Training, Team, CO, WY, NE

TRAINING:

Colorado Springs hosted Bush Team Vanuatu for the week of September 17-21 for our training with Worldview Resource Group. BMW isn't able to offer us much training on reaching tribal peoples because they aren't in that type of field yet, but they are very supportive of us getting continuing education with good organizations. WRG is made up mostly of missionaries who served with New Tribes Mission in tribal areas, the majority in Papua New Guinea. This training was invaluable to us in learning effective ways to reach Melanesian tribal people (like Ni-Vanuatu) for Christ. We learned first about the stages of ministry presented in Tom Steffen's "Passing the Baton" book, which was required reading for BMW's pre-field training we attended in Georgia in July. The five stages (with some tweaking by WRG) are:

Pre-entry = Preparing for Ministry: (deputation, missiological training, comprehensive methodology, exit strategy) This is the stage we are in now.

Pre-evangelism = Establishing Relationships: (the right to be heard, culture and language acquisition, worldview analysis)

Evangelism = Presenting the Gospel: (strategic narrative, worldview approach, critical contexualization)

Post-evangelism = The Developing Church: (real world issues, curriculum development, leadership development)

Phase-out = The Multiplying Church: (socio-cultural issues, outreach strategies, ministry partnerships)

From here we learned about worldview and how knowing deeply the worldview of the culture is paramount to reaching them effectively with the Gospel. Without going to this depth prior to teaching the Bible, syncretism is the inevitable result (adding Christ in as just another spirit to worship rather than knowing the One true God), as many missionaries and organizations have seen in the long-term. Finally, we spent a few days learning about narrative and teaching in story form, especially for oral learners like in tribes (where history is passed down in story form orally to children). Firm Foundations curriculum from New Tribes Mission (http://www.ntmbooks.com/index.jsp?categoryid=3) teaches from Creation to Christ to give the full story of the Bible. We learned how to develop curriculum like this (or use NTM's) in a way that takes worldview into account. The training provided by Worldview Resource Group (http://www.wrg3.org/) was invaluable. Anyone considering tribal work should be required to take it. Anyone in any type of ministry cross-cultural or in the States would highly benefit from it. Good stuff!

TEAM:

We were able to meet as a team while in Colorado Springs so took advantage of early kid bedtimes and stayed up late nights working out team issues and fellowshipping. We left the conference super tired, but blessed and full of new information to chew on.

CO:
Aside from training, I also got to check in with 2 great friends while in Denver on our way to the Springs. Tiffani, a friend I co-led junior high girls Bible studies with in Boise for several years, moved to Denver 3 years ago or so. She let us stay in her beautiful home and we got to catch up again. We visited her church and got to meet a few of the college age girls she is now involved in ministering to. Tiffani is one of my few remaining single friends but if you know any fun, godly single guys out there, I'd be happy to change my blog. :)

Another friend I got to catch up with is Aimee. Aimee and I have crazy history together, having gone to France the same summer (1996) with Eurocorps, a short-term version of Greater Europe Mission. She was on an evangelism team in Paris while I was on a work team in the southern French Alps (at Camp des Cimes, or Camp of the Peaks). We had training and debriefing all together though. Just the next year, we met again at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible (http://www.mwsb.org/) , where we attended '97-'98 along with 48 other students. Aimee has been involved for a long time now in discipling young adult women. I missed meeting her husband, Clay, but it was awesome to see Aimee again for the first time in person since our MWSB graduation May of '98!

On our way out of Colorado, we stayed with friends of Gretchen and Houghton's - Hennaway and Stacy. Stacy had just had her 2nd baby 8 days before and they still wanted us to stay in their apartment with them! Wow. They are an awesome family sacrificing a lot of material gain in order to reach the lost for Christ.

WY:

I was blessed to stay 2 nights with John & Andrea, and their 3 kids - Michael, Trevor, and Ella in LaGrange, Wyoming. Ella let me crash in her bed and take over her room. They are a really encouraging and fun family. From Colorado we drove to Nebraska for the weekend, but I'll tell that below. We presented Sunday evening at LaGrange Bible Church. That following Monday, we presented in chapel at Frontier School of the Bible (http://www.frontierbible.org/frontier/location.html), where Gretchen and Houghton are alumni. FSB invited us back for their missions conference in November, when I was asked to speak to single girls about missions. I'm really excited about that opportunity and you can pray for me to have wisdom about what to share with the college girls. I got to meet a ton of mostly freshman girls during our day there that I hope to get to know better in November when we return, Lord-willing.

