A Weekend of Change

Sunday night at Bible study we got some quite shocking news… Steve Chase’s father has terminal lung/liver cancer, and so they’re planning on not finishing the year here so they can be with him. They were going to move back to the States after this summer, but now they’ll be going back at Christmas and staying. All this came out in a span of 3 days, so it’s been an emotional roller coaster for them and all of us. They were planning on moving to Marion and working at New Horizons there, but now they’ll be going to Ohio to be with Steve’s mom. Even further complicating travel is that Erin is pregnant with their 2^nd child and will be due late next Spring. All this is even harder on Steve because his dad does not know Jesus. Please be praying both for his dad and the Chase family.

Aside from missing our friends when they leave and grieving with them, the Chases’ early departure has some major influences on us. Since we were planning on staying for the summer, we will now be helping to host the teams that will come down from the States to help us build a new building for the school. That means we’ll be arranging their lodging, meals, transportation on the island, etc. It will certainly be new ground for us and will be testing the limits of our Spanish, but we both feel peace and excitement (along with some anxiety) about it. Since we’ll be here helping and may not have jobs, our financial needs will be greater in the upcoming months. Please pray that God will provide. On a similar note, we will be buying some things from the Chases when they leave because it’s the cheapest way we’ll get them. The big things will be their inverter and batteries (for when the power goes out) and their mountain bikes, along with a few items planning for the not too near future of us having a baby here (REPEAT, NOT TOO NEAR FUTURE). We were planning on buying an inverter this Spring and their used one will be much cheaper and more powerful than buying a new one. Similarly, the cheapest new mountain bikes we’ve seen here are 3x as much as they’re selling their better ones for (and they're selling theirs for very inexpensive).

With the Chases leaving, there are also a myriad of other possible changes involving where certain friends will live and uncertainty in that. So, yeah, please be praying for us as well that we would be supportive of our friends and open to God’s voice and guidance.

P.S. We are in dire need of a 5th grade teacher for next semester. If you are interested or know anyone who may be interested, PLEASE let us know!