Merry Christmas!

Here's a copy of our Christmas Newsletter. Praying that you have been able to celebrate Christ coming to earth. Missing all of you!

May God give you His peace this season.

In Spain!

Well, the wait is finally over! We arrived in Spain a little over a week ago, and we're having a great time! Praise God that He brought us through several potential problems at the airport. On our plane ride over to Frankfurt, we heard over the loudspeaker that our flight was going to arrive late, and they told us the flight number of our rebooked flight. Upon arrival, we went to the Lufthansa desk to see if we could get our ticket for our rebooked flight. We finally got to a person at the desk, and we found out that it might not be possible to get the ticket for the flight since it was a complicated situation. Apparently, Frankfurt was not prepared for the early snowfall, and because of that, there were hundreds of people with cancelled flights trying to get rebookings. But, thanks to the Lord, we were able to get our ticket for the same day flying to Madrid! Once we got our ticket, the airline employee who helped us told us that we were lucky that she was able to get us a ticket because we were actually supposed to be in this HUGE line that we ended up seeing was several hundred people long! We kept walking past the hundreds of people waiting in line, in amazement of what God had spared us from! Here's a picture of the snow in Frankfurt!

We have settled in nicely so far. Hopefully tomorrow or Monday we will sign the contract on our apartment and be able to move in that day! We've set up a bank account, gotten cell phones, and settled on a place to live! We've learned how to use the metro, train, and bus around town since we don't have a car. We've been able to meet with a lot of people so far, whether other missionaries or Spaniards to discuss their ministry and our possible involvement. We registered for language school, which begins on the 10th of January. We feel like we're beginning to get the hang of things! We also were able to attend the church in Camarma where we will be interning this year! We had a great time, and we were joyful to see Operation Christmas Child boxes at the church ready for departure! Here are some of the boxes!

We were excited to find out that the city where we will be living is having some sort of medieval festival this week! We were able to stop by and see some of the booths they had in the center plaza in town. Here are some of the pictures from the festival and also from our first week!

Micah ordered "fish" at a really good restaurant. Glad it wasn't me! This is a type of fried fish that came with our "Menu", where you pay a flat price, then pick a first plate (which might be a salad, soup, beans, etc.), pick a second plate (fish, other meat usually), and then a dessert!

A beautiful building in Alcala de Henares

The main plaza (where the festival was held) has a beautiful Christmas tree! I'll have to go there at night sometime to get it all lit up!

Part of the University of Alcala

These Santa's climbing up ladders are THE MOST POPULAR Christmas decoration here!

A candy stand at the festival! Don't you want one of those brightly colored candies!?

This is how they keep pieces of ham here!

They were cooking ribs and Spanish sausage over the fire! Yummy!

They had a few live animals at the festival! I particularly liked this spotted chicken!

They had a small scale model of Belen (Bethlehem), complete with Nativity.

And, my personal favorite find, Obama stickers! HA!

Thank you so much for praying for us! We look forward to sharing more of how things are going, and how God shows Himself to us in the upcoming weeks!

VISAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUR VISAS HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have purchased our tickets and are departing on the evening of November 29th. We are just having family see us off at the airport, but we will be attending church at Faith the next 2 Sundays and would love to greet any of you there. We will make it to Spain in time for TEAM Spain's All Ministry Area Conference in January, where we will get to meet all of TEAM's missionaries who are currently on the field in Spain. We are looking forward to this as a time of learning and valuable interaction with other missionaries.

Us with our treasured package!

Two weekends ago God provided for us to attend the MTW Global Missions conference in Chattanooga, TN. We participated in four sessions of worship with 2000 other missionaries, church members, and students. MTW's leader, Paul Kooistra as well as Atlanta pastor Joe Novensen delivered God's word to the large group. We had the opportunity to attend 6 different breakout sessions taught by missionaries and ministry leaders from around the world. One of the big things that we feel God taught us was that on the mission field it is absolutely vital to keep our family, which for now is just the two of us, as the first priority. It is not worth losing our marriage or our future children for the sake of the ministry. Please pray that even in this first year we would hold our marriage as the highest priority and that God would continue to shape me (Micah) into the leader of my family that he wants me to be.

