Psalm 37:7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

God promised Abraham he’d father a great nation, but it’s not until 8 chapters later and a lot of trouble in-between (famine, trouble with Egypt, family feud, war, family taken hostage, marital problems, destruction of Sodom and Gomorra) before God fulfills His promise.  

God promised Moses He would use him to free the Israelites but it’s not until 10 plagues later that he sees it happen. God promised the Israelites a land flowing with milk and honey, but it’s not until they go through the wilderness (twice) that they get there, and then they had to trust Him to conquer the land. 

What does He promise us? 

If we are in Him, He will prune us so we will bear more fruit. John 15:2 

If we follow Him, we will be persecuted. Mark 10:29-30

If we wait on Him, He will do it. Psalm 37:5

If we seek Him, we will find Him. Jeremiah 29:13

Pruning, persecution, waiting, – doesn’t sound like a bubble bath to me. Resting in Him sounds all comfy, but really it means trusting He’s in control in the midst of insanity – and not trying to solve it on on my own. We’re promised trials if we follow Him, so why am I surprised when they come? James 1:2-4 Patience, perseverance, peace in turmoil, rest in trouble. 

Finding Him – the only thing that brings security. 

Psalm 37:3-5
Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord.
Trust also in Him, and He will do it. 

Pray for us as we continue to follow God wherever He leads, as we get ready to go. With each situation or new hurdle that arises, it’s easy to default to stressing out – or panic, but, in the end, God knew what was coming and isn’t surprised by any of it. All that’s left to do is abide in the truth of His word (see above) and know that He’s got it (i.e. He’s Omniscient and Sovereign). And what’s more, He will be glorified if we follow Him, despite the path not being what we thought it would be, so we will continue on.

Our prayer continues to be what it was from the start, “We want to do what will glorify You the most – give us the wisdom to know what it is, and the courage to do it.”

– Ruth, for our family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (Or Seasons Greetings! to those who prefer brevity, which I’ve now destroyed with this long add-on sentence.) 

​In the spirit of the year-in-review letters that some people (much more on top of things than I) send out with Christmas cards this time of year, I thought I would give a summary of our journey in missions from start to present. If I dare to presume that I can plan for future Decembers, I hope to write a summary of each subsequent year in the December post providing a way for people to quickly find out who we are and what’s going on in our ministry by reading each December’s post. Stay tuned next December to find out if this plan succeeds for more than one year…!

By way of introduction: I am Ruth, 39 years old and the writer of this blog. I am married to Lance, 37 years old and the leader of this family (and proofreader of the blog). We have 3 boys, Josiah, 8, Micah, 6 and Alex 4 who are loads of fun, have lots of energy and keep us rightfully humble. We are all simultaneously very excited about our next stage in life as foreign missionaries, as well as sad and unsure about leaving our present known life with current friends, church and family.

Lance and I have been married for 13 years and have always shared the same vision of being missionaries. From the start of our marriage, as we tried various ways to get to the mission field, God used each situation to prepare and mature us for the mission field. It wasn’t the path we would’ve chosen, but realize the necessity of each lesson as God equipped us for ministry. 

In March of 2010 God spoke to our hearts telling us He was finally going to send us. Like Abraham, He was going to show us the place He wanted us to go and we were to be ready. Of course we thought in a few months we’d be on the field, which is definitely not what happened! What followed was four and a half years of much prayer, active waiting (working to be ready to go, while waiting on God to make it happen), seeking Him and spiritual growth. 

In 2013 we heard about The Master’s Mission (TMM), an 11-month training program equipping missionaries for the field and took a trip down to check it out. The family-oriented program equips you for work on the mission field through daily Bible classes, men’s and women’s technical classes, and remote living conditions. By May 2014 we realized we needed to make a decision if we were planning on attending TMM’s 2014-2015 school year, so sent out a few letters to people who had expressed interest in knowing about our tentative plans. God provided the support we needed so in July, Lance gave his 2 weeks, we sold our house and at the end of August headed down to North Carolina to attend The Master’s Mission’s program. 