NE:

We spoke in Nebraska at Bridgeport Community Church Sunday AM and stayed with Pastor Dan and his wife Connie. Wow, is that church ever encouraging! Our experience there was true refreshment from the Lord. It is super humbling to have a fellowship of people who've never met us take such ownership as individuals and be so excited to team up with us to minister to Ni-Vanuatu! Thanks for being used by the Lord in a great way, BCC!

We spent a day in Scottsbluff after speaking at Frontier to catch up on laundry and computer stuff. We stayed most of the week with Brad and Elly and their little baby, Rachel, in Cambridge, NE. Brad & Elly are involved in an internship as they prepare to head to Africa in the future as missionaries. We presented the following Sunday in Callaway, NE at Callaway Community Church, another small, but very welcoming church. I got to meet Dean and Shawna and their two kids Kelsey and Brett. Dean pastors the church there and they very graciously hosted us in their home.

RANDOM:Gweny turned 1 while we were on the road to Colorado so we celebrated just before we left Montana. I didn't get very good pics of her at the party, but this one is cute of her on my friend Tiffani's bear. Here's a few more of me getting to hang out with the kids. There's nothing quite like McDonalds' play room to get kids tired out and ready for bed. :)

May you better understand God as your Creator, Redeemer, and sustainer this week.

Family pictures

We took family pictures this last week. Some were good, some were funny. Here's a few of each. My parents have great trees so we were able to take them all outside. Future note - make sure the photographer has an assistant to make the kids happy, look up, and smile! :) Here is the Richards family and individual ones of the kids.

















Here's my parents.

These are the funny ones. Jesiah and grandpa got a kick out of each other here and the next one shows Jesiah being a tiger for us.

August blessings and trials

"O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting." 1 Chronicles 16:34

The ever-cute Gweny and Jesiah. Gweny turns 1 next week and Jesiah is 2 1/2.

There have been many blessings over the last month, as well as many difficulties the Lord is using to refine me. One blessing was getting to see my friend Jessie and her family (Ian, Emilie, and another girl on the way!). She's a friend basically from birth who I grew up with laughing and crying, playing and fighting. She's been an encouragement and example to me over the years.

She lives in California now so I don't get to see her often, but she came back to visit family here in Miles City a few weeks ago so we had a few hours to catch up, which was awesome.

We recently got back from visiting friends and presenting at 2 churches in western Montana. A great friend, Lindsey, hosted us at her house for a few days in Belgrade (near Bozeman). We also got to meet up with friends Josh and Lisa and Ryan. Up above are Gretchen and Houghton, Lindsey, Josh & Lisa, Ryan, and me. Lindsey is orignally from Miles City (I used to be her really mean babysitter way back in the day so if you want to hear stories about that, let me know. :) Josh and Lisa lived in Miles City awhile after high school and went to our church there. Ryan is an old family friend Gretch and I grew up camping and going on other vacations with. They treated us to great meals and great fellowship.

On the way to Lindsey's, we blew out a tire in the van so Houghton got to lay in the interstate, or really close to it anyway, to change it. We were blessed that it didn't blow completely before we pulled over and that we were only half an hour or so out from Lindsey's so we could limp in with the doughnut. We ended up needing to purchase not one, but four new tires for the van! Quite an expensive trip to Belgrade, which is about 4 1/2 hours from Miles City.

At Lindsey's, aside from getting to catch up with her and friends, she also treated me to some "spa treatments" for my rediculous sinus and respiratory infections. She and I enjoyed breathing deeply from steaming bowls of water one evening! Lindsey allowed us to really feel at home and comfortable to just relax and rest before taking off again. You're the best, Lindsey! I thank God for you!

We headed back on the road to go to a little town in NW Montana called Ronan, which is up near Kalispell and Flathead Lake. Ordinarily, it is gorgeous up that way, but fires and smoke made it nearly impossible to see the mountains. We stayed with a friend of Houghton's named Aaron.

