I thought I would be. Please forgive me as the updates are far, few in between and then seem pretty long!
There hasn't been too much going on since our last update. We started school with the boys and this year (the first week) has been going better than last year...thank goodness. It is a lot of work and there are days that I would prefer to not have to get up to do it! I suppose we all feel that at some time or another no matter what we are waking up to for the day? But, we are thankful that we awake every morning and are eager to see what the Lord has in store for us.
For those who may not know, there are five families who have opened up their homes to host "gatherings". This was for us to invite everyone to come and hear about our trip to China, the people we met over there and what the work we will be doing will look like. The dates are listed below and if you are interested in coming to any, just send us an email to let us know which date would fit into your schedule the best. We are excited to have the opportunity to share with everyone in a small setting. We hope you will be able to come!
* Saturday, September 22nd, 4pm, in Graham
* Sunday, September 23rd, 5pm, in Des Moines
* Sunday, September 30th, 3pm, in Federal Way (Marine Hills)
* Monday, October 1st, 7pm, in Auburn (West Hill)
* Sunday, October 7th, 2pm, in Burien
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as the fall schedules get under way. We don't want to become consumed by our schedules and want to stay focused on the Lord and what lies ahead. We would also appreciate continued prayer for Paul's dad, Dick, and his mom, Jean. The process of preparing oneself for a transplant is both full of anticipation and down right frustration. We all know the Lord is sovereign but they continue to need His physical and emotional strength to walk this path. They are both a great testimony of perseverance in times of trouble and we pray the Lord continues to give them peace and joy amidst it as well.
It is a blessing to be able to hold each other up in prayer and we are so appreciative of the prayer that is being sent up on our behalf. We would also like to be holding up your prayer needs as well. We would be honored if you would send us an email letting us know how we can be praying for you and your families.
Blessings,
P & K
It seems that I am not as diligent at updating this on a regular basis as I thought I would be. Please forgive me as the updates are far, few in between and then seem pretty long!
There hasn't been too much going on since our last update. We started school with the boys and this year (the first week) has been going better than last year...thank goodness. It is a lot of work and there are days that I would prefer to not have to get up to do it! I suppose we all feel that at some time or another no matter what we are waking up to for the day? But, we are thankful that we awake every morning and are eager to see what the Lord has in store for us.
For those who may not know, there are five families who have opened up their homes to host "gatherings". This was for us to invite everyone to come and hear about our trip to China, the people we met over there and what the work we will be doing will look like. The dates are listed below and if you are interested in coming to any, just send us an email to let us know which date would fit into your schedule the best. We are excited to have the opportunity to share with everyone in a small setting. We hope you will be able to come!
* Saturday, September 22nd, 4pm, in Graham
* Sunday, September 23rd, 5pm, in Des Moines
* Sunday, September 30th, 3pm, in Federal Way (Marine Hills)
* Monday, October 1st, 7pm, in Auburn (West Hill)
* Sunday, October 7th, 2pm, in Burien
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as the fall schedules get under way. We don't want to become consumed by our schedules and want to stay focused on the Lord and what lies ahead. We would also appreciate continued prayer for Paul's dad, Dick, and his mom, Jean. The process of preparing oneself for a transplant is both full of anticipation and down right frustration. We all know the Lord is sovereign but they continue to need His physical and emotional strength to walk this path. They are both a great testimony of perseverance in times of trouble and we pray the Lord continues to give them peace and joy amidst it as well.
It is a blessing to be able to hold each other up in prayer and we are so appreciative of the prayer that is being sent up on our behalf. We would also like to be holding up your prayer needs as well. We would be honored if you would send us an email letting us know how we can be praying for you and your families.
Blessings,
P & K
Friday, August 24, 2007
Changes coming our way
It hardly seems like it has been over a month since we arrived back home. The Lord has been working many wonders in our lives since then and we are also getting back into the swing of life and hopefully not letting it bog us down in the process. It is so easy to lose ourselves in our daily lives and forget where our number one focus must be in order to stay on task.
Our house went on the market while we were in QZ and before we left, we sent out this message to many people saying, "we are prepared to wait out the market for the house which is 66+ days but if the Lord wanted to sell our house in two weeks, He will!". Once again, the Lord has shown His power in our obedience to let go and trust Him in this journey we are on. We had a buyer within two weeks. We couldn't have asked for a more smooth transaction with the house closing on Aug. 20th.
Paul and Andrew had left for our Youth Montana Mission Trip the week after we got back. They both had a great time of working for their perspective towns, didn't receive any injuries (yeah) and grew in their faith. What more could you ask for?
Two weekends ago, we received a call from M&J (our field mentors - who we will be working under) to let us know they had found us an apartment and rented it. They will use the space for other visitors who come and go until we get there. It is fully furnished, with the exception of a diningroom table, on the 3rd floor (no elevators), with two bathrooms, oversized bedrooms and it is over a bakery!!! Boy the Lord is good!
Last weekend, we had a garage sale with some help from of our friends and it was a great success. Even the terrential rains waited until we had everything picked up and under cover!
