A NEW YEAR'S UPDATE!

2011 - Wow! We haven't anticipated a new year as much as this one! After our year of transition in 2010, we are so excited for all the new 'news' of this year.

• new country
• new language
• new mission work
• new relationships
• new style of worship
• new home
• new foods

How thankful we are that with all of these new experiences and challenges we have the same God leading us on this incredible journey He has called us to. Thank you to all who have joined us on the journey! Happy New Year!!

WE HAVE A DATE!

Okay, so we have a TENTATIVE date to leave for Africa...January 22nd! We are sooo excited. So why is the date tentative? Two reasons - visas and support.

VISAS: To live in Tanzania we need residency visas. Our applications for these visas have been submitted and we are waiting for their approval. We really have no control in this process. The wait is a little frustrating, but we are trying to be patient.

SUPPORT: We are down to raising the last 10% of our sustaining monthly support and the one-time cost of purchasing a vehicle worthy of driving in the African bush. Just in the past week we have had 6 new people join us as monthly supporters of our new ministry work!

Please continue to pray for our children as our departure time approaches, for the remaining support to pledged, and for the approval of our visas. Thank you!!

Update of 'Bucket List'

Back in August, the children came up with a list they called their African Bucket List. Basically, it is a list of things they want to do before we depart. Several people have asked recently about the list so I thought I'd share an update.

In Colorado, Heidi got to go horseback riding.
The girls visited an American Girl store.
We've eaten at both Chili's and Olive Garden.
They had a sleepover with their best friends - the Wilsons.
Morgan will soon be going on a "take as long as you want" trip to Barnes & Noble. (Thank you, Charlene!)

So today...Heather's Aunt Janie treated the kids to Chuck-e-Cheese. Really, we didn't think anybody was crazy enough to do this! We're just glad we didn't have to take them :)
They spent several hours eating pizza and playing all the games with 60 tokens each! The manager found out it was their last visit to Chuck-e-Cheese for a long time and donated some extra tickets and cotton candy! THANK YOU AUNT JANIE for making a wonderful memory for the children.

Rabid?

So today we began our rabies shots...a series of three shots required before our move to Tanzania. They are expensive and, might I say, painful.

Heidi aka "fearless one" volunteered to go first and watched, of course. Then she was so sweet and held our hands as we took our turns.

One of the definitions for rabid is "going to extreme lengths in expressing or pursuing a feeling or interest." There are people who think we are crazy for leaving it all behind for Africa, but we are perfectly happy to be "rabid" about spreading God's Glory in Tanzania.

What's your address?

Someone asked me today for my address and I have to admit I was shocked to realize that we don't have one! When we got back to Indiana a few days ago from our support raising/training trip, we moved into the mission house of our home church. Technically, I suppose, this is our address for the time being. This transition stage is completely crazy and unsettling! It is a comfort to know, however, that we will soon live/reside/settle into our African home very soon. We are beginning to really understand that as a family "home" is wherever we are together as a family.

Commissioning

Our commissioning ceremony with CMF was held last night at their annual board meeting here in Indianapolis. We were also "capped" with an International Harvester hat, which is the CMF tradition for new missionaries. We are so happy to have completed our training and now officially commissioned! We have to thank our family - those who attended and those who took care of the children during the ceremony. We also have to thank our Plainfield Christian family. We were overwhelmed by how many PCC staff members and mission committee members were there to support us. Some of them have known Heather since she was a child! What a blessing it is to have the love and support of our home church!

Mt. Herman

Across from the MTI training center is Mt. Herman. Saturday morning we were free from class, so Bill and the other guys in our class climbed all 9000 feet of Mt. Herman. You can see Pikes Peak in the background of Bill's summit picture. By the way, Mt. Kilimanjaro, which Bill wants to climb in Tanzania, is over twice this high!

Mission Training International

So here we are at MTI receiving our final training before we depart for Africa. MTI is located just north of Colorado Springs in a beautiful setting. The course we are taking is three weeks long and is called SPLICE. Basically we are learning how to navigate the challenges of transitioning into a new culture, learning about what makes missionaries burnout, how to handle the high levels of stress on the mission field, and many issues concerning our four little missionary kids (called MK's). The kids are in their own classes and are talking about their expectations, fears, etc. There are twenty kids here in all who will also be leaving shortly. They are going to Equador, New Zealand, India, Poland, Slovenia, etc. It is such a great opportunity for them to be with other children who are going through the same transition as they are. Wyatt is in a class for 4-6 year olds. Heidi and Oleg are together for 7-11 year olds. Morgan is sometimes with them and sometimes with another 12 year old girl. Although this is an exciting time for them, it can also be a confusing and frightening time for them. We are so thankful for this opportunity and for our supporters who made it possible. Thank you!

