Merry Christmas!

It is the most wonderful time of the year. I love Christmas, the decorating, the baking, the hustle and bustle of things. But that is not what I love about Christmas. I love celebrating birthdays. And what a special birthday it is! We are celebrating Jesus birth! We are celebrating His life. His coming to earth to save us! I am humbled at the thought of a great mighty all powerful God humbling Himself into the form of a baby, helpless and totally dependent on a human. Sent here to show us how to love, to show us the true meaning of love. Giving His life for us. A perfect sinless life for wretched sinner like me! And rising again to show us the way! What a perfect love!

Join with us this Christmas and remember the true meaning of Christmas. That Jesus was born!


Merry Christmas!

Updates...

We received a call from our friend Tyler Sunday night informing us that New England Bible Church voted on us Sunday evening and they are now supporting The Wilson Family! We are so excited to be their new missionaries! The church has made us feel so welcome and right at home when we are there.

It is such a blessing to see them excited about the ministry. Seeing them talk about what part they will have in it as well, coming down on short term trips and just being an extension of the local church! What a blessing they have been to us.

My Mom went to the surgeon yesterday. She will be having her surgery on Jan. 8, she sounded great when I was talking to her. A weight has been lifted I think. It is a pretty invasive surgery but that is all they will need to do, no chemo or radiation. They will be removing part of the pancreas and also her spleen. Amazing how God created our bodies with so many parts that we can live without! Please continue to pray for her comfort while she is waiting for surgery and also for my Dad. It has been a long road with so many health issues in the family the past few years!

Thank you all so much for taking time to read our updates, our stories, our concerns and also be in prayer with us for these things!

God is SO good!

Thankful...

I would like to write a brief list of things that We the Wilson Family are thankful for this year. I have asked the kids to tell me things that they are thankful for as well so if they seem a little childish it is because they are. We can learn so much from them can't we?
(these are not on here in any special order just on here as they are being said!)

1. Grammy and Grampy
2. Gas prices have gone down.
3. Grandma being with Jesus.
4. A home to provide shelter and warmth.
5. Nana and Papa
6. New friends that we have made.
7. Family that is close by.
8. Elephants (Claire)
9. A great church to attend.
10. Supporters
11. Salvation
12. Employment
13. Health
14. A vehicle that is dependable.
15. God's faithful provisions.
16. Mom and Dad
17. Doctors wisdom for my mothers care.
18. A patient husband.
19. A loving wife
20. Warm coats
21. Gods creation all around us.

And this is just the beginning!!
Take time to stop and think about what you are thankful for this year. Make a phone call to someone you love and let them know. Take time to spend with your family and let them know how special they are to you.
and remember like we teach our children to be thankful and rejoice in everything.
Even when you don't feel like being thankful remember that God is faithful!

I Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Settling in...

I realized earlier this week that we hadn't even been home from CIT for a month yet and it seems like we have been home so much longer. Saturday will be a month and we have been go, go, go since we unpacked the car! We are trying to find the routine of life you know the "normal" side of things...We are still working on that! We were so scheduled at CIT right down to when we ate our meals and they were all the same time everyday! There were no other distractions while we were there. No appointments no sports practice no piano lessons or children's choir. Funny how when you look at the list it doesn't seem like much but add all the kids and all the different places they need to be all at once it can be a little unnerving.

However, we are starting to get into a routine, still working out the bumps. Learning that when we have a speaking engagement that is during the school day we need to do school in the afternoon or "double up" the next day. Phil is back to working full time, having him with us all day and night was a treat for all of us. This is taking a little to get used to as well. Not having Dad right there all the time. Amazing how quickly we got used to having him around all day!

We are speaking at 2 different small groups this coming week week that are from New England Bible Church. We are both going to speak at the couples group Monday night and I (Jen) am speaking to the young mothers group on Tuesday night. We are really looking forward to these meetings. We have already met some wonderful people from this church and can't wait to meet more!

Thank you for your continued prayer for us as we settle back into our lives here in NH, and as we are on this journey.

A prayer requests that we have right now is:

My mother has just found out that her cancer has returned. She has had it twice already. It is renal cancer, the first time was in 1985, they removed her kidney. The second was renal cancer that appeared on her lung, that was in 1997 they removed lower part of one lung. Now it is renal cancer on her pancreas. They are planning on going in and removing it surgically again only taking the part of the pancreas that is affected. Please pray for comfort with medical decisions that need to be made, rest before surgery and comfort while we are waiting to find out anything more that we may find out after surgery. Our prayer is that it will be totally gone as it has been the past two times. She has never needed chemo or radiation because of the type of cancer that she has, we are praying that it will be the same this time. I will keep you posted as we progress through this as well.

