Our Vision:

To inspire, teach and disciple the nations

in the truth of God's Character and Kingdom.

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Hello Friends,

Wow, so much has happened since our last update.  Joshua is one month old today J.  I guess I’ll start at the beginning.  We moved into our new house on October 19th.  Thank you for praying; God definitely answered our prayers!  Beth’s last day at school with the Reading Class kiddos was October 12^th, so she was able to stay home the following week and pack up our house.  The YWAM couple (our friends) who own our new house worked so hard on fixing it up for us.  You can’t smell smoke!  (The past tenants had smoked inside the house).  Our friends painted the walls a lighter color which opened things up, got new carpet, and laid wood laminate in the living room.  Jason helped one morning, but for the most part it was all their loving labor.  We had lots of kind friends help with the physical move.  With a truck and a trailer, they were able to take almost everything in two loads.  So although it was sad leaving our old house (which Jason had painted) after only two months, we are so blessed with our new house.  We like it even better J.  The house is in a nice neighborhood by a small lake which is great for walking.  There are beautiful trees everywhere, and we have two YWAM families living close by.  It’s about a three minute drive to our YWAM campus, Dayspring, from here also.

God was so gracious to us by letting us get settled into our new home before Joshua made his arrival.  Beth was nervous that he would come early as we were unpacking everything in our new home.  But thankfully, we had plenty of time! 

BETH                                                                

It was so fun unpacking the nursery!  THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE WONDERFUL GIFTS! We had left everything for Joshua’s room in boxes and bags at our other house since we knew we were moving soon.  Being able to set up his baby furniture, wash his cute clothes, and organize all those diapers was so much fun.  It was a little sad for my due date, November 8^th, to come and go with no baby’s arrival.  I was having a few mild cramps but nothing major.  But on Saturday, November 10^th, at about 10 at night, my contractions started getting a lot more intense.  They were really strong and about 5 minutes apart, so we headed up to the hospital.  After being there for about an hour connected to monitors for me and the baby, the doctor decided that I wasn’t in active labor because I was only dilated to 1.5 cm.  So, sadly, they sent us home (while I was very much feeling like I was in active labor and hoping for some pain medicine J).  At home, we tried to get some sleep (which Jason managed) but not me.  I was waking him up about every 3 minutes at the start of each contraction as they got closer together.  Then, about 4 in the morning, my water broke and I was happy because I knew they couldn’t send us back home after that J.  We headed back to the hospital and found out I was dilated to 3 cm.  (The nurse was thinking that maybe the baby had just kicked my bladder, but thankfully the doctor saw that my water had really broken.)

Throwing my birth plan out the window (where I was hoping to go through the whole delivery naturally with no medicine), I immediately asked for pain medicine as soon as they told me I was in active labor J.  I got stadol through my IV and then an epidural which were huge blessings!  I think I had underestimated the whole birthing experience and overestimated my pain tolerance.  It was great at the end being able to watch the monitor and see how strong my contractions were while I couldn’t feel them J.  I had a wonderful nurse for the delivery, and I pushed for 45 minutes.  When it was finally time for Joshua to be born, the nurse told me to wait so the doctor could come.  That was really hard!  As soon as the doctor got his gown on, out came Joshua!   It was amazing… before I knew it, they were putting him on my chest J  Wow…what a feeling.  Jason cut his umbilical cord.  He weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long, born at 9:45 in the morning on Sunday, November 11^th (my grandmother’s 80^th birthday J)…a beautiful boy!  It was hard hearing him cry with his little bottom lip quivering while the nurses gave him his first bath.

