We are thrilled to start our fall update with some long-awaited news: our third daughter joined our family on October 3, safe and healthy! We are all in love with sweet Gabriella Joy, and she is such a wonderful addition to our lives.
The last few weeks of pregnancy felt so long waiting for her, and it made me think about anticipation. I knew someone wonderful was about to join our family, and I could hardly wait to meet my baby. It made me think of the anticipation we all live with about our heavenly reality. 2 Corinthians 5:2 says that we long for our heavenly dwelling. Knowing God’s good eternal plan fills us with an eager longing, like those last few weeks waiting on a baby.
For those of us who know God and His promises, we wait with joyful anticipation. But there are others who do not know God and experience a different kind of waiting. Just recently, a missionary shared with a group of visitors to our campus. He talked about people groups in Papua New Guinea who ask every month for a missionary to come share God’s talk. They are waiting….and each month get told that there is no one coming yet. There are so many people groups without God’s Word, and very few who are coming.
This month on campus has been focused on mobilizing and equipping those who will go. Earlier this month, our campus hosted Ministry Fair. This is an opportunity for our students to talk with representatives from our various mission fields throughout the world. The students hear more about the needs in each location, and they prayerfully consider where God is leading them.
Our mobilization team here also hosted two campus visits for prospective students. These visits give people a chance to come see what our training is like and consider if they will join Ethnos360 and maybe one day bring God’s Word to an unreached people group.
It is sobering to think that people are desperately waiting for something we have so readily available to us. We pray that people continue to respond to God’s call to reach the nations.
What else is going on around here? I am settling into new routines, lots of feeding, naps, night wakings, and sweet baby snuggles. Nick finished the retaining wall project earlier this fall, and he can now focus on whatever projects come next. He also spent a week working with a group of volunteer mechanics in the garage here. Every year, these mechanics come bless our missionary staff and students by fixing our cars. It is a huge blessing, and Nick always enjoys working alongside them.
Praises
- Gabriella Joy’s safe arrival into our family
- Completed projects on campus
- God’s provision for the multiple campus events this past month
Prayer Requests
- For the students to seek God’s wisdom as they consider the global needs presented during Ministry Fair
- For prospective students to consider a life in missions, reaching the unreached
- For our family to settle into new routines, and for Nick and I to parent well even while we are more tired than normal