Mighty to Save

Mighty to Save was the theme for the missions conference at our home church. Fellowship Bible Church. We had the privilege to attend this year. We are always on the other side of the conference at our home church. I know all the months of hard work and planning that go into them! We were blessed by what was shared and who we were able to visit with.

Of course our camera isn't working properly! so, we were not able to get pictures. Below is the picture of all the missionaries and children that were at the conference along with the speaker that was here from Florida.


In this picture are: Steve and Becky Diem (minus their boys) Costa Rica language school. Bob, Robin, Adam, Melody and Bethany Hastings AMG Guatemala. Jack and Jennifer Mitchell Grace Dental Mission. Bob and Linda Schindler Mission One. Bob Whitney key note speaker and our family.

You can read about the Diem's and Hastings, their links are on our sidebar.

We are gearing up for a busy November. Please keep us in prayer so that we will be rested and able to present the ministry clearly to people when we are sharing with them.

more new friends

We had a wonderful time at Calvary Bible Church this week during the missions conference. We were challenged to be praying for our missionaries and our countries. What a great time we had while we were there reconnecting with old friends and making new ones! That is always a blessing in itself...

Here is the picture that was taken when we were all said and done Wednesday night.

"PRAY"

That is the theme of the conference we are attending right now. Yesterday the message that was given was on Daniel 9, and the affects of prayer in your life. How to pray for countries and laying your worries at the Lords feet. What an encouraging word we heard.

We shared with the 5&6 grade SS class, Megan was in class with us and was able to share with the kids some of the information that she knows. I think she had a great time being with her friends that were in the class that she hasn't seen for awhile.

We had a great lunch with great friends! They spoiled us with a delicious dinner and a fantastic dessert! The fellowship was the best though I think!

We headed back to church in the evening for dinner and more fellowship and encouragement from the Word. What a blessing that was! Phil 4 was the scriptures we studied last night.

This morning we all got up nice and early to head out of the house at 7:15! You would think that after CIT we would be used to that but we didn't have to leave that early then! :) We got to school placed all the kids in their classes for the morning and then shared with the 2 and 3 grade Bible class. Cabot was our resident helper there...I guess really anywhere we go one of the kids will be with us in a class wouldn't they?

We had a great brunch this morning/afternoon with the pastoral staff, some of the mission commission team and all of the missionaries that are attending the conference. What a great time of more fellowship and time of sharing. We spent time praying for one another and just learning a more about each other! We were blessed by the people that we met and shared with.

We are currently having a break at my parents house since they live close to CBC and the kids were already here. We head back to the church at 5:00 for dinner with a small group and more fellowship. Then we will be having more meetings tonight. We have been so encouraged by what has been shared and the people who we have met. We are looking forward to what the rest of the conference holds for us!

what can you be praying for this week?
our truck is a little "sick" and we only have one vehicle, please pray that we can baby it until we are able to get it fixed.
stamina for the conference, we would love to make the most of our time.
Pray that we would be able to share the ministry needs clearly.
lives that will be touched during the missions conference.

missions...

Now that we are home and getting back into our routine we are starting to get ready for missions conferences at Calvary Bible Church in Derry, that conference will start on Sunday October 26 and end on Thursday the 30. This is the church that our children attended school at up until last year. Phil attended school there from K-8th grade. We will participate in the Worship service and also visit classes during the week and do a chapel service. We are very excited about being there to share what we have been called to do.

On October 31 our missions conference will start at our church. We will be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Both of these conferences are local so we don't have to worry about packing everyone up again anytime in the near future. We will be able to sleep in our own beds at night. However we will share dinner with different families at different times. We are looking forward to being able to share more about what we have just learned at CIT, and put to use some of the things that we have just been learning about! What an exciting time for us to share.

we arrived!

This will not be long! I promise...

We finally we pulled into our driveway around 10:00 tonight! It was a long trip home, great visits with family. Time to spend relaxing and catching up with family, that is always good!

We took a tour of Bible Baptist College with Abby while we were there today. It is a beautiful campus. We also walked around Liberty University last week, no official tour there though!

Thank you for all the prayers for our trip home, it was uneventful! I do believe that I will be able to jump into the truck in the morning and it will start right up!

We had a great time and can't wait to share our pictures and all that we have learned!

moving on...

Our time at CIT is done, but the memories and friendships that we made will last a lifetime! We headed out of Union Mills yesterday morning at 5 AM. There were lots of people there for a teary good-bye! I still can't believe that we are not there anymore. What a great time we had while we were there and great friendships that were made!

We drove for a few hours on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was so beautiful and would you believe that my camera was DEAD! so...we stopped and bought a disposable one! Just so we could have pictures of the trip!