One of the main sessions at the MTW conference

This past weekend we went with the high school youth group from Faith, our home church, to a retreat in Myrtle Beach. There are some particular challenges with youth ministry in general that are ever present. God is working in these students lives in some unique and sometimes confusing ways, and it is our privilege to have been with them the past few years seeing God working and shaping them, walking with them when they fail and hurt, and rejoicing with them in the power of the gospel. We will miss them so much this year.

Us with the Faith high school group at Myrtle Beach

Also, it looks like much of the stuff we've published before has out of date dates and such. So, here's a copy of our newsletter. And, like we said before, we're leaving on the 29th!

Please pray for us this next week-and-a-half as we say bitter-sweet goodbyes to family and friends. Pray for our transition out of American life and into Spanish life. The next time you hear from us, we will most likely be in Spain. Thank you all so much for your prayer, support, and encouragement thus far, and we know that it goes with us the rest of the way.

Be encouraged with God's word as we have been, "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the holy One of God.'" John 6:66-69 ESV

Alcalá de Henares

Here is a video about Alcalá de Henares, the town where we will be living (hopefully soon!). The titles are in Spanish, but the pictures are beautiful and give you an idea of the town! Also, if you didn't know, this is the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Also, the university in the video (where we will attend language classes) was founded in 1496! Enjoy!

The Times Between

Today marks the 3 month mark since the Spanish Consulate has had all of our paperwork. We're still waiting for our visas. I wish there was other news to report about the status of those certain government documents, but, alas, God has other plans. So, we're trying to live in the space between here and there. We struggle in what to invest our time. We try to prepare ourselves both mentally and spiritually for Spain. While we're here, we've been trying to gain some semblance of closure in our ministry here. And yet we wait. How much more can we dig deep into people's lives without being unfair to them. How can you ask people to be vulnerable and open up to you about things they have never dealt with in their lives, while knowing that at any moment you may have to leave? Will you pray with us that we may have wisdom in knowing how much to delve in and how much to stay back?

This past weekend we were able to attend a Missions Conference put on by the PCA mission board. While we're not with that particular mission, it was still so wonderful to attend the conference not only for the fantastic content, but also because we were able to attend with 8 other people from our home church! We learned so much this weekend, and we're still processing it all. Some of our favorite sessions were about post-Christian Europe and ministering to the upcoming generation and Third Culture Kids (like children of missionaries, for example). I would try to sum up all that we learned, but I'm not even sure I can do that yet! But God certainly used this past weekend to teach us a whole lot about Him, about missions, and about ourselves. And for that, we thank Him.

Pray with us also for our contact with the Consulate. We have put in a call to the consulate to see if there is anything they can do to find out what's taking so long with our visas. They asked us to give them 3 months for the resolution of our visas. Like we mentioned earlier, today marks 3 months. Would you pray that we would be firm enough to really see if they can do anything without putting ourselves at odds with the Consulate for future visas? Thank you all so much for your support!

Esperar, περιμένετε, الانتظار, 等待, kusubiri

There are a lot of ways to say it, but they all mean the same thing: wait.

I know we've been using that word a bunch lately, but it truly is one of the only ways to describe the last few weeks. We had hoped to get our visas by the last week in September in order to make it to the start of the language classes we hoped to attend. Well, they didn't come in time for us to go, so we're looking into other options for language study. We know that God must have another plan for us to learn Spanish and schedule our year in Spain. I feel like God has prepared us for this time because we knew all along that it was uncertain when we might get our visas, so we have been adapting the flexible mentality all along. For that, I am grateful. I honestly don't know how we've done it apart from God's grace.

