It's A Boy!

On Tuesday, I went for my 20 week scan (can you believe I am already halfway through the pregnancy?). Sean and I had been anticipating this visit so we could find out if we were having a boy or a girl. Well, the nurses confirmed that Hudson Carter Stepleton will be the first addition to our growing family! It was such a joyous visit. We loved seeing our son on the ultra sound screen – and boy did he put on a show! We saw him turn and hide from the scan, he put his hands up by his face, he stretched his legs, he waved his hands, and he even opened his mouth wide! At one point, the nurse had frozen the screen on a picture of his face. Sean couldn’t believe the detail we could already see on our sons face – including the fact that he has mom’s cheeks! In addition to seeing our son, we were blessed to find out that all is healthy and well and he is developing just fine. As Sean and I left the hospital, we were grinning ear to ear. Each step of this pregnancy seems to add more and more joy to our lives – we can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like when we are actually face to face with our precious Hudson. Thank you for all of your prayers and encouraging emails as we have been celebrating the news of our baby! You have all been so supportive.

[P!] Please continue to pray for health for Hudson and grace for mom as I deal with the aches and pains of being pregnant.


:: MORE LESSONS THROUGH PREGNANCY
As we mentioned in our previous update, we have been lovingly referring to our baby as Peanut. But now that we know that Peanut is a boy, we are thrilled to call our son Hudson. We have had this name picked out for about 3 years! When you first start trying to have a family, picking out baby names can be so much fun (so is the trying of course!). One day I remember asking Sean what he thought of Hudson Carter – Hudson after a great English missionary to China and Carter as Sean’s mom’s maiden name. He thought about it and he said he really liked it. So since then, we would refer to our future child as Hudson. So when we found out we were having a boy, it seemed to make sense! We had been calling Hudson by name years before he was conceived!

And as we are now addressing my belly as Hudson, I couldn’t help but remember that the Bible makes mention of our Heavenly Father calling us by name. In Isaiah 49:1 it says “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.” Again in Jeremiah 1: 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." What a special thought to know that just as we are anticipating Hudson’s arrival, speaking blessings over him, and calling him by name – God has done the same with us.


:: HOLMSTED MANOR UPDATE
Well, our staff continues to shrink, but we continue to move forward. We’ve already said bye to two former staff members earlier this month and just this week another 3 will be leaving. This type of ministry work can be tough as it is very transitional. But even in the midst of saying goodbyes, God has been providing some hellos. A family has recently been accepted on staff and will be joining us in July. Nic is from America, Marion is from England, they have two girls, and they have spent the last 5 years working with YWAM in Hungary. A great God story with this family is that one of our staff members that has now left, Jon, was running a program called the School of Worship. (Sean helped lead this program last September.) Before Jon left, he tried finding a replacement so that the program wouldn’t have to stop running, but to no avail. Out of the blue, Nic (who has only briefly met Jon once) called Jon and asked if he could come and help assist with the School of Worship at Holmsted. He and his wife want to integrate their girls into the English school system. Jon then proceeded to invite him to not just assist the school but to run it. So now, we have another facilitator for the School of Worship – praise God! It’s been an encouragement to know that no matter how many staff members God calls away from Holmsted during this season, He will continue to send us exactly what we need – and in ways we’re not expecting!

[P!] Please continue to pray that God would send us the right base leader. We are still without for the time being. We have been able to still function thus far, but we are beginning to realize the need for a base leader to guide and cast vision. We have one candidate who is only just considering the possibility and has not fully put their name forward. They are from outside of our Holmsted community.

God has also provided two school leaders for our September 2009 DTS – a couple from Holland named Peter and Inge. During this transitional season, Peter and Inge felt pretty strongly like their commitment to Holmsted was coming to an end and they had about 3 or 4 options of next steps to take. They had been pretty vocal about wanting to move on, so initially, we didn’t want to approach them. But Sean was challenged to take a chance and ask them to consider. What we didn’t know was that they had been praying and said if they were supposed to stay, they wanted God to send someone to ask them about leading the school. Needless to say, Sean asked, they accepted, and have had great joy in planning the school. We already have 12 students in process to attend in September.

[P!] Please pray that God would continue to raise up support staff for this school. At the moment, it is just Peter and Inge.

