Visiting Family and Friends for the Holidays

We are finally getting some good snow!!!

We have been blessed to spend time with both our families over Thanksgiving and Christmas. We were able to meet and hold our beautiful new niece, Mercy Joy Bradbury. We have spent wonderful time with our parents and siblings. And we have enjoyed the consumption of far too many calories.

We will be flying to Belize on January 6th and 7th. We are so excited to get back and begin our new roles at LOL. 

Mark has been reading and gathering resources regarding the garden he will start. He was able to meet with a local scientist from one of the universities who has personal experience growing vegetables in the tropics. He was able to provide a vast array of info for Mark to use, and will continue to be a resource in the future. Mark has also discovered several research farms in southern Belize that he plans to visit when we are back.

The Coop

To the left is a picture of the chicken coop that Mark designed and plans to build. 

During our time in the states we have visited family in Washington and Idaho. In Washington we met our new niece, Mercy Joy, who was born in October. We've thoroughly enjoyed connecting with friends and family who have "joined" us on our missions journey. As we have met with new and ongoing supporters we have once again been blown away by the unbridled generosity.

Visit with Brad Libby and Family.

It is bittersweet to be saying goodbye and embarking on this next leg of our journey. Sarah has already started to get tearful (even as early as a couple weeks ago). We wish to thank everyone for their prayers! We feel them and need them as we travel next week and start our new life with LOL.

If you have any interest in making a visit to Belize this year, let us know! A few groups are already signing up to send a team to LOL! We have many ideas to help with fundraising for a short-term mission trip. We would love to have you join us in ministry in Belize. You will be glad you did!

Another Visit to LOL

We just returned from spending a couple more days at LOL. We took our first load of stuff to what will be our new house. We were also able to meet with Jervis and Melissa to begin planning our joint priorities for the first part of 2014.

Sarah's first priority will be taking over logistics for incoming mission teams. This will help to remove these time consuming duties from Melissa's plate, freeing her to focus on other areas.

LOL learning center and playground

I (Mark) will begin revamping the ministry website, with a focus on improving aesthetics, updating content, and creating a focused SEO (search engine optimization) plan. (This will coincide with a revamp of the ministry logo.) I will also be working to get the garden started as soon as possible. Currently LOL is spending over $500 every month on produce. The majority of these costs can be offset by production through a new garden.


In addition, by producing our own fruits and vegetables, we will be able to increase the amount of each consumed by the children. Currently the use of vegetables in the menu is quite limited. Snacks such as cookies and chips will be able to be replaced with much healthier alternatives. The most commonly used vegetables currently include onions, bell peppers, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes,

Tutoring at the LOL learning center.

cilantro (gross), and ca-rrots.

We will begin by producing these in the garden in order to quickly lessen the produce bill. Once back, I will be meeting with the operators of a nearby resort who has an amazing vegetable garden in order to glean local insight into the challenges of gardening in the tropics.

Our excitement for this upcoming year grew during our visit. It was great talking, planning, and dreaming with Jervis and Melissa. The Lord is moving at LOL, and we feel honored to be a part of this ministry.

New Year New Ministry

We are pleased to announce our plan for 2014. We have made the decision to continue ministry in Belize serving with an orphanage ministry.

LOL Ministries operates a children's home that strives to offer orphans and displaced children a home-like atmosphere surrounded by adults who provide guidance, mentoring, and love. Having seen institutional orphanages, it is refreshing to see a ministry striving to break the traditional mold.

The ministry is located in Jacintoville, Toledo District, Belize, not far from the coastal town of Punta Gorda. This area, the southern most in Belize, is surrounded by dense jungle, and is home to Mayan, Creole, and Garifuna people groups. It is about a two-and-a-half hour drive south of where we currently live.

We will be serving the ministry in various capacities, as there are several needs which we can help address.

One of our focuses will be managing communication for the ministry. Currently LOL is six years old, and has now had children for a year. They have achieved their first goal which is to provide children with their basic needs: a bed, clothes to wear, food to eat, people around them to provide friendship, assistance and discipline. Now, the ministry is preparing to meet their next goal, bringing together a core staff to surround Jervis and Melissa, the directors and founders, as they begin to focus on additional development with the goal of creating an even more family-like setting for the children.

