Archive - Family Update RSS Feed

The Frantic Family Recap

February 3, 2012 in Family Update with 0 Comments

The last two months have been a blur! Jody had surgery. Everything went smooth and she’s recovered nicely. We had a battle with our landlord about our legal rights after she sold the place we were in. We finally agreed to move out with stipulations. We frantically house hunted over Christmas with the possibility of buying or renting. We dealt with very emotional extended family issues. In the 12th hour we came to a ‘lease with an option to buy’ solution on the house we’ve wanted since August. We frantically packed our stuff and scheduled movers. We unpacked, visited the ER with a boy who had pneumonia, and finally sold and bought a sofa. No wonder Jenna fell asleep on the way to ballet lessons.

All the while we’ve been hard at work juggling parenting or lively kids, and our “real” job of directing our staff team in the ministry of making Christ known on the campuses of Portland.

Thankfully, we’ve had time to sit and reflect on how gracious God is in his provision and protection as well as how thankful we are for the relationships we have in this life. Many of you have offered words of encouragement along the way and we’re so thankful for you.

We are more committed than ever to seeing God’s Kingdom expand here in Portland. We believe whole heartedly that the students of Portland are a key step in seeing the city transformed for the glory of God. Please continue to pray for this place. God is on the move. We’ve seen more momentum in the last 4 weeks than ever before. Even today I heard a story about a student placing her faith in Christ at University of Portland.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Housing, surgery, Christmas

December 23, 2011 in Family Update with 0 Comments

Thanks for all you prayers during this trying time for our family. We’re hanging in there and going to enjoy our Christmas.

Jody continues to recover from surgery. There’s been more pain than we expected, but the Doctors reassure us that everything looks great and it’ll just take time to recover. In the mean-time I’ve been juggling kids and work as Jody can’t lift Isaac so I have to be around just about all the time.

Housing update: after getting some much needed pro-bono help from an attorney our landlord settled on our offer to move out by February 6th with a small compensation to help with our moving expenses. We didn’t have to agree to this, but we’re pretty ready to be out of this house and not have to deal with her/showings/inspections any more. I won’t bore you with the details, but we’re clinging to a slight hope that we’re going to get word that the offer we put in on a house will receive approval by the first of the year, which would be a miracle. We’re asking the Lord to move heavens and earth to get this done. Join with us in prayer! If we don’t have the opportunity to buy that particular house, we’ll either make an offer on another house or rent again (more expensive) if we can’t find anything that we’re excited about. We’re doing our best to trust that the Lord knows what he’s doing and he’s got a great place lined up for us.

Lastly, Christmas is here and I reminded again what the incarnation of Christ means. God stepped into our neighborhood and was completely present with humanity. What a crazy and beautiful reality and what a joy that I serve a God who’s experienced what we’ve experienced and who dives into the muck of humanity to rescue us. For that I worship him this season!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Matt, Jody, Jenna and Isaac

Surgery update

December 13, 2011 in Family Update with 2 Comments

We’re home from a long day in the hospital. Jody’s surgery went perfectly. We have an amazing doctor who is an incredible blessing to us. She even prayed with us before the surgery. Everything went smooth and Jody’s uterus and tubes are not inside her anymore (sorry for you squeamish types). Being diagnozed with Von Willebrands blood disorder a couple months ago complicated the prep work a bit, but was no problem during the surgery. Jody is now recouping at home all hopped up on pain med’s and trying to avoid getting jumped on by our kids.

Thanks for all your prayers. We feel richly blessed by our friends, family, and ministry partners. Your prayers have been carrying us along the last couple of days.

Housing update tomorrow…hopefully.

 

Pray Please!

December 12, 2011 in Family Update, Prayer Requests with 2 Comments

The list of prayer requests in our life is long right now! Opportunities for the Lord to show up I guess. :)

  • Pray for Jody as she goes into surgery in the morning. She’s having a hysterectomy.
  • Pray for strength for us as we deal with our landlord who gave us 30 days notice to be out of our house last Thursday. We feel like she is taking advantage of us and it’s not great timing with surgery, Cru Conference and the holidays.
  • Pray that we would hear about the house that we have an offer in on and we’ve been waiting forever to hear from HUD on if it’s a go or not.
  • Pray that God would provide great temporary housing for us if needed in the meantime.

This has been a stretching time for us (to say the least), but at the same time God has used many of you to affirm our call to make Christ known on the campuses of Portland. Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement and blessings. We need them!

Stay tuned for updates on the 3-circus that is our lives at the moment.

Our needs!

November 16, 2011 in Family Update with 0 Comments

It’s not often that I talk about our financial needs in ministry on here, but Jody and I face significant financial needs as we close out 2011. Many of you probably received our letter in the mail about this, but if not you can click this link to download the letter.