So right now we're, that's right, waiting. Now that the language study deadline has passed, there is not so much of a rush to get to Spain. Once we get our visas, we don't have to hop the next plane. We can wait a few days or a week or so before we leave. So, right now, we're living our lives one week at a time. Would you please pray with us that our visas would come in soon?

And you can be PRAISING GOD with us--He has provided for all our financial support! We are at 100% of our one-time expenses and at 100% of our monthly pledges. We thank all of you who have given, whether one-time, or are giving monthly throughout the year. God has used you greatly in our lives, and truly you are a part of ministry in Spain. Thank you! And praise God for his faithfulness.

Thank you for joining us on this journey!

Familia

Here is a wonderful article on Spain. TEAM puts out a semi-annual magazine called TEAM Horizons (a free subscription if you would like to receive it). I love it because it has wonderful pictures, and highlights what God is doing throughout the world. You'll have to go to page 28 to read the article, or you can scroll down to the bottom of the page to download the article in PDF format. This article is from 2008, but it's words and pictures still capture my heart. Enjoy!

http://new.teamworld.org/index.php/media/teamhorizons-magazine/book/10-teamhorizons-january-2008-volume-3-issue-1/3-teamhorizons-volume-3

Great Video

Yes, I know that the World Cup has passed, and most of us have moved on with our lives. But Spain winning still makes my heart flutter just a little. :) We came across this video, and it makes me smile. It shows two Spanish commentators right at the moment where Andrés Iniesta makes the winning goal. If only we were all as passionate. It's on a Spanish site, so I can't post the actual video, but if you click the link, it will be well worth your time. Enjoy!

http://www.as.com/futbol/video/camacho-canta-gol-iniesta/dasftb/20100712dasdasftb_3/Ves

Update

We are still waiting here for our visas to come in. They should come in anywhere between now and November (we're hoping for now :) ), and we're doing everything we can to be ready to leave whenever they come. We're kind of in limbo, finishing up our time here in the US and simply waiting. It's a strange time, yet God has been so faithful to us during it. We have seen Him work in so many ways, and we are able to spend some last times with friends and family for the year. Waiting is the name of the game, however. God has truly tested our patience, and hopefully it has grown. I will say that we look forward to being able to share with you the day we receive our visas! What a wonderful day that will be!

Another great item of news is that we are at 100% of our one-time expenses and at 95% of our pledged monthly support! What that breaks down into is about $2,000 cash or $175/month left to raise! God has blessed us so much with providing for our needs for the year, and we give Him the credit for it. It certainly wasn't us--I know that sounds cheesy, but it is so true.

Please pray with us that our visas would come in soon. We hope to arrive in Spain by October 4th. We hope to attend Spanish language and culture classes at a University in the town in which we'll be staying. If we don't make it by that date, we will either have to wait until January to take the next semester of classes or find another form of classes. Obviously God knows the best timing, and we trust that He knows exactly where our visas are and when they will come in. Please pray both for the expediency of our visas and for trust in the sovereign timing of our Lord. Thanks so much for being a part of this with us!

Here's a picture of the University we hope to attend--Universidad de Alcalá

A Time

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven". Ecclesiastes 3:1

"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21

The past couple of weeks have been characteristic of these verses of Scripture. At the beginning of the month, Micah's uncle, Bob Henderson, passed away after fighting for a while with kidney problems. Micah's mother Donna has a sister named Betty June. Betty June was Bob's wife of almost 61 years.

Last Thursday, August 19th, Micah's Grandmother, "Granny", Mary Alice Yaun, passed away peacefully early in the morning. She was buried on her 91st birthday. Granny was Micah's father's mother.

We can rest in both of these deaths because we know that they both are rejoicing with Jesus even now as I write these words. But while they are rejoicing, we are still here on earth. The reality of life and death has been impressed upon us in the last few weeks. Time is so short. Life is but a breath. Yet we still wait. We wait for our visa to come in, and we wait for our ultimate home. Waiting. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Let these words encourage your heart.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Two Weddings, One Champion, and Two Roadtrips

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for us! We've been to Miami, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and back--and lived to tell about it! :)

The first thing on our calendar for July was my (Kimberly's) cousin's wedding. My cousinChase McCallister married his bride Lauren on July 10th. Their wedding was at the beautiful Botanical Gardens at the Riverbanks Zoo at sunset. The ceremony was gorgeous, and we all had such a blast at the reception--even my Oma got up with her walker and danced on the dance floor!

