Pray Now

(12/13/12)
 

Pray With Us About... 

Rest and Spiritual Renewal 

We are thankful for the next few weeks of spending time and catching up with family and friends.  We are admittedly tired and looking forward to finding MORE time to spend time with the Lord, soaking in His Word. 

Travel
We will be doing a lot of driving over the course of the next 2 months.  Please pray for safe traveling and good family times in the car with our three little ladies.  Road trips have supplied some great memories for our (Trevor and my) families in the past...we pray that the same would be true for Acácia, Eliana, and Laís. 

Set-up Funds
Pray with us that God would supply the funds we need to make the move to Brazil in His timing and in the ways in which He sees fit.  It all comes from Him anyway, and so He is the One we go to.  Pray that God would help us to keep the proper perspective that these are God’s resources, not ours.

Thank God with us for...
 

Finishing up courses at GIAL
This week Trevor finishes his courses at GIAL and I (Sarah) am so very proud of him!  He has worked very hard over the last 12 months, studying, being Dad and husband, serving on one of the praise teams here on campus, and getting involved in a small way at our Brazilian Fellowship in Arlington.  We praise God for His sustaining grace in helping Trevor finish all that was set before him!

Friends in the Texas area   
As many of our friends head out to their next step this weekend, we are particularly thankful for the friends God has provided us here at GIAL and in our church family.  We look forward to these friendships moving on with us, enriching our lives and helping us grow closer to the Lord as we all continue to do ministry TOGETHER, yet apart geographically.  Praise the Lord for His goodness in this! 

 

9/6/12  

Pray With Us About...

Continued Healing for Eliana's arm

As most of you know, Eliana broke her arm on the opening night of the Olympics.  After having it in a sling for 10 days, she got outfitted with a purple cast for next 3 weeks.  The doctors just removed her cast and gave strict limitations on her activity level until her next follow-up, scheduled for Oct. 12th.  Now that the cast is off, she is less aware of her need to restrain herself.  Please pray for protection and healing!

Visa and Passports Paperwork
A consulate worker will be in the Dallas area (normally we will go to Houston) during the last weekend in October.  We are tentatively planning on taking care of the first round of paperwork when he is here.  We'll have to make a trip to Houston with all of us after that is accomplished (if the meeting in Dallas with the consulate worker doesn't work out, we'll need to make 2 trips to Houston)...but are actually quite excited about that because we get to visit some good friends while we're there! 

Time Management
As I'm guessing many of you are feeling these days, most days just seem to have too few hours!  Life is very full at the moment, so I suppose you could say we feel like we're burning the candle on both ends.  It is a good kind of busy, though, so we're certainly not complaining.  Just asking for wisdom to give our time to God and to use it the way HE wants us to.

Thank God with us for...

A Decision Regarding Language & Culture Learning
We are thankful to be able to plan now towards WHERE we will be moving to in Brazil for the first year.  We have been approved to live in Recife for intensive language and culture learning.  This is the city where Sarah was born and lived a few years.  Continue to pray for our placement after language learning...this is an ongoing one as God continues to orchestrate all the moving parts.

Friends and Family
We are so very, very thankful for friends and family.  Pretty sure we could never move forward without the love and prayers and support of you who are taking the time to read this update RIGHT NOW.  Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to take an interest in what is happening in our lives AND for wanting to pray.  We know there are a million other things you could be doing. 

6/1/12  

Pray With Us About...

Spiritual Renewal during this School Break

This next week marks the end of the first full bi-mester for Trevor.  It has been an intense 5 months and we are ready for the break!  We will be traveling for a good portion of it and then have a little over a week of rest and renewal before starting up the next term.

Visa and Passports Paperwork
Right now we are working at getting all the paperwork in order for securing passage into Brazil.  We are thankful for Sarah's brother and his willingness and ability to help sort through all the steps (getting old passports current, legalizing our marriage certificate in Brazil, etc.) that we need in order to move forward in getting Brazilian birth certificates for the girls as well as a visa for Trevor.

