• God placed a passion and a desire in our children’s hearts to help out an orphanage in the Dominican Republic after our exploratory trip (Read more in Nathaniel’s journal here). The children decided to name their fundraising campaign “Cribs for Orphans”. It has been very heartwarming to watch God work in a mighty way in the hearts of our children as well as others. To date God has provided over $1400, enough for the orphanage to purchase fives cribs! Their goal was to raise enough money for four cribs. To top it off, upon hearing our children's story one wonderful lady offered to make light weight quilts for the orphanage! Each quilt is tagged with a Jesus Loves Me tag too! The children can't wait to be able to deliver the quilts to the orphanage! 

 • God blessed us in an amazing way with the sale of our house in Ohio! It sold within a week of being on the market in April. We spent the month of May packing up our house and figuring out where we would live beginning June 1 until we are commissioned..We praise God for the quick sale of our house in Ohio, for the provision of a “new” to us house in Ridgway, PA and for all the help He has provided at just the right moments. Currently we are living with Peter's parents until we can get all of the necessary repairs completed without all of our belongings in the way. With the profit from our house that we give God credit for, we were able to pay cash for a house in Ridgway, PA and will be able to for all the repairs it will need. This will allow us to create a home base in the US while we are working in the Dominican Republic and not have a mortgage. If you ask Elianna, our youngest, where we live she will tell you: “We live in the white house but not the White House that President Obama lives in'. 

• Peter was blessed with a week long visit to Kansas to share about our calling to the mission field. He had a great time and was blessed with time to visit with a couple good college friends! 

• We spent a week in The Finger Lakes Region of NY and were blessed with eleven events to share about the work God is calling us to do in the Dominican Republic and Cuba. That same week I, Sarah, went to the Ohio - American Baptist Women Ministries 80th Conference in Columbus, Ohio where I was the feature missionary speaker. There I shared our calling, led a workshop about the importance of supporting your pastor and his or her family, and talked with the AB Girls about what life will look like for our children on the mission field and what missions is. I was blessed to have been able to spend this time with some very passionate mission-minded women. 

• Nathaniel, Samuel, and Elisabeth spent a week at Camp Koinonia! They love spending the week at summer camp. Elianna was disappointed she wasn't able to attend camp but she enjoyed a week of having Mom and Dad all to herself! She donated eleven inches of her beautiful blonde hair. Please remember to pray for these four beautiful treasures! 

• We are currently at 33.9% of our needed on going monthly financial support. Our hope is to see our ministry fully funded by December so that we may go to language school in Costa Rica in January 2015. Will you help us get to 100% by December? In order to reach this goal we need to see our percentage jump by about 12% each month. If you are planning to financially support our ministry now is the best time to start! We are in need of ongoing monthly support (any amount makes a big difference whether it is $10 or $200 a month) and one time gifts. Please prayerfully consider financially supporting the ministry God is calling us to. Simply click on the 'give' button at the top of this page to help underwrite the ministry God is calling us to. 

 Looking forward 

• Next week we will be spending a week at Green Lake for an all-staff retreat. We are looking forward to connecting and reconnecting with other missionaries and the IM staff. 

• The following week we will also be spending at Green Lake for The World Mission Conference! This is really exciting because we will be celebrating 200 years of mission work with many others from around the world. 

• The last week of July will be spent traveling through Nebraska visiting with various churches and sharing our calling to the mission field. 

• Then in August, we will be in Colorado at MTI (Mission Training International) for language acquisition skills and cross cultural sensitivity training. We are really looking forward to learning and growing closer as a family this summer

I would like to close with a verse that has always brought comfort and encouragement to my spirit: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:28-31(NIV) Our life has been full the past eight weeks and they will continue to be full (meaning busier than we are used to) but our hope is in The Lord and we rely on Him to give us the strength necessary to complete the tasks that lay ahead of us. We are all susceptible to trying to do things out of our own strength and our own way. But, when we fully rely on God for our strength and His guidance it is truly amazing what God can do for us and through us. May your hope and strength be in The Lord and may He renew your strength, may you not grow weary, and may you soar like an eagle strengthened by The Lord.