Summer & Anna's Test

Fritz has been busy with home school and soccer.

Cory visited Brooksville Community Church in Florida to share at the Wednesday night service. 

He enjoyed traveling with his mom and spending some time with his cousins and uncle.

15 graduated last Saturday from the Jembo Wesleyan Bible College in Zambia!

We pray God continues to direct them as they move to their new areas of ministry and for the selection of students for the next school year.

The following was sent to our Email list:

Please keep our Anna in your prayers as July 29-30, next Tuesday and Wednesday, she will be sitting to take the California bar exam

We pray for God’s peace and for clarity so she can do her best. For health and protection so nothing distracts or prevents her from taking this exam only offered twice a year. For stamina for testing 6-6.5 hours a day.

We pray for good restful sleep the nights leading up to and during the bar. 

Day one consists of  essays which Anna feels will be harder than the second day of multiple choice.
We pray that she can be an encouragement to others stressing about the exam. 
The Lord has lead her on this path and we know He is with her. We rejoice in all that He has done to get her to this point in her life. We look forward to spending the first week of August with her before she returns to California to start work on Aug. 13.
Feel free to share at church, in small groups, prayer chains. Pray for the others taking the bar as well- Christian attorneys can have an important Kingdom impact in the world. 
Thank you to all who’ve prayed for her on this journey. We greatly appreciate it!

Haiti, Zambia, and family update

In Haiti the gangs are expanding in several areas. 

On the Delice mountains, there are more displaced people arriving for refuge but it is not safe to go down for supplies on either side of the mountain.

LaGonave is also having trouble getting supplies due to the gangs expanding into piracy, hindering boat travel and even taking over parts of the island. 

Cory heard recently from LaGonave that several boats with big guns attacked the pirates.  

LaGonave gardens are producing well, providing an abundance of watermelon and corn on the cob but export to the mainland of Haiti is very limited due to the gangs.

North Haiti is in drought and now it is their dry season, although some years good rains allow gardening all year.

In Zambia, the Bible College plans to get a 2600 gallon plastic water tank and finish the water system for the new well, which will also help water the fruit trees and nursery. 

An old flatbed truck has been a challenge to get running and needs some more parts.

This would be used both for the Bible College and the agricultural project at Jembo.

Trust that all our North American friends enjoyed Canada Day or the Fourth of July!

As for us we remain busy working on to-do lists for our parents as well as Global Partner's final release list.

We just sent out a newsletter so if you have not seen it and would like to receive a copy, please let us know.

New prayer cards are also avalable so let us know if you don't attend a supporting church [unless we are coming to visit you soon-in which case we will hand deliver the cards], didn't received one by mail, or need additional.

Fritz and Kris start up Fritz's freshman school year this week even as Fritz continues with club soccer. 

Anna continues to study for the bar which she plans to take July 29 and 30th. Please keep her in your prayers. 

We are enjoying family time, watching the corn grow, Michigan fruit, and sharing in churches. 

Back in Michigan.....Again.

 Last week we shared in Seymore Wesleyan kicking off our church visits for this year.

We not only enjoyed thanking them in person, sharing, answering questions but a great time of fellowship during a tasty lunch.

Then we headed north up to Indiana Wesleyan University to participate in REquip, the training for Global Partners missionaries between terms.

The best part always includes sharing the good and hard stories with our fellow co-workers. Some we just met and others we reconnect and deepen friendships.

We also focused on topics like: story telling, managing expectations, connecting with God and people, and practical skills [staying safe on-line, connecting better verbally or in writing], processing the last term [which for a few reasons for us ended up being 6 years including changing countries between years 2-3.

With the support folks from the office present to answer questions and walk us through parts of the re-deployment process we made some significant progress on our to-do-to-return check list. 

You may have already noticed that the link to the blog is now in FaceBook comments-a tip we learned this week. Other changes will be following to improve our communications.

Big prayer request is that while we plan to return to Zambia Cory's 2 year work permit/visa will need to be renewed in November. 

We are praying that we can remain in Zambia for this four year term-which means needing the renewal this November and then again in 2027.

Back in Michigan and Updates from Haiti and Zambia.

We hear north Haiti had some rain to break a bad dry spell but peanuts in sandy fields were already dried up.

Here are a few Kids Club photos sent from a recent Limbe special program.

The last two weeks flew by for our family. 

We finished our time in California well and have been back almost a full week in Michigan.

Eli picked us up at the airport around noon on Sunday.

We then headed to an open-house on Kris' side and enjoyed visiting with family.

This past week we: unpacked, did some spring cleaning, organized, did lots of yard work for both sides of the family, some office work and rested up.

Fritz attended soccer tryouts and is looking forward to participating in a local soccer club the next 6 weeks. 

We will continue with more of the same this week, adding in soccer practice before heading to Indiana on Saturday. 

We plan to share at Seymour Wesleyan on Sunday morning before heading to IWU in the afternoon to attend REquip for the week. This training is for Wesleyan Global Partner's missionaries between terms.

Malibu Graduation and family time.

Thursday we headed south through the San Joaquin Valley and Mojave Desert, timing it just right to check into our Airbnb at our target time of 3pm.

This allowed Cory to not only pick up a wheelchair rental for Kris' mom but also do a bit of food shopping.

Then we headed to Pepperdine campus to meet Anna for the Baccalaureate service.

The time of worship together celebrating the class of 2025 was very meaningful. Then we popped into Anna's apartment before leaving to get some sleep.

Friday we arrived back on campus at 8:30. Kris sat behind Anna as a 'hooder.' The middle section where the graduates sat alternated rows with the person from their life they had chosen to place the hood on them while sitting in the row behind.

The service was very special and we were thankful to attend and celebrate.

Following a short time meeting some of Anna's friends we split up. Eli drove Grandma, Fritz and himself back while we remained with Anna for an afternoon of cleaning and packing!

Saturday morning we headed south to Long Beach where we all enjoyed a whale watching boat ride-to check a box off Grandma's bucket list.

We first saw a 'feeding frenzy' with 200-300 common dolphins and pelicans intermingling. 

Further out to sea we watched additional dolphins and then not just one but two large fin whales! 

We were told it is unusual to see two together.

Then we headed back and a good college friend of Kris' drove up for a nice afternoon of catching up on our lives.

Sunday we visited the church Anna attended her first year followed by getting some tasty fish and chips by the beach.

Then we spent a bit of time on the beach watching a rip-tide rescue, bottle-nose dolphins, and waves.

We toured the Pepperdine Law School building so we can now picture where Anna spent a lot of her time during the last three years.

Headed down Pacific Coast Highway just a little bit to see some of the wildfire damage.

Monday morning Cory, Eli, Anna and I headed out to a storage place to put Anna's stuff that she will not be needing for the next two months while studying for the bar.

After grabbing a quick lunch all 6 six of us headed out to celebrate Fritz finishing 8th grade by having some fun at an arcade called Dave and Busters.

We laughed a lot and had fun trying a lot of games-some of which earned us points to turn in at the end for prizes. 

Kris and Grandma won big at Wheel of Fortune. 

After hours of noise, lights, and games it was remarkably hard to pick what to use our points on but we ended up with: 2 neck pillows, 2 squishy stress pigs, a magnetic iron filings hour glass, a light bulb light, a tiny disco light, an avocado screen cleaner, and candy. 

We ended the night with each of us affirming each of the three 'kids' and then praying for each. 

Early Tuesday morning after dropping Mom and Eli off at LAX airport we loaded Anna's car and ours and parted ways.

Thank you for the prayers. 

Next week we'll finish up here and transition back to Michigan.