"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with Thanksgiving." Psalms 69:30

As we celebrate Thanksgiving we are truly THANKFUL for our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Savior, our Rock, our Redeemer, our Provider, our Comforter, our Refuge and SO much more.

We are also so thankful for the parents He has given us ... Mark's parents - Bob & Bonnie and Bruce & Diana and Alicia's parents - Bob and Gayle. We want to thank each one of them for the example they have set for us, and most of all for teaching and showing us the love of Christ. We are thankful that our parents chose to pass on the history God's great work to us so that we could pass it on to our children and they will now be able to pass it on to their children. We love you all!

Psalm 78: 1-8
"O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old--what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their forefathers-- a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him."

We are also thankful for our sisters and brother-in-laws ... Cary & Stephanie and Joseph & Jenn. We are also thankful for the great extended family and friends God has blesses us with.

We also want to thank everyone for your prayers and financial support over the last 5 years as we have followed God on the journey He has had for our family in Africa. Through your obedience to God, He has "sent" us to Africa to share the good news.

Romans 10: 13 - 15 says ... for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

We wanted to post a video our church put together after our team returned from the outreach in Mozambique this summer. If you want to read more and see more pictures from this summer's outreach go to the "Blog Archive" on the left and start with the August posts.

Click on the the following link to watch the
Mozambique 2008 Mission Trip Video.

Psalm 100 ... A psalm. For giving thanks.
"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

Here's the latest scoop!

Well, I have been meaning to get on here and post for a week now and I am just now doing it. We have been busy the last 2 weeks looking at airfare and trying to find the best rate out there for our family. There is so much to do and plan in order be ready to move and it seems like we are finding our days more and more focused on Africa. Which, let me say is very exciting, but can also be overwhelming if we take our eyes off of Christ and the call He has on our lives. We have to take it one step at a time and remember that we can do everything through the power of Christ. He gives us strength! (Philippians 4:13)

I want to back up last Wednesday, November 12th. It was just one of those days. The day started with an attack from the enemy ... Ephesians 6:12 "Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world." Through prayer and God's love, grace and mercy by late afternoon it seemed better. After church that night we went to check the mail and we had an envelop addressed to our family. When we opened it up we found a check for $500.00 towards our full time mission. In the midst of the trials God used this family to show us to continue to walk forward. Nothing else matters when it compares to God's will for you.

He is our Joy, our Refuge, our Comforter, our Rock, our Redeemer, He is WORTHY.

Thursday, November 13th, God continued to pour out His blessings on our family. We found out that Mark had his name drawn at work to be off on Christmas day. (This is the first time in 3 years he will not have to go to work at 6:30 am on Christmas morning!) That afternoon we found out that there is a ministry called World Connex (Missions from the Inside Out) that has grants available for Self-Supported Full Time Missionaries. We are in the process of applying for that. There is a possibility we could get up to $1,000 per month for a year.

God just keeps reminding me that He has a Big plan, bigger and better than we could ever imagine. He has reminded me that the enemy doesn't want any part of it to happen. The Word tells us that Satan is here to kill, steal and destroy. The enemy wants to discourage us and put doubt in our minds. We recognize it for what it is and say that we are choosing to follow Christ, even if it is all the way on the other side of the world. HE IS WORTHY!!!

We wait with anticipation to see how He is going to work out all of the details over the next 7 months.

Please continue to pray for our family. We have several things in the next few weeks to take care of. Some of them include ...

1. Airfare ... We are in the process of booking airfare. We have some tickets on hold for us to fly out on June 22nd.

2. Support Letters ... Our brochures should be in tomorrow and we will be sending out our Thanksgiving "thank you" letters to all of our supporters from this past trip as well as sending information asking for others to join us in the work God has called us to by praying for our family and financially supporting our mission.

3. Pray for us to stay focused on the Lord through this whole journey. We want more than anything for His name to get the GLORY!

One last thing ... Be sure to watch the video from the previous post, "Cardboard Testimonies", if you have not had a chance to. Remember to turn up the volume so you can hear the song as well.

Cardboard Testimonies

I was catching up on some of the blogs I follow and I checked on a blog I came across several months ago.

Long story short I was reading the Congo Hope Blog written by Nancy Smith (She is the mom of the Todd Smith and Nicole Smith Sponberg who sing in the group Selah.) They lived in the Congo continuing the mission work of Nancy's in laws. I read a comment to one of her posts and I felt like I needed to email the lady that wrote the comment. Anyway, we have been in a touch a few time through email and I check her blog periodically. Her family is moving to West Africa sometime in the summer of 2009.

Now for the reason I am posting this today... She had posted a video she found on the Go West Africa site, titled Cardboard Testimonies. I thought it was a great video and wanted to share it with you.

To watch the video, click on the following link ...

West Africa Cardboard Testimonies

Be sure to turn up the volume on your computer so you can hear the music with it.

Lots to Do ...

Well, we have been so busy in the last few weeks ...

We had another garage sale and made almost $300 (and every penny goes towards our mission.) We are so thankful to some friends who donated us a trailer load of stuff to sale.

We are in the process of putting together a brochure for our family explaining what we will be doing n Africa. It looks great - Huge thanks to Erin!!! Hopefully we will have those in a week and half or so.

We are putting together our Thanksgiving "thank you" letter for all of our supporters from this last trip this summer. We are hoping to have them all delivered by Thanksgiving.

We have been checking airfare and we have found a great deal on one way tickets. We are praying about booking sometime soon. We have also decided that we are going to go a few weeks earlier than the PaulAnn team so that we will have a little bit to get settled before we go on outreach with PaulAnn. Right now it looks like we will fly out sometime during the week of June 22nd - 26th, 2009.

Please keep praying for our family. We have a lot to do and get organized in the next 7 months. We will also update our website soon.