Our September 2014-July 2015 blog posts are about our training year. We lived in a cabin with no electricity, cell, internet or phone service. We took the aforementioned classes, had veterinary classes and excursions, took hours-long tests, wrote reports, drew schematics, poured cement, schooled the boys, lived with mice, mold and maggots, and trusted God to keep our sanity. It was a rough whirlwind of a year that I wouldn’t want to repeat, but am glad to have gone through. We have had character-refining experiences and made life-long friends.

It wasn’t until July that God showed us where He wanted us to go after our training year. Again, after waiting on Him and much prayer, we feel led to go to Romania and Moldova. This past month we were able to take an exploratory trip there, got a feel for what will be necessary to bring, and made great connections with a local church and other missionaries serving the international community there. 

Currently we are back in the Erie, PA area where our sending church is located. We are living in the basement of a church member, which is an ideal setting, as we trying to organize our lives into taking, storing and giving piles. Josiah is in school and I’m homeschooling Micah (and Alex). Once God has provided the means, we will head to Iasi, Romania for a year of culture and language learning as we again wait, pray and watch as God leads us to where He would have us serve there.

Thank you for continually keeping us in your prayers, 
Ruth, for our family.

Happy Thanksgiving! In keeping with the season, we are so thankful that God doesn’t show us what’s going to be happening in our lives too much in advance. This month, as was last, has been a whirlwind. While Lance was at the Missionary Medical Intensive (MMI), the opportunity came up for us to take a trip to Romania. During his training I booked our flights in conjunction with a team from our church, and he was home for about a week after the MMI course before he left for a 13 day trip to Romania. I joined him a week later for the end of the trip, and the boys stayed with Lance’s mom. We returned this past Monday before Thanksgiving. 

The reason for the trip was two-fold: 1.) it gave Lance and I the opportunity to see our future surroundings, meet some people we’ll possibly be partnering with, and better evaluate what needs to be shipped over and what can be acquired there, and 2.) a team of construction workers from our church were able to help with a building project in which Ken and Monica Luse (our future senior missionaries) are involved. A church there has offered to let the Luses live in some empty rooms behind their sanctuary in exchange for remodeling it into a livable apartment. It’s a huge job and the team was glad to be able to serve them. 

Lance, along with his dad, went a few days before the men and helped with the work as well as saw some of Iasi, the city where we’ll be living. The team of 4 men from our church arrived Sunday and worked all week, leaving Saturday. I came mid-week and we (Lance, his dad and I) left Sunday evening. It was a whirlwind of a trip but priceless from the meetings we had and what we learned by just being there. We were able to make some important decisions about what to bring and not to bring and the best way to get it there. We were also able to meet with two couples we hope to work with in the future and who will be an invaluable help as we get settled into Romanian life and culture.

Thank you for your continued prayers for us and this ministry, 
Ruth, for our family.

The box piles that need sorted haven’t diminished in the least, but a million other things are happening! It’s great to be back at our home church and involved in our ministries there again. Lance works at church once a week and thoroughly enjoys everything he’s learning during the pastors’ meetings he attends and the interaction he has with everyone on staff. I’m involved with a women’s community group and am learning from and assisting our children’s area coordinator as I have time. The boys are settling in as much as they can, knowing that this is temporary and someday called April (whenever that is, next week?) we’ll move to somewhere called Romania (wherever that is, is it close to the cousins?). We continue on as you all do, trying to find the right balance between work and home, kids and busyness in a whirlwind called life, trying to not be distracted from what really matters and striving to not strive, but to let Him live through us. 

