Kim and Jeremy in Thailand

Yesterday we heard back from First Baptist Church missions committee. It turns out that one of our references didn't arrive in time for their meeting last week, so our application will be reviewed at the June 14th meeting instead. We're also still in the process of getting things set up with Wycliffe to raise support.

In the meantime, we're working on the long list of people we need to contact before leaving the country to take care of mail, utilities, etc. which is definitely enough to keep us busy.

We have now received official acceptance at both Grace International School and with Wycliffe Associates. Praise the Lord!! We have also confirmed the house that we'll be subletting, so we have a place to live, a place to work, and people to help us get there! Within a few days we should have things set up to begin officially raising support.

It is so exciting to be in a position to watch God providing for our needs in such rapid succession! Every day He has provided something new.

The past few days have brought a lot of encouraging news! First, we spoke some more with Wycliffe, and they have decided that it is best if we go as "volunteers" instead of "members", which means we can still go to Thailand for up to a year, but it greatly simplifies the paperwork here. So praise the Lord for that! Plus, we have been put in contact with some additional people there, who have been extremely helpful and are really putting effort into helping us get to Thailand. It is wonderful to have that kind of support, and is definitely an answer to prayer! Also, things are looking very good for us subletting the house, and we found out today that the family has a few outside cats. Jeremy was excited because he has been bummed about giving up the cat we're currently looking after. It's amazing to see God providing even in the small details for us!

Today Jeremy and I were in St. Louis. We attended our church here, Parkway Baptist, and shared with them about going to Thailand, which was nice. Earlier this week, we talked with Wycliffe again. There is so much that needs to happen in such a short time! From a human perspective it will be very difficult for us to complete everything in time to leave August 2nd, but we know that nothing is too difficult for God! With Him all things are possible and we are excited to see the ways that He will work to open the doors for us.

We also spoke more with the family whose home we hope to sublet. The home sounds more than adequate for our needs-a two story, four bedroom home, and three of those bedrooms would be available for our use. It would allow us to host other visitors to Grace since we would have plenty of room, which I think sounds very exciting! If we sublet from them, we would also be able to use their car. We had been planning on biking everywhere, but I'm sure there will be days during the rainy season or when we need to move large items that we would be very thankful for a car!

Prayer requests this week: please pray as we try to confirm things with Wycliffe soon so we can begin to raise support, and pray for the people at Wycliffe, Grace, and our supporting churches as they make decisions about their roles in this ministry in Thailand.

Praise: Today is our one year anniversary!! One good year behind us and we're excited to see what God has in store for us next!

This has been a great week! Jeremy and I were up in Wheaton again this weekend, primarily for my brother's graduation from Wheaton College. We had a nice family get-together, which was great since it might be awhile before I see some of my aunts/uncles/cousins. That meant we got to spend another week at First Baptist Church in Wheaton. I love that church so much!

Also, earlier this week we got some encouraging news on housing. There's a missionary couple at Grace who will be on furlough during the time we will be there, and they'd like to sublet their house to some Grace staff with no children. It's a four bedroom house, and there's a chance we might even get to use their car! Even if this particular one doesn't work out, it's exciting to see that God is preparing things and opening doors for us even now.

Prayer request: First Baptist Church of Wheaton's missions committee is meeting this Tuesday evening, May 10th, and our application for support will be discussed. Please pray that God will give wisdom to the committee about how to most effectively use their resources.