Jervis and Melissa Fisher, Directors and Founders of LOL

For this next goal to be achieved several things need to happen. First, Jervis and Melissa need some of their tasks taken off their plates. This will happen as long-term missionaries come and begin to manage different areas, such as maintenance, accounting, communication, etc. Secondly, they will need the church to provide the needed resources to move forward.

Our piece, communication, involves several areas. First, we will be filtering incoming communication to limit the amount that Jervis and Melissa have to personally address. Currently Melissa averages around 50-100 emails per day. Responding to these consumes too much of her time.

In addition, we will be creating promotional materials (brochures, information packets, etc.) for churches and short-term teams. These tools will be used to promote the work of LOL and prepare teams for their ministry here. Sarah will be managing logistics for the short-term mission teams that come serve at LOL. The typical team ranges from 50 to 100 people, so managing the technical side of things takes a lot of work. Mark will be rebuilding and managing the ministry website. We hope to create a website that better reflects the culture, happenings and needs of LOL.

In addition to the roles mentioned above, we will be focusing time on mentoring the children. Because of the number of children, currently 26, staff often don't have the time to provide quality one-on-one time that children so desperately need. We will have the freedom to take children aside, or to town for ice cream, and provide them uninterrupted and focused time.

We will also be assisting in the tutoring program that is provided in the ministries Learning Center. When children come to LOL they tend to be struggling academically. Because of this, self-esteem can be diminished which leads to anger and discipline issues at school. By improving their academics such behaviors can be lessened, while self-esteem increases. A win-win.

Finally, Mark will start a vegetable and fruit garden. It has always been a goal to have their own farm, helping to offset what they must buy at the market.

We can't express how excited we are to join this ministry. It is evident that God is using and blessing the ministry. Plus, Jervis and Melissa will be great examples and leaders for us the learn and grow under.

We will be headed to the states in a couple of weeks to visit family, sell some more of our stuff, and gather some items we would like to bring back. We will be trying to meet with all our financial supporters, and will be doing some additional raising of support.

2014 Update

Our final months serving at the Belize Mission & Retreat continue to fly by. As of now we have not made any decisions about our plans for next year, though we have some clearer ideas. 

On Wednesday we will be heading to Southern Belize again to visit LOL Ministries, the orphanage ministry that we previously spent a few days at. This ministry continues to be on our short list for many reasons. God continues to do amazing work through this ministry. They have gone from 12 children when we visited to 24 children today. 

As their workload has expanded their number of volunteer workers has not increased. They are in great need of long-term ministry folk to help in various areas. We will be spending time with the directors, Jervis & Melissa, to hear what their current needs are and where we might fit in. We will also spend some time exploring the local area.

I (Mark) have also applied for a ministry position in Northwest Montana, of all places. In our last post we mentioned that we may end up doing something that we did not yet have on our radar. This could be one of those unforeseen opportunities. 

The position is for an Executive Director to run Dickey Lake Bible Camp. Sarah and I both share a mutual love for camp ministry, and both have past experience working in such ministries. This is something we have considered over the years, but never came across a good opportunity, until now. I have been excited about this possibility because, not only does it fit into one of our passion areas, but would provide me with the opportunity to use my previous business and management experience in a ministry setting. 

So hopefully we will know more in the next few weeks. Until then we continue to be in prayer about our next step, and once again ask you to do the same on our behalf.

We are looking forward to a white Christmas in Idaho, meeting our new niece Mercy, visiting friends and family, and continuing preparations for our next ministry.

2014

Our time serving in Belize is flying by. We have had many amazing experiences since our arrival, and look forward to many more before our term is complete. When we began this journey early last year we sought a ministry opportunity where we could serve for one year, providing our family a transition phase that would prepare us for whatever the Lord has next.

We have begun seeking clarity on where and how we should serve next year and beyond.

As we begin this process we invite you to join us in prayer as we seek God's direction. We have begun to discuss with one another places where we feel an interest or burden. (We will share some of these with you in a moment.) One thing we have come to appreciate is how much need there is in the world, both in America and abroad. We also feel the Lord has placed a burden on our hearts for people living in areas that are not as resource and opportunity abundant as in America. For us, these burdens, without sounding too cliche, are for orphans and widows and the poor. We do not yet know if our path to serve "the least of these" will include living outside the U.S. long-term, but we are definitely open to that possibility.

