Merry Christmas and happy new year to all our friends, family and supporters! Can you believe we’re approaching the end of 2023 already! What a year it’s been! We are so grateful for your gifts of support to help us keep moving forward in our service to Mibu!
While ministry stuff has been a bit slow this year with my three surgeries and limited ability to work on the computer, that doesn’t mean the year has been boring! Shannon has been supplementing our income, working outside of the house part-time for a company that manages and files construction liens across the US. She is also busy taking care of the house and carting the kids around town. The kids’ schools and activities have kept us hopping! Skyler is a senior at Valley Christian High School. She’s been working every day after school for 2-3 hrs as an after school caregiver at Gethsemene Christian preschool. She recently had to quit to focus on school a bit more, but hopes to start working again after graduation. She’s raising funds to hopefully be able to go on a short term ministry trip to serve a group of aboriginal children in the outback of Australia over spring break. Madelyn is a sophomore at the same school and is shaping up to be our next driver (Lord help us with this insurance… and for safety on the road!). Abigail is in 8th grade, and is looking forward to going to Valley Christian High School next year too! She has been involved in gymnastics for the last 2 years but has recently decided she to take a break, which is probably for the best since she wants to play basketball and be in the band in high school. She enjoys being in the recorder ensemble at her current school and also loves playing piano. She has been preparing for an educational trip to Greece this Spring with her middle school. She’s worked very hard baking and selling her super popular cupcakes to raise the nearly $4,000 for this trip! Just a few hundred dollars left! Be sure to order yours if you’re local and would like some for a family gathering or party! You won’t regret it! Ethan is doing great in 5th grade this year! He also takes piano lessons from grandma and loves art. He and Abby are always playing, and singing, and doing art together! They’re both so goofy and creative together! We’re trying to figure out how to get him into some much needed braces soon. If anyone knows of any braces options that don’t cost $6,000 let us know! Who’d have thunk that some wire, glue and skill would cost that much! As for me, I’ve been able to maintain some level of ministry responsibility (as long as it doesn’t involve lots of typing on the computer… haha) as well as continuing to slowly grow our real estate investment business. All while doing physical therapy, and icing for what seems like forever. The elbow surgeries are very slow on the healing and recovery side.
We were gifted some money for me to be able to travel to PNG and into Mibu which I did for a few weeks back in October. It was a huge encouragement to see the church rooted so strongly in their faith as they have been navigating the pain of all the havoc that was wreaked by the terrorist gang over the last 2+ years. The church remains strong, though physically a bit tattered. I was able to get some wonderful time of fellowship with my brothers and sisters there, and get some practical ministry stuff done as well. We were also recently given some money for a new translation laptop for my translation helper in Mibu, which I’ve now purchased and am configuring appropriately. I’d like to be able to travel back to get Sesi set up and trained on the new operating system sometime in the Spring. We’ve already been given $1500 toward the total $4000 needed and are still looking for the Lord’s provision to be able to travel.
As far as the surgeries and other medical stuff is concerned… thanks to all who have prayed and given us grace to step back and focus more on repair and healing. Taking care of all this stuff this year was made possible by God’s very gracious provision through our church. Their deacons’ fund covered our out of pocket medical expenses! I’m shaping up to get back into more of my full-time ministry tasks mid to late January, assuming physical therapy goes well to help me recover from my last surgery on my left elbow! I'm looking forward to getting going again on some lesson development and translation for Mibu! Shannon also has some arthritis in her hip which she wasn’t able to resolve completely with physical therapy. We had hoped to get that fixed as it’s so limiting for her (she can’t even go with walks with me around the block 😢) but she does have some new exercises to help strengthen and lessen the pain.
I get asked a lot about our real estate endeavors. I don’t talk about it as much as I should on social media (important for business credibility) because “Real Estate Investing” comes with certain assumptions that are not necessarily true. I had to hold back a chuckle when someone recently indicated their assumption that we must have and make a lot of money to be able to buy real estate. Our cash flow from real estate, while slowly growing, is fairly paltry right now. We’ve learned how to invest in real estate with little to no money out of pocket by collaborating with funding partners/investors. It’s a slow difficult business to grow. But will certainly be worth it in the long run! This year we were able to add 3 more properties to our portfolio! We’re trusting the Lord with our plans and hope to have the business be able to cash flow most of our ministry and life expenses in the next 5 years or so. We’re thanking the Lord for the investors he’s put in our lives that we’re able to collaborate with to see this dream become more of a reality. We continue to trust the Lord for our daily, monthly and yearly needs. He has always been faithful.
We appreciate all of you very much! We hope you have a blessed Christmas, and are encouraged and strengthened as you celebrate and reflect on the profound importance of the birth of Jesus!