Aaron hooked us up with a house to stay in that was right up near the mountains and was big enough for us to spread out. It was such a blessing! We all healed up from our consant sicknesses from the last 2 months (I had everything from infections to colds to the flu and we were running really low on energy and brain capacity after being sick so long). The house had a huge grand piano that allowed me to practice up on my songs for accompanying Gretch and Houghton for a few songs during presentations. We hadn't been able to do them much because my playing was pretty scary but I at least have those 2 songs down now! Aaron's parents, Fred and Tammy, made us into complete bums by cooking meals for us for every lunch and supper the entire week we stayed there. They made some amazing food and were fantastically hospitable. The church they attend in Pablo allowed us not only to present during the entire service of both morning services, but also to put on a dessert for those interested in returning in the evening. The Pablo church gave us a love gift that covered the cost of replacing the tires, as well as for a much-needed alignment and oil change, praise the Lord! We need to check on the brakes next, but God's been holding up the travel van! It was so encouraging to have a good-sized crowd back for the evening service who asked questions and were interested in God's work in Vanuatu! We were also able to hang out with people from the church a few other times during the week to better get to know them.

One of the fun things about staying up in the mountains was the animals who graced us with their presence. We saw deer every day up by the house, but also enormous wild turkeys and one day even two brown bears!

The bears were far enough away to require zoom so I don't have great pictures of them, but they really were fairly close. When we came outside the house to photograph them, they stood up and stared at us, then ran off awhile later. We didn't walk very far away from the house after seeing them... but it was amazing to enjoy God's creation.

While we were becoming healthy human beings again in Ronan, Josh came up to visit us for a day. Gretchen and Houghton went to Bible school with him at Frontier in Wyoming and performed in the touring choir along with him. We headed to his home for the next weekend to present in Frenchtown, which is next to Missoula. On the drive, we went right past the raging fires. We had been told we may not make it down to Frenchtown because of efforts to keep the fire from jumping the highway, but the firefighters were working hard and kept it to the west. Many buildings and homes were just barely spared though and the fire came right up to the highway in a lot of areas. In Frenchtown, the property of many people was ruined or burned. Please pray for provision for all the families and individuals hurt by these fires!

This picture is at Josh's house in Frenchtown. He's the youth pastor at his church as well as working another full time job so he's busy! Despite being busy though, he invited us into his new home and like so many others we are so thankful for, was gracious and hospitable to us. At his church we were able to present for a few minutes in the morning service, as well as do the special music and Gretchen and Josh led worship. They also opened up their youth service with an invitation to the whole church for everyone to come back in the evening for a full presentation. Again, the individuals at Josh's church were welcoming and several expressed interest in what God is doing in Vanuatu.

We began the trek back to Miles City the Monday after worshipping with Josh's congregation. Again, Lindsey hosted us in Belgrade for a few days while we made contacts with a church there and gave the kids a rest from the road before heading on home. At Lindsey's we got to see her new school (she's the choir teacher at Belgrade High) and she gave us some tips to work on for our songs we've been playing in churches.

Now we are back in Miles City until the middle of September to work on our piles and piles of paperwork! It is incredible how much time it takes to update blogs, write letters to go in all our newsletters we are sending out, get packets together for pastors, call pastors to schedule upcoming presentations, fill out ministry expense reports for our organization, and just catch up on correspondance, not to mention regular bills and finances since we are gone so much. Please pray for wisdom for us in the day-to-day about how to prioritize all the things that must get done. We are easily putting in 12 hour days and could easily do much more than that to catch up and be on top of the paperwork. It's been incredibly overwhelming, as has much of this time of deputation.

Again, I think I say it in every blog update, but I am SOOO thankful for those of who are faithful to pray. There is a serious spiritual battle against unity on our team and being together so much is definitely a blessing, but leaves a lot of room for frustration with each other especially when we are feeling overwhelmed. Praise God that He has given all of us a willingness to work out misunderstadings and frustrations. Also, there are a lot of discouraging days when it seems we aren't being effective or that we are running up against walls trying to set up our schedule with churches and finding individuals to stay with. Just the other day I read this verse and realized how fitting it is for me right now:

Isaiah 48:17 "This is what the LORD says — your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go."