What we are certain of is what we do not want to do, which is returning to the lifestyle of the American Dream that we had been living. During the past couple of years God has revealed to us how different the American Dream is from the life Christ calls each of us to live. America, as with any other developed country, has become a place of abundance and excess. The American Dream teaches us that success is dictated by our independence and possessions and "the pursuit of happiness." The New Testament paints a much different picture of what God values. As a couple we desire to live lives that are radically different from the world. We want to be dependent on God; not our jobs, not our government, and certainly not on ourselves.

Another certainty is our desire to adopt again. Though we do not know the when, where, and how, we do know we would love the opportunity to expand our family. We also share a mutual desire to minister to orphans. We recently read a great quote from "Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream" by David Platt that best explains our feelings. Platt shares, "We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they are not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes."

I (Mark) will never forget the images I experienced while visiting orphanages in Romania where children in mass and in unison rocked themselves back and forth continually. Science has shown this repetitive action to be caused by psychological trauma caused by a lack of physical touch and intimacy during a child's first years. Hearing about such things is sad, but when you see it, everything changes.

Platt continues, "As I see their faces, I realize that I have a choice. You and I both have a choice. We can stand with the starving or with the overfed." As we seek where we will stand we encourage you to ask yourself that same question. Where will you stand?

Here are some considerations we have had as to where we might stand:

Romania or Moldova (Eastern Europe). I (Mark) have had a draw to this area since living there following high school. Issues facing these countries include poverty, child abandonment (orphans), and high rates of kidnapping and sex-trafficking.

DR Congo (Africa). UNICEF estimates there are 4.5 million orphans in this one country. Caused by years or war and political unrest, along with high incidents of AIDS, children here need help.

Belize. We have visited an orphanage ministry in southern Belize that is doing amazing work and is in need of long-term missionaries.We may also consider continuing ministry in Gales Point.

The Pacific Northwest. Perhaps we are to return home and focus our efforts on adopting again. As of now we are hoping to adopt internationally, as we see a bigger need there. Unfortunately international adoptions tend to be very expensive. We are figuring that this adoption, which will hopefully be a sibling group, will cost up to 40k.

Missouri. We have been realizing how much money we Americans waste. We have considered buying some acreage with plans to live modestly, much different than the norm. We would then be able to share such living techniques with others, so that resources that are freed up could be used on more important things, such as ministry to the poor.

Children's Home. Another option we are strongly considering is starting a children's home. Our desire to help orphans goes beyond adoption, as we are acutely aware that not all orphans in the world can or will be adopted. As a result many will spend their childhood in an institutional orphanage, foster care, or in a children's home. Experience and research shows that large institutional settings hinder a child's development. Thus the second two settings are better suited to offer a smaller family style setting for children to live and grow. We understand this process would be lengthy and arduous, but also hold confidence that the end result would be worth every difficult step.

Given all those options we also realize that we may be called to somewhere, or something, that is not yet on our radar, and to that, we are open.

So please join us in prayer. We will continue to keep you updated as plans progress.

14 Days

We finished a busy 14 days this past weekend, having hosted two teams back-to-back.

Our first week was spent with 14 folks from Frederick Baptist Church of Frederick, Maryland. In December this church sent a team of 7, our first group upon arriving to Belize. Two of the members of that team joined us again on this second team. The week was spent focusing on painting two houses in the village, which were built earlier this year by other teams. Painting took place in the mornings. During the afternoon the team led a Vacation Bible School for village children.

During the week we were able to witness the baptism of one of the team members.We are always excited to see how God uses short-term mission trips to draw participants closer to Him. This is one of the main reasons we chose to work with this ministry. Its is amazing how one short week can be so influential on a persons life.


 
Our second week was spent with a group of 25 (19 of them teenagers) from Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This team was blessed with the challenging opportunity of finishing the foundation for Pastor Kenny's house. This was by far the most difficult manual labor that a team has completed, and they did it without complaining and with positive spirits. We were so impressed to see so many young people working so hard for so long. They did a phenomenal job!

We have been impressed with the teams this year. All have been gifted differently and put their gifting to good work in service to the village of Gales Point. Fellowship with these teams have been a fringe benefit for us. We have made many new friends. Though there are no more scheduled teams this year, we will continue to serve in maintenance of the facility of this ministry and in relationships we have made in the village. Thank you everyone for joining us in this ministry with your financial support, prayers and encouragement. We are so grateful for you!