Specific placement
Our specific logistical placement continues to be a prayer need.  As it stands, our placement is largely dependent on some possible partnerships between a couple of Brazilian organizations and our SIL/Wycliffe entity.  Pray for wisdom for the director and all who are involved in this process...not only for the sake of our family's placement, but more importantly for the further work of Bible translation and evangelism as a whole in the country of Brazil.

Thank God with us for...

Sleep!
For about a week and a half now, we have finally begun to see steady improvements in Laís's sleeping habits.  Not sleeping completely through the night yet, but now seems to wake a "normal" amount for a baby her age.  Thank You, Lord!  This has made a huge difference in life and general well-being in our home.  Thank you for praying. 

A Brazilian Church to Call Home
We are so very thankful for our new Brazilian church home in Arlington.  It is a small group of believers that meets every Sunday night at First Baptist Arlington.  The pastor and his wife are committed to the Lord and to His gospel.  What a blessing!  We have been welcomed with open arms and have enjoyed making Sunday night church a part of our weekly schedule.



4/24/2012
Pray With Us About...
Spiritual Health and more sleep
If you pray for nothing else, please pray for our relationship with our Savior.  Pray for our children and their spiritual understanding of the Gospel.  Sleep around our house has been scarce, affecting spiritual and physical health.  We would thank you for joining us in asking God for grace in this matter (especially for Laís and Sarah) as it is certainly taking a toll on our family.

Visa and Passports Paperwork
We are getting started on Trevor's visa paperwork and the girls' Brazilian birth certificates so that we can start moving forward on getting passports in time for when we leave.  The process CAN be  lengthy and pose many hiccups.  We will be needing to make a trip to Houston to get all the right paperwork at some point in the next few months.

Specific placement
Please continue to pray about our specific logistical placement.  We are thankful to report that there is a couple who we became very close with during our time in Florida who was recently also assigned to Brazil.  Whether or not we will be placed in the same city or not has not yet been determined, but we are thankful for established friendships and relationships that will go with us.

Thank God with us for...

Provision for School/Training
We praise God for his provisions over the last few months to cover the cost of schooling/training during this year.  This now frees us up to focus on our set-up costs for making the move to Brazil.  Thank You, Lord!

Time with Family
We enjoyed a wonderful time with Sarah's parents at the beginning of March as they came to celebrate Acácia's birthday with us.  Trevor's came to spend Easter week with us, playing and enjoying time with the kiddos.  We are so thankful for our families and the time God gives us with them before we go to Brazil.  Feeling blessed:)


2/6/2012
We need prayer for...

Spiritual vitality

If we're honest, life with little ones makes spending quality and quantity alone time in the Word and with the Lord a bit of a challenge at times.  Please pray for us in this, that God would have our all and our very best as we give Him our time.

Specific placement

Yes, our assignment is to Brazil, but the details in terms of logistics, time in language training, etc. is still yet to be nailed down.  Please pray for the leaders of the Brazil team as they work to figure out where we might best live and serve, giving our involvement in the EthnoArts field and being a family with small children.

Our Children

Please pray that our kids would understand the Gospel.  More than anything else, we want them to know Jesus and enjoy Him.  There is so much they can learn even while they are young...pray that the message of Christ will ring out louder than anything else.

Our Training

This second week in February marks the beginning of a new class schedule for Trevor.  Pray for good acquisition and retention of information that will be presented; that all that he learns here would transfer over to our time in Brazil.

Thank God with us for...

Continued health of Laís

She continues to grow and learn new things.  We are so thankful that we have not seen any ill effects of her initial reaction to her 2-month vaccinations.

Good friends

God has allowed us to make some great friends here in Dallas already.  Those relationships are so important as we move forward with what God has put before us.  They encourage us and drive us to walk with Him more closely.  We are also thankful for the relationships our kids have been able to foster with other kids in the same situation.  Thank you, Lord!