Family news by Sam

 I thought I'd share with you what Sam wrote to our family.

Hi family 

I wanted to give an update about each of us.  

Caleb is finishing up his gap year program in Wisconsin. It has been a pleasure to see how much he has grown in the Lord. He gets excited about the things he's learning in Scripture and about the ways that God is working in his life. He is looking at Bible school for the fall and has narrowed it down to Emmaus and Covenant College in Georgia. In the last 3 months, he decided that he wants to teach the Bible to youth.

Priscilla is finishing up her senior year and graduates in June. She is leaning towards a gap year with YWAM that starts with a few months of discipleship school in Hawaii and then a few months overseas in a missions context. She also received an offer of a good scholarship to Wheaton college and will need to decide soon which option she'll take for next year.

Timo, Andrew, Hannah are continuing with school. Timo enjoys working for a neighbor who has a plumbing business and does a lot of organizing of the tools and equipment in the shop and the trucks. Hannah loves hanging out at the same neighbor's house to play with their young boys, read them stories and put them to bed. It is quite impressive all she does for only being nine. Andrew loves his Legos and reading. 

Sarah is meeting with some women one-on-one in a discipleship type of relationship and enjoys helping these women take steps in their spiritual journeys. Both of us have been a part of a class on Tuesday nights at church. Before you sign up for the class, they ask you to commit to an hour of prayer and time in the Word each day. There are about 60 of us that meet all together for a time of teaching, then we split off into small groups where we share with the others how our times of prayer, times in the word and events of the week have drawn us to the Lord (or maybe how we have drifted from him). The small group leader then asks us questions like these: If Jesus has been present with you in that disappointment, what do you think he would have said to you? What would you like God to do for you right now? Our small group decided to take this past weekend away on a retreat in Michigan but the retreat was silent so we each spent the weekend alone with God. It was a very spiritually refreshing time for me. Most of Saturday I spent in the woods, reading through the book of John and learning so much as I read the whole thing in a day which I had never done before. I would stop to journal and reflect on my own life as God spoke to me. The weekend finished up with me writing out a note as I imagined God would have written to me of how much he loves and cares for me. 

On Tuesday afternoon I had something very unexpected happen. I was asked to leave my job. God really worked out the timing for this and his preparation for this news. I had just come off of the silent retreat two days before, understanding how much God loves and cares for me. Also that very morning I had finished memorizing Psalm 16 and the one verse came to mind during the meeting where I was let go. "I have set the lord always before me because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure." I felt like God was right there next to me, keeping me from being shaken. Also, on Wed mornings, I meet with my best friend (after Sarah) for our weekly, walk, talk and prayer time. I felt so supported, loved and cared for by him. It wasn't the easiest thing to celebrate a birthday being your first day unemployed but the day involved a lot of singing, peace and joy. We had 10 friends over to celebrate in the evening. 

You can pray for me for wisdom for the next steps. Do I look for another engineering job? Do I look for a full-time ministry position? Also pray for us, especially Sarah, as we deal with the injustice of the situation. I think it is always harder to see someone you love treated unfairly than for yourself. It makes me thankful that I only lost an income when I lost my job. Joseph lost his income and his freedom - I am very grateful that I'm writing to you from home and not from a prison 🙂 It also helps me understand how Jesus felt during his unjust trial and him going through the pain of being unjustly accused because he loved me so much. It makes me love him even more that he went through that emotional pain just for me. I'm so grateful for him - giving me eternal life, but also giving me so much in my friendship with him. The last seven months of this Tuesday class has helped me grow so much in the Lord and I'm very grateful that I didn't lose my job a year ago because I think I would have responded very differently - a lot more stress and anger and less peace and joy. 

Thank you for praying for us. 

Sam (and Sarah)