Monthly Archives: December 2013

This season is one for everyone to come together, to rejoice in what the Lord has done throughout the past year, to look forward to what God might do, and to enjoy the “present”. Yes, the time we have now is a gift from the Lord, sitting around and enjoying time with family. We celebrated Christmas this past weekend with Seth’s family; both of his sibling’s and their families got together and relished in the 3 short days. This has not happened since 2002 and only God knows the next time this will happen. The wonderful time together ended Monday afternoon, we were ALL in tears as Seth’s brother (and family) left to go back to Philadelphia and will soon leave in less than a week to head back to Indonesia. 😦 Once there, they will finish up a few things in town and then head into the Dem tribe. They (with their co-workers) will begin to learn the Dem language with the hope of one day being able to present the Gospel in their language for the first time ever in history! PRAY for Seth’s brothers family (Jeremiah, Briana, Eden, & Jericho) as they have many transitions, many new costs and many new trials come their way on this journey as they take their 2 little kids into the jungle.

We are now in New Jersey celebrating Christmas with Nicole’s family and had a wonderful Christmas Eve service(s) visiting 2 supporting churches. This was special for both of us and we are glad we were able to see as many people as we could in such a short time. We will soon head to Virginia to see family for New Years and possibly connect with some churches and individuals only to start back on the deputation trail the first week of January.

With all of this traveling, we had to do some routine maintenance work on our car, so our car received some gifts in the month of December as well 🙂 We put new tires on, a new battery, brakes and rotors. Seth was driving home after replacing the new brakes and rotors with a friend and pulled over to get gas, when he got out he saw one of the rotors smoking and more red than Rudolf’s nose! We contacted our mechanic friend and he had some suspicions of what went wrong and seems to possibly be a new caliber…? It seems our car wanted more gifts this Christmas. We had to drive to New Jersey for Christmas so Seth’s mom let us borrow her car while our car waits in the shop to get fixed sometime this week.  Our friends that helped us work on our car let us borrow their car (what a total blessing!) so we could drive around town and leave Seth’s mom a vehicle to use while we have her car. We are so grateful to have such great friends and family; we really were able to see everyone come-together this Christmas and bless us. We want to say THANK YOU to the many of you who support us; your giving made it possible for us to see God in all of this as these things began to pop-up with our car. This was just a nice taste of how God will watch over us through you when we are on the field.

Seth, Jennie, Sara, Jay

Seth’s Whole Family

We have now traveled to almost 30 churches, and now 2 countries! We were in the Buffalo, New York area to speak at a couple of churches and neither of us had ever been to Niagara Falls, and so we walked across the Rainbow Bridge and into Canada. It was a nice place to visit but home is home :). We weathered the freezing wind and now we can say we saw the falls and got some pictures. That was a nice time and it fell on Seth’s 26^th birthday, so that was a treat for us. God blessed us and allowed our car battery to last 6 years, but it finally went dead and we had to get a new one. God continues to bless us by allowing our car to keep going forward which enables us to connect with more people and grow our support team. We had great reception in New York and connected well with the church, and especially with the youth pastor and his wife.

Christmas is less than two weeks away and we are thankful for each one of YOU and how God has placed YOU in our lives. We pray that YOU are able to keep Christ the center of this season and enjoy your family. This Christmas is extremely special for Seth, this year Seth ‘s sister Jennie (and her family), and brother Jeremiah (and his family) will all be together for Christmas for the first time since 2002! Since both of Seth’s siblings are tribal church planters in Indonesia, this is a rare treat. With us planning to leave for PNG in a little over a year, who knows the next time they will all be together. This is part of the cost of missions, but one we all take with joy to serve our Lord and King.

This past weekend we had another opportunity to share our ministry during the Sunday school hour and hopefully answer any curious questions people have about tribal church planting. We also shared during the main service. Saturday night we were able to participate (along with those that braved the storm) with the church in a white elephant gift exchange and play some fun games. Seth gave a short message with the focus on how this time of Christmas ought to give comfort to those who are Christians, God kept His word from Genesis 3:15 and sent the seed that will crush the serpent’s head, Praise God for being faithful and keeping His promises!

Since we are celebrating Christmas in Pittsburgh on the 21^st, we will head to New Jersey on Christmas Eve, there we will celebrate Christmas with Nicole’s family. We will head to Virginia later in the week to see family and possibly connect with churches and some supporters. The New Year will be ushered-in in Virginia for us, then we head to Michigan to participate in another Missions’ conference and begin the deputation trail full-force.

We are praying for you that you have a great time with your family during the holidays. Continue to pray for our safety as we travel and raise our support team. We greatly covet your prayers, and appreciate your partnership.

Click on the link below to read our latest newsletter!

October-November Newsletter

Beds slept in: 38

Miles traveled: 21,700 (about 5k since Oct 27^th)

States visited: 12

Churches met with: About 25

*And the newest addition to the list is tires! 4 tires gone through 🙂

*Random tally: 6 nights of sleep missed due to driving (Seth)

            We know this trip did not only raise more financial teammates (which get us to the field), but also prayer partners (which keep us on the field), and more “encouragers” (which will refresh us while on/off the field). We know God is using this time to refine us, prepare us, and strengthen us for the field while also challenging, encouraging, and enlightening others about the work that still needs to be done across the world in relation to missions. Pray for our team to grow, pray for our car to continue to be able to go, and pray that our Lord we better know.