We're still here!

I feel bad to have let our readers down lately. I really need to get back to writing here. As I said in my last post, I was seeing the answer to prayers but it was also causing some busyness. I have been working my mail route A LOT these past several weeks and evan was asked to carry on another route one day. We also have been ebaying some large items in an effort to turn them into cash. The children were sad to see their mini snowmobiles sold but we knew now was the time to sell them with it being the beginning of the season and because we may not be here this time next year. I have been praying for God to bless the items we sell so that they go for top dollar as we need to get rid of so much debt before we leave and the first snowmobile brought in only $100 less than we paid for it brand new several years ago. The second is on ebay now.

Last weekend End Time Glory Ministries had their Glory conference from Thursday evening through Saturday evening. What a great time that was! With all that happened there with great praise and worship, wonderful teachings and great personal ministry time, it went late each night and we got very little sleep all weekend. It was held in Willmar. We also had a guest stay with us and had a great time visiting with him. His name is Pastor Gilbert and he is a native of Kenya, on the northern border of Tanzania, but is currently living in Wisconsin. He shared with us some customs from East Africa and corrected us on some of our budding Swahili. On the Saturday of the conference the ministry had a partners dinner where we saw a video taken in Tanzania and Debra talked about the vision of the ministry in Mwanza. The video was fun to see and the people attending the dinner were excited about the ministry's plans.

Shannon and I are also trying to get some projects done before winter. We have a couple of sidewalks we need to pour and finish yet. There is still so much to do outside before the snow flies and sticks. We figure the house will likely be put on the market before the snow is gone in the spring which adds even more pressure. Then this winter, much of our free time will be spent working in the basement. We have many things we can do down there that won't cost us a lot of money due to the materials we already have. We also try to do at least 5-6 hours of Bible School each week.

We decided to renew our foster care license. It was due to expire on Dec 1st and we had talked about letting it go. We do not yet have a peace about that so we will renew and see what God has planned for that avenue of our lives. Just a couple of weeks ago we had received a call for a 14 month old girl with Down Syndrome and her 4 month old brother. I have always wanted to raise a child with Down Syndrome but both Shannon and I knew that these two little ones would have recquired much more from us than we felt we could give right now. Please pray for them, whoever they are. Although we couldn't parent them right now they are still in our hearts even though we never met them. I guess it is hard to explain the heart of a foster parent or someone that loves orphans as we do(unlesss your name is Barb-LOL).

I have several things that I have learned about in my recent study with Beth Moore and I will definitely need to dedicate a couple of posts to that. This particular study I am doing is called The Patriarchs and is about Abraham, Isaac and Joseph. It is a wonderful study and seems to fit our lives right now. The uncertainty of moving into "our promised land" and all of the fears that accompany those plans are being addressed in the study. More on that later.