My cousin Chase and I

My new cousin Lauren and I

The next day was the final of the FIFA World Cup 2010. The cup was down to two teams--Spain and the Netherlands. Obviously, we were rooting for Spain to win! After all, it is about to become our new home! Since my cousin's wedding was the night before, many of my cousins were still in town and were able to watch the final game with us. A few of them actually grew up in Spain, so it was great to be able to feed off of their passion for the team. In the end, after a tense roller coaster, we were finally able to celebrate that Spain holds the title for the 2010 World Cup Champions!! This is the first time Spain has EVER won the world cup, and it is also the first time a team has won the world cup after losing their first group match. Needless to say, we were pretty excited! The only sad note is that we weren't able to be in Spain for the actual celebration!!! What a joyous day. :)

Celebrating Spain's win with my cousins

Right after the game was over...like RIGHT after...we left for West Palm Beach, FL.We stopped in Jacksonville, FL for the night to break up the trip. Thankfully, we have wonderful friends in Jacksonville who offered their house to us both on the way to and from Southern Florida. Monday morning after breakfast with our friends, we drove down to West Palm Beach to stay with our good friends the Smythe family. We spent our time in West Palm Beach visiting my old church, having a wonderful reunion with old friends, sharing about our internship in Spain, and of course going to the beach for one morning! We had such a wonderful time there. In between all of these events, we travelled down to Miami, FL to apply for our visas at the Spanish consulate. Yes, you heard me right, we had to go PERSONALLY to the consulate to apply. We miraculously (literally) got an appointment for the week we would be down there so that our documents wouldn't expire. Everything seemed to go without a hitch--Praise God! The only thing we are waiting on now is for one last document to be translated and mailed to the consulate--then they can begin processing it. They say it should take anywhere between 1 and 3 months to process our visa. Then we will be free to leave for Spain!! Hooray!

Us with the Smythe family who hosted us while in West Palm Beach

The Church I attended while living in FL, Wellington Presbyterian Church

Then it was back to Columbia for another friend's wedding on Saturday, July 17th. Daniel and Rebekah Hodges both went to CIU with us, and Micah lived on the same hall in the dorm as Daniel. Side note: I actually attended Ben Lippen School with Daniel in the 8th grade! They had a lovely ceremony and reception, and we were able to get caught up with several college friends that we hadn't seen in a really long time!

Micah with Daniel

After a one-day rest on Sunday, we headed to Knoxville, TN on Monday, the 19th. We stayed with Jon and Rae Farra and their sweet little almost one-year old girl named Rosalee. Jon was the interim youth pastor at our church for a year in 2005-2006. They both teach at a Christian school in Knoxville. We were able to share a little bit with their small group and visit several churches in the area to share about our internship. On Thursday of that week, we headed down to Chattanooga, TN to visit with Micah's best friend from childhood (and through to adulthood) Stephen Humphries and his wife Taryn. We had such a great time hanging out with them since we don't get to see them too often! They opened our eyes to a wonderful used book store called McKay's (sadly only in Tennessee)! We were also able to give our information to some churches while in the area as well.

Us with Jon, Rae, and Rosalee

Us with Stephen and Taryn

The next Sunday we returned home--all travelled out. We then packed up and moved all of our stuff to Micah's parent's home, in which we will be making our home until we leave for Spain. Now we are [almost] settled in to our room, and are looking forward to being in Columbia for the better part of the month. God has taught us so much about flexibility and kindness throughout our travels thus far, and I know He's got much more in store for us.