Then we stopped at Liberty University to visit a good friend who is attending there this year. She is a freshman and seems to be loving it. Abby fell in love with the campus. I guess it is that time that we really need to start looking at schools too!
We left there and headed up to Warrenton VA and spent the night with Phil's cousins. While we were driving we decided that it would be best to stay here for an extra day because of how tired we were from the drive that should have taken 7 hours that ended up being 14 hours. Not really sure how it happened but it did! :-) I guess stopping for an hour in Lynchburg was part of it! but it was so worth it!

We are heading to PA in the morning and spending the night there. Phil has family there as well, his family is placed nicely along our trip home. Great to catch up with them as we are traveling. We are anticipating being home sometime on Tuesday but we are holding that loosely. It will depend on the drive up there!
Thanks for praying for us during our time at CIT. We truly enjoyed our time there and also learned so much that will be indispensable when we are on the field and also in our everyday lives where ever we are in the states or overseas.
I don't have any pictures to post today I will get some of the drive home when we get there!

more fun...our farewell...and tears

Chris and Hannah
Paige and Hannah
Nathan
Phil Jen and Claire

Are you wondering why we already had our farewell dinner? This is Lindsay and Eva our mayors

they decided that we would have a cookout for our get together this week. After doing that we had a time of sharing for the families that will be leaving the end of this week (and a single) Chris, Paige and Hannah. What a testimony those two have! God is so powerful and so evident in their lives. We have all learned so much from them! They are heading to Thailand in November! How excited we are for them. Nathan, the youngest in the group is heading to Uganda for medical work! He is so excited to be going and bringing health care to them there! And of course our family well, part of us!
Why the cook out? well, It was the only time we could really get something in due to the paper that we need to have completed by Thursday!! so...here are the pictures from the games to the cookout and sharing/singing after! We are the only ones that are leaving at this point in our training. Everyone else that is here will be here through November. There are 2 more classes that will be going after we leave. So, a small part of the group is leaving and the majority of the people are staying.
What a great time we had fellowship is always great and encouraging isn't it? As Phil and I were reflecting later that night I told him I knew we would make friends, I didn't expect to make such great friendships that will take us all over the world! Imagine what our passports could look like? It is going to be hard to leave, 4 weeks doesn't seem like a realistic time to make those friendships but we did. We are just a great big family here!I thank God everyday for the new friendships that He has given to us! We love you all!!

Fire, Fun and Fellowship

Here at CIT we have "Mayors" for the week. That is the adorable couple pictured above. They have 2 children and their youngest was 2 weeks when they arrived here! you can say that I am getting a nice fix! OK...so the mayors responsible for setting up any activity for us, they are in charge of the keys (and there are a lot of them) They are basically on call when all the CIT staff is gone for the night or weekend. We will not had the privilege of being mayors while we are here, our time is too short. They planned a camp fire Sunday night they provided the fixin's for the smore's and they were yummy!!!! (I know the pictures are late, I have been busy!)
Here are some of the pictures from the evening. Notice the we have our Boston Pride while we are still in the south! Enjoy...



Phil took the kids to a bluegrass and clogging event last week. I was at a birthday party for one of the ladies here. I did attend last nights festivities though. It is in a town about half an hour away as most things are here :) They hold it in an old train station. The kids loved it, got some great energy out! and slept great that night! I guess last night was a lot different that the week before. Oh well, what can I say. We will just have to go again next week before we pack up and start heading north! well...here are a few pictures of the events from last week, the pictures were given to us yesterday which is why they are all being put up here tonight! I know you will forgive me for being late and you will still enjoy them right??



Aside from all the wonderful fun we are having with our new friends here we really are doing our school work! Our time is too quickly coming to an end, it is going to be hard to say good bye to so many that we have become so close with! We are spending a wonderful day tomorrow at the town fair here where we are with a family that lives below us! And then the mayors this week have planned a cookout and volley ball tournament! should be a good, fun day!!
thank you all for your prayer through these past few weeks, we are certainly being sustained by them. The crazy school schedule and making sure that we are having great family time as well can be overwhelming at times. Keep it up, we are coming to the end of this time and will begin yet another adventure all too soon! thanks for your love and support!

Look what I found when I googled our name!

I googled our blog site and saw that Mark Sohmer had put this on God Tube. I think he may have told me...but being the summer/fall that we have had I think I forgot!! Well, for those of you who have not seen our presentation video, here it is! Enjoy it!

Ethnography and Ethnocentrism

Did I lose you there? How many of you knew what that was before you stopped and looked those two words up?

Ethnocentrism means Regarding ones own race or cultural group as superior to others.

Ethnography means learning from people finding out what makes them tick, expressing interest in the things that are important to them, and inviting them to teach you to see the world from their point of view. It is focused, yet informal.

