Our house has been showing a lot lately. Two people are interested in it but have to sell their own houses before they can make an offer. I am confident that it will sell in God’s timing, but it sure would be nice if that was just around the corner. We’ve been slowly purging our house and trying to pack up as much as possible in advance. Our friends at Sharon Heights Baptist bought our TV for their foyer so that’s one more, big piece out of the way. Our entertainment center needs to sell as well though. If anyone is interested let me know. Hopefully if the house sells in the next month or so, our church Gardendale First Baptist, will have one of their mission houses available for us to stay in until we move to Los Fresnos, Texas at the beginning of August. If not, we’ll probably try to find a rental house on a month to month lease for the remainder of the time.
The kids and Kandy are doing well with homeschooling. It’s been a bit of an adjustment for everyone, but I think they are hitting their stride. Sam has read some Jonathan Edwards and he’s almost finished with his pre-Algebra curriculum. Olivia reads like a race horse. Most books can’t keep her occupied more than a few days at most so she’s moved on to Little Pilgrim’s Progress. It’s an adaptation of Pilgrim’s Progress for kids, but it’s still 336 pages long! (Evidently she just finished it in under a week, up next War and Peace). Everett is doing well in his K4 class at Mt Vernon here in Gardendale and Kandy has been working with him on some math and reading at home. I am pleased that we made the decision to make the transition to home schooling this year as opposed to trying to deal with the move and homeschooling at the same time in the fall.
In January Kandy, Sam, and I traveled to North Africa with our friend who lives there. We were able to meet several other Americans who work there doing various types of development work in addition to their church planting efforts. We also were able to spend the week with our friend’s family just to get a glimpse into what life on the field is like. The events over the past month are really opening doors in that region so please keep these workers in your prayers. We definitely see opportunity to work in this region, but will have to see what develops during our time at school to make a final decision.
Since January we have been speaking at various churches and missions events. The first was in Cullman at East Side Baptist Church. We were able to meet several other long time missionaries and short term workers with a lot of experience. Sam Hollis, the mission’s pastor at East Side, loves to get people together who share a passion for taking the gospel to the nations.
Next up was Pratt Court Baptist in Prattville. I met Sid Lanier, the senior pastor, and James Hammack, the associate, at the Alabama state convention at Hunter Street a few months ago. They are great brothers in the faith with a very missions minded church. One of their members, Ms. Kay, is originally from Japan and went back home for several years as a missionary herself. She is back in Prattville now but has family in Japan so please keep them in your prayers.
Last weekend we were able to speak at Sharon Heights Baptist where Kandy grew up. Kandy’s love for missions got its start under the teaching of Debbie Parsons in GA’s there. Jason Dunlap the pastor is a good friend of mine who has a passion for God’s glory among the nations himself.
This coming weekend we are going to Atlanta to visit with Isaac’s Keep. I initially connected with Spencer Nix, the pastor, working together on a project for Haiti. We are going to stay with a couple from their church who spent some time doing mission work in Cambodia. We’re really excited about getting to know this group of believers.
Sanders Party of Five 