Thank you!

 Thank you to everyone who prays for us and gives, making it possible for us to live here and share Jesus among a people who are less than .05% evangelical Christians.

We love you and thank God for you!!!!

Week of prayer for international missions

 

This week is set aside as a time to pray for international missions around the world. 

We are grateful for your prayers as we live cross culturally among a people group that has less than .05% evangelical Christians. Pray they will respond to God's call to Himself through Jesus His Son!

Please pray for the people all over the world who have yet to hear the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other way to God the Father except through Him. John 14:6

www.imb.org

Happy birthday to Mark!

Happy birthday to Mark, our fearless leader! 

We are so very thankful to God for creating him. Thank You, Lord, for the husband and father he is, his ambassadorship for Christ, and his commitment to the Word of God. 

We love you, Mark! 

 

Occupational therapy group

First Baptist Church in Burden, KS generously made possible a gift to each of the families who are a part of the OT group which meets weekly. In each bag there is a book of John, homemade play dough purchased from a pastor's wife who uses the extra income to support their family, 

bean bags, and food items. 

This little Cutie is one of the kids who comes to therapy group. She's making lots of progress! 

Madylanne got to come with us for our last Bible story of the year and to 

help deliver gift bags during therapy. 

Please pray these children and families will hear the voice of God calling them to 

Himself through Jesus His Son. 

                                                   

VBS week 1

Week 1 of VBS

What started out small turned out to be around 50+ kids for VBS...you'll recognize all the fun things that happen during VBS...Bible story time, crafts, games, and of course snacks! 

It was such a blessing having our big kids home from school so they could help, too...Madylanne enjoyed the little ones. 

It is the culture here for people to take their shoes off at the door before entering. Isn't it fun to see all the shoes at the door?

We had an amazing time teaching through the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus...and He's coming back! Praying these truths from God's Word will take root in their hearts and they will grow to fruition in their lives....

 

Thankful

 This is us! I am so very thankful to God for so many things...most of all, Jesus, God's Son, and that God gives us a way to have a right relationship with Him through Jesus. And then, I am thankful for our family! Madylanne is home from school and we are so thankful to be together! This is us at our Thanksgiving celebration. 

We are very thankful for our national partners, too, and teammates! We really enjoyed being able to celebrate our Thanksgiving meal together. 

You've seen Laurien before, in the red shirt...he helps Mark with language and a ton of other things! He is a blessing from God, indeed. 

We are so thankful for our teammates, the Rains family. They will be transitioning to a new position within the IMB

in the next few months. We are thrilled for them to be saying YES to the Lord and simultaneously sad to see them go. We are grateful for the people God places in our lives in each season! 

Ladies Meeting

 Thank you for praying for the ladies meeting we had Saturday. Many ladies came to hear what the Bible has to say about how to interpret it well, our roles as women, and what a gift it is to be able to share the Word of God with our children and neighbors. 

Preparation

 The boys are helping us get arts and crafts materials ready for our VBS next week. Thanks, boys! 

Ednah is helping me stuff bean bags that will be Christmas gifts for the therapy kids. Thank you, Ednah, for the help, and thank you First Baptist Church Burden for helping make this possible! 

Visiting Madylanne

Madylanne was in a play at her school last weekend- what an honor to visit her and see the play in person! She and all the cast and crew worked so hard putting this together. 

We are so proud of your efforts, Madylanne. 

We hiked up the hill right next to her school on Saturday and enjoyed this gorgeous view of the valley. God's majesty on display! 

I'm so thankful to God for Madylanne.

 

Camel??

 Yep, it's a camel! We woke up to see this friendly camel face and hump 

one morning out our window, ha! 

This one and his two companions spent the night resting 

and eating vegetation near our fence. 

Their keepers walked them back to the beach the next day for their tourist rides. 

Celebrating a new church plant

We have dear friends who are very excited about what God is doing in their ministry...a new church plant has been growing over the last year and we are so happy to seem them worshiping on their plot of land. May God continue to bless this ministry as they share Jesus 

in word and deed and make disciples of men and women. 

 

Breakfast of champions

The boys were inspired to make us breakfast by a teammate (thanks Charis!!)

 and so VOILA they made us toast and salad. 

Thanks, Matthew and Micah! It was delicious! :)

 

Midterm break

Matthew won a Shine badge at his school recently 

for being an outstanding student. 

We are really proud of him! 

May you keep shining for Jesus, Matthew. :)

Madylanne came home for midterm break and made breakfast for everyone the morning she arrived....you can see Micah was super excited to see her before he headed off to school for the day. 

We sure enjoyed having her home for a long weekend! 

 

Supporting caregivers of families that have cerebral palsy

I (Melynda) had the honor of joining a group of caregivers who have children or loved ones with cerebral palsy recently. We marched on our main street to 

raise awareness and show our love for these families. 

Here are some of the families who attended the presentation after the march. 

 Please pray for these families! May they receive community support 

and know how valuable they are to us and to God, 

who loves them and created them in His image. 

Micah is 8!

Happy 8th birthday, Micah! We love you and thank God for you! 

 

Micah wanted pot stickers- Chinese dumplings- for his birthday this year. So we went to the Korean restaurant in town and WOW they were yummy! Such a great idea, Micah!! 

Kahawa means coffee

Coffee time! 

 What a blessing to have a coffee ministry! Wait, what?! This cup was served to me at our ladies Bible Bible study a few weeks ago. Where we live there are lots of great places to get coffee and this seems to be a popular way to spend time getting to know people. What's funny is that we go "out" to get coffee but when we visit people in their homes we drink tea. Hot tea with milk and sugar. 

And lemme tell ya, it's yummy. 

Please pray for all the relationship building that happens over coffee and tea!! 

What a sweet way to invest in the Kingdom. 

Vacation Bible School

While the kids had a week long break from school, we seized the opportunity (great idea from our team leader Melissa!) to hold a one day VBS at two Baptist churches. We had it at one church on Monday and the other church on Wednesday. It was a great time of two churches working together to do something they hadn't done before. LOTS of kids participated and we had a blast sharing about Jesus...

we can answer the call of God and say yes to Him as Savior! 

 

Doing boy stuff

While we were in Kansas, Micah learned how to ride a bike...thank you Koy for letting him borrow your bike to practice!!! And now look at him go in our yard, woohoo Micah!

This is Matthew in a baobob tree at a restaurant we went to recently. BIG tree! 

 

First Day of School....

Here are some first day of the new school year pictures:

Matthew year 7/grade 6

Micah year 3/grade 2

Madylanne 10th grade

 

A fast and wonderful visit to Kansas

We had the blessing of a short visit to Kansas in August.  We wanted to visit our families in person and hug their necks! We got to visit parents, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, even a few aunts and uncles! Plus we were blessed to worship with our sending church, First Baptist Church of El Dorado, and our hosting church, First Baptist Church Burden. Our hearts are full from the love and encouragement poured out on us! Thank you, everyone, who loved on us!! 

It sure was wonderful to see you and spend time with you! 

 

 

Madylanne is 15

Madylanne brought a friend, Jordan, home with her from school over her mid term break- a three day weekend- that just happened to be her birthday! We are so thankful for the Lord's sweet blessing of being able to spend Madylanne's birthday with her together at home, 

and for the opportunity to meet a special friend. 

You can see her brothers were very glad for some sister time. 

Birthday party! 

 Walking to church in the rain.