The staff at the hospital was wonderful, so caring and helpful.  Joshua stayed awake and alert for a long time that first day which was fun.  We spent that night at the hospital and headed home the next afternoon.  It was wonderful and scary bringing our newborn son home with us.  Mom was here with us thankfully!  Nursing has been a learning process for both Joshua and me, but now we are doing much better. I’m so glad the hospital has two kind lactation nurses.  In the beginning, he lost weight and dropped down to 6 lbs. 10 oz…I was one nervous new mom!  It was such a blessing having mom and Jason with me every step of the way.  (Jason was home for two weeks.)  We made daily visits to the lactation nurses and things started turning around.  For a while, it seemed like my life was pretty much nursing and sleeping (occasionally) around the clock.  We were on a 2 hour feeding schedule supplementing with formula also to help get Joshua’s weight back up.   I am happy to say that now nursing is going very well.  He now feeds about every 3 hours during the day and when he cries at night.  He even slept for a 5 hour stretch one night!  We are eagerly looking forward to the time when he sleeps straight through the night.  At his last check up on Friday, Joshua weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz. and was 22.5 inches long, in the 90^th percentile for his length J.  God is so faithful!  He is gaining weight beautifully, and we are getting more sleep!  We have started putting him on a schedule of feed time, wake time, and nap time which has really helped structure our days.  It gives me time to do other things, too.  Throughout all of this, we had wonderful friends bringing us dinners in the evenings and praying for us.  There were flowers on our doorstep when we arrived home.

It’s amazing how much he has already changed in his first month of life!  His features are much more distinguished these days…big eyes (still blue-gray but we are pretty sure will be turning brown at some point).  When he’s laying on my chest, he lifts his head to look me in the eyes for a bit, and he loves to stretch after eating.  It’s the cutest thing to see him lean his head back, raise his eyebrows, and stretch out his whole body…kind of in a Super Man position J.  He squirms all around his crib when we lay him down if he’s not ready to sleep, and he's very alert...intently looking all around. (Of course, we think he’s advanced J.)  He is a true gift from God and such a joy in our lives.  We are excited to see more and more of his personality as he gets bigger.  Thank you for praying for us! 

FATHER        AND         SON

My Bible study for YWAM moms has reunited, and their fellowship is such a blessing, too.  I just took Joshua for “show and tell” in the Reading Class the other day.  They loved seeing him after praying for both of us for so long.  He also came with us to our staff Christmas party the other night and stole the show J.  We are looking forward to spending our first Christmas with him and sharing him with the rest of the family.  We pray you have a wonderful Christmas with your families also.  May God bless you richly with His presence.

JASON                                                             

I hope you all are having a great holiday season.  I will try to be brief since my wife obviously loves to share “the details!”

We have been having a wonderful year so far in School of the Bible.  The students are really hungry to learn the Word of God and are persevering under the homework load.  Most of them haven’t ever had to study this much.  SOTB has a reputation for having a lot of homework, and I think it might hinder some from coming, but once they get here, they realize that it is worth it.

Student Section

I would like to introduce you to Cristhian.  He is from Chile and has been a missionary to Asia (I cannot say the name of the country for his security) for the past three years until he came to do School of the Bible. He is planting house churches there and networking different ministries.  He was only able to get away from his ministry for half of SOTB.  He is leaving now, but will return later to get the rest of the training.  Pray for him as he is serving in a very strategic part of the world right now!

In The Classroom

We have been discussing the Nature and Character of God.  If people do not know who God is and that He is good, how can they love Him and have a relationship with Him?  We have also been studying the Old Testament.  If I were to give you one verse that I believe is the heart of the Old Testament it would be this:

Exodus 34: 6,7

Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;

who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

I love the fact that God Himself tells Moses that he is merciful, yet just.  He patiently waits for people to turn from their sins, yet if they continue in them as the Israelites did, he will have to deal with them.  Finally, God sends the Jewish people into captivity in Babylon after hundreds of years of idolatry and sin.  But God restored them after seventy years, and idolatry was never again a major problem in the nation of Israel.

GREEK

Thanks for yours prayers concerning the Greek class.  I have two people helping me teach and sharing the load.  The students will begin translating 1 John in February!

Revelation 3:20

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door,  I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

The “I stand” is in the Perfect Tense, so it could be better translated “I have stood and still stand at the door and I am knocking.”  The Perfect Tense in this verse shows us the patience and perseverance of the Lord as he waits for His people to respond to His invitation of fellowship! 

We love you and hope you have a great Christmas!

Jason and Beth