Our current January DTS is still on outreach and have all received a pastoral visit. This is a time where a member of the Holmsted staff will visit the teams on the field and bring any mail, cards, or chocolate to the team along with a fresh perspective to gauge where the team seems to be thriving and where they need to be challenged. Sean had a chance to visit a team in Berlin and here is what he has to share about his experience…

“I was able to go and spend some time with one of our teams that has been serving in Europe. They sailed with the crew of the Next Wave (a sail boat that YWAM owns and uses for ministry) and served in Bulgaria and are now serving in Berlin, which is where I met up with them. The team was doing quite well and stepping up to some very challenging things. It was a real joy to spend one on one time with them as individuals and to hear their heart for God and the work they were doing. I was pulled right into the things they were involved in and God gave me insight on how to challenge them more. What I recognized was the team is primarily made up of introverted people (not at all a struggle for me to understand as I am quite the introvert myself) and the things they were involved in were very outward in nature… And they gave their all… Inspiring! They were performing dramas in the middle of large plazas, serving tea and coffee to people on the streets, and inviting people to a family style dinner at a café that was run by one of the partners of the contacts we have in Berlin.

Throughout my trip, I found myself challenged in all the same ways in which I was challenging the team - especially as I was on my way back home. On the way home my flight was delayed from 2pm until 7pm. They offered me a free flight transfer, but I would be flying into Luton Airport instead of Gatwick which is about 2 and a half hours further away. Well, I went for it… after all, I would still be getting in earlier than if I waited and I had never seen Luton Airport before. All along my journey home, I had some all too familiar “nudges” from God to step up and talk with people. I met a nice guy from the States who was trying not to miss a Clapton concert in London that evening. I met a really lovely couple that sat next to me on the plane – he was from England and she was from Tel Aviv. They were professional musicians living in Berlin. I helped two American girls who had come to Germany to study German history. I was able to point them in the right direction, as they seemed a little overwhelmed with finding their way. It was a blessing to be able to help them. Lastly I talked with two ladies who had been on a French tour group and as we talked, I figured out that they had met the grandmother of the curate (sort of a pastor in training) of our church. I was able to tell them all about Sarah, myself, and the ministries we were involved in. I even invited them to come by!

Through the whole experience, I felt a fresh courage to love people right where they are and make the most of every opportunity! (2 Timothy 4:2)”


:: THE POINT
As we have mentioned before, Sean and I have been asked to help pioneer a young adults service for 20’s/30’s. Recently we were a part of a 6 week training to help us define how we want to connect and engage this age group. Sean and I have been serving with another couple named Andy and Rachel and it has been great to see how God has brought us two couples together and given us similar vision for the group. We came up with the following mission statement: “Connecting young adults in their faith; encouraging action; and developing inner transformation for outward change.” We feel like this age group can so quickly be bored with faith if they are simply approaching it with a consumer mindset. We want our community to be an active community – hence our official name: ...ING. We want our community to be growING, worshippING, prayING, sharING, laughING, askING, encouragING, servING. As we begin to get to know each other and share our personal journeys and stories, we believe these actions will become a natural result. We plan on meeting weekly, but through the summer we are having connecting events. We had a BBQ a few weeks ago and we’ll be meeting again for a dessert night next week.
[P!] Please pray that God will continue to grow our relationship with our co-leaders Andy and Rachel and that our group will begin to catch the vision of our mission statement.


:: OTHER CELEBRATIONS
We have a new flat! Since our old base leader left at the end of March, his 2 bedroom flat has been sitting unoccupied. The flat was finally made available to apply for, so Sean and I did. We were given permission a few weeks ago to move in and we have been loving it! We have our own kitchen, a washing machine, a living room and 2 bedrooms! We can’t wait to start decorating Hudson’s very own room – we are going with a safari theme. We have already enjoyed having others over for meals and we realized with our previous accommodation (one room), our gift of hospitality wasn’t able to be nurtured. It’s such a joy to be able to use a gift that God has blessed us with. And although we knew it was time for some more space with the baby coming, we have learned what we can live without for a season. Our one room was home for us for a year and a half. Our time in our one room has allowed us to have a deeper sense of appreciation for the extra space that we have been given.


That about sums up the Stepletons for now. Please remember our prayer points listed above. We love you, miss you, and count down the days until our visit in November.

Cheers!
Sarah and Sean and Hudson!