Goodbye Aunt Betty

Today is my Great Aunt Betty's 85th birthday. Today is also the day she will be buried.

Aunt Betty was a gentle and tender woman with a sweet smile that always made you smile back. And she loved the Lord.

With the loss of Aunt Betty, we are confronted with the fact that when we leave for Africa, life here will go on. There will be deaths. There will be births. There will be graduations, birthdays and weddings which we will not be present. These events will add to the distance we will feel from home and family.

Some Fun for the Kids

Because we insisted upon the kiddos having excellent behavior during all of our presentations and dinners with ministers, we wanted to make sure we gave them some time for fun. So in the afternoons in Kansas, between our church visits, we found lots of fun and mostly free things to do:

• visiting the largest ball of twine in the world


• exploring a fort erected by Coronado in 1541


• visiting a cute Swedish town Lindborg, Kansas, where you search for painted little wooden horses called Dalas


• bowling (this was hysterical - Wyatt beat everyone but Daddy)


• playing in parks


• driving to the middle of nowhere to see the geographical center of the United States - yes we counted it as homeschooling :)
  

It was great to see the kids looking for things to do, be flexible, and begin to understand the word "budget!" We are really starting to anticipate a good transition for the children into our new way of life.

Kansas School of Missions

We were invited to participate in the Kansas School of Missions this past week. It basically is a group of churches joining together for a week of missions presentations. Each missionary goes on a circuit of 7 churches. Each evening the host church provides dinner, followed by the mission presentation, provides housing, and breakfast the next morning. Then the missionary has the afternoon free to travel to the next church location. Most often it was only one to two hours between towns. Some of these churches and towns were quite small, but large in their passion for missions. We met some wonderful people, were fed very well, and received offerings for our outgoing expenses. Some of the towns were Junction Ciy, McPherson, Salina, Cawker City, Downs, Mankato, and Concordia Kansas.

More Transition...and One Major Roadtrip!

October 1st was an important day for our family. It was Bill's last day of his "traditional" employment and the day we left on a 5 week roadtrip. First, we are so excited that Bill will be with us now everyday and that he will now have the time he needs to devote to our final preparations for the field. However, it is a major step in this journey of faith we are on! We are more aware that we are fully relying on God in this process. We are so very appreciative for our faithful supporters in both finances and prayers.

Secondly, the roadtrip consists of visiting churches in Kansas, Colorado, and three weeks of training in Colorado Springs. Then we return November 6th...for our commissioning at CMF on November 7th! Although this process has seemed long during the past year and a half, we are now seeing our departure for Africa coming closer and becoming a reality. A time of anticipation and some sadness as our goodbyes approach.

Stay tuned for blogs of our roadtrip!

Mt. Kilimanjaro

"He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man,

he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth,

the LORD God Almighty is his name." Amos 4:13

Update - Packing Again!

It seems like we do a lot of packing these days. We are now packing up the basement in preparation for a road trip beginning October 1st. Make that a 5 WEEK ROADTRIP! Yes, WITH the children. We leave Friday, Oct. 1, for Kansas. We have been invited to participate in the Northeast Kansas Board of Missions Week from Oct 2 - 9. We will be presenting to a different church each night in the Salina and Junction City, Kansas, areas. We are really excited to develop relationships with these churches and thankful for additional support raising opportunities. We then continue west on I-70 to Boulder, Colorado, where we spend a week at a timeshare (thank you Arthur family!). We only have a few things scheduled with some Colorado supporters that week, so we will mostly be enjoying some much needed family down time. Then, on October 18th, we begin our three week training course at Mission Training International in Colorado Springs. Quite a lot of transitioning, but we are learning as a family how to be more flexible and live life with less :)

Back to the Books

Another homeschooling year begins... Morgan (6th grade), Oleg (5th) and Wyatt (K) are homeschooling again. We have set up a homeschool area in the basement and are off to a great start to the new school year. Wyatt is especially excited to be an official homeschooler. We actually have started our school year earlier than usual, because we will be taking off three weeks in October when we attend our final missionary training course in Colorado.

Heidi, on the other hand...well life in the basement is a little restraining on such an active, free little child like our Heidi. So we decided to let her attend our local 1st grade until we go to Colorado. Her teacher happens to be a neighbor and Heidi couldn't be happier.

We all look forward to homeschooling in Africa!