​In my women’s class during our missionary training year at The Master’s Mission (TMM), I learned about a two-week medical course for missionaries through Equip International. As medical training wasn’t a part of our TMM year, we were very interested in taking the course. We knew we wouldn’t be able to take it together, since it’s too intensive to bring along kids, but weren’t sure what to do since two of the sessions, out of the three more times it was going to be offered before we leave for Romania, were already full. So, we did what our pastor off-handedly commented we should do, “Well, we’ll just pray about it and see what happens.” Two days before the October training started we got a call saying there was a cancellation and they asked if one of us would be interested in coming. So, two days later Lance drove 9 hours to take a medical missions training course for two weeks. Sometimes, it’s nice to not know what’s coming next, because there’s no way a two week course on anything fits into our lives right now!

Here is a description of the Missionary Medical Intensive (MMI) course he’s taking, from their website:
Lectures, which are presented by various instructors with experience in the developing world medicine, include Patient Evaluation, Logic of Diagnoses, Infectious Diseases, Common Diseases, Lacerations and Midwifery.

Labs will give hands-on experience in physical examination, suturing lacerations, injections, calculating dosages and rehydration fluids, stomach tubes, splinting, bandaging, improvisation, sterilizing and developing personal medical kits. MMI could literally be a lifesaver. 

MMI is an intense two-weeks of lectures, labs, homework and Christian fellowship.

​This was the strangest text I got from him while he was at training, (to let me know he couldn’t text anymore): “Alright – I’m putting gloves back on. Suturing a banana and pigs foot…” Indeed.

– Ruth, for our family.

When do you go to the mission field? Do you go when your children are young and not yet as independent as would be convenient? Do you go when they’re older and are making strong friendships? Do you go when they’re teens and struggling with so many other changes?

How about family? When is a good time to leave them? What about when a cherished Uncle is diagnosed with cancer? Or your precious sister, who’s been serving in another country for over two years, is soon to come home? Or when your nieces and nephews are young, so you’ll miss them growing up, or even miss meeting ones yet to come?

​There is no good time to go to the mission field. There is only the time that God tells you to go, or to do whatever it is He’s calling you to do. That’s the only time to do it.

Last month we graduated from The Master’s Mission (TMM) missionary training program and are now in the strange new world of “outfitting.” It’s pretty much just more training in new areas (although some are the same – bugs in my dry goods, spiders in my bathroom and a snake trying to hide under my foot.)  From descriptions I’ve heard of furlough, we’re also about as busy and crazy as that too, with meetings and travel and logistics, only without the culture shock. (Although I’d contend we’ve had a slight bit of that too – but that’s another story). At least the language is still the same – though missing its Southern charm.

​We are living in the basement of a fellow church member, which is a huge blessing for many reasons. When we first drove up the driveway, Josiah exclaimed, “It looks like The Master’s Mission only all together in a smaller space!” And indeed it does, after a dirt road, we came around a bend in the long driveway to see a pond with a dock, a trampoline and 4-wheeler paths – some of the boys’ favorite things on the mountain – with the house on a hill in the background. They were all familiar sights in a way, with the blessing of making it feel like home, though everything was new. Praise God for unlooked for blessings!

One of the benefits of living in a basement is that we have a large enough space to have all of our belongings and boxes in one place to be organized and then repacked, either for long-term storage or to be shipped to Romania. Right now we’re still working on organizing everything we brought home from the mountain. It’s slow work, with lots of decisions, but the small headway we make daily will hopefully add up over time

Along with the belongings and logistics tasks, Lance is doing an internship at our church for six months. He will be working with each of our pastors in their areas of oversight: church body, outreach, families and youth among other things. This will gain him valuable experience and mentorship before starting ministry oversees. 

The boys continue to adjust to our new normal. Josiah is in a classroom for 3rd Grade with his grandma as his teacher. I’m homeschooling Micah for Kindergarten/First Grade (we’re not quite sure where we are) and Alex continues to gradually adjust to this being home now. We’ve made bedrooms by hanging tarps in the back of the basement and, with a few carpets and a couch for delineation, have a living room area and a play area for the boys.

We still have April as our target date for leaving and trust God will help us be ready in time both logistically and financially. For now we’re enjoying our mini Master’s Mission, and Alex’s still-strong Southern accent.