This has been the topic of our learning for the past few days! WOW...so much to grasp! We have seen first hand how this whole culture is different just being down here in the south. NH and NC are very different. The culture here is very laid back, slow, polite and in general a "christian" atmosphere. Where NH in very quick paced, uptight, courteous and in general not "christian".

Example, we were on our way to church yesterday morning and we were half and hour early, I didn't finish my coffee before we left the house and I asked if we could stop for coffee...Phil noted that ALL the stores were closed. (which we noticed the week before as well) hmmmm what else? well, we went out to dinner on Friday evening to celebrate 16 years!!! We went to a very nice resteraunt, and I quickly noticed that they did not serve alcohol. We would never find that at home.

Culture is everywhere we look, from the next state to the farthest continent. So, what am I saying with all of this? That we need to be open to the differences that are around us everywhere we go. We were made in the image of God, He created each and every one of us and He loves us all. Why should we treat someone differently just because they do things differently? Does it make it right or wrong? So what if they drive on the opposite side of the road. To them it isn't the wrong side. So what if the men can walk down the street holding hands. In some cultures it is accepted and even looked at as a form of mentorship.

Does this mean that we accept what they are doing when it is wrong? Not at all! But before we can go in and tell them that they are doing something wrong and why it is wrong, we need to understand their culture. We need to be active listeners and watchers of what is happening so that we may be used to our fullest capability!

This is the quote that started our day today:

"Culture is not good
it is not bad
It is just different

and it is definitly not weird!"

that is the thought for today...

busy busy busy

Here is a quick glimpse of our daily activity:
6:00-6:30 rise and shine!! Phil and Jen coffee and quite time.
7:00 rise and shine!! kids...
8:10 out the door to get the kids settled (mostly get Claire settled)
8:25 coffee.... :)
8:30 Heart of the Missionary (devotions with everyone)
9ish a short break refill coffee
9:15 next session which varies from day to day
10:30ish continuation of session.
12:00 LUNCH we get the kids and head back "home" and share our lunch make dinner if time allows, work on homework if time allows...we don't usually get back here until 12:30
1:10 head back with Claire to get her settled down for her nap and then get the rest of the kids settled back into class as well.
1:25 get water
1:30 next class begins
2:15ish a break
3:00 get kids and head back home. Which is usually more like 4:00, by the time all is said and done.
dinner, homework, extra class tonight, meals to be had with friends and instructors.
it is a very busy schedule. And for those of you that know me well I am not a very scheduled person. Which I found out yesterday is one of my personality traits...haha....talking it too!! ;)
We are learning so much and enjoying it all! Looking at our syllabus it was very overwhelming but day by day it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Laundry is all caught up, dishes are all clean and put away. I even had time to make homemade bread for dinner on Monday without my kitchen aide!! (it was Claire's birthday)
We are learning to FlEx! A great thing to learn and I wish I had learned it a long time ago!
We did have a great visit Friday to Saturday with the Ragans! They came all the way from Tennessee to see us! Drove 4 1/2 hours one way just so that we could catch up (and check out CIT) What a great time we had here are some pictures that were taken while they were here.

Well we made it through our first official day!.. It was great. We received our syllabus, and saw the work that will be required of us during the next month. It is a very demanding workload. It will take a few days to get in the mindset of writing papers again and reports of 15 pages! Today we spent the majority of the day working on personality assessments, and found out that many of us have more than one person needs to have. It was fun and eye opening at the same time, and will help us to better understand how to work with our future co laborers on the field. As some of you know our vehicle broke down literally as we pulled into the parking lot. What a blessing, it could have been a lot worse. We were able to locate a Christian who owns a garage here and he replaced the alternator. Nothing major, just not expected, and Ford I just recently found out thinks their alternators are worth a pretty penny. Just being able to type this post is another blessing. It is really necessary to have a good computer here, and be able to access the wireless network. My laptop had so many problems, and the internal wireless card was not able to connect to the network. God provided a now great friend in the couple that are living downstairs. He is our resident Mark Sohmer. We have chatted over keyboards, coffee and brownies during our computer restoration project. We are looking forward to tomorrow and catching up with our mission director and friend Pat Ragan & his family as they make the 5 hour drive from Chattanooga to spend tomorrow night with us. We will keep you posted. If your reading this I encourage you to take a moment to reflect how great of God we serve, and all He has done for us! It really defines who we are. Adios!

Greetings from North Carolina!

Just to let you know before you read this...we did not have internet so I am posting this TUESDAY night not Monday but you do get the gist of it!! thanks for reading and looking at the pictures!


