Our Spring Update

Greetings Friends!

It has been a long time since our last communication with you all, and lots has happened.

As many of you are aware, our family has come through a couple of very challenging years.  Thanks so much for those of you who prayed for us through this time.  I apologize for not communicating more.  It's sometimes hard to communicate rough times in healthy ways, especially when they involve other people.  But God has been walking with us, sustaining us throughout.  Despite Grace's Chronic Fatigue, we've seen lots of great stuff happen, and are excited about where God has us on many levels.

Our kids are continuing to grow.  Aris and Zane have been participating in Awana this year, doing lots of scripture memory.  Kian started a few weeks ago too. Aris is quite excited about wining first place at the Awana Grand Prix for novelty.

Aris (almost 9) is doing well in grade 3, a very bright young lady.  Learning how to deal with bullying in her class has been challenging at times.  But she continues to grow and learn in the midst of it.  She's currently excited about getting a new pet (snake), assuming she manages to keep her room clean for six months.

Zane (6.5) is full of energy and ideas.  He thoroughly enjoys grade 1 (except for the work!).  He has been quite enjoying getting outside, climbing trees, and trying to build stuff in the woods beside our house.

Kian (4) continues to grow.  He's looking forward to going to school next year like his brother and sister. He even started going to Sunday school on his own recently! He's a smart young man as well, and continues to make us laugh with the interesting things he comes up with.

Grace has been hard at work the last couple years, training to be a Doula (childbirth support person).  She celebrated getting all her certification requirements done in February.  This weekend, she's taking a doula course called "When Survivors Give Birth".  Giving birth often contains triggers for women who've been assaulted. As Grace is hoping to support women in challenging places, this will be very helpful. But it will be looking at emotionally challenging stuff, so not a particularly fun course.  Grace has also continued to build relationships with various women in our neighborhood and school community.  Pray for her in these relationships as well. There are some cool opportunities.  Grace is also working as a youth leader at our church. She's loved by the teens, and has had all sorts of great, deep conversations with them. God is using her in powerful ways there.  She recently returned from a missions trip to Mexico with the church youth.  Lots of exciting stuff there too!  You can read lots more about the Mexico trip, and all sorts of other things in her blog at http://abundantlifewithkids.blogspot.ca/

Steve has been hard at work at International Teams Canada.  He continues to work in the national office, in the Online Services department.  His role involves managing International Teams Canada's various web sites, online giving systems, communication systems, etc.  He's recently been working on building new, and updating existing systems to bring more automation to some of the tasks that happen at the office. Our staff have found this particularly helpful as we continue to grow.  And with more projects waiting for his time, he's sure to be kept busy for a long time!

Thanks so much for your prayer. Please continue to pray:

• Continued healing for Grace and our family after some trying years
• Wisdom for Steve in his work at International Teams
• Continued spiritual growth for our family
• God's continued provision for our family as costs of living rise

Thanks so much!

Steve & Grace