June Prayer Letter

By Gilmer, Julie, Nhaya, Caleb and Josiah -

Dear Friends,

On the refrigerator we have a cute picture hanging up that Nhaya drew a couple weeks ago. It has a drawing of the beach, fish, palm trees, and our whole family. At the top in big letters it says, “I love the Pilippines.” She almost got the spelling right even! When she gave it to me she said, “Mommy, I’m really going to miss the Philippines!”

It’s been a hard last few months. With trying to make plans to come back to the States, packing and selling our things, finishing up the ministries we are working in, and trying to say goodbye to friends we made here!

We have been having trouble with our email and found out that many of you didn’t know that we had to come back earlier than planned. I guess that some of you didn’t receive our last prayer update. We are sorry about that and if you just scroll down you can see our last prayer update explaining why we have to leave early.

We know you’re busy, so we thank you for continuing to read these updates and praying for us. In the next few months we have many, many things that we would ask you to remember in your prayers.

I know we should write some thoughts about our time here in the Philippines, what it has meant to us, and what we have learned. Right now though, during this stressful time, I just don’t think I could do it justice. So in our next update we will write more about our time here. For now I will keep this short and focus on details and upcoming events.

One thing real quick though, that I can say is, we will surely miss all of the friends we made here in the short year and 5 months that we lived in Baguio City! They have been such a blessing to us and we have learned more from them than, I think, than they learned from us. They had a goodbye party for us last Sunday and many of the youth and friends got up and sang the song “Thank You” by Ray Bolts. If you know that song then you will know what a significance it had for us and we couldn’t help but being touched beyond words! Also Nhaya’s friend, Diwane, got up and sang a song that she made up. The words accounting when Nhaya told her that she needed to leave, and ending with, “Why can’t you stay! Why can’t she stay!” After that she was crying so hard she couldn’t finish her song. And I have to admit many of us were crying too!

Prayer Requests:

-We still have tons to do before we leave. Please pray for wisdom and peace as we go through this stressful time. Also please pray we find people to buy our things, especially our car.

-Please pray for the kids (and our) adjustments as we say goodbye to the Philippines and move back to Arizona. Of course they have mixed feelings of being happy to go home and sad to leave!

-As soon as we get back we need to file for Gilmer’s citizenship. Please pray for fast possessing, we can’t go back to the Philippines until he has his American citizenship. Also we can’t go back until we are fully supported. As you know we are coming home early because we are under supported, so please pray for more contacts and those who might feel God leading them to support us and the work here in the Philippines.

-Please pray for us on July 26th (the 25th for those in the States) as we travel with 3 small kids! Josiah will be a challenge, as he is too young to understand that he needs to stay sitting. The longest flight is 14 hours!

-We still don’t have a house when we get back to Tucson, a car, or know where the kids will go to school. Please pray for all those things as it gets closer for us to return home.

Praises:

-We thank God for our time in the Philippines, especially Baguio!

-We thank God for all of you that made it possible to work here though your support and prayers.

-We praise God for the details that are coming into place. We have our plane tickets, moving truck lined up, a place to stay while we pack the house, and many friends who have been helping us get ready to go.

-We praise God for the good health the last few weeks, please pray for continues health. A few weeks ago we were all sick at one time or another and I even got an Amoeba from some food I ate! (Not a fun experience!!)

We hope that all of you have a great 4th of July with family and friends. We hope to see many of you soon.

Blessings,

Julie (for the whole Paden Gang)
SEND Philippines
gilmerandjulie@gmail.com

Gilmer playing the gongs at this Birthday party.


Josiah smiling for you!

Mountain dancing at our goodbye party


Nhaya and Diwane after she sang her song



Comments

Michelle Barents said…
Julie, Gilmer & kids,
You have been in our prayers and will continue to be during this difficult time. What a comfort to know that our sovereign God is in control and has a perfect plan for your family! We look forward to seeing how God will provide a home, school and for all of your needs when you get back to Tucson. God bless, Michelle Barents
July 1, 2009 at 7:27 AM
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