Personal Stuff

We're trying to keep this blog focused on the ministry and on Africa, but lots of you (bless your hearts) are asking how we're doing, progress on sale of the house, etc. What follows is a brief update on some of those things:

• Our moods are very good. We've gone from being people with huge "to do" lists and lots of responsibilities to being students who do presentations on weekends. We have lots of time to work on assignments, do our devotions and generally "regroup." It's really been a wonderful experience so far.


• It looks like we are near agreement on the sale of our house. We're in a very tough market, as you all know, and buyers can pretty well dictate their own terms. Even so, Arlen Gingrich has been not just a realtor but a wonderful friend and brother in Christ, it looks like we will break even on the sale, and we would be looking at other, much less attractive options if Eric Forseth had not pointed a buyer in our direction. Thanks to both of these good men for their help! There are still two couples in the cadre who have not yet had offers on their houses, so we'd appreciate your continued prayer for our situation, but also for the Burnells and the Porters.



• As everyone told us, the Ketchums have been great. We have had 3-4 meals with them, gone to an outdoor performance of the Kansas City Symphony together and are enjoying our time with them. Our 1-bedroom apartment has become our comfortable and peaceful home. The picture to the right is of Carol Ketchum (who has an amazing work ethic and a wonderful sense of humor) at the Kansas City Symphony concert. If you'd like to look at some pictures Nan took of the apartment, you can check out this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/nanpitts/KansasCityChapter



• Nancy says her thinking is being stretched in the interaction with the good minds in the classes and it's lots of fun to be a fulltime students. Mark wants you to know that he's using some of the extra time to (finally) get some exercise. He's bought a pedometer and is on a "10,000 steps a day" plan, that he's been sticking to faithfully for the last two weeks. For the math-minded, 10,000 steps with a 32 inch stride works out to about 5 miles a day or 35 miles a week--lots of good exercise!



• We're enjoying the (mainly younger) missionary couples with whom we're doing the training: Steve and Dana Porter have been at Fairview Village Church in Pennsylvania and are going to Angola. Spencer and April Baggott have been pastoring in Florida and will also be in Angola. Gavin and Jill Fothergill have been in Kansas City (Jill working for World Mission office) and will be part of the Nazarene cross-cultural work in El Paso Texas. Scott and Cindy Meadors were part of the two-week intensive and have already left for Romania. Judy Burnell (who has been associate pastoring in Maryland) and her husband Barry will be in the Eurasia office in Switzerland. Tim and Danielle Whetstone have been Nazarene volunteers in Italy and working with Compassionate Mission in Louisiana and have not yet been assigned. Very good folk. There are also several sweet young children who will be going with their parents on this trip. They range in age from Lucas Baggott who is 5 to Macy Fothergill who was just born on Thursday. When you pray, I'm sure these families would appreciate your prayers.
• Our instructor for the two-week intensive has been David Wesley, who with his wife Glynda were Nazarene missionaries in South America for 17 years. David served as translator and regional director for Bruno Rotti. He is now a faculty member at NTS and Glynda is the training coordinator and "mom" for the missionary interns. We are very impressed with both of them: their love for the Lord, their passion for missions and their care for us as the "newbies."