It has been difficult to have traditional schooling since our move but we hope to get on course soon. Yesterday a group of workers came and cut down a tree in our yard. That was certainly a learning experience for us all. Our son, Seth took about 200 pictures of the whole thing.
Jim (my husband) and I will be putting together a DVD and notebook to track our experience in the Philippines. Our daughter Chelsie is presently on a missions trip in Cambodia with YWAM. We know we will all learn a lot from this experience as well. Chel wrote and suggested that we study the history of Cambodia. We will get started right away. This summer our son Jesse will be traveling to China with YWAM and I suspect we will learn a lot from his trip as well.
So, school is not what it once was but we are certainly blessed by all these mission trips and adventures that life keeps throwing us.
We will try to keep you all posted as to our progress.
Blessings,
The Evans' Family
We have home-schooled now for thirty years and if the Lord allows we will continue for life. Our oldest was 30 this past September and our youngest is 8. But now we have grandchildren and the cycle continues.
God is good.
I look forward to spending some time with our grown children and our grandchildren over the next couple of months. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be precious memories to carry us through the cold and gray months till spring arrives and on and on.
Today I will make some applesauce in the crock pot and try to get a few more boxes unpacked. I will call my daughter-in-law and help the kids with there Bible verses for Kid's Klub.
Life is returning to some form of normal. Yippy!
Dear Friends,
We
want to thank you for your faithful prayers. We know that God is blessing our
lives because of and through them.
We
believe that God is going to take us back to
Our
hearts still long to be in
We
are presently in the process of building a business that would support us as
tent makers there in
We
would love to keep you on our prayer team and mailing list and keep you
informed of our progress but we need to hear from you. We will need to tighten
our belts a bit to re-invest into our business. We are going to send out
regular
E-mails
but we will limit mailing hard copies.
Thank
you for your interest and may the Lord bless you.
Your Faithful Servants,
Jim and Melony Evans and
Family
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know
the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord, Thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end.
Now let me tell you a little more about my sweet daughter-in-law. Amber and Josh had been married about nine months when I was given Debi's book, "Created to be His Helpmeet". I got so excited that I stayed up all night to read this book and wished it had been around 30 years ago. I decided that my daughter-in-law needed to see this book and so the next day I gave her mine.
Well, one day my son Josh called and said that Amber had read the book and that she was a good wife. Amber then told me that she had really stuggled with finishing the book. Everytime she read it she said she got mad but something made her keep reading. Amber told me this book went against everything she was ever taught. She was taught that she needed to go out and take care of herself and not to depend on anyone. But as Amber read through the book God was doing a work in her heart. She said one day, "If people just believed the Bible and lived like the Bible taught everybody would be happy".
That day I realized my prayers for Amber were being answered in a big way. That night on the phone I was allowed the great joy of leading Amber the Christ.
God be praised!!
Now God is working in a mighty way in Joshua, too. He has a desire to learn the Word and be a godly dad and husband and Amber wants to stay at home and raise her children. She wants to homeschool.Wow! It just gets better and better.
Thank you, Debi. Thank you, Lord.
I was living in South Haven, Michigan where my husband Jim was pastoring a church. We had just had our baby girl, Andrea Hosanna. A sweet man in our new church had given me a brand new computer to help me with my homeschooling. I knew nothing about computers or the web before that time but in a matter of a couple days I had figured out how to surf and was lost in cyberspace for about two days before I remembered I had a family.
One really great thing happened to me at that time that would change my life forever. I stumbled onto the site called "Laine's Letters". God took me there I know and He began to teach me of the precious fellowship that I had not previously tapped into.
When I read the testimony of Laine and how she had promised God she would spend time with Him everyday if he would just let Gabe live- well, the rest is history, as they say. If you have never read Laine's Letters you must by all means check out her site.
What happened to me next was that I committed to spending an hour each day with God in prayer and Bible reading. I also vowed to God that I would spend that time with him before the children got up in the morning. At this time in my life I was schooling six school aged children, and we also had a two year old and a newborn.
Well, if you know anything at all about how God works you know that a promise like that was sure to be rewarded in a big way.
At that point, everything in my life changed. I had trusted Christ as my Saviour when I was just a little child and had done some growing in my walk with Him but in looking back it was like comparing taking a walk in the garden to down hill skiing.
I began seeing the love of the Lord as never before. I began being more loving and patient with my family and loving to people outside my family as well.
I began seeing prayers answered as never before.
I praise the Lord for all He has done and all He continues to do in my life.
May He be glorified!!
I had already wrestled with the idea of homeschooling and decided with the demands of a new baby and two active preschoolers besides my two that were in school I just couldn't pull it off.
I told my husband through tears that we just had to do something. He told me I should probably teach them at home. With his blessing I took the plung into what has been a real whirlwind in my life.
I started my first homeschool day on August 26th, 1987. I remember the day well. The day we started our class at home was the same day that school had started just across the street from our house. It also just happened to be the day our fifth child was born. I had one day of school and then a week off for baby Jesse. Then, we started schooling with mom feeling a little overwhelmed. Maybe a lot overwhelmed.
Well, I'm glad to say the Lord has brought me through to where we are today, 19 years later. I have had six more children and five are presently living at home and still learning.
It has not been easy but it has, in spite of shaky moments,it has been very much worth it all.
We met Amber when we were living in a missionary apartment in the lower level of my parents church. (Lower level sound so much nicer than saying we lived in a church basement.) We were on pre-field ministry with a fine mission agency and looking forward to serving the Lord as church planters in Australia. My husband had already pastored here in the U.S. for more than 24 years and we were proud parents to eleven great kids ranging in age from 4-26.
Our third son and fourth child Joshua brought Amber to our home so we could meet this young lady that had become so special to him in the last few weeks. When we met her we quickly realised some of charms that had drawn Joshua to her and we all were taken with her sweet little girl with the silky black hair and dark eyes.
Amber's little girl Kassidy was not yet two when we met her but such a little doll. She was so cleaver. She could already say simple sentences and was very loving. One thing that both Amber and her little Kassidy had in common was a huge smile and and infectious laugh.
Well, Amber and Kassidy are now a part of our family. Josh and Amber were married a year ago last November, but what is even better is that just a week ago Amber trusted Christ as her Saviour and became part of a bigger family, the family of God.
Praise the Lord for all he has done!