A Missionary’s Life :: A Summer Update

Forgive me for being MIA in our “Friday Updates”; those weekly blogs I write to update you on all the random happenings in the life of us missionaries. We’ve been busy with all the Sound of Hope start up needs, and in between that we’ve been trying to enjoy the summer sun. I thought I’d write a little summer update though; so here’s the latest in our lives!

Moving to Georgia. No, not
us….*sigh. Our World Race community here is moving away! A couple of
weeks ago we helped pack up the World Race House (the same home I lived
in when I first moved to Michigan) and sent the moving truck to
Georgia. The office is closed here, and the World Racers are moving
South to work in the Gainesville office. Almost all of them are gone
now, with just Matt, Mark, Kim, & Caroline who are packing up the
rest of their things this week. Michael & Kathy will be moving down
too towards the end of the year (after they sell their house). We are
going to miss our World Race family SO much! For now though, God is
still telling us to stay here. We have a beautiful little home (with really, really cheap rent) and Rusty has a part-time job with the church that really
helps with our expenses (and is able to do his job with The World Race from home). So we are committed through the end of 2010,
and will return here after our trip to Thailand. After that, who knows?


100 days in Thailand. If you missed our blog titled Destination :: THAILAND!!! then you missed BIG news! We are moving to Thailand for 100 days! The plane tickets are bought; we leave in January and won’t be home until the end of April. We are really excited about what God is going to do in us and through us while we are there. If you want to donate toward the cost of our tickets, contact me. (We bought them in FAITH that God would provide; right now they are on our credit card and we’re praying for the money to cover them). Read our blog for more details!

GO TIGERS! No, not the Auburn Tigers, the Detroit Tigers. Rusty and I went to a baseball game last year for his birthday, and got our picture taken by one of those “official” photographers that wander around at sporting events, theme parks, etc. We forgot about it after that (since we had our own camera) and never even looked at the shots online. We had no idea we’d be seeing them a year later! A couple of months ago my friend Rachel sent me a text from a Tiger’s baseball game that said, “You’ll never believe this! The photographer at the game just took our picture and gave us a card with the info to find it online…and YOU and RUSTY are on the card!” She brought us the card so we could see and sure enough, there we were! I guess they decided we’d make good DETROIT TIGERS models (funny since I was wearing an AUBURN TIGERS hat!) I hope this means our iStock pictures will sell well!

They’re ENGAGED! Yes, we both
have engaged siblings now! My brother Brent got engaged in the fall to
Melissa Beard with a wedding date set next May. Rusty’s sister Tracy
just got engaged to Frank Dey, and they are planning to tie the knot in June! Looks like we will be home from Thailand
just in time for WEDDING SEASON! Congratulations Brent, Melissa, Tracy,
& Frank!

Love and War. That’s the name of the
newest book by John & Stasi Eldredge. If you’ve never read their
books, I would highly recommend “Wild at Heart” & “Captivating”!
Rusty and I loved their other books, so for our anniversary I bought him
this one. We’ve started reading it aloud to each other a chapter at a
time and we are LOVING it! It’s been so encouraging to be reminded how
important marriage is, and that there are forces opposing it. The devil
does NOT want marriage to succeed, and we feel his efforts often as a
married couple in ministry. If you’re married and looking for a good
read, check this book out! (*note – I have a couple of single friends
who’ve read this book and loved it too!)

Modeling Missionaries. For those of you who don’t know, we’ve been hired as models for our friends’ iStock business! iStock provides microstock photos for sale on-line that are used for internet ads, print ads, websites, articles, the inside of picture frames, etc. Our friends Rosie & Shawn Gearhart have been photographers for iStock for several years now, and have hired us to do multiple shoots this year. We usually do anything from 1-4 shoots a month, with lots of different themes and costumes. The money we make is split between our support account and our Sound of Hope needs.

Since last I wrote, we’ve been busy! We’ve completed 7 new shoots (a Wedding Shoot, Picnic Shoot, Couple Shoot downtown, Coffeeshop Shoot, Businesswoman shoot, Cowgirl Shoot and Renaissance Shoot). The photographers are busy editing right now to get all those pictures online. Many are still “in process”, but I can show you a few from our Cowgirl Shoot & Renaissance Shoot here!

The Renaissance Shoot was our most difficult shoot to date.  Satin shoes, a floor length velvet gown with flowing chiffon sleeves,
floor length cape, floor length headpiece, knee high grass, lots of
bugs, a cat who wanted to be in the shots and a horse that didn’t
really want to pose the way we wanted him to…. it required a lot of
patience, flexibility, and help from his owner to get these shots! (and
a very talented photographer!)

After every shoot I have a new set of sore muscles and more respect for models (especially those who work with animals!) I’m learning so much though, and having a BLAST! Rosie & Shawn are great photographers and they are so much fun to work with!

That’s all we have for now! Please continue to pray for us as we work through more paperwork for The Sound of Hope and sort through more start up needs. Starting a new non-profit is not easy and we need all the prayer and support we can get! Thanks for reading – hope you are having a HAPPY FRIDAY and a BLESSED SUMMER!