I Am Blessed

The Lord has blessed me so incredibly, beyond what I could ever have imagined.  I have an incredible husband, who loves the Lord, me and our children

and our six wonderful kids

Daniel

Elaina

Nicholas

Naomi

Jeremiah

Deanna

and praying that the Lord would give us more to love and raise for His Glory.

Michelle

Our second house

Well, we are on to our second house. It is larger than the first. This house belongs to a single mother who lost her husband 4 or 5 years ago. We have not met her yet. Her Father has been there almost every day. He brings us soda and snacks for lunch and provides us water to wash our hands at lunch and the end of the work day. A very nice man. He brought his wife with him Saturday and was planning to tell us his story of what he went through during the Tsunami but our interpreter decided not to go to work with us. So now that is supposed to take place on Monday.

We were thinking that this house would take us the rest of our stay to complete but because we are no longer repairing the siding and the work on the inside is going so smoothly we are now looking at this Tuesday as completion day for what we are suppose to do.

We have dried in the house by wrapping the hole in the exterior walls with tarps

Rebuilt part of the floor









that was destroyed by a tree that came through the house.










Insulated the floors and walls.

Installed new subfloor







and now hanging drywall but don't have picture of that.

In every Japanese house you will find what my work team calls a cubby hole where they put their gods. This is a picture of the hole.

We also had a chance to see a ceremony take place across the street from the job this week in which they had to try to appeased the gods before they could build on the land. They had a truck sitting in the way but you can get the idea.

This picture is after they left still with all the decoration up and a pile of dirt on the ground.

 So far it has been a good trip. I have been here 2 weeks now and we have accomplished much work. They leaders are hunting for another house for us to do that we will be able to finish before we leave. Our crew has been working great together - like we have worked together for years. This is an answer to my prayer. Thank you Lord!

Gary

God's world is so small

One of the other paperwork requirements we have to fulfill is for Gary to provide an affidavit of support.  Proving that he can provide for me and that I won't become a burden on the government. 

There are a few challenges with this - we need to show our 2009 tax return - whoops we don't have one of those because we weren't in the country and didn't need to file.  Ok, we will send the 2008 tax return - a little problem there too. While we did file a 2008 tax return, we couldn't find it.  We know it was sent to us in England, but from moving from England to Zambia, back to England and now America, it seems to have gone missing.  Now, I know we could have requested a copy from the IRS but that would have taken a long time and believe me, we are trying to get all this paperwork done asap so our family can be together again.

On Sunday I had an idea - why not contact the man who prepared our taxes and see if he still has a copy.  I called Gary, he didn't have the man's email, so instead he sent an email to the Financial Director at WEC and asked if he could put us in contact with the man who did our taxes (who now lives in New Zealand).  WEC emailed the man for us and by Monday afternoon I had an email with a copy of our 2008 tax return.

So, in less than 24 hours, my request went to the Lord and then from England to Missouri, to Pennsylvania to New Zealand and back to England. 

Thank you to those who I know were praying that we would find our tax return quickly - the Lord answered your prayers and we are grateful.

Michelle

God is in the Details

I have seen the Lord move.  I have seen Him orchestrate circumstances which were beyond my control.  I have seen Him answer prayer and I am grateful.

After my interview last week I got straight to work on gathering all the paperwork.  My first task was to send off for a police background check.   In order to do this I needed a passport photo.  No problem - off to the chemist to take care of that.  Next, get someone to endorse the photo to say that it is a true likeness of me, shouldn't be a problem, but wait, the person who endorses the photo has to have known me for at least 2 years, has to be a professional and can't be a family member.  This caused a little problem.  Everyone around the place where I am currently living hasn't known me for 2 years.   The only professionals I know that are close to me are my family - yet I can't use family.  Think Michelle, think. 


Then, I remembered that the next day I was going to be in Swindon meeting friends from Leeds (who I also have only known for less than 2 years).  Well, Swindon is my home town so I thought maybe the Pastor of the church I grew up in could sign it.  So I sent him an email but by the time I left the house the next morning to go to Swindon he had not responded.

Anyway, we met with our friends around lunch time at a local park.  We had a wonderful time catching up and the kids really enjoyed playing together for a couple of hours.  When we left I still had no reply from my Pastor so I decided we should go across town and see if there was anyone at the church who could sign my photograph.  Now, the church is only small and the office is not constantly staffed so I was praying on the way over that the Lord would allow someone to be there who could help us.

You can imagine how disappointed I was when we arrived to find the parking lot empty.  We still walked around to the church office, hoping that someone was there, but there was no reply to Jeremiah's banging knocking on the door.  We walked slowly back to the van asking the Lord what we should do next.  I tried calling the Pastor on his cell phone, but I was out of credit on my phone. Okay Lord - what now? 

Just then another car arrived.  An older lady (who I didn't know) got out and walked towards the office.  We decided to follow and found her in the church.  I explained who I was and what I was needing and asked if the Pastor was around.  She informed me he left for vacation in Greece that morning!  Oh dear - was there anyone else who could help?  She suggested Ann, who was a retired social worker and lived close to the church.  She has known me most of my life.

I called Ann and she was at home and agreed to come to the church to sign my photo.  While we were waiting for her, the first lady proceeded to tell me that she normally wouldn't be at the church at 4pm in the afternoon but the church needed cleaning for an upcoming funeral.

Then when Ann arrived she told me that she was surprised that I caught her at home, because she had been out shopping most of the day and only arrived home just a few minutes before I called. 

Both ladies could easily have been unavailable, but thankfully the Lord had different plans and I was able to get my photo endorsed. 

If I had not found someone in Swindon to sign my photo then I would have had to have sent it to America for someone to endorse which would have delayed my application by at least 2 more weeks.  Instead I was able to send off for my police check last week and it came back today.

And in case anyone wonders .......... It came back clear - no criminal record for me :)

Michelle

Rejoice with those who rejoice

This week we rejoice at the news that two precious girls have been rescued from a Ukraine orphanage and are now in Colorado with their parents and 5 siblings.

As we watched the news clip of the girls' arrival (HERE) our whole family was overjoyed because we have prayed for Hailee and Harper and their parents as they journeyed through struggles of international adoption.  There's is an amazing story of God's leading and provision

Anthony and Adeye are an incredible couple who love the Lord and have truly shown what it means to take care of 'the least of these'.  If you would like to follow their story you can do so at Adeye's blog. 

Please join us in praying for them as the girls (who both have down syndrome) adjust to their new environment and for the whole family as they prepare to move to the East Coast next week.

Michelle

A Home

Praise the Lord we have accommodation in Livingstone - albeit temporary.

The Lord has provided a 3 bedroom guesthouse that we can rent for a month.  This will be a perfect base as we look for more permanent accommodation.

Please continue to pray for our long term housing as rental houses are snatched up quickly because there is more demand than supply.  We know the Lord will continue to supply our needs but He does like to be asked, so please ask with us.

Oh, and did I mention the guest house has AIR CONDITIONING!!!  YIPPEE!!!!!!!

Michelle