Another HUGE news item! It is with GREAT thanks to our Lord that I can say that He has brought us to 72% of our total funds! We are thrilled with His provision so far, and He is only proving Himself to be trustworthy. Thanks for bearing with this lengthy post! Looking forward to sharing what God will do next!

Drowning in all that is Visa...

Visa, visa, visa! I feel like that word has come out of my mouth more than just about anything these days! I mean, I knew that getting visas were complicated, but now we can join the ranks of those who actually know how complicated it truly is. Just to give you a taste...we have several documents we need to present in order to apply for our visa--in person--in Miami. The most interesting thing we have had to come up with is a certificate of good conduct from the FBI that required us to get fingerprinted! Now whenever people in CSI and Law and Order look through the fingerprint databases, ours will be among the ranks searched! HA! But seriously, we have to come up with several documents, then we have to get them legalized with the Apostille--who has EVER heard of an apostille?!? Well, now we have! Then, if all that wasn't enough, we have to have ALL of our documents translated into Spanish! (side note--the Miami consulate--who has jurisdiction over SC residents--is one of the only consulates that requires that you translate your documents into Spanish) Needless to say, we are definitely looking forward to the day when we have applied for the visa and just have to wait for it to come in.

In other news, we had a fantastic garage sale in which we sold over half of our stuff! God has used this time to remind us that we don't belong in this world and what's truly eternal. I am so grateful that God impressed upon our hearts the desire to go to Spain before we even got married. All of our possessions we have been able to hold lightly knowing that we were just going to turn around and get rid of them very soon. Anyways, it's been a huge relief not to have to keep up with all of our "stuff" anymore! It's all taken care of for the year we're gone!

Also, God is continuing to provide for our financial needs. We're currently at 43%! That means that we have about $22,500 left to raise. God has been so faithful to provide for us so far, and we know that he will be faithful to provide the rest. We have a few support trips coming up. We're going to Savannah, GA and also to Jacksonville, FL this week to visit with family and share about God's work in Spain. Also, as soon as our paperwork comes in, we will be travelling to Miami to apply for our visa and to visit a few other cities in Southern Florida. We're also hoping to travel to a few other places in the Southeast within the next month or two. So our basic timeline is once our paperwork comes in to go to Miami to apply for our visa, wait until our visa comes in (3-4 months), then go to Spain!

Thank you guys so much for praying for us! Here are a few things you can keep on praying for:

--Pray that God will continue to provide our finances, and praise Him for providing what we have so far.

--Pray that God will open our eyes to opportunities for ministry where we are right now. There are already ways that we see God working to the people we're coming in contact with.

--Pray that God will strengthen our marriage during this stressful time.

--Pray for the people to whom we will be ministering to in Spain and for Mark Johnson, a TEAM missionary who will be our supervisor.

Looking forward to sharing what God is doing!!! Thanks for joining us in the journey!

On the Road Again

Ok, cheesy title I know...but it seriously has been what our lives have consisted of for the last couple weeks! On May 16th, we drove almost 14 hours from Columbia, SC to Peoria, IL to visit my (Kimberly's) Grandma. It was so good to see her as I haven't been able to visit her since I was 14 or 15!

Me with my Grandma

From Peoria we drove up to Wheaton, IL to begin training with TEAM on May 18th. From that Tuesday through Friday we had all day intensive training sessions to help prepare us for our year in Spain. It was so refreshing to be there, to meet new people, and to learn (and be reminded of) so much! We had a great time there, and feel better prepared for ministry.

All the TEAMServers

We were able to leave early enough on that Friday to make it back to Columbia, SC late that night (or should I say early Saturday!). We had been planning to split up the trip into two days, staying with a good friend in Tennessee, but we were able to leave earlier than expected and made it back in one day! :) And, boy were we glad we made it back that night! The next day around noon, we get a text letting us know that we were about to have a new baby in the family! Micah's brother Nate blessed our family with our first nephew! (We had only girls before that) Skye Logan was born May 22, and he is a beautiful, healthy baby. We love him so much!

