Monday, August 13, 2012

July Happenings...

Greetings friends!

We are now at the 7-week mark before we leave for Brasil.  There is still much to be done in preparation, but we are thankful that God is providing!
In the month of July, I was able to head out to British Columbia for a dear friend's wedding.  Spending 5 days in a valley surrounded by mountains was very good for my soul.  Since Ruth-Ann had been living out there for more than a year, we had much to catch up on.  I am always amazed at the fact that good friends can merely pick up where they left off, which is exactly what we did.  I was honoured to stand up for her at their wedding, and what a lovely day it was, filled with much laughter, tears of joy, and delicious food.  I was sad to leave that tranquil place, unsure of when I'll see my friend next, but I am truly happy and wish this newly married couple all the best!

While I was away, Jake had his 27th birthday.  Old is a word that might come to mind, but this guy just keeps getting younger and younger, keeping me laughing every day!  We have wonderful family and friends who were able to celebrate such a special occasion with him.

My 6-wk teaching stint started on July 9th, and English Training Camp(ETC) is quite the success this year.  I have an awesome co-teacher and wonderful Korean students who I get to spend my days with.  If you'd like to know a little bit more about this, feel free to check out my personal blog.  Since we're writing this 'July' update so late, I only have one more week until my students return back to Toronto.   Yes, it's sad, but we have had very good memories that will last forever.

Jake and I have been keeping busy.  Apart from teaching at ETC and Jake's packaging job, we have been visiting friends and having a lot of quality time on the week-ends.  This has been a huge blessing to us, and we've felt God use this time to unify our marriage.  We spent Canada Day with some close friends, grateful that they let us escape our stuffy apartment to steep in a swimming pool.

Another thing to celebrate last month was that both of our parents had their anniversaries.  Since the beginning of our relationship, we have marveled at the similarities in birthdays and anniversaries for our parents.  So, congratulations, to our wonderful mothers and fathers! May God bless you all with many more years to come!

Next comes a little more of the technical details regarding our trip.  I'll let the headings speak for themselves:

Support Update
We have received about 30% of our support, which is a huge blessing.  We are so grateful to those who are giving financially and prayerfully, since this is definitely not something we can do on our own.  TEAM has given us September 15 as our cut-off date, meaning that if we don't receive all of our funding by then, we will have to postpone the trip.  If you've been thinking about blessing us in this way, please keep this date in mind. There is a tab on the blog itself (up at the top) entitled 'Giving', where you can find instructions on giving either by mail, by phone, or online.  Please contact us if you have any questions about that.

Our Ministry
In missions, things are a little more flexible than they might be otherwise, so some of the following are subject to change.  Our ministry supervisor informed us that we will be raising missions awareness in Brazilian churches.  There is a huge need for Brazilians to be educated missionally, so part of our task will be to lead conversational English classes in churches with a missions emphasis.  This is really great news, since my main focus at Bible college was missions.  We have many resources within our own home library to prepare.  Another great thing is that we know the names of some of the people we'll be working with, and have started to get in contact with them.  One couple in particular is around our age, and they have three little boys.  We are excited that people in our age group are so passionate about God's kingdom, and we're looking forward to getting to know them and catching sight of their vision for the Brazilian church.

Prayer
Please be in prayer with us for the remaining support.  It is hard to be patient and let God be God.  He has certainly been teaching me to trust him for all of our needs!  This week  I will be purchasing extra medical insurance for myself, and hopefully we can finally book our flights.  Please pray that all of this will go smoothly as well.  Another thing that we need prayer for is focus and extra faith.  Teaching has been a great opportunity, but also a great distraction.  After this week, however, I will be out of a job.  If anyone has any ideas for what I can do for about a month, please let me know!


With that being said, thanks for coming on this journey with us.  We'll be in touch!

Love,
Ashleigh and Jake
A Glimpse of Beautiful BC Mountains

Ruth-Ann and I

Mike and Ruth-Ann-Gorgeous couple!
 

Baking Day is a favourite of my students!

Ice Skating is just one of the wonderful activities my students and I have done together

Jake and I got to go to African Lion Safari together last week-end...it was raining, but we were happy :)



1 comment:

  1. Hi Ash and Jake Thanks for this update

    You have indeed had a very busy summer and now the time is getting close for your mission trip.
    Our prayers will continue to be with you as you work towards the day of departure and will trust with you that your support will come in so you can proceed with the plans.
    Thanks for reposting the support details and how to go about it
    Lots of love
    NAN and POPS

    ReplyDelete

Followers