INCLINEDTOSERVE

This past weekend we had the great joy of celebrating birthdays! When the final school bell of the year rang on Friday, we loaded up the minivan and headed to Colorado Springs to visit Sarah’s parents and celebrate her Mom’s birthday. Saturday we were joined by Sarah’s sister and her family and Sunday we celebrated the birthdays of their two oldest children, Rachel and Hunter. Then Monday we headed up to Loveland to celebrate my Grandma’s Birthday! We rejoiced for the many birthdays and saw many gifts opened, but we were given a great reminder of the gift(s) that God has given us in each of our family members! We love you all…and Happy Birthday (when yours arrives)!

Since our last post, it has been loads and loads of construction! We have worked a little over 3 months to get our house in a state where we could move in. We wanted to share some of those pictures with you. We are all moved in now and settling down! Thank you for your prayers and support during these past few hectic months.

I know this was a long post, but that’s what I get for waiting so long to update the blog! Anyway, our family is able to breathe deeply and press on to do what God really sent us here to do! We’ll update you soon!

Ben and Sarah and the Kids

First…the last few months have been a crash course in the workings of a Mission Home Office. It has been such a joy to begin learning all that goes into the “behind the scenes” workings of Tentmakers Bible Mission. God is good and He is helping us to figure out what needs to get done in order to help this office run smoothly day to day. As I am writing, we are wrapping up weeks of preparation for our semi-annual TBM Board Meetings and Candidate School. (Normally our Candidate School is only in the Spring, but due to the increasing interest in the Mission, we are having an additional Candidate School this year!). We are also in the midst of Frontier School of the Bible’s Missions Conference. At least 10 Missions Organizations have sent representatives, and TBM’s Executive Director, Ron Thompson, is the keynote speaker. We are excited to see the Lord work in the lives of the students this week. Tentmakers Bible Mission is holding two roundtable discussions at the home office this week (this is a meeting between Missionaries and students for questions and conversation). Who knew it could be so busy in rural LaGrange, WY!

Second…we have had a crash course in small town life. We have been getting to know some of the town’s residents as well as the FSB students and faculty. The kids have been enjoying a smaller setting at school. This week we went to the School District’s Board Meeting where Dylan was able to present a song that he has been working on in music class called “The Recess Blues” (you can ask him for the lyrics when you see him next time!).
Third…we have had a crash course in both the mobile home market and concrete / block masonry. Praise God…we found a house! It is a 1400 square foot double wide that we will move to LaGrange from Ft. Collins, CO. And in the midst of it all, God provided a small plot of land to purchase and put a permanent foundation on! The house should be delivered in the next couple weeks!

…It seems that crash courses are what God has had for us, but the wonderful thing is that no matter what, God is leading and answering prayer and we couldn’t be more blessed!

We wanted to keep you updated on what is happening here in Wyoming. We will have a full newsletter coming out soon, but we wanted to give you an update on one particular item. We began the search for a house here in LaGrange before we moved here and it continues still. We have seen God provide in some amazing ways! We now have the opportunity to purchase a single wide mobile home to bring into town and set up on land here. Our prayer request is 2 parts: First, we need to find the right home. This has been a daily event, looking on the websites that offer used mobile homes and every now and then we are able to find one in our price range many of which are located in Northern Colorado, but we so far have run into the problem that the Mobile Home Parks they are located in will not allow them to be moved (so essentially they are not available for us to purchase because they would have to stay in the Mobile Home Park they are in). The second part of our prayer request is that with additional finances, we could purchase a new mobile home (instead of used) and would not have the problem of the Mobile Home Park not allowing it to be moved. This, however produces a need of about $20,000 in addition to what we have available to us currently. Please pray for God’s wisdom in this. God has always provided and we know that He will continue to do so!

We will keep you posted on any updates and you can read more about this and other ministry updates when we send out our September Newsletter soon! Thank you for praying. We covet all of your prayers and truly know that God hears when we pray to Him!