The Lord is teaching me a lot about myself and my utter dependance on Him for my strength, energy, joy, encouragement, fellowship, and help. This has definitely been a time of much trial through difficulties but as I said above, also a time of unexpected and unbelievable blessing. Praise God for using the difficulties to refine and the blessings to lift up! The verse I quoted at the top of this blog I'll quote again:

1 Chronicles 16:34 "O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting."

Georgia and Team Vanuatu

Georgia was the location for this year's 2 week training with Biblical Ministries Worldwide (located in Atlanta) called Field Preparation Seminar. It was 2 weeks of non-stop learning. We had classes Monday through the next week Wednesday from 8-5 and because we were so blessed to have the entire Team Vanuatu (see all of us plus kids to the left here) all there together, we had team meetings every day at lunch and after supper. That left no free time so we were running, but it was time very well spent! BMW feeds and houses us very well and with very little expense on our part, which is nice! The above picture is all those who came through Field Prep this year. This was their largest class ever but what was really crazy is the number of people here for Candidate Orientation (which is what we went through last summer there). There were 27 adults in attendance and all were accepted by BMW's board so the Lord is growing this organization by a lot. This year's attendance is at least double that of last year's so our prayers are being answered for workers to go out into the harvest fields, praise the Lord!

Here are the classes we took at Field Prep, each of which were 1-2 hours:

A Passion for Missions, Avoiding Spiritual Burnout, BMW Update, Discipleship - Insights and Errors, Evangelism - the Heart of my Work, Family in Ministry, Life Long Learning, Church Planting Models, Church Planting Stepping Stones, Motivation for Church Planting, NEEDIA (a practical application of setting up vision and purpose and goals for an imaginary country), Theology of Hell - A Motivator for Missions, Training National Leaders, Your Exit Strategy, Brain Dominance Inventory, Elements of Cultural Resilience from Ruth, Guess who is Coming to Our House, Cultural Adaptability, Response to Culture, Strategies for Lifelong Language Learning, Language and Culture Evaluation, Building Spiritual Hedges (for men), Conflict Resolution, Maintaining and Growing Relationships with Supporters, Teamwork on the Field, An Introduction to Local Church Finances, Financial Matters on the Field, Emergency Management, Hospitality on the Field (for women), Conducting a Ministry Survey, Working from Home, Writing your Ministry Plan

Many of these classes were immediately applicable for our team meetings, which was an awesome blessing!

It was very beneficial to have all of our team present as we were able to work out our team structure and start hammering out purpose and vision statements, timelines, key performance areas, and job descriptions for the ministry in Vanuatu. We still have a long way to go in getting strategy and goals in written form, but the foundation was laid. As of now, the field of Vanuatu consists of two teams. One team is now just the Gibb family (with other potential team members they are recruiting from their church in Australia). They are planning to have their ministry be one of doing leadership training with existing native pastors in Vanuatu (or with those interested in becoming pastors) to plant churches that way. They would be primarily based out of the town of Luganville on the island of Santo. Here is the Gibb family (minus Matt, who will be attending boarding school in the US to finish out his high school career). Please pray for the Gibbs as they raise the last bit of their support that the Lord would give them wisdom and direction as they prepare to head over to Vanuatu this January, Lord willing. The other team is the bush team, consisting of Brad and Amber Jones, Houghton and Gretchen Richards, myself, and a new family who just joined BMW - the Kenners. Jim and Tania heard about the ministry in Vanuatu from the Richards and within the day were already praying about and pursuing the ministry themselves! Our team will seek to do evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training with an influential tribal people group in Vanuatu and empower the nationals to plant their own reproducing churches. I'll type up our vision and purpose, as well as some estimated timelines in a future post. Please pray for the Kenners as they spend the next year or so wrapping up work and ministry commitments and preparing for deputation. Also, pray for the rest of us who are in the middle of deputation that the Lord would lead us to those who He is preparing to team with us financially and prayerfully to reach Ni-Vanuatu people!

In our travels to and from Georgia, we were so blessed to be housed a huge chunk of the time at my aunt Betty and uncle Fred's home in Minneapolis. We stayed there almost a full week just before flying out to Georgia and for a few days immediately after Field Prep before heading back on our way to Montana. My grandma lives in Minneapolis as well so we enjoyed visiting and eating with her as well. She got together a group of women in her retirement complex that Gretchen and I were able to present our ministry to. They are already fervent prayer warriors for our team so it was awesome to meet them and share about the Ni-Vanuatu that they will be reaching through us!