We made it to CIT! We arrived sometime around 8 on Monday evening. It was a much longer trip than we had anticipated. We made a few fun stops on the way. Well…we made a few stops. :-) We were seeing signs for “The Natural Bridge” and thought it would be a fun stop to make and see what it was. Well, we passed a sign for a road side table, I in my thinking we would see a fruit stand or a veggie stand. Well, in fact it was a road side table and that was exactly what it was! A table…haha! We got a chuckle out of that one! There was a sign for a petting zoo right there too and behind the table was an ostrich, a few impalas, and goats (I think) we pulled over being the tourists that we were. Phil took a few pictures… then we went to try to find The Natural Bridge. Drove a few hundred feet and found the petting zoo. Apparently, it is the largest one in VA. There was a HUGE elephant in front (see picture with Claire) for those of you who don’t know they are her favorite animal!! We were going to bring the kids in and have a little fun. Phil came out rubbing his chin and looking a little shocked it was over $100 for us to get in and see the animals. You know the live elephants, and the giraffes, white tigers, monkeys (I think I had a few in my car for the past few days) well, I bet you know what we didn’t do! So the huge elephant out front had to do for Claire! :-) She was fine with that too. I was very proud of her for not pouting about it! Then we got back into the car to find the “Foamhenge” this was great fun for all!! We laughed and had a blast while we were there. I am sure the town people were thinking we have some real tourists here!!
Look at the pictures from it and you can see where it gets it’s name from. No we did not head over to England! From there we headed back in the car to once again find the Natural Bridge! Not as close to the highway as we thought it was going to be!!! We finally arrived and well…more $$ and we are on a little bit of a budget and so we just had to do with looking at the beautiful buildings that were built around it for the tourist who are willing to spend the money to see it! I think we are a little too yankee for our own good sometimes! After we got back on the highway we just made the very original potty breaks! We did find that the restrooms in NC are beautiful. We did get a few pictures of that too. Well, not the restrooms. But you know the welcome sign and all!
We arrived at our “home” for the next several weeks to find our “neighbors” here already, and met them. The kids were hard to separate when it was time for us to come upstairs and settle in. We started chatting with them you know asking the usual questions…where are you from? Where are you going? How old are your kids…you get the idea. OK, remember where we are right now. NC in the southern part of the state right, so the questions are flowing “So, where are you from” Phil asks “California” John replies “Well, actually I am from the Boston area and my wife is from New Hampshire” whoa!! We chatted about that a bit. Then we were talking about the kids and their little boy (who’s name is escaping me right now) is turning 4 a few days after Claire turns 4 hmmm…I smell a birthday party in the making I think!! OK, chatting some more I ask the twin GIRLS when their birthday is March 28, 2 days before Abby’s birthday the same year! She had them over at Elliot and I had Abby at CMC or else we could have been roomies! :-) Then as the guys were chatting more we find out that Bonnie is originally from NY. HA…me too!!!! We just laughed for a few minutes about that! God is so good at breaking the ice!
We are all unpacked and settled in the kids are sleeping soundly in their respective rooms now. It is 11:00 as I am typing this. I am going to get myself tucked in bed in a few minutes we are just so happy to be here and thrilled to see how God is going to be working in us and our children while we are here for the next several weeks! Please continue to pray for us as the Lord brings us to mind. It is going to be a big change for the kids as well as Phil and I.

Other things to pray for are
My mother is having surgery on her back Friday morning 9/12 it is hard on me right now that I am not there with her and will not be with her during her surgery and time of recovery.
Our car is a little “sick” we made it here absolutely fine however, the alternator (we think) is about to go and we are going to have that checked out as soon as we can in the morning.
Safety while we are here,, and unity for our family.
Keeping our minds aware of what we are learning and be able to remember it!
And last but not least that our support would come in and we will be able to get to Guatemala to serve Him there!

Lean on Me

Proverbs 3 5&6 says:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

This is such a simple verse that so many of us have learned as children, and how many times have we tried to make things more complicated than what this verse says?

As you all (faithful readers of our blog) know, we have been learning to trust and LEAN on God in more ways recently! How amazing everyday when we wake up to see His faithfulness to us, and His provisions for us.

We are leaving on Sat. for our training. We are all looking forward to it a change of scenery and a different pace. OK...well Claire is certainly going to be at a different pace. 2 weeks ago she was on a trampoline with a few friends, and was jumped on...(we did bring her to the doctor to check it out and she was not worried about it!)a few days later a cousin bumped into her leg again...and the final straw was on Sunday night when she was being snuggled with and her sister was getting out of bed and rolled over onto her leg. We watched her all day on Monday at our church picnic, I asked SEVERAL people to look at her walking and whether they thought she was limping or not, well Tuesday brought us to the doctors ALL day. To find out at 5:30 pm that yes in fact she has a broken leg. So yesterday (Wednesday) it was casted and has not slowed her down much, I think a full leg cast still would not have slowed her down! :) It is waterproof, YES!!! you did read that right a waterproof cast. They were thinking of NC and the warm weather and pools when they casted her!!

here are a few pictures of the little girl with her purple cast.
oh, and for the record 6 kids and she is the first one to be in a cast! Who would have ever thought it would be Claire!! :-)

We are packing AGAIN!!