Skye Logan

We then were able to speak at Covenant Community Church in Lexington, SC (Red Bank area) the next day, May 23rd. We have a friend from college, Kent Suits, that works at this church, and he connected us with the people there. We were able to share during the Sunday School hour and had the privilege of leading worship for the church service. We had a blast sharing what God has done and is doing in Spain! We were even able to play with an old friend that we didn't know attended Covenant! Mike had gone to our church, Faith, a while ago, and it was so fun to play on a worship team with him again! And many memories were brought back to us as we played with Kent because we had both been on CIU's chapel team with Kent for a year.

We also had the opportunity to travel to Augusta, GA this week. We had meetings with two churches, and we also dropped off some information packets at a few other churches in the area. We then were able to visit with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time! Tim and Emma Strong moved out of the Columbia area several years ago and have since had a baby girl named Elena! We got to meet her for the first time--and she's definitely not a baby anymore! Elena is 20 months old, and she is hilarious--just like her parents. :)

Please pray for us as the next week will be spent on three main things:

1. Packing! We still have more packing to be done at our old house! Next Saturday (June 5) we will be having a HUGE garage sale. If you've had a garage sale before, you know we need prayer to organize and get things done!
2. Planning for various support trips. Some trips that we are trying to get together for the nearer future are to Charlotte, NC and Chattanooga, TN.
3. Visa preparations. We have to have several documents officially translated into Spanish, wait for certain documents to arrive from the Spanish government, and also try to plan a support trip around this trip to Miami. Please pray for us--it's very complicated to work everything out just right!

Thank you guys so much for praying for us, and we look forward to what God will do! Like Hudson Taylor has said, "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply." We're still at 30% support, and we trust that God will provide!

Jobless, Not-So-Homeless, and Support

Things are a bit of a whirlwind here with us! As of yesterday, we are both officially jobless! While this sounds like a scary thing (and actually is a little!), it is actually quite freeing for us. It has been really difficult for us to juggle jobs with support raising. Now our full-time job IS support raising and preparation for Spain. And, I'll be the first to say that it is certainly a full-time job! We've got a bunch of trips lined up to visit with friends, and also friends of friends to share what God is doing in Spain. You can actually pray for us as we leave tomorrow to go on a two-day trip to Augusta, GA to meet with a few churches (hopefully more!). Please pray that we would be able to finish up some last minute details and be able to get in contact with the right people. We also will have the opportunity to meet up with some friends we haven't seen in a while--Tim and Emma Strong. They used to go to our church, but have since moved to Augusta and we haven't really seen them much since, so it'll be good to see them and to meet their 1 year old little girl, Elena.

We have also moved out of our house! But God has provided above and beyond for us. A family in our church, the Sweazy's, have graciously let us stay with them for these last few months to save money on expenses now that we're jobless. The Sweazy's live on the lake in a gorgeous house that has a kind of garage apartment--now I say garage apartment, but it is fantastic. We have our own kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc. It truly is like an apartment. The Sweazy's have been so kind to us, and I know God will bless them for their generosity. We do have until the end of May to get all of our stuff out of our old house, so the name of the game is sorting and packing. Memorial Day weekend we will be having a garage sale to sell the stuff we don't want to store. Many people have been generous to donate stuff they have been wanting to get rid of for us to sell to help give to our ministry. It has been such a blessing!

Good news on the support front! Within the last few weeks, our support has jumped from 15% to 30%!! We have been blown away by the support that God has provided for us! Praise God with us! And also please pray that a good bit more of support will come in enough time for us to apply for our visa. We are confident that God will provide in Him timing. Pray that we will be diligent stewards of our time and resources in this time.

Not So Baby Steps

Right now is transition time for us! Our support is coming in (praise God!), but is coming in a lot slower than anticipated (trust God!), so we had some big decisions to make. We simply don't have time to raise support full-time because we are working, so the necessary steps needed to make toward support raising simply aren't getting done because of the limited hours in the day to use. So, we prayed and sought counsel and have finally come to some decisions, and HUGE transitions are in process as a result! Here's a quick summary of all that's happening in the next few months.

