A City Life For Me

November 28th, 2016.  I don’t think I will ever forget that day.  Just two days shy of 35 months on the road, and we pulled into the driveway.  For the last time.  Deputation was done.  It was a long haul.  Not as long as many missionaries spend on deputation, but it taxed me to the limit. We started when the twins were but six months old, headed to Alabama to be appointed with Baptist World Mission.  Then I was pregnant with Henry while on the road, and we took only a six week break for his birth.  I have homeschool Elaine in Kindergarten, First Grade, and part of Second Grade.  I started Nolan in Kindergarten. Did not anticipate doing that. I potty trained Liberty at rest areas and in other people’s homes.  I tried to potty train Nehemiah, but we are still walking that road.  Most of deputation has had us with three in diapers, and me nursing at least one baby. We learned a lot of lessons.  We made cherished friendships....

Every year our mission board holds an Annual Meeting.  If you are on deputation or furlough, you are required to attend this meeting.  Sometimes it seems like a long trip for a short interview with the deputation committee, but I have always come out encouraged and geared up for another round of deputation.  This year was the same. We traveled to Indianapolis, IN where Crosspointe Baptist Church hosted the meeting.  Their church members did a fabulous job of hosting us, directing us to the right places, and feeding us.  We were blessed to stay with a family of seven who are former missionaries with BWM.  They also had a newborn boy! Things didn’t go quite as planned.  Elaine had some tummy troubles and then ended up with an ear infection.  But each time we thought we would stay home with her, she perked up and made it through the activities.  She was excited to be with some of her missionary friends again. Lord willing, this will be our la...

We have started a blog/website to keep people updated on our deputation progress, and later on our ministry in the Bronx.  It is called Modern Nineveh .  Read more about the name here .  From now on, all ministry related posts will be published on Modern Nineveh . We have also switched over to a newsletter email service to make delivery of our PRayer Letters more easy.  If you were previously receiving our {very sporadic} updates, we have added you to the new mailing list.  If you no longer wish to receive the updates, just click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.  If you would like to be added to our new mailing list, please click here and follow the instructions. We also have a new prayer card and are in the process of selecting a printer! {front} {back}

As I mentioned, we traveled last week to Alabama to interview with Baptist World Mission as church planters to the Bronx.  I wanted to share a little bit about that process. The Baptist World Mission Board of Trustees We actually had to submit our information by August 15th.  Ben and I completed separate applications, including some doctrinal questions, our testimony, our call to the mission field, and six references.  Ben had to complete a more in-depth doctrinal statement.  We both had to have medical exams and submit some other information.  The in person interview was just the last step in the process of getting approved by the board. The conference started Monday morning with a doctrinal review.  There were four applying missionaries that had to be reviewed – two couples (one of them was us!) and two individual ladies.  We appeared before 3 board members and answered doctrinal questions to be sure that we are in agreement with BWM....