Hong Kong Update

Life has been busy!! I have not had time to update our blog in quite some time. So much has happened I don't know where to begin. We spent the first two weeks of November in Hong Kong visiting some of our good friends. During this visit our father has some plans for us that we were unaware of. During this visit our destination changed from Xi'an to Hong Kong.

We are now needed in Hong Kong by June. This is important because there is no one else to do the job that we are needed for after June. We have a ways to go with our fund raising to get there this summer. We are begining a fundraisor that everyone can help with.

CHANGE FOR CHINA

We are asking people to begin collecting there change to help us get to our goal. We have chinese take out boxes for anyone who would like one to start collecting there change in. This is a way for everyone who would like to support us to get involved!! Let us know if you would like a box and we will get it to you.


If you are interested in more details about the work we will be doing in Hong Kong please feel free to contact us!!!

Change of plans

We have had a change in plans. We are not going to make our summer deadline. Our new goal is January. We know that we will get there in His timing. We will be sending out a new newsletter within the next couple of weeks. If anyone is wanting to be added to our mailing list please let me know. You can e-mail me @ jodieannis@gmail.com.
We should have a financial update next week. So, check back if your interested in an update.

Health & FinancialUpdate

Many of you know that I was in the hospital last week. The final diagnosis was overgrowth of yeast in my body which resulted in thrush in my mouth, throat, asaphagus and down into my lungs. Once they figured it out and I was treated acurately I have continually gotten better. I have been able to eat since Sunday so things are looking up.
The super cool part is that our Father has a plan and purpose in everything. Through all of this I learned that there is a huge connection between yeast in your body and MS. So we are greatful to have learned of an issue in my body that I didn't know before this. Now I am educated and empowered to make the changes I need to to see my health improve.
We are still hoping to be in China by the end of summer. In order for this to happed we need exactly 55 people to pledge $25/month. We need this all together within the next 2 weeks if we are going to leave by the end of summer. If you have just $6.50/week to give to support this adventure please e-mail me at jodieannis@gmail.com.
We love and appreciate all of you and appreciate your support!!

Reminder of our Fathers daily blessings

Many of you know that I have been having some health issues the past few months. With that has come the relization that we take so many things for granted. It is such a miracle everything that our bodies can do and we just go about our days with out giving thanks for it. Have you ever given any thought to the idea that you have 2 eyes but yet you only see one picture? Or, that you have two tiny feet to balance on yet we are coordinated enough to balance our tall bodies. What an incredible miracle! It's amazing how much you learn when you are going through a trial.

This whole thing has made me so greatful for everything my body can do. Thankfully my Daddy is restoring health to my body. It is coming back slowly but it is returning. It is amazing how much everything improves with praising him for everything! I have learned how we should be so thankful because whatever we are going through there is probably someone out there going through something even worse. I am so greatful that our Father has choosen me to have this testimony to share! I know that he is already using it for his glory and he will only continue that!

What we need to be there by August...

Well we want to let everyone know exactly where we are. We are making a lot of headway. Our Father is truly showing himself faithful!! We currently need approximately 50 people to pledge $25.00 per month. If you can do more GREAT!! If you can do less thats fine too!! We just need you to respond SOON!! If you have been considering becoming a supporter please take a moment today to send in your information or contact us to get the information you need. You can e-mail us at jodieannis@gmail.com or call us at 231-645-0385.

We love and appreciate all of you!! If you think of us we could use all of your prayers. Our health has been being attacked in the past couple months. We sure could use some extra prayer support as our departure is getting closer.

Promotion in the midst of a failing economy!

So I breifly mention in a previous post about some changes with my job. Well it is official so I wanted to share some more of the details. I work for a grant funded organization that is facing turbulant times because of the tough economy. The previous coordinator was forced to seek other employment that was more secure. Well this opened the door for me!! They came to me and asked if I would be interested in taking over as the coordinator until I leave. We prayed about this and decided that it was an open door to help raise our cash budget. I have gone from working 16 hours per week to 40. And my hourly wage which was good to begin with doubled!! This can only happen when your living in HIS economy!!