A Quick Update

We spent the past 10 days with Vera de Klerk, who co-founded and directs our ministry, along with her husband Basil. During her stay we were able to assist Vera with many administrative duties that have piled up due to Basil's medical evacuation last November.

This was our first time meeting Vera in person, and we enjoyed the opportunity to talk with her face-to-face. Though we enjoy talking with her and Basil over Skype, nothing compares to a face-to-face chat.

We are gearing up for hosting two teams back to back, the first arriving tomorrow. This will be a team of 14 who will be painting two houses and facilitating a VBS in the village.

The second team, which arrives the same day the first departs, is a group of 25, predominantly consisting of high school students. They will focus efforts on construction of a concrete foundation for Pastor Kenny's house, will do some clean up of a lot in the village that is being transformed into a park for children, and will assist is filling the many holes that now dot our driveway.

We look forward to a very busy two weeks as we work along side these teams!

Soma

We spent the last week with an amazing team of 17 from various churches in California, the majority attending Soma Christian Church in Fresno. 

The Men
The men focused efforts on building a house for a mother of four boys. During construction many of the team members were able to connect with various villagers who volunteered their time on the project. It is amazing to see how people from two very different cultures can quickly find commonalities. To paraphrase one of the team members, “We are not here to build a house, but to build relationships.” It was encouraging to see village men interacting and sharing with mature Christian men.

The men also helped to replace rotten siding on the back of the lodge at the mission base. The heat was not fun, as the building blocked all the Caribbean breeze, but the men never complained. They kept at it with determination that is admirable. I (Mark) was blown away by the work ethic of the men on this team.

The Women
The women on the team spent each afternoon with students at Gales Point Government School. Three of them are in education and put their skills to work developing a reading assessment. Approximately 100 children were tested to pinpoint their reading levels. The ladies on this team also did some deep cleaning of mission facilities, painted village girls’ toenails, and learned a little about Belizean cooking and basket weaving. The team leader is an RN and did house calls to some of the village shut-ins. Needless to say these ladies were very busy and every bit effective in serving with a Christlike attitude.

An Afternoon With the Kids
Following church on Sunday we invited a group of kids who are being discipled by Shannon and Amanda (a couple in leadership at the local church) to the base to spend the afternoon with the team. After playing around everyone gathered up for a time of sharing and testimonies from a few of the young members of the Soma team. The team youth shared about their commitment to the Lord, and talked about personal choices towards purity.

Jeep Update
As you probably know our Jeep is our only transportation option available, except for walking. The Jeep has continued to serve us well, despite several recent issues. The motor mount I replaced a couple of months ago broke again, a common problem with Jeep Cherokees under these conditions. With the help of Alan, a member of the Soma team, we were able to replace both mounts with aftermarket mounts they brought down from the states. With the name “Bulletproof” they better last.

The team also brought a couple other parts I needed, a bushing for my upper control arm and a new hood latch cable. The bushing broke because of the rough roads and the latch because the hood latch rusted stuck. The exhaust broke, again, and now has a nice hole in it. Hope to get that welded this week.

With the recent rains the roads are quickly deteriorating, with wash boarded sections and potholes opening everywhere. As the roads worsen the longer it will take to get anywhere we need to go. But on the bright side, it is a lot of fun driving through the big mud holes!

Prayer Requests

• Unity among church and mission leadership
• Continued prayer for Basil de Klerk’s health
• For depth in our relationships with villagers

What a month! I (Sarah) have been so BLESSED to be part of several ministries. I attended not one, not two, but THREE women’s retreats nearly back-to-back. Mark has been such a loving husband to not only allow me to be away for these retreats, but to insist that I go. He's had a lot of good father-daughter time in my absence. The first retreat was for ladies from Gales Point, Belmopan, Belize City and other towns in the region. The weekend was all about growing in faith. I bunked with nearly 20 ladies from the village. Fun times in fellowship!

Group photos of the Gales Point ladies.

The second retreat was a complete Godsend! It was put on by an organization called Pure Joy International. This group organizes a couple retreats per year in various locations across the world to encourage and counsel missionary women. Not only was I encouraged, but inspired and also blessed to meet fellow missionaries from around Belize! The whole weekend was offered at no cost to missionary women. Ministering to missionaries so they can go out and be more effective results in quite an impact in our world!! Learn more about this amazing ministry at http://www.purejoyinternational.org. Some of us will be getting back together this Friday for lunch.