Bucket Lists

Bucket lists have become popular because of the recent movie. Usually it is a list of things you want to do before you "kick the bucket" but my kids have made "Africa Bucket Lists" - things they want to do before we leave for Africa. We told them we would try to do some of the things on their lists, but we probably wouldn't get them all done due to time and financial restraints. I thought it would be fun to share with all of you...

Swim with dolphins at Sea World - Heidi
Go horseback riding - Heidi
Visit the American Girl store - Heidi & Morgan
Go to a Lego store - Oleg
Eat at Chili's, Olive Garden - all
Go the the beach - all
Chuck-e-Cheese - all kids (anybody want to take them? :)
Disney World - Wyatt
Sleepover at Wilson's house - all
Unlimited time at Barnes & Noble (without the little kids) - Morgan
Spend as much time with grandparents as possible - all

So if you knew you only had a few months left in the United States and you wouldn't be back for 2 1/2 years....what would be on your bucket list???

Housing Update

I can't believe it has been a month since our last blog entry. What a month it has been! We are now living in what used to be our basement. So here is the story. The family that bought our house called us a few days after our last post and offered us the basement. They are a missions minded family and thought it just didn't make sense for us to pay for an apartment while we are trying to raise our support. Also, it was very difficult to find an apartment for our large family and with a short-term lease. We took a day to think about their offer, talked about it with the kids, and then agreed! Our kids think it is very cool to be living in the basement and I think it will be easier on them to have one less transition. What used to be a movie theatre now has mattresses lined up on the floor, the exercise room is full of our clothes, we share one bathroom and the old playroom is now our "family room." We do have a small fridge/sink. Thankfully, our parents and Bill's sister are hosting us for many dinners each week. God continues to provide all that we need.

Packing up the house!!

We have waited so long to be able to officially begin packing up the house. We have already sold alot of our "stuff"so that helps the packing process. We have moved to college, out of state, with kids and without kids, but this move is surely unique. For one thing, we don't know where we will live for the next few months or the exact date we need to be out of this house. We have to pack some things for storage, some things for Africa and some things to use during the next few months! And, during this support raising stage, it is difficult to gauge exactly when we will leave for the field...although November is certainly our goal. It will be crazy around here for the next few weeks...my children will live on pizza and happy meals I'm sure!

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for the sale of our home! Please continue to pray for us as we now look for short term housing.

Thank you, Bethel!

Today we had the great pleasure of presenting to Bethel United Methodist Church in Hymera, Indiana. This small congregation was very warm and welcoming. We feel like we already have the beginnings of a great relationship. We will be so excited to share news from the field with them over the next few years. Bill gave a message about missions and I shared about Tanzania. The church took up a love offering and also will be adopting us as missionaries! They have also committed to pray for us....and they certainly have some prayer warriors among them. How thankful we are for the events of the day. Getting to go out to lunch afterward with the pastor, his wife, and several other church members was a special blessing on our day. When CMF challenged us to plan our support raising strategy, both Bill and I wanted to seek out smaller churches to partner with us. Even though our large home church has been one of the biggest blessings of our life, we know that great relationships could be made with small churches and that a lot of missionaries bypass the churches in more rural areas and tend to visit large churches near metro areas. They are missing out! This photo is of our display table. Many of the women loved looking at the beadwork and baskets and were excited to learn about micro-enterprise programs. God is so good to us and we thank Him for our new friends in Hymera!

Passports

Today we went to the courthouse to apply for passports for the kiddos. The clerk thanked us profusely for being prepared. Each child had to have an application, copy of their birth certificate, two passport photos, and two checks. The kids stood in front of the window one at a time for the clerk to match them against the photos. They were so well behaved that we are starting to think we could actually make it through airport security without too much drama!

Bye Bye Playset

One of the many things to go...the playset. It didn't go far, however. In fact, it only went next door! It is one of the Rainbow playset systems - built great, but very heavy. So Bill and Dan Wilson (new owner of the playset) came up with the great idea of using Dan's four wheeler to pull it next door. All of us women laughed at their idea, but it worked! Heidi was a little upset to see our backyard empty, but knowing that the playset will be with her best friends next door eased her sadness. Also, the Wilsons are gracious enough to let the kids go over and play on it whenever they want. Heidi asked us, "What do the playsets in Africa look like?" Our answer, "Honey, they look just like trees!" :)

Another Presentation

We did our "Tanzania presentation" to the missions committee of Hazelwood Christian Church tonight. Hazelwood is a small town in our county. We attended services there this past Sunday and were really blown away by their hospitality. The missions committee seemed very interested in our mission and asked some great questions. This was our second presentation to a church...our first being at our home church, Plainfield Christian.