​- Ruth, for our family.

Brazil, Guatemala, Kenya, Ecuador, Israel, China – depending on who you are and when you’ve talked with us in the past few years, you could’ve heard us talk about any one of these countries as a possible destination for our ministry and sometimes even our interest in going there. While both of us have wanted to be missionaries even before we were married, the call to “where” was never laid on our hearts. With a passion to go, as we’ve heard about so many ministries in need of more workers, it wasn’t hard for our interests to get pulled in many directions. It’s comforting to know that we’re in good company. 

Acts 16:6-10 “They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

God has finally shown us where He wants us to start serving. We will be joining a ministry in Romania with work in bordering Moldova. Wait, what? That wasn’t even on the list!? Yeah, you’re telling me! In the midst of praying about joining ministries in 3 other countries, God brought Romania/Moldova to our hearts and we can’t get away from it. When we heard the Luses speak about where God was taking them in their ministry, while they were visiting TMM, we were burdened to pray God would send workers to help them. Pretty soon we realized that our prayers had turned from “God send workers to Romania.” to “God send us to Romania!” With that we started to pray about what He would have us do and from there He began to make it clear that this is where He was leading us. So, about 2 weeks before the end of the training year, we finally had an answer to the question, “So where are you going?” 

Even now it’s rather surreal as we’ve never even looked at this area of the world as our possible mission destination before, but our excitement to join the work there grows daily. The ministries that specifically grab our hearts are the new believers begging for someone to come and teach them the Word so they can go back to their congregations and teach it to them, the orphans needing care, and the children caught in the slave trafficking market. Our hearts cry out to God to be used to serve in these areas.

– Ruth, for our family. 

Unbelievably we are in the last month of our missionary training at The Master’s Mission (TMM). The time has flown and we are finishing up our last assignments and classes. The year has been a rollercoaster of emotions and hard work and these last few weeks are no different. We’re excited to move forward towards the mission field and to be home for a season with our family and church family; we are so sad to leave the friends we’ve made here and this unique environment. (The mice and mold will not be missed.)

So, what’s next? As TMM graduates, we qualify to apply to their board to be sent through them as TMM missionaries, which is our plan. We have been told we have the staff’s recommendation and so are likely to get a positive vote from the board as well. We are also in communication with our pastor/elders, and the missionaries we are interested in working with, and are hoping have more details to share with you next month about the specifics of the ministry we’ll join. If we go to the field as TMM missionaries, our first term is 4-years with a one-year furlough assignment at the end. After that we can do 2-year terms, with 5-6 month furlough assignments.

Meanwhile, it is easy to be overwhelmed with the next tasks before us, if we forget that everything is in God’s hands and we can rely on Him for strength for each day’s work. After graduation we’ll start the “outfitting” stage. This means preparing all the things that need done before leaving for a 4-year term on the field and waiting for God to bring in the financial support we’ll need before we can go. Here’s a short list of some of the work in front of us: Go through all our belongings, sorting what we will store, take or give away; Acquiring supplies needed for a 4 year term; Itemized inventory of storage for future use; Itemized inventory with monetary value of what we’re taking for customs and insurance purposes; Get all paperwork in order, from personal (wills, POA’s, visas, other country requirements) to shipping (export declaration, bill of lading, pro forma invoices, letters of donation, packing lists, import permits/licenses, insurance – I don’t even know what some of that means!); Build and pack wooden crates for shipping, Pack crates into shipping container. Whew!

Once we accomplish these tasks and have the funds needed to get us there and support us on the field, we will be headed out. We’ve been told, on average, it takes a minimum of 18 months to get all these things in order. We’re hoping to get through them much sooner and mentally have an approximate goal of 6-9 months, possibly somewhere around April. Obviously, how fast we get there is up to God, that’s just our hope. (A lot of it will depend on whether Lance will need to work while we’re preparing to go, which will determine how much time we have to focus on these jobs. My brain was definitely not designed to figure out all that shipping stuff as quickly as Lance could figure it out!) We know that God will provide as will glorify Him the most, so we’re waiting to see how it will play out and we’ll let you know when we do! If nothing else, we are so excited to finally be getting ready to go! 

