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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

A Late Summer Update

So far this summer has just been flying by! We have been busy getting into our work routine as well as doing stuff with our church here.
We made it up to Alaska for a friends wedding and to visit Amanda's parents. Despite the trip going by way too fast, we had a great time. It was wonderful seeing Amanda's parents, and we had a blast going fishing up on the Talkeetna River and catching our limit of Red Salmon. :)
After getting home from Alaska we had a wonderful opportunity to lead part of the Missions rotation at our churchs VEBS (Very Exciting Bible School). That was great. There is a small missions conference coming up too, and we might be able to have a spot in that as well. We have signed up to help out with the middle school youth group this year. We went to a meeting the other day at our youth pastors house and had a great time. We are really excited to be involved.
Mitch has been working at a McDonalds down the street. He really enjoys it and is thankful for a fellow Christian that works there. They are both excited to have another brother in a town with so few fellow believers.
As far as our future is concerned. We are starting to save as much as we can. We are not sure about how long we will be here, but we are thankful for how the Lord has provided so far and we are excited to see how He continues to work in our lives. We are looking forward to continue our training with New Tribes, but will have to wait on the Lords timing to see when it happens.
Thanks so much for reading, take care and God bless!
the Chaplins

Monday, July 13, 2009

Upon Arriving...

We’ve arrived, got moved in, and begun to work. Everything has gone very smooth and we are so thankful in how the Lord has provided for us every step of the way! As we begun our move across the country we were no more than 30 minutes outside of Jackson when our Nissan blew a tire. We are so happy that nothing bad happened and that the car wasn’t damaged at all, but after 4 hours and 4 new tires we were on the road again. We arrived at our first destination (Lincoln NE) at 12:30am. The next day went much smoother. We stayed in Colorado Springs the next night and had a great visit with a friend. We drove to Salt Lake City on our third day and stayed with Amanda’s uncle. We had a short drive to Idaho the next day and arrived around noon. We got most of our furniture right away and got everything set up in our new home. Amanda begun work and bit by bit is adjusting to working 12 hours shifts. Mitch started work today and is very excited. He is working for a close family friend who owns a building business. This will be a temporary job that will end in the fall, but Mitch will be able to learn some great things that will be helpful in overseas work.
We are leaving in one week to go up to Alaska. A friend is getting married and we will be visiting with Amanda’s parents also. We really hope to be able to live up there for some time before we go overseas. But we will just have to see how the Lord works out His timing.
Yesterday we received some news that broke our hearts. After almost a year of fighting an aggressive brain tumor and dear friend of ours, Joanna Bergman, went home to see the Lord. Her and her husband, Curtis, were Mitch’s youth group leaders when he was in high school. They went through New Tribes and they were the ones that encouraged Mitchell to go there. They were on their way to Mozambique with their 3 young children-Natalie-5, Rueben-4, & Kaylie-18mo. We are happy to know that Joanna’s suffering is no more and cant help but to be jealous that she with before the Lord and this very moment! At the same time our hearts break fo Curtis, the kids, and the rest of their family. We pray that they would be comforted now, and that they would seek God for their strength. He is the only true source of strength and only through Him will they find rest and comfort, even in the midst of the pain. We ask that you too would join with us in prayer for this family. God is bigger than anything else and he knows exactly what they need! He hears our prayers and is faithful. What an amazing God we have!
Thanks to every one of you for all you do. We will keep you updated on anything new that comes along. We are pressing forward to save as much as we can as fast as we can. We also are desiring to raise support while we are in Idaho. We do have some debt to pay off as well. Please pray that we will be wise with our finances and that we will be good stewards of what He has provided us. We thank God for every one of you.
In Him,
Mitch & Amanda

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Idaho! Here We Come!

Well, the time is drawing near for us to leave our home in Michigan and relocate to Idaho! We have 5 days left here in Michigan. We cannot believe how the time has flown by. It seems like just yesterday that we were getting here. We are so thankful for all the Lord has taught us and for all the amazing things He has done while we have been here. We are very excited to see how God uses this next phase in our life.
We will be leaving MI friday morning (probably around 9 or 10) and will be gong to Lincoln NE. Saturday we will go to Colorado Springs CO, Sunday will be to Salt Lake City UT, and then Monday the short drive up to Idaho Falls. Its going to be 2,100 miles and we will each be driving a vehicle. We have arranged an appartment and are thankful for its handy location (within walking distance to both of Amanda's jobs). She will be working at Bath and Body Works, as well as an assisted living home. Mitch is currently looking for a job and we are interested in seeing what the Lord opens up him.
We will be in Idaho for only 3 weeks then we will be going up to Alaska for 5 days for a friends wedding. We cannot wait to get up there and visit everyone! Once we return from there we will just be getting settled and getting plugged in at our church, Christ Communisty Church, as best we can. We want to get to know our family of believers that we have there, and cant wait for it!
Thanks to every one of you who are part of our lives! You all are very important to us! Untill next time...
Mitch & Amanda

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Classes, Courses, & the Soft Winds of Change

Over the course of Christmas break Amanda began working full time. We also finally were able to complete Mitch's green card paperwork! What a huge process that has been! Sense then, Amanda switched her work schedule from working 2-10pm, to now working 6-2pm. It is much nicer having that because she is working while Mitch is in classes.
We had to go to Detroit last week to get some fingerprinting done for Mitch's green card where we were told some great news! They told us that Mitch's work permit should be in the mail any day now! We were not expecting it to come until April. What a huge blessing it will be to get it sooner! The job market in Jackson is especially bad, and we are praying that he will find a job and find one quick. We will be thankful for anything.
We are currently taking a course with our church called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. It is a great course on financial wisdom, how to get out of dept, stay out of dept, and how to be able to save money and handle it how God intended it to be handled. It has been great so far and we are looking forward to all that we will learn through it.
As we are looking ahead to the next couple months we are seeing lots of change coming our way. Right now we are working on paying off some of our debts so that we can save up money to move back to Idaho after Mitch graduates. The move is coming sooner than we know! We are beginning to sell some of our stuff that we don't want to move and to get rid of extra 'stuff'. As of right now we are not sure when we will be moving, it all depends on when we can get enough saved up to do it. It will all happen in the Lords time. :)
Well, that's all for now! We hope you all are doing great! We miss everyone so much and cannot wait to hear from you and/or see you. We are praying for you, and would appreciate your prayers as well!
thanks so much!
the Chaplin's