Padens in the Philippines

Romans 15:13   May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace  as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The backstory to this update Gilmer wrote: We arrived in the Philippines on June 4th. Since then it has been a summer of changes, disappointments, Gods provision, and most of all flexibly on our part. We have moved to 4 different houses in 2 months and taken, plane, boat, and car trips in order to get our family moved down to Davao City.  It has been a strange and stressful summer but the Lord has sustained us and even blessed us during this time. The kids started school and we should be moving into our rental house this weekend. There is light at the end of the tunnel!!!  Hi Everyone, What an adventure it has been and it looks like the adventure is not done yet- maybe it has just begun. It seems that we are being challenged with the word TRUST; to trust that Lord knows what He is doing...

We have exciting news…WE ARE 100% SUPPORTED AND HAVE OUR PLANE TICKETS TO GO BACK TO THE PHILIPPINES! We praise God that He has provided for us in awesome ways in the last few weeks. People we just met are now partnering with us, anonymous gifts designated for outgoing expenses have come in, current supporters are upping their monthly pledge and in the last month we have gotten at least five new monthly supporters! We feel so incredibly blessed by the family of Christ and humbled to be the recipients of such care and concern. All we can say is thank you Lord for providing for us ! We will be leaving for the Philippines on June 2nd and can stay in our current Tucson house until then. Our house in the Philippines has renters now and will be vacant for just one week before we move back in. It seems that all our prayers and plans are falling right into place. The 2 weeks will be very busy for us as we prepare to move and say goodbye to all our friends and family. It is not easy li...

Extended Stay Trying to find time alone to update all of you is not an easy task! I'm sitting in the public library right now hoping to get this finished by dinner time, Gilmer is at home taking care of the kiddos :) What a awesome husband who understands that trying to think at home with all the of "Mommy" questions was very difficult. We are currently in Tucson and are planning on staying until the end of May- when the kids get out of school. We decided to stay for an extra 6 months partly because of support, partly because of the kids schooling, and partly because of medical things we wanted to make sure to take care of before heading back. Thankfully everything that needed to be pushed back because of the delay has worked out just fine and we thank God for that. So right now we are in the midst of sharing about our ministry with those interested, speaking in churches and small groups, and making sure that the kids are doing ok in school. Starting a new...

The Life of a Missionary is not for the Faint of Heart... Traveling with 4 kids across the country and back is no easy task!! I'm not going to tell you that it was all smiles and great attitudes; or no crying while on the numerous plane flights; or no spills and messes at our hosts houses. What I am going to tell you is how utterly blessed we were to see the care and love of Gods people for our family while we were there. We can't describe what it means to us to have faith and love by others put into action on our behalf. Let me explain a little bit of what I mean. When we were planning to visit our supporting churches and friends in Florida and North Carolina we didn't really know where to start. How were we going to drag our large family (I think I can safely say large now with 6 of us right?) all over Florida and up to North Carolina? How would we get there? Where would we stay? What would we drive? And maybe most importantly, how are we going to pay for a trip...

Romans 15:1 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Team Philippines! Like our matching shirts we got for our presentations at churches? Good thing the kids are small and are still willing to be matching :) Sorry about being such a delinquent updater! Many of you have been asking us where we are right now. No, we have not disappeared, or on a extended vacation (although that would be nice)! All we can say is that it's been a busy 3 months being home in the Arizona! Finding time alone to work on these things takes, literally, leaving the house for some "working" time. I will again try to update you using pictures, as I think most people enjoy that, versus a long email that many don't have time to read. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel during the month of October to Florida and then North Carolina. We still have some monthly support ...