Closer to Home

The last couple of months have been a blur! We spent about five weeks on the road between August and September that took us from Knoxville to San Antonio then to Richmond and Orlando and finally back to Knoxville. The purpose of our trips was a mix between business and personal - the first two weeks were support related, our trip to Virginia was to say goodbye to Julie's grandmother (she passed the morning after we arrived) and be with family to celebrate a life of faithfulness to the Lord. Orlando was an opportunity to rest as well as connect with a church, re-connect with some missionary friends and visit with a couple who works with Third Millinium.

When we finally returned back to Knoxville we started homeschooling in earnest with Ann Renée and Bryan. They are pushing through two "school" days every day and one "school" day on Saturdays (11 "school" days a week) as we try to finish a year's worth of material before the end of December. Needless to say, that takes a full effort from both Julie and I each day! Why are we pushing the kids so hard? We have a couple of reasons: 1) the school year in Costa Rica runs from February to November so our kids have been caught in "limbo" between grades. Homeschooling allows us to address that issue. 2) Our kids live with ALOT of transition and one of the best things we feel we can do for them is to make sure that they are able to re-join their previous classmates in Costa Rica. Our hope is to be finished up by the end of the year so that the kids can have a break in January before school starts again in February.

In late September I traveled to Costa Rica in order to move our belongings out of the Seminary and into our house. There are some issues related to the denomination that owns the property where the Seminary sits and both Julie and I thought it best to go ahead and remove our belongings. I was able to accomplish the whole list of things that needed to get done during my short trip - visit with the kid's school about next year, set up beds at the house, move our belongings in, change the locks and get some issues straight with the bank. We are fortunate to have a house right next door to some friends who are willing to check on it regularly for us.

So we have rented a house, moved our things in and met with the kid's school - all that leads to a very important question: when are we going back? We have intentionally and consistently answered that question each time it has been asked by saying, "When we are fully funded." The reason for that was because we simply did not know when God would provide the necessary funding for our return (it has been 45 weeks since we returned to the US - significantly beyond what we intended or expected). However, our support is now at a point where we can begin talking about possible dates for our return to Costa Rica - and THAT is exciting news!

We have not reached 100% of our support but we need less that $500/month (about $475) in order to reach that goal. The Lord has graciously provided the full one-time amount that we needed and we are waiting to hear back from a couple of churches in the coming weeks about possible monthly support. We are praying that the Lord would allow us to return to the field in mid-December and we invite you to pray with us to that end!!!

Love,
Andrew, Julie, Ann Renée and Bryan

Atop the Pyramid in Memphis overlooking the Mississippi River.		One of the bedframes Andrew carried down to Costa Rica.

How you can pray this month...

- I will be traveling to Denver for a theological conference (ETS) and meetings with UWM. Pray for safety in travel, fruitful meetings and for Julie and the kids while I am gone.
- Please continue to pray for the kids & their school work.
- Pray for the remainder of our support to come in - we are very anxious to return to Costa Rica!

Praise and Thanksgiving this month... 

- We are grateful for the Lord's continued provision and excited about returning to the field.
- We praise God for his provision of a house and the opportunity to get our belongins out of storage.