--In 3 weeks, we will both be leaving our jobs to embark on full-time support raising.
--In 2 to 3 weeks we will be moving out of our house. God has blessed us with a wonderful family who has extended their "in-law suite" (which is really like a fully furnished apartment) for us to stay in for these next months as their support, so we won't have to pay rent or utilities now that we won't have jobs
--In the month of May we will be traveling to several cities in the Southeast (more details to follow)
--Also in the month of May, we will attend our week long training for TEAM
--In June we will be making several support trips as well as making a trip to Miami, FL to apply for our visa
--In July, we will tentatively be attending a 3 week long intensive training in CO with MTI (Missions Training International). This trip depends on how much support we have.
--In August, we will hopefully leave for Spain in the middle of the month.

So, you may be asking, how will we be able to quit our jobs and still eat?! God has blessed us greatly with a generous tax refund, the sale of a car, and few other odds and ends provisions, which should hold us over for the next few months. Praise God for His provision!!

We'll be giving more details about our trips and training soon, but for now, our life pretty much consists of packing and planning! Thank you for praying for us!

15%

Great News! Since the last time we posted about how much support we had raised, the number has risen by 10%! God is working! We praise Him for the amount of support He has brought in so far!



Would you pray with us that God would bring in the remaining support? If you know of anyone who might be interested in what God is doing in Spain, please let us know! We'd love to share with them!

Snow!!

Well, as most of you know, we live in SC. As in SOUTH Carolina. We hardly get any snow. In fact, I don't think it snowed last year at all if my memory serves. Anyways, we have had a wonderful time of snow this year!! First in February it snowed quite a bit! 8 inches officially recorded at the airport! Then, just this week, it snowed again! We couldn't believe it! It wasn't much. The snow was really wet, and it melted the next day, but still! Here are some pictures of the first snow, and a video about the second snow. Enjoy!

Our little snowman we built before the snow accumulated much.

Micah trying to look like Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as she stands by the lamp post in Narnia for the first time :)

A present that was left by someone who lives in our neighborhood! A big snowman! :)

Our house!

Beautiful snow on the trees

Spanish, Spanish, Spanish!

The last few days we have done a bunch of translating! Why, you may ask? Well, we have the amazing opportunity to speak at a Spanish church here in Columbia this Sunday! Members of Iglesia Biblica Latinoamericana came into Sim's Music where Micah works, and they were buying something for their church. One thing led to another, they exchanged stories, and we were invited to speak to their congregation! This is both very exciting and very scary at the same time! The first church congregation we will ever speak in front of about our involvement in missions in Spain will be in Spanish! Thankfully I (Kim) kind of get to be wimpy and run the powerpoint while Micah takes the stage with our presentation. Now, before you freak out too much, there will be an interpreter on site in case we're not sure how to say something. One really amazing thing that has happened in planning is that we found that this church has a connection to the church we'll be ministering in Spain! What a small world! A guy came to speak at IBL just recently, and he will be teaching at the MK school where our church meets. God is so cool in how he brought us together to this church! Please pray for us this Sunday morning as we will be giving this church an opportunity to take part in God's plan for Spain.

On another note, we've been spending some time with our long-time friends the McMillans. They were in Venezuela for years as missionaries and are now in Columbia, SC trying to move to, you guessed it, Madrid! One of their daughters, Heather was in town to spend some time with family before she moved to S. Korea to teach English, so we took the opportunity to see her! We had a blast, sharing ideas and getting caught up. We returned to the McMillans' house just last night where they helped us translate our presentation into Spanish. What a fun time we've been able to have with them as we are both in transition! I trust we'll spend many more fun times with them.

Us with Sharon, Peter, and Heather McMillan

Thanks for praying with us!

Coming Along!

Good news! We are starting along the journey with 5% of our support raised! Pray with us that God will bring in the rest of the money we need to do His work! Thank you for praying with us! More updates to come!

