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!!

iGive

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