We will now be able to raise a significant portion of our cash budget on our own. In case you are wondering we are still desperately in need of monthly supporters!!! The last update I received about 1 week ago we still needed 56 people to pledge $25/month!! We are making progess but we are just 1 short month away from needing all of our support in. Please continue to pray for us!!

RANDY'S DINER!!

I want to invite everyone to come and eat at Randy's Diner on the 30th. That is next Thursday!! They are giving us 20% of the net sales. This is such a blessing to our family, I want them to be busier than ever!! Please help us out and eat breakfast, lunch or Dinner here on this day. (Or all three!!!)

If anyone is interested in helping out during the day at the restraunt let me know. I am looking for people who can work the bakesale that day, or give coffee refills.

Also Ray's Coffee House is giving $1.00 from every specialty cup of coffee to us if you mention our name!!

Thanks for all of your help!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

We spent the weekend at my sisters with my cousins and Aunt Angie. We enjoyed ourselves, especially the water park on Saturday!! It was a little sad realizing that this will probably be the last family gathering we will be at for a couple of years. But we really enjoyed ourselves!!

Now we are focusing on the task of raising about 50% of our support in 2 short months. We are speaking at our home church on Sunday and are excited to get to share our call with them. We have been at this church for so long that they are our second family! For those of you who are watching our support at the left you will notice that it is steadily increasing.

On the 30th we have another fundraisor coming up. RANDY'S DINER is donating 20% of their net sales to our trip!! So, please come and eat!! They are doing this for the whole day so come for breakfast, lunch and dinner!!! :) :)

Preperations...

So we have been trying to get everything ready to leave. Jezrielle and Zoee both needed Orthodontic work done so we decided to get as much of it done as we can before we leave. So, Jezrielle had an expander put in in December and she wore that until about 2 weeks ago. The removal of the expander was very eventful!! While she was wearing it her baby molars got loose. So, 2 teeth came out with the expander. YIKES!! The orthodontist felt so bad that he gave her $20 from the toothfairy!! Zoee goes in next week to get an expander and some type of head gear which is a bar down the middle of her face!!

We went to get our immunizations last week. The travel clinic kept all the kids together in the same room while they immunized them. That was a huge mistake. By the second kid they were all scared and screaming. We did make it through and next time we will go one at a time.

I will be making an appointment soon to get our passports. That will be a fun time in comparrison to immunizations!! Our Father continues to poor out his blessings and prepare the way for us!!

I was blind and can now see!!

I want to share another amazing testimony with all of you. A couple of weeks ago I woke up and was completely blind in my left eye. The crazy part of this story is that there was absolutely no fear in me. I instantly just turned to my Dad and asked him to take care of it!! When I looked back up I could see light. I then asked again for Him to take care of it. The second time I looked up my sight was completely restored. I was healed completely and fully, instantly!

Later that day I called my mom to tell her about this. During this phone call I learned that 15 minutes before I woke up. Our Father had woke her up and she was up interceding for me before I even knew there was a problem. What proof that He is our Daddy!! and He loves us more than we can even fathom. I am learning to live life expecting from our Father.

Yard Sale Results...and more!!

We were blessed by this event...people were so generous! We had many many items donated for our silent auction, yard sale and bake sale. We ended up taking in about $1500. But even more than that it was amazing to see the turn out of all of our family and friends. Everyone came along side of us and helped with getting donations, set up, clean up, baking items etc!! Our friends and family are amazing!!

Our Father is filling our storehouses to overflowing! He is opening doors for our support to come in. It is amazing to watch it happen. As we said in our last newsletter we need 75 people to pledge $25.00 per month for 2 years after we leave. Since that newsletter went out 1 week ago we have already had 6 of those $25 pledges filled. (that we know about) Isn't He good!!!

Also some opportunities have opened up with my (jodie) job that we may be able to meet a large portion of our cash budget ourselves!! And we may have a couple of churches that may have us come and speak!! We are just waiting and expecting!!

HIS HEALING POWER!!!

