You will see pictured above Desma and Barry Abbott and family. They are currently serving in a the jungle in Southern Cameroon among the Baka people. We spent a few days with them while we were in Cameroon and really grew to enjoy respect them in very short time. Which is why we were very sad to hear that Desma grown very ill. My understanding is that she has had difficulties with her health for a very long time, but she just continued to grow worse and worse until she was at only about 20% strength. On Sunday, July 17th…

On Monday of this past week, we completed the process of “Re-Adoption” in order to change Zoey and Elias’ status from Permanent Residents to US Citizens. The judge was so excited to have a “happy case” that she even took a picture with us. And their names have officially been changed from Spain and Tarkie to Zoey and Elias. Hooray! This just reminded us how grateful we are to have these two be a part of our family. Yes, life is more complicated, more expensive, and there are double the diapers, but all that stuff is so small compared to…

I was recently talking to a friend about how she prayed fervently for something and the Lord did not give it to her. She was perplexed. That reminded me of the time when we received a referral for a little girl in Ethiopia and, after hearing that her case was in jeopardy, I begged the Lord that he would cause everything to go through smoothly so we could adopt her. I laid out my case before the Lord reminding him of his promise: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in…

I was just thinking about getting ready to go to work tomorrow and what came to mind was, “I’d rather be in Africa.” After first deciding to pursue missions Stacey and I chose to attend seminary because we felt a lack in our Bible knowledge. When we arrived in Louisville we had a lot of debt, so we worked really hard and the Lord provided and we were debt free. We finished seminary in May 2009 and adopted kids, switched missions agencies, adopted more kids…and now (7.5 years later) I work 40 hours a week, catch glimpses of my family,…

An innocent fly buzzed across our table last night only to cause one of our children to practically have a panic attack.This tiny fly brought on tears, screaming, and intense fear.I was stunned and did not really know what to do (it is just a fly after all, right?).I let the fly crawl on me to show our kids that it was harmless.I told them it was a friend. They said “hi” to the fly. I told them that it would not hurt them. This reasoning did not work. So I prayed with them and reminded them that the Lord…

I have not read Rob Bell’s book. However, it seems as if his notion that life on earth is as bad as it gets is really just an echo of where our culture has been moving. I counsel at a pregnancy center and more and more often it seems as if girls come in determined to reason away Hell based on their false notion of a how a “loving” God ought to conduct himself. If we make God into our own image – a God who is apathetic towards abortion, sexual immorality, un-thankful hearts, towards worship of other gods, and…

Well we’ve been a family of six now for four months and we thought we’d share with you a little about how things are going. We adopted two more kids expecting God to “make good” on this promise: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). And whereas the past four months have been intense, the Lord has given us grace to change diaper after diaper after diaper after diaper after diaper and to grow in…

“Should I go into Missions?” “Does God expect me to seriously consider foreign missions as a career choice?” “Am I obligated to go into missions?” “Should I feel guilty for staying in the States?” “If I don’t know what to do with my life, should I just go into missions since I know it’s a good thing to do?” Since we have started raising support for missions, we have had many people seek us out for advice on if they should or should not go into missions. And although our initial response is that we want everyone to go into…

Guest Post by Chuck Sutton (World Team) As a Student Words come easy when thinking about Shawn. I was his academic advisor at Philadelphia Biblical University in the late 1990s. I soon learned that behind his (at times) awkwardness lay a gem of a person. He had a serious learning disability. But he slugged it out for four years, demonstrating a level of tenacity that spoke to his persevering character. He had to work twice as hard as most students. He did not complain or play the victim. He set his mind to the task and completed his degree in…