Approved to go to the Philippines!

Friends and family, we wanted to let you all know that we have been approved by ACTION to leave for the Philippines!  We reached the required percentage (90) to be able to buy our airplane tickets!  We will be leaving here around February 9-11, then flying to California and spending time with relatives there for 5-7 days.  We are so excited to have reached this milestone and have seen how God has been building our faith over the last 3 1/2 years as we've been raising prayer and financial support, and we have seen what a faithful God He is!  We are spending Christmas with Becki's family this year in Lebanon, PA.  We will be seeing my (Matt) folks a couple of days after Christmas for a week or so.  We continue to be very busy packing everything up and getting all the required paperwork completed to go to the Philippines.  We value your prayers and ask that you pray that we will be able to work together in a spirit of unity, and that we will look to Christ to direct and empower us to do that.  Pray that we will also be able to work through the emotions of leaving our family and friends and saying goodbye to them.  We are so excited to see how God is going to work in and through us as we make this huge transition.  We hope this Christmas season that you find quiet times to worship our Lord and realize once again how amazing it was that He came in the flesh as a baby and gave Himself as a sacrifice for us.  We love you all and thank you for your prayerful, financial, and emotional support through all of this!  Have a great Christmas!

Love,
Matt, Becki, Isaiah, and Elijah

Our first post on our new blog!

This is our first official post on our new blog!  We will be using this blog to post updates on our lives and activities while in the Philippines.  It will be the best way everyone can keep updated with our lives, although we will still be sending out quarterly newsletters!  Thanks everyone for your prayers and support!