Paul's dad who has been on a stem cell transplant donor list for several months now has received word of a 10 out of 10 match and will most likely start the process of a mini-stem cell transplant in September! Praise God!
As you can tell, the Lord has been awesome in moving us ahead this last month. But along with many blessings comes some hard things as well. We wholeheartedly believe we have been under attack from the enemy from day one, but the last month seems to have been more than usual. So please pray for our family to be faithful in following God's word in standing firm against the enemy (Eph. 6:10-17) and that we don't get discouraged along the way.
The best news of all is, we can leave at any time! So what is holding us back? Well, we do believe the Lord's timing is perfect and when He is ready to send us, the means will be there. But, the Lord is not relying just on us to be faithful to His call to missions. We feel part of our job is to allow people to see God's call on their lives to be part of missions as well. He may be calling you to be a committed prayer warrior for us, He may be calling you to give financially or He may be calling you to be encouragers in sending us. Either way, He is calling all of us to make sacrifices in our daily lives to serve Him and His purpose for us. Please be in prayer as to how you might be involved in missions with us. It is very humbling for us to rely soley on other people to provide funds for the work He has planned for us, but we trust He is speaking to many of you and wants you to be blessed by being part of His global purpose in some way!
Many blessings to all of you who we appreciate so greatly!
K & P
Our house went on the market while we were in QZ and before we left, we sent out this message to many people saying, "we are prepared to wait out the market for the house which is 66+ days but if the Lord wanted to sell our house in two weeks, He will!". Once again, the Lord has shown His power in our obedience to let go and trust Him in this journey we are on. We had a buyer within two weeks. We couldn't have asked for a more smooth transaction with the house closing on Aug. 20th.
Paul and Andrew had left for our Youth Montana Mission Trip the week after we got back. They both had a great time of working for their perspective towns, didn't receive any injuries (yeah) and grew in their faith. What more could you ask for?
Two weekends ago, we received a call from M&J (our field mentors - who we will be working under) to let us know they had found us an apartment and rented it. They will use the space for other visitors who come and go until we get there. It is fully furnished, with the exception of a diningroom table, on the 3rd floor (no elevators), with two bathrooms, oversized bedrooms and it is over a bakery!!! Boy the Lord is good!
Last weekend, we had a garage sale with some help from of our friends and it was a great success. Even the terrential rains waited until we had everything picked up and under cover!
Paul's dad who has been on a stem cell transplant donor list for several months now has received word of a 10 out of 10 match and will most likely start the process of a mini-stem cell transplant in September! Praise God!
As you can tell, the Lord has been awesome in moving us ahead this last month. But along with many blessings comes some hard things as well. We wholeheartedly believe we have been under attack from the enemy from day one, but the last month seems to have been more than usual. So please pray for our family to be faithful in following God's word in standing firm against the enemy (Eph. 6:10-17) and that we don't get discouraged along the way.
The best news of all is, we can leave at any time! So what is holding us back? Well, we do believe the Lord's timing is perfect and when He is ready to send us, the means will be there. But, the Lord is not relying just on us to be faithful to His call to missions. We feel part of our job is to allow people to see God's call on their lives to be part of missions as well. He may be calling you to be a committed prayer warrior for us, He may be calling you to give financially or He may be calling you to be encouragers in sending us. Either way, He is calling all of us to make sacrifices in our daily lives to serve Him and His purpose for us. Please be in prayer as to how you might be involved in missions with us. It is very humbling for us to rely soley on other people to provide funds for the work He has planned for us, but we trust He is speaking to many of you and wants you to be blessed by being part of His global purpose in some way!
Many blessings to all of you who we appreciate so greatly!
K & P
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Coming Home...For a Visit
12:55pm Thursday, July 19th, 2007 (QZ time)
To all our friends and family,
You may be wondering about the subject line, but in many ways, that is how we feel about coming home. Neither one of us wants to leave here, at least for very long. We are torn, now, between two places. One has our family and many wonderful friends and the other has many new friends and we have found many new family members (the believers) as well. Enduring the heat, the sweat, communication gaps, and barely surviving rides in the pedicabs and taxis has been more than worth it. I think we can honestly say, we have found our new home! Unfortunately, many of the students we have been getting to know will be off to the universities and colleges and we will be saying goodbye to them knowing we will most likely never see them again. We have been touched by their generous giving of themselves in taking us places, helping us order food and for our "laugh sessions" while we try to pronounce Chinese words. We will forever be touched by the little bit of time we have had with them. Today we will go on our final "outing" with them and I hope the Father has allowed us to have touched them in some way.
We head back home tomorrow excited to be able to share with you our experience here. We have many pictures and several interesting stories to share. But mostly, we hope to share the work that is being done here and the desire to return quickly to participate in this work. There is work to be done everywhere in this world, but we now know more than ever before that this is where the Father wants us to be!
Please be talking to the Father to give us a safe trip home and that we are rested enough to enjoy our eager reunion with our boys. Thank you for your many thoughts for their safety and blessings with the friends they have stayed with. The Father has heard you and answered you in bigger ways than we could've ever imagined! We look forward to seeing many of you soon!
Blessings and our thoughts are always with you,
Paul &Kim
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