A new direction

Wow, it is really hard to know how to even begin this post! I'll just start by announcing that God is leading our family in a new (very new) direction! This past year we have felt convicted and led to a different type of ministry. To start, here are some statistics:

-There are approximately 7 billion people on earth

-There are approx. 16,000 people groups on earth

(a people group consists of people who share the same language and culture. They can communicate effectively amongst themselves).

-About 6,800 of these people groups are considered "unreached" by the gospel. This means that there is either no church or not a strong enough church for evangelism to happen. There are over 2 billion people in this category!

-Among these unreached people groups, there are still 1,568 that are "unengaged." This means that there is no scripture, no church, no missionaries, and no known Christians in that group.

-632 of these unengaged groups consist of at least 50,000 people!

Here is a powerful 3-minute video about these people.

(disclaimer: we love short-term mission trips and have been very blessed by them!)

In Matthew 28:19, Jesus gives a command:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"

(note: "nations" does not refer to a political state, but it is from the Greek word 'ethnos', which refers to people groups")

Over the past 6 years, God has been working in our hearts. Our role in this Great Commission has been to send others to the unreached. However, this past year God has directed us to actually go! Surprise! We still can't believe it:) We have spent this past year praying about it and feel certain this is the direction God wants for us. We are excited about it but at the same time we feel inadequate for this type of work. It has been hard at times, at least for me, with struggling with worry (about our kids, safety, etc)...but I am reminded that God is sovereign! No matter what happens, He is in charge, everything that He does is good and right, and I need to trust Him in this. All He is asking us to do is just trust Him and obey Him. If we can trust God to save us from our sins, we can certainly trust Him with the things of this life! Another thing that has helped us so much is to try and keep an eternal perspective. Thinking about all of the souls that are lost in darkness and headed for hell, and thinking about men refusing God the glory that He deserves. Jesus paid the price for their sins and He deserves their allegiance and worship!

So, for this kind of work lots of training is needed! We will start with 2 years of Bible training, followed by 2 years of Missionary training (to teach us to learn a new language, make a written alphabet, translate Scripture, install solar panels, etc). After that we will head to the mission field, which will probably be somewhere in the 10/40 window. The ultimate goal is to learn the people's language, translate Scripture, teach the Gospel, plant a church, raise up leadership, and send out evangelists to reach their own people. Altogether, this will probably take 25-30 years. We plan to start this August! Prayers are appreciated (and that is a huge understatement!!) More details to come (I will try to update this blog a little more often than what I have been!).

We love you all! To God be the glory!!

A fun family trip!

For Christmas this year, Nathan's parents decided to take us on a family trip to Brown County, which is a state park with an extremely cool pool! It was a good idea...thanks, mom and dad! We had a really great time (especially our kids--they just loved all the swimming!) Anyway, the hotel at Brown County recently renovated their pool area, and installed an amazing indoor water park-type pool area. It had a water slide, which was actually really fun--way faster than I would have guessed. It also had a lazy-river type of pool, and a zero-entry pool area that was perfect for Layla. She loved being able to just walk around in the water, and I loved the fact that I didn't have to worry about her falling off a step, or falling into deep water! (We still had to watch her very closely, though--the girl is fearless!)

A not-so-great picture of the pool area (our camera is a little dark). You can get the idea, though!

Layla's first time in the water...she was loving it!

A cute picture of our 3 kiddos:)

Layla loved the freedom of running down the halls of the hotel! She is such a cute little walker:)

Here is the water slide, which by far was our kids' favorite part of the pool...especially Kaine's! On the second day that we were there, he decided to try out a life jacket, and he was brave enough to go down the slide all by himself! He was just loving it. Right when he would get down the slide, he would climb out of the pool and run right back up the stairs. It was so cute!

With the life jacket, Kaine was swimming all over the place:)

Nathan getting Kaine ready to go...

Okay. This is not the most attractive picture of Layla, I know:) But she is just so funny...this is her new "face." She seriously makes it all the time! It is mostly when she is unhappy about something, even something so small. A lot of times, when Layla sees me she will make this face because she wants me (she is becoming somewhat of a mommy's girl). So anyway, when we were at the pool, a stranger would comment on how cute Layla is, etc...and Layla would just look at them and give them this face! It was embarrassing--I would just have to apologize and tell the person that sorry, this is the new face she makes all the time! Lately, though, I think she just makes the face because she knows it makes us laugh:) Such a funny girl!

I think this is SUCH a great picture of Nathan and Halle!

Grandpa Dave loved taking our kids down the slide, too!

A funny pic of Nathan and Halle...they both have crazy looks on their faces (typical for both!)

Layla getting splashed (by herself, probably! She loves hitting the water and always seems surprised when the water hits he face:) )

So...such a great time! Thanks so much, mom and dad...it was a great Christmas present!