We also stayed one night with our friends Ralph and Shari Solberg in North Dakota. They have been very encouraging in our ministry sharing (deputation) time. The Lord has given friends and family along the way already who have been so gracious and hospitable to provide us a home away from home and a chance to reconnect. Although we are tired and have been sick most of the traveling time, God's grace is sufficient and the prayers and encouragement of the saints (that's you) sustain us, thank you!

If you're wondering what is happening from here, this is the known (written with a smile and a prayer...) schedule for the next month below. We are working on newsletters this week to send out to all of you! Look for it in the mail hopefully in the next week or two.

August 5 Fallon, MT (about 45 minutes from home base in Miles City here)

August 12 Ronan, MT (around 9-10 hours away in western MT)

- Midweek sometime in Kalispell

August 19 Frenchtown, MT (an hour or 2 from Ronan)

August 26 Coalwood, MT (about an hour from Miles City)

On the road

We are now pretty officially on the road. After a celebration with some friends and family on the 4th, we headed out for Minnesota. Sunday we presented at the Faltynski's church in Deluth, MN and enjoyed spending the weekend with them. They are friends who used to youth pastor at our sending church in Miles City, MT. They have 2 children, Winter (6) and Creedon (3) (and another on the way), who were great entertainment for Jesiah. They of course fought a lot too, but got some great learning opportunities in sharing. Here is Winter reading me a Dr. Seuss book. :) Brian and Laura Faltynski were very gracious and hospitable to us and allowed us a great time of fellowship with them and in their church body. The church was also very gracious with many very encouraging people thanking us for coming and joining with our team in prayer.

Monday we headed to Minneapolis where my parents had spent the weekend with my grandma and several of my aunts and uncles. We got to see everyone that evening before my parents headed back to Montana and we are now staying the week at my Aunt Betty and Uncle Fred's house in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis. We are trying to rest and battle colds and sinus stuff so we can be well for Pre-Field training in Georgia next week! Yesterday we went to Round Lake park and enjoyed the outdoors a bit. Today we are presenting to some of my grandma's friends at her apartment building. I'll post some family pictures here later this week.

Saturday we leave for Georgia and get to meet up with the rest of Team Vanuatu! Thanks for your prayers for our safety, health and protection!

Life in Montana

Well, friends, I thought I'd update you on what I've been up to the last few weeks and give you a really tentative schedule for what is coming down the pike. If you are interested in seeing the plethora of activities my home town of Miles City has to offer, here's a great website about it: www.city-data.com/city/Miles-City-Montana.html It is really a bit of a culture shock just coming from Boise to here. :)
One of the main things I've been enjoying doing here has been hanging out with my family a lot. I'm working on ministry stuff with Gretchen and Houghton every day so it's inevitable that I see them and my nephew and niece too. My nephew can't say Laura so he calls me "Wara" and he's super fun to play with. My niece, Gwenny (Gwenyth) is a lot bigger and a lot happier than when I saw her last in Vanuatu in March and any day now she'll be walking.
She stands and balances beautifully but hasn't figured out the stepping out part quite yet. This picture is of Jesiah and I after he'd been "fixing" my hair for me and we were wrestling around. They are both very fun and I'm thankful to get to be involved in their lives.

So what have I been doing? Well, it would seem that life here has been crazier than I even expected it to be. We've been running from the time we wake up until when we head to bed. We have about 7 books we are to have read by our training July 16-26 in Georgia so we started a "book club" and have been reading either during afternoon kids' nap time or after they go to bed around 9PM or both. We've finished 1 1/2 assignments so far so have a long way to go, but we're trying to get through them. If you are bookworms, I'd highly recommend 2 of them so far anyway. One is "Passing the Baton" by Tom Steffen about doing ministry in a way that raises up leaders rather than making dependants. It is specifically for church planting so making sure church leadership is native driven rather than missionary driven but wow - if we only did discipleship and ministry like this in the States! There would be a lot more dynamic leaders here passing the baton on to those they've shared Christ with and we'd have really amazingly well trained "laypeople" out there spreading the gospel with confidence. It is a must-read for any Christian, I think. The other that I've only just started but is very good so far too is an old school book by Roland Allen called "The spontaneous expansion of the church" and so far seems to be similar in topic to the first book. The others on our list are:

