We trust
your summer is going well. There have a
few changes for our family since our last blog post, and we have outlined these
below. Thanks for your continued support
of our family and interest in our ministries and adoption process.
Ministry
Updates:
Joey has
wrapped up his first school year at Cairn University. He continues to enjoy his ministry to college
students and the opportunity to teach future teachers. This summer has been fairly light, as he is
only teaching one course, which happens to be taught online. He is also preparing for his courses that he
will teach this fall. He will have a
heavy teaching schedule and will continue to supervise student teachers.
Would
you pray for his continued ministry to students and that God would continue to
provide for the needs of Cairn University?
Sarah
continues to teach for NorthStar Academy, the online school of the Network of
International Christian Schools (NICS).
She teaches middle school and high school physical education and
health. The school continues to have
around 700 students from over 70 countries.
It continues to be amazing that we are able to have such global impact
on students through the avenue of online education. The school did struggle with enrollment in
the 12-13 school year, and Joey was forced to take a significant pay cut and some teachers had to be laid off. Thankfully Sarah was not affected by these
cuts and layoffs, and she will continue to teach the same courses in the 13-14
school year.
Would
you pray that NorthStar’s enrollment would increase?
Joey’s
role has recently changed at NorthStar. He has been serving as the
school’s academic principal and teaching some courses for the past few years,
and because NorthStar is online, he could fulfill this role anywhere. However,
because of the enrollment challenges and financial cuts that were made, a
difficult decision was made to transition Joey's role back to
strictly teaching with NorthStar. The positive impact through all of this
is that Joey will have direct contact and ministry opportunities with a much
broader base of students. While this involves a financial setback, the
direct ministry impact with the students is exciting and reminds us of the
initial draw God put on Joey's heart when he first started with NICS over twelve
years ago. We are trusting God to
provide for the school and for our family. This change has placed further
strain on our finances, as the salary difference of being a principal to being
a part-time teacher is decrease of around 70%. An increase in enrollment at NorthStar will help this situation. He will teach some high school world history courses in 13-14.
Would you pray for Joey as he makes this
role adjustment?
God
continues to allow us to get to know others better and be involved in our
church, Bible Fellowship in Yardley. It
appears that we will be co-leading a small group with another family this fall,
Sarah may have opportunity to increase her role with some ministries, and we
will be involved with Awana. We are so
grateful to be a part of a great church.
Adoption
Updates:
We are
now in month #18 of our adoption process with The Good Shepherd’s Fold. All of our required paperwork has been
completed, though depending on the timing of things in the future, it may need
revised again. We continue to prefer a
girl under age 5 (Zoe continues to tell us, “I want a sister.”), but for the
past few months there have not been many girls in the orphanage who are
eligible for adoption. Back in April/May
it appeared that we might receive a referral soon and head to Uganda sometime
during the summer. However, all doors
abruptly shut on child possibilities back in May, leaving us discouraged, but
we continue to trust that God will bring the right child(ren) for our family.
We are
at 78% of our estimated $15,000- needed to adopt one child. As a friend from Mississippi who is also in
the adoption process said earlier this week, with more delays and waiting, this
allows for more opportunity and time to see God meet our financial needs. Most likely it will be another month
(mid-August) until we know anything further on the adoption front.
Family
Updates:
Zoe,
Micah, and Caleb are enjoying their summer break. We created a “summer bucket list” together,
and we are making good progress working through the items on it – such as our
first camping trip, going swimming at a pool in our neighborhood, play dates
with friends, vacation Bible schools, and a day trip to the beach (which is
only an hour from our house). Joey’s
parents were able to be with us from Korea in July, and we had a great time
with them. We were able to go to NYC for
a couple days with them. The boys
continue to love riding bikes and building legos, and Zoe continues to read a
lot and play with her rainbow loom. Of
course it cannot be all fun and games for summer break, as our kids’ parents
and grandparents on both sides are involved in education and know the value of
not taking a total break from learning over the summer. :)
School
starts up again around the last week of August.
Zoe will be in second grade at the local public school (only two blocks
from our house). Micah will be starting
Kindergarten (he will go to a Christian school in the AM, and the same public
school as Zoe in the PM). He continues
to receive speech therapy, and we ask that you pray that he continues to make good progress
toward his IEP goals when he starts school.
Caleb will be in preschool at the same Christian school as Micah in the
AM. Sarah will be busy for sure with
school drop-offs and pick-ups.
Prayer
Requests:
- Would you pray that God will meet our needs, not only for our adoption process, but also for our regular living expenses? As mentioned above, the past few months have been difficult, and the upcoming months appear to be tough too. If you are interested in contributing to our family and ministries, see the information on the right hand side of our blog page. Any one-time and/or monthly gifts would be greatly appreciated.
- Would you pray that we would receive a referral for a child or sibling group in the near future?
- Would you pray that God would continue to lead us to His choice of ministry opportunities for our family to be involved?
- Would you pray that our children would have a great start to the 13-14 school year? Pray especially for Micah that he will have a great year in Kindergarten.
Thanks
again for reading this post and for your prayers/support for our family!
Blessings,
Joey, Sarah, Zoe, Micah, & Caleb