Well, we are in the new house, and getting settled in nicely! Oh how I love having everything all on one floor!!! So easy to clean! :)
And now it is time to start to pack up and get ready for CIT. We will be leaving on September 7 for 5 weeks. We are looking forward to seeing what we will be doing and learning while we are there. The kids are thrilled to be going to NC and seeing how different things are there. I love to read through the materials that we received to see what we are going to be doing while we are there. I was never a student it is a little intimidating to see what we are doing but also very exciting to see what we will be learning!
We said goodbye to our friends Steve and Becky Diem this past Sunday. They are now in Costa Rica for language school for the next year. How happy we are for them that they are there!
That is all for now! short and sweet just wanted to let you know where we were!!

Always Abounding in Joy

What a week we have had, I will start of at the beginning.

July 31, Grandma went home to be with the Lord, at 7:09 am.
July 31, My truck had a major explosion under the hood at 8:55 am, on the way to the dentist. We thought it was the manifold.
August 1, We got up early and started moving things to the "new" house. What did we find in our old house?? hmmm....a dead snake and 4 brand new kittens!! We were almost completely moved by 2 pm Friday afternoon and we even slept in the new house.
August 2, unpacked at the new house
August 3, Church and a BBQ for my nephew who is heading to Afghanistan.
August 4, CLEAN the old house
August 5, close on the old house and shed a lot of tears!!
August 6, Pick up my truck which happened to be just a spark plug the broke and shattered!! took 4 hours to replace. Then head to CT to spend the night for the funeral.
August 7, Funeral then head home in the evening.
August 8 ANNA is 6 :) wake up to severe abdominal pains, spend the day waiting for the pain to go away then finally around 9pm tell Phil I need to head to the ER.
August 9, hooked up to iv antibiotics and the kids head to my cousins surprise 3oth party Jay (my nephew) heads to Afghanistan.
August 10, come home from the hospital and collect all the kids.
August 11, get up bright and early and head to eye doctors appt. for 3 out of 6 kids which turned out to be only 2 of the kids, apparently I can not read my own writing!!! ;)

So, as you can see there have been a few things happening this week, and I only touched on the big things that stick out...there are a lot more that I will not bore you with. But the question is does anyone want a cat?? :)

So, there are a lot of prayer requests in here.
Pray for my family still grieving the loss of Grandma
My nephew Jay Pepper who is in the Air National Guard in Afghanistan
Our settling into our new home, and the people who purchased our house will settle in nicely.
My continued recovery from whatever my infection was from.
and as always our support would continue to come in and we can be heading down to Guatemala quickly.

Bernice "Becky" Knudsen February 11, 1916 - July 31, 2008

This morning my Grandmother went home to be with the Lord. What a glorious day for her!


Her health has been failing for quite a while and we thought that she was not going to make it back in March. She pulled through, then 7 weeks ago she fell and broke her hip. Not a good thing for someone who is 92 years old. She had surgery to pin her hip in place so that she was not in so much pain then went to rehab for a few weeks. She came home July 9 from rehab and was well....being Grandma. :) She started failing quickly in the past week and a half slipped into a coma and we waited and watched all week, praying the Lord would take her home. Everyone was able to say good-bye to her. The kids would go in and visit with her laughing and giggling in her room which she loved to hear. It was also very hard for a few of them to watch her, but a good thing to watch and see how peacefully she died.

We are heading to CT next week for her funeral. Please pray for the family and others that will be there who will be hearing about the Lord, please pray that their hearts will be open to hear what is being shared. Most of my family are believers and it will be a wonderful celebration of her life.

Good-bye Grandma you will be missed! I love you...

Moving along...

I wish that I had some pictures to show you what we have been doing! Phil is at the "new" house right now working on painting it. (it is 10:00 Tuesday night as I am writing this) Greg and Tyler are with him!! (thanks guys!) Things are coming along nicely right now. To say that there is a lot of work to be done on the house is an understatement! It is amazing what a little paint and cleaning can do to a place! We are slowly making it ours though!

We are in the midst of packing up the "old" house too...not a fun job! Trying to figure out what needs to go to Raymond with us. What I need to store away and what we need to get rid of (those are the much bigger piles)!! It has been very emotional for all of us during this process!

Someone asked me yesterday if I will miss this house and do I really love living here. The answers are YES!! I will miss this place I mean who wouldn't? Mom and Dad are right next door. Everything we know is here and close by! So many memories have been made here! Do I really love living here YES!! BUT, I really want to be in Guatemala more than I want to live here!! So many people in Guatemala need to be taught about Lord and Savior. That is so much more important than a house!