I want to share with all of you that our Father still heals!!! I had an opportunity to pray for a women who had breast cancer a few years ago. She went in for x-rays to do a check-up and they found a spot and the doctors thought it had returned. I had the privilege of praying with her and sharing scripture to help encourage her. Well, I got a phone call a few days later and her MRI was completely clean, there was no longer a spot on it!!! Isn't He good!!

4 Months to go...

We have been requested to be in Xi'an no later than August for the start of the school year. Considering that we are not even half way to our budget we need a miracle. Mike and I are standing in faith that are finances will be together by June so that we will have enough time to make our travel arrangements for August!! We have our appointment to start immunizations in March. (Be praying for my children. Five getting shots all in the same day YIKES!!) I am also working on getting everything together to get our passports. We are going in for new family pictures on Friday so I will post a new picture as soon as we get it.
We are going to be sending out a newsletter the beginning of March. If you would like to be added to our mailing list please e-mail me SOON!! jodieannis@gmail.com

Silent Auction/Yard Sale Donations Needed

We are having a Yard Sale and silent auction on March 21st. We are in need of donations for both of these things. The event will be held at our church, Living Hope A/G in Traverse City. If you have anytime to do some early spring cleaning and would like to donate any clothing, furniture, kitchenware's etc. we would greatly appreciate it. The only thing that we ask is that you don't donate anything that goodwill will not accept if it doesn't sell. For example, water beds, old microwaves, computers...

We are also in need of things to be donated for the silent auction portion. We currently have donations for jewelry, para-sailing, and haircutting. We would really like to get a hotel stay, lawn care, oil changes, gift certificates etc. If you have any contacts or would like to personally donate something please let me know!! jodieannis@gmail.com

If anyone would be interested in heading up a bakesale for us to go along with this event let me know!!

Medical Update...

Well I was preparing to be able to tell everyone that I was completely healed by the power of God!! Unfortunately my healing has not manifested YET!! I am still in need of everyone praying for me and my family as we continue pressing in to receive our healing!! I would be lieing if I didn't tell you it was hard to hear the doctor tell me that things were still progressing. But we quickly picked ourselves up and are now just asking the Lord what he wants to teach us through all of this. I have decided to seek out some alternative treatments to remove all of the heavy metals from my body. Mercury has a strong link to MS. So if you are thinking about me please keep that in your prayers.

The kids are doing really well and are getting more and more excited about our future adventure. They keep asking questions about what life will be like there. We are excited to continue walking in the call that He has on our lives. With the support of all of our friends prayers, we should be in Xi'an in less than 6 months!!

"Let the little children come to me..."

I want to share with all of you what the Lord has been doing in our kids lives. I have been praying for the past few months that all of my children would be filled with the holy spirit before we move over seas. Well a few days ago Mike came home from work and was in a different kind of mood. We sat down and had dinner as a family and then he got up and just said he needed to go pray. This was a little out of the ordinary for him. It was obvious that God had a plan for this evening. When he came out he had me sit down with him and told the kids they needed to pray for me. They questioned why they needed to pray for me, Zoee said "Is momma sick?" As I was explaining what was "wrong" with Mommy, it some how lead into a conversation about the Holy Spirit. David asked what it meant when he heard people saying Hallelel loo. We deciphered that he was talking about speaking in tongues.
I tried explaining this to the kids that the Holy Spirit brings power. Then a great analogy came to mind. I'm certain it was straight from the Holy Spirit. I asked them about Superman. I said when superman isn't in his special clothes he is just Clark Kent. But when he has his special superman clothes on he has special powers. I explained that the Holy Spirit is the same as this. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit the bible says that you receive power to lay hands on the sick and watch them recover as well as many other cool things. So I then quickly said that before anyone was praying for me we were going to pray for our kids to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
As we began praying it was amazing to watch the spirit move. ALL of my children are now filled with the Holy Spirit. It was amazing to watch each of them be filled and then lay hands on their brothers and sisters and watch them then be filled. It was absolutely incredible seeing each of them on their face seeking God.
Once they were filled with the Holy Spirit I had them all lay hands on me and pray for my healing. Now I am just waiting for the evidence of my healing. I had an MRI on Tuesday!! I'll post when I get the results!!