It's A Date!

Hello Faithful Friends~

I hope you are well and enjoying your week. Since we wrote our newsletter, we have quite a few updates for you!

First of all, we have a new departure date! We are now scheduled to leave Alaska for Uganda on May 31st. 2010. This timing seems so much better for many reasons including not having to pack and move in the middle of winter. We are thankful to have a few extra months here to prepare. Leo and I plan to go to the AIM headquarters in Pearl River, NY for our "check out" May 11-13th. We will then return to Alaska and our whole family will fly together from here to Africa.

We have also decided (fairly certainly!) that we will ship a 20' container with our things. That way, we can take all of Leo's tools, a generator and whatever else we feel may be necessary for living in Uganda. There are still a lot of details to work out, but just having this much settled in our minds is a huge relief!

I called the place where we are ordering our homeschooling curriculum for next year and got some good input from them today, so we will probably be placing our order tomorrow! Having that done, will also be a big relief. I am very much looking forward to beginning the homeschooling adventure next fall and feel blessed to have a great-looking curriculum to work with.

In our newsletter we had mentioned that Leo was planning to go to a Crown Ignite training in California this month. Due to low-registration, that training was canceled but another training has been scheduled in Kansas City, Missouri for next month. Leo and Ned plan to go to the training, visit the Creation Museum, hopefully see some friends we know from Kenya, tour the Water for the World facility and spend a week with Leo's folks. We are excited that God has worked it out for them to have all of these opportunities.

This past weekend was our church's fall family conference. We enjoyed sweet fellowship with friends from all over this part of Alaska. Leo also had the privilege of spending Sunday morning at Wasilla Christian Church. He was able to share a bit in their service and be a part of their ministry fair. He came home encouraged! We look forward to taking part in the mission conference at the Church on the Rock in Wasilla October 25-27th.

Currently, we have about 87% of our estimated outgoing expenses and about 88% of our monthly support pledged. However, our outgoing expenses may be a bit more than we'd originally estimated due primarily to the cost of shipping a container. Thanks so much to those of you who have recently joined our support team.

God has blessed and encouraged us abundantly this past week and we are so very grateful. One of the ways He does this is through you. Thank you!

Blessings~ Leo, Menda and Crew