Sad Farewells

Our wonderful friends, the Trebilco's, hosted a farewell in Louisville for us last weekend. We spent our last Sunday at Immanuel Baptist Church and spent time with friends in the afternoon. It was a sweet time but very sad to be closing this chapter of our lives.

Joel is at that, "Don't take photos of me" stage.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was thanksgiving here in the States. We have now moved and are living with a wonderful friend, Cathy, who has generously let us take over her house. We have three more weeks here before we fly to California. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at Cathy's with some of her family and with some other dear friends, the Bishops. The Bishop family leaves on Friday for the Ukraine to adopt a little girl so we will be saying our goodbyes early but we are very excited for them. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday and we certainly have so much to be thankful for.

Cathy had the table set beautifully.

Adam cutting the turkey.


This is what most of us did after lunch. Anna-Marie took over the spot by the fire.
Cathy, Anna-Marie and Rachel.
Mark and the boys play fighting.

Exchanging gifts.

Times of Change

Tomorrow will be the 15th November which means that in just month we fly/drive to Sacramento, California. Anna-Marie, Matthew and I are flying and Mark, Rachel and Joel are making the three day drive. Mark is driving so that we can get the rest of his books over to Sacramento ready to ship back to New Zealand.

It is a very bitter, sweet time for us. We have come to love it here in the States and really feel at home in Frankfort at Buck Run Baptist Church. The year here has flown by but it has been well worth it. Mark has enjoyed working with Dr York and everyone has settled into the church very well. The people have been wonderful and extremely welcoming, despite the fact that we were here only for a year.

I thought I would update you on what the next few months hold. This weekend we are having a garage sale to get rid of all of our belongings that the Lord has provided us with, pack up our clothes and books and move in with a dear friend for our final three weeks here. We travel to Louisville this weekend to say goodbye to Immanuel Baptist Church and all the people there who are very dear to us. They want to pray for us and send us out to do the Lord's work in New Zealand and are also graciously supporting us financially.

Buck Run Baptist Church is also hoping to support us so we will be having a Wednesday night missions dinner for us and also a Sunday School class farewell. The children also have different farewell get togethers organised. Anna-Marie's will be in conjunction with her 16th birthday. So really the next month will just be a whole lot of very sad goodbyes.

In the next month we also have to achieve several things in preparation for coming back to NZ including writing exemptions to homeschool the boys. Not a job that I am looking forward to but it must be done.

We are spending about three weeks in Sacramento with our dear friends Ben and Chelsea who lived with us back in Louisville. We are very excited about seeing them and spending time with them and their wonderful extended family. We are hoping to travel a little and visit the grand canyon and Las Vegas. Mark is thinking that to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary we should get remarried by Elvis in Vegas! I don't think so!

Please pray for safe travel, especially for Mark, Rachel, Joel and Ben (who is flying over to help Mark with the driving - yes we do have wonderful friends) who will be driving 2200 miles.

Pray for us as we say our goodbyes.

Pray for us as we continue to raise support and seek the Lord's will for our future.

Thank you to all those who have faithfully been reading our blog over our years here. I guess it will change soon from updating our New Zealand friends on life here in America to updating our American friends on our ministry in New Zealand.

Mexico Part Two

Enjoying some fresh coconuts.

Rachel with the baby of a house they visited. Her group shared the gospel with this family.
Rachel and Anna-Marie outside the brick house that the team built for a local family of five.

Ready for church.
Practicing a dance routine that the whole group learned.
The best part of the day and the only way to cool off in the very hot weather, a swim.

Mexico Post One

I know it was months ago but I am finally getting around to posting some Mexico photos. We were given two CDs with every photo that was taken on the trip so it is a little difficult to put them in any sort of order. This first group of photos seem to be all Anna-Marie but photos of Rachel will follow.

This is the girls accommodation.

Anna-Marie with some ladies that they were able to share the gospel with.
Anna-Marie giving her testimony. The man next to her is the translator. She would say a couple of sentences then give him the microphone to translate.
Making balloon animals and playing games with the local children.

Apparently the boys kept throwing the girls in the pool in their clothes so to pay them back the girls threw most of the boys clothes on their roof. The boys were very unimpressed.

The guilty group of girls looking pleased with themselves.