Me and Sharon Smith, a speaker at the conference. Sharon and her husband were missionaries in Quito, Ecuador for 30 years. Her daughter started a children's home there for abandoned children, called Precious Miracles.

The third retreat was put together by a church in the states for the ladies who faithfully attend Bible Study in Gales Point. This church team does annual retreats both for the ladies and men of Gales Point. It was this retreat that really helped me to make some connections with ladies in the village. There were approximately 25 of us from Gales Point. We enjoyed times of worship, small groups and praying together. It was absolutely amazing. I am so grateful for the friends I am making in the village.

This is the small group I participated in. It was a great time to bond and get to know each other better.

The latest event we want to share is our short trip to the Toledo district in Southern Belize. We visited an orphanage ministry called, “LOL.” Mark, Avi and I thoroughly enjoyed hours of play with the children at this home. They have a beautiful facility and it is clearly evident that the Lord is blessing this ministry. Things are happening there that just don’t happen easily in Belize. We would encourage you to pray for this ministry and the children there. We cannot share pictures of the children due to privacy issues, but the Lord knows them all by name and will hear your prayers for them. The leaders of this ministry have quite a lot of responsibility and also need your prayers as they are caring for such precious children.

More is happening, but to keep this update from getting too long, I will share about these in the format of prayer requests…

Vera deKlerk's (co-founder of Belize Mission and Retreat) mother passed away earlier in May
More teams are needed (none scheduled beyond July)

Continued growth for the new believers in Gales Point
Improved understanding of the Creole language for Sarah

Busy Times at the Mission

It has been a busy month-and-a-half. We have had teams/guests/family every day since February 16th. Tuesday night was our first night alone again at the base, and now that we have some time to ourselves we can finally update you all on the many things that have happened since our last blog update.

Redeemer Lutheran
This team was comprised of 16 folks from two churches which are pastored by two brothers, Randy and Rick. There was a threefold focus during their time: building a house in the village, leading a house-to-house medical clinic, and facilitating a VBS in the primary (elementary) school. Facilitating daily logistics was more challenging than past teams due to the multifaceted approach, but it made for a great week of ministry.

Young Men’s Retreat
Along with men’s leadership at Galilee Gospel Chapel, the Caldwell family, and Fran Schneider assisted in ministry through a young men’s retreat. The focus of the weekend was to teach the young men how to be rebels for Christ. The men’s outreach has been an area of growth for the church and needs your continued prayer that as new believers commit their life to Christ, they stay strong and faithful as they continue in their walk.


Joel & Jessica
We were blessed to have a visit by a couple our age who are feeling a call to missions and desire to make Belize Mission and Retreat their place of service. Both Joel and Jessica have very strong faith and would be a great addition to the mission here. We pray that God would open doors during their preparations.


Bradbury Visit
We were visited by my (Mark’s) parents for two weeks. They got to experience a lot of the daily responsibilities we have here at the mission as well as the preparations we make for a team. We also took them to the Belize Zoo and some friends of ours here in Belize picked us all up in their boat and took us to a small island, called Goff Caye. The next day Sarah’s parents arrived in Belize and we all met out at San Pedro (another caye here in Belize). We thoroughly enjoyed our time with our families and are so grateful they came for a visit!


Olson Family Team
To cap everything off, Sarah’s uncle and two cousins and their families funded a short term mission to build a house for a villager named Manny. Including Sarah’s parents and sister, our family team totaled 14! The guys built Manny’s house (a smaller version of the typical mission built house) in 2.5 days! The ladies of the team assisted another missionary family in the village with packing up two rooms as they prepare to exit this mission field in May. The ladies also did some children’s ministry including painting girls’ nails, playing games and making Easter crafts. Uncle Norman brought several (and I mean SEVERAL) pairs of shoes that will be distributed to villagers in need. Some of the others on the team also donated first aid supplies for the same cause. Lastly, the team put on the egg hunt Easter morning. It was crazy fun, just like any good Easter Hunt!

It continues to be our privilege to be here serving as missionaries at Belize Mission and Retreat. We are grateful for the fellowship with the villagers, fellow missionaries and the teams we get to serve alongside with. God is so good and He continues to provide for all our needs and beyond.