"Missionary Methods - St Paul's or ours?" by Roland Allen

"Planting churches cross-culturally" by David Hesselgrave

"Mission Deputation: A Biblical Ministry and a classroom of learning" by Harold Loucks"

"Cross Cultural Connections" by Duane Elmer (we are most of the way through this but it is a bit more elementary so hasn't been as helpful)

"Let the Nations be Glad" by John Piper (I have read this one too actually and it is a must-read for every Christian too - very convicting and a great discussion about what missions really is about theologically.)

Aside from reading, we've been helping a lot with some huge fundraisers put on by my mom for one and another by some people in my sending church here. There is a family outside of Miles City about 11 miles that is moving to Lewistown, MT who decided to sell all their old farm tools and equipment and donate them completely to the Vanuatu fund. The money raised by that covers a lot of our outgoing expenses for a shipping container to send over to Vanuatu when we are moving so that was an awesome provision! The other big one was the one organized by my mom that pulled in around 25-30 families from our church here. It was like the mother of all garage sales. We had it in my parents' yard and had 15 tables piled with all the donations to sell. That was quite an ordeal to clean, price, set out and sell everything and God brought a huge amount of people to buy stuff! The picture to the right is my sister, mom and Gwenny, Houghton, and my dad when we were working on setting everything out. Jesiah was helping me take the picture. :) The Lord raised enough money from that one to fully cover our plane tickets to Georgia for our training as well as the majority of the cost of the training and board to be there. Wow! The Lord has been so good to provide all along the way for each step and each expense. Praise Him!

Another activity is that I got to go visit my grandpa and grandma in the teeny tiny town of Newell, South Dakota. It was nice to see them, even if it was only for a day. My grandma's sister, Aunt Ann, who is the one I inherited my car from lives there too so I saw her as well. Another surprise is that my grandma's brother and his wife (Bob and Virginia) drove through that day and visited a bit too so I saw them again after many years.

We have also been working on having things together to present to churches as well as packets to send out to individuals and churches interested in being part of the ministry. I've been brushing up on my piano and we've practiced some songs together. We met with and updated my pastor here, Jerry Coon (www. gbc-milescity.org) and the elder in charge of missions, Shawn Kelly. Grace is supporting us now as we are in this time of sharing the ministry so when our savings run out in the next month or so, we'll be living on and traveling on that.

Here is the schedule for what is upcoming, Lord-willing:

July 5 (this Thursday) - leave for Minnesota

July 8 (Sunday) - present at a church in Deluth, MN

July 9 (Monday) - drive to Minneapolis to hang out with my mom's side of the family and share with them the ministry in Vanuatu

July 14 (Saturday) - fly out to Georgia for training called "Pre-Field" with our organization, Biblical Ministries Worldwide (http://www.biblicalministries.org/)

July 16-25 (Monday -Wednesday) - training in Georgia on team-building, finances, church planting, and being effective cross-culturally

July 26-28 (Thurs. - Sat.) - meeting with our team, hopefully welcoming in a new family to our team!

July 28 (Sat) - fly back to MN

July/Aug? - possibly present in another church in MN, then drive back to Montana

August - spend most of the month in Western Montana at churches there, possibly into September as well

September/October - Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska churches

* salad/dessert dinner at home church here in Miles to fill in on our schedule, training, and more about the ministry in Vanuatu

*Sept 15-21 training in CO Springs on cross-cultural church planting with our whole team and another chance for further team-building

Fall - California?

Winter - Boise area

That's what we have so far and time is flying so it is crunch time to get meetings set up. If you think your church would be interested or if you have a group of friends or home group you'd like to have us present to, that would be awesome! Just let me know and we'll get it in our tentative schedule. Please pray for us as we travel this week that the Lord would ordain meetings with people he'd have be part of the ministry to Vanuatu and that we would be prepared for the training. Also, as always in traveling with young children, please pray that they would be able to endure all the driving and flying! I'll try to update while on the road from Minnesota and Georgia to let you know what we are learning and doing. Thanks so much for your prayers and support up to this point!