Parenting

Parents of ISIS are strategically training their children in terror, hate, and fanaticism, as this video demonstrates. Parents of the Arab church must strategically train their children in the gospel, suffering, and unconditional love if the Great Commission is going to be fulfilled in the Arab world.

Parents, I need your help. In preparation for parenting ministry among Arab Christian parents, I need to gain experience. Would you help me by filling out this confidential parenting self-assessment and then meeting with me once for about an hour to talk about it? For those of you living far from us, phone is good, but video chat is better :-) Do you know other families that might benefit from this ministry? I need to meet with dozens of American families in English before I try to meet with Jordanian families in Arabic.

Having 8 kids doesn't mean that my wife and I know it all. It means that we've tried it all... and failed often! But all of us learn from our failures, don't we? None of us are perfect parents, but God uses each of us to sharpen and encourage one another, primarily within the context of the local church. Ever wonder why there are only two verses in the entire New Testament that speak directly to parenting? Perhaps it is because the answers to our parenting challenges are found primarily in the gospel, and how we apply the gospel to our parenting. Please pray for these conversations that I will have with parents over the next few months.

Summer Haps

We feel led by God to continue moving forward with our long-term move back to Jordan, probably sometime in early fall. More about that here.

Over the summer, I am practicing Arabic using online resources and working on some counseling certification that I will mention in the next e-newsletter. My wife is spending a lot of time with the 4 youngest kids, including an hour a day of homeschooling. One of her favorite things to do is gathering the little kids to read to them. Kendra had the opportunity to photo shoot her first wedding by herself and has a few more coming up. She will also be working at a Christian camp in New York for a month. Samuel is working on a farm in the mornings, then spending much of the afternoon working out at the local activity center. Anna is life guarding at the same activity center, babysitting, and working with horses at a local barn. Max has several jobs around town cleaning, mowing, painting, and selling his chicken eggs. Heidi has been getting some much-needed eye therapy. Petra, Henry, and Nehemiah have been swimming, making forts in the woods, jumping on the trampoline, and sleeping well at night.

We calculated that we have 45 different one-on-one relationships under our roof! You don't have to pray for each of those combinations :-) but would you pray for our relationships with each other? It can be stressful preparing to move overseas.

Financial report for April and May.

Moving Back

"Insha allah" is an Arabic phrase that means "if God wills". Our family is making long term plans to return to the Middle East sometime in the fall to promote biblical parenting among Arab Christian families. We want to take it slow, giving God time to confirm that this brings Him the most glory, and therefore is best for our family. You can read about it here.

Please ask God....
to clearly show us if our family returning to the Middle East does not bring Him the most glory.
to show us if the fall of this year is His best timing for this move.
to prepare mutually sharpening relationships for us with other families in the Middle East.

Financial report here.