A resounding question that is asked of us is "do your kids really want to go to Guatemala?" and the answer to that is YES! this was (and still is) a family decision. Any and all who are of the age to have an opinion shared their thoughts and concerns. They all want to be there. Every night when they pray it is for us to get to Guatemala quickly so that we can help the children learn about God. Very humbling to hear the heart of a 5 year old!

What can you be praying for?
God to burden people for His work in Guatemala.
Ministry partners both prayer and financial.
Smooth transition of selling our house and settling into the new one.
Our upcoming meeting in Nottingham on July 27.
Our witness here in Chester and also in Raymond to our new neighbors.

Thank you for keeping up with what we are doing, and helping us along our way!

God's way not our way!

Just a quick update here about our house. As you read last month we had an offer made on our house, and everything was moving along just fine...until our house appraisal came in. It was a bit lower than what we were asking for um, about 110,000 less than what we were asking for! Are you all as shocked as we were? Well, we were working with that number and trying to see what we could do. When Phil saw a friend who spoke with him about the house, and told Phil that they loved the place and were very interested in it. (this was on Sat. 2 days after the appraisal came in) He shared with Phil that they had been looking for a house in this area with land...He told Phil that they were praying that everything would fall through. We were beginning to be more and more unsettled as time went on with the first buyers. But, having to remember that it is not our house but God's and He will see fit to do with it as He pleases. Well, Tuesday Phil received a call from buyer 2 and said that they were really interested. And to let them know as soon as we know anything from buyer 1. Phil got off the phone with him and called buyer 1 (as was planned to a prior arrangement they made the previous day) He called him and talked with him, and the buyer said, that it was not going to happen! Relief filled our hearts and settled us a bit! But still not sure if buyer 2 was as serious as he was appearing Phil called him to let him know. And as they say...the rest is history! They came over that Friday night and the next Tuesday they were here talking about details and such with us. Mom and Dad will have GREAT neighbors! I am so happy and so at peace with this contract that we have with the new buyers. And what is so amazing is that, not only were we in shock about the contract possibly falling through. We had no idea that God had already lined someone up for this before we could even think what we would do next! How's that for a nut shell? :)

Anna's verse at school that week during all of this was very fitting. Jer 29:11 "For I know that plans I have for you" declares the Lord; "Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".

Thank you for praying for our house sale, we can see how God has answered so many already! keep it up!

we have been busy!

Since our last post we have visited a couple churches. We made some great contacts! Met wonderful people and been so very encouraged!

Our first stop was up in Lisbon NH at Lisbon Bible Church. What a great time we had, we even had some of our friends from our church (who happen to be the Pastor's children) come up and support us there! It is so exciting to see God work in lives of people that are around us when we are sharing our ministry and what brought us to this point in our lives. We definitely were blessed being up there with the Wings! There was a church dinner after service, what great food! Someone was amazed at Claire (3) eating baked beans instead of the chocolate cookies for dessert! I think that by the time I got home Sunday evening I had gained 10 pounds from all the food over the weekend.

Our next stop was at Providence Baptist Church. in Epping NH. We had a great time of fellowship there as well. My sister and her family attend this church. So, we felt right at home there. We were minus one child this week, so they didn't get the full effect of the Wilson clan, one person missing is a big hole!

How humbling to know that these two churches have committed to pray faithfully for our family. Knowing that they are lifting us up in prayer before the Throne of God and go on our behalf is just such an overwhelming feeling!

We are only a small part of the ministry going, we are an extension of the local church heading there. You are as much the ministry if you are supporting us in prayer or financially. We couldn't do it without the local churches!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Joy Eisner today! For those of you who do not know who Joy is, she and her family will be serving at CAG in Guatemala starting this August. This is where our kids will be attending school once we are in Guatemala!! We met at the Burger King that is about half way between our houses. The kids played in the playroom and I sipped my coffee and we chatted and Joy **gasp** doesn't drink coffee...I think she had better start before she moves to Guatemala! that is a staple there! We had a great time visiting and getting to know each other while the kids played. What a great time!

A Beautiful Weekend

Cabot and I had the privilege of going to a Mother Son retreat this weekend in New Durham at Camp Maranatha. I forgot my camera (can you believe it?) We had so much fun just being with each other and learning what the Bible teaches us about making wise decisions. It was such a wonderful time. We had great meals, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. I think the marshmallows were Cabot's lunch that day and not the hot dog! We went to the local fish hatchery WOW!! so many fish and not a single fishing pole. They were mostly rainbow and brook trout a few salmon too. The boys made a cool craft it is a magic broom holder. I will use that in the next house and also make sure it comes to Guatemala with us! :)

We met so many different people from all sorts of places in life. I was very nervous to go there not knowing anyone but the camp owners. It is amazing what you can learn about people when you know nothing and just go in as yourself and listen to others. I could go into great detail about some of the people I met but since they might be reading this I will spare them! :) We really enjoyed ourselves.