More Extreme Adventure in Ministry!

We thought we'd better write an update since we are about to get really busy from now through Easter! We have a team arriving today, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer from Michigan. Please pray for smooth and safe travel today as we are transporting them back to the base by water taxi (along with some of the supplies for the house they will be building in Gales Point). We are hoping the water taxi makes it close to shore at the mission. In the past it has had to park a couple hundred feet off shore (picture team members carrying luggage over their heads through waves!). The youth of the team will be painting a house and doing a children's program in the afternoons. Please pray for safety through the construction and painting (much of which happens on ladders).

Some other visitors we are expecting over the next two months are two separate couples and an individual. The first couple is sponsoring a youth retreat for about a dozen of the young men of the village. At least half of them have already committed their lives to Christ. We are praying for the others to do the same! The second couple is being called into missions and is hoping God will use their visit to give them direction about next steps in their journey. The individual is a return short-term missionary. He is dedicating a couple weeks to serve in the village and at the mission. We are looking forward to making these new friends and serving alongside of them!

Then we have family coming to visit! Beginning with Mark's parents, overlapping with Sarah's parents, and ending with an Olson Family team who will also be building a house!!! We feel so blessed as we anticipate the stretch of weeks ahead of us.

If all of this sounds adventurous and inspiring, please consider joining us in a couple different ways... We'd love to have more visitors and teams! April and May are pretty open and also the fall. Don't worry about the expense or fundraising it might take to get you here... God WILL make it happen!! And on that note, we are still about $350 short each month in meeting our budget. God has totally taken care of us with one-time donors in January and February! We know he will continue to provide for our needs. He ALWAYS does!

We are so grateful for all of our supporters! We feel your prayers and appreciate the love and care you send our way. You are making all this ministry possible!

Hitting the Ground Running

We arrived in Belize three weeks ago and hit the ground running. I (Mark) arrived to the mission base around 9am and our first team arrived at 3pm the same day.

Our first week was spent with a young adult team from First Baptist Church of Frederick, Maryland. The

First Baptist of Frederick team standing in front of the first house that was painted.

team of seven painted two houses in the village in preparation for Christmas, put on a Birthday Party for Jesus Christmas morning for the village children, and participated in village activities including Bible studies and church services. We felt truly blessed to have this group as our first team. They were very mature young adults who were ready and willing to serve however asked of them. We admired their sacrifice to be apart from family during Christmas so that they could do ministry in Gales Point. We’ve heard about their testimonies given at their home church and are grateful to hear of the ministry impact this short-term mission experience has had in their lives. Some are considering a future in missions and the church is looking at sending another team this summer!

Cornerstone Baptist Church on the steps at Belize Mission & Retreat.

Our second team, from Cornerstone Baptist Church in Ludington, Michigan, arrived the day after our first team departed. During their twelve days they put on a Vacation Bible School in the mornings, donated food (flour, rice, beans) to the food pantry in town which was earned by villagers by working on various work projects in the village, participated in village activities including Bible studies and church services, and led a “Minute to Win It” game night at the church on New Year’s Eve. The men had a fun, but wet, afternoon fishing with some of the men from Galilee Gospel Chapel. The women hosted a pillow making activity for the ladies of the village. On their final day we were pleased to join them for a fantastic day tour of the Mayan ruins at Lamanai. This was a phenomenal group of people. We saw Christ working through them over and over again and feel blessed to now call them friends.

Avi standing in front of the net we've been installing on the deck railing

We are now at the base alone. It is quite a contrast to the previous three weeks, but there is a lot to do. Maintenance never ends here. We have been working to install a handrail net on the lodge deck. We call this Avi’s net because its sole purpose is to contain her. I need to complete monthly maintenance on the Jeep. The combination of driving on rough roads and through mud and salt water really takes a toll on vehicles here.

Throughout the week we will be going into the village to participate in the various church services and Bible studies. We are looking forward to building upon the relationships we have begun these past weeks.

Again we thank all of our supporters for your prayers and finances. We would not be here if it weren’t for your graciousness. We will keep you updated with blog updates in the near future as we get settled in to our new life in Gales Point.

p.s. We have already fallen in love with Skype. It is such a great way to stay in contact with friends and family. If you would like to Skype sometime just let us know. Our Skype name is sarahkbradbury1.