Anniversary

Today we celebrated our anniversary. 14 years ago we made a promise. I was 18 and Cameron was 20. It's funny to look back on and realize that neither of us could legally buy a beer but at 18 and 20 we could make the most important decision of our lives and we did! The Lord has been so good to us over the years. We were both broken people who loved each other and loved God more than we loved each other. God over the years has taken cracked and broken clay jars and made us into beautiful expressions of what His love and transformation can do. Thank God that we do not have a perfect marriage, but a perfect God.

Life

It's amazing how much can change in 5 months and while we were away many things did change. Many of you were praying for a girl who was sent out of the country for prostitution and believed dark magic was being used to make bad things happen in her life. Since we've returned we have not seen her. When we asked people in her community about her, they told us that she was married to a man in a different city and her family is in Amsterdam. You can continue to pray for her and pray that we can reunite with her some way if she is still in Bulgaria. In 5 months, Didi who you've also prayed for has had his heart operation and his parents say that he does not need anymore. When we were in the field this week, he had sticks in hand ready to sword fight with Cameron and full of energy. It was awesome to see his lips full of color rather than blue and hear hearty laughing coming from his once weak body. His mom said it didn't surprise her that so many people and kids in America were praying for Didi because he's special and she knows God's hand has kept him alive all this time. She said to tell you thank you for praying and believes God will use Didi's life for His purpose. Some of the interesting things that have changed in the field are houses with satellites lol Not quite sure how this all works but it's interesting to say the least. Next week the police will arrive and tear down their homes and they will move out of the field for a while. One woman jokingly said "It's good because every time my husband has to build me a new house. This house is so old already." We absolutely do not condone squatting but we've learned this is the cycle of life for them and they choose to continue to have homes to rebuild every six months or so and the police are kind enough to give them a date that they will come and tear things down so they can collect what they need. It's interesting and we in no way understand it or try to understand it anymore than we do, we just continue to be obedient to God and teach them His Word.

We've never owned phones that could connect to the internet but when we returned from the States, we returned with internet capable phones. It was great for them to see some of your pictures on Facebook. So many times we've been asked about how you are doing (those who have visited them in the field) and this time we could show them an updated picture. They were all very excited to see my brother married, pictures of our friends who worked beside us in the field who are back in America and their new baby, and others. Today I was reminded that I forgot to show them pictures of my mom! I will have to fix this mistake next week when we are there. Some new faces are wanting to join the Bible study in the field but there are ill purposes in their heart for wanting to do so. You can be praying that God will change the hearts of those arriving thinking that we will hand out money one day. Usually this situation always fixes itself as God's word changes their motives or they eventually stop coming when they lose hope of free hand outs. Some of these new faces are more disruptive than those from past groups and present more aggressive behavior towards the group, so you can lift up these prayer needs.

The kids have grown leaps and bounds. The minute I would say "Wow he's grown up!" One of the group would say "Wow Micah is very big!" or "Wow where is little Ben!" So I guess in 5 months everyone had growth spurts. Even I received mixed reviews from "Jennifer why are you so white and weak and skinny?" to "Jennifer you're stomach is much fatter than before." Like I said in 5 months a lot can change :) Our time in the village has been much more limited than we would like. This summer has been very busy and weekend illness or teams from the states have kept us from traveling to the village like we were able to do last summer. In a couple of weeks all of this should change and we should be able to continue to work bedside the Pastor there. In august our desire is to hold another children's week (no date is currently set) and to show the Jesus film in the village to the parents who invited us to show it in their community. If everything goes as planned we will need help and we are praying for the help to be available. Last year we were able to work beside the pastor and his family, two missionary families and a brother in Christ but this year both of those missionary families will be in the States. You can be praying for God to provide the right people to be able to help this year.