Planning, Planning, Planning

Planning is the name of the game. It's comprised most of our free time in the last month or so, and there's still so much left to do! But God is giving us an amazing amount of strength to keep the stress down and still move forward, and I know that a lot of it has to do with the fact that we have a bunch of people praying for us already! Thank you! The more we plan for this internship, the more God gives us a sense of excitement and anticipation for all the He is going to do! But before we can actually go to Spain, we have to plan for Spain. In all of our planning, we've found out several things. The biggest two things that are ready for us to move forward are our goal date for when we leave and our budget.

August 16, 2010! This is the date of all dates for us this year! It is tentatively when we are planning to leave for Spain. Of course, the date is not set in stone, and God could get us there sooner, or choose to send us off later, but nevertheless August 16, 2010 is our goal. One of the reasons we chose this date is because of the visa process. From start to finish, the visa process takes about 3-4 months. And once we are actually awarded our visa, we must leave within 30 days of getting it. So we obviously can't apply for it yet, because there is little chance of us having all of our expenses in by then! So, once we have a good bit of our support coming in, we'll be able to apply for our visa. Please pray that we will be able to begin the application process by mid-April in order to leave by our goal date!

Also, our budget has finally come in! We need to raise close to $45,000 for the year. This is comprised of both one time expenses and monthly living expenses while in Spain. Will you please pray with us that God lays it on the hearts of churches, families, and individuals who can partner with us on this journey? We are so excited about what God is doing in Spain, and we want to get others involved in it! Hudson Taylor's words have comforted me so much in this time: "God's will done in God's way will never lack God's supply." We are excited to report that we are at 5% of our support! I know that God will provide the rest for us. If God is leading you to partner with us, there are several ways you can! Contact us about information about automatic withdrawal, give online at www.teamworld.org, or send your donations to:

TEAM

P.O. Box 969

Wheaton, IL 60187

(Write Account 010820-T in memo)

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and for your interest in our ministry! We are hoping to update you with prayer requests and updates frequently so that you can know what's going on in this exciting journey to Spain!

Internship

Hey everyone! We have some exciting news that we would love to share with you! Many of you already know our desire to serve long-term in Spain someday as church planters. Well, God has provided for an excellent first step for us! We have been invited to do a one-year internship in Spain! How perfect! We found out about this opportunity in late July, and have been working toward it ever since. We have joined TEAM and are going with the program called TEAMServe, which is set up for short term ministry. Here’s a little bit about our internship.

We were invited to work in a town called Camarma de Esteruelas, which is about thirty minutes from downtown Madrid. We were able to visit this town and church when we visited Spain in March of 2009. This church is somewhat of a hybrid environment because it meets in the Evangelical Christian Academy. Many of the teachers from this school attend the church, so it is a mixture of Spaniards, Latinos, Americans, English, and Asians. We will be aiding, in what capacity we are not sure, with the youth group and the music ministry. We both love youth and music, so this seems like the perfect fit for us to test the waters. We feel that this will be a good transition for us to have people from our own culture around us, while at the same time being able to minister with and to Spaniards.

Even though we will work in Camarma, we will be living in a town called Alcalá de Henares, which is about twenty minutes from Camarma. There we will be taking language classes and hopefully participating in a cell group that is starting up in the town. We have chosen to live in Alcalá versus Camarma because of two main reasons. One is that the University where we will be taking language classes is in Alcalá. It will be so convenient to simply be able to walk to classes instead of having to take a bus. Another reason is that we will be able to be more immersed in the culture with support just nearby.

Obviously this is only just an overview of our plan. The year in Spain is going to be filled with adventures, I'm sure, and we're so excited about it! We are just getting started with raising support, and don't know much yet, but we'll post when we know a little bit more about it. Thanks for joining us along the way!

New Blog!

We have finally started a blog to record our journey to Spain! We hope that you guys enjoy what's to come!

-Kim