2019 has been full of God's faithfulness giving us so many reasons to be thankful. There have been many challenges this year such as having to put my mother into full-time hospice care or seeing our daughter Bethany through a health crisis including heart surgery. Even through these hard times, we can count our blessings, and they are numberless. Many of you have asked for an update on our kids so here you go:
SHELBY is finishing her Masters in Teaching from Harding University and also getting a certification to teach English as a foreign language. She is doing this while working full-time as a 5th grade reading teacher at West Elementary in Batesville, Arkansas. She may possibly be teaching in China this summer or might spend time in Central Asia. Shelby has also become a Perspectives coordinator and has built a team, including all of us, to get Perspectives to Searcy for the first time ever this coming January!
BETHANY has finished her stateside midwifery requirements and is now studying for her certification exam. Many of you know of her health challenges this year which all started when she began passing out with no warning. After months of tests and procedures, including a surgical procedure correcting a heart issue, she finally received a diagnosis: Hashimoto's disease. She is dealing with that through prayer and diet and is doing much better. She is admin. work for Lumenations while preparing to join a team in South Asia next year.
ROBBIE & HENGRIDA were married in July of this year in Albania and have begun their life together close to us here in Searcy. CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THEIR AMAZING STORY. They are doing really great! Robbie is working at Harding Univesity and Chick-fil-A and will be working toward a degree in International Business. Hengrida hopes to become a speech therapist. They eventually desire to do vocational missions either in Asia or Albania. Robbie will be traveling to London to speak at a youth conference and share his testimony of God’s faithfulness in his healing when he was younger and also share the story of he and Hengrida’s marriage.
JILLIAN is now 14 years old! She is an amazing singer and is becoming a bit of a songwriter as well. She has been a part of a couple of different choirs this year. She loves sewing and, of course, hanging out with friends.
JALYNN (Jay) is 12 and is our quiet gentle soul. She loves calligraphy and design of any kind - home design, fashion design - you name it. All of our children take piano lessons but she is really excelling at it.
JOSIE, 11, is the most outgoing and exuberant one of our younger five. She committed to follow Jesus this year and was baptized. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICS. She loves to cook and wants to be a chef. We often find her just going through the spices and seeing if she can recognize them just through the smell. She is always the first to try new things as well, especially new foods!
BRYAN is a 10 year old now. He is the happiest when he can make someone laugh (aka - he's a goofball). He loves archery and anything that involves a ball or a racquet and he can still get lost in his legos. He loves challenging his older brother to a game of chess but has yet to get the better of him.
ELLY turns eight this weekend! She is always full of life and loves to dance. Her dream is to be a ballerina! Elly has the amazing ability to make friends with everyone she meets. She is also amazingly artistic and loves drawing and painting.
TANJA stays very busy with a household of nine - homeschooling five of them! She spent a lot of time this year helping care for Ken’s mom before she was put into full-time hospice care in July. She stays connected to many of the missionaries we have known, discipled and counseled through the years as well. We host a house church on a weekly basis and often other groups on top of that.
You can stay on top of what I (KEN) am doing at our ministry web-site www.lumenations.org. Besides the global ministry which is taking me to five continents this past year and next year, we are trying to “practice what we preach” right here in Searcy. We want to do here what we are teaching and training people around the world to do - join in our co-mission with Jesus making disciples who make disciples. We are part of a traditional church here but we also put a lot of effort into our house church and reaching out to those around us. We will have almost 40 over for Thanksgiving, for example. Ken has stayed busy working with Shelby to get Perspectives kicked-off here in Searcy. He has also been asked to be a part of the “Vision Team” at Downtown Church to work with the Shepherds to better connect with God’s vision for this large congregational church moving forward in the coming years.
In all of this, we would LOVE TO BE CONNECTED TO YOU THROUGH PRAYER! If you would like to join our prayer team (you praying for us and us for you), go to www.lumenations.org/pray and sign up. Thanks and God bless!
- Ken