Last time I wrote, we were in Bangladesh with our daughter and son-in-law, Emily and Alpha, along with our incredible grandson, Noah. We were to be there for 4 weeks, but just about 24 hours before we were to fly out, the airport was closed because of Covid, and we were able to stay for 2 more weeks! What a joyous time as we watched Noah learn to crawl, take his first steps, and get his first tooth! His Omi and Poppy truly love him!
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| Jim working hard in Bangladesh with Emily, Noah, and Ember (the dog) keeping him company! |
Leaving Bangladesh 2 weeks later than planned meant we missed the time we were to spend in Idaho with Jim's parents and sister's family, as well as one of our supporting churches. We are looking to make up that trip a little later on.
We landed in Chicago May 4 and took off the next day for our Josiah Venture Spring Conference at Gull Lake in Michigan. The conference was online so that everyone from the 16 countries of Josiah Venture could attend, but we were able to gather with the over 50 other missionaries that were here in the States at the time to experience the conference together. What a blessing, especially after not being able to gather together for over a year!
From there, we visited family and supporters in Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. During this time we celebrated Jim's 60th birthday, and our three kids got together and bought tickets for us to visit the Noah's Ark Encounter in Kentucky! What an incredible place!
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| The Noah's Ark replica was huge and built to the size as recorded in the Bible! |
We returned to Chicago for a few days before flying out to the Josiah Venture Leaders' Meeting in Cappadocia, Turkey. Again, after over a year of not being together, the leadership team was able to meet in person. The meetings were held in Turkey because the leaders from each of the 16 countries were able to travel there while other boarders and countries were closed to many of us.
Cappadocia is such an intriguing place! Along with the "other worldly" rock formations crowding the landscape, it is also the place where the Church Fathers hammered out the Doctrine of the Trinity! What rich history!
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| Cappadocia is know for its rock formations and its hot air balloons! |
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| The people of Cappadocia would carve out the large "Fairy Towers" for their houses and even their churches! We saw many beautiful frescoes on the ancient church walls! |
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| By Georges Jansoone JoJan - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2642263 |
We are now back in Chicago since Sunday, May 30, and leave tomorrow for one week in Colorado, then 2 weeks in California, then back to Colorado to stay until September. We are so looking forward to meeting our little granddaughter, Emma Grace. Being born on April 15, almost 3 months early and only slightly over one pound, she is growing fast and doing so well!!! She is now 3 pounds 3 ounces!!!!
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| Emma Grace on May 23. |
- Please continue to pray for Emma Grace, that she will continue to grow and will be able to get out of the hospital on her due date, July 4.
- Pray for us as we continue discipleship and training sessions online with our dear friends in Germany.
- Pray for our teammate, Rachael, as she will be heading up the two camps we will be having this summer.
- Pray for Julie, our summer intern, that this will be a rich summer for her as she partners with Rachel to help out with the camps.
- Pray that the camps will be able to happen and that God will bring many young people and touch their lives through the camps.
- Pray for our busy travel schedule, that God will continue to give us health and strength.