Garage Sale

So what do you do when you are moving to Africa and can take very little with you??? Have a garage sale! The rain held off today and we had a great sale. We got rid of alot and managed to make exactly the amount of one plane ticket to Africa! Hmmmm...so which kid do we bring with us? Just kidding! We'll keep raising money for the other tickets, but I think I'm done with garage sales. My mom and her dear friend Kathy (thank you!) did most of the work, but I'm still exhausted. The kids were great....didn't shed a tear over seeing nearly all of their toys sold. A couple of them commented, though, that they wish we could take all the toys with us to give to their new African friends.

Back from Training!

We were at the home offices of CMF again this week for more training. This training really helped us tie together the rest of the steps that need to happen before we leave. We had a great time with three other couples who are also headed for Africa. One gal is a medical doctor and one of the guys is a geologist headed for Kenya. It was so interesting to hear him explain how he can find water in some of these remote villages where it hasn't rained in two years. What a blessing it will be for those villages to have clean water. He will be working in an area of Kenya called Turkana where 1/3 of children die before the age of 5. The statistics are really hard to understand as Americans, but I will tell you when you actually go and see these places and meet these people, it all becomes very real. Each one of those statistics has a face you never forget.

So we are now officially looking for churches and individuals to partner with us. We have a monthly budget to raise to sustain us and the work we will do in Tanzania. We also have outgoing expenses to raise for plane tickets, etc. We received all of our printed materials this week, so let us know if you would like to get a copy. The kids think it is really cool that our family photo will be on the CMF website. They are so easy to please :)

Q&A: What language will you learn?

SWAHILI! Even though over 100 tribal languages are spoken in Tanzania, Swahili is the common language of many East African countries. We have been learning Swahili using Rosetta Stone and it has been so much fun. Also, while we are still in the States, we will take a language course for missionaries. Then, upon our arrival in Africa, we will go to language school for several weeks. Our Swahili should really improve at that time, because the school is taught by native speakers and because we will be living in the culture. Morgan isn't thrilled about learning Swahili, because she has been taking French class for several years. Oleg isn't thrilled either, because English is already his third language. He spoke both Ukrainian and Russian when we adopted him. The little ones are a different story. They both spend a lot of time on the computer with Rosetta Stone. From what we have heard, the youngest missionary kids pick up the language the fastest. Heidi is so outgoing and social that she will probably be the first to be fluent. She just has to talk to everybody she meets! Thankfully, Bill has no problems learning foreign languages. He will need to be fluent quickly to perform his missionary duties. It really is a gift he has from God. He has travelled to many countries, and it is crazy how fast he picks up the language! Okay.....a short Swahili lesson.....

• Jambo - hello
• Asante - thank you
• Mungu - God
• Nyumbani - home
• Kuku - chicken

Questions from the Kiddos

When we began talking to the kids last year about going to Africa, we encouraged them to ask us any questions they had. Over the course of the year, they all have done so and we are glad that they have. It's great to see their little minds trying to figure all of this out. Some of their questions have been insightful and some have been just flat out funny. I'll share a few:

• Morgan (11) "Is there chocolate in Africa?"
• Oleg (10) "Is it cold there? Just tell me it isn't cold there."
• Heidi (6) "Do I get my own spear?"
• Wyatt (4) "Mama, how black will I be in Africa?"

Q&A: When are you going?

We wish we knew! This is one of the most difficult aspects of the journey so far. We are both chronic planner - Type A people, so not knowing exactly when we leave for Africa has been a test in patience. Basically, the two biggest hurdles for us now are support raising and selling our house. Our house has been on the market since last fall and things have been slow. It is such a difficult time to sell a house. We have a realtor who is an incredible woman of faith, who continues to lift us up in prayer and encourages us. Please join us in praying for a buyer! We are excited about the support raising, though. We go April 28-30 for our "official" support raising or deputation training...so May 1st we will officially begin looking for donors/partners. We really are excited about this and hope to be fully supported by the end of the summer. Then we go as a family to Missionary Training Institute in Colorado for a month of pre-field language training (a requirement of CMF and highly recommended by every missionary who has been). Then we come home, say our goodbyes and off we go! So the short answer to this question is: We plan to leave in November, but fully recognize that this is OUR plan. We are excited to see how GOD'S plan unfolds!

Q&A: What will you miss?

What will we miss? This is a fun question to answer. We'll revisit this question after a few months there to see if we were right. So...in random order and by various family members, what we THINK we will miss.....

1. McDonald's
2. television
3. radio
4. pre-packaged convenient foods
5. snow
6. changing leaves
7. Barnes & Noble
8. grandparents, family
9. paved roads
10. electricity
11. dishwasher
12. Plainfield Christian Church
13. our neighbors
14. clothes dryer
15. Diet Coke
16. access to medical care
17. our Suburban
18. watching sports (Colts, Yankees)
19. shopping
20. Dairy Queen

Q & A: Why Africa?

