After 3 ½ years of waiting, God has blessed us with a child. We are currently 12 weeks (every Saturday marks another week along) which makes our due date October 10. When we initially found out, we thought we were much further along. I went in for my 12 week scan and found out that I was only 9 weeks along! In some ways, I have definitely felt pregnant – using the toilet a lot, changing appetite, some nausea. But in other ways, it is still hard to believe that there is a little life inside of me. It made it more real to see the shape of the baby on the scan – even though it was only 27 mm long! Since we won’t be able to tell the gender of the baby until my next scan (I think 22 weeks), we have been lovingly referring to our child as Peanut.
When you see others with their newborn children or even their toddlers, you get a bit of an understanding of how lovable children can be. We have always anticipated there would be great love for our child when it was born. What we didn’t anticipate was the love God would fill us with in just knowing that we are expecting. Sean loves talking and listening to my belly (even though all he can hear right now is my stomach churning). We have also started a journal for Peanut where we record anything we feel is significant during this pregnancy. We’ve shared about people’s reactions to our news, we’ve shared about our doctor’s visits, and we’ve shared about gifts that Peanut has already received. We want our baby to be overwhelmed with love even before they can understand they are being loved.
Once we found out we were pregnant, we realized how easy it would be to let fear rob us of the joy of this pregnancy because there is so much out of your control. But I remembered something my friend Darla said once – she said that God is the giver and taker of life. He determines our days. And after Sean and I talked and prayed, we both decided that we will not be ruled by fear. Whether we have this baby for a short season or for the rest of our lives, God has chosen us to be the stewards of this child’s life and we take it as a great honor. We are making sure that we do our part to keep me and the baby healthy, and we are trusting God with the rest.
We will continue to keep you updated as our pregnancy progresses.
:: LESSONS THROUGH PREGNANCY
It’s amazing how God can become more real to you in the midst of having a child. Just the other day, Sean was talking to my belly and telling Peanut not to worry because they were not alone, that me and him were right here waiting for them to be born. Then Sean just spoke words of love over the baby. In that moment it made me think of our relationship with God. And I thought about Peanut and how Peanut will probably never be any more close to me then they are right now growing inside of me and depending on me for nutrition. Technically, in my womb, Peanut is alone. But Peanut is also fully surrounded by me. Everywhere I go, Peanut goes too. How many times do we feel so far and alone from God? But if we believe his word to be true, then He says that he is omnipresent and that he will never leave us nor forsake us. What a promise!
:: HOLMSTED MANOR UPDATE
Holmsted Manor is a missions training base and so we are always transitioning one school in and one school out. We had a graduation ceremony for our September 2008 DTS in February. This school served in 2 nations – India and Poland. As that school was transitioning out, we already had our January 2009 DTS underway. They are just finishing their Lecture Phase and they are preparing for Outreach Phase where they will be split into 3 teams to serve in Uganda, India, and parts of Europe. There are 22 students on this school – one of whom includes a former youth group student named Kayla McGill. We’ve known her since she was a freshman in high school and now she has graduated college and is taking time to serve in a missions context with us – how cool!
We typically run an April DTS as well, but we had to cancel as we didn’t have enough students interested. We are also limited now on how late we can accept students. We previously could accept students up to a few weeks before a DTS started. But now that all non European students are required to obtain a visa, we have to make sure our students are accepted with enough time to apply for one.
As our schools are a source of income for our base, it was a bit of a financial blow to cancel the school. However, with a huge season of change before us, we also see this extra time without the school running to be a chance to refocus as a team. As we mentioned in our last update, our base leaders were called back to The States and we started the process of trying to recruit new base leaders. Sean and I had even put our names forward for consideration. Well, long story short, the other 2 candidates withdrew their names and Sean and I were not selected but not completely denied the position either. We were told that we were seen as great candidates but there were concerns with our limited time and experience within YWAM. We were asked to consider taking a 6-week YWAM Leadership Development Course in Malaga, Spain. At this time, we did not yet know we were pregnant but we were praying about the possibility of going. We asked a few others to pray with us as well. In the end (and after discovering Peanut was on the way) we decided that we would not take the Leadership Development Course. Although the course sounded great, we didn’t feel it was the right time to leave. We want to be around for all of my doctor’s appointments but we also want to be around to help influence the new direction of Holmsted.
The most difficult thing right now is that we have a majority of our current staff who are planning on leaving between now and September. We are currently at about 32 staff members and by the end of the summer we will be down to 15 with half of these staff members undecided on whether or not they are continuing at Holmsted. That is a drastic change for our community because it takes a full staff to not only run our DTSs but to also maintain the Manor and our 17 acres of property! So as I mentioned before, this summer will be a great time for us to refocus and lean into God for direction. As far as Sean and I, we are planning on making ourselves available for the next few years to help bring some stability to this transitional season. Please keep our base in prayer during this time. We don’t feel hopeless but we realize there is soon to be a huge burden laid upon just a handful of people.
:: THE POINT
The Point is our current home church here in England. We have really enjoyed serving at the local church level. It allows us to engage and interact with the locals of England. Sean and I have been asked by the local Vicar (pastor) to be a part of a leadership team that creates a satellite service/meeting for those that are in their 20’s/30’s. It’s the Vicar’s desire to break down the congregation into smaller sizes and affinity groups to make sure that people are still known and being discipled. The church is considered a larger church in England at is currently at about 400 members after 4 years. Sean and I are especially excited to serve with the Point because they are similar to Canyon Ridge in the fact that they are not just concerned with growing inwards but they want their members to engage their communities. We are excited to see how God will use us at the local church level to impact England and even Europe. Feel free to learn more about the church by visiting http://www.thepointchurch.co.uk/.
:: OTHER CELEBRATIONS
At the beginning of February, we were thrilled to visit with our friends D & D now living in India. We loved sharing stories, hearing of the cultural difficulties they have encountered, and how God is using their everyday living to be an example to the community around them. We had late night talks, went out to eat, interacted with the kids, explored Holland, and thoroughly enjoyed our fellowship together.
Then, towards the end of February, we celebrated a most special day...Sean's 34th birthday! We celebrated by having one of his favorite meals that he hadn't had in over a year - Sushi! I even enjoyed a few cucumber rolls. We also had some dessert at a restaurant near the ocean in Brighton. It was a lovely evening. He was also bombarded with email and Facebook messages, cards, and even a "musical tshirt" he received in the mail from my sister Deborah. It's a tshirt with a speaker and a little device that allows you to play different theme songs. It's pretty funny! He was feeling the love all around.
:: PRAYER POINTS
We realized that we are not always good at sharing our needs. We not only want to engage with you by updating, but we would love to ask you to partner with us in prayer.
Here are a few prayer points we have:
1. Pray that God would unify Holmsted during this season of transition; that things that need to change will change; new structures that need to be implemented will be implemented; and things that need to remain will remain.
2. Pray that God would be clearly speaking to the staff that are undecided on whether to stay or go
3. Pray that God will soon reveal our next base leaders
4. Pray for continued healthy pregnancy
5. Pray for the development of our 20’s/30’s group
Thank you for sharing in our burdens, our stories, and our celebrations. As always, we love hearing your updates and any feedback you may have. Blessings to you all.
Cheers!
Sarah and Sean