Thank you for all your continued prayers as we prepare to go and move ever closer to the mission field,

– Ruth, for our family.

Psalm 138
1 I will give You thanks with all my heart;
I will sing praises to You before the gods.
2 I will bow down toward Your holy temple
And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.
3 On the day I called, You answered me;
You made me bold with strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O Lord,
When they have heard the words of Your mouth.
5 And they will sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
6 For though the Lord is exalted,
Yet He regards the lowly,
But the haughty He knows from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
8 The Lord will accomplish what concerns me;
Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

Mountain Laurel or “shell flowers” as the boys called them, cover the mountain.

If you’re thinking about coming to The Master’s Mission (TMM) for training, you may wonder if it’s all work and no play. Their adage is, “Work hard, play hard.” The following is a short list of some of the fun (and crazy!) things we’ve done this year.

Our graduation is August 1, and then we’ll be home to start outfitting for the field. Please continue to pray for us as we pursue where God would have us go at the end our our training. 
We hope you’re having fun this summer!

-Ruth, for our family

We have great news! Micah had another blood test and the results were great! The Dr. said if he was seriously ill there’s no way he would’ve bounced back that high nor that quickly. He continues to be on a limited diet and is still taking supplements, but it looks like in a few months or less everything will be resolved. 

We also found a vehicle to purchase. It was a little tricky trying to work out the details of buying a car out of state without going back to PA, but we’re figuring it out and are glad to have reliable transportation again.

Lance recently finished a welding competition – his team won, reportedly from Lance’s sound engineering principles, not so much the teams welding skills… I recently had to come up with a recipe to cook in a cast iron skillet over 3 rocks – I wasn’t nearly as successful as I hoped, but learned a lot of good principles in the process. We had goat meat for supper the other night from the goats we slaughtered and dissected in one of our vet classes. Such is life on the mountain – never very typical, often challenging, always interesting.

One of my assignments this year was to use a wringer washer for a month. After Micah got his hand caught in the rollers, I made feeding the clothes into the wringer permanently my job and the boys helped by throwing the clothes into the agitating water (so much fun, as you can imagine) and pulling them out the other side of the rollers into the rinse water. They usually ended up as wet as the clothes we were washing, but we enjoyed working together.

Currently in my women’s class we’re discussing the multiple, dizzying aspects of getting ready to go to the field. From questions to ask a potential mission board to how to know what to pack for where you’re going, it’s all very practical, good to know and I would be much more overwhelmed if there wasn’t such good information given in class and our notebook. 

Lance is done with his mechanics course and on to building construction. At the end of the term his final project is to draft plans for his first home on the field, including the electrical, plumbing and any other systems that go into a building. (Obviously I haven’t taken the course.) Right now he’s designing and drafting the wooden shipping crates that we might actually build and use, depending on which country we go to.

The time Lance took to construct our greenhouse last fall is bearing fruit, literally, as we have already been harvesting lettuce in it all month. We set up a wonderful hydroponics system from Mighty Fine Gardens that is easy to use and working well. The boys love to see how everything is growing from our living room window. 

The boys continue to enjoy life on the mountain: there are millions of tadpoles in the lake to watch, a multitude of visitors from relatives to veterinarians to missionaries home on furlough and with the warm weather, many adventures to find. In-between classes, Alex and Micah are usually on a quest to find mud to play in. During classes, Josiah loves to listen in and learn all he can. He’s even quizzed us afterwards to see if we were paying attention. Recently they helped me fill a tire full of dirt in which to grow potatoes and then we searched for worms to add; we have lots of fun.

Thank you for your continued prayer support,
Ruth, for our family.