As we begin sharing our news with everyone, we have noticed that people generally ask us the same five or six questions. So I (Heather) will try to answer these most frequently asked questions. We love when people ask questions and are interested in our lives. Thank you!

Today I will attempt to answer the question "Why Africa?" Some people truly want to know how God called us specifically to Africa. Others ask this question, but really mean "why not here?" I've been asked a couple of times, "Can't you do mission work in the States?" Ironically, we got this line of questioning alot when we adopted from Ukraine. Yes, we could have adopted in the States, but our child happened to be in Ukraine. And now, yes, we can and have done "mission work" locally, and in other countries, but our call to long-term missions happens to be to East Africa!

I have never been accused of having eloquent language...so now I'll cheat a little and borrow some quotes to further answer the "Why Africa?" question.

"I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light." John Keith Falconer

"No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once." C.T. Studd

"If ten men are carrying a log - nine of them on the little end and one at the heavy end - and you want to help - which end will you lift on?" William Borden

"If God's love is for anybody anywhere, it's for everybody everywhere." Edward Lawlor

"I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!" Isobel Kuhn

Blog Title

Okay, so why 'Bringing Truth to Tanzania'?

First, the conversation between Pilate and Jesus in the book of John has always been a favorite passage of Bill's. Pilate is really trying to figure out who Jesus is...a King...a Jewish King??? Jesus tells Pilate, "In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Then Pilate asks, "What is truth?" Que est veritas? Philosophers such as Plato & Socrates had long been trying to answer this question. In fact, Aristotle, in 350 B.C., tried to define truth as "to say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that is not, is true" Clear as mud? So here we have Jesus telling us what the standard for truth is...Him!

Secondly, we feel that truth is essential to the work we will be doing in Tanzania. It was amazing to take each problem we saw in Africa and realize that at the root of each problem were lies. For example, lies about HIV, lies the witchcraft doctors tell, curses, etc. Of course the only way to fight these lies is with truth. By doing this, we will not only be setting them free from their earthly bondage to lies, but eternal freedom through salvation. As Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Reading List

What are we doing while waiting for the next step in this process? Reading! We're reading so many wonderful books in preparation for the field. Some are required reading by CMF and some are required for courses we are taking.

• When Helping Hurts - How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor
• Into the Mud - True Stories of Africa
• Red Letters - Living a Faith that Bleeds
• Getting Your Hands Dirty - Mission in Action
• Multiplying Light & Truth through Community Health Evangelism
• The Poor Will Be Glad -Joining the Revolution to Lift the World out of Poverty
• Crazy Love - Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Photos...

Adorable Maasai children. Girls of 6-7 often are responsible for the care of younger ones.

Women from the Maasai village of Matale. I'm not sure what they thought was more strange...my blond hair or Bill's Yankees hat!

Lone Maasai walking...yeah, they do alot of that.

Bill talking with James, a CMF trained church planter, and Gary, our future teammate, and several Maasai men.

This is on the grounds of the training center. The nationals are being taught farming through a program called Farming God's Way.

Picture of Mt. Meru from the CMF Training Center. Here the clouds are covering the summit. You can see Meru from anywhere in the Arusha Region - it is the second tallest mountain in Tanzania...after Kilimanjaro, of course. After a life in the flat midwest, I really look forward to seeing these magnificent mountains everyday.

MISSIONARY RECRUITS!

Well it is official...on March 15th we became missionary recruits with Christian Missionary Fellowship International! As our family and friends know, we have been involved in short-term missions for a long time. However, we both felt a pull to be open to full-time missions work. So we began to look for long-term opportunities. We knew God would show us where He could use our skills and abilities best...and He didn't disappoint! A year ago we discovered a team of missionaries in Tanzania with CMF International that was looking for someone with a strong business background, along with missions experience, to join the team. Why business? The team lacked a Field Business Administrator and also wanted to use micro-enterprise and micro-finance as a part of their holistic approach to evangelism. So many other things fell into place to confirm that this call to Tanzania was, in fact, from the Lord. We went on our vision trip in October 2009. Needless to say, we fell in love with the team, the work they were doing, and Africa. We have had physicals, more shots than we can count, read books and attended seminars during the past few months. Now what? In late April, we attend Support Raising Training at CMF. Then, we raise the support needed for our mission and off we go - with a few suitcases and our four incredible children - to Africa!!! We hope to be "on the field" by Christmas. Thanks for joining us in this journey.