This past year in a nutshell

I have been wanting to write an update for a while now but it seems like everything this month is preventing this newsletter from coming out. In the Beginning of this month (July 9^th) the both of us each lost a family member due to suicide. This was quite the sobering event that brought sadness to our hearts. Josh flew home two days after the death of his brother-in-law to be with his grieving family and to speak at the funeral. All of these things remind us of the great need that the world has for the Hope and assurance of Eternal Life with Jesus. There is no comfort outside of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful the He is the great Comforter!

Well this year started with Josh and I being single people. We had not dated each other but by January 28^th we were engaged, I was on a plane to take a trip that would keep me far from home for three months and we were now planning a move to Africa! Josh and I got married June 19^th and married life has been great.

Last November Josh took a trip to Kenya, Africa for five weeks to help out with a ministry there and fell in love with the people. He was given a few different opportunities to share at some of the local churches and they loved him. Josh asked some of the guys there if there were any churches that taught straight through the Bible and they told Him that in a city of 500,000 people there was not one. Josh could not stand the thought of that. There was a need so He prayed and decided that he was going to come back and start a Bible study that could grow into a church. Josh knew that the Lord had called him to preach the word so he agreed to come back. He was fully intending on going to Africa as a single man but the Lord had other plans. There were about four weeks in between the time that Josh got back from Africa and when I would be leaving for three months and we were not yet together. It took me up till a week before I left to realize that I loved him and didn't want to be without him. The Lord showed Josh it was time to speak to me so he asked me to marry him. We got engaged and I left for New Zealand.

This past year has been such a year of blessing and now we are off again for another adventure. We are planning on driving to Missouri at the end of August or beginning of September and hopefully speaking to a few different churches on the way. We will stay in Missouri for a week or two and then fly out to Kenya where we will live. We are going to be starting a Bible study and sharing Jesus with anyone that we can. There are still so many things that need to come together but we trust the the Lord will bring those things together in His timing. When we get to Africa we will be staying in Nairobi to get visas and paperwork done for a month or. After that we will move to Eldoret where we will live. We have not yet found an apartment out there so that is something else that you can be praying about. The Lord has made things so clear for us to go and we are very excited about this.

We would like to ask all of you for prayer for the country of Kenya that the Lord would send the right people in our path that we can disciple and share the beautiful Gospel with. We realize that unless the Lord builds the house that the laborers that labor work in vain. This is God's ministry and we get to be a small part of it. If any of you would like to help us financially we would greatly appreciate that but most of all we covet your prayers.

Prayer requests:

For provision for the move and for the Lord to provide an apartment when we get there.

For the whole process of us getting out of the states to go smoothly

For the Churches we share with that they will be blessed.