Still seek Him

Minding our own business

People in France are lonely and lost.

"For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but to save

the world through him." John 3:17

Thanksgiving!

Beautiful Oregon

We are so blessed to be housesitting a beautiful home on 3 acres on the edge of Salem. Here we are in the backyard in front of the stairs leading to the fruit trees.

Amazing

We are so blessed with beautiful people in our lives! Thank you all for a wonderful time in Appleton!

Fall Fun

We all had fun going to the Fall Festival!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

We celebrated our son's 4th birthday yesterday! He had a great time with a good friend & with family! We have enjoyed having family around for the birthdays this fall.

Autumn

Appleton, Wisconsin November 7th-13th

Here is our tentative schedule:

November 7th (Wednesday) - Fly into Milwaukie

November 8th (Thursday) - "Missions Cafe" Matt & Susan sharing at Pilgrims Cafe from 6:30PM to 8:00PM

November 9th (Friday) - visiting friends throughout the day

November 10th (Saturday) - visiting friends & "Sundaes on Saturday" at 6PM and Steve Bailey speaking

November 11th (Sunday) - Main Services and "Taste of Missions" 8:30AM to 7:30PM

November 12th (Monday) - Staff missions lunch @ 12PM

November 13th (Tuesday) - Fly back to Oregon

Also, you can check out the entire conference online:
http://www.appletonalliance.org/3MissionsConference.htm

or just the schedule:

http://www.appletonalliance.org/PDF/MissionsSchedule.pdf

We are Coming to Appleton, Wisconsin!

Francais

Tonight was our first class learning French. We figur' while we are here in Oregon to see family and gather a team for support we should be learning French! We really like the teacher and it is nice to have an eve without kids. Love um- but Love my wife too.

Please pray for us!

• Our laptop computer is broken & done with. We are asking God to supply a new one. Right now we are using the people that are allowing us to stay in their home.


• Praise God for the house we get to live in


• Praise God for the jobs that Matt has been able to do for the last 2 months

Hanging Out In Oregon

We are still in Oregon, waiting. Spending time with family. It is great to be around here and celebrate weddings & birthdays.

Roadblocks, Detours, Delays

Last night as I was driving my kids & I back 'home' (Salem for today) at 10 pm, we ran into construction. Part of the road was blocked. We sat in a line for 20 minutes waiting for a lead car to forge the way through the construction zone at an amazingly slow rate of speed for about 12 miles. I had planned on being home by a certain time but was obviously delayed. We all want to hear what is going to happen next in life. I have been asked many times, "What does the next 5 years of your life look like?" I have decided that only those in control of their own lives have the luxury of answering that kind of question with certainty. We are not in control of our lives. People ask us, "When are you going to move to France?" What I want to say is, "If God lets you in on it, please tell us, because so far he has kept it a secret."

That is our life. One detour or roadblock after another. I sometimes wonder if it has anything to do with something we have done wrong or missed doing altogether. God has never given me an answer to that. I have come to the conclusion that our life will continue to be like this indefinitely. Sometimes I envy people who have a home, a regular job, and a life which is predictable. Then I remember that is not what I signed up for, nor what I asked for. When I decided that I was no longer going to straddle the fence of Christianity that I was really going to live completely for Christ - I specifically asked God if he could make sure my life was an adventure, not mundane. I don't like to sit still and I love to have fun. Well, that is what life has been for the past 13 years. One adventure after another. It has been fun, scary, humbling, painful, and exciting. I think I am ready though to settle a bit. I keep asking God if that would be ok with him . . .

Great-Grandpa's House

We have been enjoying ourselves here in beautiful Oregon country. Grandpa (Great-Grandpa to the kids) has 12 acres at the end of a gravel road on top of a hill in front of a pioneer cemetery. Grandpa has lived here in the same home for 60 years. Wild blackberries grow everywhere and the only sound you hear at night is the sound of the wind blowing through the pines or the occasional sheep. It is the most peaceful place on earth.

Here are the kids picking berries at the smaller berry bushes (I do the taller ones on a step stool). We picked 30 cups in 2 hours.