So you may be asking WHY is she telling us all of this...well, here you go. My roommate is a missionary home on furlough. A very sweet lady who has two great boys that Cabot just loved. They are missionaries with Wycliff. She was asking about Guatemala and wondering what we are going to be doing there...where we will be living...who we are going with....you know the normal questions. It was great sharing with another missionary what our part of the ministry will be. A few minutes later...she mentioned that she has friends who are going to Guatemala in August. "Wow I said that is great, who are they going with??" she said they are teachers and are heading to the Christian school in the city! AAHHH!!! I had goosebumps, why?? well because that is where the kids will be attending! :) Someone from NH is going to be teaching there!! I gave her our prayer card to give to them so hopefully we will be able to connect sometime before they go. But I thought how wonderful God is in even the small things of having teachers not just from the states but from NH that will be in our children's school so far away from home!

what was my highlight of the weekend? wow...spending quality time with Cabot! What a wonderful time we had!

the verse that was the theme for the weekend was:
Proverbs 4:7
"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom and with all they getting get understanding."

Chester-Raymond-Guatemala...

We put our house back on the market last week after a short break. It came off back in January...is it slow everywhere or just in NH?

On Sunday we had someone stop by (without knowing it was on the market) and they looked at the property and the first floor. I was not home and it was a little messy upstairs! Phil would not allow them to head up the stairs and they were fine with that! :) Well, They loved the house and the land. The next day they called Phil with an offer and came over again to walk through the WHOLE house. We walked the property again. I must say that it is beautiful back in the woods here. I never really walked back there much in the past few years. The kids are always up there riding their 4 wheelers and bikes enjoying the land! Phil has been known to spend sometime in trees up there.
We came back to the house and talked some about it. And they told us that they would be calling us that night to let us know what they wanted to do...well, they are going to purchase the house. What a huge answer to prayer and a step closer to Guatemala. Now it is pack pack pack...and PURGE!! We will be moving into a duplex (and live in both sides) The house is much smaller than what we have ever been in. And with 6 kids and all their stuff, it will be quite a challenge. But a good one!
We are so thankful as always for the prayer on our behalf. God's hand is always at work and it is wonderful to know how He moves!

Some new requests:
Pray for the house to close without complications.
Pray for the kids as we are making a change although not to Guatemala yet, it will be big for them.

changes...

We have made a few changes to our page. Thanks to the help from computer guru Mark Sohmer. We have changed our "support the Wilson's" link so that it brings you right to a support form. I heard from MANY people that it was too confusing all the links they needed to go to and find so we made it easier for you! Ahhh...the age of computers! You can either fill it out here and submit it right here or...you can print it up and send it in to:
AMG International 6815 Shallowford Rd. Chatanooga TN 37421
Either way is acceptable. I thought it would make it easier for all of you who have been asking!! Sorry for all of the confusion!


A quick update:
According to our calculations, between what we have heard from AMG with our receipts and people who have told us it the past week. We are at about 20%!! Yeah! only 80 more to go!

Thank you all who are supporting us both in prayer and also financially! We couldn't do this without your support!

Answers...

Wow, people do read our blog! Here are answers to the questions people have been asking us:

We are at this point planning on going to CIT in the fall. For many different reasons. I could list them all, but I am waiving that option right now! We will head down in the fall, the kids will be able to home school while we are there. That is something that I need to look into more. I think I can keep up with the curriculum that we have decided to use for them. We are more at peace with the decision of going in the fall.

As far as our support, we are still working on that. I had many people ask me in the past week where we are with our support. I know that Phil has as well. People who I don't even know very well are asking us about our support level, it is a good opportunity to tell them about what we are actually going to be doing when we are in Guatemala. Making contacts is always an interesting thing. It seems like we are "spinning our wheels" as Phil says. But we are moving forward. We are learning things here now that God wants us to learn. Things about each other and our family that I think in any other situation we would never know. Trusting in God for all things in every area is such a wonderful thing to be learning.

Some specific prayer requests:
Cabot our son, has been having very bad headaches more and more often and we are taking him to the doctors today. Please pray that the doctor can pinpoint what is giving him these headaches.

My nephew Alex is able to run and jump!! PRAISE!! how exciting to see him only a few months after such an awful accident. they will find out in the next few days when his rods will come out of his legs, which should be sometime next month!

More meetings and contacts. We can't get to Guatemala without support!