5 Minute Monthly: January & February

As I begin to write this long overdue blog, it is 6am and I am holding a sleeping baby. Silas has been clingy and up early as he is teething and he has not made it easy on Tyler and I. this process along with other little challenges, struggles and joys has made the last two months feel a bit overwelming and fast. So many wonderful, special moments of family time and relationship building happened in these last months but we also faced a lot of sickness, tiredness and a sense of never ending busyness. Holding a sweet, (finally) sleeping Silas as I write pretty much sums up our life right now: It is hard at times with difficult days but still a precious, joy-filled life and I wouldn't change it for the world. Current life, ministry and future planning have been full on and I am excited to share with you what the Lord has been doing for us these past two months.

Life Happenings

Our family has grown in leaps and bounds this January and February as we step into our second year in Portsmouth, UK. Tyler and I are both growing in knowlegde and confidence in our different areas of work and ministry. The boys meanwhile are showing a lot more visible growth both mentally and physically. Josiah has been experiencing a greater sense of awarenss and cognitive development. This translates to him talking in full sentences, remembering random, spesific details and learning how to recognise shapes, colors, numbers and letters. This mental growth can also have a negative affect as he somtimes pushes boundaries, wants unlimited attention and struggles to sleep some nights. Silas tries to keep up with his brother in so many ways. He has started crawling and has become very speedy, he has a mouthful of teeth with more on the way, and makes everyone smile with his cock-jaw grin. He also enjoys eating solid food, pulls up on everything and especially loves to make a mess. Both our boys keep us busy and make us laugh everyday. In the last two months the weather has made it difficult to do anything outside so I am greatly looking forward to the warmer weather. January and February were packed full of fun with so many people. We spent quality time with family, coworkers and friends and though it was tiring, it was also greatly encouraging. In mid-January, my parents came to visit for a couple weeks. It was so special to spend time with them and Josiah and Silas loved the attention from their grandparents. during their visit, we had a day trip in London, took them to the Isle of Wight and even had a weekend in Birmingham. We are thankful they are willing to travel across the ocean to spend time with us.

Our purpose for traveling to Birmingham was to be a part of a conference held by our mission agency AT3. While my mom watched Josiah. (who just happened to be sick the whole weekend) Tyler and I and Silas attended sessions and enjoyed time with others who are doing the same thing as us. It was an encouraging weekend and worth the long train ride. At the beginning of February, we traveled again to the city of York, where we met up with more AT3 workers. This was another uplifting time and York was a beautiful city. Our 10 hour travel back was a nightmare, but we’re still very thankful to have gone and equally thankful to be home with no plans of travel in the near future. The rest of the month of February was spent getting back into a routine and settling back into normal life. We went on a couple dates with friends and with each other and we are finding ways to bring back the structure and routine that works best for our family. During the past two months, we also managed to get Covid, fevers and coughs. This made everything a bit more challenging but as a whole the month of January and February were wonderful, especially because they were shared with so many others.

Ministry Update

We love our areas of minisrty and find great joy in investing time and energy into them. Tyler has been continuing in his work to strengthen the youth program in hopes to eventually phase out of the role and leave them in a good position. They are studying Jesus' parables and learning why Jesus spoke in this way and what we can learn from this specific teaching method. Tyler has also had more preaching opportunities and had the privalege and challenge of preaching from the book of Hebrews (one of his favorite books of the bible). As far as his studies go, Tyler just completed another class and enjoyed studying in depth the topic of our union with Christ. He also just submitted an essay on that subject and is now on to his next class which will begin in late March.

We have continued hosting our connect group and we are thankful for the relationships that have grown deeper these past months. I also continue to host the ladies connect group and rotate with the pastor's wife in leading it. A final thing we hosted was a Hope Explored in January. This is a three week mini session designed for unbelievers and those curious of the Christian faith. The goal is to share the hope and peace of Christ in an authentic and relatable way using the book of Luke as our guide and creating space for discussion and questions. We had three men attend the course held in our home and all had an intrest to continue learning more about Christ at the end of the course.

Our other big area of ministry that started back up this year is our toddler group. We both help out with this program and while Tyler does a lot of the behind the scenes work it is my opportunity to step into a more relational role. This involves making connections with the moms, having real and hard conversations with them and using the time I have with them to invite them to church events and share the love of Christ. There is a growing interest to know Jesus among the parents at toddler group and it has much to do with the relationships the Christian moms who attend have built and the boldness they have to share about Christ.

Because of some intentional conversations these past months, we have started another Hope Expored course that meets on a Wednesday morning and is specifically for toddler moms. We are currently in the middle of that course and one of the women from our church (Christel) and I are co-leading it. There have been a few emotional discussions involving suffering and death and many questions surrounding difficult topics in the Christian faith. Christel and I have been both encouraged and challenged by all this course has brought out so far, as well as thankful for the opportunity to share the faith we love with those we have come to care about. This is a big area of prayer as we only have one session left and we desire to carry on these conversations past the course so that these women would know the hope, peace and love that Jesus brings and accept it for themselves.

Pray With Us

As always, I cannot stress how much prayer means to us. The more we immerse ourselves in life and work here, the deeper we understand the need of uniting with the body of believers in this way. Thank you for joining with us in prayer.

Requests

• Pray for the Hope Explored course currently going and the women involved. Pray also that Christel and I would continually seek the Lord in how to approach difficult topics and answer questions

• This month we have what is called Passion for Life. It is when churches around the UK run different events that allow unbelievers to get a taste of what the Christian life is all about. Our church will be running three different events. Pray that we would be bold in inviting people to come and that those who come would have soft hearts and minds ready to hear the truth of the gospel.

• Please pray for our family as we balance ministry and home life and as Tyler and I work to raise our boys to know and love the Lord.

Praises

• We are praising God for a healthy and happy family.

• We are thankful for so many people who want to know more about following Jesus.

• We praise God for warmer and sunnier weather that brings with it a natural sense of happiness

As I finish up this blog post (about a week after I started it) I am again with my youngest son after yet another early wake up. We are defiantly busy and life with young children is full on. The amout of time it has taken me to just finish this blog is a testamentt to that. Yet still I see the work and ministry God is allowing our family to do and I am reminded and amazed that God can use us in any stage of life. I am so thankful for the season we are in and the relationships and opportunities we have because of it. Thank you all for following along in our crazy, happy life we have dedicated to the Lord. It is a pleasure sharing all he is doing.