Oregon Coast

We had such a fun time at the coast with Nana & Papa last week. We went to Depoe Bay and saw a whale right at the edge of the rocky shore! It was amazing!

Cakes

Here are the latest cakes I worked on this weekend. I keep playing around and having fun doing it. There are a couple of things I would do differently next time, but overall I was happy with the way they turned out.

Something Beautiful

Society has a confused idea what love looks like but God's love is pure and true!

Our girls with the help of Newsboys show us that God's love is beautiful!

Thanks girls! Peace Daddy

French Language

Did you know that French is spoken daily in 54 countries (Source: The Ethnologue, 2004) mainly in Europe, West Africa and Canada and including the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, Pacific Islands and the Caribbean Area. Wow!

Update: We are looking into a language school in Albertville, France. http://www.cef-france.org/index.html It is less expensive and it is a well known, good school! We are praying that January will be the month that we can start our language school. The school goes from January till December of 2008. Please pray that our funds come in, pray that the visa (Sept. 5th) appointments are completed, and that there is housing available.

Hurdles. Whas up God?

Sometimes life seems too chaotic to handle. We continue to try in our own strength and own finite strategies to make things work until we get to that point of saying "Uncle," "I give up."

We had a chaotic day yeterday and went to bed feeling defeated. We then woke up hoping for a better outlook when again we ran into distractions and hurdles that we couldn't get over in our efforts. So, we prayed and asked God to bind the enemy in Jesus Name.

Do you know what happens when you sincerely pray and ask God to intervene. After we prayed the hurdles that were in our way were destroyed and removed with in minutes. Thank you Jesus.

Ok......God made this? He is so cool!

Twin Falls, Idaho July 19th 2007

Learning to trust God (Philipians 3:12-14)

We had such a wonderful time visiting everybody in the Midwest and along the way. We are back in the Pacific Northwest for a short time. Our financial support is moving forward but we are only about 25% funded to move to France. September 4th or January 7th are the dates when French school starts in Massy, France for Susan and I. The earliest available appointments we have for all five of our visas is on September 5th in San Francisco and the housing in Massy is full for the September 4th date. So.....Here we are in Oregon, trusting God, believing that France is where He wants us and that it is time to go. So we press on! We continue to raise support and gather up people like you to join our team of prayer and financial support in order for us to go. Thank You for those of you who have stepped up to pray for us and provide for the Father's work to be done. Please also pray for our girls schooling situation and wisdom to know how to start their education for the new school year. God is good....All the time....God is good.

Peace, Matt

Set of wings

Wisconsin

God is good...all the time...God is good

Because of the delays in our tour, we got to spend the 4th with family. There is a really nice park between Salem & Portland that we hung out and ate lots of good food and played lawn ball. It was very relaxing.
Since then we have traveled through 7 states and put close to 2k miles on our van. We stopped finally in Kansas City and saw Jim & Amy with their handsome new son: Hudson Creed and we had lunch with Lauren and her fiancee Jason. So fun!
Now we are in Illinois seeing our friends Ryan and Michelle. It is so neat to have this opportunity to see dear friends & family. This picture is at the park in Oregon with our sweet niece Isabella. Emily is very nurturing. More to come......God is good....all the time...God is good!

Oregon

We are in Oregon. Our home state! We had planned to be in Wisconsin by now, but some car troubles (and God probably had his hand in it =) have delayed that leg of our trip. The car needed a new battery and we have run into a few glitches in getting our car registered here.

We plan to leave for the Midwest on July 5th and arrive in Wisconsin by the 11th! We are excited about seeing more friends!

We have had such a good time seeing friends we have not seen for so long. We have seen friends & family in LA, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Woodland, Redding and now here in Salem.

Please pray for our communication with everyone. It has been one brick wall after another. Problems with the internet, computers, email providers, etc. We have wanted to keep in better touch and every step we take we hit a wall. Thanks for your prayers in this little annoyance.

Check out our flicker images- we uploaded many photos from our roadtrip thus far.

Da Cousins

Having fun with the
cousins in San Pedro!
We were able to stop
for a couple of days
and hang out.
It was a lot of fun.