We understand that many of you face financial burdens right now, so there is no expectation to give. But, we would like you to consider how you might help with us continue on in this ministry unhindered by having to raise additional financial support. If you would like to give right now, just click on the contribute button at the top of this page and it will walk you through the options.

We’re so thankful for all of you. We’re so thankful that we get the privelige of being on the front lines of engaging this generation with the life-changing message of Jesus. We couldn’t do this without you! Thanks for giving so that we can proclaim Christ to the students of Portland!

If you have any questions please let me know!

We’re home!

July 29, 2011 in Family Update with 0 Comments

After 2 months on the road, we’re home!

We had an amazing summer in Lake Tahoe, where we saw tons of growth in the lives of students, our staff as well as ourselves. What a privilege it was to serve. The highlight for me was watching student after student be baptized on the 4th of July. With over 1/3 of the project being new believers it was such a picture of life change. I wish you all could have seen it.

Don’t forget to check out our most recent newsletter and stay in touch.

We’ll be doing our best to connect with a lot of our ministry partners of the next few weeks before school starts. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Matt

Life is flying by!

September 30, 2010 in Campus Ministry, Family Update, Portland with 0 Comments

We’ve got 5 week old baby boy!

For the whole story of our adoption, please visit Jody’s blog and check out the past posts that recap our story!

We’re launching ministries at Portland State University and University of Portland. So far so good! Today we gave out 300 Imaginary Jesus books and gathered contact information from a ton of students that want to hear more about Christ. It was a great time.

Please pray for us as this month is a critical and strategic time to setting us up for the year. More details to come!

Get our email updates!

August 13, 2010 in Family Update, Prayer Requests with 0 Comments

For the past 5 or 6 years we’ve sent out email updates in between snail mail newsletters. We’ve officially started to use mailchimp to keep track of all the emails. If you’d like to subscribe please sign up below.

***please note. These are in addition to our snail mail letters and blog posts. If you check you’re email but don’t follow our blog, then this is for you! If you’d like to subscribe to our blogpost via email too, then fill out the form in the right column of our website! Got all that?

Bottomline, we want you to know what’s going on with us and how to pray for us as you invest in our ministry. Thanks!

join our mailing list
* indicates required

 


Gearing up!

August 2, 2010 in Family Update, Prayer Requests with 0 Comments

Today marks 3 weeks until our staff team officially reports for work and 4 weeks till the baby boy we’re adopting is due! Let the craziness begin! All things considered we’re doing pretty well. There have been a few moments where life is overwhelming but God continues to meet us in those moments. We’re excited to launch the Portland ministry and even more excited to adopt this baby boy. We’re so blessed!

Praises!

  • God has provided free housing for us while we’re in Boise in September waiting for the adoption paperwork to finalize.
  • God continues to provide in remarkable ways for the expense of adoption. More to come about this later when we know exactly what the cost is going to be.
  • God is providing students who are willing to help get us officially recognized at PSU.
  • God is providing volunteers all over the city who would like to serve with us!

Prayer Requests

  • Pray for my (Matt) lower back. I continue to have lower back and leg pain as a result. I think it’s related to sciatic nerve and I’m currently getting it checked out, but it’s been sort of frustrating as sitting is problematic at the moment.
  • Pray for the Lord’s peace to be evident in our lives as we near the due date of our baby boy. It’s count down time!
  • Pray for our staff team to continue to gel and for the Lord to give us the right strategies that are unique to Portland.

Other Notes:

  • Jody is a blogging machine. You can get more insight into our family life on her blog.
  • Our garden is doing well. Cucumbers and tomatoes are taking off and I ate some yummy snap peas tonight!

The Summer Season

June 16, 2010 in Family Update, Prayer Requests with 0 Comments

It’s summertime…well it’s supposed to be anyway. It’s been a rainy month here in Portland, but at least it’s green!

As the students and staff of Campus Crusade are serving all over the world right now,  Jody and I are launching into a season of expanding our support team in preparation for launching the Portland metro ministry this fall. Please pray for us during this time as we seek to invite people to partner with our ministry.

This is a challenging process for us, but at the same time we’re deeply grateful for the chance to invite people into what God is doing in the lives of college students. The whole process deepens my dependence on the Lord and allows me to take an audit of my perspective of who God is and clarify as necessary.

We are talking to a number of you over the course of this summer. But if you haven’t heard from us yet and you are interested in helping in this process the two major areas of need for us are:

  1. Increased monthly support to help cover the cost of living increase as well as new expenses for adoption of our little boy in August.
  2. We simply do not know enough people to raise additional support in a timely manner. We are asking friends and current ministry partners to brainstorm 20 friends/family that they would contact to share about the ministry if they were in our shoes responsible for raising funds to fulfill their ministry.

Thanks for all of your partnership and prayers over the years. The vision for reaching the campuses of this city for Christ is great and we are incredibly thankful for your partnership in this great endeavor. We give thanks for all you daily.

Page 1 of 212»