Wednesday, February 25

Away for a little while...

First of all, thank you to everyone who responded to our support request so immediately. We are now at $6000 out of the $9000 we need to stay here for the rest of the school year. Our hearts are full of love and encouragement from you all.

Secondly, Luke and I will be in Oregon for the next 10 days to celebrate my brother's wedding. I am thrilled to see my family in a little over 24 hours and grateful that we get to be there for his big day. He is marrying one of my best friends....the days ahead will be filled with tremendous joy! We are going to take a break from our blog during the time we are away. When we return I will update everyone where we are at financially and post pictures from the big event!

SW

Friday, February 20

A lot going on

The past few days I've wanted to post a new blog entry. The problem is there is just too much going on. I wasn't sure what to report on. I guess I can give you all a brief overview.

The biggest event on the quickly approaching horizon is Stephanie's Brother's wedding. We'll be traveling back to Oregon at the end of next week and will be there for about 10 days. We're both excited, but Stephanie is really chomping at the bit. It will have been more then eight months since we've seen them and with the wedding it really is going to be a celebration. It will also give us some time time reconnect with some supporters and hopefully make progress in our new support raising endeavor.

As you can see, if you school down our blog a bit, we recently got a new puppy. It has been a significant part of our lives and patience over the past three weeks. Jersey is a wonderfully sweet dog and is doing very well. Everything that goes along with being a puppy applies here and there aren't any shortcuts, but we're both learning and growing through it all. Personally, I think God knew I needed something like this puppy to help remind me of important things in life and keep my head straight. Our ministry, the school, our small groups, and everything else we do during the week are very important, but in the end we need to remember to take walks in the sunshine, sit quietly in the morning (with puppy in lap) and think about how wonderful and faithful our God really is. These things are very important also.

Stephanie and I have begun a new phase of our fund raising as you can see at the top of our BLOG page. We have a short term goal to raise $9000 which will keep us here through the end of the summer and give us time to prepare for another year at BFA. It is no small task, but we have confidence in God's sovereignty and provision. We'll keep you updated with how this is going.

We got into two mini fender benders on our car in two days. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning. I backed into a rock wall and cracked a tail light and then our neighbor backed into us. Other then that our car is finally running very well. We are so thankful we were able to get it running well and are ever indebted to a fellow worker at BFA who helped us out on numerous occasions.

Otherwise, things are going well. We're staying busy. I'm looking at next year and wanting to branch out in my role at BFA. I'm fortunate to have an excellent supervisor who understands that desire and is helping me discover what that might be. Stephanie continues to do magic with her students and I often hear of students begging to be able to work with her. Doesn't surprise me. She is so dedicated. We're wrestling with what God will have us do long term. Every update we hear of schools being started in far and distant countries gets our hearts pounding. So much to think and pray about.

We thank everyone for their continued prayer and support.We would not be able to be here without you.

Blessings,
LW

Monday, February 16

The boys' domain



Let's just say this is the scene I walked into when I entered my classroom on Thursday morning. The "sweet" notes you see above are from Luke's small group. You see, Luke has 6 guys over to our house every Wednesday evening while I, his loving wife, meets with my small group in a school classroom. Sometimes I even leave them goodies to munch on. After being locked out of the classroom I meet in 3 times, I asked Luke and his guys if we could swap locations ONE TIME so my group of girls could have a cozy experience for once. Apparently, the boys all claim that it was ALL Luke's idea. Surprise, surprise. I'll keep you all updated as to what the pay back plan will be. It is my first item on the agenda with the girls this week!

Sunday, February 1

JERSEY



Luke and I drove a total of 8 hours on Saturday to pick up the newest addition to our family. Her name is Jersey (in tribute to the state we left behind) and she is a sweet tempered American Bulldog. She is 5 months old and we adopted her from a couple on one of the military bases. We are slowly getting her used to us and giving her lots of love!